634 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Woman and the Home 
The Bluebird. 
Though Winter’s power fades away, 
The tyrant does not yield; 
But still he holds a waning sway 
O’er hill and stream and field. 
But while he still is lingering. 
Some lovely days appear, 
Bright heralds from the train of Spring, 
To tell that she is near. 
It is as if a day of heaven 
Had fallen from on high, 
And God’s own smiles, for sunlight given 
Were smiling through the sky. 
The bluebird now, with joyous note, 
llis song of welcome sings; 
Joy swells melodious in his throat, 
Joy quivers in his wings. 
No cunning show of art severe, 
But soft and low his lay— 
A sunbeam shining to the ear— 
Spring’s softest, brightest ray. 
Those magic tones call from the past 
The sunny hours of youth ; 
And shining hopes come thronging fast 
From worlds of love and truth. 
The harmony is seen and heard; 
For notes and rays combine 
And joys and hopes, and sun and bird, 
All seem to sing and shine. 
—Noble Butler. 
Love of Life. 
Love you not the tall trees spreading wide 
their branches. 
Cooling with their green shade the sunny 
days of June? 
Love you not the little bird lost among 
the leaflets, 
Dreamily repeating a quaint, brief tune? 
Is there not a joy in the waste windy 
places, 
Is there not a song by the long dusty 
way ? 
Is there not a glory in the sudden hour of 
struggle; 
Is there not a peace in the long quiet 
day ? 
Love you not the meadows with the deep 
lush grasses; 
Love you not the cloud-flocks noiseless in 
their flight? 
Love you not the cool wind that stirs to 
meet the sunrise; 
Love you not the stillness of the warm 
Summer night? 
Have you never wept with a grief that 
slowly passes. 
Have you never laughed when a joy goes 
running by? 
Know you not the peace of rest that fol¬ 
lows labor? 
You have not learnt to live, then; how 
can you dare to die? 
—Tertius Van Dyke. 
The Hills. 
Now men there be that love the plain 
With yellow cornland drest. 
And others love the sleepy vales 
Where lazy cattle rest; 
But some men love the ancient hills. 
And these have chosen best. 
For in the hills a man may go 
Forever as he list. 
And see a net of distant worlds. 
Where streams and valleys twist 
A league below, and seem to hold 
The whole earth in his fist. 
Or if he tread the dales beneath 
A new delight is his. 
For every crest’s a kingdom-edge 
Whose conqueror he is. 
And every fell the frontier 
Of unguessed emperies. 
And when the clouds are on the land 
In shelter he may lie. 
And watch adown the misty glens 
The rain go marching by. 
Along the silent flanks of fells 
Whose heads are in the sky. 
And in the hills are crystal tarns 
As deep as maiden’s eyes. 
About whose edge at middle-noon 
The heavy sunshine lies. 
And deep therein the troll-folk dwell. 
Can make men wonderous wise. 
The gorse of Spring is like a host 
Of warriors in gold 
And Summer heather like a cloak 
Of purple on the wold. 
While Autumn’s russet bracken is 
Monks’ livery of old. 
Our lord the sun knows every land, 
But most be loves the fells; 
At morning-break his earliest torch 
Upon their summit dwells, 
At eve he lingers there to catch 
The sound of vesper bells. 
The men who dwell among the hills 
Have eyes both strong and kind. 
For as they go about their works 
In heaven’s sun and wind. 
The spirit of the established hills 
Gives them the steadfast mind. 
—W. N. Hodgson. 
Speaking of “prize babies’’ on page 
041, the judges at baby contests now 
have a “scale of points” for estimating 
the value of the coming President. We 
shall print this “scale” a little later. 
There ought to be three judges, some 
woman who “just loves babies.” a child 
who has been crowded out of first 
place in the family by some new cherub, 
and some cold-blooded old doctor who 
knows bone and muscle and lung. 
In some localities, distant from a good 
hotel, farmers’ wives can do a fair busi¬ 
ness catering to automobile parties. Dur¬ 
ing the Summer thousands of parties tour 
the country, and they are often compelled 
to stop for dinner or over night at the ho¬ 
tels in small towns. These places are 
usually beer saloons with a “hotel” at¬ 
tachment, and are seldom comfortable. 
that when the majority of women want 
the ballot they will get it. But should 
they have it until they give some indica¬ 
tion that a majority of them want it? 
# 
"Denmark is full of skilled women 
That statement is made by II. Rider 
Haggard in his book on “Rural Den¬ 
mark.” Mr. Haggard tells how, at every 
turn, women are found doing the milk 
testing, egg selecting, analyzing and 
other work wherein accurate skill is need¬ 
ed. He says that trained women do this 
work better than men, since they are 
neater and more conscientious. Den¬ 
mark has set the entire world an example 
of what cooperative work will do for a 
nation. Danish farmers could not have 
developed their dairy business except 
through scientific accuracy so as to save 
wastes. It seems that the women are 
FLOWER GARDENS ON A TERRACED ITALIAN HILLSIDE. 
Such travellers would much rather stop 
at a clean roomy farmhouse, and when 
such a place was once found every guest 
would prove a living advertisement for 
it. What is more, such guests would in 
many cases, be only too glad to trade 
direct with the farmer and buy what 
he could supply in food. 
* 
Not long since the troubles of a “high 
life” couple in New York were aired in 
the newspapers. They were to separate. 
The wife found her husband too slow 
because he had to work to earn a living. 
The husband, a good lawyer, could not 
keep up with his wife. She had nothing 
on earth to do but go from one form of 
amusement to another—dancing, card 
playing, eating or “entertaining.” This 
man worked all day at his profession. 
doing much of this work for them. True 
cooperation will be impossible without 
the active work of women. 
$ 
Women and girls are winning all sorts 
of prizes in contests with men and boys. 
The latest is a contest at collecting the 
egg masses of the “tent caterpillar.” 
Western Michigan was over-run with 
these pests, and prizes were offered to 
the school children who Would climb the 
trees and secure the greatest number of 
these egg masses. The best report thus 
far is by Miss Vera Stickney of Wex¬ 
ford County, Michigan. She captured 
-.800 of the masses, each containing no 
less than 200 eggs. The single school to 
which she belongs destroyed a total of 
0.8S5 egg masses. The school children 
have taken great interest in this contest. 
and was then expected to attend parties 
until after midnight and get up for an¬ 
other day’s work. There was no scandal, 
but the wife actually played so hard that 
the man could not keep up and do his 
work. Such things are bad enough with 
the idle rich, but they become pitifully 
wicked when people of moderate means 
try to give a poor imitation of this 
shirking of home work and care. 
* 
Women certainly voted in Illinois, and 
their influence was felt. We have been 
told that the lower classes of women 
would vote, while others would not, also 
that while city women might vote, coun¬ 
try women did not care. The Illinois 
election disproves both statements. The 
country women voters displayed more in¬ 
dependence than their city sisters. Their 
votes made 22 Illinois counties “dry.” It 
must be clear to anyone who can think 
It is a good thing to encourage, and it’s 
good also to see the girls winning these 
prizes. * 
The other day in a crowded elevator 
a number of women were talking excited¬ 
ly. One of them rapidly turned her head, 
and a sharp hatpin which protruded four 
or five inches outside of her hat missed 
the writer’s eye by the mere fraction of 
an inch. A woman walking on the street, 
met a friend who led a little girl by the 
hand. The first woman was so overjoyed 
to see this child that she caught her up 
in her arms, and brought her head down 
to kiss the child. The point of one of 
these savage hatpins entered the child’s 
cheek within an inch of its eye. Dozens 
of cases can be given where this deadly 
hatpin has put eyes out of commission, 
scratched faces, and wrought havoc in 
general. The State of New Jersey tried 
to frame a law which would prohibit 
April 25, 
women from wearing these pins unless 
the point was protected or covered by 
some blunt attachment. It was laughed 
out of practice,' and called a fool law, 
yet the hatpin handled as many women 
wear it in crowded places, is a nuisance 
and a danger. The sharp point should 
never be left outside of the hat, but 
should be cut off to a blunt point, or 
else covered with some protector which 
would take off the point and render it 
less liable to destroy the sight of an eye. 
* 
Here is a lesson for farmer’s daughters 
who wish to go to the city. We came 
‘back to the land’ 18 years ago. In an 
isolated locality, two other farms joined 
us. The three could total 12 daughters. 
Eleven of the 12 are married, and the 
last one engaged. As far as the returns 
have been received there are about 25 
grandchildren. None of the girls married 
a farmer. In the nearby village, many 
of the girls worked in the local stores 
and factories, and some secured jobs in 
New York. We had to total 30 families 
before we could find 12 daughters mar¬ 
ried in the same period of time. 
FRANK HYDE. 
But is the chief object with our daugh¬ 
ters to get them “married off?” As not 
one of these girls married a farmer, it 
does not seem that moving to the coun¬ 
try had much to do with it. Perhaps 
these girls became better housekeepers in 
the country than they would have done in 
town. At any rate this is a novel argu¬ 
ment for “baek-to-the-landing.” 
The Tramp Hens Trapped. 
Your advice to the Methodist minister 
reminds me of an incident that took 
place here many years ago. Mr. C. had 
a barn, horse, cow and a nice neighbor 
who kept a number of chickens, which 
made his barnyard and garden a favorite 
place to get a large part of their living. 
Several requests to Mr. S. to keep his 
chickens up bringing no results, Mr. C. 
purchased a fine healthy rooster and 
shut him up in his barn for a few days. 
After he was wonted to the place he 
fixed up a nice lot of nests and turned 
the bird out. Not long after he asked 
Mr. S. to come over and see his fine 
rooster. After showing his good points 
he turned to Mr. S. and said: “Mr. S. 
although he is the only chicken I have 1 
am getting from (> to 10 eggs a day.” As 
this was about the number of eggs Mr. 
S.’s hens had fallen off, and several of 
them were cackling in the barn. Mr. S. 
took the hint, and Mr. C. was bothered no 
more by the hens. s. T. w. 
“Two Girls and $400.” 
On page 409 we printed among farm 
problems a letter from a woman in Michi¬ 
gan. This woman’s capital consisted of 
two girls and $400. She wanted to find 
a place on a small farm where this cap¬ 
ital would enable her to start and develop 
a home. We printed it as one of the hard 
problems which face many of our country 
women. The response to this was 
prompt. Within two weeks 34 letters 
came from all sections of the country. 
It was a most remarkable collection. One 
man expressed a willingness to marry 
this woman. Another was willing to put 
up with the two girls for a while if lie 
could use the $400 in developing his 
farm. Most of the letters, however, came 
from worthy people, who stood in need 
of help on their farms, or were sincerely 
desirous of helping a worthy woman find 
a home. One letter came from a trained 
nurse in an Eastern city. Out of her 
savings she had purchased a small farm, 
which she was trying to develop in fruit, 
and at the same time retain her work at 
the hospital until she could accumulate 
sufficient capital. She thought that prob¬ 
ably this woman with the two girls could 
take hold of the property and develop it 
for her. Then there were childless old 
people left upon farms which they did not 
care to give up, and yet felt unable to do 
the necessary work. These people could 
provide excellent homes for the right 
kind of workers. This statement of a 
problem attracted remarkable attention. 
The woman who wanted help is now cor¬ 
responding with several people, and may 
find exactly what she wants in the way 
of a situation. The discussion of these 
problems brings out the very best part 
of what we call the Rural family. There 
is always some one eager to help another, 
and our circulation is so widespread that 
usually such problems find their solution, 
and that is the best part of farm journal¬ 
ism as we see it. 
