756 
T H K R U RA.L NEW-YORKER 
just as they please their whole outlook 
of life brightens and the entire family 
will feel the effect of it. 
The '‘Woman and Home Department” 
is very interesting and instructive to me. 
I taught 10 years in rural schools, so 
both school and farm-house matters ap¬ 
peal to me, though there are no “little 
folks” in our family. There is so much 
literature nowadays about sanitation, hy¬ 
giene, etc., we ought to get educated 
along those lines, but do you not think 
it is a hard matter to get the men to 
think it is a matter of importance to 
health, that drains, etc., should be in 
proper condition (also cellars) ? I do. 
What is the experience of others along 
this line? I ain interested especially in 
the Summer boarder question, as that is 
the only way, at present, that I get any 
cash all my own, and I use so much of 
what I get in that way, for necessary fit¬ 
tings for the house, that I have very 
little left for my own personal use. I 
believe in proper care of the teeth (for 
instance) ; my husband does not, thinks 
it a foolish waste of money, so it is de¬ 
cidedly unpleasant to ask for money to 
use for that purpose, especially, though 
I do not enjoy it at any time. 
« 
Prof. O’Shea of the Wisconsin Uni¬ 
versity says a large proportion of school 
children are classed as “dull” because 
their hearing is defective: 
This may be due to accumulations in 
the external ear, or it may be due to con¬ 
gestion in the nostrils. It is practically 
certain that any child whose head Is 
“stuffed up” cannot hear with distinct- 
anges to her brother, who is ill in Gouv- 
erneur Hospital. When she was accost¬ 
ed, however, she postponed her visit and 
went for Greenfield, blackening both eyes. 
The victim fled, with the girl at his heels. 
After a chase through the park Green¬ 
field ran into the arms of Policeman 
Ruddy. 
It shows that Miss Rothstein has now 
overcome at least one argument against 
her rights to vote. 
* 
We lost our three babies, so adopted a 
lovely boy of 10 months from a home. 
He is now 12 years old, and we are proud 
of him. Of course being a small coun¬ 
try town where every one knows your 
business, gossips will tell things they 
don’t know. We have never told a soul 
about the child’s parentage, but one per¬ 
son in particular didn’t like the idea of 
us taking him, so calls the child a mean 
name. Would you think it necessary to 
inform the child as to his parentage? 
Some person told him we were not his 
own parents almost before he could walk, 
but of course that, hasn’t made any differ¬ 
ence on either side. 
A TROUBLED PARENT. 
We should tell the child gently and 
kindly what you know about his parents 
and the reason why you have taken him. 
We think it is his right to know about 
such things and it will be far better in 
the end to tell him yourself, and not let 
him learn it from others. Personally we 
question the wisdom of adopting children 
legally. We would prefer in most cases 
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111 m 1111 m 111 rm m 11 m ii 11 r i iiiiiiiitiiiMnnnii mi i 
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Fresh Meat for Summer Boarders 
We have the following note from a farmer’s wife who 
lives in New England: 
I wish to ask for letters from farmers’ wives, who take 
from two to 12 boarders in Summer, which is about the 
limit of capacity in this locality. The fresh meat ques¬ 
tion is about the hardest to solve here. The family hav¬ 
ing 12 hoarders sometimes kill, for their own use, a calf 
and a lamb, alternate weeks, through July and August. 
We are so far from the coast that fresh fish, in proper 
condition, is about an impossibility. 
YOU CAN HELP IN THIS! 
We want short, practical notes on this subject to be 
printed in our June issue. Tell us your experience in pro¬ 
viding fresh meat. How do you manage it? Can you 
keep it on ice? Ever make use of home-canned meat? 
DO NOT SEND LONG ARTICLES 
Give us your experience in fattening Summer boarders 
—the most important points you have found. 
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II1 Ml! 11111111! M 
WOMAN AND HOME 
How Sleep the Brave. 
How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
Ily all their country’s wishes blest, 
When Spring with dewy fingers cold 
Returns to deck their hallowed mould, 
She there shall find a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod. 
By fairy hands their knell is rung. 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung, 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay 
And Freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell, a weeping hermit there. 
—William Collins. 
* 
The muffled drums sad roll has beat, 
The soldiers last tattoo. 
No more on life’s parade shall meet 
The brave and fallen few; 
On Fame’s eternal camping ground 
Their silent tents are spread. 
And glory guards with solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead. 
—Theodore O’Hara. 
* 
On this green bank, by this soft stream 
We set today a votive stone 
That memory may their deed redeem 
When, like our sires, our sons are gone. 
Spirit, that made these heroes dare 
To die, and leave their children free, 
Bid Time and Nature gently spare 
The shaft we raise to them and thee. 
—Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
■ 
Some day the soft ideal that we wooed 
Confronts us fiercely—foe beset, pursued 
And cries reproachfully “Was it then my 
praise 
And not myself you loved? Prove now 
thy truth. 
1 claim of thee the promise of thy youth, 
Give me thy life or cover in empty 
phrase 
The victim of thy genius, not its mate!” 
Life may be given in many ways 
And loyalty to Truth be sealed 
As bravely in the closet as the field 
So beautiful is Fate. 
But then to stand beside her 
When craven churls deride her, 
To front a lie in arms and not to yield, 
This shows, methinks, God's plan 
And measure of a stalwart man, 
Limbed like the old heroic breeds 
who stands self-poised on manhood’s 
solid earth, 
Not forced to frame excuses for his 
birth. 
Fed from within with all the strength 
he needs. 
—James Russell Lowell. 
“To Pleasant Dreams.” 
The following note is taken from a per¬ 
sonal letter written by Miss Ruth Van 
Deman, daughter of the late Prof. Henry 
E. Van Deman: 
“If you could have seen father in this 
illness you would have known him to be 
a brave man indeed, for though he suf¬ 
fered, lie never complained, and though 
he grew weaker and weaker his spirit 
was undaunted. His philosophy about 
death seemed to be summed up in the 
last stanza of Bryant’s ‘Thanatopsis.’ 
He repeated it several times during the 
last few weeks to friends who were visit¬ 
ing him and to me. In memory of this 
we had it read at the services. 
“He ‘slipped away,’ as he had several 
times expressed it, just at the close of 
Wednesday, and just as his robin was 
singing to him. I say his robin because 
there is one that is nesting near his win¬ 
dow and that has sung to him all during 
the Spring. One of his last conscious 
thoughts was of the beauty of the robin's 
song. It seemed very fitting because the 
song of birds had been a joy to him al¬ 
ways.” 
“So live, that when thy summons comes 
to join 
The innumerable caravan, which moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each 
shall take 
Ills chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at 
night, . 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained 
and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy 
grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his 
couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant 
dreams.” 
T HE following letter expresses the 
feelings of many a farmer’s wife re¬ 
garding the money question. It is very 
true that in the majority of cases many 
of the fixtures and conveniences that 
women desire must be bought with 
money which mother and the girls earn 
at some business of their own. That 
is the reason we have so much to say 
about the business possibilities of farm 
women. Where mother and the girls can 
have a little money of their own to spend 
ness, and it would be a safe bet that f)t> 
out of a 100 such children will be more 
or less dull, unresponsive, and stupid. 
Such children will be handicapped in this 
<■<• 10 petition with other children who are 
normal in this respect. 
Before any child is classed as hope¬ 
lessly dull his ears should be examined 
and the hearing carefully tested. It is 
better to have this test made by a com¬ 
petent doctor. 
But a test can easily be made in the 
home or in the school by putting the 
child in a quiet room, blindfolding him, 
and noting at what distance he can hear 
the ticking of a watch, first with one 
ear and then with the other. The posi¬ 
tion of the watch must be varied without 
the experimenter walking back and forth 
so that the child can hear him,' or else 
the latter will be influenced by sugges¬ 
tion. 
* 
S OME women evidently do not take kind¬ 
ly to the argument that they cannot 
protect themselves and thus should not 
be permitted to vote. Recently in New 
York a policeman brought into the sta¬ 
tion a large man wearing a pair of very 
badly blackened eyes and an injured face. 
It developed that this man was known 
in New York City as a “masher.” He 
met a young woman named Rothstein, 
and perhaps inspired by the fact that the 
law made him a voter, he accosted her in 
what she considered an insulting way. 
The newspaper report of the action 
which followed is here given. 
Miss Rothstein, who is a dressmaker’s 
model, had been taking the bag of or¬ 
to assume guardianship, and not give 
the child full legal rights. Having done 
so you should make a will fully protect¬ 
ing your wife and other relatives if you 
wish them to share in your property. 
* 
There has been a falling off in immi¬ 
grants of late, but a single family from 
Holland arrived the other day to help 
bring up the average. Peterus Schoonen 
from Holland came with his wife and 15 
children. These children ranged from the 
baby seven months old up to the young 
man of 18 years, and they all look strong 
and healthy, ready to become good citi¬ 
zens. Mr. Schoonen has been a farmer 
in Holland, but he thinks there are bet¬ 
ter opportunities for him in Minnesota, 
so as he saved up some money, in spite 
of his large family, he has bought a farm 
in the West and will go there to grow 
up with the country. His big family will 
certainly have more room out on the 
prairies than they could have had in 
Holland, and we shall not be surprised 
if at the next apportionment, Minnesota 
is given a new Congressman. 
$ 
This will be a good “Summer board¬ 
er” year. Travel abroad has been shut 
off, and economies forced by the war will 
compel many people who have patronized 
fashionable resorts in former years to 
seek quieter entertainment this Summer. 
All this will help the farm boarding 
house of good reputation. Get ready for 
the business now by starting a good gar¬ 
May 20, 1015.' 
den. You can get nearly half your sup¬ 
plies out of a vegetable and fruit gar¬ 
den. Be prepared to give your guests all 
they want. Just think of the prize you 
would have in four or five dozen big 
cans of fresh beef and pork right now. 
Very likely your folks sold a beef or a 
hog for less than it was worth because 
the butcher would not pay more. That 
fresh meat might well have gone into 
cans to feed the boarders this Summer. 
* 
A CORRESPONDENT of a daily pa¬ 
per tells the following story of that 
dangerous nuisance—the small boy’s gun : 
Last Christmas a gun was given to a 
small boy in this town. Later in the 
day the boy and the gun went to the 
woods with a company of cadets. Dur¬ 
ing a lunch by a campfire a clergyman’s 
small boy was handling the gun, and an¬ 
other boy reached for a baked potato just 
in time to get his head in range with a 
bullet the clergyman’s son “accidentally” 
let go out of the gun. The bullet did its 
part all right. 
During the past year there have come 
to our personal notice at least a dozen 
cases of death or accident from those toy 
guns, in childish hands. We regard the 
child’s firearms as a nuisance, and would 
not permit our children to handle pistols 
or guns, or to own them. 
* 
N EW JERSEY leads off in the suf¬ 
frage campaign this year, as her 
election occurs before New York and 
Pennsylvania and other States vote on 
the subject. It is generally thought that 
the political leaders in New Jersey are 
opposed to giving votes to women, but 
the following significant statement is 
made: 
No doubt both political parties would 
be pleased if something should happen 
to stave off the election or defeat the 
amendment, though neither is willing to 
assume the responsibility for beating it. 
If either party were certain that it would 
get a decided majority of the women's 
votes—if they do vote—there would be a 
different story. 
There is probably no doubt about that 
and it is good evidence that the women 
would not vote just as their brothers or 
their husbands would, but would have in¬ 
dependence in voting. If politicians felt 
that the woman’s vote could be counted 
as surely as the man’s vote, they would 
be all in favor of it, but knowing that 
they cannot control the woman’s vote, 
they hesitate to try the experiment. 
* 
Women in School Politics. 
Give the New York woman a live is¬ 
sue to be decided by the election of a 
school director and they will turn out, 
vote and see that you and the hired man 
vote, also. Our rural school board con¬ 
sists of three directors, one of whom is 
elected each year. At our school elec¬ 
tion last month of the 00 votes cast 38 
were voted by the farm women. There 
was a live and burning issue however. 
Should the country school house, the only 
public building in the district, continue 
to be a community center? This question 
had never been raised prior to August, 
1014, as since its erection in 1803 the 
farmers have had the free use of the 
building and its equipment for religious, 
educational, agricultural, economic, poli¬ 
tical and Farmers’ Union meetings. In 
August, 1014, the majority of the Board 
decided it was time to run things differ¬ 
ently, and in spite of the objection of the 
minority member (a woman) the elec¬ 
tric lights were cut out and since then 
the farmers have provided fuel and lamps 
for the meetings. The district had bad 
electric lights for four years, aud the 
lights were paid for by the year at a low 
fiat rate. Think of the humiliation of 
having the State Educators and the Rail¬ 
road Demonstration lecturers, address a 
progressive community in a building 
lighted by kerosene lamps while electric 
light fixtures hung idle. The minority 
member held over and the farm women 
voted and, also, helped to get the vote 
out. The babies were not neglected, kind- 
hearted neighbors stepped in and took 
charge while mother went to the school- 
house to vote. The irrigation farmers, 
the men who pay the taxes, won by a 
vote of nearly two to one, which shows 
that while the wheels of progress may be 
obstructed, they will continue to revolve. 
Women will vote whenever there’s a 
vital question to be decided. 
New Mexico. mabel wilson. 
