434 
May 25, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Woman and Home ] 
^ ^ a. a. ^ ^ ^ ^ 
From Day to Day. 
THE FOOL’S PRAYER. 
The royal feast was done; the king 
Sought some new sport to banish care, 
And to his jester cried :“Sir Fool, 
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!” 
The jester doffed his cap and hells, 
And stood the mocking ctfurt before; 
They could not see the bitter smile 
Behind the painted grin he wore. 
lie bowed hiS head, and bent his knee 
Upon the monarch’s silken stool; 
Ills pleading voice arose: “0 Ixjrd, 
Be merciful to me, a fool! 
“No pity, Lord, could change the heart 
From red with wrong to white as wool; 
The rod must heal the sin, hut, Lord, 
Be merciful to me, a fool! 
“’Tis not by guilt the onward sweep 
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay; 
’Tis by our follies that so long 
We hold the earth from Heaven away. 
“These clumsy feet, still in the mire, 
Go crushing blossoms without end; 
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust 
Among the heartstrings of a friend. 
“The ill-timed truth we might have kept— 
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung! 
The word we had not sense to say— 
Who knows how grandly it had rung! 
“Our faults no tenderness should ask, 
The chastening stripes must cleanse them 
all; 
But for our blunders—O, in shame 
Before the eyes of Heaven we fall. 
“Earth bears no balsam for mistakes: 
Men crown the knave and scourge the tool 
That did his will; but thou, O Lord, 
Be merciful to me, a fool!” 
The room was hushed, in silence rose 
The king, and sought his gardens cool, 
And walked apart, and murmured low, 
“Be merciful to me, a fool!” 
—Edward Rowland Sill. 
* 
Obstinate ink stains may often be re¬ 
moved from white goods by dipping the 
stain in very hot, even boiling, melted 
tallow. Let the tallow cool on the goods, 
and then wash as usual. 
* 
The filling for fig layer cake is often 
rather dry and tasteless, if not carefully 
made. The figs should be washed, cut up, 
and then boiled in sugar and water, 
flavored with lemon juice. To half a 
pound of chopped figs use one-third cup¬ 
ful of white sugar, the same of water 
and a tablespoon fill of lemon juice. A 
little apple jelly boiled in with the figs 
is an improvement. 
* 
Boiled rhubarb pudding is now in sea¬ 
son. Make three cups of flour into 
dough as for baking powder biscuit. Roll 
one-fourth inch thick; cover with rhu¬ 
barb that has been cut in inch pieces and 
scalded. Wipe dry before spreading on 
the crust, Sprinkle liberally with sugar 
and add a dash of nutmeg if desired. 
Make a roll of the dough and cook in 
steamer, or tie up in floured cloth and 
drop in boiling water. Cook 30 to 45 
minutes; serve with foamy sauce. 
* 
Just now the swastika cross is the 
popular emblem in all sorts of trinkets— 
hatpins, brooches, stickpins, fobs, etc., be¬ 
ing regarded as an emblem of good luck. 
This is the cross with arms of equal length 
bent at right angles at each tip, often 
used in decoration by the Arizona Indi¬ 
ans, though apparently of Old World 
origin. The Indian swastika crosses of 
beaten silver are especially admired; 
some are set with rough turquoise or 
other semi-precious stones. Technically 
the swastika is described as a rebated 
cross, and it is also called a fylfot or 
pammadion. The name “swastika” comes 
from a Sanskrit word, meaning welfare 
or wellbeing; hence the association of 
good fortune. 
* 
CmcKEN-raising in India seems to in¬ 
clude some unexpected emergencies, ac¬ 
cording to an anecdote recorded by Mrs. 
Isabel Savory, in her book, “A Sports¬ 
woman in India.” One of her friends had 
a henhouse and a hen that was siting, 
but, unluckily for her hatching operations, 
a cobra got through a chink in the hen¬ 
house. The cobra made a fine meal of 
well-warmed eggs, but when it essayed 
to retire by the same hole through which 
it had entered, it found those eggs m 
the way. It was much too large to get 
out, so it stuck in the hole, half in the 
henhouse and half outside. I here it 
was discovered the next morning in a 
surfeited condition. It paid for its greedi¬ 
ness with its life, and then it paid back 
the eggs it had stolen; for when the 
body of the snake was opened the eggs 
were all found unbroken and warm. 
They were replaced under the hen, and 
in due time were hatched, none the 
worse for their peculiar incubation. The 
strange fact that the cobra could swallow 
whole an egg much bigger than its own 
head is accounted for by the peculiar con¬ 
struction of that head. The head and 
jaws of the cobra are loose, and can be 
enormously stretched and distorted. 
* 
Many a mother, who feels that an 
isolated farm home gives few social op¬ 
portunities for her daughters, would re¬ 
gret this less if she saw the reverse of 
the picture in towns and villages. There 
seems a surprising lack of care in the 
training of girls in many respectable 
homes, and we see its results on the 
streets and in the public places of many 
towns. In a recent magazine article, 
Henry James, that veteran social ob¬ 
server, speaks with wonder of a 
group of bareheaded young girls 
whom he saw in a railway car, chattering, 
laughing, and shrieking their private af¬ 
fairs from one end of the car to the 
other; he comments on their “innocent 
immodesty,” and expresses the surprise 
he felt on learning that they belonged to 
refined and cultivated families. It is the 
same lack of restraint that permits young 
girls the freedom of the streets in the 
evening, to the danger of both mind and 
morals, or permits them to select their 
associates when and where they will, 
without any parental supervision. We 
have heard of several towns in widely 
separated sections of the country that 
have adopted, or suggested, a curfew or¬ 
dinance, designed to keep young people 
off the streets in the evening except 
where accompanied by parents or guard¬ 
ians. The suggestion of such an ordi¬ 
nance is a severe arraignment of parental 
laxity, and calls attention to a growing 
evil. _ 
Charity Sweetheart’s Letters. 
It was a cruel fate that ordained my 
illness in late Spring, so that I missed the 
joy of seeing the beautiful world fully 
awake, and hardly cared what happened. 
And it made me rebellious to think that a 
strong country girl .should contract ty¬ 
phoid fever, and even have a relapse. So 
many had it in the neighborhood that the 
health officers began to inspect the wa¬ 
ter and drains to find the cause. “Minty” 
is looking fagged; she has been a real 
sister to me, and my debt is great. What 
vampires we are when illness prostrates 
us, and how little we think of money 
making or saving in the presence of pain, 
when it seems possible our feet may be 
“stepping o’er the brink,” and we care 
but little for anything on earth! As I 
sit propped up with pillows writing with 
a lead pencil, and hardly able to hold it in 
shaking fingers, I feel the first re¬ 
newal of interest in life, and the first 
gratitude to those around me. 
Baby Theo wants to climb on the bed to 
kiss “poor Auntie,” and the three boys 
have kept my room supplied with wild 
flowers when I was too weak to appre¬ 
ciate them. Brother tells me they have 
gone upstairs to bed every night in their 
stocking feet for fear of disturbing me, 
and have taken as good care of my gar¬ 
den as if I had done it myself. “In fact, 
lie said, “it hasn’t missed you a bit.” Of 
course, I was pleased, but at the same 
time a feeling of loneliness oppressed 
me, and a verse learned long ago kept 
ringing through my brain, 
“I think the sting of death must he 
Resigning Ix>ve’s sweet ministry, 
T bid our dear ones all “good-night,” 
To turn from home and its delight 
Even with all of Heaven in sight.” 
We all know it is better so—that the 
would cannot wait to mourn even for the 
greatest, and it is better to try to feel 
glad that some one can take our place 
when we are called to the far country. 
The old Doctor looked in while I was 
writing and gave me a scolding for doing 
so. He is very plain spoken, and we have 
known him for many years. “Charity,” 
he said, “take your time going back to 
that scribbling, for the world can do 
without you. And I mean to tell you to¬ 
day that you didn’t get typhoid through 
sitting up to nurse a sick neighbor; that 
wouldn’t have hurt you if other condi¬ 
tions had been all right. The trouble has 
been in overdoing, using up your vital 
energy like an over-drawn bank account. 
It doesn’t really matter whether it was 
done canning tomatoes, or waiting on 
those boys or making gewgaws to sell 
to the transients; the result is the same, 
you put too much into it.” Then be be¬ 
gan to talk about the restlessness of the 
age, and made me laugh about a Japanese 
official who was sent to America to study 
its social conditions, and told in his re¬ 
port that Americans were “rich but unhap¬ 
py” and had anxious eyes and restless 
feet. He asked the meaning of “hustle,” 
as he heard it so often, and was told it 
meant get along quick. “Besides,” he 
said, “if you meet an acquaintance on the 
street, he is in nervous haste, as if afraid 
that something just around the next cor¬ 
ner will be gone before he can get there. 
“Now Charity,” the Doctor concluded, 
taking up his hat, “go slow for a while; 
be content with what you have and can 
get. and cultivate serenity,” 
“It looks easy just now,” I said, “though 
I feel a quickening of the old spirit, and 
a return of ambition. But your advice is 
good, it always is, and I will write it 
down in the hope that some hurried spirit 
will pause and take breath.” 
CHARITY SWEETHEART. 
FARM TELEPHONES 
Save their cost in one year 
Do you realize the real value of the actual 
time you spend going to town or vonr 
liuighbora on errands you could do on the 
phone? You want John to come to work 
for you tomorrow; you want to know ir 
a machine part has arrived at the Express 
Ofliee: you want the Doctor for a sick 
child, or the Veterinary for a sick horse. 
You say there is no telephone system? 
Then you are just the man we want to 
correspond with. We can show you how 
to make a handsome profit by organizing 
a farm telephone line and we will tell 
you how io organize, how to build and 
bow to operate. Write for our free bul¬ 
letin 22f»X. 
American Electric Telephone Co*y 
6100 State Street, Chicago, Ill. 
WHILE THEY LAST 
WE WILL BE GLAD TO FOR¬ 
WARD YOU WITHOUT COST 
A COPY OF THE 
^ SPECIAL V 
“JAMESTOWN^V^ 
^ EXPOSITION” 
^VJNUMBER OFy^ 
“ SEABOARD MAGAZINE” 
handsomely illustrated,—containing a detailed de¬ 
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J- W. WHITE, 
Conoral Industrial Agont, 
Portsmouth, - Virginia. 
SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILWAY DEPT. 18. 
An Investment placed with this 
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INDUSTRIAL SAVINGS AND LOAN CO., 
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Ho 
To Join 
The Navy 
In every community there is some young 
man who ought to be in the Navy. His in¬ 
clination, ability and ambition is such that he 
would surely succeed. 
If there is no Navy Recruiting Station near 
his home, he can secure full information of how, 
when and where to apply for enlistment, by 
writing to the Bureau of Navigation, Navy De¬ 
partment, Washington, D. C. The 
U. S. Navy 
offers a future to American boys and young men. Appli¬ 
cants must be of good health, good character, and between 
the ages of 17 and 35 years. Vacancies in all branches of 
the service. Unusual opportunities for .rapid advancement 
to those who prove efficient. 
The term of enlistment is four years. Pay, $ 16.00 to 
$ 70.00 per month, including board, medical attendance and 
clothing allowance at first enlistment. 
Accepted applicants are assigned either to U. S. Naval 
Vessel, or to Naval Training Station. Thorough training in 
seamanship and various trades and occupations. Opportu¬ 
nity for special study along any line. 
Navy Recruiting Stations in various cities will receive 
personal applications for enlistment, or full information 
of requirements and inducements can be secured by writing. 
Bureau of Navigation, 
Navy Department, Box IB, Washington, D. C. 
