When women get outside of beaten 
paths they find new conditions confront¬ 
ing them, and the thoughtful ones will 
stop to consider what will be the out¬ 
come of their new ventures. E. B. in 
“ Which Shall She Do ?” gives us some 
questions which may be very profitably 
discussed. 
* 
Mayok Strong has expressed himself 
in words that will be heartily approved 
by women. He says : “ When women 
do the same work as men, they should 
receive the same pay. In our present 
system, many women are doing precisely 
the same work, teaching the same stud¬ 
ies, just as efficiently, often more so, 
yet receiving lower salaries. This is not 
fair to the women, and I say that it 
ought to be remedied.” And Mayor Strong 
is the sort of a man that will remedy 
such things as much as lies in his power. 
* 
Does the housewife realize that she 
sets the standard of life for her family 
by the way in which she supplies the 
family table ? Whether we live to eat, 
or eat to live, is decided by the cook, to 
a great extent. If the food be nourish¬ 
ing, palatable and healthful, the family 
will esteem it at its proper value, a 
means, but not an end. But if undue 
attention be given to please the palate, 
disregarding the remonstrances of abused 
stomachs, ealing will come to be re¬ 
garded not as one of Nature's necessities, 
but as an individual indulgence. 
■JC 
It is said that, from the bottom of a 
well on a clear day, one can see the 
stars. In such a position, a person might 
think that the rest of the world as well 
as himself, was in darkness. Ilis own 
surroundings and outlook would go to 
prove it. Many of us will take no other 
evidence than our own feelings and vis¬ 
ion, and are just as absurd, sometimes, 
in supposing that the rest of the world 
is going wrong because we feel out of 
sorts, as the man in the well would be in 
insisting that it must be night, because 
he was out of sight of sunshine. Re¬ 
member this, and when you get up some 
morning with those blue glasses on, 
wear a smiling face if you don't feel 
smiling inside. 
A MODEL KITCHEN. 
MODEL KITCHEN, furnished and 
arranged with the many modern 
conveniences that are within the reach 
of all persons of moderate means, is what 
a large portion of our housewives ace 
vainly wishing for. To be compelled to 
go the weary rounds of the unceasing 
duties demanded of them, and to perform 
them in an unhandy, inconveniently-ar¬ 
ranged room, is adding a severe burden 
to labor already hard enough. When a 
kitchen is complete with the necessary 
aids to the daily routine, the housewife 
finds not only satisfaction and enjoy¬ 
ment in her many duties, but actual 
pleasure in the performance of them. 
The new woman, whatever that may be, 
for no one has yet taken it upon him¬ 
self to define that vague personality, 
can never rise to a higher plane of action 
than when she is mistress of a model 
kitchen. 
Before considering what properly con¬ 
stitutes such a room, there are a few 
points on the negative side of the subject 
that are well worthy our careful thought. 
The kitchen should never be considered 
a diningroom or living room. It should 
never be the receptacle of the household 
boots and shoes placed about the cook 
stove, nor should the old coats, caps and 
other wearing apparel be hung about 
the walls. Lastly, it should be, of all 
rooms in the house, as free as possible, 
from the haunting presence of the male 
portion of the household during their 
hours of leisure, and the housewife’s 
hours of busy, bustling activity. 
For those who are building new houses, 
or remodeling old ones, there is simply 
no excuse if they have not the neces¬ 
sary conveniences ; but for those who 
must unavoidably occupy badly-arranged 
kitchens, there is nothing left but to do 
and suffer, as many are compelled to. 
The farmhouse surely needs attention 
and improvement much more than the 
barn or other outbuildings. If the house 
is not comfortable, cheerful and con¬ 
venient, the women feel it in all its 
force, infinitely more than the men, two- 
thirds of whose time is spent out of doors. 
The Doctor or the Sun. 
Is your kitchen small, low and built 
on the shady side of the house ? Small 
wonder that the roses have faded from 
your cheeks, and in their stead, you 
wear a pale, pinched look. Let the 
blessed sunshine into your kitchen ; it 
will work wonders for you ! Where the 
sun cannot enter, the doctor probably 
will. The work through the day is 
mostly done here, and with the small 
Pore k 
PLAN OF A KITCHEN. Fig. 243. 
opportunity of going into the open air 
afforded the farmer’s wife, she gets 
little of the freshness and good cheer 
which “Old Sol’s” rays bequeath to those 
who are permitted to bask in them. The 
kitchen is the laboratory of the house¬ 
hold, and should be one of the sunniest, 
most cleanly and well-ventilated rooms 
in the home. The wing of a house 
seems to me admirably adapted to this 
purpose, and should have a cellar under¬ 
neath, thus insuring- a good founda¬ 
tion, and a warmer room in winter. 
The cellar should be made accessible 
from the kitchen, thereby saving many 
steps, much dirt and annoyance, caused 
by bringing the products of the cellar 
through other rooms. 
Let the kitchen be high between joints, 
light, airy and convenient. 1 would select 
Georgia pine for the finishing- lumber, 
and paint the walls in some light, pretty, 
corresponding tint. The water supply 
and drainage must not be neglected. A 
large galvanized tank in the room above 
the kitchen, may take the drainage from 
the roof. Supply pipes leading from the 
eaves and overflow pipes from the tank 
into a cistern, make a very satisfactory 
arrangement The tank should be built 
large, so that it will not often be found 
necessary to use a force pump to keep 
up the water supply. Farmers having 
windmills, can solve the problem very 
easily. With the tank, and a boiler be-* 
low, a hot-water supply may be had by 
placing the coiled pipe arrangement in 
the bed of the stove. Where natural 
drainage is not at hand, a cesspool seems 
a necessity, to dispose of the house and 
sink drainage. 
The floor should be made of smooth, 
well-matched, not necessarily expensive, 
lumber. For its covering, I prefer 
linoleum. Its first cost is somewhat 
more than oilcloth, but it possesses far 
better lasting qualities. 
Step-saving Furnishings. 
In selecting our furnishings, let us 
take advantag-e of the many labor and 
step-saving devices now found in a mod¬ 
ern kitchen. In their respective places 
are a sink, cupboards, ice closet, table, 
china closet, etc. The sink should be 
made of iron, set in a wooden frame, 
with cupboards beneath for iron-ware. 
At the left of the sink, Fig. 243, are hot 
and cold water faucets. To the right 
stands the china closet, a roomy cup¬ 
board opening into both kitchen and 
dining-room. The lower part contains 
drawers for dish towels, table linen and 
other necessities for kitchen and dining¬ 
room. 
The dish washer cannot fail to appre¬ 
ciate the sink and china closet arrange¬ 
ment, both being just outside the dining¬ 
room door. The soiled dishes may be 
easily transferred from the table to the 
sink, where they may be placed in the 
dishpan, washed, wiped and placed in 
the closet without extra steps. On the 
opposite side of the dining-room door 
are large cupboards for tin-ware and 
cookiug uteusils. Next in order, built 
in the room, is a spacious ice closet, 
which will be found preferable to the 
refrigerator in many ways. 
At the south side of our kitchen we 
open a door (the upper part being of 
glass) on to a pleasant porch. Standing 
between two windows, on large, heavy 
casters, is a long, convenient table cov¬ 
ered with zinc. It has drawers on the 
side and ends for cooking-knives, spoons, 
etc. About midway to the floor is a 
shelf (also zinc covered) of the same 
dimensions as the top, which will be 
found very handy. Beside the table 
stands a long-legged stool, on which the 
housewife sics to prepare vegetables, 
fold clothes, peel apples, and perform 
many other pieces of work. That we 
may have full benefit of the afternoon 
sunlight, there are two windows and a 
door opening on to a west porch. 
The chimney rests on a cupboard, in 
which may be kept flat irons, holders, 
stove brushes and polish. Just above 
the wainscoting, and only a step from 
the range, a little sliding door opens into 
a well-filled wood box, built in the back 
room, tidy, and out of tne way. Be¬ 
tween the range and sink is a baking 
cupboard, built somewhat on the plan 
of a writing desk ; the front, when let 
down, serves as a mixing board. The 
pigeonholes may contain spices, ex¬ 
tracts, raisins and other necessities. The 
left hand side of the underpart forms a 
flour bin, and the right is made into 
drawers for Graham flour, corn meal and 
sugar. When not in use it is tidy and 
attractive. Near the sink is a door 
opening into a toiletroom, thence into 
the back room. The farmer’s wife need 
not necessarily be behind the times 
intellectually, with no time for rec¬ 
reation or self-improvement. When 
houses are conveniently planned and 
properly equipped, she will no longer be 
a worn-out, laded drudge, but instead, 
the happy, well-informed queen of her 
home and the proud possessor of a model 
kitchen. anna e. Phillips. 
WORK FOR THE MIND. 
A NEED THAT IS NOT ALWAYS SUPPLIED 
The worst weariness for man or woman is that 
of a dull and unambitious mind. 
B ETWEEN the dull and unambitious 
mind and the study-loving one, 
always athirst for knowledge, lie innum¬ 
erable shades of intellectuality, a middle 
class to which most of us of The Rural 
household probably belong. Though 
neither dull nor unoccupied, we might 
gain by recognizing how much of our 
restlessness and unhappiness comes 
from lack of good, sound mental occupa¬ 
tion, and how many of life’s trials and 
temptations would be driven out if once 
the mind were too busy to give place 
to thoughts that worry and provoke dis¬ 
satisfaction. Though we know it per¬ 
fectly well, we are likely to forget that 
the mind needs cheerful exercise and 
nutritious food as imperatively as the 
body does; that it will as surely be 
stunted by lack of them as would an arm 
bandaged and carried in a sling year 
after year. Love of exercise in youth, 
and the desires that belong to maturity, 
leave little chance of the body’s lacking 
a fair measure of development: it is the 
finer growths that are ever in danger of 
being crowded down and superseded by 
lower organisms. Grass is beautiful 
and useful, but to raise corn we must 
plow it under and keep it subdued. 
Many of us have yet to learn not to be 
ashamed to be caught reading while a 
stroke of work for the hands remains 
undone. Yet we endure without a blush 
having uninformed minds that never 
rise above the daily task and petty 
neighborhood talk, laying it all to lack 
of early advantages ; as if a flabby- 
muscled, narrow-chested boy should re¬ 
fuse to run and play because he could 
not keep ahead of his mates, saying that 
his mother ought, by suitable massage, 
to have increased his breathing capacity 
while he was still in arms. 
There is reading which is very near to 
idleness ; it has merely the value of a 
mild recreation, and a use of its own as 
an aid to rest-taking. Stories and amus¬ 
ing anecdotes furnish material for it, 
and are useful in their way. Few moth* 
ers with children under 18 have leisure 
of mind or body for much in the way of 
study. Occasionally we meet the ex¬ 
ceptional woman, and she is likely to 
prove an interesting and superior sort of 
person. But heart-and-liand-full moth¬ 
ers do not make up the majority of our 
population ; even leaving- out the busi¬ 
ness-driven fathers, the little children 
and young people still in school, there 
remain a goodly number among us who 
might well spend a little part of each 
day at some sort of mental work calcu¬ 
lated to lend brawn and amplitude to 
the reasoning faculties ; plenishing and 
making fine, not our houses, but our 
hearts, and developing that part of us 
over which we believe that death and 
the grave shall have no dominion. 
_ p. T. p. 
WHICH SHALL SHE DO ? 
S it not true that women are far more 
anxious for the advancement of 
husband and children than is the hus¬ 
band himself? Is it a fact that, in pro¬ 
portion as the wife provides the money 
to satisfy her ambition for better things, 
the husband drops back in his efforts 
and lets her lead ? In a long life of 
quiet observation in many places, I have 
seen numbers of such instances. Yet, no 
true wife wishes to lead ; we are ambi¬ 
tious for our husbands to do great things. 
I think that it is only from sheer ne¬ 
cessity that a woman tries to earn money 
for the advantage of her family. Which 
is best, to live a life of mediocrity, in 
want of many things, yet all the time 
chafing at the fetters of poverty, secure 
in the love of husband, or to take up 
something in connection with our house¬ 
keeping that will bring in the money we 
need, at the risk of wounding the hus¬ 
band’s self-love and ambition ? What is 
the effect on children old enough to ob¬ 
serve—and that is a much younger age 
than we are likely to think—to see the 
mother earn the money which gives 
them pleasure or knowledge, when, by 
all natural instincts, they would expect 
their father to do it? Will they profit 
by the example, and when they are 
grown, what course wiil they follow ? 
Will they always expect to live on 
woman’s earnings ? Oris it best to let 
them suffer some hardships and priva¬ 
tions, and let them earn what they need 
jor themselves ? e. b. 
