Some one has said that it is harder work to opeiate 
a washing machine than to do the washing bf hand, 
and that a washing machine is of little value unless 
there is a man to run it. We do not know that this is 
true of all machines, but no doubt it points to the 
shortcomings of many. In outdoor work, machinery 
has so reduced the labor that a woman can do work 
that formerly required a man’s strength, and certainly 
the ‘same results can be reached indoors. We have 
had a number of inquiries about the Ideal washing 
machine, described in The R. N.-Y. of July 21, which 
seems to indicate that the ideal washer is yet to be 
made. The one described exists only in a bright 
woman’s mind, and it remains for some one to put the 
idea into practical shape. However, the use of power 
to run the washer, as advocated below, is certainly a 
solution of the problem at present, and the heavy 
running washer may thus fulfill all requirements, 
until the perfect washer is evolved. We commend 
this plan as the best way to make washday easy. 
§ § 2 
When the Chief Cook invited masculine minds into 
the domestic realm, a preference was expressed for 
those who could give a practical experience, for more 
reasons than one ; but especially because she does not 
believe in offering advice before it has been tried, 
whether it be directions for boiling an egg or instruc¬ 
tions for choosing a husband. Now you can imagine 
her feelings at receiving from a man who acknowl¬ 
edges that he is a bachelor, an attempt at argument 
in which he proceeds very strenuously to prove that 
woman’s chief duty is to marry ! Oh, ye maiden 
ladies ! Take warning, all who have chosen a profes¬ 
sion rather than a husband. This is the sad fate our 
bachelor friend predicts for the ambitious young wo¬ 
man who chose art rather than the young lover who 
was solaced in six months by another: 
In a few short years, all these friends will forsake her. As her 
beau’y fades, and her brlKhtness Is dimmed by age, who then will be 
her solace ? Old age will be a terror, the grave a yawning abyss, the 
promised beyond only, at best, a faint hope; and all her earthly works 
of art will succumb to time, fade away, leaving no trace behind to 
endear her memory and call her blessed. 
The Chief Cook recommends our bachelor friend to be¬ 
gin the rescue. To be an old maid isn’t so bad; but 
to be kept out of heaven is quite another question. 
WASHING BY POWER, 
I T is a common occurrence for a farmer to buy a 
Planet Jr. cultivator, a smoothing harrow, or other 
tools that he will probably use one week out of the 52; 
but not so common for him to buy tools and machinery 
to lighten the housework, the general routine of which 
is much the same every week in the year. After all, 
the farmer is not entirely to blame ! In these days, 
when woman takes an interest in everyting else, and 
even dares to believe that with her help the machinery 
of our government would run smoother and better, 
she should know what she needs to run her part of the 
business, and should have it. If she shows good judg¬ 
ment in the selection and use of such articles, her hus¬ 
band will be proud of her business ability. A great 
many of our farmers own horse powers ; some are 
used for running separators, others for feed cutters or 
sawing wood. These powers should be attached to 
washing machines on Mondays, and thus save the 
wcmen a wonderful amount of labor. 
Ours is a tread power, and is used for separating the 
cream from the milk, and for churning at the same 
time. It is a very easy matter to run a belt from the 
line shaft to the washing machine. We do not have 
to wait until the dishes and dairy tools are all 
clean before we begin washing, but the horse is 
steadily treading, and the clothes rapidly growing 
cleaner while we do the dishes. 
Our washing machine was a hand machine called 
the Duplex, and cost $5. See Fig. 162. It is a round 
tub in which, balanced on a pivot, is a round wooden 
basket with corrugated sides and bottom for holding 
the clothes, with a follower to press them on top. The 
basket is turned back and forth by an iron lever. To 
get that motion, might seem quite difficult, but we ob¬ 
tained it quite easily and cheaply. See Fig. 163. We 
happened to have an old straw cutter with a balance 
wheel hung an a double crank shaft. This, when 
hung, gave a stroke of five inches each way. Attach¬ 
ing this to a lever hung on a strap hinge gave a longer 
stroke, the motiop on a curve as desired. In this way 
we arranged a power washer that cost but little. 
Though it does not do away with the hand work en¬ 
tirely, it lightens it so materially that we would not 
know how to get along without it. 
Another power washer, that I believe equal to the 
one described or better, is a large barrel churn hold¬ 
ing from 60 to 100 gallons, with the end bored full of 
holes, hung to revolve in a water-tight box in shape 
like a large cheese box set edgewise. The box is made 
in two sections, so that the upper half may be lifted 
by the aid of rope, pulley and weight. The sides of 
this box are of wood, with a sheet of galvanized iron 
around the circles. The clothes are put in the churn, 
with six or eight inches of water in the box. As the 
churn revolves, it dips the water through the perfora¬ 
tions, the clothes falling from end to end. This forces 
the water and steam through the clothes, making a 
complete washing machine worth a small fortune in 
any large family. 
Do not think that you can not have a power washer, 
if you have not just the same things to do with that 
some one else has used. If you have a power, think 
what else you have that will go with it, or must have. 
The Hand Washer. Fig. 162. 
and do not give up planning until ready for work, and 
you will wonder how you ever kept hous“ so many 
years without a power-washer. claba t. sisson. 
BY THE WAY. 
OING to the fair boys ?” 
“Guess not; you won’t see us at any fair 
when it’s weather fit to husk corn.” And the speaker 
tossed a shining ear into the gathering pile. 
“ Your father gone ?” 
“Yes.” (What a world of inflections was in that 
one word). 
“ Too bad ; why, everybody is off to-day, and here 
comes Farmer Brown with his hired man !” 
“ Now you just go on, Ben Hill, and don’t make us 
fellows feel worse than we do,” and a shirt sleeve was 
work, is a good day’s work anywhere, and I am begin¬ 
ning to think it’s all drudgery here. It would be a 
change anyway.” 
“ Bat, John, leave me alone?” 
“ No, sir 1” And another ear snapped off its husks. 
“ You, too, I mean.” 
“ But, John, there’s mother.” 
Sure enough, mother was on the other side of the 
high board fence separating corn field and garden; 
for, coming out to the garden for the dinner vege¬ 
tables, she had unwittingly heard the most of the con¬ 
versation. 
“ Yes, I know ; it’s thinking of mother and you that 
has kept me back for a good while. But I’m tired of 
it; it seems as though I never was so clean tired of it 
before, till father drove by with Don—we had both 
worked an hour on him this morning, and didn’t he 
look fine ?—and called out, “ That’s it. Work lively, 
boys, and don’t be late milking, mind !” 
“ I tell you I think a hireling’s place is not such a 
bad one,” and another ear snapped and sought the 
pile now well heaped. 
Mother crept softly away. Her face, her boys 
thought, was very pale at noon, and somehow there 
were no cheeiy words ; only a tender care for their 
wants, and a look in her eyes they did not forget. 
Father, just in time for supper, came in filled with 
fair news, and the pleasant excitement one gets from 
such an outing. It all jarred on his boys to-night, and 
they slipped away early to bed. But mother, her 
night work unfinished, sat long by father’s side, her¬ 
self doing most of the talking; for the good man’s sen¬ 
tences were short and angry—interruptions at the first— 
then his troubled face was hidden in his hands as the 
low-toned voice pleaded for husband and sons alike. 
The morning work was done, and the family gath¬ 
ered around the breakfast table betimes next morning, 
for the good man was no laggard farmer. The boys 
ate with usual heartiness, but father, seeming to have 
little appetite for the meal before him, absently stirred 
his coffee, glancing often through the open doorway, 
across Ihe broad acres, his by inheritance, and, by in¬ 
heritance, his sons’ some day. The boys rose, setting 
back their chairs ; he looked suddenly up. “Fine day 
for our husking, boys ! To-morrow, you know, is the 
big day at the fair. Governor expected, and all that— 
so you want to get an early start You will drive Don 
and the side bar, and mother and I will come on later 
under the cover. You will want a little time to get the 
luncheon fixed, won’t you, mother ? ” 
But mother seemed not to want anything but to 
watch the look on her boys’ faces. Father, too, cleared 
his voice before he continued. “ And you want to be 
there next day, too, you know I Two days isn’t any 
too much time to see it all. There, that’s all; now 
let’s get to work ! ” kmily h. stekdman. 
Applying the Power. Fig. 163. 
drawn across the flushed face to dry the perspiration 
—or something else—for the eyes were hidden a 
moment, during which Ben, with a sorry look on his 
sunburnt face, drove on out of sight. 
“ Don’t you go to being a baby now, Tom,” and the 
older brother, who had answered the questions put by 
the passing comrade, looked with a troubled face at the 
younger boy. “ I was thinking,” he continued ; “ it 
ain’t so hard to be a hired man after all,” watching, 
as he spoke, the stolid, contented face of the man 
sitting by the farmer who nodded pleasantly as he 
passed with, “Fine day, 
boys !” 
“ Father is always try¬ 
ing to impress upon us the 
great advantage of being 
sons. I begin to appeciate 
it—for Mm You see, a 
hired man must have his 
rights ; especially a good 
one, or he is off. But one’s 
own sons, well”—and the 
boy snapped an ear off— 
“ that for their rights or 
feelings. A good day’s 
STYLES IN LADIES’ NECKWEAR. 
HE prevailing styles in neckwear, varying from a 
simple collar of ribbon, to yokes and vests of 
ribbon and lace, or chiffon, are as charming in effect 
as they are varied in design. Almost every one can 
afford to indulge in at least one of these pretty, dressy 
arrangements which go so far in transforming a plain 
dress into a very attractive gown. The simplest of 
them is the ribbon collar. A wide ribbon may be 
used, or two or three narrower ribbons, laid in folds 
and tacked to keep them in place. The collar is usu¬ 
ally fastened in the back, with a bow, rosette, or the 
ends of the ribbon gathered to form the double ruffle 
so much used on the stock collars. The same finish 
used in fastening the collar may adorn the front; and 
some have the fastening at one side, and the opposite 
side ornamented similarly. 
Square, round or many-pointed yokes are made of 
chiffon simply, or combined with lace; lace and ribbon 
alternately also make some of the prettiest yokes and 
plastrons; or all these materials may be combined in 
one, with perhaps, the addition of a jet or tinsel gimp. 
That the style of wearing these pretty trifles is not 
Highest of all in Leavening Power.—Latest U. S. Gov’t Report 
Absowtecv pure 
