October, 1890 . 
185 
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Consequently this trouble may he, like so 
many others, a blessing in disguise; because 
it will make us discover how many nice and 
wholesome kinds of food have hitherto been 
unknown on our tables. 
Co-operative Housekeeping. 
Since the appearance of “Looking Back- 
ward,” in which Mr. Bellamy dispensed with 
the present difficulties of living in a most 
charming manner, women in various parts 
of the country have been making experi- 
ments in co-operative housekeeping. 
The most successful of these efforts seems 
to be the one in Decatur, III., where a 
flourishing club of over fifty members is 
proving the advantages of the new system. 
Each member pays two dollars and seventy- 
five cents a week ; and in return is given 
three good meals a day, with the best of 
butter, home-made bread, and a greater 
variety than could be served, at the same 
cost, on his own table. 
If families can be permanently satisfied 
with the new plan, it betokens a new era 
for housekeepers. With no cooking to be 
done in the house, and the washing and 
ironing sent to a laundry, the work of the 
home will be so reduced that the troublesome 
servant-girl will cease to rule, and brides 
need no longer fear the cares of housekeep- 
ing. We cannot help feeling, however, 
that it will be long before ooperative 
living will become universal ; for there are 
many people so old-fashioned as to feel that 
a house without a dining-room in which the 
family meet around a table spread with 
reference to the tastes of the members, 
would lack one important feature of the 
home. 
A Warm Dressing Room. 
While there is no objection to cold sleep- 
ing rooms, it must be admitted that dressing 
in frigid apartments is attended with many 
trials and discomforts, and is not especially 
conducive to habits of cleanliness. Many a 
child hurries down lo breakfast without 
brushing his teeth or washing himself (un- 
less a little dab of water on face and hands 
may be dignified by that name), because it 
was “so cold.” It does not take long for 
these careless ways to become settled habits 
which it will be difficult to overcome later 
in life. 
We know that it is not easy to arrange 
so that sleeping rooms, which are properly 
ventilated over night, shall be sufficiently 
warm for comfortable dressing in the 
morning ; and there are not many houses 
large enough to admit of a dressing room 
for each bedroom. But in almost all houses 
one room might be devoted to this purpose. 
A small one, on the warm side of the house 
and hence quickly heated, is the most 
desirable. It may be used through the day 
as nursery, play -room, or sewing-room, 
since it will be needed only a few hours for 
dressing, and will require no special fur- 
nishing beyond a good mirror, a wash-bowl, 
and pitcher. Even though the family be a 
large one, it is possible to arrange the times 
of dressing so that all may be accommo- 
dated, those who require the most time 
naturally occupying the room first. 
In one family in which the experiment 
was tried, the father, mother, and younger 
children went to the room first each morn- 
ing ; then came the girls ; and. at last, the 
boys who are proverbial for quick dressing. 
A fixed time was allowed each set, and any 
one who trespassed on another's time for- 
feited the light to use the room the next 
morning. At the end of the winter the 
dressing room was voted a complete success. 
Never before had the family been so 
punctual at the breakfast table, nor so neat 
and happy in appearance. The children 
had learned to be prompt and to regard the 
rights of others ; and when the hurrying, 
shivering, and scolding of former years was 
recalled, it was universally agreed that they 
would never again be without a dressing 
room. 
It would be wise for all parents, in 
planning for the winter, to consider this 
matter, and provide a comfortable dressing 
room, even though in order to do it some 
luxury must be dispensed with. 
Flower Pot Covers. 
A dinner table will always be attractive 
when, in addition to snowy linen, it has a 
center-piece of tastefully-arranged flowers. 
Now that the frosts have killed all but the 
hardiest plants, it will be necessary for 
most of us to use plants in pots, instead of 
the cut flowers which were so abundant 
during the summer. 
A common flower-pot always looks out of 
place on the dining-table ; but set it in a 
pretty jardiniere and it no longer seems 
inappropriate to its surroundings. In place 
of the jardiniere, it is at present very fash- 
ionable to cover the flower-pot with silk or 
ribbon. These covers are sometimes made 
in the form of an oblong bag, the top lined 
for four or five inches with a contrasting 
color. At this point, run in narrow ribbons; 
put the flower-pot in the bag and draw up 
the ribbons, making a full frill at the top. 
A simpler and less expensive decoration 
consists in covering the pot with white 
cotton batting, then passing a broad ribbon 
about the center and tying in a large bow. 
Decorated in this way, ferns and foliage 
plants make charming table ornaments. 
The Value of Milk 
“Can you have all the milk you want to 
drink ?” asked one boy of another. 
“Why, of course, can’t you? My mother 
tells me to drink all I want. She thinks it’s 
good for me.” 
“I wish my mother would say that,” 
replied the first speaker. “She’ll never let 
me have but the least little bit. She says 
she can’t afford it.” 
This conversation is of interest, because 
it shows the mistaken ideas of economy 
which some women have. In the village 
where these two boys lived, milk was at 
that time selling at five cents a quart. 
Their mothers had very nearly the same 
amount of money yearly to spend on food ; 
but while one bought three or four quarts 
of milk every day and encouraged the 
children to drink all they wished, the other 
never bought more than a quart. Yet, 
while she scrimped her family in regard to 
milk, she supplied them lavishly with pies, 
cakes, and other less wholesome food. If 
this were a solitary case, it would not be 
worth mentioning. But it is a fact that few 
housekeepers are as generous with milk as 
with other food. Even in farmers’ families 
it is not unusual to find milk used sparingly 
on the table, while cream never appears 
except in honor of company. 
Such housekeepers evidently do not 
understand the value of pure milk as food. 
It is now extensively given in illness, many 
patients being kept alive by its use, as they 
can digest it when unable to retain anything 
else. Nearly all children like milk, and 
there is nothing better for them. In a 
family where milk is constantly and freely 
used by the children, their supper always 
consisting of bread and milk, irregularities 
of digestion are almost unknown. Of 
course it is of the utmost importance that 
the milk should be pure, Where it is 
impossible to satisfy one’s self on this point, 
it is a wise precaution to heat the milk to the 
boiling point before using. There are also 
methods of sterilizing milk which render it 
harmless even when it contains poisonous 
germs. A true student ol economy will 
deprive her children of pastry and dough- 
nuts, but not of this wholesome food. 
Pickles and Pickling. 
There are three methods of pickling; the 
simplest is merely to put the articles into 
cold vinegar. The strongest cider vinegar 
should always be used for pickles; and for 
white pickles, use distilled vinegar. This 
method is useful for such vegetables as, be- 
ing hot in themselves do not require the ad- 
dition of spices, and such as do not require 
to be softened by heat, as peppers, nastur- 
tiums, horseradish, etc. Fill the jars with 
the vegetables, cover with the best vinegar, 
and tie down immediately with bladder cov- 
ering. The second method is that of heat- 
ing the vinegar and spice, and pouring them 
hot over the vegetables to be pickled, which 
are previously prepared by sprinkling with 
salt or immersing in brine. Do not boil the 
vinegar, for if so its strength will evaporate. 
Put the vinegar and spice into a jar, bung 
it down tightly, and let it stand on the back 
of the stove for three or four days; shake it 
well three or four times a day. This meth- 
od may be applied to cucumbers, beans, 
cabbage, cauliflower, onions, etc. The third 
method is when the vegetables are in a 
more or less degree cooked over the fire. 
Indian Pickle. 
To a gallon of the best cider vinegar add 
salt three ounces, ground mustard half a 
pound, turmeric two ounces, white ginger 
sliced three ounces, cloves one ounce, mace, 
back pepper, white pepper, half an ounce 
each, shalots peeled four ounces, garlic peel- 
ed two ounces; steep the spice in vinegar on 
the back of the stove for two or three days, 
■ and pour over the vegetables when hot. 
