J U V>JJ IUOMJ U ^ 
The winners in the last prize contest 
are: 
First Prize.— Elva C. Button, New York. 
Second Prize. —Susan B. Robbins, Mass. 
Third Prize. —Mrs. Alice Weld, Delaware. 
The manuscripts received this time are 
better, in many ways, than those re¬ 
ceived in former contests. More atten¬ 
tion has been paid to length, and there 
are few contributions that are unavail¬ 
able. 
December 21, we will pay $2, $1 and a 
year's subscription to The R. N.-Y., for 
the best three short articles on any sub¬ 
ject sent us before that time. 
CONDITIONS. flFM 
j.-. The articles may be on any subject 
whatever—grave or gay, poetry or prose. 
They may be original or taken from 
other publications; but in every case 
the fullest credit must be given. They 
must not exceed 350 words in length. 
The prizes will be awarded to the 
articles which, in the opinion of the 
editors, are most helpful in power, sug¬ 
gestion and moral to the readers of this 
department. We do not want long essays 
or sermons, but bright, forcible and sug¬ 
gestive notes. No person may take two 
prizes two successive periods. 
We have been told again and again 
that all bottles containing poison should 
be plainly labeled ; but a further pre¬ 
caution, not less important, is to have 
them labeled on the opposite side with 
the antidote, so that no time will be lost 
in giving relief if some one should take 
the poison. 
Cats have always been regarded as the 
especial pets of women, but they are 
also favorites with many of the other 
sex. Thomas C. Platt has a $1,000 por¬ 
trait of a pet cat which he once had. It 
was named Julius Caesar, lived in Mr. 
Platt’s family for eight years, and its 
place has never been filled by another. 
There are other cat-lovers among men 
whose names are equally well-known. 
So tbe weakness for Tabby’s company is 
not confined to women. 
* 
□ So long as the W. C. T. U. confined 
their efforts to fighting intemperance 
they were characterized by their enemies 
as temperance cranks. Now that Miss 
Willard, in her address at the last annual 
convention, at Baltimore, has spoken of 
political and social reforms which the 
times demand, the wail is made that she 
is “getting away from her specialty.” 
The Chicago Journal mourns after this 
fashion : “It is a matter for sincere re¬ 
gret that Miss Willard’s great organiza¬ 
tion has come, in these latter days, to 
fritter away its energies in a windmill 
fight with pretty much everything above 
ground instead of sticking to the point 
and accomplishing one thing.” It is not 
likely that the temperance cause will be 
relinquished, and if the expression of 
Miss Willard’s opinion will help to 
quicken some other reforms, so much 
the better. 
A MODEL KITCHEN. 
A REAL AND NOT AN IMAGINARY ONE. 
VERY housewife has an ideal con¬ 
cerning kitchen and workroom 
arrangements ; and I have seen mine 
embodied, though it is not mine, but the 
one thing among my neighbor’s pos¬ 
sessions which 1 really covet. Strange 
to say, it is not a kitchen at all, but a 
pantry, with a small room attached 
which is large enough to contain a good 
steel range, a drop-leaf table or shelf, a 
clock, the cook when her presence is 
necessary, and nothing more. From this 
room, a door opens, as indicated in Fig. 
25(3, into the pantry, so-called, but which 
is the workroom properly, and is so 
arranged as to reduce the amount of 
work necessary in a household to its low¬ 
est terms. 
To begin with the kitchen : I cannot 
give dimensions, but it is quite small, 
and is not used as a workroom except in 
winter, when it is used as a laundry, 
having a waste pipe communicating with 
the one in the pantry sink. In summer, 
the washing is done on the porch indi¬ 
cated in Fig. 256. The range stands near 
the pantry door, well out from the wall 
so as to allow free access from every 
side. Back of it is a large drop-leaf 
table or shelf, which is very convenient 
to use while doing a baking or prepar¬ 
ing a meal. At the rear of the room, 
built into the wall, is a wood or coal 
PLAN OF A KITCHEN. Fig. 256. 
box, which can be filled from the wood- 
house and opened from the kitchen, thus 
saving many steps and much sweeping. 
Light and Ventilation. 
The windows as indicated, admit 
plenty of light, and the outside door 
being directly opposite the pantry door 
and window, makes both rooms suffi¬ 
ciently cool for comfort in summer, 
while the pantry is warm and cosy even 
in winter with the window closed. At 
the right of the pantry door is a large 
iron sink with the cistern pump on a 
raised platform at the right hand side, 
and fitted up with waste pipe and trap, 
so that all bad odors are prevented. 
Above this sink are two shelves which 
are very useful for holding unwashed 
dishes and tinware, and beneath is a 
closed cupboard which contains shelves 
for the various scrubbing, scouring and 
polishing articles required. At the rear 
of the room under the window, at a con¬ 
venient height for work, is a broad 
shelf taking up all the space between the 
cupboards on each side of the room. This 
shelf is completely covered with zinc, 
firmly tacked in place so that no dirt or 
water can work its way under the edges, 
and is broad enough to form the cover 
for a set of three bins, which are so 
arranged as to swing outward at the top 
when opened. The center bin is large 
enough to hold a barrel of white flour; 
the smaller one on the left is divided in¬ 
to two compartments, for corn meal and 
Graham flour ; the one on the right is 
similarly divided and used for -white and 
brown sugars. 
Cupboards for Everything. 
On the right, between the sink and 
w indow, are two sets of cupboards, the 
first tier extending from the floor to the 
height of the broad shelf. These are 
used for storing cooking utensils and 
tinware of all kinds. Above these two 
cupboards, are rows of shallow drawers 
which are used for many things, the 
ones nearest the broad shelf, on either 
side, being devoted to spices of different 
kinds, and to the spoons, ladles, knives, 
forks, and other things used about cook¬ 
ing. Above this row of drawers, is an¬ 
other set of cupboards filling up the 
space to the ceiling, and extending to 
the wall. One of these is used for hold¬ 
ing table linen, kitchen, bath and dish 
towels, kitchen aprons and things of that 
kind, and the other for storing jellies, 
marmalades, jams and dried fruits that 
require to be kept in a dry place. 
On the opposite side of the pantry, 
next the diningroom, is a similar ar¬ 
rangement of cupboards and drawers. 
The two cupboards nearest the window, 
on the upper tier, are used for china and 
glassware of all kinds, and the drawers 
for silverware. The two lower ones are 
used for storing grocery packages, and 
for pies, cakes, cookies, and all sorts of 
eatables. The upper cupboard nearest 
the diningroom door, is arranged to open 
from the diningroom as well as the 
pantry. It has three shelves, and every¬ 
thing taken from the diningroom table 
is put into that, and transferred from 
there to its proper place in sink or cup¬ 
board. The tableware when cleaned at 
the sink, may be again placed in this 
cupboard without taking an extra step, 
and when finished, replaced on the table 
again from the diningroom side, with 
very few steps. 
In the lower cupboard, the three 
shelves are movable, the doors inclos¬ 
ing them opening into diningroom as 
well as pantry, and have weights at¬ 
tached so that they can be lowered into 
the cellar and used as a cooler, or as a 
dumb waiter, thereby, if the housewife 
is able to make her head serve her feet, 
saving a great many trips to the cellar. 
The open space between the cupboards 
is only three feet in width ; this floor as 
well as that of the stoveroom is covered 
with oilcloth. If I have succeeded in 
making my description plain, I think 
that every woman who reads it will 
agree with me that this is an ideal com¬ 
bination, and be straightway possessed 
with a desire to become mistress of a 
similar one herself. m. j. s. 
THE PASSING OF MISS MAJOR /BANKS 
{Concluded.) 
T was just a month since Miss Majori- 
banks had appeared at the farm¬ 
house. 
“Cousin John,” she said one day at din¬ 
ner. “I ought not to stay any longer, but 
I can’t go and leave Jennie alone with the 
work and this big baby. Let’s start out 
this afternoon, and see whether we can’t 
find a maid of all work !” The little 
wife looked up at her husband somewhat 
apprehensively, but a few moments 
later, was watching the two driving 
PAPER DOLL LAMP SHADE. Fig. 257. 
rapidly down the road toward the vil¬ 
lage. 
“ Now, John,” Miss Majoribanks said, 
when they were well on their way, 
“Prepare yourself, for I have a great 
deal to say to you ! And I’m going to 
begin at the very beginning—at that 
first night I came !” Her cousin winced. 
“ But first,” she continued, “ I want to 
say that I do think you care a great deal 
for Jennie—only you show it in so few 
of the thousand and one little ways that 
women love ! No, don’t say anything— 
don’t say a word till I get through ! 
Now, that first night, when the time 
came for the baby’s supper, Jennie had 
to dress up in your clothes—you know 
the cow won’t stand, if she doesn’t—and 
go down and milk, herself; and if I 
hadn’t been there, she would have had 
to take the baby along—milk pail on 
one arm, Gertrude on the other—just as 
when I first came, she was carrying the 
baby and a big pile of wood ! 
“Then you remember that you didn’t 
have a very good supper that night. 
You had been so used to Jennie’s strain¬ 
ing every nerve, and baking something 
or other every time, in order that you 
might have an acceptable repast, no 
matter how careless you might have 
been about getting things, that you were 
perfectly nonplussed when you saw the 
table as I had prepared it. But I re¬ 
member,” Miss Majoribanks went on 
parenthetically, “ that the next day it 
was a very easy matter to get the meals, 
for you brought home steak, and a boil¬ 
ing piece, and some potatoes, and I don’t 
know what else ; or it would have been,” 
correcting herself, “ if there had been a 
skillet in the house in good condition ! 
But when the handles are broken, and 
you burn yourself every time you lift 
one, it is ‘ considerable wearin’ on the 
narves,’ as some one has said. By the 
way, John, how is it that you men must 
always have the very latest improved 
machinery, and plenty of it, while you 
leave your wives and sisters to get along 
about as the primitive squaw does ? 
You have cultivators, and harrows, and 
plows, and corn planters, and mowers, 
and pulverizers, and self-binders, and 
hay forks, etc., etc.,—you see I’ve been 
posting myself — and what has she ? 
Broken skillets, a smoking old cookstove, 
knives and forks that have to be scoured 
every meal, instead of the plated silver 
ones that are so cheap now, a coal-oil 
can that leaks all over everything when¬ 
ever the lamps are filled—to say nothing 
of the want of a broiler for meat, con¬ 
trivances for cleaning pots and kettles, 
a toaster, and so on. Now, John, I must 
branch off on another subject, although 
I haven’t begun to do this justice. 
“ Have you any idea how much time 
you make Jennie waste, to say nothing 
of the wear and tear on her nerves, by 
your not being on time when you prom¬ 
ise *o do something for her—for instance, 
turning the wringer on wash days, har¬ 
nessing up for her to go to town, or not 
getting something she sends for, when 
you go ? Starch or thread or machine 
oil, perhaps. And all this as though it 
wasn’t as much as she could live through, 
with no coal or wood part of the time, 
your child 
A large number of dis¬ 
eases in children under io 
or 12 years of age could be 
prevented if only they had 
more power to resist dis¬ 
ease. You note the differ¬ 
ence in children. Some have 
nearly every ailment, even 
with the best of care ; while 
others, far more exposed, 
pass through childhood un¬ 
harmed. The first lack re¬ 
sistive power. Weak chil¬ 
dren : pale children: thin 
children: children who have 
continuous colds in the 
winter and poor digestion 
in the summer: children 
who do not prosper, need 
a fat-producing food, alter¬ 
atives and tonics. 
Scott's Emulsion of Cod- 
liver Oil, with hypophos- 
phites, is for them. The best 
fat-producing food is a fat 
or an oil; the one most easily 
digested is cod-liver oil. 
