634 
THE RURAI 
NEW-VORKER 
April 4, 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
MOTHER OF FIVE. 
She mothered five! 
Night after night she watched a little 
bed. 
Night after night she cooled a fevered 
head, 
Day after day she guarded little feet. 
Taught little minds the dangers of the 
street; 
Taught little lips to utter simple pray¬ 
ers, 
Whispered of strength that some day 
would be theirs 
And trained them all to use it as they 
should. 
She gave her babies to the nation’s good. 
She mothered five! 
She gave her beauty; from her cheeks 
let fade 
The rose’s blushes; to her mother trade. 
She saw the wrinkles furrowing her 
brow, 
Yet smiling said, “My boy grows strong¬ 
er now.” 
When pleasures called she turned away 
and said: 
“I dare not leave my babies to be fed 
By strangers’ hands; besides they are 
so small 
I must be near to answer when they 
call.” 
She mothered five! 
Night after night they sat about her 
knee 
And heard her tell of what some day 
would be. 
From her they learned that in the world 
outside 
Are cruelty and vice and selfishness and 
pride; 
From her they learned the wrongs they 
ought to shun, 
What things to love, what work must 
still be done. 
She led them through the labyrinth of 
youth 
And brought five men and women up to 
Truth. 
She mothered five! 
Her name may be unknown save to the 
few. 
Of her the outside world but little knew. 
But somewhere five are treading Virtue’s 
ways, 
Serving the world and brightening its 
days. 
Somewhere are five, who, tempted, stand 
upright 
Clinging to honor, keeping her memory 
bright. 
Somewhere this mother toils and is alive 
No more as one, but in the breasts of 
five, 
Edgar A. Guest, in Detroit Free Press. 
* 
In reading the excellent bulletin on 
“Bread” issued by the Ohio Agricultural 
College last December, we note that the 
utensils given as necessary for bread¬ 
making do not include a bread-mixer, 
and the recipes call for the old-fashioned 
hand kneading. We do not agree with 
this; the bread-mixer is, we think, an 
absolute necessity whenever bread is 
made at home, and if the directions given 
with it are accurately followed the bread 
is always good. And what a relief it is 
to hard-working arms! We also find it 
excellent for mixing stiff fruit cake. 
* 
Here is a Californian recipe for grape¬ 
fruit pie which, while not very useful 
in the North, may be appreciated by 
Florida readers: First bake a shell as 
for lemon piethen make a filling as fol¬ 
lows : Mix one tablespoonful of corn¬ 
starch in a little cold water, and over 
this pour one cupful of boiling water. 
To this add the juice of two grapefruit, 
the grated rind and juice of one orange, 
the beaten yolks of two eggs and the 
white of one and a small piece of butter. 
Put all in the double boiler and cook 
until thick, stirring all the time. When 
done, put in the shell. Then beat up 
the white of second egg with one-half 
cupful of sugar, until thick, and spread 
with a knife over the pie. Put in the 
oven and let brown lightly. Serve cold. 
This makes an excellent pie. 
* 
In planning to improve home sur¬ 
roundings, do not forget that every rural 
family is entitled to some comfortable 
shady place that may form an outdoor 
sitting-room in Summer. We naturally 
expect to find such shade on every place, 
but trees are not always so arranged as 
to provide it, and in such cases quick¬ 
growing vines will be a help. Further¬ 
more, this shady resting place should 
be provided with appropriate outdoor 
furniture; a table firm enough to stand 
without tipping and large enough to hold 
books or the dishes for an open-air meal; 
chairs or settles that will afford com¬ 
fortable seats, and a little sewing stand 
that will not upset and scatter thread 
and thimbles broadcast. None of these 
requirements calls for a heavy expendi¬ 
ture, and yet they add greatly to the 
comfort of country living at a season 
when there is much hard work and little 
leisure. 
* 
The State Superintendent of Schools 
of West Virginia has issued a bulletin 
on “Community Studies for Rural High 
Schools,” prepared by the State Super¬ 
visor. This bulletin may be called an ex¬ 
amination paper on local resources, as 
it asks the pupils for a complete account 
of the people, places and resources of 
their own immediate environment. The 
State Superintendent says: 
The high schools are turning out many 
boys and girls who know something of 
Latin and German, something of the 
civilization of Greece and Rome, and 
something of geometry, but who know 
little or nothing about the community in 
which they live; they know nothing of its 
history, nothing of its traditions, nothing 
of its industries, nothing of its institu¬ 
tions, and nothing of its possibilities for 
the future. The life that goes on about 
them, with its needs, its failures, and its 
suggestions, makes no appeal to them, 
because they do not understand its signifi¬ 
cance. Our rural communities in West 
Virginia have greatly suffered in the 
past because the majority of their young 
people who have gone to high school and 
to college, have not returned to them to 
give them the benefit of their training 
and their increased ability. They have 
gone into the towns and cities of the 
State and into the towns and cities of 
other States, to seek opportunities thei-e 
and to use the ability that they have de¬ 
veloped. Many of them have gone to seek 
opportunities in distant places because 
the lessons they learned in school dealt 
largely with distant places and distant 
activities. They have yielded to the lure 
of things they have read about, and 
thought about. They have discovered no 
opportunities at home because they have 
not been taught how to look for them. 
Partly because of this desertion by many 
of their best young people, some of our 
rural communities are yet undeveloped, 
and many of those that have been devel¬ 
oped owe their development to those who 
have come in from the outside. 
V e think these words are true of many 
localities besides West Virginia. If the 
school and the home inculcate local pride 
by pointing out the advantages of a lo¬ 
cality, and at the same time direct 
thought toward improvement of disad¬ 
vantages, they are likely to induce a 
solidarity of interest that will produce a 
high type of citizenship, and that is 
something we need more than some of the 
ornamental accomplishments now urged 
in modern education. 
The Unknown Teacher. 
In the “good old days” the school 
teacher in the little red sehoolhouse was 
an important personage in the commu¬ 
nity, and each family of any social stand¬ 
ing at all entertained the schoolmaster 
or ma’am at least once each term. House¬ 
keepers in those days spoke of “having 
the teacher” much as they spoke of at¬ 
tending to every other duty in life, and 
if sickness or disaster put this important 
event off the calendar the mistress of the 
farmhouse declared herself “mortified to 
death,” an expression much used in those 
times. But now it is a common thing 
to discover parents, good, intelligent 
folks, too, who cannot even name the man 
or woman who instructs the boys and 
girls day by day. Last Fall I met an 
intelligent, progressive farmer who had 
to appeal to his children to tell him who 
was their teacher during the fourth 
month of the term. “I never pay any 
attention to the school,” he said apolo¬ 
getically. 
It is hard on the children when the 
parents take this attitude toward the 
school, but it is also hard on the teacher. 
Many a lonely young person goes from 
house to house seeking board in the Fall 
only to be turned away. In many cases 
is is really impossible for the mistress of 
the farmhouse to add to her burdens, but 
in other instances women do not want 
to bother with a teacher. 
Often a young girl or a young man 
capable of doing good work becomes dis¬ 
heartened because of the loneliness, and 
gets through the school in haphazard 
fashion. There is no incentive to do th« 
best work, because no one ever com¬ 
mends, and the year is hurried past r s 
quickly and easily as possible. Of 
course every young worker should do the 
best without thinking of outside condi¬ 
tions, but when a human being is prac¬ 
tically alone in a community it is hard 
to do the best. No one doubts that the 
farm housekeepers have their hands full, 
and that entertaining in the good old 
fashion is probably gone forever, but it 
doesn’t take long to make friends with 
the unknown teacher and give her a 
hearty word of praise early in the term. 
Perhaps inviting her for a meal is out 
of the question, but the busiest woman 
can smile and say a good word to and 
for a lonely fellow mortal. If you want 
to make the school efficient “brag up” 
the teacher. Set so high a standard for 
her that she will have to try to live up 
to it. Make yourself a member of th* 
publicity bureau to speak of the good 
work done in the schoolroom, and teacher 
and pupils will feel the encouragement. 
HILDA RICHMOND. 
Boys in House Cleaning. 
From time immemorial the Spring 
housecleaning has been an all-absorbing 
subject, and one that cannot be set aside. 
It is only to be compared with the grand 
upheaval of nature which has to be en¬ 
dured annually when Jack Frost loses 
his hold, and the whole surface of the 
world is made over by floods and mud, 
sun and rain, until order is brought out 
of chaos, and the earth is finally solid 
under our feet again, made clean and 
fresh and sweet by the mighty forces 
brought to bear, and perfumed by the 
breath of violets. 
While nature furnishes the forces and 
decides the manner in which outdoors 
shall be cleaned, man, or rather woman, 
must decide the question for indoors. 
House-cleaning is a fact; the question is, 
how and when is the best time to begin? 
To guide the housewife, various methods 
have been tried and written up, but many 
are still in doubt as to which is the best. 
Some say, clean one room at a time, while 
others advocate cleaning all the house at 
once and making a time of it; doubtless 
drawing inspiration from the fact that 
a week of deep mud is preferable to a 
more protracted season of less depth. In 
deciding this question considerable de- ( 
pends on the force the housewife has to I 
work with. Some must do the greater | 
part by themselves, with a little help 
from the men folks, while others j 
hire a woman by the day, and often are [ 
obliged to call on the men then, which 
plainly proves that while women may 
seem to be crowding into the field of 
men’s work, she is leaving an open field 
behind her which no one can fill so well 
as a man or a boy. The boy as a house- 
cleaner is superior to a man or two 
women and can make good wages at it. 
A boy will laugh at the idea of its being 
hard work to take up tacks, and should¬ 
er the carpet as easily as a* bag cf meal, 
while as for moving the furniture out 
of doors, that is fun. 
He may possibly need a little encour¬ 
agement while dusting the carpet in or¬ 
der to dust it thoroughly, but he isn’t all 
tired out when it is done; and while you 
are cleaning the windows he will have 
ample time to dust the furniture, pic¬ 
tures, etc., which he does not consider 
work, though it is a great help to have 
it all ready to set back into the room 
as soon as the carpet is down. Many 
boys can clean paint as well as a woman 
and as quickly. When all is ready he 
brings in the carpet and helps tack, or 
stretches it so that it is quite easy for you 
to tack. After that is done he is not 
too tired to begin another room, and if 
you feel equal to ordering and helping a 
little, will often do two rooms in a day, 
and be fresh enough for a game of ball 
afterward, and start fresh again the next 
morning. 
Nearly every woman is familiar with 
the type of women who make a business 
of going out housecleaning, and who usu¬ 
ally appear in the morning with a worn- 
out expression on their races and tell how 
tired they are to begin with, and keep it 
up all through the day, until towards 
night they are so much more tired than 
you are, that you give them their money 
and send them home while you finish up 
yourself. You do not blame them, know¬ 
ing that the work is too hard to be con¬ 
tinued day after day by women; it is 
only fit for men or boys who are well 
and strong; and boys as professional 
housecleaners will find a wide field open 
for them to work in wherever they may 
be. ALICE E. PINNEY. 
Mrs. Skeptic —“Oh, go ’long, Anty 
Drudge! Telling me I don’t need 
to boil nor hardrub my clothes. 
Everybody I know always has 
washed clothes this way.” 
Anty Drudge —“No, they haven’t. 
Some heathen places they beat 
them with stones to get them 
clean. Why don’t you do that if 
you like the hardest way? But 
if you want the easy way, just 
use Fels-Naptha Soap.” 
W hat does 
washday mean to 
you? Standing 
all day, drudging 
over the wash¬ 
board, rubbing the 
dirt out of your 
clothes, and boil¬ 
ing them to pieces; 
filling your house 
with steam and 
smell, and making 
yourself tired out? 
Or 
Thirty minutes 
for the clothes to 
soak in cool or 
lukewarm water 
with Fels-Naptha 
Soap; a light rub 
with the hands, 
rinsing and hanging 
on the line in half the 
time, with less than 
half the trouble than 
ever before? 
Fels-Naptha works 
for you in cool or 
lukewarm water. 
Buy it by the carton or box. Full 
directions are on the Red and Green 
Wrapper. 
I'«l» A Co., Philadelphia. 
FELS-NAPTHA 
