
 

\

.\\\\\ \/

       
   

\\\\\\\\‘\\\\\\\\\u‘\i\% f

“%\\

V \ \\
i {\\_J\

./

\___
., i. ..

\\\\x... ‘

\—

‘ _,\\\\\\W '

     

ms

\

\\

 

 

/
//‘ ,
/,/////

   

 

 

DETROIT, AUGUST 41:, 1888.

 

THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 

 

ONLYA LITTLE LOOK OF HAIR.

 

Only a little lock of hair,

Deftly twisted. or woven with care,
Cat from the brow of a laughing child,
A Winsome maiden, or matron mild;

From an eager youth or man in his prime.

0r sparse locks silvered by the hand of Time:
'I‘enderly, wistfully, we turn them o‘er

And dream of the wearers in days of yore.

A true for the nonce with old Father Time,
While we gather our lriends from many a clime,
We see one by one each familiar face,

The re membered smile, or peculiar grace.

With startling (harness memory brings

Our loved ones back to us, a thousand things
Recall the days of ‘~ Auld Lang Syne,"

Those delightful days of the olden time.

We never thought oi the long years to some
After they should be gone to their heavenly home,
And we take up our life work, striving indeed
To forget. Do we ever succeed?

Only a little lock of hair,

Deftly twisted, or woven with care,

Yet my very soul cries out in vain—

In yam—while my tears fall like summer rain

For the clasp of a hand, the glance of an eye,
The old content When our loved ones were nigh.
From the happy past, and my loved ones there,

I have only left these tresses of hair.
* U. V. P.
--—-—-.OO————

MARTYRS.

 

1 have been thinking much lately of the
noble army of martyrs. I hardly know why
this subject has impressed me, unless it be
that as a farmer’s wife I am “ one of them.”
Perhaps I am wrong in thus designating
the class, but I am forced to the conclusion
by so many long laments, such iterated and
reiterated complaints, and the gushing
sympathy displayed over their lamentable
sufferings and tribulations. There is no
doubt that the {average human can bear a
short, severe strain, pain or annoyance bet-
ter than the petty, nagging, ever recurring
worries that can be felt but scarcely de-
scribed. The constant irritation keeps the
sore chafed and inﬂamed, constant worry
unsettles the mental balance. and nervous
irritation sets every thing at cross purposes.
Hence the “shocking depravity of inani-
mate things” shown upon days when we
have alighted on the “ wrong side of the
bed” on arising. How often you see a
woman with her head tilted to one side, her
face drawn into a woe-begone aspect, fore-
head inascowl, eyes misty, mouth com-
pressed, lips trembling, her form bent for-
ward, step weak and vacillating, every
motion an “ I must but oh how hard it is ”
act—and we have called such an one a
“martyr.”

I have read of the early Christians, who
suffered torture in the most varied and

ﬁendish forms fanatic cruelty could invent,
who lay in dungeons deprived of everything
to make life tolerable, who yielded no life
after every other device was exhausted to
cause physical and mental suffering, and to
me has come the conclusion that it was not
the terrible pain suffered, the agony of
torture endured, the long, long strain of
mental and physical suffering borne in the
cheeriess prison house, the excruciating
anguish of the rack, or the torment of death
at the stake that made them martyrs. It
was the uncomplaining fortitude, the ﬁrm
unblenching faith, the high ﬁrm endurance.
the resolute courage, the unyielding stoicism
with which they here all, that gave them
the crown.

There may be more martyrs than we
know. It is not the complaining ones al-
ways who deserve most encouragement and
sympathy, nor in fact are they the ones
who always get it. The world, or the pee-
ple in it, are not heartless, but it is an ever-
changing progressive world, and people
tire of long continued, ever-present com-
plainings. But the world’s 'admiration for
silent suffering, courage under adversity,
plucky persistence in disheartening sur-
roundings, is deep, profound and enduring.
The wife who performs her tasks with an
aching head but cheerful face and stout
heart, will not less receive the sympathy
and help of her husband, than she who
overwhelms him with a voluble account of
how “ bad she feels.” The mother who
controls her nerves will have much less of
irritation to control in her little ones, who
are quick to discover and intuitively resent
any want of patience in the mother. It
mothers would make this a study and see
how quickly their actions for good or ill are
mirrored or reproduced in their little ones,
it would give them lessons and help in self-
control in very self-interest.

It seems that many a time it is the bus—
band, nagged to death by the ceaseless
worry of complaints, or the children, con-
stantly repressed, stunned with a constant
repetition of “dent’s,” who are the real
martyrs. Women from their natures are
more likely to fall into this habit of com-
plaining and fault-ﬁnding, the usual adjunct
of the ﬁrst, but it is to their own interest
to curb and fetter the proclivity, for most
surely in sowing the wind a harvest of
whirlwind awaits them. Self-discipline is
avirtue that is sure to bring a sweet re-
ward.

Among the complaining martyrs we ﬁnd
the social type, who is made to suffer for all
the shortcomings of the community; but

 

you will generally ﬁnd this martyr made up

 

in the person of the busybody, who quizzes
his friends, pokes his nose into his neigh-
bors’ business, retails the current gossip,
possibly with additions, gives advice gra-
tuitously, and is deeply wounded when all
things do not “701‘! together as his wisdom
foretold, or his wishes decreed. It is
needless to say that there are martyrs
many made to suffer where such a person
ﬂourishes.

It is with trepidation that I Speak of the
martyr in politics, who has schemed and.
planned for political preferment. who has
consulted. meditated and considered the
Ways and means best adapted to that end;
who has shaken the hand of the dear peo-
ple, kissed the dirty-faced children, advised
with the wise, cajoled the unwary, bought
the mercenary, convinced the vacillating,
strengthened the wavering, until all the
ropes are pulled with a ﬁnal round of
“settin’ ’em up” in the saloons; then to
have the other fellow get the coveted plum
is surely enough to make a ﬁrst class martyr
of the sudener. Yeteven here the sympathy
of the world at large is with the cheerful
martyr, and the future aspirations ofa de-
feated candidate who will jocosely reply to
a call for a speech in the ﬁrst throes of his
great disappointment, “One by one the
martyrs pass before you,” are largely in the
ascendant as to future realizations over those
of a sorehead, who will sulk and show
temper under failure. To the brave, the
resolute, the uncomplaining, the world
will give sympathetic admiration and help;
even the “under dog in the ﬁght ” will not
be left to battle alone if he shows plucky
determination, and the man on the down
grade will not get kicks from all, if he goes
with earnest, if futile endeavors to recover
his lost ground.

But to the grumbler, the feeble non-
combatant, the grasping dependent, the
one who asserts that the world “ owes him a
living,” but who make no effort to collect
the bill, this world is a closed oyster, while
it will open wide to grim pluck and ﬁrm
endurance. A. L. L.

Inennsma. 4

IN answer to a question by Bess, we
would state that total eclipses of the sun
are not infrequent, when we consider the
immensity of the solar system, though of
course not visible in all parts of the country.
A total eclipse of the sun, visible in North
America, occurred July 28, 1851, and an-
other in August, 1869. Observations made
at these dates form the basis of some very
important astronomical calculations, as

conditions were favorable for careful study
of the phenomena.

 


 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
 
 
   
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
  
 
   
  
  
 
  
 
   
 
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
  
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
  
  
  
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
   
  
  
  
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

THE HO USEI—IOLD.

 

KITCHEN CULTURE.

 

(Concluded)

And now we come to the country, with
its romance of blue sky, gree grass, ﬂow-
ering shrubs, music of birds, hum of in-
sects, rippling streams, fresh fruits and
vegetables, and here the housewife needs
help. With her multitudinous cares and
duties, she wants a bright, smart, active
girl, with strong nerves and clear head,
ready and willing to relieve those cares,
assume some of the responsibilities. and
give her time to breathe naturally, and re-
gain her lost strength. But where shall we
look for her? Mr. Blank has forty acres of
land and four grown-up daughters, none of
whom will come for love or money. The
oldest one does dressmaking; the next one
gives music lessons; number three teaches
school—when she can get a certiﬁcate—and
number four is needed at home of course to
help her mother, which help usually con-
sists in swinging in the hammock and
reading H. Rider Baggard’s blood-curdl‘mg
stories. Here is another family; one" girl
clerks in a dry goods store, another sews
in a shop, another is taking music lessons
with the fond hope of being a music teacher
some time in the near future. And so it
goes; there are type-writers, stenographers,
sewing girls, musicteachers, schoolteachers,
telegraph operators, hundreds of applicants
where one is wanted, for everything but
housework. The country has no surplus of
girls; they leave their homes for the larger
towns and cities, they leave good honorable
domestic work at home undone, choose
some trade or profession that they think at
the time will be congenial to their tastes,
and remunerative; never stopping to con-
sider if Nature in her bounty has adapted
them for that especial work. I contend
that to be successful with any work we un-
dertake we must like it. If our task he
homely, if we love it, throw our heart and
purpose into it, we can ﬁnd a little beauty
and poetry about it, and while at ﬁrst it
may seem purely ideal, purely imaginative,
it becomes a reality after a while. While
many succeed in the towns and cities, it is
equally true that where one succeeds there
are ten who fail. Girls who have some
ready money, who are well educated, bright
and quick, who can readily adapt them-
selves to whatever they undertake—these
girls enter the ranks of “toilers and spin-
ners ” from desire rather than necessity—-
and because of their adaptability they

secure places and crowd out their less for-
tunate sisters. But the city with its be-
wildering ways is no place for the unsophis-
ticawd country girl. This class ﬁlls the

dusty ranks of the weary work seekers.

With crude ideas, no money, no credentials
of character, no friends, utterly unfamiliar
with city ways, is it a wonder that they

resort to anything for a living.

What is the reason that housework is
shunned, looked upon as degrading,
spoken sneeringly of, in fact is the very
last thing a girl will resort to for a living?
In the country nearly all the houses are
roomy and ‘commodious, well lighted and

furnished; on every side the eye rests on
beauty, yard, ﬁeld and grove, the air is
pure and sweet. All this beauty of nature

  

that city maple rave so much about and
pay such exorbitant sums to enjoy for a few
weeks or months, we have free. No girl
needs a large experience to secure a place;
it requires a willing hand and a desire to
learn, and housework in all its details is
mastered. We do not want our kitchens in-
vaded by vandals in the shape of ignorant
foreigners. If they come to our shores
willing to work, healthy and active, they
seem in an incredibly short time to sniff in
the air the feeling there is against domestic
work, and seek employment in factories or
salesrooms or something of the kind. But
in those large establishments where hun-
dreds of girls are employed as clerks, I do
not understand they are employed as com-
panions; they perform certain duties that
are apportioned to each and receive a stipu-
lated sum for their service, and if they do
not perform their work well they are dis-
charged. Nine-tenths of these girls have
little rooms nine by nine, sometimes smaller;
eat poor, scanty food, wear cheap clothing,
their wages are a mere pittance, there is
no money for car tickets, the rain and snow
beat on them; often their feet are damp and
wet after a walk, those wet shoes are worn
all day, there are seeds of disease sown, a
backing cough, an early grave. It is not a
question of right or wrong, it is to get the
work done; ﬂesh and blood receive no more
sympathy than steel and iron.

It is skilled labor that commands the
price and the “ bread winners” are waking
up to the fact. The girl or woman who
makes housework and cooking a specialty,
who studies it until it is reduced to a
science, becomes a cultured woman; she
will be in demand, she can command her
price. When people pay the money they
are very liable to want the worth of it; they
do not as a general thing give something
for nothing. The woman who combines
good sense and good character, who does
her work well, uses judgment and discrimi-
nation, works for her employer’s interest as
though it were her own, will receive good
wages, good usage and respect. She is
ﬁlling her place well, putting her talents to
the best use she knows how, is working for
one object and that is to please, she will
make a success and leave some footprints
behind her. But on the other hand if she
have slack, careless, slatternly habits, de-
stroys and wastes more than her wages
come to, cultivates a "don’t care” kind of
ofaway, and worries through the season
merely for the money she will receive for it,
she will never be anything more than she is
—-a nonentity.

I have always heard that woman’s hand-
writing is an index to her character. Be
that as it may there is no better criterion of
a woman’s housekeeping qualiﬁcations than
her dishcloth and dish towels. If they are
composed of old calico aprons, shirtsleeves
or other odd pieces, streaked with pot black,
squeezed half dry and thrown up over the
dish pan in a wad, we know they have any-

dishes and tinware are jumbled into the
pantry in a delightfully promiscuous man-
ner; food is cooked and served on the same
basis, and she is one of those “happy go

thing but an appetizing appearance or smell,‘
and you can venture the assertion that the

rock in just as pleasant a frame of mind as
though the chairs all sat back against the
wall in apple pie order. When to have a
thorough knowledge of housekeeping is
called “enthusiasm,” when it is the fad to
bake bread, broil steak and infuse coffee,
we shall be overrun with applicants. We
shall not hear a word of mother bending
over the washtub and Angelica ﬁngering
the organ. Musical instruments will have
that “long, perfect rest ” they have so long
needed; Kensingtou, arasene and ribbon
work will become things of the past. The
silk quilts and drapes will be hung up in the
kitchen, for it is not only a duty but a moral
obligation to make our surroundings as
pleasant as possible. The hand- painted
wooden bowls will be used for washing but-
ter, gilded rolling pins will come in play
making cookies and pies, but whether the
ears of gilded corn will ever consent to
come down from their pedestals and be con-
verted into johnny cake, will have to be
decided by actual test. It is predicted that
the women of the twentieth century will
have clear sailing; cooking establishments
will be conveniently located, at meal time
the housewife will telephone for what food
she wants, it will be delivered ready to eat,
the dirty dishes with a little help will pack
themselves into tubes, and will be sent by
pneumatic pressure to an establishment to
be cleaned, but as far as anybody knows
every man will have to eat for himself,
breathe for himself. and live for himself,
unless patent palpitations shall he invented;
then truly we can all join in the chorus

“ The good time’s come

And the year of jubilee,"

or wecan all emigrate to Skitziland, that.
place Charles Dickens tells us about, where
a man was digging a hole in his garden one
day, and it seemed all of a sudden that the
bottom fell out, and he fell in and landed
on top of a stage coach, which was ﬁlled
with human stomachs on their way to a
restaurant to have their hunger appeased.
But there was a great drawback to what at
the ﬁrst glance seemed an awfully easy way
for the right man got the wrong stomach,
sometimes. It was acommon occurrence for
a diminutive—sized man to get a regular al-
dermanic stomach. This man entered such
a vigorous protest against such procedures
that he was put into a cannon—and ﬁred
out—but as if “ fortune favored the brave,”
he happened to go right straight up that
hole be dug into his own garden and landed
under his own vine and fig-tree.

But until that joyful time comes we have
gotto keep that domestic problem moving.
Things are resolving themselves down to
quite a ﬁne point now. We have one plank
in the prohibition platform; women are
willing to standside by side, if not a neck
ahead, with the men and vote. Another
shows their willingness to work side by
side with the men for equal wages. . I
sincerely wish we could wedge in another
plank, if it wasn’t more than a sliver, that
should have a principle something like this:
Women are willing to work side by side
with their own sex, and for good, honest,
decent necessary labor, they shall receive
good compensation and decent treatment.
I think it looks just as well for women to

 

 

lucky ” housekeepers who can sit down and

stand by each other as to be always stand'

 


 

THE HOUSEHOLD.

    

3

W‘

 

ing by the men. It is not brain against
muscle, but brain and muscle. We can buy
any amount of labor-saving devices, but we
cannot buy brains. There must be a
formula—a method—to be any ways suc-
cessful. It requires a well balanced head
to preside over a kitchen; neatness, re-
membering that “cleanlineSs is next to
godliness;” order, “which is heaven’s, ﬁrst
law;” discrimination, so that thrift shall not
merge into extravagance, prudence into
stinginess. The manner of performing
work will never be so perfect but what it
can be perfected. The standard of work
can never be raised only by those who do it.
The work we do will never elevate us, but
by having an ideal, by improvement we can
elevate labor. In the ﬁrst place we must
like our work and be contented with our
place, be it ever so lowly; in other word;
we must harmonize ourselves with our
work; far “ better to hear those ills we have
than to ﬂy to others we know not off.” I
have heard of women who were ﬁred with
zeal to work for the poor heathen, another
will take the white cross; or the red cross
or the blue cross and,ride that hobby to
death, another will see her duty in the W.
C. T. U. or foreign missions. I have
known women to sketch a landscape so true
to nature that a hungry lamb would crop at
the grass. thinking it was the natural weed.
But the woman who will stay in the kitchen
one minute longer than she is obliged to
willbe a twentieth-century wonder.
BATTLE CREEK. EVANGELINE.

 

A. SERMON IN SARDIS.

Theme, “ American womanhood.” Time,
as near the Fourth of July as practicable, as
it was to be a sort of jubilee Thanksgiving
pulpit production. So said the Rev. Mani-
kin, duly announcing the topic and time,
and I dropped in casually to hear, when
said time arrived. The promise he fulﬁlled
satisfactorily to himself,no doubt, taking for
his text the words “Honor thy father and
thy mother,” and “He was subject unto
her,” (St. Luke 2-51,) changing the pronoun
“them” to “her” in the last quotation.
In his semen he made the following points.
First, “ Woman is the heart of the home.”
Second, "Her chiefest peril lies in her
possible devotion to fashionable, or so-called
worldly pleasures. Third, “ Her safe-
guards lie entirely within the Christian re-
ligion.” These points be elaborated in a
very circumscribed fashion.

In establishment of the ﬁrst, after dem—
onstrating conclusively—as any one
might—the axiom that woman is the heart
of home, he did the “ smile and sunshine,”
the “ scarf and ribbon,” the “something
for the stomach ” and the “ woman’s pray-
ers” acts in good shape, and ﬁnished by
saying that in the Divine plan there is
neither inferior nor superior. Neither is
there a race of men and another race of
women, but one race of men and women;
different in organization, adaptability and
use, equal in honor, due and inherent.

He then demonstrated the statement that
“Her greatest danger lies in her possible
devotion to fashionable pleasures,” by a
stereotyped rehearsal of the effects of a
prolonged participation in the rounds of
society life in fashion’s and folly’s tread-

 

mill, upon the physical nature of woman
only, thus robbing herself of the physical
force necessary to the proper rendering of
her part in the four acts already set forth,
as also in that of motherhood. There is
no need to tell the mothers, grandmothers
and maiden ladies these things. They
know them, but the girls, girls in their
teens, are the ones who need instruction,
and the mother who for the sake of
society neglects this duty toward her grow-
ing girls does a great wrong to them; sum-
ming up this point’s support by a general
denunciation of woman everywhere outside
the “sphere” of home.

He then proceeded to show to his hearers
that in his opinion “ Her only safeguard is
in the Christian religion.”

And it became evident as the reverend
gentleman proceeded that he was afﬂicted
with motherhood on the brain, for this idea,
like a thread through a string of beads,
bound all he said together. Mary the
mother of Jesus was the onlv historical
woman cited as worthy of emulation by
“the girls;" others were cited but only to
be tossed aside as utterly insigniﬁcant and
unworthy in comparison with “The one
woman whom millions of men have
worshipped for ages—worshipped because
she was a. good mother! Girls must not
suppose they will ﬁnd amongst men ad-
miration save for the qualities of meekness,
obedience and purity. Let men hedge up
their way by every possible evil device,
lay pitfalls and snares in their way, place
every weight of injustice and abuse upon
them, and those who can stand the storm
and come out at last‘as meek, obedient and
pure as the mother of Jesus, will have as a
reward the worship of men!” And hoping
he had made the points of “ danger ” and
" safeguard” plain to the understanding of
his hearers, the reverend gentleman proceed-
ed to the “ benediction.”

And this then is in substance what a
clergyman of the orthodox religion calls a
Fourth of July, Thanksgiving sermon on
the subject of American womanhood. I am
a stranger to the city and its thought and
mind, but I could but wonder if the pastor
spoke the sentiment of his charge. Not
one word for the ennobling work that the
spirit of Liberty speaking through a free
press and from a free rostrum in a free
nation, have done toward lifting woman
-—-the womanhood of our own America,
into a plane of thought and action, of
education and of moral, religious and
social sentiment whose orbit is not
bounded by the “worship” of men, and
which does not gravitate solely to the law
of their abuse or favoritis :l. Why, so far
as this goes there is more “American
womanhood” in the three lines of this old
toast given at a Fourth of July celebration
in Boston eighty-one years ago, than there is
in folios of such sermons as the foregoing:
“The solace of human life -the virtuous
fair. May their hearts be consoled by
Federal husbands, and their cradles ﬁlled
with the sons of free men,” for herein we
catch the clear sound that rings from the
pure metal of honor, affection and patriot-
ism. Not one word for the long line of
noble women who so thickly gem the pages
of our national life, each glowing the cen‘

    

 

tral star in a constellation of deeds and
endeavors in behalf of the upbuilding of
God’s truth and right and righteousness; for
the elevation and liberation of her own sex
from and above the “ fashionable pleasures”
and all their dwarfing thralldom, not to
the body only. but to the mind. the heart,
the soul as well. Not one word for all this
magniﬁcent array of American womanhood
and its work which, being so well begun,
must and will go on forever despite any
parson’s protest. .

This individual parson seems to have for-
gotten for the time being at least that for
girls in their teens—in this nineteenth
century—to emulate the Virgin Mary in the
matter of motherhood is every known case
a most signal failure. A great many have
tried the story as an exponent of their
maternal dilemma, but people have grown
incredulous and matter of fact. N 0 one
believes them, and if men worship them in
consequence the world is ignorant of the
fact. A STRANGER.

_——.”—‘——

AN EDITORIAL ENDORSEMENT.

 

El See’s letter in this issue expresses
what the HOUSEHOLD Editor has often
felt to be true. that we are sometimes too
didactic in style, and try too hard to be
“ﬁne writers” to be really helpful and
earnest. When we ask ourselves “Whose
letters do we like best?” we acknowledge
them to be those which are simple, plain
and practical, and not too long. Short
articles are always read with more interest
than long ones—yon will ﬁnd this true in
your own case if you reﬂect a moment. The
letters which interest everybody are those
of medium length, which embody some help-
ful thought in plain language. Then too,
the HOUSEHOLD is intended far less as a
medium through which essays on abstract
subjects, and philosophical reﬂections, shall
be placed before the public, than as a means
by which mothers and daughters may ex-
change views on the interests which affect
their daily life, and housekeepers learn the
methods and labor-saving devices of others.
That many are deterred from writing be-
cause they think they cannot arrange their
ideas as well as some one else is undoubted-
ly true, but it should not prove a hindrance.
Contrasts are necessary, and beautiful; but
contrasts are not comparisons, by any
means. You can contrast arose and aviolet,
each lovely and sweet in its own way, but you
cannot compare them, because they are so
different. Shall we say that because there
are roses there shall be no violets? Oh, no!
we will have both, and they shall contrast
each other to the enhanced loveliness of
each.

Now if any of the readers of the HOUSE-
HOLD feel. as we know so many do—“I
would like to say a word or two ” on some
subject, do not stiﬂe the wish. Put that
word or two upon paper and send it on.
Just those few words, coming from the
heart, may reach some sister woman’s heart,
and by their very brevity be cherished there.
And some of your ways Of cooking or mend-
ing or managing may lift “ the last straw”
from some tired woman’s shoulder, and
help her to “ keep going.” We hope for
an avalanche of “ small thoughts.”


  

THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

 

USES FOR STALE BREAD.

There’s no use talking, we all have it,
and we ought to know the best ways of
getting rid of it. Of course some lazy
women of the wasteful type will solve the
problem—as they do many others—by
throwing the whole into the waste, but
others remember the saying “Waste not,
want not,” and are willing to be taught
economy.

Most women have but one use for stale
bread and that is to toast it. But that
leaves many broken pieces, crusts and the
like. which are not presentable. Some of
these pieces are best disposed of by placing
them on a baking plate and drying them in
the oven; when thoroughly dry they should
be crushed by the rolling-pin and put into a
paper bag in a dry place; they are then
ready for thickening soups, or for breading
chops and cutlets. The meat is rolled in
beaten egg, then in the dry crumbs, and
fried. Salt pork, fried till it is done, then
prepared as above, and returned to the hot
fat just long enough to cook the egg, is
good. Other pieces may be soaked over
night in sweet milk, beaten till there are no
lumps, the acidity corrected with a little
soda, an egg and ﬂour to make the batter
the proper consistency beaten in. and you
have very good pancakes.

Any kind of fresh meat may be accept-
ably served with a dressing, made of stale
bread—indeed fresh bread does not make a
good dressing—to be baked in a small basin
whether the meat is fried or roasted. If
you want “real nice” light, delicious
dressing, never use any water about it, and
never pack it solid in either ﬁsh, ﬂesh,
fowl or baking pan. Moisten it with but-
ter alone and it will be light and delicate
instead of the usual soggy, sticky mass.
Season withalittle salt, bearing in mind
the saltness of the butter, a. dash of pepper
—and cayenne pepper is best, I think, for
most culinary purposes, and a suspicion of
ﬁnely powdered sage. I say ﬁnely powder-
ed, because I have eaten dressing full of
stems and broken pieces of leaves, and so
strong as to be unpalatable.

Take the moderately fresh pieces of
broken bread, cut them into dice, put a
lump of butter into the pan, heat hot, stir
in the bread and let it fry a delicate brown;
have ready some beaten eggs, turn in, stir,
fold over like an omelet and serve hot.
This is a good breakfast dish. French toast
is simply fried bread. Heat a little milk in
a basin, and put a lump of butter or some
sweet. fresh salt pork drippingsein a pan.
Dip your slices of bread into the hot milk,
then into a beaten egg, and fry quickly and
delicately.

Cut the stale bread into two inch squares,
paring oi! the crust; toast them nicely. Put
some dried beef into the pan with a little
hot water, let it boil a moment, season with
a generous lump of. butter, salt, pepper, and
a half teacupful or more of sweet cream, let
get just to the boiling point and turn over
the toasr. Lean ham, shaved ﬁne, can be
similarly treated.

To make nice toast, the bread should be
cut moderately thin, toasted all over a
delicate brown, no burnt edges nor raw
spots, and buttered when just from the

 

 

toasting fork. And the butter must be ir-
reproachable, for any taint is quickly dis-
coverable on toast—or anything else for
that matter. L. c.

DETROIT.
—§..——.

AN EXCELLENT IDEA.

 

I sometimes wonder if the HOUSEHOLD-
EBB are not in danger of becoming too pro.
found, of embodying too much wisdom in
their letters, and think the lack of “ copy”
is often due to the readers saying to them-
selves: “If I could write as smart letters
as I’d write oftener, but I’m too hur-
ried with all my cooking and canning and
sewing through the day to look in the die-
tionary for the words that I’m a little
doubtful about, and too tired at night to do
anything but read a short, restful story and
then tobed.” Is it not so, ladies?

The charge that the letters are some-
times too studied, too proper or too good for
daily food, does not in any sense apply to
those written by our “worthy chief,” for
I doubt not that almost every one thinks
after reading them, “How cordial, whole-
souled and genuine they are? Seems as
though I might have written almost the
same thing if I’d only thought of it,” for
very often we have really known and un-
derstood just what she writes, long before,
only we never could have thought it all out
into such a delightful letter that meets our
every day wants and wishes so perfectly.
We cannot all get at the “sermons” in
the “stones” of our every day surround-
ings as she can. '

There’s an old saying that “A little
nonsense now and then is relished by the
best of men,” and I think it is, too, by the
best of women, especially the tired ones
who snatch up the HOUSEHOLD after all is
ready and they’re waiting a few minutes for
the men, or when rocking the baby to
sleep, or when weary arms are alternating in
keeping the churn-dasher in motion. If a
a letter is long and wise it is not read with
the interest that the little helpful hints will
be, so let us write oftener without trying to
be too wise; write as we might chat to-
gether of an afternoon and we shall feel
better acquainted, more sociable and sister-
ly. EL SEE.

Wasnmoron.

 

—...—-——

BINDING PAPERS.

Papers intended for the binder should be
kept neatly folded in a clean place until
they are used. When the volume is com-
plete it can be bound in any town having a
book-binding establishment. One year of
the HOUSEHOLD will make quite a thin
volume, and two years will not be unhandy
to use, so we bind ours two years in one.

It will cost from one to two dollars accord-
ing to the locality, or it may be bound in
some towns for less if one would be content
with a simple cloth binding.

For ourselves, we prefer half morocco of
good, unfading green with cloth sides, and
we- always give the binder an order to leave
wide margins. Ask the binder to bind in
some blank sheets and then in some idle
week one can write in an index, putting

 

the whole in alphabetical order, or if one
does not care for a complete index note the

things wanted. ANON.

Lmero.
-——«‘_

MRS. H. S. B., of Mt. Pleasant, says: “I
write to inquire whether, in the recipe for
pickled cucu‘mbers in the HOUSEHOLD of
June 16th the vinegar which is put on ﬁrst
and last, is heated, and if it is put on hot
at each time of scalding.” Will “ Poppy,”
of Battle Creek, who furnished the recipe,
kindly explain?

————-...————
HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

1N paperinga tin, paper the ends ﬁrst,
then lay in a strip to cover bottom and
sides. To attempt to paper the whole tin
with one sheet of paper makes too many
folds in the corners and too many wrinkles
in the cake. Generally speaking, it is
necessary to paper the bottom of the tin
only.

 

EMBROIDER the initial letter of vour
name at one end Of the damask towels
which belong in the “ spare room.” Fancy
letters in several sizes may be chosen from
the Briggs transfer patterns, and, worked
in Kensington stitch with red marking
cotton, are quite ornamental on a plain
white towel. The cotton does not fade,
even under the ﬁery trial of the boiling
suds.

 

IN California, peaches for drying are pre-
pared by the following process: A lye mix-
ture of one pound of concentrated lye to
one and a half gallons of boiling water is
made. Into this the fruit, previously put
into a wire basket, is immersed the briefest
possible time, being dipped in and im-
mediately withdrawn, and at once rinsed
in running water. The lye is thus washed
off as speedily as possible, and the fruit is
ready to cut and dry. Those so fortunate
as to have peaches to dry might use this
plan with a great saving of labor. The
fruit is very nice thus managed.

.___...__.
Useful Recipes.

 

SAGO Formula—Half cup of sage and one
pint milk cooked together about half an hour,
until the sago is clear; then add one salt-
spooni‘ul salt, three tableSpoonfuls sugar,
beat the whites of three eggs stiﬂf and add:
cook two minutes; add one teaspoonful
vanilla. When cold add one cup cream,
whipped. Pour into moulds. Serve with
sugar and cream. A custard may be made of
the yolks of the eggs and served with this as
sauce instead of the sugar and cream.

 

RAISED Donoaxn'rs.—Two cups milk: one-
half cake compressed yeast in one-half cup
warm water; ﬂour to make a batter. Make
the batter at noon and let it rise until even-
ing; then add ﬂour, one tablespoonful butter,
one teaspoonful salt, one egg, one cup sugar,
half teaspoonful soda and a little cinnamon.
Let this rise till morning, when it is to be
kneaded and rolled out not over half an inch
thick. Cut into round shapes with a biscuit-
cutter, not a doughnut-cutter with a hole in
the centre. Let these cakes rise on the board

until double in size, then fry. As soon as 0
one side bl owns a little turn the cakes, else

they will rise misshapen and full of holes. If
care is taken in frying, they will be perfect
spheres and of a fine lightness. Best when a
day old, and neither greasy or indigestible.

 

   
    
  
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
  
    
 
   
 
  
 
   
   
  
  
  
   
 
   
  
  
   
   
    
   
    
    
 
  
  
 
   
 
   
 
   
  
 
   
   
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
    
   
   
   
   
   

 

       
     
 

     

