Part 21

In those places where women cannot vote what can they do towards securing good government? Can they do anything through their husbands, brothers and fathers? Through their neighbors? Through their own children? Can they do anything through the church? The schools? Last year, when Philadelphia threw off boss-rule, what was the method that succeeded in making the corrupt politicians surrender after all other methods had failed?

Can you tell the Department of any instance where the women have brought about, or helped to bring about, reforms in town, country, state or national government even when they were not allowed to vote?

Do you remember the saying that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”? How much truth is there in it?

If you had a really intelligent idea of politics as they should be and as they are, would it bring you into closer touch with the men-folks of your family? Would it broaden your horizon? Would it interfere with household duties? Would it make you a better citizen? Could you accomplish real good by having this knowledge?

What is the best way of acquiring an intelligent idea of the subject, it you haven’t one already? Take the opinion of those around you? Read weighty and technical books and articles? Read first a very simple book on civics—on the organization of our Government? Would it be a good plan to read your boy’s school text-book on this subject?

Can some one point out a few articles in the numbers of this Magazine which make their point very clear and are easy enough for anyone to understand? Send the Department the names of a few that appealed to you, so that some more of us can venture on them. Similar articles in other magazines which the average woman can grasp without a previous extensive knowledge of politics or political economy? Books?

Can you decide a question until you have heard both sides of it?

Is it safe to believe all you read, or does it pay to consider when you read it, who wrote it, what personal or party reason he may have had for writing it?

Consider your local newspaper. Do you know the difference between the “set” matter and the “plate” matter and the “ready-print” matter in its pages? Why is this difference _very_ important in deciding as to the value of an article in that paper? Who writes set matter? Has he “any fish to fry” when he writes? Who writes plate and ready-print matter? Has he any fish to fry? With a little care you can tell these three kinds of printed matter apart in your local paper. (Ready-print matter is used only in some country weeklies and dailies and some other small local papers. It can be “spotted” by noticing what pages of the paper always have it. Unfold the paper and lay it flat on the floor. If it is ready-print and has few pages enough to make only one sheet, all of the pages on one side will be ready-print. There won’t be any local articles or items in the print. Both ready-print and plate are in different type from set matter.) If a corrupt man or corrupt men wrote the ready-print and plate could they wield a vast influence? More than by writing the set matter? It is well worth thinking about.

Are there many magazines or papers that are not controlled by political or business interests? How much can you believe in a publication controlled in that way?

The voters of the country are divided into several political parties. Would it be better or worse if there were no regular parties and every voter voted independently?

What is a real democracy? Is the United States a real democracy now? Why?

What is meant by direct legislation—the initiative, referendum, recall and imperative mandate? Big words, but they stand for things worth knowing about and having an opinion on. And they are easy enough to understand. Would these things tend toward real democracy? Have they been tried in actual practice? If so, have they proved a success? Why? What effect would they have on the whole party system?

There, I think that is enough questions for one person to ask. Someone is likely to ask me a question in return—_How_ do politics affect our daily bread? Well, there are several hundred answers to that. Let’s each of us suggest for the May number one or more ways that politics (according to both definition No. 1 and definition No. 2) affect our daily living.

We are not going to try to become experts in politics, but we do want to have an intelligent general idea of them. It is our _duty_. In our May number I hope to have many opinions from women all over the country.

We had a glimpse last month at some of the interesting things concerned in bread and bread-making. The house is full of things we have known so long that we scarcely think of them except as parts of the daily routine, but which, if we turn our attention to them, prove veritable mines of information, history, travel and even romance.

_Sponges_

A sponge is the skeleton of a very, very, tiny animal, or rather of a colony of thousands of such animals that live under water. When the little animals die they leave behind them this network of elastic fibers that they have built up. For a long time it was thought that sponges were plants, and even now scientists know really very little about these little animals. You have noticed how many kinds of sponges there are. These different varieties are caused partly by differences in temperature and chemical composition of the water and partly by the fact that there are more than one species or variety of the animal itself. There is no need to enumerate all the kinds of sponges from the fine, soft ones used in surgical operations to the big, coarse ones used for washing carriages. Nearly all the sponges inhabit salt water and the best ones come from the Mediterranean, particularly the Levant or that eastern part of the Mediterranean bounded by Syria, Asia Minor and the Holy Land and Egypt. Others are found in the waters around Florida and in those near Australia. The sponges are secured by means of native divers. In some places these men work all day long from sunrise to sunset through six months of the year, resting during the winter. The work is, of course, very hard and few of them reach old age. Often they are treated with inhuman cruelty by their employers and many are killed by sharks. Particularly in Florida there have been attempts made to raise sponges artificially, but though it is easy to secure the spawn of the tiny animals and succeed in getting them to attach their little colonies to stones, coral or other objects under water, the sponges never reach any considerable size and are commercially useless. They have also tried to propagate them by cuttings or slips, but here arises the difficulty of making the cuttings attach themselves to other objects, which is necessary to their development. And the little animals themselves, they go right on very quietly drinking in water and getting all they need from it—air, food and drink—whether they are off the coast of Europe, Asia, Africa, America or Australia or in a little glass aquarium being looked at through a microscope by a dried-up old man with spectacles and side-whiskers. And we use the sponges.

_Maize_

The right name of what we call corn or Indian corn is maize. The word is derived from the Spanish word _maiz_, which comes from the native Haitian word _mahiz_. Corn in Europe means what we call wheat. Maize, or corn, like all our grains, belongs to the big Grass Family and is a native of America. Most of our other grains come from Europe and Asia, just as we ourselves did. It probably came from the table-lands of Mexico and Peru and has always been the chief food of the Indians. It was introduced into Asia, southern Europe and northern Africa and spread quickly and widely for a while. However, the climate was not hot enough for it in Europe and it is not raised there very much now. The English generally consider it fit only for animals and rather turn up their noses at us for eating it ourselves. The only time I ever saw any offered to an Englishman he was very polite about it but managed to avoid eating even a single mouthful from the nice, tender ears. Other nations are horrified at seeing otherwise well-bred Americans pick up a roasting-ear and gnaw it off the cob, and it must be confessed that it does look pretty bad unless a person is careful to hold it with only one hand and bite it off daintily. Many Americans who travel in Europe miss it terribly and one woman confessed to me that her chief reason for coming home was just to get some real American corn once more. I understand, though, that the English look on our popcorn very differently. It is said that two New England spinsters introduced it over there a number of years ago and their little stand rapidly became so popular that they amassed a very considerable fortune and lived happily ever afterwards. We use sweet corn not only on the cob, for fritters, puddings and so on, as corn-meal and for stock, but extract from it whisky, starch and glucose sugar. Besides sweet corn and popcorn the common kinds are flint and dent. Sweet corn gets its name from the large quantities of sugar in it. Popcorn pops because it has a great deal of oil and this oil explodes when sufficiently hot. Corn varies in color from white to black, but most of it is yellow or white. Like wheat, Government experts and other scientists in this country, Canada and elsewhere have been experimenting with corn for years and by cross-breeding and selection (about which processes I hope the Department will receive some interesting contributions for our June number) they have vastly improved the old varieties and produced many new ones.

When I was a child I remember being much impressed on being told that you never, _never_ could find an ear of corn with an odd number of rows in it. Maybe you can, but I never have been able to, and, as that advertisement says, “there is a reason.”

Can someone tell us for our June Department? You may have heard the story of the Southern planter before the War who offered to give freedom to any slave who could find an ear of corn with an uneven number of rows. None of them could, though it is easy to believe they hunted a good deal, until finally another white man showed one of the slaves how he could cut a row out of an ear when it was very young so as to leave no mark when he presented it and demanded his freedom. The master kept his word and the slave went free.

It was almost equally hard to award the prize for the best general suggestion or recipe sent in. After some careful deliberation, it seemed that, all things considered, the free subscription this month should go to Alicia E. Storm, of Plessis, N. Y., though we hesitated, especially between this and Mrs. Richardson. A little later I hope to be able to send a little souvenir to _everyone_ who sends in a contribution and doesn’t get a regular prize. In case this plan carries out, as I think it will, of course all who have contributed before that time will be remembered. And always there is the gratitude of those who benefit from your suggestion, and my own sincere thanks and your consciousness of having helped other women in their daily trials and perplexities.

_Home Talk._

We have no kitchen cabinet, and we keep a small table set for three in our kitchen, which is not large. The cooking stove, sink, and cupboards taking most of the room. I needed a small table to use for work and mixing table. There was a space behind the stove. I bethought me of the crate in which my sewing machine came. It is just the thing. The table is just about the right height, and the shelf below is as convenient as the top. I find that on baking day it helps very much to get everything one needs before commencing work. I use an earthen mixing bowl. After the bread and biscuits, I make pies, as the lard is then cold. Then I make my cakes and afterward doughnuts. It is a saving of time and fuel if one can bake a variety at once, as in cold weather victuals keep longer than in summer. A convenience for storing pies can be made by having several shelves sawed out large enough to hold your tins. One can use laths (four of them) for uprights, fastening them well at the four corners of the bottom shelf; then fasten the others about three inches apart. This gives more space, and keeps pies from being mussed.

Did you ever experience the difference between two neighborly calls? Mrs. A. relates the latest bit of gossip, making up in insinuations what she lacks in fact. She talks about her dressmaker, criticizes the appearance and dress of her friends, and gives you an uncomfortable feeling—thinking perhaps you will be the subject of unpleasant remarks. Mrs. B. is fresh and cheery. She asks about your plants, and tells of the growth of her own—of every new bud. She tells of the cunning things her baby has said, of the nest her canary is building, of the new book she is reading. She tells, perhaps, of some ludicrous mistake she has made in her cooking, laughing at the same. This woman may not be intellectual in the highest sense, but she is charming. Her call will have made you happy all the day. We leave the effect of our presence—sometimes for long. So should we act that no sting of uneasiness be left in the hearts of those with whom we come in contact.—_Alicia E. Storm, Plessis, N. Y._

_Valuable Pointers_

Every work is easy and pleasant if you go at it as you go to a picnic. In house cleaning I fix one room at the time. It takes a week, but I have the most of each day and I do my work better, as I don’t have to hurry. No confusion in the regular routine of work; one thorough sweeping and dusting is enough for one day. If the tablecloth is clean enough for the home folks, it is all right for company. Don’t try to cook a variety of dishes each day. You won’t hold out so well, and one or two will do as well, and change them every day. Sheets, towels and some other things can be used all right without ironing. If you smoothed all the wrinkles out of all the rough clothes, you might have the wrinkles in your face. I read and rest some every day. Prepare two dinners on Saturday, and go to church and Sunday-school. I do have some trouble and everyone does, but I am always thankful, and my life-work is a delight to me. Let us try to do all things to the glory and honor of God. Although in the country, we have one of the best “teachers.” Our children attend, cold or hot, regularly. They are taught the Sunday-school lesson at school Friday afternoon.—_Mrs. E. A. Richardson, Thomaston, Ga._

_To Make Sure of Milk Churning in Cold Weather_

Many persons who churn in winter have trouble because butter will not come if chilled, and are obliged to throw the milk away, or feed it to the stock. If they will steam, not boil, the milk after milking, they can allow it to freeze solid and it will churn all right if thawed and warmed properly. This recipe has been worth many dollars to me, and hope it will help other women housekeepers.—_Mrs. D. L. Burrows, Gibson, Ga._

_To Polish Nickel on Stoves_

Use stove polish. It is the very best thing. Rub a light coating over it and polish with polishing cloth or brush. The cloth or brush is generally sufficient. Only give an occasional coat of polish.—_Mrs. D. L. Burrows, Gibson, Ga._

_To Clean Iron Kettles_

Boil skim-milk in it and then wash with good soap-suds. Use six quarts for an eight-quart kettle, and boil and simmer for twenty-four hours. This will also prevent future trouble.—_Mrs. E. R. Putney, Kansas City, Mo._

_To Remove Large Stones From Fields_

Make the stone very hot on one side only; pour water on it to make it crack, and help it along with a heavy hammer. Another way, in the winter, is to bore a hole pretty well into the stone, fill with water and plug it firmly shut. The force of the water as it freezes will crack the stone. Still another way is to make a hole in the direction of the veins or cleavage of the stone, put in a cleft cylinder of iron, then drive an iron wedge between the two halves of the cylinder. _L. L. Deweese, Piqua, O._

_Shoe-Soles_

Melt together tallow and common resin, two parts of first to one of second. Apply hot—as much as the sole will absorb. Neat’s-foot oil is good also. These remedies keep the leather soft, prevent its cracking, and make it waterproof.—_Mrs. N. O. Baker, Jersey City, N. J._

_To Clean Wall Paper_

Take off the dust with a soft cloth. With a little flour and water make a lump of stiff dough and rub the wall gently downward, taking the length of the arm each stroke, and in this way go round the whole room. As the dough becomes dirty, cut the soiled parts off. In the second round commence the stroke a little above where the last one ended, and be very careful not to cross the paper or to go up again. Ordinary papers cleaned in this way will look fresh and bright, and almost as good as new. Some papers, however, and these the most expensive ones, will not clean nicely. In order to ascertain whether a paper will clean nicely, it is best to try it in some obscure corner. Fill up any broken places in the wall with a mixture of plaster of Paris and silver sand, made into a paste with a little water, then cover the place with a piece of paper like the rest, if it can be had.—_Mrs. B. C. Benton, Denver, Col._

_To Clean a Chimney_

Place a piece of zinc on the live coals in the stove. The vapor thus produced will carry off the soot.

_For a Cut_

Sift powdered resin on the wound, wrap with a soft, clean cloth, and wet occasionally with water.—_Miss Anna Paisley, New Orleans._

_To Cleanse Sponges_

Wash in a solution of a teaspoonful of ammonia to two quarts of water, and afterwards in a solution of one part of muriatic acid to twenty-five of water. Sponges should be thoroughly rinsed, aired, and dried after every using. Unless they are kept very clean it is not well to use them. A piece of rough towel or tablecloth hemmed at the edges is much better. Another way to clean sponges is to steep them in buttermilk for some hours, then squeeze out and wash in cold water. Lemon juice is also good.

_A PRIZE FOR THE BEST TRUE STORY_

Every month the Department will publish a little story of heroism _in the home_—not any one act of heroism, but the tale of how someone _lived_ heroically, _lived_ self-sacrifice _in everyday life_. It must be _true_ and must be about somebody you know or have known or know definitely about. _It must not have over 500 words._ The shorter, the better. _Whoever sends in the best story each month will not only have it printed but will receive a year’s free subscription to WATSON’S MAGAZINE sent to any name you choose. Tell your story simply and plainly._

_Please state whether the names and places mentioned in your story are real or fictitious._ The Department does not print real names in these stories. Please do not send in stories about someone rescuing another from drowning or anything like that—we don’t want stories of single acts of heroism but of lives bravely and unselfishly lived out.

* * * * *

The stories of “Heroism at Home” have begun to come in. We can not print all of them in this number, but there will be a place for the others later on. Only one told of a single heroic incident. It was a brave, unselfish act, but that isn’t what we are going to use under this head—not things done suddenly, perhaps on impulse or by instinct, but the kind of heroism that lasts day after day. This one story, too, was told in verse and though it was good I fear we had better confine ourselves to simple prose. I hope the writer will send us another good true story in prose and of heroic _living_.

The prize this month is awarded to “Her Career.” It was very hard to decide among several stories that told of some very beautiful and useful lives, so I got others to help me. I imagine it is never going to be easy to decide which is the very best of the stories each month. How the stories are told is not considered at all, but the heroic lives described are very hard to weigh against one another. But I will do the best I can.

_HER CAREER_

No, she never wrote a book, nor went as a missionary to Japan, nor won a degree in college. She never even taught school, nor belonged to a woman’s club.

But she has been the inspiration of her family and has radiated blessings on all she knew.

Thirty years ago she was a dark-haired, dark-eyed bride of eighteen. They were poor, but they had health and strength and bright dreams of the future. They built a small log house on the land they had bought on credit and began to improve it. Their days were filled with hopeful work and their nights brought rest and refreshing sleep.

But soon a shadow fell across the sunlight that streamed on her pathway. Her husband began to drink. He was soon a helpless victim of the fiery appetite and could not go where liquor was without getting drunk.

She was refined and regretted to the very depths of her soul her husband’s weakness. Sometimes she was righteously indignant, but she never upbraided him with moral lectures in which she posed as a mistreated angel, though she often talked it over with him after the “spree” was over.

Children came. The “sprees” became more frequent and things looked more gloomy, but she worked tirelessly and trusted everlastingly.

At last the county voted liquor out. This did some good; the temptation was farther away. But even then he would make several trips a year to the nearest liquor town and always with the same result. If a neighbor were going to town at the same time she would ask him to look after her husband. And when the erring man staggered home she would put him to bed and cook him something to eat—not always ham and eggs and delicacies, but the best she had. She never slipped anything in his coffee to cure him secretly.

And she has almost won. He is not proof against them yet, but the “sprees” are few and far between.

Six children call her mother—two womanly daughters well married, another a lovable and accomplished young woman, a handsome son, with his mother’s wonderfully calm eyes, who detests liquor, and two young girls at school.

A neat white house with green blinds has taken the place of the log structure. She is a model housekeeper and has always done all her work—cooking, sewing, washing, ironing, scrubbing, milking, churning, sweeping, poultry-raising and one thousand and one other things. Besides this she has tied up sore toes and cut fingers, poulticed boils, applied hot salt to all manner of aches and pains; doctored mumps, whooping-cough and la grippe; and successfully nursed measles, pneumonia and fever.

Her face has lost some of its freshness and her hair is turning gray, but she is still the blessed counselor of her family and she still finds time to visit and make herself a true, cheerful friend and neighbor.

_HER SACRIFICE_

Miss ⸺ lives in ⸺, Ohio. She was born on a farm where she lived with her father and mother and two brothers and one sister. The father became surety for a friend who failed, and it took the father’s farm to pay the debt. The family therefore left the farm, and moved to the county-seat, in the suburbs, and in a small house and two lots began life anew. He rode the country buying stock for other men, kept cows and peddled milk in the town, kept forty hens and sold eggs, cultivated the lots in garden produce, and kept the family together. One fortunate result of leaving the farm, the children were put into the city schools. Miss ⸺ graduated in the high school, and obtained a certificate to teach. The two brothers married and left the city. Then finally the sister married and left. Miss ⸺, at the age of 26, was left to care for her parents in their declining years.