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CROQUET AS IT IS PLAYED. 
URING the season of 1892, the game of croquet, 
so long designated by flippant young people as 
a “back number,” showed spasmodic signs of a revival. 
Especially, perhaps, was this the case at Ocean Grove, 
and a few other of the fringing shore resorts. 
Early in the spring of 1893, it was predicted that if 
hoops “came in,” croquet would necessarily come 
with them. Tennis and hoops could not exist together. 
The hoops were fought off, but croquet has neverthe¬ 
less made some conquests of lost ground. 
Credit nost mentions some innovations, saying that 
while the changes are few, they are important, as 
they tend to greater precision. 
There is no “rover” nor any “split shot,” and the 
method of “making a start” is entirely changed. 
Where once balls were placed between the stake 
and the first wicket, they are now started from the four 
corners of the ground, partners occupying diagonal 
points. 
The first player whose ball stands at the left of the 
upper stake takes his first shot across the ground and 
aims to strike his partner’s ball. If he succeeds, two 
shots are his in which to make the first wicket, and he 
gains all the advantage; for the remaining three 
players are entitled to only one shot each in which to 
reach, or attempt to reach, the wicket. 
If he fails, however—which, by the way, he often 
does—his opponent on the same side of the ground 
follows and aims for either the ball already played or 
its partner, which by this method is in close proximity. 
If he hits one or the other, he takes his two strokes 
and aims to make the wicket. 
Tf he fails, player number three has two balls at a 
short distance, either of which he may attack, and, in 
the event of success, he has two shots. 
If he in turn fails—which is hardly possible—the 
fourth player has all three balls upon which to work. 
Now if he succeeds, the last man takes only his one 
shot—a process of play which certainly increases the 
difficulty of the game, but at the same time throws all 
the advantage with the early players should they suc¬ 
ceed fairly well. 
In the language of an expert, “ croquet is not an 
athletic game, nor could it become one unless balls 
and mallets should become gigantic in size and ponder¬ 
ous in weight.” 
It is a game of skill, and the absence of the neces¬ 
sity for great physical exertion makes it an admirable 
hot weather amusement. 
Regarding it strictly as a game of skill, however, 
we think few will assent willingly to the loss of the 
“ split shot.” To know how to handle the balls by the 
use of this shot was the real beauty and the real 
science of the game as it was formerly known. The 
long stroke at a ball was practically the only other 
difficult point, but the diagonal shot entirely across 
the ground is too difficult to be welcomed ; and a game 
made too difficult is spoiled. The innovators have 
given croquet players that desirable thing, “some¬ 
thing new,” but the new is a questionable improve¬ 
ment. _ 
SIMPLE AND RELIABLE DESSERTS. 
AVING had some experience in the boarding of 
“ farm hands ” for the past four years, I ven¬ 
ture a few suggestions, which may prove helpful. I 
live on the sea-coast, where the air during summer is 
so charged with oxygen that it is especially conducive 
to a good appetite ; and I have felt the more need of 
good management in buying and planning food for 
the meals, in order to make both ends meet and satisfy 
the boarders. One of my main dependencies consists 
of a dessert of some kind to round off a good dinner 
of meat and vegetables ; and a dessert, in my opinion, 
means something as appetizing and dainty as possible, 
to leave a good taste in the mouth ; so I have recourse 
to various puddings, which, though inexpensive, an¬ 
swer the purpose intended. I have plenty of milk, 
but have to buy eggs. In making soft custard I fre¬ 
quently substitute a tablespoonful of corn-starch for 
egg, allowing one egg with the corn-starch to a quart 
of milk. The soft custard with different flavorings is 
used sometimes to pour over squares of stale cake ; 
sometimes rice boiled and kept warm in a bowl till 
ready for use, is nice with cold custard poured round 
it. The various puddings make a change and are al¬ 
ready flavored. Rex vanilla dissolved in cold, and 
stirred into boiling water, sweetened and cooled in a 
mold, makes a very nice center for a fancy pudding, 
and if one is so fortunate as to have plenty of cream, 
a pint whipped up and sweetened is excellent to pour 
around it. Sea-moss farina, if made exactly accord¬ 
ing to directions, is delicious as a dessert on a warm 
day. Take a quart of cold milk and two tablespoons. 
Fill one even full of sea-moss farina and gently hit it 
against the side of the pail containing the cold milk, 
and with the second spoon in the other hand stir as 
the particles fall slowly into the pail. This seems to 
take a little more time than to mix the tablespoonful 
with a little cold milk and stir into the boiling milk, 
but the result pays for the trouble. Set the pail in a 
pot with two quarts of cold water in it, and let it 
gradually come to a boil, stirring at intervals. By 
the time the pot is fairly boiling the milk will be 
thickened. Separate the white from the yolk of one 
egg, and stir the beaten yolk into the hot milk and 
let it cook a short time ; then remove from the fire 
and strain into another pail. Set this pail in a dish- 
pan of cold water and stir often, and when lukewarm 
add the white of the egg beaten stiff, and flavoring. 
This pudding will not be as thick as blanc mange, 
but is very nourishing. If chocblate flavor is desired, 
the chocolate should be grated and added when the 
farina, is first stirred into the cold milk so that it will 
be evenly dissolved. Bananas cut up, with soft cus¬ 
tard poured over, are delicious. A corn-starch pud¬ 
ding with one egg in it, and just before setting it on 
the table, mouthfuls of orange dotted over the top, 
looks nice. Apples pared and cut in quarters adorn 
the top of a one-egg cottage pudding j ast before put¬ 
ting in the oven, with a teaspoonful of sugar sprinkled 
over, or, better still, if you have made sauce of dried 
peaches, place the cooked peaches in rows on top. 
Sifted apple sauce with white of egg stirred in, sweet¬ 
ened a little and flavored with vanilla, is nice floating 
on top of soft custard when both are very cold. If 
any pudding is left from dinner it is relished for 
supper as a sauce, and thus does double duty and 
allows a new kind of dessert every day 8. n. H. 
BREAD AND BUTTER. 
AVING called at a neighbor’s not long since, in 
the middle of the afternoon of a very hot day, 
I found her baking bread, and the house like an oven. 
I asked her if she never baked in the morning. 
“ I never heard of such a thirg ; how could you do 
it ?” she replied, greatiy to my astonishment. 
I set the yeast or emptyings (I use Yeast Foam, the 
compressed cakes) about one o’clock the day before I 
wish to bake ; by nine that evening it is light. Three 
sifterfuls (Hunter’s) of flour will make five loaves of 
bread. I mix with cool water in hot weather, and if 
it is patent flour I mix it very stiff and knead but 
little. It takes more flour of spring wheat to make 
the same amount of bread, and more kneading. I 
have found that out by experience. I spread a light 
cloth over the pan, and by five o’clock the next morn¬ 
ing the bread is light, the pan rounded full. 1 make 
into loaves disturbing or kneading as little as possible 
and by the time the oven is hot, the bread is ready to 
bake, and is all out of the oven before eight o’clock. 
Rolls and biscuits I often make with the bread and 
they are ready for the seven o’clock breakfast 
When one does not and cannot have the conveniences 
of a dairy house or good cellar, many ways may be 
devised to supply the deficiencies or take their places. 
We make about 40 pounds of butter a week, and 
deliver it to private customers in town each Saturday. 
We have a Cabinet creamery ; the water from the 
windmill all passes through it, and thence in pipes to 
the stockyard cistern. The milk is skimmed while 
sweet into tin pails holding 12 quarts each, fitted with 
tight covers. Every time fresn cream is added it is 
well stirred, so that all will ripen evenly. These pails 
are hung in a deep, dry cistern having a tight door 
over the top. We churn Mondays, Wednesdays and 
Fridays—using a barrel churn—at a temperature of 00 
degrees in summer and 02 to 04 degrees in winter. 
Our dairy thermometer is indispensable. The cream 
is churned ur til butter comes the size of wheat ker¬ 
nels ; the buttermilk is then drawn off and a pail of 
brine strained in. The churn revolves a few times 
very fast, the brine is drawn off and two pailfuls of 
clear water are used ; or water is added until it runs 
free from color. Thus the butter-milk is all out of the 
butter before the latter leaves the churn and it 
requires no working to get it out—working which 
would spoil the grain of the butter and give it a salvy 
appearance. It is placed in the butter bowl and salted 
—one-half ounce to a pound—worked just enough to 
mix in the salt, then packed in a covered tin pail and 
hung in the cistern. At night Cold water is put in the 
butter bowl, and the next morning before a fire is 
built the butter is made into rolls, hard, solid and 
waxy; each is wrapped in white muslin and all are 
placed in a galvanized-iron butter box and hung again 
in the cistern. When we deliver it, each roll is 
wrapped in a newspaper and so handed to the cus¬ 
tomer hard and firm. This is when the thermometer 
is 90 degrees in the shade or more, while others pack 
their butter in jars and bowls to prevent its running 
away and get much less per pound even if the butter 
is as good otherwise. “ Necessity is the mother of 
invention” and in knowing how, and planning out our 
work, life can be made much easier ; time may also be 
found for reading and cultivating the mind, and get¬ 
ting glimpses into the outside world. Thus we need 
not endure the same monotonous round, with no 
change. mbs. fkkd c. Johnson. 
AN ENDLESS WARFARE. 
woman’s life is an endless warefare against 
dirt, and it overcomes her at last.” To con¬ 
fess that our sex should spend the years of earthly 
existence in such a fruitless warfare, is, to say the 
least, humiliating. That to a certain extent it is true, 
cannot be denied. If the army of women .conducting 
this campaign could but be victorious the matter might 
assume a different aspect, but “it overcomes her at 
last,” and she goes down to her grave leaving her 
broom, cleaning cloths and other weapons of warfare 
as a legacy for some other woman, who takes up the 
work where it was left off and leaves off the work 
where it was begun ; for each one finds as much dirt 
to war a/ainst and scrubs as hard as though she were 
the only one who had fought this good (?) fight. 
Is it not deplorable that so many of the women of 
this age let scrubbing and cleaning enter so largely 
into their lives ? Mothers scrub until their nerve 
force is exhausted—or as they sometimes express it, 
until they are “worn threadbare.” Then their hus¬ 
bands and children, who have a right to demand the 
best, have only that worn-out part of mother that 
lacks energy to serve longer. Do not misunderstand 
me. A well-kept home is greatly to be desired and 
cleanliness is now, as always, next to Godliness ; but 
when the wife and mother puts all her strength, 
mental and physical, into the cleaning pail, it ceases 
to be a well-kept home and becomes a clean house 
only, entirely devoid of the home spirit. 
But the work has to be done, some one says. To be 
sure it has, and often the houseworker is not only 
housekeeper, but nursery maid and family seamstress 
as well. It is because of this weight of work and care 
that she should strive to be the conqueror rather than 
the conquered and she should, if need be, slight the 
non-essentials for the sake of t'.e wee ones who need 
and should have the best part of mother. 
So much is expected of woman in these days that 
she cannot safely live in the kitchen to the neglect of 
everything else. The little ones will be men and 
women one day, and soon—-so very soon, while they 
are yet but lads and lasses—they will come to mother 
with questions that will require a scholar to answer. 
How proud they are of mother when she can assist 
them to solve the knotty problems. On the other 
hand, what a feeling of disappointment comes over 
her as she sends them away without the cov :ted help, 
realizing as she does that not only has she not added 
to her school-girl knowledge, but that that has taken 
flight. Then, too, mother may not neglect the daily 
paper, else she will lose sight of the outside world, 
and there will be great danger of finding herself in an 
awkward position in a general conversation. This 
suggests the thought that too many neglect a privi¬ 
lege that might be a source of pleasure and profit. 
Upon the husband’s return, the conversation is apt to 
be made up largely of Mary’s carelessness in doing 
this or not doing that, and other annoyances that have 
made up the day. The husband is all sympathy, and 
feels it incumbent upon him to be interested, but it 
would be pleasanter and better for both if such sub¬ 
jects were set aside and the more vital questions dis¬ 
cussed. 
Some tired wife says, “ How can I know something 
of everything, instruct my children, talk politics with 
my husband, and art and science with my callers ? It 
is too much to expect of me with my babies.” It is not 
too much ; not more than you would wish to do, and 
not more than many a busy mother has done, and 
therefore it can be done again. But it requires the 
tact and planning of a general to put every moment 
to its proper use of work or rest, and to discriminate 
between the superficial and the real. 
But, above all, you must drop out from the ranks of 
those that war against dirt continually, and admit 
other interests into your life. You will then realize 
for the first time how narrow has been jour existence 
and how barely you have escaped being overcome at 
the last. F. m. x. 
A cream of tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength. 
—Latest United States Government 
Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall Street, New York. 
