860 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
Woman and Home 
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thought of the plan of going to school and 
obtaining a diploma as a preparation for 
getting married. 
* * * 
T HE Illinois Supreme Court has up¬ 
held the law granting suffrage to 
women. This law states that all women 
who are citizens of the United States, 
and have resided in Illinois one year, in 
the county 90 days, and the election dis¬ 
trict 30 days, shall be allowed to vote. A 
case was brought by a tax-payer in Cook 
County, who demanded that the election 
commissioners of Chicago be forbidden to 
incur expense for providing facilities for 
women to vote. The object of this was 
to test the constitutionality of the law. 
The Supreme Court dismissed this case. 
An appeal was taken to the Supreme 
Court, which now decides by a vote of 
four to three that the law must stand. 
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The Sexton. 
Nigh to a grave that was newly made, 
Leaned a sexton old on his earthworn 
spade; 
His work was done, and he paused to 
wait 
The funeral train at the open gate. 
A relic of bygone days was ho, 
And his locks were white as the foamy 
sea; 
And these words came from his lips so 
thin : 
“I gather them in; I gather them, in. 
“I gather them in, for man and boy, 
Year after year of grief and joy, 
I’ve builded the houses that lie around, 
In every nook of this burial ground; 
Mother and daughter, father and son, 
Come to my solitude, one by one; 
But come they strangers or come they 
kin— 
I gather them in, I gather then in. 
“Many are with me, but still I’m alone, 
I’m king of the dead—and I make my 
throne 
On a monument slab of marble cold; 
And my sceptre of rule is the spade I 
hold ! 
Come they from cottage or come they 
from hall, 
Mankind are my subjects all, all, all. 
Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully 
spin— 
I gather them in, I gather them in. 
“I gather them in, and their final rest 
Is here, down here, in the earth’s dark 
breast!” 
And the sexton ceased, for the funeral 
train 
Wound mutely o’er that solemn plain. 
And I said to my heart, when time is told, 
A mightier voice than the sexton’s old 
Will sound o’er the last trump’s dread¬ 
ful din— 
“I gather them in, I gather them in.” 
—Park Benjamin. 
* * * 
T HE domestic unrest of to-day is due 
not to changed ideals of womanhood 
but to the maladjustment of the 
mediaeval home to modern conditions. 
That is what we hear from Mary Pierce 
Van Zile, “Dean of Home Economics.” 
She is right, but those who are used to 
shorter words would put it this way, “A 
fight for a full wood-box and a sink.” 
W E are trying to locate some of the 
little gasoline engines which are 
doing duty inside the farmhouse. We 
find a number that are doing housework 
—running washing machines, cleaners 
and half a dozen other hard jobs. There 
are thousands of such engines doing great 
service at the barn or outside on the 
farm, but just now we want more par¬ 
ticularly the record of the “tireless hired 
girl,” or the small household gas engine. 
* * * 
W E are often told that there are elder¬ 
ly people who can show 50 or 
more of their living descendants through 
several generations. It isn’t often that a 
baby can figure the other way. A woman 
in Montclair, N. J., however, at 88 years 
old became a great-grandmother. The 
child which came in time to give this 
lady her title has two living grandfathers, 
and two grandmothers, two great-grand¬ 
fathers and two great-grandmothers and 
the great-great-grandmother, eleven 
granduncles, eight grandaunts and three 
great-grandaun ts. 
* * * 
I N the last magazine issue of Woman 
and Home, Mr. L. B. Crooker said 
that the cooks of certain sections were 
able to prepare special dishes as they 
could not be found elsewhere. There is 
much in this, and, following up the sug¬ 
gestion The R. N.-Y. has obtained some 
remarkable interviews with noted cooks. 
An old-time New England housewife, a 
black mammy of slavery times, a pioneer 
on the Western prairie, and a domestic 
science graduate, will tell us of their 
star kitchen performance in their own 
words. 
* * * 
A LL sorts of new things are happening. 
The latest is a School of Mother- 
craft, started in New York. This school 
graduated three young women recently, 
one of whom, Miss Marion Taylor, said 
that she is engaged to be married and 
took this course as a preparation for mat¬ 
rimony. The school was really intended 
originally for would-be brides. We won¬ 
der what some of the grandmothers who 
jvere such wonderful housekeepers, and 
however, seems good. Some of the peo¬ 
ple who advertise dental preparations so 
freely might well take the hint and prove 
that their stuff comes closest to the ideal 
toothbrush—the apple. There is no 
doubt as to the value of coarse brown 
bread as a “chewer.” 
I F compulsory attendance at school is 
good for the youngsters, what about 
compulsory supervision of the school by 
the grown up? This is the way Prof. 
E. C. Elliott of Wisconsin puts it: 
It should be said to parents—much of 
the efforts of schools and teachers is 
wasted because the school and the teach¬ 
ers do not understand your children; 
your principal school business is to see 
that the teachers do understand your 
children; it is your duty to understand 
what the school is trying to do for each 
child, in order that your home may be 
able to cooperate for the accomplishment 
of these same ends. 
There is a good deal of talk about our 
public school system—both praise and 
blame. Too many of us talk without ever 
putting our face inside the local school- 
house. 
* * * 
C ONSUL JEWETT of Baden gives a 
table showing salaries paid teach¬ 
ers in Germany. Salaries have been ad¬ 
vanced about 20 per cent, in recent years: 
Years of 
Men 
Women 
service. 
teachers. 
teachers. 
1 to 3... 
$404.60 
$357.00 
4 to 6. 
452.20 
404.60 
7 to 9. 
523.60 
452.20 
10 
to 12. 
595.00 
499.80 
13 
to 15. 
666.40 
547.40 
16 
to 18. 
737.80 
595.00 
19 
to 21. 
833.00 
642.60 
22 
to 24. 
904.40 
666.40 
25 
to 27. 
952.00 
690.20 
28 
to 29. 
999.60 
714.00 
30 
and after .... 
1,047.20 
714.00 
Thus such salaries advance every three 
years—as they should. In many parts of 
this country the older teachers are put 
aside, the preference being given to young¬ 
er women. 
* * * 
I N the last magazine number we planted 
several unusual requests which ap¬ 
pealed to farmers or their wives. Within 
two weeks after this paper was printed 
we received nearly 70 letters from women 
who desired to enter a hen in the poultry 
contest, 50 letters from people who asked 
about that tenant farm owned by R. II., 
22 from elderly people who wished to 
know more about the women who de¬ 
sired a home, and one from a man who 
said he was willing to take that prisoner 
as a hired hand. All these have been at¬ 
tended to. There is nothing quite like 
the way our people take hold of such 
things. We have often said that Tiie 
R. N.-Y. has more personal friends and 
confidants among its readers than any 
other paper in the country, and every 
time this is put to the test we have re¬ 
newed evidence of the truth of the state¬ 
ment. 
* * * 
O NE of our readers wants to know if 
we believe the following from the 
American Medical Association: 
Dr. Sims Wallace, late dental surgeon 
to the London Hospital, states that there 
are in this country about 21,000,000 
teeth in a state of ruin through eating 
sweets, and urges the adoption of a diet 
containing farinaceous food in a form 
which will stimulate mastication, as 
brown bread, and also the eating of fresh 
fruit at the conclusion of a meal. By 
means of the fruit the teeth are cleansed. 
The best fruit for this purpose is probably 
the apple, which, if eaten at the end of 
a meal, leaves the mouth fresh and phy¬ 
siologically clean. 
We try to believe every good thing said 
about apple eating and this one seems 
sensible. When it comes to figuring we 
are lost when we get much above 100,000 
and counting teeth by the million is be¬ 
yond us. The apple as a toothbrush, 
W E like the good old Saxon one-sylla- 
bled names. They are short and 
strong, and mean something plain and 
practical. As between a man named 
Montmorency and another named Smith 
we should view the former with the 
greater suspicion until we knew him 
fully. It is a pleasure to know how The 
R. N.-Y. has gathered about it an army 
of these sound and practical people whose 
name goes through life like a short, sharp 
sword. Out of curiosity we went through 
the New York list and found that in this 
one State alone we have the following 
number of readers: 
Mr. 
Jones ... 
.179 
Mr. 
Smith . . 
. 713 
Mr. 
Brown . . 
.334 
Mr. 
White .. 
. 151 
Mr. 
Black ... 
. 27 
Mr. 
Grey ... 
. 62 
Mr. 
Green . . 
.149 
Mr. 
Blue .... 
. 4 
Mr. 
Bacon . . 
. 28 
Mr. 
11 a m ... 
. 21 
Mr. 
Frost ... 
. 37 
Mr. 
Waters . 
. 11 
Mr. 
Steele .. 
. 21 
Mr. 
Gold .... 
Mr. 
Silver .. 
. 1 
Mr. 
Irons ... 
o 
Mr. 
Short .. . 
. 17 
Mr. 
Long . . . 
. 17 
Mr. 
Quick .. 
22 
Mr. 
Down ... 
. 3 
Mr. 
Ivetcham. 
. 10 
In our entire list there are about 2,500 
Smiths and nearly 2,000 Browns—all, as 
you might expect, plain, substantial peo¬ 
ple—every one of them, like all the 
rest, willing to help The R. N.-Y. family 
if it is within their power. 
* * * 
A Woman's Back Yard Garden. 
P OSSIBLY some of your village read¬ 
ers who have small unused patches 
of land that might be made into a nice 
garden do not know of the possibilities 
thereof, so I am going to tell them what 
I have on a little plot 27x65 feet. 250 
strawberry plants; 55 hills of sweet corn ; 
48 celery plants; 39 tomato plants; 14 
currant bushes; 10 hills rhubarb; 10 
hills cucumbers; 6 hills cantaloupes; 5 
gooseberry bushes; 2 horseradish plants; 
2 rows beans 60 feet long; 2 rows peas 
60 feet long; 4 rows beets 35 feet long; 
3 rows lettuce 35 feet long; 1 row sweet 
peas 15 feet long. Everything is looking 
fine. All the room is fully utilized, yet 
there is plenty of room for all to grow, 
and produce well. The garden is the ad¬ 
miration of the neighbors. There are 
never any weeds in it. Fact is, there’s 
no room to grow them. 
Maine. mrs. fannie f. hodge. 
* * * 
Returns from Subscribers’ Exchange. 
T HOSE four advertisements from farm 
women which were printed free last 
month all attracted attention and brought 
results. They have led to many sales 
already, and there will be many more. 
Here is a sample report from one of 
them: 
From the little ad you inserted in Sub¬ 
scribers’ Exchange, we have already 
taken orders for 10 dozen cans of Golden 
Bantam sweet corn at $1.75 per dozen, 
F. O. B. We received eight orders for 
sample cans. Will keep record and let 
you know just how many cans we sell 
from the advertisement. 
HRS. W. A. SMITH. 
We firmly believe that our readers are 
prepared to handle either end of any good 
bargain. Any useful article can be 
bought or sold if you can find the persons 
among our great family who need to buy 
or sell. This often requires time and 
patience, but so does anything that is 
worth while. Advertising is like seed 
sowing. It requires long and patient care 
to get full results. 
* * * 
The Most Important Thing. 
W HAT do I think the farm women of 
my neighborhood need most? 
There are two things I would mention 
first, and I hardly know which I con¬ 
sider the more important. I think I will 
place first the matter of money. On many 
farms there is very little to use for any¬ 
thing except the necessities of life, and 
the man of the family usually has the 
spending of it. Now, there is no woman, 
whether she lives on the farm or in the 
city, who does not like to have some 
money to spend as she likes, without any 
questions asked. I am not speaking of 
any given amount, that is a small matter, 
but if she were allowed only $1 a month 
to do entirely as she liked with she would 
July 25, 
get more pleasure in spending it than 
with five dollars that she had to hefj for 
or even ask for. If she had a chance to 
earn something in what little spare time 
there is on the farm, I believe it would 
give many a woman a new interest in 
life. If there is nothing for her to do to 
earn it, I believe every man ought to enter 
married life with the idea that his wife is 
his partner as well as his helpmate and 
that she should be given some share of 
the money that comes in for her own 
benefit, to use as she sees fit. Many 
times the woman has the better business 
head, and the money given her would 
go much further than in her husband’s 
hands. She might spend it for the same 
things as he would, but she should have 
the privilege of saying how it should be 
spent. MRS. s. c. DAMON. 
Your Home to Yourself. 
S INCE we sisters were babies and 
mother was ill we have never had a 
maid staying in the house. There has 
been a procession of women and girls 
coming in by the day or hour to do the 
harder work, and some of the girls we 
have trained have been among our warm¬ 
est friends. During the past week we 
have had an elderly woman here for a 
week on trial. She is honest, neat and 
willing, but preternaturally slow, and 
likes to talk of her defunct relatives. 
Finding this annoyed me, she has made a 
brave attempt to stop, but has evidently 
lost her only pleasure in life. Father and 
I are agreed that we prefer having our 
house to ourselves. I have heard a good 
many say the same thing* but never had 
it come home to me so strongly before. 
At present the house doesn’t seem really 
like ours. It is strange that an alien 
presence should so disturb the home at¬ 
mosphere. I shall be so glad to go back 
to my cheerful young helper, who comes 
in on the rush, chatters about her girlish 
happenings and brings any bits of local 
news, does her work and sits with me a 
while if we both happen to feel like it. 
We hereby join the procession of people 
who prefer to get along anyhow if they 
can keep their homes to themselves. Be¬ 
side the annoyance of a stranger’s pres¬ 
ence, there is the expense of food, more 
expense for fuel and more waste and the 
wages to consider. We have learned a 
lot from our week’s experience. 
THE LAME HOUSEKEEPER. 
The Miserable Cockroach. 
O NE of the meanest house insects is 
the cockroach. It is mean because 
it multiplies so rapidly, and can run 
about so actively. It is impossible to 
keep food of any kind from being de¬ 
voured, unless closely covered. These 
insects not only eat leather and parch¬ 
ment, but linen and paper. They are 
night workers, and even bite people in 
their beds, especially children whose 
fingers are left greasy. During the Win¬ 
ter they lie torpid, but in Spring they 
rush out to their mischief. The Agricul¬ 
tural Department advises the use of 
traps. You mix one part of plaster of 
paris with three or four parts of flour. 
Put this dry mixture in a saucer on a 
flat piece of wood, where these roaches 
are numerous. Nearby put another flat 
plate containing pure -water. Make it 
easy for the roaches to get to the water 
by putting small pieces of wood or card¬ 
board where they can crawl to the edge 
of the plate, and float one or two differ¬ 
ent pieces of wood on the water, so they 
will touch the edge. The insects eat the 
plaster mixture to get the flour. They 
then become thirsty and drink. The 
water makes the plaster of paris set in¬ 
side of them and kills the roach. An¬ 
other trap has for its bait stale beer, 
of which it is said these roaches are very 
found. This stuff is put into a deep dish 
or jar. Flat pieces of rough wood are 
placed on an incline against the vessel, 
and bent over into it. The roaches climb 
up these sticks to get the beer, and slip 
off down into it. There are various 
other traps, made on the principle of 
inducing the roaches to get after some 
form of bait and fall down into a box 
so that they cannot get out. A liberal 
use of insect powder will destroy many 
of these insects, but not all. It is not 
a perfect insecticide, but the traps 
spoken of above are said to be far more 
effective. 
