1875 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
429 
should give way to anything of the kind. He 
thinks the grace of God should be sufficient to 
keep me always patient, and cheerful, and courage¬ 
ous. Sometimes I cry for a day or two, more than 
half of the time. I feel too weak to stop crying. 
At such times my husband helps me less than ever, 
and scarcely speaks to me. He thinks I am a 
badly-behaved child, and ought to be ashamed of 
myself. It seems to me if he would only talk to 
me about something interesting, or take hold and 
lift a little on the burdens that are beyond my 
strength, I could stop crying, but he hates my tears, 
and just tries to get out of the way of them, and 
so he goes off and leaves undone some little offices 
that he is accustomed to perform, in his haste to 
get away. He regards it all from a moral stand¬ 
point, but to me it all seems based in the physical. 
I never fall into these bogs except when I am worn 
out and really ill, and then I tumble in, and am over 
head and ears in trouble before I know 
what I am about. Now do tell me 
whether I can stop it just by summoning 
my will to resist the crying demon; or 
can I do it by prayer and faith, as my 
husband thinks ? One time when I 
cried so much and long, and couldn’t 
stop, I got really frightened, because 
my thoughts kept running on modes of 
suicide. I haven’t cried so hard since, 
but I never since have let myself get so 
tired when in such a weak condition. 
It seems to me I could go crazy if this 
thing went on, and I want you to help 
me keep out of an insane asylum— 
where, it is said, so many hard-worked 
farmer’s wives go.”—Yes, I think one 
can resist the crying demon, and over¬ 
come him by force of will, if one’s will 
is only strong enough, but it must be 
called into service before it has become 
weakened by physical exhaustion. One’s 
will power does certainly depend much 
upon one’s health or disease. Let this 
inquiring woman use her will to resist 
those causes that .bring on physical 
weakness and weariness. Let her re¬ 
solve to do her best not to work beyond 
her strength. She must study to simplify 
her household ways in every possible 
manner. It is better that all of the 
clothes washed should go unironed and 
be used so, than that she should wear 
herself all out in ironing them. The 
simplest wholesome food must suffice, 
and if the needed help can not be had 
otherwise, the husband must be expected to help 
about the housework, though it interferes a little 
with very important out-door work. Let her use 
her will to make herself stop work and go to bed 
at bed time, or to sit down, or lie down, and rest, 
when sure that she needs such rest. This will 
probably keep off crying spells. 
Yes, prayer and faith will save this woman, and 
all in like condition. Such vital faith in God’s 
laws as makes one reverently obedient to them, to 
the best of one’s ability. Faith like this, accom¬ 
panied by prayer for light and for grace, will ena¬ 
ble a woman to do the best she can, and trust God 
for the rest. 
Men can not understand the situation. They do 
not know what it is to have such a nausea for weeks 
in succession, as makes the smell of cooking 
almost intolerable ; to have such keenness of sen¬ 
ses as makes one long for scrupulous cleanliness 
everywhere, without the labor of constant cleaning. 
Mothers suffer grievous wrongs, but it is idle to 
blame the husbands, for usually “they know not 
what they do.” 
I have seen a good deal of dyspeptics, and I 
know how useless it is to argue with them, when 
they have their “poor” fits, and can see nothing 
but the alms-house in prospect for themselves and 
families; I know how common it is for them to 
believe that their friends are all against them, and 
to torture their minds with all despondent thoughts 
and harrowing memories. One learns to see how 
surely certain physical signs of dyspepsia accom¬ 
pany such states of mind. The way to avoid such 
troubles, is to keep one’s stomach in good order. 
Just so it is with this woman, who finds it easy 
enough to be cheerful when she is well. Let her 
study to keep herself in good general health, and 
she need have no anxiety about hysterics or insanity. 
Mending Tin-ware. 
It is sometimes very convenient to be able to 
mend your pans and pails, it is all the better if one 
can do it easily, and without any soldering iron. 
I’ll tell you what a traveling tinker told me. 
We have proved by experiment that he told the 
truth, and we find it a great convenience to fol¬ 
low his instructions. 
You use a soldering fluid, and this is how you 
make it. Buy from a druggist an ounce or other 
convenient quantity of muriatic acid. Handle it 
carefully, for it is powerful stuff, and “ eats ” every¬ 
thing with which it comes in contact. Turn it into 
“who’s afraid?”—the bahtam and 
an old teacup or bowl, and put into it a few small 
strips or parings of zinc, such as you can get from 
a tinner. No matter how much you put in, as the 
acid will only take up a certain amount, and the 
rest will remain in the bottom. Don’t turn it back 
into the bottle until it has ceased to effervesce. 
Then put the liquid into the bottle, and provide a 
small stick of wood to apply it with. After the 
acid has dissolved the zinc, it is much less cor¬ 
rosive. The muriatic acid will probably cost but a 
few cents, the zinc probably will cost nothing, and 
a bit of soft solder only a trifle. 
So now you are set up with tinkering material 
to last a long time—and this is the way to use it. 
Suppose that the article to be mended is a tin-pan 
with a hole in the bottom. Turn it bottom upward, 
and scrape around the edge of the hole until the 
tin is as bright and clean as you can make it. Then 
wet it with the soldering fluid, lay a little lump of 
solder over the hole, (not too large), and hold it 
over the blaze of a lighted candle, which burns on 
the inner side of the pan. The solder will be 
melted down flat, and fixed fast to the pan, and the 
job is done. The tinker said he added a little sal 
ammoniac to his soldering fluid, so as to make it 
mend iron, copper, and steel, but it is not needed 
for tin-ware. Remember that muriatic acid is very 
corrosive, and great caution must be used not to 
get it upon the clothing or other material that may 
be injured. [This soldering fluid we have long 
used, and several years ago recommended in an 
article on tinkering. It is employed by tin workers 
who use a soldering iron. We have never tried to 
solder with the heat of a candle, in the manner 
described, but have done some kinds of work very 
successfully by the aid of a spirit or alcohol lamp, 
which makes no smoke. Ed], 
Foot Muffs. 
I am much pleased with a present just received 
through the mail—the work of younger sisters. It 
is a pair of “foot muffs,” to be worn in bed on 
cold winter nights. They are a great comfort to 
a person who has the care of small children, and is 
liable to have to step out of bed more or less dur¬ 
ing the night. They are of clouded zephyr, knit 
on wooden needles, garter fashion. Forty stitches 
are set up, and the knitting proceeds back and 
forth across the needles, until the strip is about 
ten inches long. Bind it off, and double it together, 
and make it into a bag, whole at the bottom, and 
with a seam at each side. The seams in my 
brahma. —(See next page.) 
“ muffs ” are crocheted together, but they might 
be loosely sewed with zyphyr like that used in 
knitting. With a coarse crochet needle make 
loops around the top of the bag, crocheting a long 
stitch into every third stitch around the top of the 
bag, and joining them together by chain-stitch. 
These loops are for a rubber tape about ten inches 
long. Crochet scallops around the top, as orna¬ 
mental as you like. 
This bag does not look much like boot, shoe, or 
slipper, but put it on your foot and it answers nice¬ 
ly for a foot warmer. A pair of foot muffs would 
be a very suitable Christmas present for any invalid. 
The number of stitches required, would depend 
upon the size of the needles. The knitting should 
be loose and elastic. 
A Pretty Vine for Shade. 
I have never seen any mention of our very com¬ 
mon (in Minnesota) “ wild cucumber vine.” I like 
it much, because it grows so rapidly, and affords 
such abundant shade, and because it is also so 
clean and so pretty. It grows in sun or shade, and 
is the easiest vine I know of to raise for shading 
porches and arbors. The botanical name is Echino- 
cystis lobata. It belongs to the same family with 
the melons, cucumbers, and the like ; it is a native, 
growing in rich river soils from Canada to Pennsyl¬ 
vania and Missouri. The flowers are small and 
greenish-white, growing in long graceful racemes, 
and when the vines are in blossom, the breeze 
blows from them a pleasant and peculiar fruity 
fragrance. The fruit is about the size of a butter- 
