312 
THE KTIRAL 
! The Woman At Law! 
B I 
! Under this heading we shall discuss the legal " 
* rights of women, particularly as regards their ' 
I property and their children. There will he direct ■ 
| answers to actual questions and general state* E 
q ineats of law.] g 
Will for Charitable Purposes. 
If I should make my will and leave all 
my estate to charity except $1 each to my 
brothers and sisters after all of my just 
debts are paid, such as doctor bills, nurse 
hills and funeral expenses, including all 
grocery bills and any other debt I may 
have contracted during my sickness, can 
my brothers and sisters break this will and 
take all my estate, which they are not 
entitled to, as they have never done any¬ 
thing for me and never came to see me 
until the doctor said I would soon die? 
I have known several cases of this kind, 
and I am only writing it this way for 
example. 
You may leave any part or all of your 
<‘st:ate to charitable uses, and your rel¬ 
atives cannot break your will, provided 
your will is attested by two credible and 
disinterested witnesses, and made at least 
one calendar month before your death, for 
the laws of Pennsylvania provide that no 
devise of property may be made for char¬ 
itable uses by a will executed within one 
mouth of the death of the giver. 
Married Woman’s Property in Cows. 
If a woman buys a cow with her own 
earnings, outside of the home work, can 
she hold the increase from that cow, or 
does it belong to the husband and heirs 
if the husband dies? 
\*ou may own in your own right all 
the cows you pay for out of your sepa¬ 
rate money, or all the cows which you 
may have acquired by agreement with 
your husband. You are not limited to 
one cow or to any other number. You 
would naturally own the increase also, 
hut if your cow was fed on your hus¬ 
band’s feed you should make some agree¬ 
ment with him as to the calves. If he 
would feed the cow for all the bull calves, 
you to have the heifers, that is a lawful 
and enforceable agreement, and you would 
then own all the heifer calves as against 
him or his heirs or all the world. 
Woman’s Right to Property. 
I would like to know if I have a legal 
right to my home. My mother died in 
1900, leaving a house and lot with a mort¬ 
gage of $750 on it. There were two 
daughters, myself aud Mrs. S. Mrs. S. 
had died, and left two sons over 21 years 
of age and married. They and their 
wives signed deeds to me for a con¬ 
sideration, and I hold the same now. 
There were no personal debts, and it 
never went through the surrogate’s court. 
If I should die without a will would 
my property go to my husband and 
daughter? E. J. L. 
If you have not already done so, it 
would be well to have the deed from your 
sister’s sons and their wives to you re¬ 
corded and then there could be no ques¬ 
tion of your title to this property. If 
you should die without a will your real 
property would go as follows: First, your 
husband would have a life interest in it, 
and then it would all go to the daughter 
in fee. If you own real property, it 
would be well for you to make a will in 
a short form, such as appeared in this 
paper some time ago. 
Rights of Guardian. 
What is the legal difference between 
the rights and duties of a parent, and of 
a guardian? Suppose a woman is ap¬ 
pointed for a child, with no estate to pay 
for it. What actual control or right does 
the guardian have over the child as com¬ 
pared with her own son or daughter, and 
is she obliged to protect and care for the 
child as a guardian? What right has she, 
if any, to the labor of the child until it 
becomes of age? 
There is no practical difference between 
the rights and duties of a parent and those 
of a general guardian who has charge of 
both the person and the estate of an in¬ 
fant. In the case given where the guard¬ 
ian of a child is appointed without any 
estate out of which to pay for the care 
and tuition of the child, the guardian may 
do one of two things: care for and sup¬ 
port the child out of the guardian’s own 
estate, or the guardian may with the ap¬ 
proval of the court or officer which ap¬ 
pointed the guardian, send the child to an 
incorporated orphan asylum. The guard¬ 
ian is not, of course, bound to pay for the 
care of the ward out of the guardian’s 
funds. The guardian exerts the same 
control over the ward as she would over 
her own child, and she is obliged to pro¬ 
tect and care for the ward practically the 
same as for one of her own children. She 
has. however, not the right to the fruits 
of the labor of the child except that where 
the child has no estate of its own, its la¬ 
bor may be used toward defraying the 
expenses of its support. 
It is well to note that a married 
woman is a joint guardian of her children 
with her husband with equal powers, 
rights and duties in regard to them as 
has the husband, and the surviving par¬ 
ent may, upon the death of the other, by 
a deed or by a will duly executed, appoint 
as guardian for an infant child during 
its minority or for any less time, any per¬ 
son or persons they deem suitable, al¬ 
ways having in mind that the paramount 
issue is the welfare of the child, and, as 
above stated', the guardian so appointed, 
or one appointed by the court has prac¬ 
tically the same rights, duties aud liabili¬ 
ties as a parent. 
The Youngest Grange Lecturer. 
Miss Winnifred Whitcomb, whose pic¬ 
ture is shown below, is said to be the 
The Youngest Change Lecturer. 
youngest Grange lecturer in the United 
States. She was installed as lecturer of 
Everett Grange in Massachusetts when 
only 15 years of age; and what is bet¬ 
ter, did tin' work effectively. The office 
A Champion Cohn Grower. 
of lecturer is really the most difficult j 
of any in the Grange. It is the duty of I 
the lecturer to think out and provide 
programs which must be educational as j 
well as entertaining. It is no small job i 
in a country neighborhood to provide 
these programs for a full year, so as to 
keep up interest in the organization-. The 
NEW-YORKER 
Grange is not only a fraternal organiza¬ 
tion. but it is educational as well, and 
that is why it has always had such a 
strong hold upon country people. The 
efficient lecturers who spend so much 
time and thought in preparing good pro¬ 
grams, are largely responsible for the 
fact that the true Subordinate Grange in 
this country represents the very cream 
of our rural people. The National Grange 
may he subject to fair criticism, but the 
Subordinate Grange back in the country 
towns and among the hills, is the strong 
part of the organization, and has had 
much to do in the development of rural 
life. The lecturers of these local Granges 
who in their quiet way supervise or 
direct the thought of the members, rarely 
receive proper credit, -yet to them is 
largely due the great strength of the 
order. Perhaps we may be able to print 
later a picture of the oldest lecturer in 
the country. This month, however, it 
is the youngest one, Miss Winnifred 
Whitcomb. 
A Girl Corn Grower. 
The picture printed below shows the 
11-year-old girl of Mercer County, Penn¬ 
sylvania, who won first prize in a corn 
contest. Our space is too short this week 
to tell all her story. Later, in the corn¬ 
growing season, we shall tell how her 
crop was grown. Miss Aleen Fell be¬ 
longs to a family which in its turn has 
belonged to the soil for at. least 200 years. 
Her father had no boys to enter this 
contest, and so Miss Aleen entered under 
her nickname of “Pete.” She grew 98.65 
bushels of shelled corn on one acre, doing 
practically all the work herself, except 
the plowing. She ought to be able to 
raise good corn, if there is anything in 
pedigree, for her grandparents moved 
into the county where she lives in 1788. 
About their first duty was to clear off a 
piece of land and plant corn, and every 
year since then corn planting has been a 
similar duty. This girl performed that 
inherited duty so well that she won in 
competition with SO boys, and the citizens 
her home town put up the money and 
sent her to the State College for the 
entire “Farmers’ Week,” where she made 
a speech to 600 farmers, and told them 
how to raise a prize corn crop. She also 
won $10 as a prize for the best 10 ears 
■ >f corn, and received a letter from Justice 
Fell of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. The story of «ow this girl came 
into the contest as father’s boy and won 
this prize, is one of the best things 
brought out in agricultural literature this 
year. We would much rather print, as 
we do, the picture of this plucky farmer’s 
girl, than to prir.: pictures of a dozen 
society women, or people who so fre¬ 
quently get into the public eye without 
deserving a place the,e. 
February 2S, 
j Mention The Rural when answering ads. 
THIS WASHER 
MUST PAY FOR 
ITSELF 
A MAN tried to sell me a horse once. lie said it 
was a line horse and had nothing the matter 
I with it. I wanted a fine horse. 
I didn't know anything 
i about horses muoli. And 
! I didn't know the mail 
i very well either, 
i So 1 told him 1 want- 
; ed to try the horse for 
a month. He said "All 
right, hut pay me first, 
i and I'll give you back 
your money it’ the horse 
isn’t all right.” 
Well. I didn’t like 
that. I was afraid the 
horse w a s n ' t “all 
right” and that I might 
have to whistle for my 
money If I onee parted 
with It. So I didn't buy 
tlie horse although I 
wanted it badly. Now 
this set mo thinking. 
You see, I make 
Washing Machines—the 
“1900 Gravity” Washer. 
And I said to myself, 
lots of people may think 
about my Washing Ma- _ 
chine as T thought about the horse, and about the 
man who owned it. 
Itut I'd never know, because they wouldn't 
write and toll me. You see, 1 sell my Washing 
Machines by mail. I have sold over half a million 
that way. 
So, thought I, it is only fair enough to let peo¬ 
ple try my Washing Machines for a month before 
they pay for them, just as I wanted to try the 
horse. 
Now, I know Ghat our ”1900 Gravity” Washer 
will do. I know it will wash the clothes, without 
wearing or tearing them, in less than half the 
time they can be washed by hand or by any other 
machine. 
I know it will wash a tub full of very dirtv 
clothes in Six minutes. I know no other machine 
ever invented can do that, without wearing out 
tlie clothes. 
Our "1900 Gravity” Washer does the work so 
easy that n child can run it almost as well as a 
strong woman and it don’t wear the clothes, t'rav 
the edges nor break buttons the way all other 
machines do. 
e, 11 hist drives soapy water clear through the 
LiDics of tlie clothes like «i force pump might. 
So, said I to myself, I will do with my "1900 
Gravity Washer what I wanted tlie man to do 
with the horse. Only I won’t wait for people to 
ask me. I’ll offer first, and I’ll make good the 
offer every time. 
Let me send you a ”1900 Gravity” Washer on a 
month’s free trial. I’ll pay tin* freight out of my 
own pocket, and if you don’t want tlie machine 
after you’ve used it a month, I’ll take it hack 
and pay the freight, too. Surely that is fair 
enough, isn't it? 
Doesn’t it prove that the "191)0 Gravity” Wash¬ 
er must lie all that 1 say it is? 
And you can pay me out of what it saves for 
you. It will save its whole cost in a few months, 
in wear and tear on the clothes alone. And then 
it will save 50 cents to 75 cents a week over that 
in washwoman’s wages. If you keep the machine 
after tlie month’s trial, I'll let you pay for it out 
of what it saves you. It' it saves you 00 cents a 
week, send me 50 cents a week till paid for. I’ll 
take that cheerfully, and I'll wait for my money 
until tlie machine itself earns the balance. 
Drop me a line to-day, and let me send you a 
book about the "1900 Gravity” Washer that wash¬ 
es clothes in 0 minutes. 
Address me this way—H. L. Barker, 1201 Court 
Street, Binghamton, N. Y. If you live in Canada, 
address 1900 Washer Co., 357 Yonge St., Toronto, 
Out. 
