THE HIRED MAN'S CLOTHES. 
The Housewife’s Duty Regarding Them. 
THE QUESTION. 
How much time should I spend in mendlnq the clothing 
of the hired man who uses tobacco, and otherwise 
spends his money foolishly f 
Do a Thrifty Woman’s Part. 
I would repair as long as his clothing was worthy 
of it. As “ a stitch in time saves nine,” I keep my eye 
on places that are most likely to first give out, and 
strengthen them by a patch or darn before they are 
broken away, such places as the elbows or band of a 
shirt, heel of a stocking, binding on a coat, etc., 
thereby keeping ahead of a large thole. I detest the 
sight in the wash of a stocking minus a heel. As for 
spending his money foolishly, I would not take that 
into account as I do not consider it any of my business. 
I would use my own judgment of the time spent on a 
garment, and when it had passed the point of mend¬ 
ing, I would return it to his room unmended and that 
would tell its own story. He would most likely be 
seen in a few days adorned with a new shirt, pair of 
stockings, or a new suit, as the case might be. 
Massachusetts. mbs. o. .t. putnam. 
A Good Example May Help Him. 
The contract with the hired man includes washing, 
ironing and mending, and, of course, is still binding, 
though his money be not w isely expended. There 
ought to be time enough spent on his clothing to keep it 
neat and respectable, and to prevent its being ruined 
by neglect of small repairs. The stitch in time should 
be taken. No woman should be willing to have any 
member of her household ragged or untidy in dress. 
A good, motherly woman will see many things that 
can be done for a person who has no one else to do any¬ 
thing for him ; and it is right to reflect that we would 
be glad to have kindness shown to a son or brother in 
similar eircumstanees. What we do more than our 
duty, must depend on the time and strength we have. 
Wasteful habits in a man must make one feel less like 
doing for him, as what is saved for him is likely to be 
thrown away. Still an example of thrift in caring for 
his wardrobe may do him good. It should be men¬ 
tioned that it is the duty of the hired man to buy new 
things often enough to prevent his mending from be¬ 
coming a burden, especially when clothing is as cheap 
as it is now. mrs. c. m. n. 
Get the Right Kind of a Man. 
The hired man who spends his money foolishly is 
certainly to be pitied, but his habits are no excuse for 
the neglect of a contract on our part. If his demands 
for mending seem unreasonable, or his habits very dis¬ 
agreeable, there seems to be no remedy but to hire a 
substitute. If a man lives in one family for a long 
time, he is very likely to change his ideas of expendi¬ 
ture, when economy and thrift are the rule of the 
house, especially if he has just immigrated. 
MRS s H. H. 
Thus Far and No Farther. 
.lust enough to keep recently purchased working 
shirts and overalls in decent order, and no more. 
he wish fine shirts “ done up,” let him send them to a 
laundry. If he wish fine or heavy breeches cleaned 
or mended, let him send them to a tailor or some per¬ 
son who makes a business of that kind of work. One 
of the greatest curses of this nation is that so many 
of its women are spending their time, health and 
strength in keeping things in order, and saving the 
means of men who use whisky and tobacco, and 
“ otherwise spend their money foolishly.” 
GERALDINE GERMANE. 
The Wife’s Part in the Bargain. 
The men are hired by the month here, and as the 
contract includes board, washing, mending and iron¬ 
ing, I see no way but to do a reasonable amount of 
mending, as we cannot violate the “ gude mon’s ” 
word. But I think there should be some understand¬ 
ing about the amount to be done. There is such a 
difference in men in making washing. Some will not 
change as often as they should for cleanliness’s sake. 
Others will bring on a pile of soiled clothes large 
enough for a small family. Such should be told that 
you are not made of iron and will wash only a speci¬ 
fied amount. I think the better way would be to let 
the wife arrange that part of the bargain. As regards 
‘ spending money for tobacco and other foolish 
things,” I suppose the hired men would tell us that 
they had earned it, and had a right to spend it as they 
chose. In one sense, I suppose they have ; but none 
of us has a right to live for himself alooe, nor to 
pollute God’s pure air which other; have to breathe. 
I am a pronounced anti-tobacconist, and often am 
almost afraid to speak my mind, for fear it may seem 
harsh. I have lived in the smoke all my life, but hate 
it none the less. I think it very injurious to the 
health of a family. 
I have always thought that if all would do as they 
would be done by, it would solve the hard problems 
of life. But I have seriously questioned if it would 
not be right to do as you are done by in a good many 
cases. Would it not set some to thinking in the right 
direction ? The hired girls here are not required to 
do any sewing for the family ; but if there are hired 
men they are expected to do their sewing. 
Illinois. MRS. c. R d. 
Reconstruct the Contract. 
In reply allow me to give a chapter from my ex¬ 
perience. Twenty-six years ago, when we commenced 
housekeeping one hired man was a necessity. Our 
home was in Massachusetts. The hired man expected 
to have his washing done. I not only washed and 
ironed for him, but I mended his socks and shirts, just 
as I would have liked to have another woman do for 
my brother had he been in that man’s place, working 
far from home among strangers. If he felt any grat¬ 
itude, he never expressed it. The sense of having 
done as I would be done by, was my only reward. 
Another man came; he was a Swedish dandy; he 
learned of the first man that “ Missis ” did his wash¬ 
ing. So every week a fine shirt found its way to the 
WBshtub to be washed, starched and polished, till 
seven weeks had passed and seven fine shirts had been 
cleansed for his lordship. Then I learned from a 
little boy who had overheard the conversation between 
the two men, that the Swede had thought of putting 
the whole seven into my care the first washday, but 
the other man had told him “ it would never do.” So 
I received in homeopathic doses, all of the soiled linen 
that had accumulated while he was a homeless 
wanderer. Thank fortune, I had the remedy in my 
own hands—a little unskillful handling of the polish¬ 
ing iron made it necessary for the dandy to hunt up a 
new washer-woman and ironer. 
Still I washed, ironed and mended for the hired 
men ; why, I don’t know. If I had asked my husband 
to make the contract with washing not included, I am 
sure it could have been done. Our number of men 
increased with our work, and after 15 years, we were 
running a big dairy farm in Colorado with from four 
to eight men to board. Did I wash for them? I con¬ 
fess I was foolish enough to do it. I had been gener¬ 
ally well and strong, and had no sense about saving 
myself. One of the men always helped on wash day, 
and I always had a girl to help, if one was to be had, 
but they did not do all of the washing. One may well 
think it was large enough to need all the help I could 
give. I might be following the same old ruts now but 
for an accident. One day, by the merest chance, a 
man’s shirt was overlooked, and failed to appear in 
his room, clean and nice for him to wear. He straight¬ 
way made such a “ to do ” over it that I was aroused 
at last. If that was all the thanks I received for my 
hard work, I would stop it altogether. I asked my 
husband as he hired new men, to stipulate that their 
washing should not be done at the house, and in a 
short time I was freed from that task. 
I do not think, even at that time, that the men ex¬ 
pected their washing done, in this part of the coantry. 
We did it out of pure goodness of heart. It was 
utterly impossible for me to mend for so many—I 
never attempted it. I do not think it should be in the 
contract that the washing, ironing and mending are 
to be done for the person hired. There is only one 
reason why it should be there, from the mistress’s 
point of view, and that is that some men (not all men 
by any means) become very careless when they must 
do their own washing, or hire it done, and the result 
is much harder work in caring for the sheets and 
pillow cases. The latter of course, falls upon the 
women of the house. Pay the man enough so that he 
can afford to hire his wardrobe kept in order and so 
lift another “straw from the camel’s back.” When 
a man helps me with the housework, his washing is 
done, just as a girl’s would be in the same place. 
Colorado. _ s. e , n 
A WOMAN’S BROODER THAT WORKED. 
WAS much interested in an article by E. G. W., of 
Columbia County, Ore., in a recent R. N.-Y. giving 
her experience in poultry culture. Having had a 
little experience in the poultry line, but not with 
such bright results as that given, I determined, last 
year, to revolutionize and commence a new order of 
things. I set as many hens as possible at the same 
time, took the chicks away from the hens when per¬ 
haps seven or eight hours old, or before the hens left 
the nests, and put them in the brooder. The brooder 
is homemade. We procured a box at the grocery, 
.30x14x12 inches, though it need not have been so high. 
A piece three inches high and the entire length of the 
lower part of one end of the box was sawed out. This 
strip is fastened back in place by small leather hinges. 
On the center of the lower edge is a small strip of 
leather, which fastens over a small nail driven'directly 
above this for holding the swinging door in place when 
open. On the inside, are two strips of wood nailed 
one on each end of the box about four inches from the 
bottom. A couple of thin boards were nailed together 
to fit snugly inside the box resting on these strips. 
For the inside of the cover, I cut a piece of flannel 
the size of the cover, sewing on this strips of flannel 
four inches long and an inch wide in rows a couple of 
inches apart lengthwise of the cover, which was then 
securely tacked to the board and placed inside the box 
resting on the slats. How the little chicks snuggled up 
among the hanging strips of flannel quite as comfort¬ 
ably as though they were feathers. The bottom of 
the box was covered with paper first, then a good 
layer of fine sand or dry dust, which should be re¬ 
moved every day, fresh dust being supplied. 
The chicks were fed with fine bread crumbs, finely 
cracked wheat, and warm, sweet milk once a day. 
They were fed often, and only what they would eat 
up clean at each feeding. Pure water was given them 
in a drinking fountain made from an empty baking 
powder can. A small hole was made half an inch 
from the top, the can filled with water, covered with 
a fair-sized tin cover, or saucer, inverted quickly, and 
set in the shade. Only a certain amount of water will 
run out, so that it cannot become foul and warm as 
quickly as when placed in an open vessel. In warm 
weather a pen was made for them on a smooth, grassy 
spot, the brooder was placed inside this, and the 
chickens were left to run at will inside the inclosure. 
At first they were shown the way into the brooder, 
but they soon learned for themselves. At night the 
breeder was placed on the porch until they were three 
or four weeks old, when they were given a larger coop 
in which to roost, the brooder being placed inside for 
smaller chicks. They were the most independent, 
healthiest and finest chickens I have ever raised and 
never troubled me in the least by scratching in the 
garden and being in places where they were not 
wanted, as they bad not been led into mischief by the 
old hens. I raised over a hundred in this way and did 
not lose one. Of course there was some trouble con¬ 
nected with it, but I felt well repaid for my work, and 
the sitting hens soon commenced to lay. 
Washington. _ f- a. h. 
$100 WORTH OF BROODER EXPERIENCE. 
S INCE the day when Joe had his fall while setting 
the old speckled hen on the woodpile, he has be¬ 
come, as modernists say, quite a ‘ ‘hen man. ” He laughs 
now at his own methods of managing the feathered 
tribe, and declares that, unlike ancient Rome which 
only rose to fall, he fell first and rose afterward, i. e., 
in his own estimation. Soon after his fall, he invested 
in a few fowls of a fine breed, and our stock of mixed 
breeds which had been years in accumulating were 
fattened, and one by one their heads were laid on the 
block, where their lives were sacrificed to human ap¬ 
petites after the manner of the world. I disliked to 
see them go, but their places are now more than filled 
by birds of a uniform breed and color, so there is no 
occasion for regrets for the old flock which has passed 
away. Joe spends some money and considerable t’me 
ministering to their wants, and every day the new 
bone mill grinds up food for egg shells, which is really 
as much of an improvement on the old fashion of 
pounding clam shells and broken crockery between 
two stones, to say nothing of bruised thumbs and 
A cream-of-tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength.— 
Latest U. S. Oovernment Food Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall St., N. Y. 
