538 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 3 
From Day to Day. 
THE FISHIN’ FEVER. 
’Long about this time o’ year, I sort o’ git 
a wish 
1 c’d jis’ cut loose a spell an’ fish an’ fish 
an’ fish; 
Gittin’ all-fired weary of th’ stuffy, sweaty 
town, 
Want to go where 1 can hear the water 
tricklin’ down 
Thru a medder summers an’ In underneath 
a tree. 
Where th’ ol’ sun kind o’ peeks an’ shim¬ 
mers down at me. 
Set there by a pool an’ smoke an’ think 
an’ fish. Why, sir, 
’Long about this time o’ year that’s wulh 
a livin’ fer. 
One day saw a little gal a dabblin’ of her 
feet 
In a gutter stream that made a puddle In 
the street, 
Sittin’ there upon the curb an’ keepin’ 
mighty still. 
Had a bent pin on a line an’ fishin’ fit to 
kill. 
I stood there a achin’ fer to hug that kid 
an’ say, 
Tou’re all right, an’ this ol’ man is feelin’ 
jis’ that way. 
’Long about this time o’ year fer workin’ 
I ain’t fit; 
Got the fishin’ fever on an’ cain’t git over 
It. 
Want to git out all alone an’ set a dream- 
in’ dreams. 
Want to smell the pine trees an’ to hear 
th’ mountain streams; 
Want to git on top th’ range an’ waller in 
th’ snow. 
Then look down an’ see the world a mile 
er two below; 
There is somethin’ magic in a breath o’ 
mountain air. 
Makes a feller feel somehow that God 
Himself is there. 
’Long about this time o’ year, w’y, don’t 
you understand? 
Want to go to Nature an’ to grab her by 
the hand. —Denver News. 
* 
Long, narrow bows of tulle, either 
black or white, are one of the newest 
hair ornaments sold, taking the place of 
the velvet Alsatian bows. The bows are 
about inch wide and four or five 
inches long, drawn out straight and 
square. They are worn in front of the 
coil when that as put up on the top of 
the head. 
* 
The Household tells about a small boy 
whose piety was stronger than his 
memory. His Aunt Jane, hearing a lit¬ 
tle noise at her door, opened it to find 
little Willie kneeling there. “What in 
the world are you doing on my door¬ 
steps, Willie?” “Oh, Aunt Jane, I was 
only saying my prayers. I forgot to say 
them this morning. I happened to re¬ 
member as I was going to school, so 
thought this would be a good place to 
do it. Do you care. Aunt Jane?” 
m 
We were buying shoes, recently, in a 
famous New York store, and near us sat 
a well-dressed woman, surrounded by a 
barricade of shoes and slippers of all 
sizes. A patient salesman tried on shoe 
after shoe—kid, patent leather, calfskin 
and canvas—square-heeled Priscillas, 
with high -tongue and broad buckle, 
spindle-heeled Louis XV. slippers, and 
sensible Oxfords, without making a sale 
Finally the woman rustled away without 
purchasing. Another salesman asked 
the man who had waited upon her some 
question about the dissatisfied woman. 
“Oh, she wasn’t a customer,” he re¬ 
sponded, “just another of those board¬ 
ers.” It is a fact that there are many 
women boarding to avoid the cares of 
housekeeping, too vacant-minded to in¬ 
terest themselves in rational pursuits, 
who spend a great part of their time in 
going about the stores, not only pricing 
things, but also trying on garments they 
never intend to buy, merely for the sake 
of passing away the time. The leisure 
that many a hardworked woman longs 
for is to them merely an encumbrance. 
Apart from the actual uselessness of 
such lives, they add much to the burden 
of others by their senseless demands 
upon the time of busy people. 
* 
Tjie price of glass has been advancing 
in all lines, and it seems that fruit jars 
ai’e to feel the increase strongly. Buy¬ 
ers and dealers predict that there will 
be less fruit put up by housewives in 
consequence, and the price of canned 
goods, which has been soaring skyward 
for some time, can be depended upon to 
continue going up. The glass trust is 
of course the leader in this advance, but 
the few independent makei-s of glass 
jars appear to be increasing prices also. 
One ti'ade journal says that if the manu¬ 
facturers of glass fruit jars are wise, 
they will fiee from the wrath to come. 
Trusts may trifie with men and double 
the prices of everything from chewing 
tobacco to armor plate, but when they 
invade the realm of woman and fool 
around with the prices of things she 
cannot do without, it is time to set the 
alarm clock for war. 
* 
New ideas in lamps show shapes not 
quite so squatty as they have been, nor 
so tall as the banquet lamps. Green 
bronze, such os we see in antique lamps, 
is especially fashionable, a vase-shaped 
oil reservoir of this material being very 
handsome. Antique styles in brass, 
copper or terra cotta, modeled after 
Roman, Grecian or Egyptian lamps, en¬ 
joy special favor. Highly decorated 
poi’celain seems less cared for. Very 
beautiful shades are seen in novel ef¬ 
fects of iridescent glass. The Empress 
shades of delicate wall paper or glazed 
French chintz, finished at top and bot¬ 
tom with a close ruche, retain favor, es¬ 
pecially in delicate shades of green, pink 
or yellow, with white. The globe shades 
always remain in fashion, but they are 
rather more subdued in coloring, and 
not quite so large as with the low 
squatty lamps. 
* 
Goats are credited with very unusual 
tastes in food, but we have only once 
heard of a goat which ate a school com¬ 
position. The Youth’s Companion tells 
this experience of a bright little eight- 
year-old school girl. The class, for the 
first time, had been asked to write a 
composition at home, and bring it for 
criticism the next day. A moment after 
the school-bell had rung little Amy, 
panting and red-eyed, stumbled to her 
desk and dropped her face on her arms, 
her shoulders shaking with sobs. The 
teacher went to her and tried sympa¬ 
thetically to find out what was the trou¬ 
ble. Amid piteous sniffs and gasps she 
thought she caught the word “composi¬ 
tion.” 
“Didn’t you get your work done, 
Amy?” she asked, kindly. 
“Oh, yes!” sobbed Amy, in a buret of 
indignant grief. “I g-got it d-done. Miss 
Brown, but B-b-billy Smith’s horrid g-g- 
g-goat chased me and ate it up!” 
Common Sense, M. D. 
“What ridiculous nonsense one sees 
in the papers,” I remarked, throwing 
aside the one 1 had been reading, as my 
friend joined me on the veranda, 
“For instance?” she said. 
“I was thinking especially of the hints 
on health. A doctor told me once that 
if I did all the things that were recom¬ 
mended in the papers 1 would not do 
anything else—and not that for long. 
They are so contradictory. Really, if 
credulous people should read the papers 
carefully and follow all the advice, even 
if they were perfectly well to begin 
with, I believe they would be seriously 
ill in less than a month.” 
“There is once in a while a good sug¬ 
gestion, in fact, I think most of them 
are good for some people and perhaps 
some of them good for all people.” 
“But how is one to judge?” 
“Do the way a friend of mine does. 
She reads everything of the kind and 
then refers all the ideas to her family 
physician.” 
“Rather expensive,” I suggested. 
“Oh, no! Her physician is called Dr. 
Common Sense, and he is the only one 
she has had for more than three years. 
She maintains that in treating her own 
case she has the advantage over the best 
doctor in that she knows just exactly 
how she feels. And as she has no or¬ 
ganic disease, she thinks she can be her 
own doctor. It certainly has worked 
well so far, as she says she never felt 
better in her life than she has the past 
three years. 
“She reads a great many of the ar¬ 
ticles in the papers about health, as she 
is interested in the subject, but she 
adopts few of the hints, and those she 
tries cautiously. At the first she gave 
up drinking hot drink and cold water 
with her meals. She eats very little 
meat, and every night, before going to 
bed, she drinks half a cup or so of hot 
water. She eats plain coarse food, 
drinks milk, has plenty of fresh air 
night and day, takes a daily sponge bath 
and has a proper amount of exercise and 
sleep. 
“Now this way of doing might not 
work well with another person, but you 
A REMODELED CLOSET. Fie. 234. 
see she understands her own needs. She 
maintains that different people require 
different treatment, and that it is one’s 
duty to study one’s self and find out 
how to keep in the best possible condi¬ 
tion. When away from home it is well 
to conform to the ways of those one is 
with, otherwise one may be called 
cranky, notional and old-maidish. I 
think it pays to be a crank, that is if 
crankiness consists in keeping one’s self 
in good health, and for my part I mean 
to keep right on.” 
“Ah, I thought you were talking of 
your own case,” I said quietly. 
“There, I did not mean to let you 
know!” and she laughed at herself, a lit¬ 
tle vexed. _ s. b. r. 
An Abbreviated Bed. 
This idea, says a writer in Trained 
Motherhood, may be of service to other 
women with children who have out¬ 
grown their cribs, and who must be pro¬ 
vided with large sleeping quarters. 1 
shortened the side pieces of an inexpen¬ 
sive white iron bed, so that when put 
up, it measured four feet eleven inches. 
A country blacksmith did the work, and 
charged me but 40 cents. He cut the 
sides in the middle, lopped them to the 
required length and fastened them to¬ 
gether with iron bolts, two on each side, 
so the bed is as strong and steady as 
before. It was not an hour’s work to 
shorten the mattress, and I managed to 
cut the wire spring at home also, but 
the assistance of a man was necessary 
for that operation. 
The bed described above is long 
enough to accommodate a child com¬ 
fortably, until he is nine or 10 years 
old, and one feels well repaid for the 
slight labor and expense, when the cun¬ 
ning proportions of the result are seen. 
I have found that to have things for 
their lerj/ own, gives children real hap¬ 
piness, and any child will be delighted 
with the change from a long, narrow, 
unattractive bed to this little affair, 
which, besides, takes up so much less 
space, and adapts itself so readily to 
the shape of almost any room. When 
buying the iron beds, one can order the 
sides to be made any length desired, 
and the mattress and springs are then 
bought to fit, but with me it was neces¬ 
sary to utilize the material which was 
on hand. 
The result of the single bed was so 
very satisfactory that I shortened also 
the sides of a double bi’ass bedstead, 
making the length to correspond with 
the larger portion of the mattress, using 
slats instead of the springs. This makes 
a child’s pretty double bed, and, of 
course, allows much more space in the 
bedroom, and when five or six years 
have added that much more length to 
the four little legs which, until then, 
can comfortably occupy it, it may easily 
be returned to its original size by the 
addition of another piece of iron, held 
in place with several bolts, while the 
hanging spread will completely cover 
any rough appearance of the patching. 
A Remodeled Closet. 
In The R. N.-Y. for March 17, 1900, an 
illustration was given of a remodeled 
closet, turned into a bookcase and writ¬ 
ing desk. One of our rondel's followed 
the suggestion there given, and the re¬ 
sult, shown at Fig. 234, is much more 
attractive than the original picture. It 
is a great convenience, and takes up 
less space than an ordinary bookcase. A 
shallow closet is more useful in this 
form than in its fii'st estate, and the 
same plan may be followed with a dis¬ 
used doorway between two rooms. 
“After much meditation and experi¬ 
ence I have divined that it takes as 
much sense and refinement to cook a 
dinner, wash and wipe a dish, make a 
bed as it should be made, dust a room 
as it should be dusted, as goes to v?Tit- 
ing a novel or shining in high society. 
