I486 
‘Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 29, 1924 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
The Home Dressmaker 
IWell, here it is the sixth of November, 
and the Parson is off tonight for Colum¬ 
bus, O. lie has had quite a number of 
invitations to speak on the way, many 
more than he could take care of. lie has 
carefully kept the letters, however, and 
will bear those places in mind. He hopes 
to go out to Wisconsin next Hummer, the 
latter part of .Tune, and may be able to 
visit some of these friends at that time. 
One place where he speaks tomorrow 
night is at Gypsum, O., where there seems 
to be a most flourishing Community 
Church. The Parson is very interested in 
these country community efforts, and he 
will study this with care. They are to 
have a supper, and the Parson speaks 
afterwards. What a problem for us to 
solve—how to get these little weak 
churches together in these villages. From 
Columbus the Parson will go to Wash¬ 
ington to see .George, who is going to 
school there, staying with relatives. Then 
he will go farther south and speak at a 
two-days’ conference on rural church top¬ 
ics. George seems to be getting along 
well. This might be quite an idea—board 
the city cousins in the Summer and let 
them take back a child to send to high 
school in the Winter ! Why not? 
Learning of A ll Kinds. —A child cer¬ 
tainly learns all kinds of things in school. 
Little Charles did not seem to be feeling 
right the other night, and a thermometer 
disclosed quite a fever. On going to sleep 
in bed he kept calling and crying out 
about a time he seemed to have had on 
the way to school. “I tried to run all 
the way,” he would keep saying. He 
wanted to come home for his dinner, and 
we let him a few days. On the way.back 
he was joined by one or two other boys. 
He says they threw apples at him and 
pushed him down, and at one time they 
were both on top of him. He has been 
such a gentle, loving boy, and he had 
never been hurt or scared this way. and 
Mrs. Parson thinks it was nothing else in 
the world that gave him the fever. He 
was in bed three days with it, and is now 
back in school again, but we see to it that 
sister is with him if he comes home to 
dinner. They both ride in the bus morn¬ 
ing and night. The Parson was inter¬ 
ested to hear the supervisor say recently 
that where there were not over 20 in a 
one-room school they get more attention 
and did better than in a graded school. 
Pity some people did not come to this con¬ 
clusion before! 
A District Meeting. —That there is 
nothing like the people of a neighborhood 
getting together and thrashing things out 
was seen at a meeting in a sehoolhouse 
the other night at which the Parson, as 
school visitor, presided. The superin¬ 
tendent wanted to send the seventh grade 
of this school to another school and have 
them carried by auto, costing the 
town about $300. There was objec¬ 
tion. and the Parson suggested these 
people coming tfogetlier and talking it 
over. If it is best for children to 
do this, let us persuade their parents 
it is best. The supervisor consented to 
this readily, and the meeting was held. 
The place was filled, and they about all 
came with something on their chest—you 
could see that plain enough. When the 
superintendent had fully and clearly stated 
his case, and a show of hands was called 
for, it was evident he had not made a 
single convert. At last, however, to the 
surprise of the -superintendent and the 
Parson both, it developed that a supposed¬ 
ly temporary arrangement of having part 
of the small children come half a day and 
the other part the other half was perfect¬ 
ly satisfactory to all concerned, all agree¬ 
ing to making an exception in one case, 
where, living at a distance, the children 
should come and go together. It all 
showed clearly how that the people who 
undertake to run the schools should keep 
in close touch with the people themselves. 
It isn’t what the supervisor learns at a 
Summer school nearly as much as what 
he learns from the average father and 
mother that will make supervising a suc¬ 
cess. Some time ago a town below here 
rose up in almost a mob fury and threw 
out every member of the school board so 
as to get rid of their supervisor. Talk 
about excitement—a wild dragon dropped 
in their midst wouldn’t have caused half 
the fury as that probably well-meaning 
supervisor did. He probably knew a good 
deal about education, something about 
children, but how about the parent heart 
—especially the mother heart? That is 
where Mr. Supervisor needs more train¬ 
ing. 
Quite Some Fireworks.— Yes, we 
have had quite some fireworks down in 
the swamp. This place has always been 
considered “low.” There is a brook right 
back of the barn, and then a swamp be¬ 
low the house. There is so little fall from 
the cellar to the brook that the cellar 
drain is often covered at the end with 
water. Having secured the co-operation 
of the person owning the land below us, 
it seemed possible this year to blow the 
brook out and make a real bed for it to 
run in. The farming engineer at the 
State College, Storrs, agreed to make a 
demonstration case of it. He brought 
over 300 lbs. of 00 per cent dynamite. 
About GOO ft. of brook was blown. The 
land was soft, wet and mucky, and this 
made it all the better. This man gets the 
dynamite for 24% cents a pound. The 
whole job cost $74. It made a beautiful 
ditch, straight as an arrow, and lowered 
four or five feet deep. Most of the dirt 
blown up is back out of the way. One 
big stump went high in the air across the 
highway and over in a neighbor’s mowing. 
We all had eels for breakfast the next 
morning. If there is any danger from 
the house windows, just raise the lower 
sash all round ; that lets the air go right 
Preparing for Winter. —The shops 
are full of costly furs, and it is interest¬ 
ing to note the new dyed effects which 
take the place of natural furs. Black 
ermine is a novelty, one model at a large 
commercial exhibition being a walking 
coat of black ermine with collar and 
cuffs of white. Processed American 
broadtail is to be seen in many of the 
brown tints, and also in gun metal. 
Karakul is dyed in all the popular 
shades. Any fur that will dye brown 
seems in favor for daytime wear. Silver 
gray is a new color in furs for which 
great popularity is predicted. Silver 
chipmunk trimmed with pearl gray fox 
was a new model on exhibition. Leopard 
The Ditch Dug with Dynamite 
through. The picture .shows a fair view 
of the ditch ; the black chunk in the mid¬ 
dle is a big old bog that fell back in the 
ditch. We will throw this out when we 
get time. My, but what a difference! 
Where the end of the drain pipe comes 
to the brook there is certainly a fall of 
three feet. This is little way up the 
brook from where we began to blow, but 
it cuts right down through. This ditch 
ought to enable us to plow about an acre 
and a half of the richest land on the 
farm. The Parson’s share of the expense 
was $44 ; a cheap price for the land, as it 
was absolutely worthless before. Worse 
than worthless, as mowing those old bogs 
a few more years would have absolutely 
jeopardized whatever of religion the Par¬ 
son may have. 
Tiie Agricultural College. — Yes, 
the Parson was over and preached at the 
Storrs Agricultural College the other Sun¬ 
day. They have a new minister now, and 
he is making a real community church of 
it. One idea is that of a “Student Mem¬ 
and leopard cat trimmed with fox is 
very fashionable. The leopard cat is a 
soft creamy tint with dark spots, while 
the leopard is rich orange and gold in 
the ground color. A coat of leopard with 
red fox trimming is extremely handsome. 
The leopard cat is handsome also, though 
paler, and a little less expensive. Muffs 
in both melon and envelope shape are to 
be very fashionable, and are to accom¬ 
pany fur-trimmed suits. Very smart 
flower-trimmed hats are shown to be 
worn with furs. They are massed with 
small flowers in various colors, some¬ 
times combined with metal cloth. 
A Pretty Child’s Coat.— In the il¬ 
lustration, the child at the left shows a 
simple coat with very pretty trimming. 
It was made of rose-colored cloth, 
trimmed with gray and black plaid, the 
plaid being a material with a slightly 
fleecy nap. The coat had a front panel, 
widening toward the bottom, which was 
fastened invisibly at the side; two but¬ 
tons fastened through scallops at the top. 
*4 Group of Seasonable Models 
bership,” whereby students are taken as 
real members during their stay, so that 
they feel the church is theirs and they 
have a vote in its management, as they 
should. The church was filled, with a 
goodly number of students present. Money 
is now being raised, one gift of $10,000 
already in and paid. A great community 
plant is to 'be built, which may well show 
forth a model of work for all the students 
as they go out to be leaders in their neigh¬ 
borhoods. 
“Do It Ourselves.” —Does that advice 
extend to dynamite? Well, we had eight 
sticks of GO per cent left over. The boys 
wanted to blow a deeper diving hole un¬ 
der the spring-board in the dam. The 
first question was, where to keep it. Mrs. 
Parson didn’t like the idea of having it 
about the house. After some argument 
(Continued on page 14SS) 
There was a collar of the plaid, having 
two loops on one side and two rose- 
colored buttons on the other, so that the 
collar could be brought up close around 
the neck. Patch pockets and cuffs were 
trimmed with squares of the plaid, put 
on diamond-wise, and appliqued on with 
black buttonhole stitch. A little hat of 
the rose-colored cloth was trimmed 
around the brim with the cut-out squares 
of plaid, buttonholed on, these squares 
being placed around the brim so as to 
make a series of points. This was a very 
pretty little hat and coat, and gives a 
useful suggestion for the home dress¬ 
maker ; for it could be copied at moderate 
expense, though the model seen was quite 
high in price. 
An Ensemble Suit. —The two figures 
next in line show one of the fashionable 
ensemble suits, made of gray kasha cloth 
combined with black bengaline, and 
trimmed with gray fox. The first figure 
shows the full-length coat of gray cloth, 
having close collar and large cuffs of 
the fur. A broad band of fur extended 
round the bottom ; in front there was a 
band of the black bengaline above this, 
with a row of buttons at each side. The 
fastenings of the coat were invisible. The 
next figure shows the dress going with 
this coat, and made of the same mater¬ 
ials. This dress had a deep tunic of the 
gray kaska, worn over a skirt of black 
bengaline. The tunic was cut out at 
back and front in plastron style, having 
sleeves and under-arm portions of the 
bengaline. There was a row of silver but¬ 
tons down the front, and another row of 
buttons quite close together down the 
side of the tunic. The bottom of the 
tunic had several rows of narrow black 
silk braid set close together and a nar¬ 
row band of the fur set on the edge like 
a fringe. This full-length coat could be 
worn with other dresses as a separate 
wrap, while with the dress to match it 
makes a handsome suit. Fur is often 
used as a dress trimming even when there 
is no coat to match. The broad band of 
fur around the bottom of a coat is very 
much in style this season. It gives a 
handsome appearance, but adds to the 
weight without much extra warmth; 
however, it is very smart, which is suffi¬ 
cient reason for most nurehasers. 
Another Simple Dress. —The dress 
worn by the next figure was very hand¬ 
some and yet very simple. It was a 
straight beltless dress of beige kasha, 
with a broad band of woven embroidered 
material around the skirt. This material 
was a combination of black, rose, beige 
and gold woven in stripes, which went 
around the skirt. The high round neck 
had a narrow military collar formed of 
a stripe cut from the embroidered ma¬ 
terial, this stripe extending around the 
front opening or rounded slash, which 
was held together at the neck by a tie 
of black cord, and faced underneath with 
the plain material. Both the collar and 
the edge of this opening were faced with 
gold gimp. The full pear-shaped sleeve 
was gathered at the wrist into a narrow 
band formed of the same colored stripe, 
with a pendent loop lined with the gold 
"imp. A little patch pocket of the em¬ 
broidered material finished one side of the 
waist. 
English Print. —The little dress at 
the extreme right was green and white 
English print. The dress itself was the 
plain style that is very familiar, but we 
wished to show those stole ends of white 
pique winch start under the collar and 
hang loose; they made a pretty trimming, 
and something a little different. Collar 
and cuffs were also of white pique, and 
there was a little tie of narrow black 
ribbon in front. English prints are so 
quaint and pretty in their old-fashioned 
patterns, and launder so well, that they 
are especially suited for children’s wear. 
Notes and Novelties. —There is a 
tendency toward more trimming on hats, 
and even the severe Directoire and cloche 
shapes are not as plain as they were. 
There are many new veils, which take 
the place of trimming, being drawn from 
the back of the hat and wound around 
the neck. Shadow and other novelty 
laces, especially in the brown and taupe 
shades, are popular in these veils. In 
some half the width of the veil is pat¬ 
terned, while the other half is plain 
mesh. 
Neckwear includes many scarfs and 
boas of feathers, both coq and ostrich. 
These are liked by many women who 
want something lighter than a fur piece. 
Flat feather scarfs are often quite broad. 
Lace sleeves, black, white, or the va¬ 
rious ecru shades, are a new French 
fashion, being set in dark dresses. This 
is a very convenient fashion, for such 
sleeves may be set in a sleeveless dress, 
and thus bring it up to date. The sleeves 
may be purchased ready-made; we no¬ 
ticed them in one Fifth ' Avenue shop- 
from $2.50 up to $25 or more. They are 
not tight-fitting, but are slightly gathered 
into a band at the elbow or wrist, and 
finished with a lace edge. The home 
dressmaker will not find it difficult to 
make such sleeves, and where one of the 
ecru tones is desired, it is easy to get a 
good tint by dipping white lace in clear 
coffee. 
The wide belts of soft suede leather, 
now so often worn with straight-line 
frocks were noted recently for $1.34, in 
a great variety of fashionable colors. 
Such belts are also seen in gold and 
silver kid. 
Fur trimming is favored on many cloth 
dresses, especially as a narrow line edg¬ 
ing a vestee opening or a straight-line 
closing at one side. One simple dress of 
black cloth with a deep V-neck over a 
vestee was edged with a roll of leopard 
cat, while mink-dyed marmot edged a 
brown cloth dress where it closed at one 
side, all the way from neck to hem. 
The soft mocha finish is seen in the 
most fashionable dress materials, and es¬ 
pecially in the “ensemble costumes” 
which consist of dress and coat to 
match. Fox, in its many fashionable 
shades, and lynx are favorite furs for 
trimming such costumes. 
Gold or silver kid is a popular trim¬ 
ming, used in collars, cuffs, bandings and 
buttons. Another new trimming is cut 
