534 
THE RURAL'NEW-YORKER 
July 22 
[ Woman and Home \ 
From Day to Day. 
It seems to me I’d like to go 
Where bells don’t ring, nor whistles blow, 
Nor clocks don’t strike nor gongs don’t 
sound, 
And I’d have stillness all around— 
Not real still stillness, but just the trees, 
Low whisperings, or the hum of bees, 
Or brooks faint babbling over stones 
In strangely, softly tangled tones. 
Or maybe a cricket or katydid, 
Or the songs of birds in the hedges hid, 
Or just some sweet sounds as these 
To fill a tired heart with ease. 
If ’tweren’t for sight and sound and smell 
I’d like a city pretty well; 
But when it comes to getting rest, 
I like the country lots the best. 
Sometimes it seems to me 1 must 
Just quit the city’s din and dust, 
And get out where the sky is blue— 
And, say, how does it seem to you? 
—Eugene Field. 
* 
We have no wish to be over-critical, 
but we are growing a little tired of the 
flood of popular enthusiasm over The 
Man With the Hoe. We wish to observe, 
in the terse language of the office boy, 
that he is not the only thing that ever 
happened. Why not devote some of that 
sympathy to The Woman with the 
Kitchen Stove, who is hustling all day 
long in the effort to make life more 
bearable for The Man With the Hoe? 
* 
Some Michigan farmers’ wives have 
arranged for their comfort and conveni¬ 
ence when going to town, in a manner 
which may well be copied. They united, 
throughout the uistrict, to rent two 
rooms in the court house. Each mem¬ 
ber furnished one yard of carpet, one 
chair, one cup and saucer, and on Sat¬ 
urday, when they come into town, they 
meet in their rooms, spread lunch, and 
have a pleasant talk. Such a meeting 
place must be a great convenience, giv¬ 
ing the women folks a chance for a 
pleasant, sociable gathering, while wait¬ 
ing for the men to transact their busi¬ 
ness. This club idea for farmers’ wives 
is susceptible of further development. 
* 
A woman in New York City has dislo¬ 
cated her jaw seven times in six weeks. 
The first time it happened, she was 
brought to a hospital, speechless, by her 
husband. While the surgeon reduced 
the dislocation, he inquired how it hap¬ 
pened, and was informed that the hus¬ 
band had stayed out too late, and had 
been greeted by his wife with a very em¬ 
phatic curtain lecture, during which the 
dislocation occurred. Within a week, 
the patient appeared again with the 
same injury, and the doctor put the jaw 
in place, with a suggestion that the hus¬ 
band would better stay in nights. The 
same accident occurred seven times with¬ 
in six weeks, and on the last occasion 
the doctor told the woman that he 
couldn’t do anything more for her, and 
told her, with some heat, that she would 
better stop scolding her husband. One 
would imagine that the constant threat 
of a dislocated jaw would do much to 
induce the ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit. 
* 
Mrs. Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte 
South worth, author of 60 novels and 
many stories and sketches, died in her 
little vine-covered frame cottage at 
West Washington, D. C., June 30, in the 
eightieth year of her age. Her first novel, 
Retribution, appeared in book form in 
1849, and she has written continually 
since. From a literary point of view, 
Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth could be 
ranked only among mediocrities, yet her 
novels achieved extraordinary popu¬ 
larity with the great mass of the people, 
and work from her was in demand up to 
the time of her death. Whatever our 
judgment of her work, we may best re¬ 
member Mrs. Southworth, not as the 
novelist, but as the woman. Sue began 
to work for her children more than 50 
years ago, when woman’s field was far 
more restricted than now, supporting 
herself and those dependent upon 
her, living a life of quiet simplicity, and 
bringing up her children to be upright 
and useful members of society. Liter¬ 
ary fame soon passes away, but the work 
and influence of a good mother mean 
the well-being of future generations. 
Dr. W. Gill Wylie, of the New York 
Board of Education, has begun an agita¬ 
tion against the present school system, 
as applied to girls. He thinks that girls 
between 12 and 16 are expected to study 
far too much, and that they should 
spend fewer hours in school. He says: 
The danger resulting from the amount of 
study required at present is not to the life 
of a girl, but, coming as it does in the 
formulative period of a girl’s life, the evil 
effects are bound to be manifest in her 
children. There is a tendency at present to 
rush a girl through school much faster than 
a boy, so that she may be eligible as a wife 
and mother at 20. At that age, the girl in 
many cases to-day has completed what is 
now called the higher education. In order 
to do this, she has had to study very hard, 
even before she has arrived at the age of 
16, and has had to dispense with an amount 
of outdoor exercise and associations which 
are essential to her development. 
After a girl has passed 16, Dr. Wylie 
thinks that she is fitted for any amount 
of study, if before that she has not been 
obliged to work hard mentally. An at¬ 
tempt is now being made to raise the 
age of admission to the New York Nor¬ 
mal School to 16 years. 
« 
The International Council of Women 
met in London recently; a large number 
of prominent American women were in 
attendance, including Susan B. Anthony. 
The Countess of Aberdeen presided over 
the deliberations of the main body. A 
tremendous range of subjects was cov¬ 
ered, all classes of social questions, lit¬ 
erature, science and art being discussed. 
Representatives were present from 26 
different countries. Among women of 
social prominence who took part in the 
meetings, were the Duchess of Suther¬ 
land, the Duchess of Newcastle, and 
many other women of title. Agriculture 
received attention. Prof. Robertson, of 
Canada, who is a contributor to The 
R. N.-Y., made an address, in which he 
said he considered agriculture a most 
suitable occupation for women. Lady 
Vernon spoke upon dairying, urging that 
women give more attention to both but¬ 
ter and cheesemaking, and Mrs. Virginia 
C. Meredith, of Minnesota, advocated 
stock breeding by women. Another 
American delegate discussed the raising 
of silk worms. Mme. Delen spoke upon 
the subject of women’s work in agricul¬ 
ture in Belgium, and Mrs. Alexander de¬ 
scribed ostrich farming by women in 
New Zealand. 
* 
Miss Mary Kingsley, the African ex¬ 
plorer, says that her exploits in wading 
swamps, shooting rapids and climbing 
mountains, were regarded as small mat¬ 
ters for astonishment among the na¬ 
tives, compared with the wonder that 
she had no husband. She was constant¬ 
ly asked where her husband was and, 
when she stated that she did not possess 
one, found that her travels were viewed 
by the guileless native mind as a hunt 
for a better half. The “bachelor maid” 
is an unknown institution in West Af¬ 
rica. Miss Kingsley, who is a clever 
naturalist, brought back to England a 
number of specimens, notably fishes, 
hitherto unknown to science, but her 
most remarkable characteristic, judging 
from what she has written, is the ability 
to see a joke under the most unpromis¬ 
ing circumstances. She tells, with ac¬ 
tual gayety, of the appearance she pre¬ 
sented on one occasion, when an en¬ 
raged hippopotamus smashed her boat, 
and precipitated her to the bottom of a 
muddy African river, whence she 
emerged, covered with filth and slime, 
clinging to the remains of the boat, to 
be warned by a native with her that the 
brute would, probably, come back to 
finish her. Personally, we would wish 
to confine our acquaintance with the 
hippopotamus to old Caliph in Central 
Park; we are quite willing to give his 
relations the right of way in African 
rivers. 
* 
It seems extraordinary to think of 
the Father of his Country making out a 
shopping list, but in an interesting ac¬ 
count of Washington’s home life, in the 
Ladies’ Home Journal for July, we find 
the following mail order, sent to Lon¬ 
don soon after his marriage: 
A Light Summer Suit, made of duroy by 
the measure. 
4 pieces Best India Nankeen. 
2 best plain Beaver Hats at 21s. 
1 piece Black Satin Ribbon. 
1 Sword-belt, red morocco or buff, no 
buckles or rings. 
A Salmon-Colored Tabby of the enclosed 
pattern, to be made in a sack and coat. 
A Cap, Handkerchief, Tucker and Ruffles, 
to be made of Brussels lace or point proper, 
to be worn with the above negligee, to 
cost £20. 
2 Fine Flowered Aprons. 
1 pair Woman’s White Silk Hose. 
6 pairs Woman’s Fine Cotton Hose. 
4 pairs Woman’s Fine Thread Hose. 
1 pair Black Satin, 1 pair White Satin 
Shoes of smallest 5s. 
4 pairs Calamanco Shoes. 
1 fashionable Hat or Bonnet. 
6 pairs Women’s best Kid Gloves. 
8 pairs Women’s best Kid Mitts. 
% dozen Knots and Breastknots. 
1 dozen Round Silk Laces. 
1 Black Mask. 
1 dozen most fashionable Cambric Pocket 
Handkerchiefs. 
It will be noticed that the only speci¬ 
fication as to the hat or bonnet (Mrs. 
Washington’s, we suppose), is that it 
must be fashionable, while the cambric 
handkerchiefs are to be “most fashion¬ 
able.” More than once the General cau¬ 
tions his London correspondent that the 
articles sent him must be both good and 
fashionable. 
Healthy Bodies and Healthy 
Brains. 
A prominent doctor’s advice to women 
and girls, given in the Ladies’ Home 
Journal, is as follows: “Eat fruit for 
breakfast. Eat fruit for luncheon. 
Avoid pastry. Shun muffins and hot 
cakes, and buttered toast. Eat whole¬ 
wheat bread. Decline potatoes if they 
are served more than once a day. Do 
not drink tea or coffee. Walk four 
miles every day. Take a bath every 
day. Wash the face every night in 
warm water, and sleep eight hours.” 
Follow these rules and you will need 
neither nerve medicines nor tonics. 
Neither will cosmetics be needed, un¬ 
less there happen to be something radi¬ 
cally wrong with the constitution. And 
I would like to add to the above recom¬ 
mendation: “Do something kind at least 
once a day. Never give way to irrita¬ 
bility, but practice perfect control over 
your temper.” Bad temper affects the 
liver, and the liver affects the com¬ 
plexion. A kind heart brings brightness 
to the eyes and smoothness to the brow. 
A prominent physician, in a recent 
lecture on physical education in girls’ 
schools, said that the evolution of the 
race has imposed extra brain service 
upon woman, as well as a new physical 
strain, and that the body should be edu¬ 
cated to meet this. He said that one of 
the best exercises for girls is to make 
six deep breathings and expirations each 
morning before dressing, and that there 
should, also, be half an hour’s athletic 
exercise daily. This would expand the 
chest and increase the area of breathing 
space, as well as improve the figure. 
Well-poised shoulders and an erect 
carriage go far toward making a girl 
look pretty. Many a comparatively 
plain girl creates a much more pleasing 
impression by these means than do some 
others who are better endowed as to 
face. Very often a bad carriage comes 
of pure laziness. It is “too much trou¬ 
ble” to sit up straight, and it is “such a 
rest” to stand on one leg, with the other 
bent and curved into all sorts of unnat¬ 
ural positions. Girls who indulge in 
these positions, all of which are bad for 
health, as well as antagonistic to beauty, 
should learn swimming, fencing and 
dancing. All are valuable, fencing more 
than the other two. Housework is, also, 
to be recommended as efficacious, and 
the least expensive of all remedies. Vig¬ 
orous exercise with a duster and a 
broom is excellent in its way, and a 
little digging in the garden is better 
still. 
A Village Industry. 
A number of women at Deerfield, 
Mass., have established a needlework 
society, with the idea of carrying out 
the beauties of Colonial embroidery. 
The society dyes and prepares its own 
thread, all the work being done on linen, 
most of the designs being blue and 
white. Trained Motherhood states that 
the young women of the village are 
taught to hemstitch and embroider, 
using many odd ancient stitches long 
since passed out of vogue, but now re¬ 
vived, to the delight of all who see them. 
So fanciful and artistic are the designs, 
many of them culled and adapted from 
heirlooms 200 years old, so exquisite in 
detail and finish is the workmanship, 
that it commands ready sale, and the 
society’s exhibitions in New York and 
Boston have proved rare treats to lovers 
of fine needlework. 
At a recent exhibition of their needle¬ 
work and heirlooms, held in the Deer¬ 
field village room, “Aunt Beck’s quilt” 
was the gem of the collection. Rebecca 
Dickinson, as we are told in the annals 
of Hatfield, Mass., was a spinster, the 
gownmaker of the village, and, living to 
a good old age, was popularly called 
Aunt Beck. In her girlhood, she spun 
the fair flax, wove the cloth, dyed the 
crewel in the old indigo-tub in the .fire¬ 
place, and then with charcoal drew with 
firm lines the quaint design on the pur' 
linen. In the center of her quilt, rides a 
ship of caravel shape, and about it he. 
pet flowers—pinks—in flowing lines and 
intertwining curves, the whole present¬ 
ing an artistic and delightful picture, 
which lingers in the memory like a 
strain from some old tune. 
In the bedspreads and curtains—pre¬ 
cious heirlooms loaned to the society— 
are found the most beautiful designs, 
carried out with exquisite perfection. 
The palm-leaf pattern is often found, 
taken from some Indian shawl, and 
there are not wanting suggestions of 
Chinese design, derived, perhaps, from 
a sea captain’s chest of trophies. The 
artist’s ideal was high. One bed-spread, 
embroidered by a young girl in 1794 as 
part of her marriage outfit, has a heart 
at the foot, the whole pattern, including 
the border, radiating in a succession of 
graceful intertwining curves focusing 
at the top in a great rose. 
The Deerfield Society, placed among 
these priceless and treasured relics, 
would fain reproduce them before time 
and moth destroy. As blue, in four sim¬ 
ply graded shades, was ihe color gen¬ 
erally used by the original Colonial 
Dames, it is the favored color of this so¬ 
ciety, although some old patterns 
wrought in pinks, greens and browns 
have been reproduced in their original 
colors. 
....When we blow our own horns, we 
can usually be sure that we are doing 
something that would otherwise be left 
undone. 
