Page:The New Northwest, October 27, 1871.djvu/1



VOLUME 1.

A Journal for the People.

Devoted to the Interests of Humanity.

Independent in Politics and Religion.

Alive to all Live Issues, and Thoroughly Radical in Opposing and Exposing the Wrongs of the Masses.

Correspondents writing over assumed signatures must make known their names to the Editor, or no attention will be given to their communications.

MRS. A. J. DUNIWAY, Editor and Proprietor.

'''OFFICE—Cor. Third and Washington St.'''

ADVERTISEMENTS Inserted on Reasonable Terms

A few evenings after the scene just described, I again strolled out into the grove of maples, whither I was wont to repair when holding silent and sweet, yet sad and solemn, communings with my inmost heart. Suddenly the sounds of whispered conversation disturbed my reverie. Instantly looking up, I again perceived Dr. Armstrong and his companion, evidently engaged in earnest discussion. Determined this time, if possible, to secure an explanation of what I saw, I stepped hastily forward to where they were sitting.

The Doctor's companion arose and hurried away, but I felt, from the magnetic condition of the surrounding atmosphere, that he could be no other person than Dr. Gordon, upon whose account I was fast losing the strongest attribute of my nature, my innate self-respect.

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!"

What good monitor whispered these important words of warning? Certain it is I seemed to hear them, and they nerved my soul to strength.

"Judith Reid!" said Dr. Armstrong, timidly, "this is no fit place for you! Why are you out here alone at this hour? Whom did you expect to meet?"

"I am here alone because I have a right to come and choose to exercise the right. I expected to meet none but the Creator who stretcheth out the heavens as a span. I came here to commune with Him."

The Doctor's companion wrapped his heavy cloak about his face and disappeared in the black shadows of the moon-lit grove.

"By what right do you transgress upon my grounds?" I continued. "Your companion flees at my approach and you proceed to arraign me as a criminal, guilty of some flagrant misdemeanor. Dr. Armstrong! I did not look for this from you! What does all this mean?"

"Judith Reid! I command you to listen to me! Have I not sought your highest good? Did I not follow you to your northwestern home and snatch you from the degradation of drudgery and the very jaws of death?"

"There was no degradation in the fact that I earned an honest livelihood; and I would gladly welcome the ferocious jaws of death to-night! Dr. Armstrong, what motives prompted you to seek me out? By whose connivance was my early womanhood so badly warped? Why was I made the victim of such awful circumstances?"

"God knows I never meant to harm you, Judith. I have taken the deepest interest in all that pertains to you ever since I found you, many years ago, a fiery prey to your own morbid fancies and a victim of unappreciation and poverty. Do you remember that I then saved your life?"

"Would to God that you had let me die!" I wailed, as I fell to my knees upon the dew-bejeweled grass and poured out my spirit in a prayer of silent agony.

The Doctor was moving away as if glad to escape from my presence.

"Stop! I implore you!" I entreated.

"This is no time for further discussion, my poor, frightened child. To-morrow I will visit you and see what can be done. My daughter says you contemplate an early return to the Pacific coast."

There was a sort of relief in his voice as he uttered these last words, which caused me to feel that he would be very glad to get rid of me. A suspicion had for some time been vaguely gathering form and substance in my brain—a sort of intuition that led one to feel that this man knew more about my early misfortune than he cared to unveil.

"Never will I leave this city," said I firmly, "until the mystery and misery of my past life have been explained. I have wandered in darkness all the days of my life, and now, by the Eternal, I swear, and these stars overhead shall bear me witness, I will ferret out the labyrinth of past mysterious circumstances and explore the darkest depths of fate."

"Judith, you are in a frenzy. You know not what you say."

"Indeed I am not mad," I said. "The words of truth and soberness are on my tongue. I feel and how that you are in some unaccountable manner connected with the great mystery that shrouds my life, and I will know the whole if the investigation brings you to the gallows and me to perdition!"

The strong man quailed and hesitated.

"Speak! sir, speak!" I shouted. "Tell me how and why you are connected with my fate, and how and why you came to be my good and evil genius."

"You shall know all in time, my poor, bruised lambkin. If I have been, as you assert, your evil genius, I have not so intended. God and the angels bear me witness that I have never meant, by word or deed, to bring you ought but happiness. And if there is any work that I can accomplish by which you may obtain that peace of mind to which I for many years have been a stranger, personal humiliation shall be nothing to me. I will do my duty though my own roof tree full and though the blight shall crush me. Judith, God only knows how unhappy I am! I have carried a secret sorrow all the days of my manhood. I am about to tell you that which I have struggled all my life to keep from the world. John Smith, the man whose name you bear, and the man with whom you saw me in the grove have had me in their power many, many years. Poor John has gone the way of all the earth."

The Doctor stopped abruptly here and began pacing up and down the graveled walk.

"Oh, Doctor! tell me all! I implore you to spare me not, for I feel and know that something that you can, nay, must reveal, most vitally concerns myself."

"Indeed it does, poor stricken child! Indeed it does!" and he kept on pacing up and down the graveled walk.

"Dr. Armstrong! I will bear with you no longer! Who is this man Gordon, and why is it that he so deeply interests me?" I asked, savagely.

"Judith!" and the tone was sad and sepulchral, "Will you give me the word of an earnest, honest woman that you will not betray my trust?"

"The word of a woman is pledged to you, my friend. But hark! Doesn't somebody listen?"

A slight rustling in the bushes was detected, but soon all was still, and we were satisfied that we could not he overheard.

"The man whom you know as Dr. Gordon is my natural son! Nay, don't run as though I were a demon! His mother was a pure and noble woman, whom I loved with an intense devotion which was only equaled by her implicit confidence in me. I was young, passionate, ignorant, undisciplined. My father had failed in business; my mother was proud, and I was, of course, poor. The sins of my father were visited heavily upon me, and my passional nature, of the inordinate cause of which I was wholly ignorant, was not under that control which is born of knowledge. My idol became the disgraced and suffering mother of a child of shame. I would have married her and defied the world, but, poor, true, trusting creature, she was snatched from me by her parents, and after lingering for a few years in an insane asylum, her spirit took its flight."

"Does Mrs. Armstrong know of this?"

"Of course she knew of Susan and the child, but she has no idea that the child is here."

"How came you to marry Mrs. Armstrong, if all this that you have told me is true?"

"How came you to marry poor John Smith? You see, as society is, young people are controlled almost altogether by circumstances. I was known as a popular and rising young physician; Mrs. Armstrong as an heiress; and our well-meaning but ignorant friends did the rest."

"Well, I am sure you have made the best of the lot that has fallen to you, so far as matrimony is concerned. But what of this boy? Where has he been all these years?"

"Poor boy! he has been an Ishmaelite. He is to-day an outlaw!"

"The mystery grows darker. But, Doctor, I must know it all."

"Not to-night, poor, wounded dove!"

"Why in the name of common sense not tell me all to-night?"

"Because curious ears may listen and idle tongues tell tales."

"Well, then, good night, and come to me alone to-morrow."

He disappeared in the shadows, and I, all quaking with a terror I could not understand, emerged into the limpid light of moon and stars, and knelt down to pray.

Hope and peace came to solace me in my perturbation, and I arose from my devotions refreshed and strong.

A figure glided past me through an opening, and hid behind some clumps of lilac. I hurriedly sought out the intruder, and found that my very reliable servant had been spying out my movements.

"Nanette! what are you doing here?"

"Indeed, ma'am, I'll leave your house this very night! A woman who meets respectable men out at night to talk about babies they had before marriage ain't fit company for a young woman who has a character to sustain. I will go right straight to Mrs. Armstrong and get a place, and when I tell her what I've seen to-night there won't be no row! Oh, no!"

"I am ashamed, good reader, to confess to you that I grew angry, but I did. Here was an impudent, ignorant quadroon who had dogged my footsteps to get material for false accusations, and when caught in the disreputable act she had the unblushing audacity to threaten to leave and expose a woman, whom she accused of wickedness, and go to the house or the "respectable" man, whom she adjudged an accomplice, because she had a character to maintain!

I was so indignant that I did not stoop to refute her charges, but I gave her a lesson upon the importance of minding her own business which, if I had only been prudent enough to have said in gentleness, could doubtless have satisfied the girl and made her my fast friend. Better and wiser people than myself have made just such ridiculous mistakes.

I would not let her remain with me till morning, but commanded her to pack up and put off in a hurry, which command she obeyed, vowing vengeance in a way that would have seriously disturbed me, had I not been so conscious of my own rectitude and her audacity that I did not care a fig for her falsehoods.

Entering my little parlor I dropped my trembling frame into a chair. Feathery rays of moonlight tangled themselves In the vines and lattice, and strayed through the trailing tendrils of the sleeping morning glories. The hallowed stillness of the night was broken by a screech owl's note, whose warning carried me, as if by magic, away through the long, dead years, hack to the forest of the long ago, where the same sound had jarred me. Clasping my hands tightly over my throbbing temples, I leaned back in the chair and sat there thinking, thinking, thinking.

A darkness that could be felt encompassed me; magnetic chills ran through my veins; a mellow light gradually acquired form and substance, and a benevolent face, with long, white beard and beaming eyes, stood out in bold relief.

"A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grevious words stir up anger."

These were the words I heard, and while I looked and listened the figure vanished, the bright light and inky darkness disappeared, and in my soul, as in the olden time, the sweet and solemn promise, "I'll explain," attuned itself to melody.



This department of the is to be a general vehicle for exchange of ideas concerning any and all matters that may be legitimately discussed in our columns. Finding it practically impossible to answer each correspondent by private letter, we adopt this mode of communication to save our friends the disappointment that would otherwise accrue from our inability to answer their queries. We cordially invite everybody that has a question to ask, a suggestion to make, or a scolding to give to contribute to the Correspondents' Column.

G. B. B., Jacksonville: Yes.

W. R. B., Harrisburg: Your remittance received all right. Have not time at present to answer by private letter, but will take pleasure in doing so as soon as opportunity offers.

Mrs. M. M. M., Salem: Should think you would do well in Portland giving a course of lectures, You should be prepared, however, to extend your lecturing tour to other points. You certainly would have a good audience here. Hope we shall be able to answer you privately soon.

 Madame Jeanette Power, one of the most eminent feminine naturalists of the day, has recently deceased in France. She was known as the discoverer of the secret of the manner in which the shell of the nautilus is formed, and her experiments upon the subject are among the most curious of the age. It is to Madame Power that we owe, likewise, the invention of the aquarium. She was much esteemed in the scientific world, a member of most of the European acadamies of science, and held a grade of high distinction at the Academy of Brussels, and, withal, so truly feminine and simple-hearted that all this honor and glory was freely given.

FREE SCHOOLS FOR OREGON

Is the title of a well written pamphlet of forty pages, containing the lecture delivered at Salem before the Marlon County Teachers' Institute, Aug. 17th, by our young friend, J. A. Waymire, Esq.

This is, perhaps, the most elaborate and valuable contribution among the many pleas for free schools that has ever emanated from a confessed Oregonian.

Mr. Waymire has given a plentiful supply of facts and figures; enough, we would think, to start from his habitual lethargy the dullest Oregonian and fill him with an earnest conviction of the necessity of doing something more than we are doing for the education of our youth, more than half of whom do not attend school at all, or so irregularly as to make no progress in their schooling.

On pages 28, 29 and 30, under the subhead of "What Oregon Is Doing," is a terse synopsis of the present educational condition in this State, which compares very well with the old slave-holding States before the war, when the rich aristocrats opposed school tax, educated their children at private and select schools, while the children of the poor, always by far the greater number, were forced into mental starvation and degradation.

Let every inhabitant of the State read what "Oregon Is Doing," and firmly resolve that the next time Mr. Waymire looks at the statistics he can report a commendable progress in our educational condition, even if we are not ready to adopt the "American Free School System," the practicability of which I think Mr. Waymire has fully demonstrated in the succeeding pages of his lecture.

On pages 36, 37 and 38 will be found a statement of "Our School Funds," to which I would invite the attention of everybody concerned in the education and training of youth.

Mr. W. says, "Our State has a rich endowment for her schools." I thought so once, and thousands besides, who immigrated to this coast, came over the great desert with the happy prospect of ample provisions for the education of their posterity. Let me whisper to you, friend W., that the rich endowment is non est.

Do you call that a rich endowment which does not yield enough revenue to keep a 1½ month's school In a year? Why, sir, as compared with the States of Illinois, Iowa and other new Western States, we are poorly endowed. A single county of the States aforenamed has a greater fund than the whole State of Oregon.

It is indeed true that our good and generous Uncle Sam did set off upon paper a most princely inheritance to the children of Oregon, but what, with the snow-capped ranges of mountains, which cool our air and furnish us with perennial streams of purest water; the waste alkali flats and scoriated hills; the elevated table lands of grand extent, fit only for pasturage; the giving of section and half-section claims in the rich and fertile valleys to actual settlers in advance of the surveys, by which most of the 16th and 36th sections were blotted out of the original bequest; and last, though not least, the robbery committed by the last Legislature and the Governor, Grover, by which the 500,000 acres of land set apart by the Constitution of the State as an irreducible school fund were given away to a private corporation, the educational prospects of the aforesaid children will come out at the little end of the horn so far as the rich endowment goes.

It is true we have 75,000 acres for a State University and 90,000 acres for an Agricultural College, making 105,000 acres. But what the children are most interested in knowing is, "How much money will it bring?" Where is this land? In the Willamette or other valleys? Is it mountain or sand plain? Is it worth one cent or one dollar per acre? Will it ever be worth any more than it is now? Can it be sold at all? The same questions must be asked about those lands selected in lieu of the 16th and 36th sections, called indemnity lands.

The so-called rich endowment depends for its richness upon the answer to these questions; and until they are answered don't let us talk about the balance of the proceeds of the 500,000 acres, after paying the $200,000 and interest to the Canal and Locks Company for their disinterested labor in behalf of the State.

There is no balance of the proceeds of the 500,000 acres. There never will be any if the funds and lands are managed as the law provides.

That little Lock Bill effectually gobbled up the whole of that irreducible school fund. There are no means of knowing what amount could be realized from a judicious handling of the 500,000 acres; — probably $1,000,000, which, at 12 per cent. per annum, would yield $120,000, and, with the other funds, would give us a free school six months in a year. Whatever they are, are gone — all gone — not even so much as the baseless fabric of a vision left to the children of the State to compensate them for the loss of that rich endowment.

The fact is, that, owing to the peculiar geographical character of Oregon and the peculiar circumstances attending the transfer of the laws of this State by the General Government, our rich endowment for school purposes has dwindled down to a very small affair.

For this very reason the greatest care, the severest economy, should be bestowed upon its management. For this reason the people of this State should never rest until the work of tho last Legislature be undone and the 500,000 acres restored to the irreducible school fund, where the people placed it by the adoption of our Constitution. 1em

Washington, D. C. Sept. 11th, 1871.

Mrs. A. J. Duniway, Editor of the New Northwest:—

Dear Madam:—Your name has been proposed for Member of the National Woman Suffrage Committee (headquarters at Washington, D. C.) by our mutual friend, Mrs. L. DeForce Gordon. It gives me great pleasure to invite your co-operation with the Committee, and shall he happy to hear at your earliest convenience that you will accept the position.

Our position is probably known to you, and is the simple outgrowth of a rapidly developing public sentiment in behalf of woman's political and civil equality. From all parts of the country the demand now comes for united action, and, to secure this, fundamental knowledge on this subject must be extended to those called upon to act — and the Committee are straining every nerve to put this whole argument in favor of woman's voting, and the evidence that she is now entitled to vote under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, into the hands of all who manifest any interest individually or through a representative to us.

What we ask of members of this Committee is, help to organize committees or societies — in their localities or in any way most effective — to circulate petitions asking for "a Declaratory Act" of Congress, the coming session, that will strike down the State laws that now, contrary to the Supreme law of the land, "deny" and "abridge" the right of woman to exercise the rights of a citizen of the United States, which is the only hindrance to her exercise of the elective franchise over the whole country to-day. You will see how important is this work. We send you blank petitions. Another part of our work, and not less important, is the circulation and sale of our publications and the collection of money therefrom, and by other means to print tracts and bear current expenses. Our "Address to the Women of the United States," containing a pledge and declaration of sentiment, invites all women favoring the same to send their names in autograph that is, on a slip or on a sheet with a page of names accompanied with one dollar for printing fund — the same to be placed in the great National Autograph Book, which is already nearly filled with the names of noble and live women — to be kept in the archives of the nation. If more than one dollar can be spared, let it come — and to all such contributors we respond with a History of the Movement for twenty years, lately published by Mrs. Paulina W. Davis. You will readily see that this constitutes the bone and sinew of our movement. Without it we cannot print and continue our educational work — that is, without the money. Contributions are of course solicited in any and all ways, that may best please the taste or suit the convenience of the members of the Committee and by each one's effort, though it may be of small amount, we shall accomplish the work we propose to do, and, I trust, shall realize our hope of the speedy and peaceful enfranchisement of woman.

I have written quite explicitly to indicate our programme of work, and hope soon to hear of your favorable decision and be able to forward you the samples of our cheap tracts and Constitutional argument, and so feel the support of your strong arm in the State of Oregon.

Most respectfully, J. S. Griffing, Sec'y.

The Oregon Statesman, in discussing the question of woman suffrage, attempts to palm off nearly a column of special pleading on its readers for argument against the measure, the following sentence from which is a fair specimen:

"We believe in treating woman with all the consideration she can reasonably demand, but we are not prepared to force political privileges upon her against her will."

Of course men are to be the only judges as to what shall constitute her reasonable demands. Women, like slaves, must be passive. The hypocritical talk about "forcing political privileges on woman against her will" is too bald and transparent to require note or comment to make it apparent to ordinarily intelligent readers. A novice in governmental requirements would naturally conclude, on reading that class of American newspapers of which the Statesman is a type, that voting was compulsory; that the citizen to whom the "privilege" was granted had no alternative but to devote his time to politics, day and night, week-days and Sundays, to the exclusion of other business matters—attend caucuses, go to the polls on election days at the risk of life or limb, or be fined and imprisoned for neglect of political duties. Every State and National election demonstrates that armies of voters neglect to vote; and so long as masculines exclusively shall continue to engineer our political system, by which thieves, roughs and rowdies exercise a controlling influence, both at conventions, caucuses and the polls, so long will the better classes continue to absent themselves from the polls, and will only interest themselves in political matters when to do so in the interest of personal friends or for local improvements.—Pioneer.

WOMAN UNDER THE LAWS OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

OLYMPIA, W. T., Sept. 20th, 1871.

Mrs. A. J. Duniway—Madam:—I have read with interest several numbers of your excellent paper, and have felt as if I should be glad to contribute a mite in assisting the good work of reforming our laws, so as to place our feminine population in a not less eligible position than the hardier sex.

I have not seen any criticism upon the almost universal system of legislation, on the exemption of property from execution for debt, wherein there is nearly always partiality against the widow and in favor of the husband and wife. For instance, in this Territory, a man, married or unmarried, as a professional man is entitled to a library and other property to the value of hundreds of dollars, which cannot be taken for debt; whereas the widow and children of such man are deprived of any such exemption in their favor. The working or the law is thus: A red-gloved lawyer or physician with a library worth $500, and wardrobe worth $300, may settle in this Territory and get in debt to a widow for washing and ironing his clothes, and not one cent's worth of his $800 worth of property can she claim. But let her call the physician when half a dozen children are sick of measles, and his charge of $3 per visit holds half the value of her small property of $800 liable for his debt.

I have not had occasion to examine the statutes of other Territories or States on this coast, but I imagine a similar state of case will be found to exist in others. You will find what I have stated on pages 86, 87, 88 of statutes published in 1869.

This letter is not for publication, but merely to suggest what you may not have noticed and assist you in preparing a suitable article on this subject. It is by calling public attention to these wrongs that a correction of the abuse may be expected.

With sentiments of respect I am

Your Ob't Servant,H.

P. S. You can can see the hardships wrought against the widow of a lawyer or physician. While he is alive and able to assist his wife in the rearing and education of the family, they are favored with an exemption of $700 or more; the moment she becomes a widow, and when she most needs help and protection, the law withdraws and deprives her and her children of the benefit of this exemption, when every consideration for charity and humanity would say that she should rather have increased than diminished protection.

"We Wait for an Answer."

Under this head the New York Standard takes occasion to make a covert attack on Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, on account of sympathy alleged to have been manifested towards Laura D. Fair, now under sentence of death for shooting Mr. Crittenden, a lawyer of eminence, who had deserted his wife and family, and had, for years, given himself, soul and body, to the woman who finally avenged not only her own wrong, but the wrongs of his wife, by meteing to him his just reward. It is not our intention to justify Mrs. Fair in her act, but that Crittenden met a fate he richly deserved no one will deny.

Had Mrs. Crittenden shot both Mrs. Fair and her recreant and most guilty husband, the world would have upheld her. We have here to do simply with the Standard in regard to the article under the above caption. It may perhaps appear a hard thing for a woman's paper to utter; but if the editor of the Standard were a woman, and had some spite towards the ladies against whom it makes repetition of a slanderous report, we would account for the presence of that article in its columns.

But what motive the editor of the Standard could have in giving further circulation to a matter calculated to cast a shadow on the proceedings of two ladies whose conduct and motives have always been, and now are, above suspicion, we are at a loss to guess. We must reiterate that that article appears to us the fruit of a longing desire or hope that the ladies named may have done something censurable, and worthy of withering rebuke. To throw the shadow of a doubt on these women is a crime against all society, as well as against the noble, fearless women themselves. To utter a falsehood, and then apologise and contradict it, is no compensation to the injured party, nor yet to public morality, which is outraged thereby. To publish a malignant falsehood, and qualify it with a feeble, languidly expressed hope that it may be a mistake, or malicious misrepresentation of the press, should be poor consolation to a conscience not wholly seared by its own lascivious and free-love doctrines and practices.

We maintain that a visit to the prisoner, man or woman, incarcerated for crime, of whatever character, is always in order with really virtuous and honorable women. If Jesus forgave the woman taken in adultery, and said to the thief on the cross, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," we should like to know what there is, or can be criminal, or needing any answer or explanation in the visit of two respectable, intelligent ladies, with world-wide reputation for ability and purity of life, to the cell of the vilest creature alive for the purpose of condolence, or any other purpose such women could go for?

We wait for an answer also. We would like to know when the writer of that article became possessed of the immaculate virtue that scoffs at sympathy with the fallen, and whether such virtue would not be more seemly if a little less ostentatious. Revolution.

Beef Pudding.—Weigh the beef; selecting nice tender pieces, and to every hundred-weight allow seven pounds of salt, two ounces of saltpetre, one and a half pounds of brown sugar and four gallons of water. In the bottom of the tub place the pieces you intend for dried beef, then over them pack the other meat. Watch it carefully, and when you find that meat and seasoning seem well incorporated take out the drying pieces and hang up. To the liquor add a little more salt, and let the other pieces remain until wanted. The dried beef can be smoked as you do hams, if preferred; but it is more delicate when that is omitted.

Bread and Butter pudding. — Make a batter of five eggs and a pint of milk; add a little salt before the eggs are put in. Have several slices of bread about as thick as for toasting, and spread butter thickly on them. Butter a pudding dish, and put in a layer of bread and butter, then raisins and currants and another layer of bread and butter, until the dish is nearly three-quarters full. Flavor the butter with nutmeg; pour over, and bake till its seems firm and done. Eat with sauce.

Baked Tomatoes. — Take large tomatoes, make a hole in the ends, fill with bread crumbs well seasoned with butter, pepper and salt. Set them in a dripping pan and bake.

Sweet Tomato Pickle. — Take ripe tomatoes, wash and slice them. Seven pounds of tomatoes, three pounds of sugar, one pint of vinegar; boil till done. Put in a stone pot and cover well.

Canned Pears. Pare and halve them, and to a pound of fruit take a quarter of a pound of sugar and several pieces of ginger root — the latter improves the flavor, taking away the nasty, insipid taste. Fill the cans, and let them boil gently ten minutes, or stew them in a kettle, and pour into jars boiling hot. If there is not sufficient syrup, fill up with boiling water.

Another way is to pare them carefully, taking care to leave on the stems. Half the quantity of sugar as fruit; boll till tender. Put the fruit in cans while very hot. Seal quickly as possible.

Canning Tomatoes. — Scald them, in order to remove the skins, stew them perfectly as for table, without salt, fill the cans with pulp, leaving out much of the water, and seal hot.

Another way is to remove the skins in the usual manner, scald them gently, hut not enough to have them fall in pieces put them one by one in the cans, and fill up with the juice. When wished for table, slice them carefully, and season with pepper, vinegar, salt, etc., as you would fresh tomatoes.

To Wash Windows. — Wash well with soap suds, rinse with warm water, rub dry with linen and finish by polishing with soft dry paper. A fine polish is given to window glass by brushing over with a paste of whiting; let it dry; rub off with paper or cloth, and with a clean, dry brush remove every particle of the whiting from the corners.

—Thank God! some of us have an old fashioned mother. Not a woman of the period, enambled and painted, with her great chignon, her curls and bustle; whose white, jeweled hands never have felt the clasp of baby fingers; but a dear, old-fashioned, sweet-voiced mother, with eyes in whose clear depths the love-light shone, and brown hair, threaded with silver, lying smooth upon her faded cheek. Those dear hands, worn with toil, gently guided our tottering steps in childhood, and smoothed our pillow in sickness; even reaching out to us in yearning tenderness, when her sweet spirit was baptized in the pearly spray of the river.

Blessed is the memory of an old-fashioned mother. It floats to us now, like the beautiful perfume of some woodland blossom. The music of other voices may be lost, but the entrancing memory of hers will echo in our souls forever. Other faces will fade away and be forgotten, but hers will shine on until the light from heaven's portals shall glorify our own. When in the fitful pauses of busy life our feet wander back to the old homestead, and, crossing the well-worn threshold, stand once more in the low, quaint room, so hallowed by her presence, how the feeling of childish innocence and dependence comes over us, and we kneel down in the molten sunshine, streaming through the western window — just where long years ago we knelt by our mother's knee, lisping "Our Father." How many times when the tempter lures us on has the memory of those sacred hours, that mother's words, her faith and prayers, saved us from plunging into the deep abyss of sin! Years have filled great drifts between her and us, but they have not hidden from our sight the glory of her pure, unselfish love. — Selected.

A convention of scientific agricultural gentlemen has been in session in Chicago, attended by some forty delegates from most of the Northern and Western States. At this convention Prof. Welch, of the Iowa Agricultural College, said the woman question had never been a matter of doubt with him, and in one respect it had been entirely successful. The element introduced by women into schools was one which had made government most easy. The proposition to admit women into agricultural colleges was favorably commented upon.

—A cotemporary speaking of woman's deadly hate to the whisky traffic and how they sometimes deport themselves on trying occasions, relates how several women in a certain town in Ohio took it upon themselves, recently, to close the gin mills, and, assembling in squads, they betook themselves to the taverns, and quietly sat down with their knitting the whole day, working and talking unconcernedly. Husbands and brothers came in unawares, and of course did not drink under such circumstances, and the reform has proved lasting. The query is, would these women, if allowed the use of the ballot, duplicate the vote of their husbands, or vote according to their own judgment as to the pressing necessities of the case and the hour?—Pioneer.

— The Woman Suffragists of this State will not be likely to forget that at the very outset in Mrs Van Valkenberg's registration suit, Judge Hagan made a free offer of his services to conduct that suit, and did the same ably. Failing to gain a favorable verdict in the District Court, he promptly offered, gratuitously, to plead the case before the Supreme Court of this State (to which the plaintiff had decided to carry it). This generous courtesy on the part of Judge Hagan makes it easy and possible to bring the question of woman's right to vote under the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution to a speedy trial. It will be argued at, the October term of the Court, and we shall await the result with great interest.

A young man charged with being lazy was asked if he took it from his father. "I think not," was the reply; "father's got all the laziness he ever had."

Abraham Lincoln, being annoyed on one occasion by a fiddler, who persisted in playing in front of his house, sent him out a dollar, with the message that one scraper was enough at the door.

Two-thirds of the women in lunatic asylums are wives of farmers.

Young ladies suffering from a pain in the side may relieve it by wearing a sash.