1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
265 
{For other Household Items , see “ Basket ” pages.) 
Use for Old Hoop-skirts! 
Dear Mr. Editor : When some one—if not 
Gail Hamilton it might have been—discoursed 
some years ago on “ The Depravity of Inanimate 
Things,” she did not, if I recollect aright, cite the 
case of discarded hoop-skirts. I never fully be¬ 
lieved in the indestructibility of matter until hoop- 
skirts became common. It is easy to get a skirt, 
HOOP-SKIRT CHIMNEY-SWEEPER. 
for you can go and buy it; but just try to get rid 
of one and see. Ton can’t break it up, as it is too 
strong or elastic ; you can’t burn it, as it is steel; if 
you put it in a rubbish heap and cover it out of sight, 
it will some how get out and be found lying right 
across your pathway. Is there anything inanimate 
that one would not rather see than a cast-off hoop- 
skirt? The miserable, abject, bedraggled, and 
hopelessly useless thing will meet us every where¬ 
in the streets and lanes of cities, upon telegraph 
wires, and hanging to the branches of trees. It is 
about the only thing that a city rag-picker will not 
put in his hag, or that the suburban goat will not 
devour. The other day, as I was going along the 
street, I was almost tempted to exclaim, in the 
quack-medicine man’s improvement upon the 
Greek philosopher, “The Eureka is at last found 
out.” Yes, I have, if not discovered, learned, how 
old hoop-skirts can be made useful. A few days 
ago I saw some chimney-sweeps come out of a 
house, and they had with them an affair which I 
supposed at first was like that figured last month 
on page 219. As I came nearer, I found the thing 
had a strangely familiar look—lo ! it was my old 
enemy converted into something useful, though, 
it is true, humble. The chimney-sweeping brushes 
were made of bits of hoop-skirt bound together in 
the form shown in the sketch I send you. A 
moralist might draw a lesson from the fate of the 
hoop-skirt; built for the purposes of false pre¬ 
tenses—that of distorting the human figure out of 
every shape naturally belonging to it—it finds at 
last its only usefulness in cleaning soot out of a 
chimney. I rejoice over this discovery. Who 
will tell of another use for old hoop-skirts ? 
City Reader. 
.. < »-«--tv-o.-- 
What to Do with Bleeding Wounds. 
BY DR. J. T. ROTHROCK. 
(CONCLUDED.) 
If we are called to do with hemorrhage below 
the groin, we have a ready way of stopping it by 
using the thumb or finger or the key just as we did 
behind the collar-bone, if the injury is so far up 
that we have no room to put on the handkerchief 
above the wound. On the figure, c points to the 
place of pressure. Draw in imagination a line, d 
e, from the most prominent anterior and upper 
portion of the hip-bones to the central bone of the 
body, somewhat lower and in front. Now, just 
about the middle of this line is the spot to make 
pressure. If you do not succeed at first, move your 
finger to the right or left along the same line until 
you do. So certainly may bleeding be arrested 
there, and by the simple procedure I have indi¬ 
cated, that surgeons often resort to it when ampu¬ 
tating a thigh high up. 
Stretching between the letters/and g is a muscle 
known as the sartorius, which is the Latin for the 
“ tailor’s muscle.” It is so called because it serves 
to throw one leg over the other—the favorite posi¬ 
tion assumed by tailors when at work. The term, 
however, would be just as applicable to the Turk, 
and we might just as well christen it the muscle of 
the Mussulmeu. Allow the name to stand for 
what it is worth, but remember that along the line 
of the inner side of this muscle, about the middle 
of the thigh, lies the main artery, and that a hand¬ 
kerchief placed around the leg with the knot, 
large and fine, placed over the muscle will stop 
the arterial current, and of course any hemorrhage 
of that character at a point below. The bauds on 
the thigh with stick included show just how and 
whereto apply the pressure ; only, in both arm and 
thigh, let the stick be more to the outside of the 
limb than we could represent in the figure, and 
you will get the pressure “ at a better advantage.” 
For a cut in the foot, with arterial spouting, you 
may perhaps control the bleeding by making two 
thick, firm pads, two inches wide and long, and 
placing one in the hollow left on either side between 
the ankle and the large tendon coming up from 
the heel, and over the whole tying a baud tightly 
above the ankle. If that fails, you may be sure 
that the bandage around the thigh will not. Some¬ 
times firm pressure with the fingers over the top 
of the foot will stop the jet of blood from a cut 
artery nearer the toes, but it must be remembered 
that here there is a free union of arteries, and that 
even if you do compress the injured trunk on top 
of the foot the blood may come spouting up from 
between the bones. 
The special cases thus far given relate to arterial 
bleeding alone, except that from the jugular vein. 
Remember that bright blood coming in jets is from 
an artery, aud that the dark-colored blood which 
flows in a steady stream is venous. In the latter 
class, moderate pressure above the injury would only 
keep up the trouble, because the arteries being a3 
a rule deeper seated would allow the blood to be 
driven through them from the heart , and the con¬ 
stricting band above would be sufficient to close 
the cavity of the superficial veins, allowing thus 
no escape for the blood on its way to the heart ex¬ 
cept through the open end of the vein. This is 
most plainly seen in the operation of bleeding, 
where when the proper pressure is made above the 
point of the intended cut, the veins stand out 
prominently, like little cords stretched along under 
the skin. They are gorged. Strike the lancet into 
one of them, and see how the purple tide will rush 
out; tighten your bandage firmly as you can, and 
presently the blood will stop. You have not only 
compressed the vein between the cut and the heart, 
but you have compressed the artery between the 
heart and the veins; in other words, you have cut 
off the supply to the latter. 
For venous bleeding, pressure over the cut, “to 
repair the leak'' or the pressure of asoft cloth satu¬ 
rated with a solution of per-sulphate of iron, will 
often do you good service. So, too,will alum-water 
or even vinegar used in the same way be of service. 
Cobwebs have a reputation which has survived, no 
one can tell how many generations of doctors, for 
arresting flow of blood. Make a mass of them 
large enough to cover the wound, and thick enough 
to act as a pad, apply it to the cut, and it will soon 
entangle enough of the fibrin of the blood in its 
meshes to form a clot, through which further es¬ 
cape of blood is prevented. 
Paleness of face, coldness of hands and feet, and 
a rapid pulse in one who has suffered from great 
loss of blood call loudly for stimulants, and in 
withholding them we may hasten a collapse from 
which no human aid can raise the patient. The 
intense thirst of wounded men on the battle-field 
is but an evidence of loss of blood, and the expres¬ 
sion of the demand made by the system at largo 
for more fluid to make good the deficiency. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Housekeeping as a Fine Art.— Jean Ingelow 
sent a pleasant little letter from over the seas to 
the editors of “ The Woman’s Journal.” She wrote 
to thank some unknown friend for sending her the 
“Journal,” but she took occasion to tell American 
women that she wished they would study upon 
what seemed to her a very important problem— 
hoio to make housework attractive to cultivated women. 
She seemed to be under the impression that house¬ 
work is nowhere so much despised as in America. 
T. W. Higginson, writing editorially in the “Jour¬ 
nal” in response to “Miss Ingelow’s Question,” 
and writing as one who knows the culture and the 
customs of American society as well as any one, 
tried to correct Miss Ingelow’s mistake about our 
women as compared with women abroad. He 
seems to think that New England abounds in ex¬ 
cellent housekeepers, who rather pride themselves 
upon their capacity in that respect, instead of be¬ 
ing ashamed of it. Mrs. Diaz portrayed this state 
of things in her late charming “Papers Found in 
the School-Master’s Trunk.” 
In concluding his brief reply to Miss Ingelow, 
“T. W. H.” said that with the rapid progress in 
the improvement of machinery, housekeeping 
might become a fine art in another generation ; and 
he also suggested that one way of relief probably 
lay in the direction of association, some form of 
which, better than any yet known, doubtless 
awaited us in the future. 
The author of “ Woman in American Society ” 
seems to have reached the same conclusions. Hav¬ 
ing said that “ the prospect of deliverance by means 
of a supply of competent servants is but slight,” 
and given her reasons for this belief, she says: 
“Deliverance must come, then, from a different 
source, if it come at all. Perhaps some feasible 
plan of co-operative housekeeping is to lift the 
burden from weary shoulders, and allow time for 
other work besides the mere elemental processes 
of cooking, washing, and sewing, which may be 
better done in combinations by professional hands. 
Perhaps machines for lessening labor will be im¬ 
proved and multiplied, so that what now requires 
two hours for its performance can be done in one. 
They have already accomplished much, and no one 
doubts that this is a mere tithe of what they are 
destined to achieve.” 
I recollect reading in the Christian Union Mrs. 
H.W. Beecher’s account of her visit to the kitchen 
(and laundry, I believe) of the Parker House in 
Boston, where large capital makes kitchen labor 
easy and successful by the use of such perfect 
machinery as only large capital can employ. I be- 
