AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
183 
Mr. Editor, that your question, if heeded, might 
overturn the very foundations of society, and if 
you have not thought further upon the subject 
since you penned it, your active mind will now 
quickly see its revolutionary tendencies, from these 
imperfect suggestions. A Woman. 
South Lancaster, Pa., Oct., 1858. 
.For the American Agriculturist. 
Dresses for Traveling, etc. 
BY ANNA HOPE. 
We are a nation of travelers—farmers as well 
as others. Families are so scattered by emigra¬ 
tion, that if vve were all keepers at home we 
should, many of us, be compelled to bid a last 
farewell to some that we love, long before they 
bid adieu to earth. 
An appropriate dress for the road is of no small 
importance, although it need not be of any Expen¬ 
sive material. It should be of some plain color, 
drab or brown, or any other that will not attract 
attention. Bright colors are entirely out of place. 
Many of the India silks are suitable for traveling 
dresses—so are merinos and delaines. There 
are at the present time a great variety of cheap 
goods made of worsted and linen, or of worsted 
and cotton, that answer well for this purpose. A 
dark gingham is not amiss. 
A traveling dress should be simply made—the 
waist buttoned up to the throat, and the skirt 
without flounces. A cloak of the same material 
as the dress, is, in most cases, in good taste. A 
gray flannel cloak is never unsuitable. The bon¬ 
net should he as simple as the dress. A colored 
straw, with but little trimming, is in good taste ; 
so are shirred bonnets of plain colors. White 
straws are objectionable only because they are so 
soon soiled by the dust. The coarse “Rough and 
Ready ” is much the fashion. Dress bonnets 
should not be worn except on dress occasions. 
For gloves, I prefer the doe-skin gauntlet, or the 
undressed kid ; lisle thread are the best of low- 
price gloves ; avoid soiled light colored gloves. 
Wear a linen or Marseilles collar, or an embroid¬ 
ered cambric—not lace or muslin. 
I have just taken a journey of several hundred 
miles, and have seen examples of various styles 
of dress, which were not all of them in the best 
taste. One young miss, not far advanced in her 
teens, traveled in a low-neck dress, as it was 
very easy to see when she removed her cloak for 
her greater comfort. Another wore a many-col¬ 
ored chenille shawl, with a straw bonnet profuse¬ 
ly trimmed with a ribbon in which red was one of 
the colors. The face trimming was a bright rose- 
color and black, and the strings another shade of 
rose-color without the black—the rose-color itself 
was beautiful, but its proper effect was ruined by 
the red, and the different shade of the same color. 
Another was still more marked in her style. She 
displayed prodigious hoops, wore no collar, but did 
wear an immense bloomer hat streaming with 
blue ribbons. She was excessively deficient in 
beauty, and should not have attracted attention 
by a peculiar dress. In the seat back of me sat 
a very neat little woman, in a drab dress and 
cloak, wearing a straw bonnet, with the cleanest 
of quilled lace for a face trimming. Her dress 
displayed both good sense, and good taste; 
good sense is always an element in good taste. 
It is well for ladies to provide themselves with 
a lunch, as it is otherwise impossible for them to 
be comfortable in the hurry and scramble of rail¬ 
road traveling. I would also recommend them to 
take a small tumbler with them, as it is not par¬ 
ticularly agreeable to drink after others, especial¬ 
ly after the victims of tobacco. 
May I not offer a hint to gentlemen, to which I 
wish they would lend a listening ear. It is that 
they should leave their tobacco at home, and not 
bring it into the cars to annoy others. I pity the 
wives of these spitters, bat as they Were taken 
for worse, as well as better, perhaps there is no 
other way than to bear with them. I do not know 
a more disgusting practice than that of defiling 
cars, and public rooms, and private parlors even, 
in this way. If these men must chew, let them 
resort to the smoking ear and enjoy their tobacco. 
Medical Eecipes- 
Medical recipes to cure every imaginable ail¬ 
ment, incident to human or other animals, from 
a wart to the heaves, or horn ail, are received 
from different sources almost daily, but we seldom 
publish them, for many are nonsensical, others 
injurious, and few can be relied on. No doubt 
most of those who kindly furnish them fully be¬ 
lieve in the efficacy of their remedies, but to be 
able to pronounce definitely upon the certain ef¬ 
fects of any medicine in a specific case, requires 
knowledge and an experience obtained only by 
years of observation and practice. Two-thirds of 
the doses “warranted to cure,” have originated 
in the mere notions of men to whom even the 
inward structure of an animal is an unknown 
mystery. So different, too, are the symptoms of 
the same disease in different individuals, that 
scarcely two cases can be successfully treated in 
the same manner. Vv'e are aware that almost 
every man can bring testimony of surprising 
cures effected by bis favorite medicine, but we 
can not tell with certainty whether the result fol¬ 
lowed, by the aid, or in spite of the means used. 
As the aim has been to make the Agriculturist 
reliable in its teachings, so far as it does go, it has 
been deemed at least safe to exclude nearly all 
matter of this character which could not be 
vouched for with positive certainty. 
Gi-asitli'srolls.or assil tHe XiHllc Girls. 
REPORTED BY COUSIN MARY. 
Dear Mr. Editor : 
X have been waiting a good while for an opportunity to 
tell you and all the Agriculturist Cousins, some of the 
good things that. Grandmother has been talking about, 
since she has been at Uncle John's ; but you have had so 
many other matters to print, that I supposed I couldn’t 
get a word in “ edge-wise.” But if you can now find 
room, I will tell you what she said to us one afternoon, 
ABOUT KEEPING OUR ROOMS IN ORDER. 
“I tell you, girls, there’s nothing I love to see more than 
a nice tidy room with everything in its place. If there’s 
only a bed, a table and a chair in it, they ought to be set 
right, and they’ll look better than a room full of nice fur¬ 
niture put in any way and every way. X had a peep intc 
a little girl's room the other day, and I could have laughec 
heartily, only 1 felt sorry to see one of my grand-daugh 
ters growing up with such bad habits. There was the 
bed pulled halfway into the room, the clothes on it all 
tumbled about, and one pillow lying on the floor. On on? 
of the bed-posts hung an old sun-bonnet, and on another a 
towel. The wash-stand was littered up with brushes and 
combs, and a large doll that looked as if it was trying to 
crawl behind the pitcher to get out of the way of lha 
broom, which was lying with one end on the floor and 
the other over a chair near the stand, with a night cap on 
the lop of it. The oat was asleep on a heap of clothes in 
the middle of the floor, and the candlestick, on a chair, 
served for a pin-cushion and comb-case. One edge of the 
carpet was turned up, the box for playthings was set upon 
a trunk, and everything in it, little chairs, dishes, rag-ba¬ 
bies, and odds and ends were mixed up curiously enough. 
Eveiything looked as if it had run into the room in a great 
hurry to get out of a shower, or as if tilings Imd suddenly 
stopped in the middle of a game of blind man’s buff. 
When 1 talked with the little girl about it, she blushed 
and said 1 she didn’t think anybody would see it.’ Now, 
my dear girls, I’m not so anxious to teach you to keep 
things in order because somebody will see them, but fur 
your own sakes. You will see them—and you will find 
great comfort in keeping everything properly arranged. 
There’s something in us that loves to see things in their 
places, flow much more we enjoy a visit when we find 
the housekeeper has taken pains to putlhings all to rights. 
When I sit down in a room where a chair or a table is out 
of place, it seems all ihe time as if it was uneasy, and it 
makes me uneasy, and every person, even children, have 
something of this feeling, although they may not know 
exactly what causes it. 
Let me help you a little with a plan for arranging your 
room so that it w ill be convenient and pleasant. There 
must be a bed in it of course, and it is of some conse¬ 
quence where it stands. Almost everybody puts it up in 
a corner, but I don’t like that so well, unless room is 
scarce, because it makes unnecessary trouble to move it 
out every day in order to make it up nicely ; and it is also 
difficult to sweep all the dust from under it, if one side is 
against the wali. If the floor is carpeted, the carpet is 
worn by pushing the bedstead back and forth over it, and 
if not, the floor is marked and scratched. The head of 
of the bed may be against the wall, and if it can be so ar¬ 
ranged, I like to have the foot towards a window, so that 
when the morning light comes in it will wake rne up ear¬ 
ly. We must be careful not to place the bed where a 
draught of air w ill passover us, when asleep, for instance 
between an open door and Ihe fire place, or a window on 
the opposite side of the room: bad colds are sometimes 
taken in this way. 
There should be at least a strip of carpet to stand on 
while dressing, and if this is all, it should be laid down 
beside the bed. Neat rag carpet costs but little, and will 
add a great deal to the comfort of the room. The chairs, 
bureau, or trunk for clothes, and wash-stand, or dressing- 
table, should be arranged according to the size and form of 
the room. One chair will be warned near the bed, to lay 
the clothes upon, and one near the window where it w ill 
be pleasant to sit and read or sew. The stand or dressing 
table, with the looking-glass over it, should also be placed 
near the window to afford plenty of light. Even a plain 
pine stand of rough boards may be made very neat by cov¬ 
ering with white cotton cloth, or furniture calico. A lit¬ 
tle ruffle around the top edge is tasty. A curtain may 
be tacked around the edge to hang down and hide the 
rough legs of the stand, or shoes, or anything you may 
want out of sight. If there is no drawer in which to keep 
the combs and brushes, a little case of pasteboard, 
covered with fancy paper, may be made to set on the ta¬ 
ble, or hung against the wall near the looking-glass. II 
there is no closet in which to hang clothing, a strip of 
board with hooks made for the purpose, or smooth wooden 
pins, may be put up on one side of the room. This is much 
better than driving nails around here and there, because 
these disfigure the walls, and are also liable to tear the 
dresses hung on them. A sheet can be bung up between 
the dresses and the wall, and another over them to keep 
the dust out. There should be a box or shelves for the 
playthings, a nice place for books, and a basket or box for 
the sewing. When a girl has these things, she should 
learn to put every article in its proper place as soon as she 
has finished using it. It will s ion become a habit to do so, 
and then it will be much easier as well as pleasanter than 
not to do it. Let all my little grand-daughters try it." 
There, Mr. Editor, I guess I have told you all of grand¬ 
mother's talk you will have room for in the next paper, 
but you may depend upon Mary lor more if you want 
more.—[We do.—Ed.] 
A naturalized citizen being asked why he left nis na¬ 
tive land, whether iorwant or not, replied ; “ Not for that, 
I had enough of that at home,” 
