457 
"Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
WOMAN AND HOME 
My wife informs me that if I don't 
renew my subscription to The R. N.-Y. 
she will. So here goes for another year 
of peace in my family. Yours for good 
luck. w. B. M. 
Here is a wise man who recognizes a 
situation and accepts it with good na¬ 
ture. We have long known that in most 
households the women decide what read¬ 
ing matter shall enter the home. It is 
a good thing, for reading is often the de¬ 
ciding factor in family life. The women’s 
vote usually settles the subscription 
Muestion. 
The daily paj)ers in their report of 
tliat great hearing on the school law re¬ 
peal said that Senator Illon R. Brown 
and the “suffs” were the chief champions 
against repeal. By “suffs” they meant 
the leaders of the women suffrage move¬ 
ment. Fate and politics surely do make 
some strange playmates, and few things 
could be so poorly mated as the above- 
named combination. The “suffs” made a 
serious mistake when they united with 
Senator Brown in opposing repeal. They 
evidently knew little or nothing about 
real conditions in the country districts. 
'I’hey do not seem to know that this move¬ 
ment for repeal is backed and very largely 
(‘ugineered by coTUitry women who have 
children to be educated. These “suffs.” 
as we think, without realizing it, placed 
themselves against the ■wishes of the 
country Avomen who in the future will 
make the best \ise of the ballot. The 
chief argument against this law is that 
it was forced upon the country districts 
by people Avho do not live in rural neigh- 
h'lorhoods and do not understand the 
farmer’s life. The “suffs” should not 
begin in that way! 
* 
Farmer’s wives and daughters will be 
interested in an article now going the 
rounds of the city papers. 
It appear.s that in this State alone 
there will be this season a shortage, of 
about twenty-five thousand farm la¬ 
borers. To meet this condition it is pro¬ 
posed to begin a campaign at once to 
enlist city women avIio can cook to go 
to farms this Summer, so that the farm¬ 
ers’ wives who know more about agri- 
milture can be released for work in the 
fields. 
This is the way one New York farm 
woman comments on this very fine 
scheme: 
Old Boreas is howling outside; inside 
we are howling Avith laughter at the la¬ 
test scheme as set forth in this enclosed 
clipping. Farm Avomen have been doing 
the cooking without wages. The cooks 
from the city Avill do the same, of course, 
and the farm Avomen Avill Avork 8^X> hours 
and get .$2. What a perfectly splendid 
idea. As I canvass the local situation 
in my mind I find most of the Avomen on 
the farm are past their prime, certainly 
not available for work in the field. I 
would like to turn Mr. Hoover into a hen 
and give him a taste of his OAvn propa¬ 
ganda. 
Of course, these city girls Avill take 
the place of the farmer’s Avife and Avork 
without pay! Would it not be a Avouder 
to see these girls draAving $2 per day in 
tlie kitchen Avhile the farm Avoman 
worked outside for nothing? 
The first Avoman to cast a legal ballot 
ill Ncav York State is Miss Mary E. 
Courtney, Avho A'oted at a special Con¬ 
gressional election in Ncav York City. 
Miss Courtney is a bookkeeper and ad¬ 
mits that she is 38 years old. When 
asked Avho she voted for, she ansAvered, 
“1 voted for the right man!”—and the 
chances are that her judgment Avas good. 
The first woman to run for Congress in 
Ycav York is Mrs. Mamie Colvin, who 
ran (or Avalked) on the Prohition 
ticket. Noav the public accepts these 
statements Avithout a shoAV of surprist'— 
Init imagine how the ncAvs Avould have 
torn up our grandparents! The Avorld 
is surely moving on. Some of the things 
which seem impossible today Avill appear 
like back numbers tomorroAV. 
* 
At the hearing in Albany over the re¬ 
peal of the present school law, Senator 
Elon R. Brown of Watertown, opposed 
repeal. He said, among other things, that 
lie thought he Avas married to the suffrage 
advocates over the school bill, though he 
made haste to explain that the marriage 
might be in the Japanese way ! Imiu-essed 
.1 -Vea; Method of Teaching Gcof/rupliji 
till' war. This’ scene is laid on a small 
farm in Southern .Jersey. The man Avas 
raised on the farm, Avent to town as a 
Avorkman and is noAV a “back-to-the- 
lander.” The Avife is packer and sub¬ 
manager and betAveen them they have 
grown more than .‘jiuOO Avorth of produce 
on an acre. By dividing labor and man¬ 
aging ju'operly this small farm is made 
to do Avonders at food jiroduction. But 
are lettuce and similar vegetables to be 
classed as food? .Tust as bread marks the 
difference in food habits bc'tween saA'age 
and civilized men, so the use of tender 
fruits and vegetables indicates a higher 
lilace on the scale. Besides, lettuce is a 
ia''rve soother, having some traces of the 
elements found in the poppy; Ave need 
all the legitimate iiuiet for the neiwes Ave 
can get. The Avorld is producing too much 
of the tonic. 
New Method of Teaching Geography 
I am a teacher and so, I snippose, am 
hit by the story on page 288. It may, or 
may not, be true. If true and the teacher 
had always taught a primary or a high 
school grade she may never in all her 
teaching have had anything to do Avith 
pecks and bushels,^and it is very easy to 
forget. It is not my purpose, however, to 
complain. I had seen the story before, 
and had enjoyed it as much as anyone. 
I have taught school until I am gradu¬ 
ating .children of my early graduates, 
and I Avant to say “Amen” to the state¬ 
ment of the editor that “much of modern 
education and school training is not prac¬ 
tical.” 
In some respects we are teaching much 
as our predecessors did a century ago 
or any other subject, Avake up and Avork 
Avith enthusiasm Avhen he began to learn 
from something besides Avords. I have 
seen a boy from Avhom a teacher could 
hardly get a Avord by Avay of recitation, 
when nothing but the book Avas studied, 
go to his room after a stereopticon 
preparation and talk and talk. He had 
got ideas from pictures that he had not 
been able to get from printed words. 
Nearly all school Avork can be made more 
practical. We learn ny doing, not by 
memorizing rules and facts that avo may 
u.se years hence*. Of little use is the 
abilitA’ to talk correctly if we have no 
ideas to express. The country school that 
teaches only those subject.^ taught in the 
city is not doing its most valuable AV’ork 
for the community. In many AA'ays our 
.school instruction in the city and country 
could be made more practical and more 
A’aluable than it is. aa'. ir. ii. 
« 
Brother as Sister’s Support 
Is there a law in the State of Pennsyl¬ 
vania which can compel a strong, able- 
bodied brother making good wages, to 
contribute to the support of a sister who 
has very poor health and is unable to 
AA’ork ? Also,—must the said sister’ neces¬ 
sarily live in the .same State, and Avould 
it make any difference should the brother 
be married? There are only the tAvo left 
in the family—the sick sister and the 
brother. av. k. a. 
There is in Pennsylvania, as well as in 
all other States, a moral laiv which should 
lead every such brother to provide for his 
sister, but we doubt if human hiAV could 
compel him to do .so if he were too in¬ 
human to do so willingly. There may be 
some such provision in Western States. 
If s<). we would like to know about it. A 
by the Senator’s rem.arks, a Avoman who 
attended that hearing promptly Avrote the 
following letter to Senator Brown: 
As you stated in the Assembly Room 
yesterday afternoon before a host of Avit- 
nesses that you were “married to the 
suffragists, one and all,” and as you must 
have kuoAvn before taking the fatal step 
that a majority of the suffragists are 
Prohbitiouists, and that the great desire 
of their he.art is the immediate ratification 
of the national amendment by the New 
York Legislature, and that, as a bride¬ 
groom invariably exerts himself to the ut¬ 
most to gratify his bride’s .slightest Avish, 
we, therefore, as that bride, or at least a 
large portion of her. earnestly ask and 
confidently expect that you will use your 
A'ote and influence to help secure at once 
ratification of the amendment, and so 
insure our future domestic harmony. 
Yours for ratification and future ha])- 
piuess. 
Senator Brown is an able man with a 
quick mind, and he Avill see at once Avhere 
that letter places him. Ho has done his 
best to delay and defeat the Prohibition 
amendment. Had he been a saloon-keep¬ 
er or projirietor of a brewery he could 
hardly have Avorked more effectively for 
the “interests of rum.” Thus the Avomen 
of New Y’ork realize that Senator BroAvn 
is “married to the suffragists” Avhen he 
wants them to help his cause, and divorced 
—in “the Japanese Avay”—Avhen their 
own interests are at stake. Some time 
ago Ave ventured the statement that the 
men in Senator Brown’s district are 
afraid of him, but that the women arc 
not, and that they will keep him at home. 
We say that now as a prediction. 
The cover picture this Aveek shoAvs hoAV 
one Jersey Avoman is trying to help Avin 
when social and industrial conditions 
were very different from those of the 
present. Then much of the manual 
training for both boys and girls Avas fur¬ 
nished at home, and the school furnished 
the book knoAvledge that was supposed to 
be necessary for a successful life. The 
present-day boy gets little or no manual 
training at home, but the schools keeji 
on using books and nothing but books. 
Boys (and girls), unable to express 
their thoughts, if they have any, either 
orally or in writing are made to parse 
and analyze long, intricate sentences. Do 
they like it? Possibly one in a thou¬ 
sand. I suppose the proper question is 
not “Do they like it?” but “Is it good 
for them?” Perhaps, a little. Arithmetic 
is seldom made a matter of personal ex- 
lierience. It is too bften a blind folloAV- 
ing of a rule, to be forgotten before the 
next rule is finished. 
Too many of the pupils in our schools 
would sympathize Avith the boy Avho an- 
SAvered that fu-st question in the older 
geographie.s, “What is geography?” with 
“It’s a measly old book that nobody don’t 
knoAV nothin’ about an’ nobody don’t Avant 
to knoAV nothin’ about.” Geography can 
he made the most interesting study in the 
whole school curriculum if it is given to 
the children as something more than 
words to be committed to memory. If the 
children could see the products of the 
different countries about which they study 
and could visit by picture the strange 
lands of the earth they Avould enjoy the 
liook that could supplement the informa¬ 
tion they had secured elsoAvhere. This is 
not theory. I IniA’e seen it done. I liaA'o 
seen a boy Avho cared little for geography. 
man may be compelled to support his pa¬ 
rents, but Ave doubt if such laAvs extend 
to the sister. They ought to. 
Finding a “Diamond Ring.” 
Mr. George F. Platt, Avho is Avintering 
in Florida, sends the folIoAving account 
of a neAv fraud noAV being Avorked in 
tliat State. We Avonder hoAv many of 
our readers Avould be “caught” by the 
sparkle of a “diamond” ring! 
FolioAving is the pi-ocedure : An auto¬ 
mobile passing over the road meets a 
man driving a pair of mules and lead¬ 
ing another team. The man Avith the 
mules, Avho is dressed as an ordinary 
Avorkman. manages to block the road- 
Avay, so that the car must stop. While 
the occupant.s of the car are occupied 
in Avatching him. he stoops and lifts 
from the roadAvay a small object, Avhich 
proA’es to bo a diamond ring. lie calls 
the attention of the people in the car 
to this find and exhibiting a lack of 
knoAvledge of the value of the ring, of¬ 
fers to sell it to any of the party for 
whatever they may Ije Avilling to give 
for it, and right there they fall for vary- 
ing sums, but do not realize the extent 
of their misfortune until thev submit 
the ring to some jeweler to ‘learn its 
value and receive the A^erdict. “brass and 
glass, Avorth probably 25 cents.” 
* 
Is There Room for Me ? 
Among the calls for a jilace as farm 
Avorker Ave have the folloAving fi’om a city 
man : 
Do you suppose any of these farmers 
or farm owners could use. preferably to 
Avork an equipped and stocked place oii 
shales, a city man. 4(> years old, some ex¬ 
perience in most kinds of farm Avork ex¬ 
cept idoAving;: great deal of observation 
and reading on farming; Avas a verv good 
milker .‘10 years ago; have not ‘milked 
since; most experience Avith hens' and 
fruit. Very near and Aveak-sighted. hence 
barred from clerical work; not .strong, 
able to do onl.A’ three or four hours a dav 
of even light Avork. although not sick at 
all. Teetotaler, good habits and char¬ 
acter ; use no jirofane or vulgar language. 
Noav the question is, can a man Avitli 
this personal outfit, bo of any real heli. 
on a farm in these Avar times? What 
could he do on your rarm to add to the 
busiiK'ss and increase the outiuit? That 
is the best Avay of ansAvering such a ques¬ 
tion. It is like making a personal apidi- 
catioii. 
New York Women Vote 
Last Aveek elections Avere held in lour 
city districts, and Avomen had their first 
chance to vote for Gongressiiien. Home 
.3(i,00(> Avomeu registeri'd in these four dis¬ 
tricts, and 1)4 per c(*nt of them actually 
voted—a much larger percentage than of 
the men. The Avomen apparently divided 
their votes betAvi’cn the candidates about 
as the men did, and the result was not 
changed by their voting. IMost of them 
knew hoAv to vote as Avell as the men did, 
and they Avasted little time. Home amus¬ 
ing things are ri'ported from this election. 
One Avoman AA’eiit to register and AA’as told 
in a joking AA’a.A' that iieAA' A'oters AA'cre ex¬ 
pected to treat the election officers. Ho, 
Avhen she came to deposit her ballot she 
brought a fine apple pie, Avhich Avas A'oted 
far superior to the usual cigar or drink. 
.Vnother Avoinan voted and said she AA’ould 
go out and “celebrate.” They found her 
Avheeling a baby carriage up and doAvii 
the street, Avhile her neighbor, mother of 
the baby, voted. Yes, the Avomen A’oted, 
did it (piietly and Avell, and the Avorhl did 
not come to an end ! 
The Girl and Her Education 
I am a farmer’s daughter. My pari'iits, 
grand-parents and great-grand-parent.s 
were tanners. T am capable of tackling 
an.v job on the farm. I am a graduate of 
a Htate Normal School, and this is my 
second year teaching in a one-room coun¬ 
try school. During the Summer I take 
my decea.sed brother’s place on the farm, 
helping my parents. I am ambitious to 
go to college to s'pecialize in draiving, ami 
so Avant to earn money besides my teai’h- 
er’s salary of 1^55 a month, Avhich my 
parents keep to pay for my past educa- 
tlOlI’ jj 
Long ago we abandoned anv plan 
of telling strangers hoAV to manage their 
own business. In this case it seems t<i 
us that the parents of this girl must see 
that the investment in her past education 
has paid good dividends. Why not con¬ 
sider this, and figure that the same or 
greater investment in a future education 
would pay even better? One thing about 
this case is that the hired man takes The 
R. N.-Y, and thus the entire family read 
it. 
