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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
WOMAN AND HOME 
The Squeaky Chair 
A queer old rocking chair there stands 
"Right b.v my little bed. 
It lias a cover on the back 
With yellow flowers, and red. 
And when I have been very good 
And said my prayers all right 
I go to Katie and I say— 
“Rock me to sleep tonight?” 
(I’m awful big to rock to sleep; 
I’m nearly half-past five). 
Then Katie says, “Why. Baby’s back 
As sure as I’m alive.” 
But then she takes me on her lap, 
Although my legs hang down. 
And laughs and says. “Now, Baby dear, 
We’re off to Sleepy Town.” 
“Eenk—awnk, eenk—awnk,” the old 
chair goes; 
It has an awful squeak. 
“Eenk—awnk, eenk-awnk.” I try to talk, 
But I—forget—to—speak. 
“Eenk—awnk, eenk—awnk,” the old 
chair says. 
Prom some place far and deep 
I hear it call “Eenk—awnk—eenk— 
awnk”— 
And then 
I 
sleep. 
—Mary Fanny Young. 
A reaper in Pennsylvania sends us 
the following from the Harrisburg Tele - 
graph. It is written by “a machinist’s 
wife.” who seems to be very much of a 
woman: 
I’m glad my husband does not have to 
work 12 hours, as he used to do. but I’m 
not very keen about this talked-of six- 
hour day. five days a week. I think every 
mau ought to have a holiday once every 
so often, but holidays every day are bad 
for anybody, I think. And, besides, I 
have a notion of my own that I know one 
husband who would want a lot more at¬ 
tention in the way of clean shirts, more 
elaborate meals and the like if he took 
time off for more than he is now having. 
And that brings me right down to hard 
cases on the woman’s side of this argu¬ 
ment. With the men working less and 
less, and suffrage coming along, and more 
work of a household nature coming along 
as a result of the shorter working day 
for men, how about a strike of us women 
for the six-hour day? Oh, I know you 
will say. if your husband is home more 
he would help you more, but I ask you, 
folks, did you ever know a husband who 
didn’t think his wife had an easy thing 
of it? So. if husbands are becoming so 
feeble they cannot work more than six 
hours a day. do you suppose weak women 
are going to keep right on working seven 
days a week, from 12 to 14 hours a day, 
while their husky husbands are at the 
baseball game or bawling around the 
house for their meals? 
The editor of the Telegraph comes hack 
as follows: 
It’s a side of the shorter day agitation, 
we confess, we had not thought about. 
But it would be embarrassing, would it 
not. if the joy of our household declined 
absolutely to provide a meal at 6 in the 
evening because she had prepared break¬ 
fast at 0 in the morning; or if she re¬ 
fused to feed the baby and put the infant 
to bed because she had washed and dressed 
and fed it in the morning. Decidedly, 
there are limitations to this six-hour day 
business, for it appears that what is 
sauce for the gander ought to be sauce 
also for the goose. 
Thanks, dear correspondent; you have 
given us. in our capacity as a faithful and 
dutiful husband, something to consider. 
Some of us working men apparently have 
started something we may have difficulty 
in finishing. 
There is something about this six-hour 
day. or 44-hour week, that many people 
do not understand. Workmen do not all 
intend to loaf or “rest” after the six 
hours. There is usually a demand for 
“double pay for overtime.” Under that 
plan a man might work 10 hours and get 
pay for 14 hours’ work! 
* 
That recent suggestion about the co¬ 
operative icehouse seems like a good one. 
In some of the large cities a number of 
farmers and tenants combine and put up 
a central heating plant. Steam for this 
place is piped all over—into a dozen or 
more houses. This saves a dozen differ¬ 
ent fires and is a real economy. The 
icehouse for keeping people cool should 
be as practical as the central boiler for 
keeping them warm. Mr. Cole, who 
wrote the article which appeared last 
week, wrote this about a co-operative ice 
company in Massachusetts: 
When I was last home, two Summers 
ago, there were 10 members, which, of 
course, have not changed. The shares 
were worth $25 each, but none was for 
sale. The owners were charged 15 ceuts 
per hundred and the outsider was charged 
25 cents for the same amount. Retail 
dealers were then charging 50 cents per 
hundred. The assessment for mainte¬ 
nance was as stated. $1 per share. My 
ice for the Summer cost me nothing, and 
I also received a little over $2 cash divi¬ 
dend. 
* 
We have many letters asking if far¬ 
mers cannot raise some crop which will 
give the family supply of sugar. Some 
of our people think that sugar beets can 
be used for this purpose. It has not 
been found practical to try to make sugar 
fi’om small lots of beets. The smallest 
mills now erected will handle not less 
than 500 tons of beets per day. Some 
of our readers claim to make a sirup by 
slicing the beets, soaking these slices in 
hot water and boiling down the liquid, 
but it is *' / 't generally satisfactory. The 
best croi- we know of for the purpose is 
sorghum. This will grow as far north as 
Lake Ontario and produce a fair crop. 
The sap or juice is pressed out and evap¬ 
orated, like maple sap, into a syrup which 
is good, and can be used as a sugar sub¬ 
stitute for many purposes. This is the 
best plan we know of for making a home 
supply of sweets. 
* 
Here is a new one from Prof. Wood¬ 
ward of the New Hampshire College 
about Christmas trees. His idea is to 
plant a tree rather than to cut one down. 
“It usually happens that the straightest 
and most likely trees are selected for 
Christmas, and are afterward thrown 
away. Not only are the woodlands de¬ 
prived-of these trees year after year, but 
the tree’s usefulness is only a transitory 
one. Why not have a permanent tree in 
the community, set out near the church 
or town hall? A fir or spruce of good 
proportions would thus help to beautify 
its surroundings throughout the year. If 
20 feet high, it should be dug up with a 
ball of earth about three to four feet in 
diameter, and might well be transplanted 
early in December.” 
Or. he says, a conifer three or four 
feet high may be dug up, used at home and 
afterwards set out on the lawn. The 
community tree is an excellent institu¬ 
tion. In our own neighborhood there is 
a living tree in the town square which is 
decorated every year. 
* 
Several women have written us about 
securing a position as rural mail car¬ 
rier. They have heard that women may 
serve in such a capacity, and as they are 
strong and well and know how to drive, 
they want the job. We wrote to Washing¬ 
ton to learn about this, and have the fol¬ 
lowing from the Fourth Assistant Post¬ 
master General: 
With reference to your inquiry you are 
informed that single women and married 
women whose husbands are in the mil¬ 
itary or naval service of the United States 
or who have been discharged therefrom 
because of disability incurred in the line 
of duty and are unable to render service 
as rural carriers, may be appointed as 
carriers in the rural service. Other mar¬ 
ried women are not admitted to the exam¬ 
ination for the service mentioned. All 
information relative to examinations must 
be obtained from the Civil Service Com¬ 
mission, Washington, D. C. 
Paying for Tuition Out of District 
We get so much information out of 
The R. N.-Y. For instance, we are 
obliged to send our 14-year-old girl away 
to school, and are paying her tuition. I 
see in Nov. 1 R. N.-Y. that we are not 
obliged to pay it. mrs. f. p. w. 
Let us quote once more what the 
School Commissioner said: 
A district does not perform its full 
duty toward the children residing within 
its boundaries unless it makes proper 
provision in some satisfactory way for the 
instruction of such of them as have com¬ 
pleted the work in the grades taught in 
the school of the district. It has ample 
power to make proper provision for the 
instruction of such children. 
The point is that the State compels a 
child to attend school up to a certain 
age. Therefore the district must provide 
instruction for the older children at home 
—or pay for it elsewhere. 
Rights in Mother’s Estate 
My mother died without leaving a will. 
In the bank is $3,000 in Liberty bonds 
which were bought with my money, but in 
my mother's name. Is there any way 
that I can get the money? There are six 
children in the family. w. K. 
Recently there have been a dozen let¬ 
ters much like this one. Iu one case a 
man gave his wife the money to buy a 
farm. She bought it and had it recorded 
in her own name, intending to make a 
joint deed. She died suddenly, and a 
good share of the property now goes to 
her children by a former marriage. Every 
year we have 100 or more cases where 
serious trouble has resulted from trying 
to do a legal busiuess with no real knowl¬ 
edge of the law. Playing with law is 
much like playing with a pistol. In a 
large proportion of the legal questions 
sent us we can give no better advice than 
to see some good local attorney and have 
him draw up suitable papers. 
Legal Rights of Education Board 
The trustees of Glen village school were 
instructed by the county superintendent 
to install sanitary toilets. They called 
a special school meeting of the taxpayers 
to vote on the matter. The result was 
six voted for toilets and 24 against. As 
the vote was decided heavily against, the 
trustees refused to build them. As clerk 
of the district, I wrote county superin¬ 
tendent of education the decision. lie re¬ 
plied that he had sent notice to State 
Education Department to withhold public 
money from District No. S. Many of 
these toilets have been installed in the 
public schools of Montgomery County, 
and I have not heard of one that has 
proven satisfactory. They are a nuisance 
and a menace to the health of the chil¬ 
dren when located in the hallway of the 
schoolhouse. They often become clogged, 
and in one case no one in the district 
would clean and repair it, so a man from 
outside was called in. 
C. F. VAN HORNE. 
It was rumored that a test case had 
been brought in Jeffei’son Co., N. Y. to 
decide whether State Board of Education 
had the legal right to enforce their ruling. 
We have been unable to find any record 
of such a case. Many good lawyers deny 
that the Board of Education has any real 
power to enforce its demands, but until a 
case is made and tried out they will con¬ 
tinue to order the toilets and withhold 
school money where the orders are not 
obeyed. Some district officers should com¬ 
bine and bring a case into court to test 
the matter. 
Dishwashing Discussed 
Some of the New York daily papers 
have been discussing dishwashing as a 
business, an experience and a pleasure. 
Some very remarkable ideas have been 
brought out. Among other things it was 
claimed that dishwashing is a cure for 
headache. The idea of this is that keep¬ 
ing the hands in the hot “soapy” water 
attracts the blood from the head and 
relieves'the pressure. Among other con¬ 
tributors to this discussion is one on 
“Tropical Dishwashing” in the New Yok 
Sun, as follows: 
Perhaps your readers would be inter¬ 
ested in hearing how that high art is 
practiced in Cuba. A young woman who 
is visiting us always insists upon wash¬ 
ing the supper dishes. She piles every¬ 
thing—pots. pan. kettles and china— 
into the white enamel sink and turns on 
the cold water faucet. We have no hot 
water faucets in Cuba. Each dish is 
rubbed with a rag and plenty of soap 
and rinsed off under the faucet. The 
plates are given a hasty wipe ami piled 
on top of one another on the shelf. The 
cups, still wet. are hung on hooks to dry 
and wiped later when needed for use. 
Plates also have to be wiped off when 
brought to the table. 
By the time the washing is done the 
tile floor is sopping wet and has to be 
mopped up, so I tried to induce her to 
use hot water, but she said it injured 
her hands. She generally washes dishes 
in a kimono with flowing sleeves and no 
apron. An apron is a sign of servitude 
and is not to be worn. As for doing 
any thinking, high or otherwise, great 
would be her astonishment at such a 
strange idea. Washing dishes is a job 
to be done and got over with. While 
it is going on one frequently hears ejac¬ 
ulations like “Oh, dear!” iind “Such is 
life!” 
Waiters iu the cafiri invariably bring 
the dishes to the table, polishing them 
as they come. Don’t be fooled; it is not 
excessive neatness, but is merely because 
they—the dishes, not the waiters—are 
wet and greasy. The Mexican way is to 
place the dishes on racks to dry. They 
are washed off with ashes iu Mexico 
City, and in the tropical part of the coun¬ 
try with a certain kind of soap made of 
black earth and grease. In Tuxtepec 
they use a certain kiud of leaf with strong 
fiber as the dishcloth. 
I began washing dishes at the early 
age of seven, standing on a soap box to 
reach the sink. It was only after many 
years that my wise mother told me that 
she washed them after me. I felt very 
much grown up with the responsibility 
of washing the china and silver. Mother 
has been asthetie all of her 86 years and 
didn’t know it. Often I have heard her 
repeating bits of verse and chapters from 
her beloved Bible as she carefully washed 
her dishes in several pans of hot water 
of varying degrees. First she rinsed all 
of the dishes and then washed them iu a 
pan of hot water. Next she rinsed them 
in still hotter water, and, fishing them out 
with a long-handled utensil, placed them 
on a rack uppside down to drain and be 
finally wiped off. It is almost a religious 
rite that she performs each mealtime. 
I fully agree with your writers that there 
are ways to turn drudgery into intellec¬ 
tual delight. GRACE M. FOSTER. 
J. Last Look at the Baby 
