The verdict seems to be, “No regular sewing day.” 
One writer gives a good reason for “sandwiching” the 
sewing in between other duties—the wearied feet may 
rest while the hands are busy. It is easy to see that 
the farm housekeeper cannot set apart a whole day 
for the uninterrupted pursuit of one task ; for there 
are certain duties which demand attention every day. 
Still there need not be lack of system about the house¬ 
work. System does not necessarily mean the same 
unvarying routine that the sun, moon and stars pursue. 
The housekeeper, whose rules are as unchangeable as 
the laws of the Medes and Persians, is likely to have 
quite as uncomfortable a household as that of the 
harum-skarum of the neighborhood. 
2 2 2 
Last week’s issue described the process of washing 
with the aid of gasoline. Too much cannot be said in 
the way of caution about using this dangerous fluid. 
It must not be put into hot water ; the vessel contain¬ 
ing it must be kept in a cool place. Heat will produce, 
from the gasoline, a vapor which is highly explosive if 
a match be lighted, or a flame of any kind come in 
contact with the air containing this vapor. Some pe’’- 
sons are very careless about taking such risks. Ex¬ 
perience is a good teacher, but in handling gasoline 
we must be guided by the results of some other per¬ 
son’s experience; for if we take the risk ourselves, we 
may not continue our earthly sojourn long enough to 
get much benefit from our foolhardiness. Only a few 
days ago, the papers told of a woman so severely 
burned that she may die, from an explosion of gaso¬ 
line. She started to pour some gasoline into the boil¬ 
ing water to lighten the labor of washing, and the in¬ 
tense heat of the water caused the gasoline to ignite. 
2 2 2 
The editorial “ we ” has often been criticised. But 
it covers a spirit of generosity and modesty that is 
commendable. The individual, instead of saying “I,” 
divides the honors and says “we.” This custom might 
b'e more generally adopted ; especially should matri¬ 
monial partners show this deference to one another. 
The head of the house too often forgets that “ we ” 
and “our” are the pronouns most fitting for his use. 
A paper recently contained a list of contributions for 
foreign missions, among which were these two: Mr. 
A, 3.5,000; Mr. A for his wife, 3100. If the public 
had been told simply that Mr. and Mrs. A gave 
35,100, the readers’ speculations would have been 
more pleasant for Mr. A’s inspection. And the Chief 
Cook has been conjecturing about the man who wrote 
The R. N.-Y. about using the fruit drier. He said : 
East year I dried apples and pumpkin and squash. » » « If I get 
as good results In the future as last year, I shall become an en¬ 
thusiast and eraporate rather than can fruits and vegetables, as has 
been my practice heretofore. 
Perhaps he isn’t married. Possibly he really does the 
work himself. We hope so. 
THE FAMILY SEWING. 
HOW IT MAY BEST BE DONE. 
1. What proportion of the family clothing do you make, and what 
part Is bought ready-made? 
2. How much do you employ the dressmaker? 
8. Do you have a regular sewing day like washing day, or do you 
take up needle work whenever you can? 
4. If you could have a sewing room fitted exactly to suit yon. how 
would you have It furnished? 
Does Only the Family Mending. 
Having been troubled with weak eyes from child¬ 
hood, my knowledge of dressmaking is very limited. 
I do not make any of our clothes. The weekly mend¬ 
ing requires all of my eye strength, and sometimes 
more, for I must use some of it in reading and corre¬ 
spondence. Years ago, my mother found a pearl in 
the guise of a dressmaker ; a woman who takes ex¬ 
quisite stitches and makes the trimming on one side 
of the waists she fashions, match the other (which in 
my way of thinking is a very great virtue); and who 
sends one bills that do not produce palpitation of the 
heart. After my little girls came to me, her skillful 
fingers made dainty gowns and underwear. But my 
dressmaker is not able to do as much work as form¬ 
erly, and other people have claims upon her, so I have 
been obliged to resort to ready-made underclothing 
for my children. I do not have a regular sewing or 
mending day, but sandwich my darning and patching 
between other work in a way that would horrify a 
methodical housekeeper. 
My sewing has been done irregularly, and my ideal 
hou'.e has not been built, so I have never thought out 
a perfect sewing room; but there are certain condi¬ 
tions that rise before me quickly. The room should 
be well lighted and furnished with low, comfortable 
chairs, and the best sewing machine that could be af¬ 
forded. A substantial table for cutting, seems a ne¬ 
cessity, as well as a good lap-board. A closet, too, 
with ample shelves, where goods could be laid with¬ 
out mussing, would be a great convenience, and 
would enable one to keep the sewing room more tidy. 
I would have the room large enough so that the 
children and their father could enter without tripping 
and winding themselves in d'y goods, as is sometimes 
the case in our small apartments. In my ideal sew¬ 
ing room there should be beautiful views from the 
windows, and if the surroundings in a city made such 
impossible, beautiful pictures on the walls, for they 
are wonderfully restful to aching eyes and weary 
fingers. J- 
Keep the Work Ahead. 
The family sewing is often a hard problem to solve. 
I find it easier, in doing any kind of work, to be al¬ 
ways a little ahead of time; to drive the work instead 
of being driven by it. 1. We buy all the men’s and 
boys’ clothing ready-made, with the exception of waists 
for the small boy ; also all underwear. Print dresses, 
kitchen aprons, sheets, pillow slips, etc., are made at 
home by myself. 2. A dressmaker is employed to 
make all our best dresses. 3. The nature of my work 
is such that it is not practicable to have a regular day 
for sewing. I take it up as I find opportunity. The 
greatest difiiculty is to get sufficient time to do the 
work properly. 4. In my “castle in the air,” the sew¬ 
ing room is large and well lighted, with a bare floor, 
as smooth as possible for convenience in gathering up 
scraps and threads, a good sewing machine with all 
attachments, including button-hole worker for cotton 
goods; a table of the proper height for cutting and 
basting; comfortable chairs, one for sewing on the 
machine and a low one for hand sewing ; a big pin¬ 
cushion, plenty of pins, needles and thread of best 
quality, and, above all, good scissors and shears. I’d 
have some pretty pictures, and light curtains that 
would not darken the room; and there should be 
plants and flowers, too, for in my house and grounds 
I believe in flowera, flowers everywhere. 
LINDA WILTON-MCNEIL. 
Some Very Good Plans. 
I dislike seams that rip, half-worked button-holes, 
buttons half sewed on and garments made of scant 
measure of cloth; so I choose to make the linen under¬ 
wear for the feminine portion of my family, the col¬ 
ored shirts for farm work, the waists and every-day 
trousers for little boys. I put the same material into 
a boy’s waist or trousers that the ready-made garment 
is made of, make it up with a light lining and con¬ 
scientious stitches, and the homemade garment is 
worth three of the other. I always make sheets, pil¬ 
low cases and puffs for the beds. I have no use for 
the short, narrow puffs often offered for sale ; and the 
really good ones, wide and long enough to do good ser¬ 
vice, are so high priced that, to buy the material and 
make them at home, leaves a margin in cash, that pays 
handsomely for the work. Other garments needed by 
the family, excepting dresses, are bought ready-made. 
If possible, I have a dressmaker come to the house 
a week or two, spring and fall. With her to cut and 
fit, and to finish the nicest dresses, we together can do 
a large amount of sewing. A woman may be an ex¬ 
cellent seamstress, but it needs practice to give a dress 
a stylish finish, and it is poor economy to practice on 
one’s best dresses. I do not set aside a regular day 
for sewing. I do not think it would b3 the better 
way. The feet, wearied with performing the morn¬ 
ing housework, can rest while the hands are busy 
with the sewing in the afternoon. I believe more 
work will be accomplished with less weariness by 
changing from one kind of work to the other, than by 
continued application to either one. I buy very little 
goods of poor quality ; substantial goods, neatly and 
plainly made, bring the sewing down to a point where 
there is no great difficulty in doing it satisfactorily. 
I would not wish my sewing room to be covered 
with a woolen carpet; a bare floor or oilcloth would 
suit me better. It would certainly be a convenience 
to have a room especially for a sewing room, where 
the work could be left 
and taken up again with¬ 
out the trouble of folding 
away. That would be 
about the only advantage 
an ideal sewing room 
would possess over the 
ordinary sitting room with 
its sewing machine and 
well appointed sewing 
table. As a large amount 
of housework and dairy 
work must be looked after 
by myself, as well as the 
sewing for a family of five, I plan my work well 
ahead. When the large dining-room table is at liberty 
and a morning at my command, I sharpen my scissors, 
collect my patterns and goods, and cut out a large 
quantity of work—facings and bindings are neatly 
fitted and each garment rolled by itself. Perhaps the 
next day I have a few hours to spare, and the machine 
is run until all the work on several garments, that 
can be done without gathering or basting, is done. 
Then, if a friend calls, or but little time can be given to 
the needle-work, my sewing is in a good condition to 
make every minute count. I believe that much more 
is accomplished by having several garments ready to 
work on, than by commencing and finishing each one 
separately. _ s- ® h. 
WOMEN, HOMES, HUSBANDS. 
“ A woman can never feel that she Is at her best outside of her 
home.”—B. N.-Y., page 463. 
HE amount of “bosh” always being poured out 
about women, is comical as well as wearisome. 
Women undoubtedly look and feel at their best under 
as varying circumstances as men do. Woman is man— 
at least that is the way Moses says God created her. 
Some women look best on horseback, some in a ball¬ 
room, some as nurses in hospitals, some on bicycles ; 
others skating, walking, lecturing, sketching, type¬ 
writing in offices, acting as pilots for vessels or as 
presidents of banks. It depends greatly upon the 
heme, as to whether it suits the woman, or she it. 
The woman of character, talent and individuality 
makes her own atmosphere, wherever choice or cir¬ 
cumstances may place her. 
That women are born to be wives and mothers is 
just as true—and no more—as that men are born to be 
husbands and fathers. And now when there are 
several hundred vocations open to women in which 
they may earn a livelihood—in fact, they can do any¬ 
thing they please and are capable of doing—it is not 
at all strange that fewer enter in at the gate of matri¬ 
mony. Some men are very interesting, companion¬ 
able and attractive—but then, what of the others ? 
Certainly, they are neither as interesting nor charm¬ 
ing as many other things on the earth. And the level¬ 
headed girl will look any man well over, as well as 
his family connections, past and present, before she 
will take him for a husband. 
A young man had loved a friend of mine, a beauti¬ 
ful girl, for a year or two, and wished to marry her. 
But the girl had great talent, and desired to study to 
develop her mind broadly. She had youth and health 
and abounding gayety, and was interested in the 
whole world about her. She went to college for 
awhile, then she began to study art systematically, 
for which she had marked aptitude. Meantime the 
young man, like many another self-centered human 
being, felt that if the girl really cared for him, she 
should be willing to belong to him, and not care for 
herself so much. She once laughingly said to him : 
“ Why yes, Joe, I like you very much ; really better 
than any other man I know—except father ; but you 
must remember that there are a thousand things in 
the world that I like.” Then one day he said to her, 
“ Carol, you must choose between your art and me.’’ 
“ I choose my art,” she said, quick as a fla'h. At the 
end of six months, Joe married, and Carol went on 
her happy way with her work, has never regretted 
her choice, has developed into a remarkable woman, 
and could make at any time, what goes as an excellent 
marriage. “ But I don’t see why I should marry," she 
says. “ It’s too common ! Only those women who 
cannot manage to live in any other way should marry, 
keep house, tend babies, patch, darn, ask their hus¬ 
bands for money, and have the men who adored them 
at the altar, at the end of a year, make them the scape¬ 
goats for all their spleen and ill humor ! No, I like to 
feel that I own myself, body and soul. I like men im¬ 
mensely, but I am very sure I could not endure one as 
a husband ! If I outlive father. I’ll hunt up a con¬ 
genial woman to keep me company in a house, and 
we’ll have a lovely home, you may be sure of that. My 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
Absolutely pube 
