1899 
A Crop of Hammocks. 
now ONE FAMILY ENJOYS FARM COMFORTS. 
I was much surprised, in calling upon 
my friend, Mrs. Brown, to find her re¬ 
clining in a hammock which swung in 
her front yard under the shade of two 
tall trees. I had long wanted a ham¬ 
mock, but Alexander said he couldn’t 
afford any such nonsense, and I felt al¬ 
most personally aggrieved to see my 
neighbor swinging there so lazily. 
“I don’t see how you can find time to 
swing in a hammock in Summer, with so 
much work as there is always to be 
done on a farm,” said I, with a shade of 
reprimand in my tone. “You aren’t sick, 
are you?” 
“Oh, no,” replied Mrs. Brown, rising 
as she spoke; “I have only been taking 
my afternoon nap.” 
“Afternoon nap!” exclaimed I. “I 
never expected to hear you, Mrs. Brown, 
of all women in the world, talk of after¬ 
noon naps, and out of doers at that! 
Have you had a fortune left you, that 
you can afford to neglect your work?” 
“Oh dear, no,” she replied laughing; 
“but I am trying to acquire one.” 
“Well, if you have found a way of 
making a fortune by lying in a ham¬ 
mock, I wish you’d share your secret 
with your neighbors.” 
“Just try the hammock,” said Mrs. 
Brown. “There, isn’t that comfort¬ 
able?” 
“Indeed it is; but I never could make 
money lying here. How can you?” 
“You know that the greatest wealth 
for a farmer’s wife is health and 
strength. I have found by experience 
that I can do more work if I take a rest 
after I have the dinner-work done up, 
and before I begin anything else; and I 
have also found out that I can rest twice 
as fast out here under the trees as I can 
in the house. So I hurry up the work, 
then change my dress, come out here, 
and lie looking up at the sky and the 
green leaves whispering overhead, until 
I forget everything, and when I wake up 
after a time with the wind blowing so 
sweetly over my tired head, and carry¬ 
ing away all my troubles with it, I get 
up so rested that I can do lots of work 
before supper.” 
“It is perfectly delightful,” said I, 
looking up into the trees; “but ham¬ 
mocks are so expensive,” added I, re¬ 
gretfully. 
“Oh, not so very. This only cost a 
dollar and a quarter, with all the fix¬ 
tures.” 
“But what if you had only the quar¬ 
ter, and the dollar were entirely unat¬ 
tainable?” 
“I would still have a hammock. We 
have four.” 
“Four! Why that makes five dollars 
invested in hammocks.” 
“Indeed, I do nof believe that we have 
spent over two dollars for the four.” 
“How can that be? I wish you’d make 
the riddle plain.” 
“I will. Come with me, and we will 
go and see Bessie’s.” 
We found the young lady very cosily 
reclining in her hammock crocheting a 
mantel lambrequin. 
“Oh, yes; I’ll tell you how I made it,” 
she answered, politely, to my inquiry. 
“I bought about three yards of bedtick¬ 
ing. I cut off two yards for the length. 
Out of what was left I made two strips 
about four inches wide, and as long as 
the hammock, and sewed one to each 
edge of the two yards. I then cut the 
edges into scallops, and bound them 
with red. I then hemmed the two ends, 
and ran in a piece of broom handle just 
as long as the hammock was wide. 
Bought some rings and hocAS, fastened 
the hooks to some ropes which were 
tied to the limbs of the trees, and the 
rings to the ropes of the hammock, and 
the whole thing was done.” 
“And well done, too, and so pretty,” 
said I, thinking of a girl about Bessie’s 
age who would enjoy such a hammock. 
“This of Bessie’s is more expensive 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
631 
than Nell’s or Rob’s,” said Mrs. Brown. 
“We will go and see theirs. You see,” 
said she, as we walked along, “Nell and 
Rob both wanted to be in Bessie’s ham¬ 
mock, or in mine, so much of the time, 
that we found it expedient to make them 
each one.” 
In the back yard we found Miss Ten- 
year-old reading a book, sitting in her 
hammock, and swinging by touching the 
ground witn her feet. She laughed when 
her mother said we wanted to see her 
hammock. “It is a funny one, Mrs. 
Smith, but I think it just lovely. Papa 
made it.” 
I did laugh, but I thought it very nice, 
for I imagined that I might compass 
such an one for myself, or for Katie, 
who had so few girlish pleasures. It 
was made of two coarse bags left whole. 
The bottoms of the bags were laced to¬ 
gether with twine, as you would lace a 
pair of shoes. A hole was made in the 
corners of the bags, and then they were 
strung on ropes. These ropes passed 
through the holes in the ends of two 
pieces of hard wood and each outer end 
of the bags was laced through holes 
along the length of these pieces. These 
pieces of wood kept the ropes apart, and 
stretched the bags so that a really com¬ 
fortable hammock was made. I tried it, 
and thought it just as nice to rest in as 
Bessie’s. “Now, you just come and see 
mine,” said Rob, who was standing near. 
“Mine is ‘boss,’ I tell you!” 
“I think Nellie’s is ‘boss,’ ” said I, 
laughing. 
“Yes, but mine is ‘bosser.’ I made it 
myself—I did, out of two barrels and a 
clothes line.” 
“Tell me how you made it. Bob.” 
“Well, Sir,” said Bob, thrusting his 
hands in his pockets, and surveying his 
work with pride. “I took two flour bar¬ 
rels and knocked them to pieces and 
pulled all the nails out. Then I took 
my rope. I had to have twice as much 
rope as Nell had for hers, ’cause you see 
it goes four times the length. I got my 
four pieces the length I wanted, then I 
laid my staves down all the same side 
up; then I began as far from the end as 
I thought would be about right, and 
crossed two pieces of rope and put the 
end of one stave in, and crossed the 
rope again, and put in another stave, 
and so I went on crossing the ropes and 
putting in the staves, until I had one 
side done. Then I made the other side 
the same way and strung her up, and 
there she is. Pa takes a rest on it every 
morning. Ma lets me have this old 
blanket to spread on it, and I wouldn’t 
trade it for the best store hammock ever 
was.” 
“Alexander,” said I the next day at 
noon, “ if you could go over and see Mr. 
Brown about the reaper to-day, I guess 
you could make that arrangement you 
wanted to. Mrs. Brown thought yester¬ 
day you could.” 
I had a purpose in wishing him to go 
at noon, and the result was what I had 
hoped. He saw Mr. Brown taking his 
nooning in the hammock, and concluded 
that they were very nice things for men. 
So we have a hammock which he has 
possession of whenever he is at the 
house, but Katie and I have a good many 
rests in it, too. It swings under the big 
apple tree by the kitchen door, and 
sometimes when I am so nervous that I 
feel as if I should fly, I just drop every¬ 
thing, and rest a few minutes out of 
doors “under green apple boughs,” and 
I never lose time by so doing. I have 
learned how to swing in my hammock 
and do my week’s mending. When it 
rains we bring it on the porch, and 
Katie and I sit in it together and watch 
the clouds gathering in masses and dis¬ 
charging their wealth of moisture upon 
the fields. Sometimes Alexander comes, 
and if I offer to get up and give the 
hammock to him, he says, “No, wife, 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
don’t get up. We can sit here together;” 
and I don’t care to look at him, for fear 
he will see the happy tears in my eyes. 
We haven’t sat so close together for a 
good many years, and I tell him a good 
many things that I never seemed to have 
a chance to tell him before we had the 
hammock.—M. W. A., in New Crusade. 
....“Widows are the champion marry¬ 
ing women,” says Victor Smith in the 
New York Press. “In every 100 mar¬ 
riages, 11 of the women will be widows. 
One widow in every four tries wedlock 
a second time, marrying at the average 
age of 39. For every 1,000 bachelors 
that marry spinsters, 1,025 marry 
widows.” 
....The most costly and precious wine 
in the world is that contained in a cask 
named the “Rose,” in the Bremen Town 
Hall cellars. This Rudesheim, of the 
vintage of the year 1653, is of the color 
of old ale, and has a wonderful aroma, 
though a rather hard taste. It is never 
sold, but is used exclusively for the sick 
of Bremen, the rnly exceptions having 
been when a small bottle was presented 
to the Emperor William I., another to 
Frederick III., and one to Prince Bis¬ 
marck. The supposed money value of 
this wine is something beyond credence; 
but as it is never sold, this detail is of 
slight importance. 
J^F you look at a dozen com¬ 
mon lamp-chimneys, and 
then at Macbeth’s “pearl top” 
or “pearl glass,” you will see 
the differences—all but one— 
they break from heat;- Mac¬ 
beth’s don’t; you can’t see that. 
Common glass is misty, 
milky, dusty; you can’t see 
through it; Macbeth’s is clear. 
Tough, clear glass is worth fine work; 
and a perfect chimney of fine tough 
glass is worth a hundred such as you 
hear pop, clash on the least provocation. 
Our “ Index ” describes all lamps and their 
proper chimneys. With it you can always order 
the right size and shape of chimney for any lamp. 
We mail it FREE to any one who writes for it. 
Address Macbeth, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
NO GASH REQU/RED.? w Tf*usT you’: 
$9.00_Bu ya a!!!" 1 ;. Victor -^ 
WE 
I'AV 
P rtighl 
|(vjCT0Rl || | with full sot of bcstatUxchmenta. Adapted 
^to light or heavy work. Guurun teed 
for 20 yours. Wo make 36 I>ir 
KKRENT STYLES AT ALL PRICES. 
;22.00J3uys a Victor 
HUBCtl OR PARLOR ORGAN 
Guaranteed for 25 years. Freo Trial. 
WE MAKE 24 STYLES AT ALL PRICES 
$120.00 Buys a 
Wealfloiicnl in all kind*of Muntcal Instrument*. AI.I, CATA 1.0(1 UEH FREE. 
VICTOIl Jim CO., Dept I'M, llit-1117 I'lyiiinulli I'l .Chicago, Ill. 
B.&B. 
^i ii ii i ii iii i ii i ii H ii iiii ii ii ii i TTTmiiir mn i mi i iiim i ii i m i iiiiii^ 
"Work: for a 
iFarmer’sBoy 
s Thousands of tho most noted men began life 
3 on the farm. There is no reason 
3 why any farmer’s boy cannot bo 
= successful. W is guarantee to teach 
5 him by mail Survey. 
3 iiig, EtiKineer- 
= iiiK (Locomotive, 
s Electrical or :11a. 
= rine), and qualify 
3 him for a responsible 
3 position. Courses in 
3 Farm Machinery and 
3 all technical branches 
§ BY MAIL 
3 Write for pamphlets. 
5 The International 
5 Correspondence Schools, 
llox 1236, Scranton, Pa. f 
l^fmiiiimuuiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
ANTI TRUST PRICES 
We 
have 
Stoves 
as low 
as 
$3.75 
Sendfor 
ourfree 
cata¬ 
logue 
of 
Stoves 
<St Steel 
Ranges 
and full description 
$15.75 
our price 
for this 
high- 
grade 
Coal or 
Wood 
Reservoir 
Cook 
Stove 
Consumers C. and Manufacturing Co. 
269-271 S. Desplaines St. CHICAGO 
Vs Y©uir 
now wasted up chimney 
USING THE ROCHESTER RADIATOR. 
COST 32.00 AND UP. 
Money refunded if not satisfactory. 
Write for booklet on economy in heating 
homes. 
ROCHESTER RADIATOR CO., 
27 Furnace Street, Rochester, N. Y 
fine all-wool, 40 to 42- 
inch, neat-figured Black 
goods under price, 
50c. vard 
that every woman who’s 
figuring on a new black 
skirt or dress will .find it 
to her profit to get sam¬ 
ples of—then she’ll see 
such opportunity to get 
dressy goods and save as 
never before known in all 
experience: 
Lot of good, useful Black 
goods, under price, 35c. 
BOGGS & BUHL, 
Department C, 
ALLEGHENY, PA. 
E 
free. 
always secures situations 
tor graduates of business 
course. Instruo.ion by 
mail or in person. No va¬ 
cations. Expenses low. Telegraphy. Typewrit¬ 
ing, Penmanship, etc. Send for Catalogue— 
C. C. GAINES, Box 41ti, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
—Put on in 
One minute*, 
No Sewing* 
Fits any. 
Frame. M 
for a new 
The Jones Umbrella “Roof 
Cover Your Own Umbrella 
Don’t throw away your old one—make it new for $1.00. 
Recovering only takes one minute. No sewiug. A clumsy 
man can do it as well as a clever woman. 
UNION Jp | 
TV^silk! 
AdjustableRoof 
TEN DAYS’ FREE TRIAL. 
30-inch, SS1.50). If the “Roof” is not all you expected, or 
AT OCR E.Yl’ENSE, and. get your money back by return ma! 
asked. 
Send us SI and we will mail you, PRE¬ 
PAID, a Union Twilled Silk, 26-inch 
- “Adjustable Roof” (JJS-inch, SSH.a.5 ; 
boned for, return 
il—i 
-no questions 
WHAT TO DO.—Take the measure (in inches) of your old umbrella. Count the number of 
outside ribs. State if the center rod is of steel or wood. Full Instructions for putting on the cover 
will bo sent with u.l orders. Our special price-list of different sizes and qualities mailed on request. 
Send for our/rce book, *■ Umorella Economy,” anyway. Your umbrella will wear out some day, 
and you will be glad that you know about 
THE JONES MULLEN CO., 396-398 Broadway, New York. 
