1370 
THE) RURAL NEW-VORKER 
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|| Woman and Home || 
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The Deaf Mute. 
Written by Fitz Hugh Ludlow after visit¬ 
ing the N. Y. Institution for the Deaf 
and Dumb. 
Scarcely can God’s strange restriction 
On the lip and on the ear. 
By my mind be deemed affliction— 
To the sad world coming here. 
Where I dwell,—there clamors mortal. 
Anger, scorn, detraction, woe. 
Thro, the ear’s unguarded portal 
Throng; in ceaseless overflow. 
Here,—God sets His unseen angels 
At the gate where earth comes through; 
Naught but Heaven’s most sweet evangels 
Those pure guards let in to you. 
Where I dwell,—our thoughts unruly 
Have no time to pause and sleep 
Till their step beats time more truly 
With the march that Love doth keep. 
Here—the flying thought, unspoken, 
In review floats past the heart. 
Where its sting is gently broken 
Ere its rapid wing depart. 
God hath blessed you in your losses 
Silent daughters of His care, 
Lifting many bitter crosses 
From your shoulders—which we bear. 
Tho, no songs your ears are thrilling 
Such as move us to delight. 
Thoughts unstained by earth are filling 
Your soul’s chambers day and night. 
And to think, to think what glory 
Waits you in those wondrous peals, 
From the' harps of prophets hoary 
When God's hand your sense unseals! 
The great singers gone before us 
Wait to flood your virgin ear 
With their unimagined chorus— 
As the fix'st sound you shall hear. 
The same angel guards that cover 
From the world your unjarred sense 
Are God’s harpers, and they hover. 
Waiting with your recompense. 
* 
The Corn Song. 
Heap high the farmer’s wintry hoard ! 
Heap high the golden corn ! 
No richer gift has Autumn poured 
From out her lavish horn ! 
Let other lands, exulting, glean 
The apple from the pine, 
The orange from its glossy green, 
The cluster from the vine; 
We better love the hardy gift 
Our rugged vales bestow, 
To cheer us when the storm shall drift 
Our harvest-fields with snow. 
Through vales of grass and meads of 
flowers, 
Our plows their furrows made, 
WTiile on the hills the sun and showers 
Of changeful April played. 
We dropped the seed o’er hill and plain, 
Beneath the sun of May, 
And frightened from our sprouting grain 
The robber crows away. 
All through the lone, bright days of June 
Its leaves grew green and fair, 
And waved in hot mid-Summer’s noon 
Its soft and yellow hair. 
And now, with Autumn’s moonlit eves, 
Its harvest-time has come, 
We pluck away the frosted leaves, 
And bear the treasure home. 
There, richer than the fabled gift 
Apollo showered of old, 
Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, 
And knead its meal of gold. 
Let vapid idlers loll in silk 
Around their costly board; 
Give us the bowl of samp and milk, 
By homespun beauty poured! 
Where’er the wide old kitchen hearth 
Sends up its smoky curls, 
Who will not thank the kindly earth, 
And bless our farmer girls! 
in creating a strong national spirit. 
Music in the home and in the community 
or public school has a wonderfully help¬ 
ful power. It interests young people and 
brings neighborhoods together for the best 
purpose. Few things could be finer for 
the Winter than good neighborhood sing¬ 
ing clubs or orchestras. In every com¬ 
munity there are natural musicians and 
good organizers who can get .he singers 
together for practice and training. The 
Wisconsin University realizes the power 
for good in such work, and is trying to 
organize it. 
I F there is one young person who should 
feel that he has “much to be thankful 
for” it is the boy or young man who has 
conquered the cigarette habit. Next to 
him should be that boy’s mother or sister. 
The curse of the cigarette is a real thing, 
and its shadow lies upon many a farm 
home, where mother and the girls have 
denied themselves in order that John or 
James might have an education. The 
cigarette is putting John and James into 
a condition of brain and body which will 
make his education worse than a wasted 
thing. We would like to have John and 
James and the rest of the cigarette slaves 
read this letter from Thomas A. Edison 
to Henry Ford: 
JWe wtjunow* cu^e/vdivi C«yvUtw> 
■ft C -3*As -sTa»vtc 
WO Qcro&uC. 
SI' Vu*» a cvi trtvi wer vt— 
Ca 
Vjravoy w«C\vcV\ v» 
cvmona tout. 
* % * 
VXvvSiVu dK^«TK~<Sl\OM 
v> \jen-m<v*\«-»Jrowtvd wv\ 
*5 Via \pCvaovi 
S O far as it is possible to learn from 
reliable sources manufacturing and 
trade in Germany goes on much as usual 
during the war. The factories and farms 
are in full operation. War prisoners are 
doing some of the work, but most of the 
burden has fallen upon the German wom¬ 
en. They are literally doing man’s work 
at home and in the factories. Practical¬ 
ly all the “observers” who were sent 
abroad by this country to study European 
farm conditions, noted that much of the 
heavy farm work was done by women 
and girls. Should the war continue for 
two more years this woman’s labor will 
become a habit, and it will have an effect 
upon the world’s industry. 
* 
T HE American Medical Association, in 
discussing preventive blindness, says: 
There are about 800,000 blind people 
in the United States. It costs about 
$15,000,000 a year to support them. 
Probably 75 per cent, of this blindness is 
due to two causes, namely, sore eyes at 
birth and neglected eyes during early 
school life. The first cause can be re¬ 
moved in the simplest manner. All that 
is necessary is for the doctor or midwife 
to drop into the eyes of the newly born 
babe a few drops of a two per cent, solu¬ 
tion of nitrate of silver. This will kill 
the germs that produce the disease which 
almost fills so many blind asylums. 
Then shame on all the pwad and vain, 
Whose folly laughs to scorn 
The blessings of our hardy grain, 
Our wealth of golden corn ! 
But let the good old crop adorn 
The hills our fathers trod; 
Still let us, for his golden corn, 
Send up our thanks to God ! 
—Whittier. 
'i* 
T HE University of Wisconsin at Mad¬ 
ison is endeavoring to interest the 
people of that State in community music. 
A little bulletin, issued by the Extension 
Division, and costing 10 cents, gives gen¬ 
eral information about the plan. Good 
music is a force in civic life. One great 
source of strength in the wonderful na¬ 
tional feeling in Germany is the singing 
of folk songs. The singing clubs of Den¬ 
mark helped almost beyond calculation 
No one should attempt this except an 
experienced physician or a trained nurse. 
Few things are more dangerous than 
poking substance into the eyes and ears 
without understanding just what they 
are expected to do. 
* 
A DISPATCH from New Jersey tells 
of a fight between a canary bird and 
a mouse, in which the former came off 
victor. The story is that the mouse 
crawled into the bird’s cage as it stood 
on the table. The mouse was evidently 
hungry and began to eat up the seeds 
in the canary bird’s dish. The little 
bird became angry and attacked the 
mouse, striking it over the head, and in 
a few seconds had blinded it so that it 
gave up the fight. After whipping the 
mouse, the bird flew on its perch and 
gave a concert of some of its sweetest 
songs. On general principles it is hard 
to think of a canary bird, the dear lit¬ 
tle family pet, in a fight. No one would 
expect a canary to attack a cat, but 
given something of its size, and a motive 
for combating, and it will evidently give 
a good account of itself. 
* 
W E think there will be a fair business 
developed for the future in selling 
farm canned meat. We have had several 
articles about this. In many country 
districts canning the fresh meat is taking 
the place of salting and smoking to a 
large extent. The canned beef, pork or 
chicken is greatly enjoyed and makes an 
agreeable change from salt pork and 
ham. In the future there will be a good 
demand for such meat among city cus¬ 
tomers. It. is one of the articles which 
can be easily sent by parcel post, and 
farmers can put such meat on the mar¬ 
ket at prices which will make it a good 
bargain. Restaurants and boarding 
houses will buy such meat for boiling 
pieces, hash or mince. Many a farm an¬ 
imal now practically given to the butcher 
can be put into cans and sold at a good 
profit. 
* 
T HE latest reported “cure” for insan¬ 
ity comes from the osteopaths. They 
claim that by manipulating certain 
muscles of the neck the brain is stimu¬ 
lated and put in order so as to help cer¬ 
tain forms of depression or mental 
trouble. The following is offered as con¬ 
clusive proof of this cure : 
Dr. Van Horn Gerdine told of one case 
of dementia prsecox, that of a woman 
nearly 80, who had been a mental dwarf 
since she was 14 years old. 
“She couldn’t get enough blood to her 
lungs and her brain stopped growing. She 
couldn’t talk and had suffered an entire 
loss of emotional life. Treatment was 
given in the region of the neck to restore 
the nutrition of the blood supply to the 
brain. Recently her mother visited her, 
and the patient was so improved that she 
recognized her mother and embraced her. 
She talks spontaneously now, and is 
showing that most human characteristic 
in women—paying attention to her clothes 
and running down the dress of other 
women.” 
* 
E VERYTHING goes by a "score” these 
days. Babies, cows, fruit and all the 
rest are judged by a “score card.” If this 
is properly made out and balanced such a 
“score” is probably as fair as any system 
of comparison. The latest score card we 
have seen is one for bread—arranged by 
the South Dakota Agricultural College. 
Here it is: 
It would be a good plan for house¬ 
keepers to score their bread each time 
after baking, and then attempt to bring 
up the standard where it is low. A good 
score card to use is the following: 
Flavor . 85 
Lightness . 15 
Grain and texture. 20 
Crust-color, depth texture. 10 
Crumb-color, moisture . 10 
Shape and size. 10 
Total. 100 
Tho idea of this private scoring is to 
see where the bread fails to be perfect 
and then learn what is most responsible 
for each quality. 
* 
T HE cause of “votes for women” was 
helped by the last election. The 
States of Nevada and Montana voted to 
give women the ballot, while Ohio, Mis¬ 
souri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and 
South Dakota voted against the proposi¬ 
tion. Generally speaking the liquor in¬ 
terests everywhere lined up against suf¬ 
frage. This may mean temporary suc¬ 
cess, but in the long run the cause will 
be helped if it becomes known that the 
liquor men oppose it. Unquestionably 
the feeling against the liquor trade is 
growing day by day into an undying poli¬ 
tical hatred which cannot be overcome. 
In California where women vote, politi¬ 
cal tickets were cut right and left. Not 
long since we printed the remarks of a 
Kansas woman on suffrage. Here is 
the other side: 
You have only asked different farm 
women most of whom lead a dull exist¬ 
ence of household work, if they wanted 
the vote; and naturally nearly all the 
answers have been “no.” because most 
of them feel that another straw in the 
way of work will break the proverbial 
camel’s back, and as long as “John” will 
do it let him ; not knowing that for her 
the mere fact of the outside interest to be 
discussed and looked into with perhaps 
November 21, 
the drive to town to vote would be bet¬ 
ter than a dose of medicine, even outside 
of the larger questions involved. 
* 
Our women readers write us very 
freely about their troubles, their hopes 
for their children and other things 
which enter their lives. We are glad 
they do this—glad to have them feel 
that we will respect their confidences 
and do our best to help. Now that 
Winter is coming many household ques¬ 
tions come up large and sharp and full 
of perplexity. One of the hardest things 
for the farm woman to settle is tlm 
money question. The average farmer 
probably does not quite understand 
how his wife and daughter feel about 
this. He provides for the living ex¬ 
penses and relieves the women of finan¬ 
cial responsibility. Yet it is hard for 
him to understand what it means for 
the women to have even a little money 
of their very own to spend just as 
they please. In most cases, such money 
would be invested to better advantage 
than he could ever spend it, and there 
would be a gain in happiness and spirit 
worth 10 times as much as the money 
itself. This is why we try to suggest 
plans for earning some little personal in¬ 
come which the wife may use as her own. 
It would indeed be a genuine cause for 
thanksgiving on many a farm if this 
matter of wife’s spending money could 
be settled. 
* 
G OV. Glynn of New York believes that 
the State should attend to the health 
of all school children—giving free ex¬ 
amination of eyes, ears, throat and teeth. 
There is no question about the wonderful 
value to the nation which would come 
from preventing disease. The American 
Medical Association says that thousands 
of eyes could be saved every year if eye 
diseases were detected and cared for in 
early life: 
Dr. Cronin has found that 80 per cent, 
of school children were two years behind 
their grades and that 90 per cent, of 
this is due to eye, ear, nose and throat 
diseases or defects. He examined 150 de¬ 
fectives in one school and found that 187 
of them had ear, nose and throat defects, 
and that thirteen of them had eye defects. 
These conditions were relieved and in 
six months 75 per cent, of the children 
were re-examined. They were all doing 
well and were rapidly advancing in 
school. Their character had also remark¬ 
ably changed for the better. 
We have no doubt of it whatever from 
our own experience. It is all well 
enough to say that parents will attend to 
their own children. They do not. We 
can point to dozens of intelligent people 
who have let their children get well start¬ 
ed to deafness, throat and eye troubles 
before they thought of having the little 
things examined. 
* 
I T is quite remarkable how men are try¬ 
ing to lay out the future for women. 
In the Atlantic Monthly W. L. George 
seriously discusses “Uniforms For Wom¬ 
en.” He shows, or attempts to show, that 
women spend too much on dressing, and 
that this leads to envy, waste and immor¬ 
ality. lie says the poorer girls and 
women try to imitate the well-to-do in 
fashions, and in order to give all women 
a fair chance to agree he suggests a 
“fashion” which shall decree this “uni¬ 
form” : 
1. For general outdoor wear the coat 
and skirt is the best, together with a 
blouse. Lace and insertion should be 
abandoned, and I feel that the skirt is too 
long for walking; this month it is cer¬ 
tainly too tight to enable a woman to get 
into an omnibus or railway carriage 
gracefully. Probable price, complete, $50. 
2. For Summer wear, a plain blouse 
and skirt, not the atrocious blouse ending 
at. the belt, but the beautiful tunic-blouse 
that falls over the hips. Both blouse and 
skirt would need to be made of a perma¬ 
nently fixed, plain, and unicolored mate¬ 
rial. Total cost, $25. 
8. If the skirt were shortened, leggings, 
gaiters, and stockings would have to be 
standardized; the shoe-buckle, being too 
costly, would disappear. 
4. A fixed type of hat. without featheia 
or aigrettes, made in straw and trimmed 
with flowers; produced in scores of thou¬ 
sands, it ought not to cost more than 
$2.50. 
5. A fixed type of evening gown, price, 
$24 or $82, without any lace or trim¬ 
mings, sequins, paillettes; without over¬ 
lays of flimsies of any kind; no voile, no 
pongee silk, no chiffon, no charmeuse or 
tulle, no crepe de chine, no muslin, but a 
stuff of good quality, hanging in straight 
folds. Jewelry to be banned. 
0. The afternoon dress should be com¬ 
pletely suppressed ; it responds to no need. 
7. The total annual cost would be about 
$150. 
