©ic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
707 
WOMAN AND HOME 
The New York Tvegislature declares 
that nine hours shall constitute a day's 
work for waitresses in city restaurants. 
What then shall be a legal “day” for 
farmers’ wives? They are on their feet 
early and late and outstep the average 
"waitress” by several miles a day. If 
the farmer's wife should be limited to a 
nine-hour day the world would surely 
starve to death. The farmer is asked to 
feed the world, but the farmer’s wife 
feeds the farmer! 
* 
Home of the better New York restaur¬ 
ants announce that to “save wastes” they 
serve more hash, “cutlets” and stews. 
They then iiroceed to charge more for 
these “mysteries'’ than ever before! 
Surely some of these dishes are myster¬ 
ies when i)ut together in a restaurant. 
Several waitresses who testified at Al¬ 
bany about the nine-hour day wa.rned the 
jjublic to beware particularly of “cut¬ 
lets.” 
* 
Question's still continue to come up 
about the disposition of personal prop¬ 
erty owned by wife in the case of her 
death. In such event if no will is left 
and there are no children or rei)resonta- 
tives of childroii of the wife, the hu.sband 
takes all the iK'i-.son'al property. In this 
respect the distribution of the property 
of a deceased wife is different from that 
of a deceased husband, but the general 
rule is that if the wife dies without di¬ 
rect heirs and without making a will 
the husband takes all the personal prop¬ 
erty. This is in New York State. 
* 
Most people have heard the funny story 
or joke about the wife who g('ts uj) in 
the night and takes money from her hu.s- 
hand’s clothes. It passes as a joke at 
wliich one is supposed to laugh. It ap¬ 
pears, however, that this is no joke in 
many hou.seholds. A case of this sort 
came up in court in New York ('ity re¬ 
cently. A man caiming .$1.5 a week re¬ 
fused to give his w'ifo money enough to 
pay the household bills and provide for 
her.self decently. As she was unable to 
get it in any other way, she waited un¬ 
til he w'ent to sleep and then went 
through his i)ockets. This came to. a 
clima.x one night wdien she made a rich 
haul and discovered $17 in his pocket. A 
family quarrel naturally ensued, and the 
man and wife found themselves in court. 
.Vfter hearing the case the judge decided 
tliat under such circumstances a woman 
has the right to go through her husband’s 
pockets and help herself to the money if 
she can prove that it is needed for house¬ 
hold necessities. The judge went on and 
gave this couple a friendly lecture, with 
the result that the man promised to turn 
over half hi.s wages to the wife if she 
would promise to let his pockets alone, ex¬ 
cept to patch them in case he made so 
much money that it made holes in them, 
and the two left cotirt in good nature. At 
any rate, this seems to establish a legal 
precedent for a practice which will no 
longer pass as a joke. 
* 
The family canner will rank with the 
hoe this year as a w'eai)on to fight High 
Cost of Living. A few months ago we 
printed an article on home meat canning. 
Since then nearly 100 women have writ¬ 
ten asking where such a canner can be 
obtained. Many are planting extra peas 
and beans in the garden—expecting to 
put the surplus into cans for Winter 
use. The .snap or shelled bean (which 
means the string bean well filled out) 
makes very good “table silage.” Meat 
"’ill. also be canned as never before. 
When the old hens quit laying and want 
to sit it is time to drive them into cans. 
Grain is far too high now to think for 
a moment of keeping the old hens and 
roosters over'. And some farmers will 
uot forget the hens, for they plan to 
kill a few woodchucks and can the meat 
for Winter feeding! The hoe will pro¬ 
duce and the can will preserve. 
* 
It is said that the following advertise¬ 
ment recently appeared in an Iowa paper: 
WANTED—Man and wife to work on 
a t.arm; no booze fighters or fishermen 
needed. The greater the number of chil- 
aren in the family the higher the wages. 
that IS a good farm platform, for 
booze fighting” and fishing are uot com¬ 
mendable qualities in the hired man. As 
for the children part of it that idea of 
paying a premium on children is fine. 
Most of our readers will not agree with 
that statement, for we know that many 
farmers do not want helpers who have 
children. They give good reasons for 
their feeling about the children, yet 
when a man advertises for them we would 
feel inclined to back him heavily. A 
per.son with a strong imagination might 
get the material for a book of stories' out 
of the advertisements in a paper which 
enjoys the confidence of its readers. Not 
long since a man who oiienly and point¬ 
edly announced himself as “fat” calleel 
through The R. N.-Y. for a light job on a 
farm. He ought to make a success at 
holding down an Acme harrow. 
♦ 
The Country Outlook for Bread 
.lust when we are getting fairly ac¬ 
customed to using potato substitutes 
comes the necessity for something to 
cheapen or take the place of bread. 
What are we coming to? Wheat has not 
been raised in our locality for years, and 
there is no custom mill within 25 miles. 
One miller said that it would cost him 
.$2,5()0 to put in machinery for custom 
grinding, but that he would not put it 
in anyway, as there might not be wheat 
enough raised to pay for the trouble. 
This dealer reports the sale of 500 
bushels of .seed wheat, which is (piite a 
large amount where none has been sold 
before. It will be interesting to see 
what the crop will be. 
At present, white flour is 7^/4 cents a 
pound ; whole wheat flour, 014 cents and 
graham, .six cents. The entire wheat 
flour is not of very good quality, so that 
we cannot use it alone, but a very good 
brown bread can be made by using three 
pounds of white flour, two of entire 
wheat flour and two of graham. At 
present prices, this mixture saves $1.40' 
on a barrel of flour and is a very health¬ 
ful bread. White flour alone does not 
contain enough mineral matter, and 
graham alone has too much coarse bran 
for some stomachs. 
A very good raised cornbread is made 
thus: Stir two cups of cornmeal into 
boiling water until a thin mush is 
formed, free from lumps. When luke¬ 
warm, add one-half cup of sugar, one- 
half cup of molasses, one-half cup of 
lard, one-half yeast cake (soaked), and 
.salt to taste. Set to rise in a warm 
place. In the morning, or when light, 
add flour, stirring it in until a very stiff, 
smooth dough is formed. Set to rise 
again and mold into throe loaves when 
I'srbt. Do not hurry it. MKS. G. A. UOBEN. 
Duty of a Child to Support Parent 
What is the law in the State of New 
Hampshire concerning the care to be 
given by children to elderly parents with¬ 
out means? My father took into his 
home 15 or more years ago two brother;?. 
After he was over 80 his health being 
very poor, I took the three men into my 
home. One of these brothers has four 
children, a son and three daughters, all 
married and living in New Hampshire. 
I wrote them concerning their hither. 
They simply ignore both care and re¬ 
sponsibility. e. a. I). 
Massachusetts. 
In olden times at common law a child 
was not bound to support its parents and 
these laws have not been changed in 
some of the 'States. In most of them, 
however, including New Hamp.shire, it 
is made the duty of a child who is able 
to do so to support its parents when the 
latter are helpless and indigent, but this 
liability can only be enforced in the nnxle 
pointed out by the statutes. For in¬ 
stance, the laws of New Hampshire pro¬ 
vide that “the relations of any poor per¬ 
son. in the line of father or grandfather, 
mother or grandmother, children or grand¬ 
children, of sufficient ability, shall be 
liable to maintain bim when standing in 
need of relief,” and then provides that 
if a town provides for the suiiiiort of a 
poor person, having relations of sufficient 
ability the sum so spent may be recov¬ 
ered by an action, if notice of the sums 
spent has first been given to the parties. 
This would not help you much unless 
you first, by way of threat, notified the 
children that they would have to supiiort 
these elderly people, otherwise you would 
put them on the town. This might bring 
them to a .sense of their responsibility. 
* 
From a Phrenologist 
I have just enjoyed an evening reading, 
and finished with the Hope Farm Notes, 
on page 492. I was needing .some om* to 
write' to, to finish the “layers,” and I 
wanted to make a few remarks about 
those “layers,” so I ask a few minute.? 
of your time. In studying character, I 
found thiit whatever is most on the mind 
that organ is heated in proportion to 
the force of the occasion. I once on a 
challenge, told a man he was planning 
to build a railroad, when I found “con- 
structivenes.s” and “locality” were much 
excited. He .said I was correct. When 
you are physically tired, a story rests 
you; when rested and ready for exertion 
a bit of philosoiihy or a deep question of 
Hciipture. After deep reading that is 
to be laid up for the future, a little daily 
news or story to be forgotten will rest 
the tired organ, by changing the pre.s- 
.sure or excitement from one organ to 
another. It is diflicult to retain all one’s 
anger if we count 10 because the organ of 
“combativeness” has a rest, while calcula¬ 
tion is at work, since they belong to dif¬ 
ferent groups. A. E. RITTENIIOUSE. 
Delaware. 
* 
Lease of Jointly-owned Land 
A lea.ses a piece of land with a dwell¬ 
ing on it- for a period of two years from 
R; there arc no witnesses to the lease. 
R represents himself as the owner. An 
examination of the record reveals the 
fact that the property in question Is 
owned jointly by B and his wife, C. A 
refuse.s to comply with the terms of the 
lease; in fact, A claims that there is no 
lease for two reasons: 1. There are no 
witne.sses to the lease; 2. C is not a 
party to the lease. Can B be prose¬ 
cuted for representing himself as the 
sole owner? J. F. D. 
New York. 
A may have quite some difficulty in 
getting rid of the lease. In the fir.st 
place, it doesn’t need to have witnesse.s. 
They are only further evidence of the 
signatures of the parties. In the sec¬ 
ond place, wherein is A damaged so long 
as C does not object? B is the one to 
look out for C. If A had any doubts 
about the ownership, he should have 
searched the records before he made the 
lease. To all intents and purposes B 
may have had entire charge of the prop¬ 
erty by consent of and as agent for his 
wife. It will be rather difficult, I im¬ 
agine, to prosecute B for representing 
himself as sole owner. In all this dis¬ 
cussion, the prime question is wherein 
has A been at all damaged. It really 
is no injury to him if C has an interest 
in the place so long as A is not dis¬ 
turbed or bothered. 
The “Old Scythe Tree” 
On the farm of Clarence Schaffer, in the town of AVatcrloo, N. Y., 
there is a largo Balm of Gilead tree which is the subject of an annual 
Memorial Day service by the G. A. R. Rost and Woman's Relief Corps in 
connection with the memory of .Tames Wyman .Tohnson, who responded to 
his country’s call for volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was 
not afterwards seen alive again by his townsmen. 
The “Old Scythe Tree,” as it is called, takes its name from the last 
act of Mr. Johnson, just before leaving for tlie front. The owner of the 
farm was out working with his scythe when the news of the bombardment 
and surrender of Fort Sumter reached his farm district. Bringing his 
scythe towards the house, he placed the tool in the crotch of a sapling tree, 
and announced his intention of leaving immediately to enlist, his last words 
being: “Leave the scythe in the tree until I come back.” 
He enlisted in Company C, Eighty-fifth New York Volunteers, fought 
in many battles, and was killed at Plymouth, N. C., on April 20, 1804, 
dying with burial place now unknown. In carrying out his wish the scythe 
has remained in the tree, until today but about six inches of rusty blade 
protrudes from the large trunk. The tree has grown to a height of nearly 
one hundred feet. The snath long since rotted from the blade. The ex¬ 
posed part can just be seen in the above picture on the right side of the 
tree, just above the eaves of the barn roof. 
Every year the two societies hold services here on Memorial Daj', and 
a new flag is put in place to supplant that of the year before, and Summer 
and Winter it always swings to the breeze. The present owner of the 
farm was recently offered $500 for the tree by a historical society, but he 
prefers to keep the relic, and has granted free access to all visitors on the 
grounds. a. ir v 
