JAN, §§ 
OOBE’S BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
podcfi mil DJatmers. 
COSTUMES. 
— 
The prevalent fashion for costumes is found- j 
ed on the increasing perception of harmony in 
the toilet. Ladies no longer wear several 
colors in their dress, In general the toilette is 
completed with no greater contrasts than 
shades of the same color, with the exception of 
the bow at throat. Once a black velvet wrap 
would answer with every description of dress ; 
now it seems to harmonize with nothing but 
black. Velvet, if used at all, must be n shade 
of the same color of the dress. 
As few ladies care to buy so expensive a 
wrap for a dress, the color of which they 
may not desire a second season, velvet is now 
introduced as a trimming. In this manner it 
is largely used, and costumes have never been 
richer and more elegant than they have been 
this season. 
It is necessary, however, to have the polo¬ 
naise or basque inode warm enough for the , 
street. Many ladies content themselves with 
a simple flannel lining, and wear unde meat h 
wadded and quilted waists of bluck silk. 1 
There are also knitted woolen waists, of the 
finest material and compactly woven, -which 
cost |5 mid $7. These, however, arc a little 
clumsy. There are also different varieties of 
Sontags, which answer admirably the pur¬ 
pose, and cost *1.25, *2 and $3. Others use | 
the prepared waists of chamois skin, which 
are offered every whore for sale. 
Those who use a different polonaise for the 
street, or the rough camels’ hair cloth, have 
them wadded and lined with chamois skin, 
which makes a garment as warm as anything 
except fur. Fashion no longer decreeing 
small waists and delicate proportions, most 
ladies fancy the unusual size given them by 
this method of dressing. 
Among all the changes we are called upon 
to note from time to time, we cannot but sec 
that wc are gradually approaching the era of 
good sense. In all matters of comfort there 
is much more attention paid. The sins of 
fasliion are rather against good taste than 
against health. 
b CRINOLINE 
caused the great revolution in woman’s dress. 
It lifted from her a burden she -will never 
willingly resume. The fashion of crinoline | 
has greatly changed. Most ladies prefer the 
skirt made of cotton cloth, which is in reality j 
nothing but a bustle. There i» a good skirt 
reaching about to the knee and without a 
front breadth, In this skirt is run about a 
dozen cases filled with hoops and fastened 
securely at the end. Underneath are two 
pieces, the longest edges oi which arc sewed 
to tlie sides of the skirt whSTP the )loops end. 
The other sides are only about three-quarters 
as long ; each contains eyelets, and they are 
connected by a lacor. Tide regulates! U 1B B ize 
and adjusts the proportions of the bustle, hi 
front is a breadth of muslin containing nP 
hoops. It is torn in two and fastens with but¬ 
tons and button holes. It will be seen that 
no arrangement is made for holding out the 
bottom of the dress, which now falls about 
the feet. Every lady requires two of such 
skirts, os the hoops may be taken out and the 
skirt washed. 
Really preferable are the skirts, made after 
the same manner, of hoops alone. They are 
equally graceful, and, what is much better, 
they are lighter. In addition they do not sod 
so easily. _ ... „„ 
010 SILKS. 
Most ladies have in their wardrobes old silk 
dresses, which, with some renovation, might 
still do service. For party dresses one of the 
prettiest arrangements for hiding old stains 
is by buying Chambray gauze, which comes 
in stripes of all colors, and making a polo¬ 
naise of it. For example, an old cherry silk, 
with a polonaise of white Chambray gauze, 
with cherry satin stripes. Let it bo closed to 
about nine inches of the bottom, looped liigh 
on the sides and in the back with cherry rib¬ 
bons, trimmed with a puff or ruffle caught 
with cherry piping. Make the sleeves Marie 
Antoinettes fastened with bows of cherry 
ribbons. This constitutes a very' striking 
toilette. The gauze costs from $1.25 to 1.75 a 
yard. The polonaise requires about six yards. 
A simpler and less expensive substitute is 
white grenadine, plain or with satin stripes, 
and trimmed with black velvet bows. 
Wliite organdie and French muslin are 
largely used bo utilize old chesses. In the use 
of them waists and overskirts are used with 
kilt-pleatings on the skirt. There is nothing 
prettier or more easily made than these kilt- 
pleatings. They look well alternated with 
ruffles of the same material, though not with 
those of silk. All the additional ornament 
they require is a sash of pretty tint, such as 
rose, light blue, or some of the requisite gas¬ 
light shades ; for it should always be taken 
into consideration that 
“ Colors sue a by candle light 
Do not show the sumo by day,” 
and vice versa. They should be bought with 
reference to the time they are to be worn. 
With two old dresses harmonizing In color, 
such as gray with cherry, pink or blue, one can 
bo arranged as a petticoat and the other as 
corsage and court train. A little thought and 
ingenuity will completely renew a wardrobe 
entirely passee. 
MEXICAN WORK -BASKET. 
i 
Ladies who have leisure are able to beau¬ 
tify their homes in many simple and inexpen¬ 
sive ways with their own fair fingers. We 
give another illustration this week of a series 
of necessary articles which are readily con¬ 
verted into ornaments by a little taste anti 
skiff It is a Mexican work-basket. Pur¬ 
chase a covered basket woven of soft Mexi¬ 
can rushes, if possible, and of a pretty shade 
of yellow. Cut a piece of scarlet cloth the 
shape of the pattern and embroider it, with 
silk of va rious colors, in large Mexican stitch, 
about appliques of black cloth and around 
the edge. The valance around the basket is 
also of scarlet cloth and similarly ornamented. 
T his fashion of embroidery is 
rapidly superseding those inter- 
minable designs of Berlin work, / l ^4 
as it is showier, easier, and 
takes but little time. The ap- 
pliquos may be cut in any put- —- ' 
tern and of various colors, out Vt IfSPIj 
of velvet, cloth, silk, or satin, If hraaH, 
and caught down with button- Vf 
hole stitch. The Mexican cm- V| * 
broidery is in large, loose stitch- 
es, and can be easily copied \ l,' 
from th© illustration. The frame 
of the basket is of gilt sticks, 
but a rustic frame would b« 
much prettier and is within the 
compass of any one possessing 9 
a particle of ingenuity. / 
WASHING MADE EASY. 
Having read an article in the "== 
Rural Nkw-Youker inquiring 
the best method to moke wash¬ 
ing easy I am willing to give 
my experience of a year. Take 
2 lbs. of soda ash, 'J lb. stone 
lime, 3 gallons of soft water; slake the lime 
separate; dissolve the soda ash in the water, 
then add the lime; boil twenty minutes; cork 
it up tight. For a washing use one cup in 
three gallons of water; soak the clothes over 
night in cold water; wring out and boil them 
twenty minutes in the preparation; rinse and 
blue them and your wasiiing is done; they 
require but very little rubbing. Soap them 
before boiling. Mus. James Saxton. 
I saw it? the Ruraj. some time since an in¬ 
quiry from «• young housekeeper, How to 
wash easily. k ] U-soda is as much of a help as 
1 I ever tried. Thv- clothes should be soaked 
] and then rubbed lightly, then put over to boil 
in water, in which sal-soda has been diss< lived, 
in the proportion of a piece as large as a hen’s 
egg to a boiler of water. Boil in this, remove 
the clothes to the tub, wrin- out of this wa¬ 
ter, and then scald, then again in the boiler 
to remove the sexto, that it may not eat the 
clothes; then rinse as usual, i bis process, 
well done, makes clothes beautifully white; 
but calicoes should not be washed in the suds, 
as it fades them. 
Most old housekeepers think that soup and 
water and a washboard arc the only fit treat¬ 
ment of clothes; but there are one or two 
washing machines which are a great help. I 
always wash calico in clear water (not boiling 
suds) ; put in the garments one at a tune as I 
wash them, and as soon us they are wrung 
out put them in a vessel of hard water, to 
stand until 1 am ready to rinse and starch 
them. Treated in this way the colors will 
remuin nearly us blight as new until the cloth 
is worn out. Aunt Hally. 
--- 
HOW I MAKE SOFT SOAP. 
The fanner’s wife in Rural, Nov. ii, 1873, 
i says she boils the lye until strong enough to 
' eat a feather in passing it three times across 
the liquid ; and if any potash, she takes it out 
with a shovel. Now, what 1 would like to 
know is, what is the propriety of boiling un¬ 
til you have potash l Again, in managing in 
this way, she generally oan make from six¬ 
teen to eighteen gallons of nice white soap in 
two days. If I had to manage in this way, I 
should despair of making soap. I have made 
from one to three barrels in one day, beside 
doing my work for the family of from six to 
ten. I will tell you how -.—The lye that drains 
through first I put in a kettle, and then add 
the grease—all that I can boil in it. If the 
lye is sufficiently strong, in two hours’ time 
it will be ready to empty in the barrel; then 
fill the barrel with weak lye, and your soap 
is made and ready for use. Peggy. 
- 4 ~*->- 
SUET PUDDING WITHOUT EGGS. 
Here is just what Mm. P. wants, a suet 
pudding without eggs One tea-cup of mo¬ 
lasses, one of sour milk, one of suet, two of 
flour, a little salt and soda; raisins or any 
1 dried berries will answer. Steam two hours. 
Chop the suet very fine. 
Sauce for the above One quart of boiling 
water, four table-spoonfuls of sugar, two of 
flour wet up with a little water, one table- 
spoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of salt; 
flavor with nutmeg or ciimamou; a few 
spoonfuls of vinegar. It is excellent. 
GOOD FRIED CAKES 
may also be mode without eggs by using one 
pint of sour milk, one of sugar, five or six 
tablespoonfuls of shortening, ono teaspoon¬ 
ful of cream tartar and nearly one of soda. 
Here is 
A GOOD CAKE. 
j One egg, one teacup of sugar, one of milk, 
i family of from six to RICH WITHOUT MONEY. 
v The lve that drains 
a kettle, and then add _ 
can boil in it. If the j N a little inland village, nestling just in the 
lg, in two hours’ time heart of the garden county of New York, 
>ty in the barrel; then there is to be found a cottage homestead, 
iak lye, and your soap which, with its surroundings, constitutes a 
use. Peggy. pleasant break in the. monotony of woods and 
»-+- waving corn fields which hem in the preten- 
WITHOUT EGGS, sions of the little hamlet with a cordon of 
_ green. Perched on a goodly knoll, sloping 
Mm. P. wonts, a suet away in grassy ripples on this side and that, 
i ; —One tea-cup of mo- to the road, the pasture, the orchard, the 
Ik, one of suet, two of garden, it overlooks a domain where Taste, 
l soda; raisins or any with no tool but willing hands, has triumphed 
•er. Steam two hours, signally over limited means and natural de¬ 
cs. fects. When the Patriarch first came to spy 
: -One quart of boiling out the land and choose a nook for his home, 
infuls of sugar, two of this was one of those by and neglected cor- 
Little water, ono table- nem which, because of precedent or bad re- 
lo teaspoonful of salt; pute, are frequently found in the country, 
or ciimamou; a few bearing from year to year their crops of 
It is excellent. stones and thistles, unmolested by the thrift 
EO CAKES or enterprise which domineers over neighbor- 
tiout eggs by using one * n S Bolds. 
e of sugar five or six Now roughnesses and wrinkles are all 
rpuling ono teaspoon- smoothed out, civilized shrubs nod from the 
nd nearly one of soda, reservations of the thirties, and every little 
knoll or hillock has its (grapery of green and 
3 CAKE. cupola of bloom. Gravel walks designed and 
of sugar, one of milk, executed by the zealous boys in the intervals 
of school, lead from the porch to the gate, 
and from the pump to tlic kitchen door, that 
^ the children may venture out in the early 
morning, without returning bedraggled with 
dew, and that the immaculate kitchen floor 
may be kept, guiltless of the muddy uuto- 
graphs of their restless feet. A row of ma- 
pies, tolled by the same interested hands, 
from their home in the wood hard by, senti- 
il nel this highway and limit its encroachments, 
if while they form a pleasant border of shadow 
to tho Hummer landscape. Noble fruit trees 
i ijjr, shade the dwelling on every side, some mere 
saplings, others planted at the birth of some 
L u^ in ono of the home nestlings, and now, though 
ti?rheumatic and gnarled with age, still paying 
' in yearly their luscious tithes. 
^ ft — r — ~ Just under tho parlor window droops a 
'A _ A - A shrub of fragrant currant, which ushers in 
— "" ~ -- 1 each succeeding Spring with its largess of gold¬ 
en blossoms, and in tho leaf-thatched bowers 
of whloh a colony of sparrows yearly hold 
their tryst. There are no fences to interrupt 
~ the gaze, except around the limit of the pas¬ 
ture meadow, but bossy and potfy, staid crea¬ 
tures though they be, may chance to tire of 
tlieir diet of buttercups and clover, and in an 
if butter, one teaspoon- evil moment listen to tho temptations which 
alf teaspoonful soda. toe wm hI:ulas Juicy shrubs beyond are 
forever rustling. All else—lawn, pasture, 
. . . ,, corn-field and, kitchen garden are only defined 
t boil i&nr tobtepoou- , )V tl.ectamwter «(Mr l»fy tennuBy. E»- 
dilespoonful of flom-, a .. .. 
’ „ ergreens from a neighboring reef of rocks 
aze of a small egg; one „ , 
, ,. , , ,, flank the doorway, and, with the constancy 
boil; when cool, flavor „„ , J 
T ,. i T ... , of their race, wave their green banner* above 
I dish lent the cake m thl . WM , r ^ w Rh A pro ml«e of Spring- 
p aung a poi on o o ^j uil . Lattices, holding up the trailing drup- 
+ Yf ’ F Rynfa rsox ery ut ntuo{,1 « r< ***» here « nd tBere bear tes- 
S. m. Hi, xvynearson. timony t(> Uk . eftre 0 f <j 0 ft and tender fingers. 
Just visible from the porch, through the 
FLOWERS. oars of the evergreens, mid near enough to 
_ the road to catch the eye of the passer-by and 
: in Rural New-York- ™ J<i <l welcome, are two Circular mounds of 
,, . , , , blossoms. A row of veteran currant bushes 
e say that dry powdered runs parallel with the maple hedge beyond, 
meant. Any druggist sentineled by a twin clump of quince hushes 
mottles. The white wax (witLently bending tinder the weight of their 
/, fine, white work, such K" ld ££ l . r ^' Eastward of the dwelling is 
. r , . Ihu kitchen garden, guiltless of tares and ruh- 
itc. I merely gave a list iilsli, and laid out in faultless lines and angles 
ry to commence with, and symmetrical bed*. The emerald tassels 
the wax, because some and nblion-mi’ the corn, and tlie gadding bean 
r the information. Very vil f s > Blushing scarlet from the top of the 
, , S poles, can,'with the aid. of a stray zephyr, 
m be made very cheaply m at, the kJteheu window. Just beyond, 
ads of aniline, w. a. w. ; giving wide berth to the house, stands the 
__ neat barn, with comfortable mangers for the 
quadruped allies of the family. To tho well- 
ER CAKE. tilled maws thereof the liens lutve access to 
- make their daily deposit of embryo custards 
ne. cup sweet milk, one &nd find a shelter from night and bad weath- 
s of butter,due teaspoon f, r ' **JJ ^ well kept paling in 
., ’ , , 1 its wtute jacket, with never a picket, iinssing, 
f teaspoon soda, two and stands a inany-spired monument to the lov- 
'hen eggs arc scarce, ms mg interest and taste and skill of a bqv scion 
this time of the year, I ol> toe house, who found himself with an idle 
Mrs P C C month of Hummer on his hands. 
The mother stands hi the doorway and 
looks around, sometimes through the sheen 
’ INQUIRIES ol smiles, bometimes through the mist of 
_ tears. This feature of home bears the trace 
well asks some one to lumd ’ tout attraction of imoth- 
, , , , ei. Who can appreciate tlie laudscupe so 
»rd, such as is purchased well as she, for who else can see the memo¬ 
ries glowing in the flowers and waving in the 
to prepare bacon, what branches { The sum of the delights of this 
use, the method of pre- made U 1 ‘ lh « udded mites of each 
’ . or its members. Not one who cannot feel he 
° use lC - . has part and lot in the matter, 
or a recipe for making Is any poor in this world’s goods, having 
ot freeze. no inheritance other than that coined by toil 
Mexican Work-Basket. 
2)4 cups of flour, one of butter, one teaspoon- 
fnl of cream tartar, half teaspoonful soda. 
OREAM. 
One pint of milk, let boil; four tablespoon- 
fuls of sugar, one tahlespoonful of (lour, a 
lump of butter the size of a small egg; one 
egg ; let the ndxture boil; when cool, flavor 
with lemon. When I dish I cut the cake in 
small square pieces, placing a portion of the 
cream over. Let all try it. 
Mrs. M. E. Ryneabson. 
WAX FLOWERS. 
In answer to Alice in Rural New-York¬ 
er of Dec. 28th, please say that dry powdered 
paint was the kind meant. Any druggist 
will know the size bottles. The white wax 
sheeted was for extra, fine white work, such 
as crosses, emblems, etc. I merely gave a list 
of materials necessary to commence with, 
tolling how to shoot tlie wax, because some 
| teachers charge 85 for the information. Very 
j many of the colors can be made very cheaply 
from the different kinds of aniline, w. a. w. 
-—- 
FEATHER CAKE. 
One cap sugar, one cup sweet milk, one 
egg, two table-spoons of butter, oue teaspoon 
cream tarter, ono-hulf teaspoon soda, two and 
a-i'alf cups Hour. When eggs arc scarce, as 
they sometimes are this time of the year, I 
omit the egg. Mrs. P. C. C. 
-- 
DOMESTIC INQUIRIES 
Mrs. Polly Caldwell asks some one to 
tell how to mix mustard, such as is purchased 
I at stores. 
T. O. T. asks how to prepare bacon, what 
I part of the meat to use, the method of pre¬ 
serving it, and how to use it. 
Levi Cium asks for a recipe for making 
black ink that will not freeze. 
G. M. OvkiiLkese asks how to pack eggs in 
salt or brine In Summer so they will keep for 
i Winter use. 
out of the crowded hours? Here, then, is a 
nook to which such ns lie can aspire, if he 
linve the tastes to gratify, and be willing to 
puy the price of work and patient waiting. 
