WHO WILL JOIN THIS COMPANY? 
THIS 18 TUK MANIFESTO. 
E, whose names are signed below, consent to 
give our influence in favor of an improvement 
in woman’s dress which will allow her free and 
healthful use of the organs of her body when work¬ 
ing or taking exercise. In signing this paper, no one 
of us becomes responsible for the suggestions of any 
one else, nor do we promise to wear or indorse any 
particular style of dress. We simply give our in¬ 
fluence to help start a strong and healthy movement 
in favor of freedom and common sense in dress, leaving 
ourselves free to work for it as seems best to each one. 
May Wright Sewall, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, 
Mabel Somerset, Celia P. Woolley, 
Frances E. Willard, “ Sophie May,” 
Clara Barton, “Jennie June,” 
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lillie Devereux Blake, 
Grace Greenwood, Sarah Haekett Steven- 
Mrs. Henry Ward son, M. I) , 
Beecher, Grace A. Preston, M. I) , 
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Susan N. Carter, 
Ward, Josephine Shaw Lowell, 
Lucia Gilbert Runkee, Mary Putnam Jacobi, 
Mary Mapes Dodge, M. D. 
Frances M. Steele, Eliza Sproat Turner, 
Elizabeth Livingston Frances J. Barnes, 
Steele Adams, “ Marion Harland,” 
Uattie C. Fowler, Mary Green, 
Laura Lee, Mary Allen Wood, M. D., 
Ruth Boyce, Louise Demorest, 
Marietta Dolly, Hester M. Poole, 
Mary E. Wilkins, Lucia Gilbert Calhoun, 
Jane Campbell, Lucretia R. Garfield, 
Minerva Parker Nichols, Kate Upson Clarke, 
A. H. Markley, Mrs. Richard Watson 
Anna W. Longstreth, Gilder, 
Anne Whitney, Mrs. Henry ViHard, 
Eliza Putnam Heaton, Candace Wheeler, 
Elizabeth B. Thurlberg, Adelaide Johnson, 
M. D., Corinne Brown, 
Charlotte Emerson Florence Kelly, 
Brown, Helena Modjeska, 
Alice Freeman Palmer, Ellen M. Henrotin, 
Margaret E. Sangster, Jeannette Gilder, 
Harriet Prescott Spof- Emily HuntingtonMiller, 
ford, Lucy Stone. 
Lucia M. Peabody, 
We give the list as published by the Ladies’ Home 
Companion. It is to be circulated among women 
everywhere. Death has already deprived it of its last 
strong signature, and we miss from it several names 
prominent in dress reform. Among them are those of 
Jenness-Miller, Mrs. Frank Parker and Helen Gilbert 
Ecob—the last the author of the book on Dress Re¬ 
form lately reviewed in our columns. Probably these 
omissions are due, however, to the clause about in¬ 
dorsing any particular style of dress. The matter is 
evidently put with purpose into a form to appeal to 
the conservative ranks, and we are especially glad to 
see the name of so conservative a woman as Mrs. 
Sangster in this goodly company and adding luster 
to it. _ 
ELDERLY PEOPLE AND HOLIDAYS. 
T sometimes seems as if we had eliminated elderly 
people from society, everybody is in these days so 
young, says Harper’s Bazar. With improved diet and 
easier lives and the keeping up with what is going on 
around us, we of this generation have, in a way, for¬ 
gotten to grow old. After attaining a certain delight¬ 
ful age, we simply stay on, enjoying the variety and 
movement of life about us as well as we ever did, 
possibly without the unrest and excitement of our 
juniors, who must not fall a step out of the pace, as we 
are privileged to do if we choose. 
But when holidays come, elderly people occasion¬ 
ally feel a trifle left out. They are, perhaps, hus¬ 
band and wife, with all the children married and 
settled, not one remaining in the old home. To face 
each other across the table at Christmas, remembering 
how merry a group once laughed and dimpled there, 
to hand each other conventional gifts, beautiful and 
costly, but only superfluous additions to luxury after 
all; to eat a New Year dinner with the silver and the 
crystal, the nuts and the fruit, but no John and his 
pranks, or Nelly with her quips and conundrums, or 
darling grandchildren to come on this day, not to 
dessert merely, but to the whole feast—this is to real¬ 
ize that we are on the westering slope. 
If possible, elderly people should avoid this loneli¬ 
ness. At the holiday season a glimpse of heaven is 
obtainable only in the home. The most sumptuous 
spread at an inn is less gratifying and satisfying than 
the simplest dinner in a cozy household. To gather 
about us some of our kith and kin, or to go to them, 
or if we have no kith and kin to make some of the 
world’s homeless ones happy on New Year’s Day is a 
wise thing for the old to attempt. It cheats the heart 
of that creeping ache which makes the eyes heavy 
with unshed tears. It adds zest and interest to the 
waning hours. Life without interest is flat. The 
truly interesting and interested never grow old, what¬ 
ever the family record may say to the contrary, and 
so we end as we begin. The elderly are eliminated 
from society, yet society without their benignant 
presence would be dull and crude, and no holiday is 
perfect where there are no grandparents to frolic with 
the children—sc the childfen say. 
SOME DESIRABLE CHANGES. 
HEN we came into our present home last spring 
the sitting-room was enough to give one a fit 
of the blues; indeed the whole thing was blue ; the 
paint, paper and even the ceiling were of a befogged, 
cloudy, smoky blue, too dark for light to make much 
impression on the gloom. As the room faced north 
and west the effect was anything but cheerful. To 
make the matter worse, we had just bought the place, 
and used every cent at our disposal in the purchase, 
so that there seemed to be absolutely no cash to put 
into the renovation of the house. 
I just let it go for a while ; but we were not used to 
camping in the kitchen all the time, the parlor was 
unfurnished as yet, and the dining-room too small to 
accommodate anything but the necessary furniture. 
After a week or two, I resolved that something must 
be done, and after much planning and reading of home 
papers, I proceeded to do it as follows : First, I went 
to our county town, and bargained with the grocer 
(who also sells dry goods and keeps a general assort- 
Laundry Bag of Linen. Fig. 280. 
ment) to take eggs in exchange for such things as I 
would need. I procured the very light wrapping 
paper that comes on a roller—it is neither brown nor 
gray, but when put upon the wall is a very pretty 
shade ; and, better than all, it has the effect of mak¬ 
ing the room much lighter. A wide border of heavy 
gilt with a pattern of ferns and wild roses, at the top, 
and one similar at the bottom—only wider—made the 
walls extremely pretty and delicate looking I had, 
previous to hanging the paper, applied a coat of 
enamel of a cream shade, and after the paper was up, 
I repeated the process, taking care not to daub the 
newly papered walls. Of course it would have been 
better to put on both coats before papering, but I was 
in too much of a hurry to wait for the first one to dry 
without doing something in the meantime. 
For the floor I made a rug, using one of the rug 
machines advertised everywhere now, and worked it 
on strips of sacking, which were afterward sewed to¬ 
gether until large enough to cover the whole room. 
This is not in reality such a task as it seems to be ; 
the rags can be drawn in fully as fast as they could 
be sewed for carpet rags, and if they are carefully 
selected as to quality and colors, one soon has a car¬ 
pet that is very pretty and durable. Mine was all 
shades of green and gray, with a little wood brown ; 
no particular pattern was followed, only like splashes 
of the different colors shading off into each other 
where practicable ; and this because I do not like the 
carpets hit-and-miss all over. My green was all 
originally gray underwear, and, although I have had 
considerable experience in coloring, I never tried any¬ 
thing that took such a rich, mossy green with so little 
trouble as did this. Of course, lighter shades are 
easily produced by dipping the material for a shorter 
time in the dye. 
Some of the furniture we had on hand, and some 
we made of such things as came within our resources; 
but when I lit the shaded lamp one evening and took 
John in after supper, he said he was surprised and he 
didn’t believe every man’s wife could make her hens 
lay such a room. But he was wrong about that; per¬ 
haps because he is partial to flobenck. 
AN ARTISTIC LAUNDRY BAG. 
Th’s bag for soiled lingerie, handkerchiefs and col¬ 
lars, is made of white butcher’s linen, 40 inches long, 
and the width of the material. Fold the goods and 
sew into a bag, having its opening in the middle. 
The bag is first embroidered with a scroll border in 
turkey-red btaid. A large bone ring is slipped over, 
dividing the bag into two compartments; the smaller 
for the handkerchiefs, collars and cuffs, the larger for 
lingerie. Such a bag is hygienic, for it is easily 
laundered, is always fresh and clean, and is decidedly 
pretty. anna hinrichs. 
THE HOME DEPARTMENT A HELP. 
HENEVER I think of the man who, a few years 
ai^o, said that women did not improve after 
reading new way£ of doing, but kept on as before, I 
say : “ Poor, deluded soul; how mistaken he was and 
is.” Where but in the good old Rural did I learn to 
make smoke pickle and buttermilk yeast; how to 
cook whole and also cracked wheat; how to can meat 
for summer use ; how to make delicious soups and 
scores of other things ? 
One lady told us to put corn meal in ginger cake in 
place of eggs. Said I to myself, “ Why not in other 
cakes as well as in ginger cake ?” Acting on this idea, 
I made the following, and it was excellent: One cup¬ 
ful of sugar, heaping tablespoonful of butter, one cup¬ 
ful of milk, two even tablespoonfuls of corn meal, 
all well stirred together, adding last of all flavor and 
baking powder, one teaspoonful of the former and two 
of the latter. 
There is that dumpling question, too. I never have 
heavy dumplings, and have always left the cover on. 
But now I leave it off, and have the best of results, 
and it is so much more convenient to find the cover off 
when one wants to try them to see if they are done. 
In this State, we use can oysters a great deal. Most 
people think them of but little account; but rightly 
prepared they are not to be despised I can assure you. 
When we lived in town, our Woman’s Christian Tem¬ 
perance Union gave an oyster supper and the soup 
was extra fine. The liquor from all the cans was put 
on to boil with milk and some water, and generously 
seasoned with butter, pepper and salt. The oysters 
were all in a large dish. When the soup was served 
oysters were put into the soup plates and the boiling 
soup poured over them, thus avoiding a second cook¬ 
ing of the oysters. mabkl h. monsey. 
One cent will buy a postal card on which to send us 
your friend’s name for a sample copy of The R. N.-Y., 
if you wish to preserve your copy. 
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. 
