8)6 
RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Things to Think About 
Personality of Cats 
Some p('oi)le wouldn’t frrant thorn niiy : 
cats aro cats, they would say. And .so 
they aro. unloss, you like cats and like 
thoiu well enough to gain thoir confidoucc 
and establish such relations Avith them .as 
will give you .an insight into feline na¬ 
ture. To do this it isn’t necessary to be 
“catty.” but yoy at least must have 
helped to bring up several generations of 
kittens and watched them develop from 
fluffy innocence to the sophi.sticated wari¬ 
ness of old .age. A cat’s nature is peculiar 
to itself; no other animal imsse.sses one 
.iust like it The origin of cats is lost 
"in the mists of anti(iuity.'’ The Kgyp- 
tians made pets, and also minnmies of 
cats, and these .animals were kmtwn to 
still more ancient peo]iles. If they are 
the result of evolution from .some lower 
form of animal life, we don’t know from 
what they evoluted. cats having been cats 
fi’om earliest known time's—a family his¬ 
tory to be proud of. 
No one can comprehend the working (>f 
a cat’s mind until he has gained the full 
confidence of the cat. and this confidence 
is a hard thing to get. and a still harder 
one to kee'iu It is based upon close asso¬ 
ciation and unvarying kindness. You 
niay kick a dog and, at the least sign of 
repentance u))on your part, he forgives 
you and is your chum again ; but kick a 
cat. and the slender thread of its confi¬ 
dence is snapiied. never to be' fully re¬ 
stored. The cat may purr and roll in 
your arms and snuggle heue.ath your 
chin, but at the least sign of unfriendli¬ 
ness he is ready to spring to the ground 
and betake himself to safe' quarters. Sus¬ 
picion is the outstanding characteristic of 
cat nature; it is allayed with difficulty. 
,and never permanently. 
Il.ave you ever owned a cat th.at <‘ould 
Ihink and reason? Of course you have, 
hut don’t start to talk about him ; Ave 
can’t all talk at once. Topsy doe's, and 
she also talks; don’t tell me. she certainly 
does. Part of her mission in life is to 
keej) this farm Avell supplied Avith rat ex¬ 
terminators, not the paste kind that the 
rats Avon’t eat, but the kind that Cats 
the rats. When she begins to feel the 
maternal stirrings of a coming genera¬ 
tion she goes to her mistress and a.sks 
for a soft nest in some secluded and safe 
spot. She talks about it for several days, 
if her request is not heeded, and there is 
a note of insistence in her Amice not to bC 
misunderstood. YTieu the box of soft 
hay is providt'd she purrs her thanks and 
fakes possession. When the kittens Iuia'C 
r<‘ached a certain age. calculated to a day. 
I feel A'ery sure, she knows that they 
should have access to the ground and be 
taught to scratch in it. so she takes them 
to the barn for a fcAv weeks of furthe'r 
education. i^he then brings Ihem hack 
to the house and i)resents them to the 
family with all the ])ride of a Cornelia 
exhibiting her jewels. Put her maternal 
solicitude doesn’t relax, and the care and 
training bestowed ui>on those kittens 
might well put many a human mother to 
blush. She talks to them. and. if occasioij 
arises, she talks to her mistress about 
them. Don’t you think so? Well, let one 
of them fall through a hole in the floor, 
then watch Topsy go and ask for help. 
If you don’t know Avhat Topsy AViuits. you 
have small acquaintance Avith the lan¬ 
guage of cats. The tones and cadences of 
her voice makes a language as unmistak¬ 
able as that of humans ; and if she doesn’t 
re'ason, the line betAveen reason and in¬ 
stinct is exceedingly thin. 
T Avould like, too, to tell you about 
I'licle Mutt and Trouble, but they’ll liaA'C 
to Avait. M. «. PEAN. 
Electrically Cleaning Silver 
If there’ is any other reader of our 
paper Avho dislikes cleaning and polishing 
silver as I do. any hint as to an effecthm 
short cut Avill be Avelcome. It is not so 
much that I really di.slike the Avork, hut 
the haste Avith Avhich it must be done and 
the almost impo.ssibility of finding time 
for it, make it a dreaded task if the old 
rag and brush and poAvder or paste meth¬ 
od is used. Since lime-sulphur became 
the foundation of nearly all spraying so¬ 
lutions the silver has suffered in appear¬ 
ance after every spray time, and my time 
and strength were taxed in too many 
ways to permit daily rubbing Avith flannel. 
jadish and cininnds. .'<o now, Avhen Avash- 
ing dishes, after the silver is washed. I 
take ii large enameled or agateAvare pan, 
place ;i number of di.scarde<i to])s of Ma¬ 
son jars in the bottom, put in a teaspoon¬ 
ful of table salt .-ind a tea.spoonfuI of bak¬ 
ing .soda, tlien put in the' silver, taking 
care that both ends of each i)iece toucli 
the zinc of the jar covers. The silver is 
then covered Avith soft Avater and set on 
the stove tf) boil fiA’c minutes, after Avhich 
it is Aviped as after an.v washing and is 
found to be bright !ind clean as ucaa'. All 
of the black deposit in engraving and 
beading is t.akf'n out mor<> completely 
than cjin be done Avith much brushing. Of 
course, if one has on hand or can afford 
to buy a piece of zinc, it ansAvei-s the pur 
pose, and I havd been told that an alum¬ 
inum pan Avill do Avithout the zinc. As 
I have little plated silver. I cannot say 
hoAV this AA’Ould Avoik. but if I am not 
mistaken it can be used for cleaning !^hef- 
fi(‘ld jilate and Avoiild certainly be .-i de- 
sii'jible method to emidoy for tea services 
and large pieces of pierced siher. 
G. T. s. 
'This has been de.scribed several times, 
but should be i-epeate'd frequently. The 
combination of salt, soda and zinc or 
aluminum starts a mild electic action 
Avhich removes the sulphur stain. We 
would uot advise this continued treatment 
for silver Avith very fine etching or “frost 
Avork.” as it might be deface'd somewhat 
by this treatment. 
Value of the Woman’s Work 
What is the value of the Avoman's work 
on the farm? It is about time this Avas 
well figured out. W. C. Funk makes the 
folloAving estimate for a ,‘120-acre farm in 
North Dakota. What do you think about 
it—are these figures fail-'—as you see the 
Avork done? 
The size of the family on this farm 
averaged scA’en adults during the year. 
Four of these Avere hired men, the other 
three being the farmer, his Avife and 
groAvn daughter. The Avife and daughter 
did all the housework, all the laundry 
AA’ork, and cared for an eight-room house. 
They canned 300 quarts of fruit and 100 
quarts of vegetables and did most of the 
Avork in the A'egetable garden. Practically 
all the vegetables consumed were pro¬ 
duced on the farm. Among the important 
articles of food they jirepared for home 
consumption during the year Avere 50 
bushels of potatoes, three bu.shels of green 
beans, four bushels of green peas, three 
bushels of onions, 400 head of cabbage, 
10 busliels of turnips, six bushels of beets, 
three bushels of cucumbers, six bushels of 
tomatoes. .‘>0 head of caulifioAver. seven 
bushels of sweet corn, 1,000 imunds of 
Hour, 144 pounds of coffee, l.SOO pounds 
of dressed pork. 200 head of poultry. 020 
dozens of eggs, and .312 pounds of butter. 
This farmer’.s Avife valued her oavu and 
her daughter’s labor at .^520 ])er year. 
The estimate is probabl.v too high, but 
.$'200 of it may safely be charged to the 
farm as repre.senting the Auilue of the 
l.-ibor required in caring for the four hired 
men above the normal labor reciuired in 
caring for the fartner’.s family. This .$200 
is a direct contribution to the business of 
the farm. On many farms the labor con¬ 
tribution of tbe farmer’s AA-ife or daughter 
is the limiting factor betAA’een success or 
failure. 
Air Mail Service and Food Messages 
Yesterday AA-as a scorching hot day. ami 
I sat down a fcAv minutes to read 'The 
R. N.-Y. After farming. I .suppose 1 am 
as much interested iji mech.anics as any¬ 
thing el.so. and I was interest<“(l in Ihe 
ite'm about (juick mail service betAveen 
Ncav York and Washington— tAvo and 
one-half hours. That surely is quick. 
Ry contriist. it took just one week for 
met to get some plow rejtairs from Ilarri.s- 
burg to IVest Chester. But I supi)Ose 
the man Avlnt uses the airship service must 
giA'c the' (lovfumment a little extra tip. 
.Vs I say. it w.as only yesterday that I 
was reading about the airship in yotir 
I»iiper. But tod.ay about 3 p. m. along 
(romes the real thing—making .some noise 
to be sure, but running along very stead¬ 
ily. and no doubt carrying a message 
from you to Mr. Hoover about advising 
F'ncle Sam how to give us more'for Avlu'at. 
set we can jtay our hired help .$4 to .$0 a 
day. and thereby insure getting plenty of 
food grown and harvested proiterly. Now 
the tiling that I really Avant you to ask 
Mr. Hoover is, Avhat is the jtrice of Avheat 
to the Allie's? We see a great di'al about 
the piict* of .'^2.20 to the farmer, but I 
would like to knoAV th<‘ itrice tin* Allies 
haA'e to pay. .ioseimi cope. 
Pennsylvania. 
The itostaire on a letter sent by aerial 
mail from Ncav York to Washington is 
‘24 cents. The' letter you refer to has 
been sent, and Ave .shall all Avait for the 
ansAver. It Avill probably come in the 
regular mail I This air service is now 
running (or flying) every clear day and 
carrying about 200 pounds of mail. It 
seems like a Avondorful thing to some of 
us who. in other years, traveled hy ox 
team, yet it is only the beginning of still 
more wonderful things to follow. This 
Avar has developed mighty poAvers for de- 
June 22, inis 
stroying life and proi)erty. When the 
Avar is OA'er these .same powers will be 
devoted to saving human life and making 
it Avorth living. 
The Countrywoman’s Share in War Relief 
After the floating of the fir.st and se- 
ond T.iberty lo.an.s. certain bank presi¬ 
dents and other financial chiefs grew A'cry 
red in the face over the suppo.sed delin- 
• luency of the farmers in taking bonds. 
L.ater inquiry developed the fact that not 
only had the country distia'cts been denied 
the insiuration for giving that comes Avlth 
carefully designed Av.ar prop.aganda and 
ui)-to-date lectures rm Avar topics, biit that 
they had 7iot iii m.iny instances heen OA'en 
canvassed to buy bonds. When given 
something like e(|ual opi>ortunities to buy 
bonds, the i-ui’.al element left the city 
coutingeut fai‘ behind in the thiial T.ib- 
erty loan. 
In .a way this situation has been <lupli- 
cated in the comparatiA-e amounts of Avar 
relief AA'ork done by the city AA'omen as 
comiiared to that doin' by Cfuintry AA'omen. 
The latter have not had the education for 
giving and doing that their city siste'rs 
haA’e. Becau.si' of the scattered popula¬ 
tion they are not able to do certain lines 
of Avork jirofitably. and many Avill say 
that the country Avomen are far too busy 
to undertake anything more than they 
are already doing. But any exiieriencod 
man or efiiciency expert will tell you. if 
you Avant a thing done jiromiitly and Avell, 
ask the busiest person you knoAA'’ to do it. 
Busy peo^ile have the AVork hahit. They 
liaA’o learned to make' cA’ery minute, count. 
Farm women of today Avill measure up to 
this .standard. They are using eAmry bit 
of their time and energy, apparently, to 
further the work of the farms, going into 
Ihe field on emerge'ncy calls, doing garden 
and fruit work, and many of them carry¬ 
ing quite extensiA'c small crop prospects 
of their oavu for Avar purposes. 
But are they doing much real so-called 
war relief AA'ork? The' Red Cross chapter 
of the Avriter’s county has heen preparing 
.'SI .000 AVorth of hosjiital and refugee sup¬ 
plies every month. This seems enormous 
in it.self. Yet the calls from the national 
society for supidies from this county 
(‘Amry month are oA’er .$4..”00 AA’orth—and 
the needed money to buy supidies, also 
sufficient AA’orkers to make them up. have 
not been forthcoming! 
In the stress of the pre'sent great drive 
at the front, Avith the great need daily of 
immense stores for the care of the Avound- 
ed. Avith the increasing numher of home¬ 
less refugees to b<' cared for. and Avhen 
our OAVU men are coming into the aAvful 
conflict ill great numbers, and each mo¬ 
ment for them is laden with burdens and 
sufferings greater than Ave in our com¬ 
fortable Avalks of peace can even compre'- 
hend. .shall we presume to say we are ton 
hunn —that Ave are already tlohif/ oil ire 
con’ The Avriter's count.v has deciiled 
to reform its Avar relief work, and every 
home on even the most remote hills has 
been visited by cajiable caiiA’assers. The 
i-esult has been a revelation to even the 
mo.st optimistic. People in the humblest 
circumstances haA'e surprised the can¬ 
vassers hy their generosity in giving, and 
a remarkahle' .spirit of co-operation has 
been uncovered. Human hearts are much 
the same everyAA’here. and Avhen the real 
need is understood American ge'nerosity— 
and there is none more real than rural 
generosity—Avill res|)ond. HIa’c CAmn the 
busy country Avomen a chance to do their 
share in Avar relief, in plain seAving to be 
done on their home sewing machine's, and 
their combined AVork Avill furnish relief 
and comfort to thousands of soldiers and 
refugees avIio otherAvise might have gone 
uncared for. 
First a.ssure the country Avome'n that 
city organization is as complete as it 
should be—that eA’ery city Avoman is do¬ 
ing her share. Then ask the former to do 
her share and she AA’ill respond. In hun¬ 
dreds of localities the financial side of 
war relief Avork has heen far oversiib- 
.scribed—CAmn to the millions of dollars, 
when it had seemed imiio.ssihle to reach 
the mark set in the beginning, all because 
organization has heen carefully complete' 
and effectiA’e. When the money is raised 
the next step is to spend it Avisely. This 
Avill folloAv AA’hen the Avorkers Avho shall 
make ii)) the’ needed supplies are as care¬ 
fully canvassed us Avere the contributors 
for the nece.ssary funds, and A’ast amounts 
of much-needed Avar relief supplies Avill 
lie going promptly to oiii' men at the 
front. 
Let every country school district be 
the unit, as it Avas in the canvass for 
fund.s. the country women reiiorting to 
some' capable Avomaii of each toAvn Avho 
Avill be restionsib'e for giving out the 
Avork. and seeing that it is regularly and 
promptly collected, and who shall say 
what the’ aggregate shall amount to! The 
Avrter’s home district Avas allotted .$275 
for war relief. It Avas thought to be im¬ 
possible to raise it. Yet over .$300 was 
promptly secured. lu the next school 
di.strict .$275 Avas the allotment and they 
Avere even more dubious about raising it, 
yet they rai.sed .$415. If asked to do 
seAving or other home Avork, Ave believe the 
re.sult would be equally gratifying. 
M. G. F. 
This Cot lias a Strong I’ersonolity 
