Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1885 — Eliminated Drudgery. [ARTICLE]

Eliminated Drudgery.

Miss Annie Hooper, of Daly’s company, is paragraphically paraded as “the daughter of the United States Consul-General at Paris,” but she enjoys the greater distinction of being the daughter also of Mrs. Lucy Hamilton Hooper, who is considerably the larger half of the Consular family. The intensity of the cold during the month of February may be inferred from the fact that Seneca Lake, in Western New York, has frozen over for th®/first time in more than thirty years. It is the peculiarity of this lake that in ordinary winters ice rarely forms but a few inches in depths along' the shore. To render new wainscoting and oak furniture dark and give it an antique appearance, ammonia, says a high authority, is the cleanest, best, and cheapest material that can' be used. The liquid stains commonly used raise the grain of the wood, whereas in the use of ammonia it is simply the fumes that color, and do it so completely that it is difficult to tell whether the wood is really new or old. It is proposed to erect an iron tower 984 feet in bight as one of the novelties of the Paris Exposition of 1889. This will be, by all odds, the highest structure in the world. The projectors of the enterprise claim, in addition to being a novelty, the tower will be scientifically useful in measuring upper air currents and experiments with lighting. Its value in enabling the French to keep an eye on England is not alluded to officially.

A n aged colored woman at Glasgow, Kentucky, was attracted one day last * summer by the humming of a swarm of wandering bees as they passed over her cabin. She ran out, and by ringing bells and beating a tin pan induced them to settle in a tree in her yard. She then climbed the tree and with a small broom swept the swarm into her apron, descended, and as nothing else was handy emptied her capture into a nail keg. They prospered, and she now has a good start in the bee line. The industry of sweetheart-shooting followed by suicide has revived again, after a-brief stagnation. There is no way of reaching this class of crime, because there is nobody left to hang after the tragedy. A return to the mideival style of burying suicides at cross-roads with a stake through the body might be a remedy were the, class who indicatetheir love by murder less brutal. Such men would hardly be affected by the idea of any post-mortem punishment. How to prevent the class of crime referred to is one of the problems of our cheap literature civilization.

Es is almost an assured fact that Mr. Arthur has never contemplated resuming the practice of law, and that his future life will be one of ease and retirement, unless, indeed, he should reenter the political arena. From the White House Mr. Arthur goes to the residence of his friend and premier, Mr. Frelinghuysen, then|p to'Fortress Monroe, thence to his New York home, thence to Canada on a fishing tour, and thence probably back to New Yprk to spend next winter. Mr. Arthur is fond of Washington, but has not yet decided to make it his future residence, although there are many circumstances tempting him to such a decision.

Mb. Goldwin Smith, in a severe notice of Carlyle’s “Life,” expresses himself in this wise. “When a man, being in a diseased and highly irritable condition, belies es the whole world, hiiaself and his own little circle of admirers excepted, to be a moral, political, social, and economical Gehenna, the world being, in fact, nothing of the sort, are the theories of life and government founded on that belief likely to afford sure guidance to mankind? On Carlyle’s transcendent excellence as a painter of historical scenes, and as a sardonic humorist it is needless to dwell. In his philosophy there is nothing reatly positive or constructive, any more than there is in that of Swift.” They have a “feeling” for high art in Philadelphia which could scarcely be excelled even in St. Louis. The theatrical drop curtain painted by Gustave Dore, and which attracted so much attention during the centennial year, has been cut up into “flats” to be used in the cantata of the “Haymakers.” The curtain had been carefully rolled up by one manager until an artist could be found willing to venture on repainting some damaged spots. Another manager wanted the flats, and, finding no other material at hand, took the curtain, though informed of its value. It is not much satisfaction to the .admirers of the picture, who have just made the discovery, to learn also that the vandal manager has since died. Editob Labouchebe, of the London Truth, says: “We l»egin our education at the wrong end. Instead of cramming a child with Latin grammar at the age of 6, we ought to teach him French, German, and Italian while he is young enough to master the pronunciation correctly. Then, as a sort

of extra polish, let him, if, he has time and talent enough, study Latin and Greek, beginning, say, at about 15. If he has no aptitude for these dead and practically useless languages, let liim at once abandon them. By our idiotic system, we make a boy waste the whole of his school days in vainly endeavoring to write languages which he most probably detests, and then expect'him to pick up French and German as he best can in the course of a long vacation tour abroad/*

A Paris correspondent writes that “Victor Hugo, in spite of his years, is still hale and hearty; he eats well and drinks well, and his only infirmity is deafness. Hugo himself will tell you that he is stone-deaf; but his friends maintain that he is only hard of hearing. Thursdays and Sundays, which are reception days, the poet goes to bed about 10 o’clock; other days he retires at 9 :<JQ, and in the morning he works in bed, and rises about 10. He breakfasts lightly, walks, and in spite of the supplications of his family he occasionally indulges in an old distraction of riding on the knifeboard of a ’bus. Whatever the weather, Victor Hugo still obstinately refuses to wear an overcoat, and, old as he is, persists in abundant cold-water* ablutions; but he no longer takes his ’tub’ as he used to do during the siege of Paris, when he was staying with his old friend Paul Maurice, after his return from exile, and when he used to break the ice with his heel cold mornings.”

Dr. Leland, who recently diedin Georgia, was a great sufferer from asthma, and to all appearances died several times before the final dissolution took place. On more than one occasion his family made preparations for his funeral, and a day or two before his actual death he told a remarkable story of bow he witnessed the arrangements. “Unable to lie down, I passed through all my sickness in an easy-chair. My body died several times. I, that is, my spirit, would go away from it, and, standing in an opposite corner of the room, would look back at the flesh and blood in the chair and wonder how I had ever been induced to pass so many years in its company? ‘Poor old body.’ I thought, ‘your troubles are nearly over. They will soon put you away under the ground where you will be at rest forever.’ I saw my family gather about my old frame as it leaned back, dead, in the chair, and it gave me pain to see them weep. Then I would feel something pulling me toward my body again; I could not resist it; I was powerless; and in a moment I had taken possession of it. Then there was an instant of pain, and I opened my eyes and breathed. Each time this was repeated I was more reluetant to return to my body.”

S. A. Dalbymple, of the Dalrymple farms at Casselton, Dakota, recently said: “We have had this year 32,000 acres in wheat and 2,000 acres (enough to feed the stock) in oats. Nine successive crops have been raised off this land, and this year our wheat averaged fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen bushels to the acre. Next year we will begin to summer fallow, letting about 3,000 acres lie idle each season till it has all had a rest. We expect that after the summer following the yield will be from twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre. The 34,000 acres are divided into three farms of nearly equal size. For each of these there is a headquarters, with a superintendent, bookkeeper, foreman, agent, and other officers. These farms are again divided into sections of 2,000 acres each, under a division foreman, who carries out the orders from headquarters, transmitted to him by telephone. Each division has its boarding-house, with men cooks. In the spring seeding, about 500 men are employed, and during the harvest about 1,000. In the fall all the hands are discharged except sufficient to attend the 400 or 500 horses and mules through the winter. At each headquarters there is a store, upon which the cooks make requisition for all provisions. The whole thing is so systematized that we can tell to a cent the cost of a meal’s vituals for a man and the cost of seeding, repairing, or plowing an acre of ground. We ship all our wheat to Duluth, and thence to Buffalo, where we find the best market. To-day wheat sells in Buffalo for 4 cents more, after the shipping expenses are allowed for, than at Duluth.”

The truth is, or should be, that a man takes the most solid comfort in that work which interests his whole family, and about which all the members can unite in study and ejoyment The farmer who pursues a system of mixed husbandry, has in the diversity of employment, breadth of study and thought, everything that will stimulate a healthy activity of mind and body. In the pursuit of financial success, he has problems to solve and question to decide which may form subjects for most interesting family conversation. There may be drudgery in farm life, but there need be no metre of it there than in the details of the highest art The best way in the world to embellish this drudgery, is to find questions connected with it that shall quicken thought and stimulate inquiry in every member of the household.— C. W. Garfield, in Vick’s Magazine. , s. Snakes are never found on the Island of lona, off the west coast of Scotland, although they exist on another island only three-quarters of a mile, distant „.. .