
   

 

 

 

 

DETROIT, JULY 14, 1885.

 

THE HQUSEHQLDamgupplememt.

 

WORK IN G-DA YS.
A-wooing you came with your dulcet voice,
Your manner so knightly and debonair;
Who would not proudly have been your choice,
When you wove your garlands so rich and rare?
was well enough in the courting time
When your tongue spoke only in tuneful praise,
With love-words set to a silvern rhyme;
It is other now in the working-days.

 

Could ever she dream, that tender girl,
When you pledged her the tenderest care for life,
That your brow would knit and your 11p would
curl
When she, poor child, was your wedded wife?
Would the pretty maid have been swift to yield
Caught in the toils of your winning ways,
Had a rift in the future’s veil revealed
The gloom that should shadow the working-
days.

’Tis «asy to carry the hardest load
When two who share it in mind are one;
’Tis pleasant to clamber the roughest road
With a friend who is cheery from sun to sun.
But crushes the burden with aching weight
If only the weaker that burden raise,
And bleak the path in the frost of fate
When jars the music of working—days.
0 holiday suitor, so 'brave and trim,
80 gay of mien and so soft of speech,
Pray whatis your ring but a fetter grim
To the wife who is learning what tyrants teach?
Would it cost you much her home to bless
With the love you promised, the love that stays-—
A strength and a sweetness through all the stress
And all the strain of life’s working-days?
-—Margaret E. Sangster.
—-—-..._._..
A QUESTION OF HEALTH.

In the cemments made in the House-
hold of June 7th, on the ill-health of
farmers’ wives and daughters, I neither
made nor had in mind a comparison with
other classes, but simply stated the result
of an observation, which memory rein
forced by many other instances going to
prove that farmers’ families do not, gen-
erally speaking. enjoy the good health
which would seem to be one of their
might-be privileges. But the question
itself suggests the comparison, and since
the issue has been made let us try to meet
it. Statistics prove that the death rate in
the country is increasing, and does not
compare so favorably with that in cities
as in former years. It is also known that
a. larger per cent of insane women, in
proportion to population, come from the
country than from the town, and these
undeniable facts are signiﬁcant. Sanitary

cience has done much to reduce the
death rate in cities by pure sources of
water supply, improved systems of sewer-
age, and boards of health to enforce
sanitary regulations and force the ﬁlthy
0 at least mitigate their uncleanness. The

 

farmer must be his own sanitary engineer
and local board of health, and sometimes
he is careless and sometimes ignorant.
There many conditions which go to
make up healthful living, no one of
which alone will make or keep a person
healthy. Neither good food, pure air,
sound sleep or good digestion will of itself
secure health. It is only when all health
ful conditions, in their due relation to
each other, are present, that we can hope
for that greatest of blessings. How rarely
all these proportions are in conjunction
must impress us when we see how few
are thus blessed. Health is supposed to
be our normal condition; but “poor hu-
manity ” falls far short of attaining it.
Of the causes which affect unfavorably
the health of farmers’ families we may
mention bad air. For convenience’s sake
the barns, stables, and other outbuildings
are located too near the house, so that the
“barnyard smell” too often perfumes the
breeze which otherwise would be scented
by clover blossoms. Recently while riding
in the country, we passed a neat farm
house, it and its surroundings indicating
a prosperous, well-to-do owner. But he
seemed quite a breeder of that class of
stock rated in Scripture as “ unclean,’
and had located the pens on the west side
of his house, where, as our prevalent
winds are westerly, his family would be
reminded of his business by every passing
zephyr. I will wager a big red apple that
his wife and daughters. if he has any,
are among the “miserable,” “just able to
be around” women. the more surely since,
from the exterior of the house, I judged
the sleeping rooms to be on the west side.
The practice of throwing the slops from
the house out the back door is also a
source of bad air. The ground being kept
constantly wet with dirty water, becomes
saturated with ﬁlth and is constantly
giving off poisonous exhalations, unno—
ticed because we are so accustomed to
them. Indoors, conﬁned air is too much
the rule. In winter, the rooms are un-
ventilated because of the cold; in summer,
because of heat, ﬂies and sunshine. Flies
are scavengers, and generally have busi.
ness to attend to wherever they congregate;
sunshine is death to noxious vapors and
moulds; heat dries up and destroys germs
of disease. Sunshine and air ought to
visit our rooms freely if we would keep
them pure and sweet. But we bar them
out with our screen doors and windows,
and sit in “ an atmosphere of suppressed
headache ” to save fading the carpet and

 

letting in ﬂies. We stuff our closets full

of partly worn clothes and shut them up-
tight, and are far too negligent about
caring for the cellar under the house.
Dr. Kedzie says: “A wholesome cellar
is at the bottom of healthy living. The
air and ﬂoating germs ﬁnd their way to
every room of the house. Mildewed
cellars and mouldy closets are rurseries
of disease.” And the women suﬁer most,
because they spend both day and night in
the house.

Impure water is another source of ill~
health. The clear sparkling draught from
the “ old oaken bucket” would not untre-
quently prove the truth of the saying,
"appearances are often deceiving.” Too
often, for convenience’s sake again, the
well is in dangerous proximity to the
barnyard or the privy vault, and rains
leach through the soil, carrying death and
disease to contaminate the water, though
only an analysis can discover a change. I
have heard this idea—that surface water
can convey germs of disease through the
soil—loudly ridiculed by ignorant people
who will only believe what they can see or
what comes under their own observation;
yet the fact remains that a well may serve
as a reservoir for the drainage of 100 feet
in area, if the nature of the soil favors, and
for lesser area under any circumstances.
The terrible epidemic at Plymouth, Pa.,
which nearly devastated a village, was
traced to contaminated water, which an-
alysis proved to be unutterably ﬁlthy.
As the country grows older the danger
from this cause Increases, and the tenant
of every old farm ought to reﬂect upon
what matter may have drained into his
well during the years of occupancy of his
farm.

In the matter of food, I know it is a
popular idea that farmers “live like
kings.” They might—but do they? Too
much salt pork, too little fruit, too few
vegetables. Leaving these more occult
causes, and for that reason more neglected
——because farmers are generally so strong
in the belief that food and air and water
are better in the country than anywhere
else on earth, we may look for other
causes, among which J annette has named
hereditary weakness, due to the over-
work of our ancestors. I believe there is
much weight in this argument, and that
. there are thousands of living witnesses to
the infallibility of the law “ the sins of
the fathers—and mothers—are visited
upon the children.” In the families of our
pioneers you will rarely ﬁnd son or
daughter who has the robust health and
vigor of the “ old stock.” “Tough as a

 

    


2 THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

 

pine knot” is the term applied to them,

but they did not Transmit their tough-

ness to their posterity. They lived
plainly and simply, they worked hard;
their plain living rendered the hard work
possible, but not harmless. We of today
are called “degenerate;” the degeneracy
is the fault of our ancestors, and our mis-
fortune; and its cause we may glean from
what we know of the work of the women
of those days. And the cause is still
operating, as surely as ever. and children
yet unborn must pay the penalty entailed
by the foolish, suicidal overwork of the
women of to-day. If we could only un-
derstand in all its terrible signiﬁcance,
the truth that for every violation of
law Nature exacts her penalty, not from
us only, but from our children and our
children’s children, would we not see thel
necessity of prudence? But it is very
difﬁcult to impress this upon the young,
who in their youthful strength do not
realize that age brings its inﬁrmities,
which will be intensiﬁed by youthful in-
discretions and imprudence. The girl
trips over dewy grass in slippers, leaves
off her ﬂannel wrappers to accommodate
a tight sleeve, sits with wet feet or damp
skirts, wears cotton hose in winter to
show a trim shoe; the boy disdains the
shower which wets his summer clothing
through, stands in cold water to wash
sheep or build fence over marsh, sits
down in a draft to “ cool off,”—in count-
less ways the carelessness of ignorance
is exempliﬁed, till punishment comes;
then we begin to be prudent, when health
is failing.

Still another reason for ill health is
found in want of out door exercise.
There is great difference between that
exercise called housework, and being
out of doors. All works on health advise
an out door life, as much as pos-
sible; it is the great advantage of
“summer resorts” and accounts for part
of the virtues of "springs,” that people
live principally out of doors. Where you
ﬁnd one farmer’s wife or daughter who
thinks she can Walk two miles, you will
ﬁnd dozens who profess inability to walk
one‘qusrter of that distance, and who, I
venture to say, would ﬁnd a great beneﬁt
if they would make the attempt and thus
get exercise in the fresh air. The sub-
ject broadens, tillIfeel the only safe way
to escape myown waste basket is to stop

.s :tort. BEATRIX.
———-¢oo———

TRYING AN EXPERIMENT.

 

In the Household of March 10th there
was an excellent letter from Mrs. Whal-
ing, of Horton;I wish we might hear
from her again. Speaking of the train—
ing of children she says: “If some
mother were to ask me how to train a
child, and demand of me an answer on
my conscience, I doubt whether I'should
not evade the issue; possibly I might say
that a good beginning would be to ﬁrst
trains ourselves.” Those words have the
true tinge of motherhood. For myself, I
used to know so much about the training
of children—that is before I had any of
my own to train—that now with a troop
of boys and girls at my heels, each one

differing in disposition as much as if he-
longing to a different family. I am ready
to sayI know nothing at all about the
matter, andI can but bewail my own
incompetence and unworthiness, and
wonder whether I am training them or
they are training me.

Now in the Household of January 6th.
appeared this recipe by A. L. L., as cure
for boys who dip the cat: “Dip the boys.”
That seemed reasonable, a sort of “ do
unto others as they do to you.” I laid it
up for warm weather, as it did not seem
suitable in the winter. Hearing a great
noise in the woodshed the \other morning
I knew just what was going on—those
boys were ducking the cat again. Rushing
out there I got a good hold of three of
them and marched them straight to the
water tank; “I’ll teach you to abuse
the poor cat!” Picking up little Hezikiah
I threw him in, “Now see how you like
it.” He came out with a face just beam-
ing with delight, as much as to say “ For
such fun as that I will duck the eat every
day.” However I threw Nehemiah after
him;plump he went to the bottom, and
would have stayed there I guess, hadInot
ﬁshed him out more dead than alive,
having received such a shock to his
nervous system that he is not well yet.
Meanwhile Amariah had escaped to the
top of the corn crib and inv1ted me to
fetch him down if I wanted him. I told
him I would settle with him another time.
Wishing a little quiet after my tussle I
opened the steamer shed door where there
was a ﬁre, and ordered the two wet cus-
tomers in there to dry. I started for the
house, feeling that I had made a failure
and would sit quietly down and reﬂect a
little; however before I got there it
seemed the prodigal son must have re-

and dancing. Opening the kitchen door
my gravity forsook me entirely; I could
do nothing but sit down and laugh. It
was very provoking, as all the way up the
path I had been putting on my most
digniﬁed air. But in the middle of the
kitchen sat baby in her high chair, while
round and round went the procession;
Sophia with a mouth organ, Jedediah
with a drum, Amariah brought up the
rear with my two large kettle covers as
cymbals. “ We’re pleasing the baby,
mamma, we’re keeping her quiet.” I
could only reply that they seemed to be
succeeding—she was perfectly delighted
—and rush for the sitting room to have
my laugh out, but there sat my demure
maiden Keziah trying to practice her
music lesson. She declared those children
were “perfectly dreadful and ought to be
whipped,” but I promptly reminded her
that it seemed but yesterday when she
was gathering all my eggs and breaking
them into the watering trough for custard
pie. Now this is but a brief record of
one day’s doings, but I don’t think I
shall whip them so long as they are
honest and truthful. I think that as they

 

get older they will one after another
desist from such doings, and declare with
Keziah that such noises are “perfectly
dreadful.” MRS. W. J. G.

 

HownLL.

turned, judging by the noise of the music

“ QUARTER-OFF SALES.”

“ Old School Teacher” asks an editorial
opinion, through the Household, of the
“off sales,” so extensively advertised by
merchants. I confess I hardly know
what answer to make. For my own in-
terest, I should never attend a “ quarter-
oﬁ ” sale. I had a little experience'at one
which cured me of an expectation of ever
getting more than my money’s worth. I
purchased embr01dery at a sale of that
character, and supposing I was getting
that feminine desideratum, a bargain,
bought liberally, in lengths which were
not quite convenient, and of slightly
soiled goods, “just as good after wash
ing,” the saleswoman assured me. A
week later I saw in another store quite as
handsome, new and clean embroideries at
the “quarter off” price. The conclusion
was inevitable that a quarter was added
to the ﬁrst price to “ save ” the merchant
and a quarter taken off to bait the cus-
tomer. Advertisements of such sales
don’t always mean all they say. On one
occasion in this city “ a great drive in
linen towels ” was advertised, and the
“towel counter ” was crowded with eager
buyers who pushed and elbowed and
snatched the goods from each other; the
joke was that the towels were offered at the
regular price, and could be bought at any
time before, after, or during the con-
tinuance of the sale, in the linen depart—
ment, at the ﬁgures of “an unprecedent
ed offer.”

The stores are always crowded during
such sales, and the crowd prevents the
examination of the goods and the ascer'
taining their true value. There are
generally a few bargains offered which
fall to the ﬁrst buyer who has opportuni-
ty or discrimination enough to select
them, and these serve to advertise the
sale and sell the rest of the
goods. During these sales so great
was the crowd of those 'who came
to buy, and from that feminine impulse
which makes us want to see whether we
buy or not, that ladies fainted and others
had their clothing damaged in the crush,
and I have yet to hear of any great bar—
gains made.

Of quite a different character are the
semi-annual closing-out sales made to
close out the remnants of a season’s
stock. Such sales take place usually in
January and July, and goods are often
marked, if not at actual cost, at least at a
very slight margin above cost, merchants
prefering to close them out at a very
small proﬁt, rather than carry them over.
Especially is this true in novelties and
printed goods in which the styles change
from year to year. A leading house here
is now oﬁering satteens at 25 cents,which
at the opening of the season sold at 45
cents, and white dress goods, laWns,
ginghams, etc., and summer worsted
goods in colors, all participate in a like
reduction; which however does not affect
what are known as standard goods in
black, as these are salable the year round.

Many ladies to whom economy is more of
an object than fashion, wait till these

 

sales are open, and then purchase at very

 
   

‘ . ‘9?”«12‘2

 

    
   
    


v" “gags/g“

 

   
    
  
  
 

THE HOUSEHOLD

 
   

 

low rates compared with opening prices.
Fine white mulls creep down to 20 and
25 cents, cambrics and percales take a
tumble to eight and ten cents, and usually
fro m ten to ﬁfteen or twenty per cent on
worsted goods. Competition is strong
enough to hold prices as low as sales can
be made atafair proﬁt, in the ﬁrst in-
stance, so that what is saved is clear gain.
I have not much of an opinion of
“drives” in silks, satins, and velvets;
these are goods which, if of good quality,
will bring a good price. Dollar black
silks are not to be recommended, and
"summer silks” at 37% and 50 cents are
scarcely wider than sash, ribbon. The
reduction includes gloves and hosiery
and underwear, both woven and made
cotton garments. The practice extends
to most of our stores, millinery, clothing,
fur, etc.. Afriend of mine bought an
elegant fur—lined garment last February
for $45 which she had tried on three
months previous, when it was marked
$60, and felt amply paid for wearing her
old one by the $15 thus saved. Then too
at the end of the season our merchants
advertise a “remnant sale” at which
short lengths of goods are measured,
folded, and marked with the number of
yards and the price—always reduced—in
plain ﬁgures. Often a very elegant
costume can be gotten up out of a couple
of these remnants by a little judgment in
selecting, at an absurdly low price com-
pared with earlier rates. These are the
legitimate sales which it pays to
patronize, and of which any of our near-
by readers can take advantage and effect
a saving of railroad fare in purchasing a
large bill of goods, to say nothing of hav-
ing a much larger stock to select from.
BEATRIX.

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIES.

 

These are hard times! They must be,
for every one says so, and we hear it
echoed on every side. With wheat at 95
cents per bushel, wool at 23 cents per
pound, butter at 10 and 11 cents per
pound and eggs at 10 cents per dozen,
what wonder that farmers in debt look
worried and think they must economize
and pinch in every possible way, and the
farmer’s wife plans and contrives, and
wonders if she can possibly make the but-
ter and eggs meet the accustomed ex-
penses. When she markets the butter and
sees how small the returns, she feels dis-
heartened as she realizes the groceries
must be bought; for the family must have
their accustomed food, and while they
have hired help there is no hope of
curtailing expenses in that direction.
Jennie needs a pair of shoes; Mary wants
the white dress she has been promised so
long;then she had hoped to get a new
carpet this spring, for the old one is get-
ting shabby and she thought it would
hardly bear shaking at house-cleaning.
The shoes will have to be bought as a
necessity; and the mother’s love is stirred
and she thinks, “Mary has worked hard
and deserves the dress, and I do hate to
disappoint her. I will buy the dress, but
there is no use thinking about the carpet;
I will {darn and mend the old one,

 

and perhaps times will be better next
year, then husband will give me the
money for it.” Ithink the majority of
people have had to economize, if possible,
and for the beneﬁt of those who wish to do
so I thought I would tell what we did this
spring, hoping it may help some house-
keeper. ,

We dislike to clean house in the spring
without making some change or getting
something new. IVe had no carpet for
the large hall up—stairs, but had ﬂattered
ourselves that it could be procured this
spring; but alas, as spring advanced the
carpet receded in the distance! But
we concluded not to be beaten entirely,
so we thought we would paint the ﬂoor.
We thought we could do that without
calling upon the men, as the girls became
pretty well used to the brush in priming
when we were building. We bought
paint and brush and primed the ﬂoor over
with white paint; then when dry took a
pencil and marked it in brick work. We
then mixed two colors of paint, brown
and pink, and painted the blocks alter-
nately with the colors. The ﬂoor is really
pretty, and we would not have a carpet if
the “times were ﬂush.” The hall looked
so well that we treated the bath-room
ﬂoor in the same way, only making the
blocks smaller, and square instead of
rectangular. The expense of the two
ﬂoors was $1.50. The hall needs 22 yards
of carpet. We are intending to put a
strip of matting through the hall, l‘ut
with this added expense there will be a
large item put to economy’s credit.

I would like to tell you how we made a
number of lambrequins at very little ex-
pense, but you might not have any wed-
ding garments you wished “worn out
for good luck ;” also how we converted an
old-fashioned towel rack into a nice
music stand, but I Iorbear, fearing it is
not best to divulge too many household
economies in hard times.

OLD SCHOOL TE ACHER.

TECUMSEH.

[On the contrary, now is just the time
to help each other by telling how we
practice economy; and how, when we
cannot have what we want, we “ do the
next best thing,” which is seldom to go
without. Please tell us about the lambre-
quins and the music Stand.—HOUSEHOLD
ED.]

———¢oo——-————

A PLEA FOR PARLORS.

 

Yesterday I was about seating myself
for a chat with the Household when what
should walk into my kitchen but a bushel
of strawberries, seating themselves with
an air which plainly said: “You must
take care of us right off, for we are per-
ishable.” Now I never can have my
plans interrupted and retain all my
equanimity, and, moreover, I never eat
strawberries. I was almost tempted to
exclaim, “Blessed be nothing,” but I re—
membered the numberless times in the
past winter when I had sighed for more
variety in the bill of fare, and smothered
the exclamation. Meanwhile there sat
the fragrant berries, looking so hand-
some in their green clayces, and though

 

they and my internal organism are sworn

 

enemies, I could appreciate the saying
attributed, I believe, to Sidney Smith;
“ Doubtless God might have made a bet-
ter‘berry, but doubtless He never did.”
Now this afternoon I smilingly view the
shining cans, and with peace of mind
fully restored, proceed to chat. I accept
with pleasure the dignity offered by the
Editor as one of the committee to decide
the merits of the new process for keeping
fruit, and shall have cotton batting on
hand for the next canning. I want to
welcome the new honorary member, and
hope we shall hear from him often. I
wish that the old members would write
oftener. A. H. J., A. L. L., C. B. R., I.
F. N., and all the others; E. L. Nye, too,
is always welcome. Now, Mrs. W. J. G.,
despite the weird vision that chilled my
spinal marrow, I have not lost faith in
parlors. I havn’t any, and possibly that
may account for the longing I have to
possess one. With four restless children,
who, though good and obedient as child-
ren in general, are yet full of mischief,
I sigh for some place where choice books,
pictures, bric-a-brac, etc., might be re-
moved from the contaminating inﬂuences
of dust and smoke, the necessary accom-
paniments of the family sitting-room;
where the piano might be safe from the
iconoclastic two-year-old armed with a
case-knife or a hammer, and where I
might retire for a few moments’ freedom
from confusion and noise. Wage warfare
against the guest chambers, where the
beds are left made up the year round, and
all the sunshine is carefully excluded, but
please don’t say anything against the
parlors, for they are a comfort to many a

weary house wife. L. B. P.
ARMADA.

 

A HINT FOR THE GIRLS.

 

The American Cultivator tells how
to make pompous, just at present a
fashionable adornment of ladies’ bonnets
and misses’ hats, out of materials which
every country girl has at her hand. If
the work is neatly done, the experimen
tor need not envy the milliner her trim-
mings:

“Select a large, half-blown thistle, and
out 01f all the green part at the base of the
blossom just above the stem. Hang the
thistle in the open air. exposed to the
sun and wind, and in the course of a day
or two the inside, downy part, will ex-
pand into a full, rounded pompon, or puff
ball. Then pull out the purple petals
which had developed Into bloom when
you ‘had selected the half-open thistle.
Hang up the pompon again in an airy
place, and in the course of a week it will
have bleached to acream white. These
pompous are feathery and delicately
pretty as swansdown, and are used to
trim hats. They area great addition to a
bouquet or a basket of grass. Milkweed
pompous: These are not quite as easily
made, but are a more silky and nearer
pure white than the thistles. When the
milkweed pods are ripe, make a collection
of them and they can be kept half a year
or more before the pompous are made, if
so desired, or the puff balls can be made
at once, as follows: Have some very ﬁne
wire, such as is used for bead work, and
cut it into pieces four inches long. Dip
the pod in water, and then open it. It
will be found ﬁlled with many bundles of
web-like white ﬁber. Pull off several of
these and wrap the wire around the ends

  


 

 

4:

T H E. H 0 U s EiHiO‘LlD.

 

 

which were attached to the centre stem.
Brush off the black seeds adhering to the
other ends. Wire a number of these
bundles, as just described, then With an-
other piece of wire, to wind round and
round, put them together as you would a
bouquet of ﬂowers, thus making a round-
ed pompon. City ﬂorists have these color-
ed a delicate pink, and they are extremely
lovely.”
———¢o+————

How to Iron Cuffs and Collars.

 

Have ready some irons very hot, only
just not to scorch. And let there be
enough irons not to have to wait for a
second when the ﬁrst is cool. These
must be very clean and with a good pol—’
ish. To insure the latter have a piece of
beeswax, and when the iron is taken off
the ﬁre rub it over the bees wax and then
rub the iron on some crushed salt and it
will run smoothly. Now on the ironing
sheet lay a clean smooth cloth. a handker-
chief will do. Lay a collar on this, fold
over part of the handkerchief, and iron
quickly from one end to the other two' or
three times to dry it a little. While still
steaming take off the handkerchief,
stretch the collar with the hands and iron
briskly on the right side straight across.
If the iron is not hot enough, or the col-
lar too dry, the starch will stick. When
the right side is smooth, without creases,
turn it on the other side and iron more
slowly so as to dry it thoroughly. The
irons require contant renewing, as the
damp cools them quickly. If any starch
appears on the iron it must be scraped off
with a knife before going back to the ﬁre.
If you do not want shirts cuifs to blister
and wrinkle when buttoned do not make
the ﬁrst, or boiled starch, too stiff, and rub
it in well. Of course you know that they
should always be dipped in cold starch, z'.
e. , clear starch mixed thin with cold water,
before ironing.

__,..__.

CLEANING WrLLow Cums—My pretty
willow rocker showed decided signs of
wear, in contrast with fresh ribbons in
its open-work, and clean, new paper on
the walls. I thought of sending it to be
varnished, but the sight of a bottle of
ammonia used in cleaning woodwork in-
duced me to try an experiment. On the
wet, soapy towel I had been using I pour-
ed a few drops of ammonia and rubbed a
little spot on the chair; it came out clean
and white, and thus encouraged, I speed-
ily removed the tokens of use,- making
the ehair as clean and neat as when new.
Perhaps others may be glad to know how
easily and cheaply such articles, now so
fashionaule, may be renewed. B.

___.___...____

L. J. C. desires Mrs. Fuller to tell her
why her tuberose does not blossom. She
describes her mode of treatment as fol-
lows: “Last summer -I set it in the
ground, but it only grew six or eight
inches high. In the fallI took it up, and
in the spring cut off the top and added
some, new dirt and also some soot; it has
grown nicely and there are a good many
little ones; it stands in a west window,
What shall I do to make it blossom. I am
sure the bulb is not bottom side up like
E. L. Nye’s.”

    

 

L. J. C., of Gobleville, recommends
washing wool for mattresses in a tub half
full of strong suds (made of soft-soap) to
which two tablespoonfuls of salsoda and
a piece of borax as large as half a hen’s
egg has been added. Use a pounder and
wash without rubbing. Send to .the fac-
tory to be carded, and take some clean
grease, insisting that it shall be used, as
the grease used at the factory is black and
smells bad. The remainder of her pro
cess has been given in these columns.
She also tells us how to make over cotton
mattresses: “Rip them apart and wash
them. Have the cotton carded into bats,
same as for wool, then replace, and the
mattress will be clean, sweet and light

again.”
————-¢o¢-—-———

THE lady who asks for remedies for
gapes in chickens in the last FABMER, is
advised to give her healthy fowls an en-
tirely new run, where chickens have
never been conﬁned, if possible. If they
must run at large, at least prevent access
to the old yards. Bury all fowls which
die of the disease at once and deeply,
using quicklime to destroy the carcass.
Why? Because the little parasite with a
name longer than itself of which Dr.
Jennings tells us, may increase in yards
where fowls have been long kept, till the
disease is almost unconquerable. The
disease is communicated from one
fowl to another by the eggs of the para-
site. We have somewhere seen an
elaborate history of this disease, but can
not now ﬁnd it, but the gist remained in

memory as above. Feed dry, sweet food,
no sloppy or sour stuff, and give pure
water or milk to drink.

 

SHOULD readers of the Household who
may visit the seashore this summer desire
to preserve some of the beautiful alga or
seaweeds which are so exquisitely delicate
and dainty, the following instruction
as to the manner in which it may be done
will prove interesting. The speaker is an
old ﬁsherman who tells how “ my girl
Nancy,” who does quite abusiness in pre-
paring such specimens for sale, arranges
them:

“She takes and washes them in fresh
water and then trims them up in just the
shape she wants . and puts on a wash of
diluted gum arable; then they are spread
on paper, and if they are delicate they
are picked out into shape under or just at
the surface of the water with a needle.
Then she takes them out, puts a piece of
clean linen over them, then another
piece of paper, and then puts the whole
thing in between the boards and presses
it in a press. In twenty-four hours it’s
done, and the moss is dry and pressed
into the paper, so that you can pass your
ﬁnger right over it without feelin’ it, and
the color never fades; it’s a joy forever.
She then sets them on a stiﬁ paper, puts
on the scientiﬁc name and where her old
father found them—habita, she calls it—
and they are ready for the market.”

-————009————

E. B., of Oceola, asks what curtains are
“suitable for an unpretentious parlor.”
Ideas differ as to the ‘ ‘ unpretentiousness.”
of furnishing; if we knew exactly the
furnishing of the room, we might ad—
vise more exactly. There are various im-

tations in lace patterns which sell very
cheaply and are both pretty and suitable

I
I“

 

for plainly furnished rooms, which come.
in sets at $4 50, $5, $7 50 and $10 per pair.
They hear doing up well, and are much
better than Nottingham piece lace. The
poles and rings will cost one dollar per-
window, here. Then there is linen bunt-
ing or scrim, at 30 or 35 cents per yard,
and goods woven in open work stripes
which may be used for draperies. The
bunting can be made more elaborate by
adding antique edging and insertion, or
by a border of drawn work. But we
recommend the lace sets before mentioned
as being more durable and effective.
Lace lambrequins are out of fashion.
The holland shades are much liked by
city housekeepers; there is also a style in
dark colors, with a Japanese dado in gilt,
which is desirable but rather more ex-

pensive.
-—-¢oo——-

Contributed Recipes.

I WILL give some of my ways of cooking.
salt pork: Cut enough for a meal at night,
and put in half water and half milk, using
milk that is old but not sour; in the morning
rinse with cold water and fry; it will be a nice
brown , and taste quite different from the old
way. Another way is to freshen, then dip in
sweet milk and fry. Pour a little of the milk
in the spider and let it scald in the gravy; pour
on the meat last. Fry the pork as usual; then
dip in beaten egg and return to the spider till
brown.

BOILED INDIAN PUDDING.—-One and a half
cups sweet milk; one egg, beaten; two table-
spoonfuls sugar; a little salt; one half cup
fruit; half cup ﬂour; two cups Indian meal;
one heaping teaSpoonful of baking powder.
Put in a bag that is larger at the top than at
the bottom; wet the bag and sprinkle with
ﬂour before putting in the pudding; boil two
hours. To be eaten with sweetened cream.

SUET PUDDING.—One coffee cup chopped
suet; one cup raisins or currants; one and a
half cups of sweet milk; two eggs; one pint of
bread crumbs; one teaspoonful cinnamon; half
a teaspoonful cloves; half of ginger; half a
nutmeg; one and a half cups ﬂour; half cup of
molasses; half cup sugar; one teaspoonful of
soda. Steam three hours.

BEEF Loam—Three pounds of round steak
chopped ﬁne; add one cup rolled crackers, two;
eggs, one teaspoonful pepper, one tablespoon-
ful salt, one cup sweet milk, piece of butter
size of an egg. Mix thoroughly; put in a cloth
bag, (wetting the bag ﬁrst); put it on a tin,
and set the tin in the dripping pan; bake three
hours; haste occasionally at ﬁrst.

CANNED ELDERBERRIEs.—Four pounds of
sugar; one pint good vinegar; one peek of
eldcrberries. Scald them up and put into can:

or jugs. They are nice for pics; some like
them or sauce. L. J. c.

GOBLEVILLE.

1]? YOU WANT
Profitable Employment

BEND A'l' ONCE TO

THE NEW lAMB KNITTEH 00.,

For Full Information.

An ordinary operator can earn from one to three
dollars per da in any community in the Northern
States on our ew Lamb Knitter.

100 Varieties of Fabric on Same Machine.

You can wholly ﬁnish twelve pairs ladies’ full-
shaped stockings or twenty pairs socks or mittens
in a day! Ski] ed operators can double this &
duction. Capacity and range of work double .
of the old Lamb knitting machine. Address

The New Lamb Knitter 00.,
117 and 119 Main St., west, J acxsox, Iron.

 

 

  
   

 

 

