51 8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 15 
[ Woman and Home \ 
A AA A AA.A 
From Day to Day. 
Oh, liow I hate 
A veil! 
Do you suppose 
1 like to feel it rubbing 'gainst my nose? 
Forever catching on my eyelash tips, 
Persistently adhering to my lips, 
The while the ill-dyed blackness of its laco 
Makes grimy smudges on my face. 
Or if the veil be white, 
itself it smudges till it is a sight! 
Why do I wear it? 
Why ? 
It is a crime thus daily to enwrap 
One’s self in such a microbe-trap! 
Death and disease lurk hidden in its curves. 
A pest! A bane! A blot upon our sex, 
Just made to vex 
A burdened woman’s overburdened nerves. 
Oli, Fashion, hear my wail! 
Or is my plea to let me go without a veil 
Without avail? 
—Carolyn Wells, in Harper's Bazar. 
ft 
An Arkansas man has offered a prize 
of $25 to the mother who first consents 
to have her baby taken up in a balloon 
and dropped in a parachute. It is said 
that there has not been any very spirited 
competition for the prize. 
ft 
According to statistics compiled by 
the Bureau of Education, as the result 
of observing 85,000 children in the pub¬ 
lic schools of Washington, there are 22 
times as many bad boys as bad girls. 
Out of every 400 boys, 22 are unruly, 
while in the same number of girls, there 
is only one unruly pupil. Among dull 
boys, one in every 10 is unruly. 
ft 
A woman speaking at a club meeting 
in Maine told of a housekeeper she had 
known who died in the insane asylum. 
At the funeral, the husband remarked 
that he did not see why Mary Anne 
should have gone crazy, for to his 
knowledge, she had not gone away from 
her kitchen for 30 years! Poor Mary 
Anne! The asylum must have been an 
agreeable change. 
ft 
A remarkable Australian family con¬ 
sists of R. A. Stennett and his three 
daughters, who have among them res¬ 
cued fully 20 persons from drowning. 
The father and elder girls, both of whom 
are under 16, hold medals and certifi¬ 
cates for life-saving, while the youngest 
girl, aged six, is known as the baby 
champion swimmer of Australia. In 
swimming, as in most other athletics, 
ability largely depends on the absence 
of fear. 
ft 
Women now have a chance of becom¬ 
ing aldermen and councillors of London. 
The amendment to the London Govern¬ 
ment bill providing that “no person 
shall be disqualified by sex or marriage’’ 
from holding these positions was adopt¬ 
ed by a vote of 196 to 161, upon its 
second reading in the House of Com¬ 
mons. The bill failed later to pass the 
House of Lords. Women are eligible 'in 
England to school committees, vestry 
boards and county councils. 
ft 
A friend who has recently returned 
from Porto Rico says that Gen. Henry 
caused much consternation among the 
native mothers by insisting that the 
children should be clothed 'in one gar¬ 
ment, at least, instead of going about 
wearing no other protection than their 
little brown skins. Many of the women 
had no clothes for the children, and no 
money to buy any, so the American 
women in the Island, chiefly the wives 
of military and navy officials, collected 
and distributed garments among the 
natives. The result was sometimes a 
little surprising, as, for instance, when 
a small boy was seen trotting around 
attired in a single garment, and that a 
shirt waist, or when a small girl sailed 
by proudly arrayed in a pair of knicker¬ 
bockers. However, these untrammeled 
youngsters are being broken to harness 
in the matter of wearing clothes, and 
will, no doubt, become more apt in put¬ 
ting on their garments after a time. 
ft 
Senator Hoar is said to have eaten 
codfish balls for breakfast daily for more 
than 35 years. Our New England au¬ 
thority says that the Senator’s uncom¬ 
promising conscience in public affairs is 
the direct result of this diet. 
ft 
European railway cars have smoking 
compartments for men, afid compart¬ 
ments for women. Of late years, 'it is 
said that several roads on the Continent 
have had trouble with women who in¬ 
sist on smoking, but refuse to go into 
smoking carriages. In Belgium, where 
trouble of this kind has arisen, they 
now put the sign “Smoking forbidden” 
on women’s compartments. It is said 
that Russian women are the worst of¬ 
fenders in this line. 
ft 
Among fields of labor now invaded by 
women is the elevator; several women 
in Chicago are now employed in this 
way. In one hotel, it 'is said that a girl 
who had been employed in the kitchen, 
was promoted to the elevator, and found 
much prompter and more satisfactory 
than the boy who had been running it, 
but she left, saying that she “felt 
ashamed of such a lazy life, and moved 
on.” Another Chicago woman, whose 
husband is an elevator man, takes his 
place when he has a vacation, and 
doesn’t regard it as hard work. 
ft 
Since Queen Victoria mounted her 
throne, she has seen 17 Presidents of the 
United States, 10 Viceroys of Canada, 15 
Viceroys of India, and five Archbishops 
of Canterbury. She has seen France 
ruled successively by one king, one em¬ 
peror, and seven presidents. She has 
outlived every duke, duchess, marquis 
and marchioness who bore that rank 
when she was crowned. There are only 
two survivors of those who sat in the 
House of Commons at her accession, and 
only two peers now living who then held 
their titles. It is difficult to realize the 
volume of history that stretches be¬ 
tween the coronation of the young 
princess and the jubilee of the widowed 
queen-empress. 
ft 
As an example of phonetic spelling, 
we may recommend a study of personal 
letters of the past two centuries, when 
every one spelled as seemed good in his 
own eyes. The Century for July gives 
copies of letters which passed between 
Benjamin Franklin and his wife. Their 
correspondence expresses strong affec¬ 
tion, and gives delightful insight into 
the domestic feelings of the “many-sided 
Franklin,” as Paul Leicester Ford calls 
him. In one letter, Mrs. Franklin signs 
herself “your ffeckshonot wife,” and 
again, “I am your afecltslionet wife.” 
After delay, in hearing from her hus¬ 
band, she writes: 
Aprill 7 this day is Cumpleet 5 munthes 
senes you lefte your one House I did reseve 
a letter from the Capes senes that not one 
line I due supose that you did write bv the 
packit but that is not arived yit. 
And again she complained: 
I have bin verey much distrest a boute 
you as I did not (get) aney letter nor one 
word from you nor did I hear one word 
from oney bodey that you wrote to so I 
muste submit and inde (ed) do submit to 
what I am to hair. 
The New York Sun excuses the attempt 
to 'introduce phonetic spelling in the 
Chicago schools on the ground that, 
probably, many of the people interested 
in it can’t spell in any other way. This 
is one of the disadvantages of the pro¬ 
posed reform. Hew are we to distin¬ 
guish between those who spell “fonet- 
ically” because they believe in this re¬ 
form, and those who can’t spell in any 
other way? 
ft 
We have heard of many young people 
who have studied means of arranging a 
“romantic” marriage, by having the 
ceremony performed in some unheard- 
of way; but a recent wedding in Wash¬ 
ington outclassed them all in oddity, ac¬ 
cording to the following account given 
in the San Francisco Chronicle: 
J. A. Carson and Miss Maud Cranston, a 
young couple residing on Kootenai Dake, 
were married Tuesday under circumstances 
seldom paralleled in fiction. '\ lie preacher 
who was to tie the knot failed to appear at 
the home of the bride at me appointed 
time, so the bridal couple and relatives 
boarded the steamer Klondike mi her trip 
down the Columbia River to Homier s 
Ferry, Idaho, having decided tu be married 
there, in passing the missing preacher's 
ranch, down the river, he was found a 
prisoner on the roof of ills submerged resi¬ 
dence, the valley having become flooded by 
a sudden rise of the river. He was rescued 
and taken aboard the steamer. 
While he was changing his wet clothes 
the steamer made a brief stop at Rice’s 
Landing, and two passengers came aboard 
with a rough pine coltin containing the 
corpse of James Carter, who was drowned 
in the river the day before. A bulldog also 
accompanied the men. When the preacher 
came on deck, wearing a suit of Capt. New¬ 
man’s clothes, tile bridal couple announced 
that they would have the wedding take 
place then and there. 
The ceremony had proceeded almost to 
the point where the preacher was about to 
pronounce them husband and wife when 
Capt. Newman’s dog and the bulldog got 
into a fight. In the midst of it they upset 
tlie coffin, which had been deposited on a 
couple of beer kegs. As it struck the deck 
the home-made coltin burst open, spilling 
out the corpse. One glance at the dead 
man’s features and the bride gave a scream 
and swooned away in the arms of the 
groom, for the corpse was that of a former 
lover to whom she had been engaged. 
Wage-Earning Women. 
Among us to-day the instances are be¬ 
coming more and more rare when a wo¬ 
man qualified to hold a position is re¬ 
jected on account of sex, says Lippin- 
cott’s Magazine. Wherever women do 
good work, they are, as a rule, more or 
less gladly admitted. In science, art, 
and business, if they do equal work, 
they can earn an equal standing, though, 
perhaps, not yet always ail equal salary. 
In practical American life the place 
left for the non-producing consumer is 
small. Each one, if he would be felt, 
must bring a contribution to the bee¬ 
hive. Those who fall short of this are 
at a disadvantage, and the time must 
come when the workers must crowd 
them out. The spirit of our time weighs 
every individual by his practical value, 
and every measure by its expediency. 
Utilitarianism is the tendency of our 
epoch, and “Does it pay?” is the Ameri¬ 
can test. 
The quick intuition and the keenness 
of perception of women in the past, not¬ 
withstanding their ignorance, have often 
won for them a commanding if indirect 
influence over public affairs—an in¬ 
fluence, by the way, oy the legitimate 
and dignified use of which both society 
and women themselves must be benefit¬ 
ed. Higher education held out to all is 
rapidly raising the entire level of wo¬ 
manhood, and with it has come a higher 
conception of its dignity. The women of 
wealth who intelligently attend to their 
own affairs are becoming more numer¬ 
ous, while few of those less favored are 
satisfied with the alternative formerly 
placed before them of resignation to 
poverty or dependence upon the bounty 
of others. The class of self-respecting 
and self-supporting women, married and 
single, is growing at a rapid pace. They 
not only hold an important place in the 
modern world of art and literature, but 
as teachers, book-keepers, clerks, secre¬ 
taries, stenographers, and operators, 
they are finding their way into every 
business establishment. 
Everyday Wisdom. 
While some housekeepers are penuri¬ 
ous in their ways of furnishing their 
tables Wit’h wholesome food, others 
make the mistake of cooking more in 
quantity and variety than is needful; 
this is not only a waste of material, but 
of time and strength. Even though 
fowls are kept, and they consume the 
left-overs, it is best not to have an 
over supply. It takes some forethought 
to plan the kitchen campaign, so that 
there is no unnecessary waste, but habit 
makes it not only possible but easy. 
Some women with a capacity for busi¬ 
ness, do not enjoy doing their work, for 
the reason that they feel so hurried over 
their duties that they press forward, 
looking mainly to the end of their 
labors, and expecting to have their en¬ 
joyment afterwards, when if they would 
only move with moderation, they and all 
around them would avoid much suffer¬ 
ing. A turn for dispatch in one’s affairs 
is very desirable, but such a gift needs 
to be managed with more common 
sense than some women bring to bear 
on their labors. 
Hurry and fretting are likely to go 
together, and wear out more women 
than hard work. The ability to let an¬ 
noyances pass one by without disturb¬ 
ing the even tenor of one’s mind, is a 
happy and desirable quality. 
AUNT RACHEL. 
Homemade Koumiss. 
Invalids are often advised to use kou¬ 
miss as a beverage; it is nutritious, 
easily digested, and of much hygienic 
value. It is often recommended to con¬ 
sumptives, and is also advised in de¬ 
rangements of the stomach and kidneys. 
Originally this beverage was made by 
the Tartars from mares’ milk, but that 
sold in this country by the druggists is, 
of course, prepared from cow’s milk. It 
may be made at home, and may be taken 
in large quantities by invalids who can¬ 
not digest fresh milk. 
A standard recipe for homemade kou¬ 
miss is as follows: Heat fresh or skim¬ 
med milk to the boiling point, and allow 
it to cool until lukewarm; then put In¬ 
to quart bottles, which should not be 
entirely filled. Add to each bottle a 
small bit (20 grains) of Vienna yeast 
and one-half ounce of crushed loaf 
sugar. Cork the bottles with new corks, 
tie down, keep cool, lay the bottles on 
their sides, and shake twice daily. It 
should be ready to drink on the sixth 
day, or in less time in very warm 
weather. 
According to one authority, 1% gallon 
of mares’ koumiss contains as much 
WALTHAM WATCHES 
The best and most reliable timekeepers 
made in this country or in any other. 
The “ Riverside ” (trade-mark) movement is jeweled 
throughout with rubies and sapphires . 
For sale by. all jewelers. 
