NOTE AND COMMENT. 
" Practice always honesty and true IIyIdk 
U ntil the end of life’s Journey, 
And never stray even a Hnger's breadth 
From God's safe path.” 
The above is the translation of a quotation written 
in the liible ffiven by his mother, less than a year ago, 
to a young man now in prison as a deliberate mur¬ 
derer. One can but sadly wonder where the blame 
lies. Good advice at parting is not enough to insure a 
safe journey for the prodigal. It is in the battle of life 
that the value of heme training is proven. When our 
attention is called to a person by an act of his, good or 
bad, we involuntarily seek to go back to his home sur¬ 
roundings to find the root of the matter. 
§ 2 2 
On account of the hard times, the girls of a certain 
Normal school petitioned the Board of Education to 
have the commencement exercises held privately in 
the school buildings, instead of having the usual pub¬ 
lic ceremony, which is a large expense to the city, and 
also necessitates the expense of class dresses to the 
members of the class. These young women have shown 
an amount of common sense in their commencement 
that argues well for their ability to succeed in life; and 
if they continue to suit their actions to the demands 
of the occasion so well as in this case, they will have 
smooth sailing in either business or domestic life. 
2 2 2 
Jennie Creek, a 10-year-old country girl in Indiana, 
has been presented with a gold medal by the French 
Society of the Legion of Honor. Last summer, while 
walking along the railroad track, she discovered a 
trestle on fire, and knowing that the World’s Fair ex¬ 
press was nearly due, she took off her red fiannel pet¬ 
ticoat and ran down the track waving it as a danger 
signal. Some French passengers on board the train 
brought the deed to President Carnot’s attention, and 
she has received the medal which is given only in recog¬ 
nition of deeds of heroism. Very few have opportunity 
to do such a deed, but every country girl may feel 
proud that one of their number has been so honored. 
WRESTLING WITH THE WASHING. 
NECESSARIES FOR MAKING THE TASK LESS FORMIDABLE. 
We want to Ket the particulars—If there are any—about how wash 
day is made easy. What methods, machines, soaps, chemicals and con¬ 
veniences are needed to make washing a more enjoyable part of 
housework? If you could have things just as you wanted them, how 
would you handle the week's wash ? 
This Is the Easiest Way. 
With me, the easiest way to get along with the wash 
is to let some one else do it. I say this as 1 do no wash¬ 
ing. I have the wash for four persons done for 37M 
cents per week. It is done away from home, so I have 
no steam or muss of any sort around. This I find the 
easiest way for me, and my husband says that it is also 
the easiest way for him. mrs. h. a. s. 
An Ideal Laundry and Furnishings. 
Could I have things just to my mind, I think I 
would build an addition to the west side of my sink 
room, to be used only for washing and ironing. It 
should measure nine by eleven feet inside after being 
finished, have a door in the middle of each end, north 
and south, a long, low window on the west, a tiled 
floor, and an outside chimney. In the southwest cor¬ 
ner I would have a copper pump, for the well is very 
near, and the water nearly as soft as rainwater. Next 
the pump, on the west side of the room, should be a 
copper boiler set in brick, with a place for fire beneath, 
and an arrangement for allowing the steam to escape 
into the chimney. Next the boiler I would have two sta¬ 
tionary tubs, with outlet pipes. On the east side of the 
room there should be a long bench, with closets be¬ 
neath. From hooks set high in the end walls a line 
could run across several times on which to hang the 
clothes in bad weather. 
I should want one of the best, standard wringers, 
two clothes baskets, a two-burner oil stove, with a 
screen to shield it from draughts in summer, an apron 
clothespin bag, an agate-ware pail for soaking badly- 
soiled pieces, an agate-ware pan and spoon for making 
starch, a large agate-ware dipper, a rubber hose to at¬ 
tach to the pump nose so that I could pump into either 
tub or the boiler, three medium-sized flatirons, one 
smaller one, and a polishing iron. These, together 
with ironing stand, holders, beeswax, starch, bluing, 
clothesline, scrub board, bosom board, soap, mittens, 
floor cloth, etc., would go into the closets, while in 
convenient places about the room I would have a 
hamper for soiled clothes, a folding clothes rack, a 
patent ironing board, and a chair. I would wear arctic 
overshoes in cold weather, and have both end doors 
open while I worked, in summer. 
As for methods in washing, I would, in the first 
place, be very lavish with water and soap. Ivory or - 
some other white soap would be my preference, and I 
would buy it by the box. I do not think I would use 
chemicals. Table linen I would wash first, and by it¬ 
self ; this, and the other white things that were not 
badly soiled, I would rub but little, depending mainly 
on boiling, wringing and thorough rinsing to get them 
clean. My experience is against long soaking of 
clothes ; it seems as though, after the dirt is loosened, 
it mingles with the water and is again absorbed into 
the clothes, making them grimy. I think the same 
objection applies to long boiling. Twenty minutes or 
half an hour for soaking, and a minute or two for boil¬ 
ing, seem to me long enough. Flannels I would wash 
in warm, soapy water, and rinse in tepid water. A 
little kerosene in the wash water, for anything very 
greasy, I think works well. Personal cleanliness, and 
the changing of garments before they get to be badly 
soiled, save much labor on wash day. 
I doubt if washing can be made really easy, but, if 
I could have the conveniences I have described, and 
health, 1 think I would almost, if not quite, enjoy 
doing the weekly washing. l. robbins. 
Where Hard Water Must be Used. 
I put white clothes to soak in cold water the night 
before. I have a boiler filled with water on the stove 
ready to heat as soon as breakfast is cooked. I use 
Lewis’s lye for softening and cleansing the water. We 
have so little rain in this country that soft water is 
something very unusual, and our well water is hard. 
I shave a half cake of soap into a tin can with two 
tablespoonfuls of kerosene oil, place it on the stove 
and stir occasionally until well mixed and like soft 
soap. By the time breakfast is over, the water in the 
boiler is hot. Skim well, for a scum always rises. I 
wring out the white clothes and soap any very soiled 
places; then put them in the boiler together with the 
prepared soap, stirring well. I have an Atmospheric 
Pressure washer which I use for this purpose ; it con¬ 
sists of a tin funnel about eight inches long and the 
same in diameter at the bottom, having a bottom 2 )^ 
inches from the lower rim, with two cross bars divid¬ 
ing it into four sections. It is a great help in wash¬ 
ing bedding; clothing, etc. I put the towels in the 
water from which the white clothes have been taken. 
While the clothes are boiling, which usually takes 45 
minutes, I do up the dishes and milk work. 
In some families where unbleached muslin is used 
and clothing gets quite soiled, the finer goods should 
be boiled first; but in my case there are only husband 
and myself, and all white goods are of bleached mus- 
lia, and do not get very dirty, although we are 
farmers. I take the clothes into a tub, pour suffi¬ 
cient cold water over them to suds well, then run 
through the wringer directly into another tub of 
clear water. My wash bench is long enough for two 
large tubs, and after going through the second or 
rinse water, the clothes are ready for the line, fresh, 
white and clean. It’s very seldom that I have to rub 
a white garment on the board. 
The towels which were boiling while the white 
clothes were being finished, are put in the suds water 
and rubbed, then rinsed and hung out. Gingham 
shirts, aprons and prints are washed in tnis suds, 
then put in the boiler, which has been placed on the 
back of the stove ; here they scald (but not boil) for a 
few minutes, not more than 10, which takes the place 
of a second suds. Of course, if they are not fast 
colors, this cannot be done, but otherwise they come 
out beautifully clear and clean. The colored socks, 
overalls, etc., all go into this boiling suds, and by 
using the washer they require very little rubbing. 
For flannels, a hot fresh suds is made, and they are 
rinsed in warm water in which a little soap has been 
used. My clothes are usually dry and in before the 
neighbors have theirs on the line, as they use the old 
way of rubbing through two suds and using three 
times the amount of soap for the same number of gar¬ 
ments, while the results are no better, if as good; 
The only things I would have different are stationary 
tubs and a room especially for the purpose. 
MRS. FRED, C. JOHNSON. 
The Way a Woman Would Build a Laundry. 
The way I have washed for several years is to pack 
the clothes in a basket with a bar of Ivory soap and 
send them to the nice colored wash-lady who washes 
and irons them. This may be a little more expensive 
than washing them myself, but husband thinks it a 
saving of my strength, health and, perhaps, doctor’s 
bills. Besides, when we keep a girl, he objects to the 
steam and muss of having washing around. How 
would I like best to do my washing ? I would build 
a cute little laundry near the factory, which is behind 
the house. I would have stationary tubs supplied with 
water by pipes leadirg from the factory tanks into 
which the engine pumps. I would have all the ma¬ 
chinery, steam and good soap needed to make labor 
so easy that the wash-lady in charge would not be 
tempted to fade and spoil the clothes by strong solutions 
and washing powders. Then I would have the clothes¬ 
line hung in the pretty maple grove where the small 
trees should suddenly be grown up so the shade would 
prevent the sunlight from fading the children’s ging¬ 
hams and chambrays. 
If I couldn’t do this way, and did the washings my¬ 
self, I would have the water pumped by hand as other 
people do. I would have tubs of boiling soapsuds with a 
tablespoonful or two of ammonia, and plunge the clean¬ 
est white clothes in this, punching them vigorously a 
few minutes with a stick, when they should be so clean 
they would not need a particle of rubbing. Some of 
the more soiled ones would, of course. Then husband 
would probably insist on sending in some one of his 
factory assistants to turn the wringer Tor me after the 
boiling and rinsing, and to empty tubs and carry out 
the clean clothes. Then I would probably put on a 
sunbonnet, if I didn’t go bareheaded, and hang them 
up, drinking in meanwhile as much of the deli¬ 
cious, sunshiny, outdoor air as I possibly could. 
CARRIE ELLIS BRECK. 
Method and System Lighten the Labor. 
In most families the washing, of itself, would not 
make an extra hard day’s werk. But a certain amount 
of regular housework must be done also ; and the two 
kinds of work together are often too much, so that 
the washing gets the credit of causing all the over¬ 
work. The first step, then, is to lessen the regular 
housework on wash days, by the greatest forethought 
and care known to the housekeeper. It is a great 
help to gather the clothes, sort them, and put the 
dirtier white ones to soak in warm suds the evening 
before the washing is to be done. Soft water is a 
necessity if we would make the washing in any de¬ 
gree easy. If the water is hard, “ break ” it with con¬ 
centrated lye. Sal soda, a piece the size of a nutmeg, 
thrown into the suds where clothes are boiled, helps 
to whiten them. “The rinsing is half of the wash¬ 
ing,” was my mother’s .Did adage. Don't forget that, 
or the need of careful bluing. 
With plenty of boiling suds, a man to use the 
wringer and washing machine, to do the heavy lifting, 
a girl to help in the light rubbing and the hanging 
out of the clothes, washing day has few terrors for us. 
No matter what machine is used, the suds must 
always be hot to insure good work. Any machine 
that stirs the clothes or presses them in boiling suds, 
cannot fail of being a help. 
“If you could have things just as you wanted them, 
how would you handle the week’s wash ? ” That 
question gives me a rare opportunity. I have had 
visions of a laundry that might be a washerwoman’s 
paradise, and now I may describe it, no matter how 
visionary it may seem to others. This room is de¬ 
voted to washing alone. It, of course, has stationary ^ 
tubs supplied with hot and cold water brought from 
the spring, clear and soft. A brass kettle set in brick¬ 
work boils the clothes quickly without really raising 
the temperature of the room. A washing machine, 
shaped much like a box, made of brass or some other 
metal that will not rust, must be placed near enough 
the boiler to have the water in it kept hot by steam 
pipes passing around it, but arranged in the masonry 
so as not to heat the room. The machine must have a 
strong projection on which to put the wringer, and a 
tight-fitting cover to which is attached a standard 
which supports a pump-like handle to which are fas- 
A cream-of-tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength.— 
Latest U. S. Oovernmemt Food Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall St., N. Y. 
