310 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
The Mother-look. 
You take the* finest woman with the roses 
in her cheeks. 
An’ all tlf birds a singiu’ in her voice 
each time she speav.s; 
Her hair all black an* gleamin’, or a 
glowin’ mass o’ gold— 
An’ still th’ tale o' beauty isn't more tli’n 
half way told. 
There ain’t a word that tells it; all 
description it defies— 
Th’ motherlook that lingers in a happy 
woman’s eyes. 
A woman’s eyes will nparkle in her in¬ 
nocence an’ fun, 
Or snail a warnin’ message to the ones 
she wants to slum. 
In pleasure or in anger there is always 
handsomeness. 
But still there is a beauty that was 
surely made to bless— 
A beauty that grows sweeter an' that all 
but glorifies— 
The motherlook that sometimes comes 
into a woman’s eyes. 
It ain’t a smile exactly vet it’s brim- 
111 in’ full o’ joy, 
A 11 ’ meltin’ into sunshine when she bends 
above her boy 
Or girl when it’s sleepin' with its dreams 
told in its face; 
She smooths its hair an’ pets it as she 
lifts it to its place. 
It leads all the expressions, whether 
grave or gay or wise— 
Th’ motherlook that glimmers in a lovin’ 
woman’s eyes. 
There ain’t a picture of it. If there was 
they’d have to paint 
A picture of a woman mostly angel an’ 
some saint, 
An’ make it still be nnman—an’ they’d 
have to blend th’ whole— 
There ain’t a picture of it, for no one 
can paint a soul. 
No one can paint the glory coinin’ 
straight from paradise— 
Th’ motherlook that lingers in a happy 
woman’s eyes. 
—W. I). Xcsbit in The Chicago Tribune. 
Thawing Out the Bit. 
Women’s work is frequently done in 
the background, unobserved and unre¬ 
warded : yet it is of the character which 
keeps the world sane and good matured. 
Thawing The Bit. . 
This picture shows how one woman helps 
take care of the live stock. Many a hur¬ 
ried farmer on a frosty morning forgets 
how the horse must feel when the frosty 
bit is jerked into his mouth without 
warning. The farmer doesn’t mean to be 
cruel, or to injure the horse, hut he is 
in a hurry, and does not stop lo realize 
what effect this frozen steel will have 
upon the tongue of the horse. The 
woman of the household never would do 
that, and the one here shown makes sure 
that Old Gray or Charlie doesn’t go 
through the Winter with a frosted tongue. 
She either has the bridle brought into the 
house over night, or else she gets hold 
of it before the men folks harness up, 
and pours a little hot water over the 
bit. This takes the frost out and saves 
a sore and burning mouth. Women 
often think of these little things, where 
the comfort of the live stock is concerned, 
and a little care of this sort just at the 
right time may make all the difference 
between profit and lows in the service of 
(In' horse. 
The Barnyard Trolley. 
The little picture shown herewith is 
sent us by Mr. Horace Markley of New 
.1 ersey. It represents a barn trolley, 
w hich saves many a step or aching back. 
The wire is hung between the barnyard 
and the kitchen door, with a little trolley 
or runner, and a hook fastened below it. 
As seen in the picture, the woman hangs 
the loaded pail of kitchen leavings or of 
warm feed, and away it goes rolling down 
L 
Tin: Baknyaup Trolley. 
lo the barnyard to be cared for by the 
men folks. By an adjustment on tin* post 
at each end of the line this trolley may 
be made to work both ways, so that the 
empty pail may be sent rolling back or 
tilled with something to go to the house, 
and thus returned loaded. At any rate, 
this device of Mr. Markley’s is a good 
thing, and an excellent way of saving 
many useless steps, and much use of 
muscle for the women folks in the kitchen. 
Tt is a homemade device too, which any 
ingenious man could put up, with a light 
expense for wire, trolley and hook. It is 
much better for the women to hook her 
pail on to this trolley, and see it travel 
off to the barn, than for her to carry it 
along herself, or spend time in trying to 
get the men folks to do it. They will 
take care of it at the other end of the 
line, but they frequently forget it at the 
kitchen end. 
The Chinese have begun to eat ice 
cream as a regular food and the demand 
for American freezers is enormous. 
* • 
The Virginia “Farmer’s Wife” on page 
So says that she moved heaven and earth 
to obtain a convenient kitchen. This is 
no figure of ..eh. Thousands of farm¬ 
er’s wives would know that Heaven had 
moved far in their direction if they had 
such a kitchen. They will have to move 
many “things of earth” animate and in¬ 
animate before they reach their desire. 
This idea of “efficiency” is working 
booth indoors and out. Here is one of 
our men correspondents proposing to put 
the price of the least useful tools in 
household fixtures! 
* 
A WOMAN SI years old is said to have 
gone on horseback to attend an extension 
school in Ohio. The roads were too bad 
to permit carriage travel. This woman 
had kept house all her life, hut went to 
see how housekeeping could be taught 
at a school like reading or arit hmetic. 
Another Ohio report is that a father and 
his son are studying together at the Ohio 
Agricultural College. We told last year 
of a New York man who went to college 
with his boy. This man wanted to be a 
friend and companion of his son as long 
as possible, so when the boy was old 
enough to enter college the man went 
along too, entering the same classes and 
working out the same problems. Both 
sou and father were the better for it. 
It is often suggested that a coopera¬ 
tive laundry could be started at the local 
creamery or cheese factory. The dirty 
clothes are to be brought to the laundry, 
washed and ironed and sent back. Steam 
from the creamery boiler could be used 
for the laundry. This is a good 
thing in theory, but it is seldom seen 
in practice. In hunting for the rea¬ 
son, we are told seven times out 
of 10 that thi' men folks say there would 
be no money in it. The milk carried to 
the creamery gives a profit in money. 
The laundry would not mean an income 
but more or less expense. If the women 
continue to do the washing this expense 
will be saved! Now then, we would like 
to have the women’s side of it. Is that 
argument strong enough in your neigh¬ 
borhood to settle it? 
•* 
’I'll EKE is a good story of a helpful man 
who wrote an article telling how he 
helped his wife in the kitchen. He kept 
the wood box filled, brought in coal, 
churned and helped at the washing, and 
did a dozen other things to help his wife. 
This man told the story, and it was 
printed without his name. His daughter 
read it and thought it a very fine state¬ 
ment of what a man ought to do. She 
took pains to give this opinion to a young 
man who was beginning to call quite 
frequently. Then this girl learned that 
father was the man described in the 
article. That seemed to take the romance 
out of it, for it did not seem so remark¬ 
able that plain and patient father should 
be glorified for doing the things which 
seemed so natural for him to do! No¬ 
body looks upon father as much of a 
hero. When lie is good natured and will¬ 
ing to help in the house he rarely gets 
full credit for it. 
So far as we can remember of all the 
thousands of questions we have asked our 
readers only three have been given up. 
One is how women farmers can get the 
silage out of a tall silo. The question 
was asked by a woman in Illinois. She 
is 00 years old. and has held her family 
together on a little farm by feeding stock. 
Her boy wants her to build a silo, but as 
she wrote: “In my mind’s eye I see my¬ 
self 40 feet in the air. digging out silage.” 
Here was a question apparently for the 
suffragists who show 11 s that there are 
women mayors, sheriffs, jury “men” and 
police women. Is the tall silo reserved 
for man alone? Will not some women 
farmers give their experience? 
* 
Ai.l sorts of stories arc told of the 
sacrifices mothers will make to educate 
their children. Here is a new one. A 
widow in Kansas City, Mo., offered to 
pawn her wedding ring and this is what 
she told the pawnbroker: 
“My husband died two years ago. My 
only son wants to complete his education 
at the University of Illinois. lie has 
been working since school let out and has 
saved $100. I want to leave my ring 
here and give him the money to go to 
school. If I could get $12. r > on my wed¬ 
ding ring he will be able to go back to 
college.” The ring brought the $12.1. 
That boy’s education ought to carry a 
blessing with it. 
«■ 
It is said that a woman who is a 
grandmother, has entered the freshman 
class of Washington University. She is 
taking a course in English, studying com¬ 
position and thi' art of expression. Why 
should not a grandmother take advantage 
of a college course as well as her grand¬ 
daughter? Washington University is the 
place where a novel scheme was tried for 
getting thi' young men to work at pulling 
weeds. The lawn was filled with weeds, 
and in order to got them out the college 
authorities started a voting contest for 
the most popular girl students in the col¬ 
lege. The only way to vote was to dig 
weeds on the lawn, each weed represent¬ 
ing a ballot. Thus the most popular girl 
was the one who had the greatest number 
of weeds dug out of that lawn and voted 
for her. It is said that many a young 
man who would not have exerted himself 
under any other conditions, made a tre¬ 
mendous record at weed digging. 
# 
With medical inspection of pupils in 
tin' country schools New York is far re¬ 
moved from Afghanistan in medical treat¬ 
ment. In a book by .7. A. Gray who was 
medical adviser to the Amir we are told : 
The tooth extracting of the village is 
usually intrusted to the village black¬ 
smith. who has a ponderous pair of for¬ 
ceps, a foot and a half to two feet long, 
hung up in his shop for the purpose. 
When an Afghan comes to negotiate 
about the price of an eligible girl for mar¬ 
rying to his son, one of the first questions 
asked is. “Has slit' had the smallpox?" 
February 2 S’, 
and if not, either the settlement may be 
postponed until she is older or else some 
deduction is made for her possible dis¬ 
figurement if attacked by the disease. 
Many times fathers have brought their 
daughters to the hospital with the scars 
left by smallpox in their face, begging 
me to remove them, not so much for the 
sake of the patient as because the market 
value of the daughter will be so much 
enhanced thereby.” 
* 
I 1 would seem as if Miss Ethel Van- 
derwilt, of Solomon, Kansas, ought to 
be a wise woman. She is. She won a 
gold medal worth $100 in an agricultural 
essay contest. She competed with young 
men in agricultural colleges all over the 
country. This girl did not depend upon 
the name of her home town for her sup¬ 
ply of wisdom. She spent four years 
studying scientific farming, and is now 
employed at the State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. It is said that Miss Vanderwilt 
can go into the stock ring and judge stock 
as well as any young man in her class. 
Here in New York City the young man 
of only a erage attainments, coming to 
find a job, finds himself in competition 
with women and girls, who are as a rule 
more reliable, neater, and more accurate 
than the average man. It would seem 
too that scientific education is giving the 
new woman a chance to make the edu¬ 
cated men stop lively in their chosen field. 
* 
The writer once took part in a de¬ 
bate, with the following topic for dis¬ 
cussion : “Resolved, that the dishrag is a 
greater agent of civilization than the 
broom.” The dishrag won. But now 
comes the College of Agriculture of Ohio, 
taking up the dishrag and describing its 
dangers. It seems that the dirty dishrag 
breeds disease, as it distributes germs 
from one plate to another. The sanitary 
dishrag is the proper thing, and more at¬ 
tention should be paid to it than to al¬ 
most any other household necessity. The 
cloth should be washed in hot soapy 
water, hung in the sun to dry, and boiled 
thoroughly twice a week. We would 
amend this by having it boiled every 
day, as this takes but little time, and is a 
sure precaution. There is one particular 
germ which causes milk to become sticky 
or slimy. We have had a number of 
cases where farmers were absolutely un¬ 
able to learn how this germ ever got into 
their milk. They boiled and sunned their 
utensils thoroughly, only to learn finally 
that the germ was carried in the inno¬ 
cent-looking dishrag, and conveyed to 
the pans and pails through the washing. 
When the dishrag was boiled, this germ 
disappeared. Evidently no one can win 
the debate in favor of the dishrag in 
practical work, without getting it into 
hot water. 
* 
“Goon Housekeepers.”—A t a “moth¬ 
er’s meeting” several women talked long 
and learnedly about the proper training 
of children. One woman never had any 
children of her own. nor had she ever 
raised any. Yet she had a perfect sys¬ 
tem, and was full of advice. Another 
maiden lady, a school teacher, also told 
just how it should be done. In the dis¬ 
cussion a gentle little woman on a back 
seat ventured to make a suggestion which 
was not according to the rule: 
“What, may I ask, do you know about 
the science of children,” asked the presi¬ 
dent. 
“Very little,” was the humble answer. 
“I have only raised six of my own, but I 
cannot give you any rules for doing it.” 
The best cook in town was a woman 
of GO who in her inconvenient kitchen 
turned out the most wonderful cake and 
doughnuts and pies. The young woman 
from the domestic economy class took 
pencil and paper and went to get the 
recipe. 
“Now, Aunt Mary, tell me just how 
you make those doughnuts and I will 
write it down.” 
“Well,” said Aunt Mary, “I take a 
handful of Hour, a punch of salt, a lump 
of butter and as much milk and sugar as 
I think I need and just make them.” 
You see mother and Aunt Mary could 
not tell others how to raise great, healthy 
boys and girls, or how to make doughnuts 
and pies by rule. They put their per¬ 
sonality into their work, and that gave 
them almost a patent. If the average 
man could have his future wife trained 
by one of these natural housekeepers, or 
a college of domestic economy, which 
would he choose? 
