RURAL NEW-YORKER 
583 
WOMAN AND HOME 
The Blood in the Apple 
[Here is a poem from “Rhymes In 
Our Valley” by Anthony Enuer, which 
will interest every man who has strug¬ 
gled to develop an apple orchard. 
Though this deals with the Pacific Coast 
fruit every fruit grower—out to the tip 
of Cape Cod—will appreciate it.] 
You city folk who night and day 
Loiter and stare along Broadway, 
And, pausing by some fruiterer's shop, 
You city folk—do you ever stop 
To count the cost of those radiant wares, 
Spitzenburgs luscious and Anjou pears, 
Winter Banana and Gravenstein, 
Crimson and gold in their sun-washed 
sheen 
Winds of the west their cheeks have 
fanned 
Down endless tracts of orchard land. 
Each nectar drop in that golden feast 
Was a drop of sweat from man and 
beast. 
The crimson there of deep, rich hue 
Had its component in years of blue— 
The blue, 'blue awful first long years 
Of falt'ring hopes and cank’ring fears. 
Of wond’ring how in the name of God 
Y’ou're going to hold your piece of sod. 
And go without the things you need. 
And pay your help, and buy your feed. 
While it all goes out and there's nothing 
comes in. 
And your credit's called when you're 
minus tin. 
You city folk, that fruit you see 
It wasn’t by chance, you take it from 
me! 
Do you know what it is to clear your 
copse 
And fell your ti’ees with a gang of wops. 
And shoot your stumps, and shatter 
rocks 
With dynamite at five a box, 
And yank your roots, and fill your 
h(des, 
And drive the dr.ag to level the rolls 
While the dust and grime go filt’ring in 
Each leaky pore in your swelt’ring skin. 
And the fir-bark splinters calmly glide 
Through the holes in your mitts to your 
hands inside? 
Do you know wliat it is, you city folk. 
To be consecrate to the ranchman’s yoke? 
To wake with your hands all cramped 
and sore 
From the clutch on your ax the day be¬ 
fore. 
Then crawl into the icy night 
Two hours before you glimpse the light. 
And make your way by a lantern’s glow 
Gut through the chill and driving snow 
To tend and feed the beasts that live 
By grace of %vhat you choose to give. 
Till dawn unfolds familiar lines 
Of outhouse roofs and snow-clad pines. 
And when the last chore’s done you say 
You’re ready now to start the day. 
Do you know what the trees have 
weathered through 
That bore that golden fruit for you? 
Blight and mold, the dozen plagues 
That fly with wings and crawl with legs. 
Aldus, weevils—marshaled in hosts 
Along each bough till they give up their 
ghosts 
In a sulfur-lime death-dealing drench 
Or a Black-leaf Forty’s choking stench. 
Do you know the feel to find a tree 
That's reached a three-years’ growth, 
and see 
Its leaves all limp, its roots out clean—■ 
'Twas gophered there in the ground un¬ 
seen. 
You can pull it out—no need to jerk 
When the gophers quit their ghoulish 
work. 
At all their holes your traps are set 
And some you miss and some you get, 
But you might as well fish up the sea 
As trap a gopher colony. 
For their dead have fathers, sisters, 
brothers. 
Uncles, aunt.s, and hungry mothers. 
.\nd every one of the cave-born brutes 
Is horribly fond of apple-root.s. 
When they’ve gophered your tree, it’s 
gone, that's all. 
You just forget it and plant next Fall. 
Eight-inch dust and five-foot snow. 
You get them both where the apples 
grow. 
Toppling hopes and cank’ring fears 
To boost you along for seven years. 
Blight, and plague, and withering frost— 
.lust reckon these when you count the 
cost 
Of that wonderful fruit you saw to-day 
As you stopped by the window along 
Broadway. 
The “teacherage” in a school district 
corresponds to the parsonage in a church 
pari.sh. It is a building for the teachers. 
Instead of having the teacher "board 
around.” or find some boarding-house, a 
neat cottage is built where the teachers 
may live and have a home of their own. 
This has been done in many districts, or ia 
the country, and in most cases seems to 
work well. The “teacherage” becomes a 
social and educational center, and the 
teacher can certainly do better work. If 
any of our readers know of a “teacher- 
age"’ near them will they tell us about it? 
A WOMAX in New Y'ork City has ob¬ 
tained a verdict of .^llO.OOO against a 
saloon-keeper for selling liquor to her 
husband after a written protest. This 
husband had a profitable busine.ss. but 
he started drinking and his business be¬ 
gan going down his throat with the 
liquor. The woman notified the saloon¬ 
keeper not to sell to her husband, but 
he ignored the request. The business was 
ruined along Avith the man, and the 
woman was forced to provide for her 
children. The court held that the failure 
of the saloonkeeper to oliey the woman's 
Instructions made him liable! 
We knew a man wlio once did work 
on a great national magazine . lie came 
and looked over some of our letters and 
s.aid at once: “There is more human 
nature in one tccek's mail of The Rural 
just as it is coming into bearing. When 
I think of the returns I should have from 
it. greater each year, and the fact that 
in 10 or 15 years it should be worth a 
Wg sum, to leave to my children. I find 
it. hard, indeed, to decide to sell it. But 
neither of my children has any good 
health here, this damj) climate was too 
much for my wife, and I care more for 
my little girls’ health and our all living 
together for years yet than I do for the. 
money I could make out of my orchard.” 
It is a heavy load to carry and a hard 
question to decide, yet it is only one of 
many burdens which our people are 
carrying silently and br.avely. 
Thi.s past Winter has shattered the 
idea which prevailed in many families 
that sickness would not or could not en¬ 
ter the home. There are many who write 
even more confidently than the follow¬ 
ing : 
We have not had occasion to have a 
doctor in the house for fovir or five 
y('ar.s, except for a broken arm. I do not 
know whether this is just good luck, or 
using a little precaution occasionally. 
to be known as citizen soldiers last Fall 
in the great milk war. Without their 
aid the dairymen could not have won 
their battle. The.se Avomen did the Avork 
at home, Avhile their men were on picket 
duty, and they also put spirit and 
courage into many a faltering brother. 
They proved their willingness to take 
responsibilities and face combat and 
trial. Thus they gaA'o evidence of Avhat 
they can and would do as A’oters. It Avill 
be surprising if the dairy counties do 
not recognize such service. 
“Suppose the men Avere forced to do 
housework— hoAV would they manage 
it?” 
“They Avould invent new Avays of do¬ 
ing Avork. That’s one thing about wom¬ 
en. They go on doing in the same old 
way, Avhile men invent machinery for 
them !” 
There you have a recent conv(*rsation 
1.etween husband and Avife. Is the hus¬ 
band’s idea correct? Charlotte A. Baker 
adds this testimony: 
“One man defines efficiency as orderli¬ 
ness ; another as the shortest cut to a 
given I'esult with the least fatigue. My 
friend. Mr. New Ilomsekeeper. thinks it 
is both, and luis demonstrated this by 
putting his coal hod on casters. 
With a castered hod. you may avoid 
the-fatigue of lifting when you sweep, 
since a gentle push Avith the broom will 
remove it from your path. Then, too, 
you do not haA'e to carry it across the 
kitchen, for a shove Avith the foot is 
enough to send it merrily on its Avav. 
This iieAV example of kitchen efficiency 
can be made by screwing a board on to 
the bottom of the hod and attaching to 
it uniA'ersal or ball-bearing casters. If 
you are a neAV housekeeper, try it, and 
see what a source of pleasure this speci¬ 
men of your housekeeping skill Avill be. 
* 
Easter 
Neav-Yorki;i{ than i)i a year on the yreat 
magazines 
We think he is right, for our people 
come to us Avith their life problems 
knowing that Ave Avill help them if Ave 
can. There has been much said about 
the problem of the solitary Avoman in 
the country. Her life is hard, but no 
more so than that of the man left alone 
Avith little children, a farm to look after, 
.and no help in the house. We have in 
mind a dozen such cases Avhere the Avife 
has died and left small children. In one 
case the man has Avorked overtime to try 
to develop a good orchard. !Many of ns 
knoAV Avhat that means, and hoAv Ave feel 
about the trees, Avhen after years of 
struggle they hurst into bloom and car¬ 
ry a load of fruit. This man's Avife has 
died and left him Avith several little girls 
to care for, and here is his problem: 
“I certainly dislike to sell my orchard 
Lilies 
though I have never had much time for 
the felloAV Avho trusts to luck. 
Many families go on year after year 
Avith no sickness, until they begin to 
think they bear a charmed life. Thus 
they become over-confident, and some day 
neglect to call the doctor until too late. 
Then some serious sickness enters the 
home and goes through it like a scourge. 
We have little use or sympathy for those 
Avho are ahvays “doctoring,” or taking 
medicine, but those Avho take long 
chances on their health and pride them¬ 
selves on starving the doctor out are but 
little better. 
This Fall, when the question of 
“votes for Avomen” comes up once more 
in Ncav Y'ork. the ballot boxes in the 
dairy counties, at least, should be well 
filled Avith affirmative votes. The dairy 
Avomen of this State proved their right 
Whk.v the bill to .submit the question 
of Avomau suffrage to a popular vnte 
came up in the NeAV Y'ork Senate, the 
chief opponent Avas Senator E. R. 
BroAvn. lie said: 
“Among the qualities of the ideal man 
is the reserve force to save and prot.ct 
Avomen and children from the aggres¬ 
sor. to do this in the ordinary walks of 
life, but even more to giA-e life, if need 
be. for the preservation of the nation.” 
A fine sentiment. If all men Avere 
ideal that AA'ould be enough. But c.an 
Senator BroAvn go an.vAvhere on the face 
of the earth (even, perhaps, in front of 
a mirror) and find one single ideal nnin? 
"We have had at least 500 letters from 
Av'omen aa'Iio have been defrauded of 
their money by husbands and male rel¬ 
atives Avho should Inn-e acted as protect¬ 
ors and failed to do so. We have had 
500 more from other Avumen avIio have 
had home rights and a fair chance for 
their children taken from them. There 
may be sound arguments ag.ainst giA’ing 
the ballot to some Avomen, though the 
same arguments Avould take it aAvay 
from some men, but let us have argu¬ 
ment—not guff. 
4 = 
The Stranger on the Road 
I have read Avith interest the letters 
from Mr. DuckAvall and Mr. I’arsons re¬ 
garding stopping to pick up strangers, 
Avhen driving a car, but there is one point 
of some importance that neither of them 
mentions, and that is the liability in¬ 
curred in case of accident. L'nder the 
NeAV Y'ork State hnv at least (I do not 
knoAA’ hoAA’ it is el.soAA’here) the driver of 
a car may be held liable in the event of 
an accident although carrying his pas¬ 
sengers simply as a favor and Avithout 
compensation. A case came recently to 
my attention Avhere the OAvner of a car 
was compelled to pay heavy damages to 
a guest as a result of injuries sustained 
in an accident, it being proved that the 
chauffeur of the car had been drinking, 
although Avithout any kuoAvledge on the 
part of the OAvner, and a friend of the 
Avriter’s Avas recently held for damages 
by a doctor Avho had. in an emergency, 
asked for a lift in making a hurry call, 
as a result of a collision on the Avay to 
make the call. Those ex])eriences of 
friends have made the Avriter hesitate 
about picking up strangers—the more so 
as one’s offers quite as often meet Avith 
abuse as Avith appreciation. I recall one 
occasion Avhen I offered a lift to a middle- 
aged Avoman plodding along a muddy road 
carrying a heavy bag. Avho apparently 
labored under the impression that I Avas 
a professional kidnapper—and this in 
spite of the fact that Ave were on a main 
thoroughfare and in broad daylight. 
G. M. T. 
