The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
243 
Notes from a Kitchen Philosopher 
Saturday Morning, —One Saturday 
morning not long ago. while I wag wait¬ 
ing for the hoys to evacuate the kitchen, 
so that I could work to some advantage 
there, I began picking up the scattered 
papers, hooks and magazines left from 
the previous evening’s reading. During 
the process the last II. N.-Y. came upper¬ 
most. It. was opened, and as I picked it 
up to fold a paragraph caught my eye. 
Of course I read it, a,id as I did so a 
mental picture of the woman who wrote 
it arose before me. She was a hit lonely, 
and wished that there might be a league 
formed composed of the shut-in farm 
women in Tiik It. N.-Y. family, and that 
they might write to eaeh other. As I 
stood there thinking about it the roar 
from the kitchen became deafening, and 
I had to get out there. The room was 
full, or apparently so, of 'boys. caps, rub¬ 
bers and mittens, all in otic grand rush 
for nothing in particular. As I looked 
at the young rascals and wondered if it 
wouldn t be 'veil to open the door and 
get busy with the broom. I could not 
help thinking that there must be a good 
many thousand farm kitchens that same 
Saturday morning that were going through 
exactly the same thing; that there were 
other mothers of boys whose heads were 
fairly reeling with their racket, and who 
were wishing, as I was just then, that a 
house could hold a pack of healthy hoys 
and stay clean and straight for more than 
15 minutes at a time. Many people who 
have never had ehildren of their own 
will tell you that the whole trouble lies in 
“your utter lack of home management." 
and will at once tell you all about how 
easily it may be accomplished, hut we 
mothers of boys know from hard exper¬ 
ience that such talk is all pure moon¬ 
shine. 
Tiik Kitchkn Forum. —The kitchen is 
the eenter of the farm woman’s little 
world, especially in the Winter. It is 
here that the whole farm forces gather, 
not once or twice a day, but keep up a 
sort of constant performance. It is a 
forum where things are talked out. an 
arena (for the boys, sometimes) where 
things are actually fought out. If help 
is needed for frozen pumps, sick animals, 
cuts, bumps, lost tools, advice, in fact, 
for anything that goes wrong about the 
place, an 8 O ft call is immediately sent 
to the kitchen. Mother will he there, 
and will know what to do. All the farm 
affairs are talked over, not once, hut 
dozens of times, with mother as a sort of 
a high judge. Now mother may not bo 
particularly crazy over gasoline engines, 
but that can’t excuse her from listening 
to hours of discussion of carburetors, 
valves and spark plugs. Of course she is 
interested in the general run of things 
about the farm, hut as the Winter days 
get longer there comes a time when all 
those things lose their attraction for her. 
and without anyone knowing it but her¬ 
self. mother is actually lonely. 
The Family Shock Ausokhf.r. —Not 
much wonder, is it. that the farm woman 
comes to be a sort of family shock ab¬ 
sorber. Without realizing it the whole 
family make use of her. and forget that 
even a shock absorber will wear out after 
a while if not given the proper care. She 
is usually always on the job. and if she 
seldom gets away from that job the wear 
comes harder. This is especially true in 
Winter. Other seasons are too crowded 
with work to have time to think more 
than one day ahead. If she can go to 
church and Orange, the family shock ab¬ 
sorber finds a very helpful lubricant 
there, and can go on absorbing the family 
shocks for days after such a trip without 
feeling the worse for wear. It’s the meet¬ 
ing other people, hearing other than the 
home voices, gleaning new ideas and 
wrenching her mind away from her job. 
that helps. A telephone is a wonderful 
help also, even though it is tin an over¬ 
crowded rural line. Reading is another 
and a very wonderful "lubricator." To 
those who love to read nothing uecd be 
said. To those who seldom “find the 
time” I will say take the time and get 
the habit._ Thpre is not Only pleasure, 
but there is rest. help, oven life itself in 
the power to forget everything between 
the covers nf a hook or magazine. My 
own reading has to be done mostly at 
night, the only time, in fact, when the 
house is Quiet. After the things are 
done and all is ready for the uight, T 
usually get down to reading, and I have 
found out that no matter how hard the 
day has been, if I can rend for an hour 
or two I will hq more rested than if T 
had spent that time in bed. It's the 
mental tire that wears on the shock ab¬ 
sorber, and there are sometimes better 
ways of relieving it than by sleeping. It 
is well also to have a hobby. You can 
prance off on your favorite steed any 
time things begin to get stale in your 
kitchen forum. I have an especially soft 
spot in my heart for the farm woman 
with flowers for a hobby, even if she has 
little time to spend on them and no place 
free from the "everlasting hens.” A world 
of renewed strength may lie had from a 
hasty trip to n pansy bed. Did you 
ever try it? 
t “A Fool or ,v Philosopher at 40.”— 
AVo are told by those who arc supposed 
to know that there is no mental effort 
made by us that does not produce results, 
oven if we ourselves are not aware of 
those results. Where, then, does all this 
mental effort get the family shock ab¬ 
sorber? If the old saying holds true that 
"You are either a fool or a philosopher 
at 10," there must be a regular bunch of 
philosophers among farm women, t have 
yet to meet a fool among them. Indeed, 
it would be hard to escape becoming a 
philosopher. You are alone, and things 
are arising at all times that tax your 
every resource. Talk about Robinson 
Crusoe! 11 is job was simply pie com¬ 
pared with the everyday problems of the 
ordinary farm woman. You have to be 
a judge as well as a jury, a doctor as well 
as a nurse, and we may ns well go right 
down the line and end with “a butcher, 
a baker, a candlestick maker.". Some¬ 
thing is sure to happen to you through 
all this experience, so you simply turn 
into a philosopher, though you may never 
suspect that you are one. 
Clothesline Philosophy. — This is 
another variety of the kitchen species, 
only it sort of generates when you go to 
a Clothesline in the evening after a line 
full of clothes that have been left to soak 
in the afternoon’s Summer sunshine and 
enough of the evening dew to make them 
li liat is the Same of this Patchwork 
Pattern? 
iron easily. Some are for yanking in 
every piece as soon as it is dry, ironing 
it and putting it away. You won’t find 
a clothesline philosopher among those 
people. They haven't time. After you 
have piled the basket full of the clean 
fragrance you may actually enter another 
world by merely forgetting everything but 
that which is around you and above you. 
As yon look and listen there arises a 
multitude of sounds, unnoticed before, but 
somehow they seem to rest you now. In 
the neighboring farmhouses are lights. 
Larger ones gleam along the State roads 
for miles, and overhead blazes the great 
mystery. I believe there is nothing in 
nature that has given human beings 
move courage or inspiration than the 
sight of the heavens at night. Of course 
one time of year is as good as another 
to receive such help, but a farm woman 
standing beside a huge basket of clean 
clothes is in a class by herself. Nearly 
everyone knows (or ought to know) that 
one of the hardest places on earth to do 
a washing, and do it well, is on the 
average farm. The supply of s.,r'r water 
is so uncertain. The wells, with a few 
exceptions, contain hard water, some ac¬ 
tually S'i ImQrt that soap has little effect 
on it. Then of course there is Ihe carry¬ 
ing water, both in and out. Some are 
mure fnrtuuute. but for the majority it's 
the old hard way still. This Woman is 
sure to be tired. There have been three 
big meals to prepare, and the chances are 
that there are still many things to he 
done before she goes to bed. Strange, 
Blue and White Coverlet Woven in 18 }0 
Still in Perfect Condition 
indeed, it would be if her thoughts were 
not a trifle bitter, but as she lifts her 
face to the wonders above, strength and 
courage, like great healing electric cur¬ 
rents, fill her tired being. If it is true 
that things are great or small only by 
comparison, how small and trifling must 
I'lie’s worries appear before such vast- 
noss! A comforting peace must surely 
follow such a trip to the clothesline and 
the fired body as well as the tired mind 
find strength as well as courage for the 
busy days ahead. 
The Legion.— So to the Kitchen Phil¬ 
osophers everywhere l send nt.v greeting. 
We are organized. I don’t really think 
we need a league, for are we not a legion? 
We think the same thoughts, battle With 
the same problems, and get lonely in just 
the same way. But as we face the trying 
part of the Winter, let it not be "of’our 
discontent." but rather, like sleeping 
nature about us, a time for storing up 
renewed life and courage for the big 
Spring push that is even now creeping 
back to us with the sun. 
a kitchen philosopher. 
YOU get real satisfaction 
x out of a dishofJelUO. It 
gives the right touch to a 
meal, just light enough and 
just sweet enough. 
No matter how heavily 
you may have eaten, you 
always feel the need of a 
dessert at the end, otherwise 
the meal seems incomplete. 
Jell-O fills that need exactly. 
The American Offices and 
Factory of The Qenesee Pure 
Food Company are at LeRoy 
New \ ork, in the famous 
Qenesee Valley Country. 
The Offices and Factory of 
The Qenesee Pure Food 
Company of Canada, Ltd., 
are at Bridgeburg, Ontario, 
on the Niagara River. 
d ELL-0 
CsimeYicas Most Famous T)essert 
’KeepMusterolt 
on die SatH-wmsMf 
Years ago the old- fashioned 
mustard plaster was the 
favorite remedy for rheu¬ 
matism, lumbago, colds on 
the chest and sore throat. 
It did the work all right, 
but it was sticky and messy 
to apply and my how it did 
burn and blister! 
The little white jar of 
Musterole has taken the 
place of the stern old mus¬ 
tard plaster. 
Keep this soothing ointment on 
your bathroom shelf and bring it 
out at the first cough or sniffle, at 
rheumatism's first warning tingle. 
Made from pure oil of mustard, 
with the blister and sting takea 
out, Musterole penetrates the skin 
and goea right down to the seat 
of the trouble. 
Order Musterole today from your 
druggist. He has it in 35c and 65c 
jars and tubes; hospital size, $3. 
The Musterole Co., Cleveland, Ohio 
BETTER THAN A MUSTARD PLASTER 
Direct from 
mill 
Make a sweater 
for $2.00 
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t 
^fl <4 oAeWeek 
*‘For just one week my net profits were $164,** 
writes R. A. Moyer. He is only one of hun¬ 
dreds making big money acting as our represen¬ 
tative for this wonderful oew light. 
Burns Kerosene or Gasoline 
Gives 300 candle power soft, bril¬ 
liant light, resilul to eyes. Costs 
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Lights with match. Most wonder* 
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can earn as Moyer has. Work ell or spare 
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day for catalog and agents FREE outfit offer. L 
THE AKRON LAMP CO. 
662 Lamp Bldg.; Akron, Ohio 
light 
Ladies Let Cuticura 
Keep Your Skin 
Fresh and Young 
Soap,Ointment.Talcam,25c. everywhere. Forsamples 
address: CuticuraLeboretoriae,Dept.U, Malden, Mail 
