1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
227 
OT1E M(D)0§E]H[©]LIDo 
(VW For other Household Items, see "Basket " pages.) 
A "Wire Egg Stand. 
The engraving shows a convenient and neat ar- 
rangement for cooking eggs. The eggs may be placed 
in the stand and put into the water aud removed 
all at once, while the same contrivance which has 
aided their cooking will serve to place them prop- 
erly upon the table. There is scarcely anything 
upon which people are more fastidious than the 
manner of cooking eggs. Some like them hard all 
through. Others follow the old three-minute rule, 
which keeps the eggs in boiling water for three 
minutes by the clock or egg glass. This makes the 
part near the shell overdone, and leaves the center 
nearly raw. Our way is to put the eggs into a 
saucepan of boiling water, which is immediately re- 
moved from the fire, but kept hot for five minutes 
after putting in the eggs. They will then be nicely 
and eqtially cooked all through. The stand here 
figured will allow all the eggs to be cooked alike, 
whatever may be the preference as to style. It 
is to be had at the city house-furnishiug stores. 
Household Ornaments. 
Flower-glass Work Stand. — The following, 
contributed by Mrs. Anuic M. Brown, of Jefferson 
Co., Iowa, is familiar to mauy of our readers, but 
will be new to many others : " Almost any one who 
can work with an edge tool can make the frame of 
the stand. No matter if it is rough, only construct 
it so that it will set firmly. To insure this, have 
the bottom made of 13.3 inch oak plank, the top of 
one inoh pine, or other light lumber (fig. 1). The 
ffigS. 1 aud 2.— STAND UNCOVEliED AND COVERED. 
material used for the cover of the stand can be of 
furniture calico, plain worsted goods, or damask, 
to suit one's fancy or convenience. Cut a circular 
piece just fitting the top of the stand, and to this 
Bew the skirt, as we shall call it, without gathers. 
The skirt should belong enough to reach a little 
under the foot of the stand, and maybe confined 
there by a draw-string around it, or fastened around 
the circular foot by brass-headed tacks. The simple 
cord with tassels, that is tied around the middle and 
binds the cloth in fluted folds, gives grace and 
beauty to the stand. To convert this into a work- 
6taud for the sitting-room, whose ready pockets 
shall hold grandmother's knitting work, mother's 
variety of work, and Minnie's crochet work, you 
have only to take a strip of the cloth, in length one 
and two-thirds the circumference of the top, and 
from nine to twelve inches in width; gather this 
until it fits the circumference of the skirt, and sew 
it around it as far from the top as the strip is wide ; 
now loop this up to the top at intervals, to form the 
pockets, sewing up between each loop to make the 
divisions. Figure 2 shows the stand complete. 
Harp Card Case. — (Annie M. Brown, Jefferson 
Co., Iowa.) Take a piece of heavy pasteboard, 13 
or 14 iuches square, draw on 
it the figure of a harp, and 
with a sharp penknife cut it 
out, leaving narrow strips 
in imitation of the chords of 
a harp, and leaving also one 
cross-bar near the top to 
hold it firmly together. To 
form the rack, cut out of 
pasteboard, not so heavy as 
the first, scolloped or fan- Fig. .1. — card-rack. 
shaped pieces, \}{ inches across, 16 or 18 in 
number. Cover these aud the whole harp, except 
the chords, with delicately tinted paper pasted on. 
Cover the chords with strips of gilt paper. Paste 
a narrow binding of gilt around each scollop and 
around the margin of the harp. Now, sew these 
scolloped pieces on either side of the harp, from 
the top downward, lapping partly on each other 
as seen in the engraving. Cover the stitches 
of the last two put on by a small rosette or bow of 
ribbon. A bouquet of gilt flowers may be pasted 
on the vacant space at the bottom, and a sprig on 
either side at the top. To produce a richer effect, 
scollop shells, readily obtained near the sea, 
might be used in lieu of the paper scollops. 
Household Talks. 
BY AUNT HATTD3. 
" Don't you put pepper and salt on your meat be- 
fore roasting?" — Never, on a joint of mutton or a 
piece of beef or veal ; but I consider it a great im- 
provement to rub a little salt on pork. I make this 
distinction because my experience has tested its 
value, and I know that all good meat cooks do the 
same. Salt hardens and toughens meat, and conse- 
quently would spoil beef or mutton ; but pork is so 
tender that its effects are not perceptible, and the 
flavor is much improved by the addition. Pepper I 
reject entirely from all kinds of roast joints of meat, 
unless a forcemeat is made, when I use it, of course. 
"I notice that you have no water in the pan." — 
Certainly not ; if it were not a reflection on so many 
thousands of good housekeepers, and upon you also, 
I should say a more ridiculous practice never was 
introduced iuto the art of cookery. Why do you 
put water in the pan ? You say — "to keep the meat 
from burning on the bottom, and also to baste with." 
Ah ! yes ! I see that is the idea with all who advo- 
cate this method. Now, to end the controversy, let 
us see what the dictionary gives as the meaning of 
this word. Here it is — " Baste — to moisten meat 
with butter or fat in roasting," — nothing about wa- 
ter, you see. My way is this : I wash the joint, aud 
wipe it dry, then place on a clean pan, with the fat 
and skiu side up, put it into a hot oven and leave 
it there until the heat has started enough of the oil 
of the fat to baste with, when I draw the pan to- 
wards me, to take up a spoonful of grease and pour 
over the meat for a few times, when I close the 
door immediately ; this should be done four or five 
times during the roasting process. When it is of a 
rich, dark, and beautiful brown — which for this 
joint, you see, has taken about an hour — I take it 
from the pan and place on a warm platter, skin and 
fat side up again. Then I pour this grease from the 
pan iuto my dripping pot, being careful to keep 
back with a spoon this rich brown juice, which has 
exuded from the meat. This remaining gravy I leave 
in the pan, placing it on the stove, and adding about 
a gill or wine-glass full of water. Let it come to a 
boil, and then pour it over the meat. Be very care- 
ful that the platter is quite warm, that the gravy 
may not be chilled. The plates, also, for a properly 
served joint should be well warmed, but not made 
hot enough to burn the fingers or the table-cloth. 
Salt and pepper and catsup may be added to the 
gravy while being made, if preferred, but never on 
any account put flour to the gravy of beef, mutton, 
or pork; always do so for chicken and veal gravy. 
" What nonsense !" you say, "I see no reason for 
•making such a distinction." Yes! but, my dear 
madam, there are several good reasons for the 
difference, which we will not discuss at present. 
"How do you like my new newspaper holder?" 
It is very simple, and easily made. I found in my 
attic two square pieces of pasteboard ; when I went 
to the city I bought a sheet of black enamel paper 
which cost 8 cents, and 7 cents worth of gilt bor- 
dering, 4 tassels and 4 yards of thin cord for 50 cts. 
I found in my collection of paintings a pretty land- 
scape, which I took also for this purpose ; then I 
made a little flour paste in a tin cup, and was ready 
to make my holder. The two pasteboards were 
square and exactly the same size, and I cut from 
each corner an equal piece, making two octagons. 
One I laid on one side for the baclc The other 
was covered first with the black paper, using the 
paste to stick it smoothly; when dry, the gilt 
border was added, and then I pasted the picture 
exactly in the center. The back was finished in 
the same manner, placed even with the front, and 
fastened to it with the cord, as in the engraving. 
My little girl received from her grandma a very 
beautiful head of a doll, for her Christmas present. 
I made a nice body for it, and she enjoyed its socie- 
ty immensely, but one morning she came crying 
and holding in her hands the head completely sev- 
ered from the neck. At first I supposed it ut- 
terly spoiled, but after thinking awhile I con- 
cluded that it could be mended. I always keep .1 
bottle of china cement, which I find convenient for 
piecing ornaments, and crockery which will not be 
used in cooking. After applying the cement I 
lined the neck and head with a thick coating of 
good glazier's putty. It took a week to dry, and 
is apparently as firm and strong as ever. 
What a splendid teacher experience is, and more 
especially in the management of children ! Strange 
what a difference between the treatment of the first 
child and the fourth or sixth ! Our first, from the 
time he was a month old, gave us no peace until 
after he was over two years. We never thought of 
a wakeless night, and three out of every week Ed- 
NEWSPAl'ER HOLDER. 
ward and I and the girl would be up rocking, and 
tossing, and swinging, by turus. We never talked, 
or even whispered, while he slept, for as certain as 
we did, as certaiuly would he wake again, and an 
hour or two would be spent in getting him to sleep. 
We offended both grandmas dreadfully because we 
would not listen to their mature experience. We 
starved aud stuffed him by turns— had the doc- 
tor every other day, and sometimes twice in one 
