MOOSE’S BUBAL MEW-YOB 
IKimi'.'ilic OYoiuimii. 
IN REGARD TO HOUSEKEEPING. 
If housekeepers would ever hear iu mind 
that while they are keeping houses they are 
also keeping; homes ; that their duties pertain 
n«: alone to the space, the furniture, utensils, 
food and clothing inclosed within certain 
walls, but. to the welfare, happiness, growth 
and cultivation of Immortal beings, how dif¬ 
ferently they would look upon their Avork 
and its responsibilities. Perhaps they then 
might see that they, no more than other peo¬ 
ple, have a, right, to misuse any of the powers 
and faculties intrusted to their keeping, either 
of body, mind or soul, end that the three are 
so closely' allied that they cannot abuse ope 
without receiving retaliation for them all; 
that they have no right to become worn out, 
tired and nervous, mid then give vent to their 
weariness and nervousness iu fretting, bick¬ 
ering and getting out of patience with those 
over whom they have charge. Never think 
that because you are a housekeeper you are 
a mule or a camel, that is never supposed to 
need rest, pleasure or recreation, or a ma- 
cliine that is wound up, sot a-going and war¬ 
ranted to run a certain length of time anti to 
perform a certain amount of work without 
stopping for rest or repairs. You are a feel¬ 
ing, knowing, flunking, responsible human 
being, just as much as the teacher at her 
desk, the minister in hi- pulpit, the editor in 
his sanctum, the ruler avIio holds in his hands 
the reins of government, are responsible hu¬ 
man beings ; and though your work, your 
duties, your circumstances and surroundings 
are different from theirs, yours is uouc the 
less a responsible position ; your work is no 
less important than theirs, and it is none the 
less your duty to lit and prepare yourself for 
it, and then to keep yourself in a condition 
to fulfil its duties faithfully, patiently and 
cheerfully. You have, capacities of heart and 
miml that it is your duty to cultivate and 
expand ; you have a soul that is to live and 
groAv, either upward or downward, and there 
arc others looking to you for aid and comfort 
and counsel, just as there are to every human 
being. They may be those that are bone of 
your bone and flesh of your flesh ; those 
whoso lives arc so closely interwoven with 
your life t hat one canuot be warped, blight¬ 
ed and darkened without the others being 
blighted and darkened also. 
Then, 1 beseech you, care for yourselves. 
Not selfishly but wisely, thoughtfully, and in 
a way that will enable you to attain to the 
greatest good for yourselves and for those 
dependent upon you. You are doing but a 
part of your duty when you economize only 
in household supplies ; strive always to econ¬ 
omize your strength and vitality. Never 
work in a tighl-waisted, long-skirted dress, 
but have garments suitable for work and for 
your occupation. Do not keep yourselves 
within the walls of your house ; do not 
breathe close air, sickening vapors and hot 
steam when the world is surrounded by a 
pure, fresh, invigorating atmosphere, to bo 
had without money and without priee. Get 
out-doors whenever it is possible for you to, 
and when your work must, of necessity, be 
in the house, throw open your doors and 
windows and make it os nearly out-doors as 
possible. Never exclude the air and light 
and sunshine from your rooms for fear of 
flies and dust or faded paper and carpets ; 
better a little dust, a little soiledness and 
fadeduess than damp and moist and mold 
and disease and death. 
Do not keep going when every nerve in 
your body is unstrung, when every muscle 
is aching, and you feel as though each step 
would be your last; better have some one 
else take your place ; or, if that cannot be, 
it were better even to let your work go un¬ 
done and take time for needed rest than to 
drag about your daily task wearily and dis- 
couragiugly, until at last you give out en¬ 
tirely ami bring care and grief and sorrow 
upon those whom you were so anxious to 
help. 
Have pleasant recreations and attend places 
of amusement as often as is practicable and 
convenient. Plan your work so as to have 
some time for useful, instructive reading, 
each day, that your mind may have some¬ 
thing to feed and grow upon, for there are 
duties and responsibilities resting upon you 
that you cannot meet, without the aid of a 
cultivated intelligence. 
Above all, do not fret. This is a motto 
that should be hung upon the walls and car¬ 
ried in the heart of every "housekeeper. Fret¬ 
ting destroys more happiness, sours more 
tempers, makes more unloving, wilful, dis¬ 
obedient children, more negligent, unfaith¬ 
ful husbands, brings about more divorces 
than any other evnl under the sun. Then 
again I say, do not fret, and be over-anxious 
and troubled about many things, such as a 
footprint upon the floor, a grain of dust upon 
the furniture or mantelshelf, or fly speck 
upon a wall or picture frame, t\ie exact quan¬ 
tity and quality of pastry and sweetmeats in 
your cupboard ; or to have t he exact num¬ 
ber of stitches, tucks and ruffles upon your 
own and your children’s clothes that your 
neighbors have. Remember tluit “ Life is 
more than meat and the body itioro than 
raimentthat the physical, mental and 
moral welfare of your household should never 
bo set aside l'or reputation and untoward 
appearance. Moreover., your master, if you 
are a hired housekeeper, or your Disband 
and children, if you are a wife and neither, 
will not sympathise with you in your anxie¬ 
ty; they will only feel that you are fretful 
and exacting ; that their best interest are 
Overlooked and neglected ; that they are 
made uncomfortable and unhappy, their Wes 
rendered unpleasant, and disagreeable, with¬ 
out any good thereby resulting either to them 
or to you. Rei nember that gentle words and 
pleasant looks and acts are more toyourlius- 
baud than rich pastry and sweetmeats ; that 
pat ience, and mi understanding of and an¬ 
swering to the moral and intellectual wants 
Of your children, are more to them than 
tucks and ruffles and starch and embroidery. 
These are only for time, while the minds 
which you are molding and the charact ers 
which you are day by' day building up are 
for eternity. Geraldine Germane. 
--♦ ■ 
YEAST CAKES. 
Some one inquired in the Rural New- 
Yorker how to make yeast cakes that would 
last three months. 1 have some that i made 
last October ; 1 tun using them still, and they 
make good bread :—Take about eight large 
potatoes and two large handfuls of good 
strong hops tied in a bag, and a little more 
than three quarts of water ; boil all together; 
when the potatoes are done, jam them in a 
pan and add a handful of salt,, tablespoon of 
ginger and about three quarts of flour. When 
the Imps have, boiled about au hour, pour the 
boilmg hop water on the Hour and stir nil 
together; when milk-warm, stir in a small 
bowl of yeast; cover, and set aside to rise. 
I usually make this one morning, and the 
next stir iu corn meal until it is stiff enough 
to roll oiir, in the hands anil out into cakes. 
Sprinkle a little meal on hoards, put the cakes 
on them, and set in a windy place, out of the 
sun to dry ; turn several times during the 
day, and take in the house at night. When 
well dried, tie in a cloth bag, to keep from 
the millers. Aunt Helen. 
-♦♦♦- 
DOMESTIC BREVITIES. 
-s. - 
Raspberry Jelly. —To each pint of juice 
allow % lb. of loaf sugar. Let the raspber¬ 
ries bo freshly gathered, quite ripe, and 
picked from tho stalks; put them into a 
large jar, after breaking the fruit a little 
with a wooden spoon, and place this jar, 
covered, iu a saucepan of boiling water. 
Whan the juice is will drawn, which AvilJ be 
in from three-quarters to one hour, strain 
the fruit through a Hue hair sieve or eloth ; 
measure the juice, and to every pint allow 
the abOVe proportion of loaf sugar. Put the 
juice and sugar into a pr eserving pan, place 
it over the fire, and boil gently until the jelly 
thickens when a little is poured on a plate ; 
carefully remove all the scum as it rises, pour 
the jelly into small pots, cover down, and 
keep in a dry place. This jelly answers for 
making raspberry cream, and for flavoring 
various sweet dishes, when, iu winter, the 
fresh fruit is not obtainable. 
Recipe for a “Good HUsband .”—Do not 
marry a man who swears at his father, or is 
unkind to his mother or sister ; better re¬ 
main an “old maid.” Marry his opposite ; 
then Avhen he is in trouble soothe, comfort 
and help him by self-denial, economy and in¬ 
dustry, and when he snarls don’t snarl baek. 
According to my experience, through long 
years of sickness, he will try hard, patiently 
and tenderly to restore the cherished one 
to health arid happiness again. Try this re¬ 
ceipt. and no divorce will be required.— An na 
R m 1 Jills., Mich. 
Loaf Cak<\—One lb. sugar, 1 lb; butter. 2 
lbs. flour, y pint yeast, 1 pint milk ; put half 
the sugar, half the butter, all the milk in the 
sponge, at night, with some flour; add the 
rest in the morning, with a teaspoonful of 
saleratus, and eggs and spices as much as 
you like. Let it rise in the tins before 
baking.—x, y . z . 
Gilt-Edged. Butter is what a fanner’s wife, 
who reads the Rural New-Yorker, asks 
some one to tell her how to make. 
Iiligifitit! Jnformatiflii 
CAUSES OF INJURY TO THE EAR. 
A monu the causes of in.?ary to t iie ear must 
unfortunately be reckoned bathing. Not that 
this most healthful and important pleasure 
need, therefore, be in the least discouraged : 
but it should bo wisely regulated. Staying 
too long in the water certainly tends to pro¬ 
duce deafness as well as other evils ; and it is 
a practice against which young persons of 
both sexes should ho carefully on their guard. 
But, independently of this, swimming and 
floating arc attended with a certain daugor 
from the difliouliy of preventing tho entrance 
of water into the ear in those positions. 
Now, no cold Until should ever enter the ear; 
cold water is always more or less irritating, 
and if used for syringing, rapidly produces 
extreme, giddiness. In the case of warm 
water, its entrance into the ear is less objec¬ 
tionable, but, even this is not free from disad¬ 
vantage. Often tho water lodges iu t he ears 
and produces an uncomfortable seusulion till 
it is removed ; this should always be taken 
is a sign of danger, Thai, the risk to hearing 
from unwise bathing is not a fancy, is proved 
by the fact, well known to lovers of dogs, 
that those animals, if in the habit of jumping 
or being thrown into t he water, ao that, their 
heads are covered, frequently become deaf. 
A knowledge of the danger is a .sullieienl 
guard. To be safe it is only necessary to 
keep the water from entering the ear. If 
this cannot be accomplished otherwise, tho 
head may he covered. II. should lie added, 
however, that wet hair, whether from bath¬ 
ing or washing, may be a cause of deafness, 
if it be suffered to dry by itself. Whenever 
wetted, the liuir should be wiped till it is 
/airly dry. Nor ought the practice of, moist¬ 
ening the, hair with wutur, to make it curl, to 
pass without remonstrance. To leave wet 
hair about the ears is to run great risk of 
injuring them. In the washing of chit Iren, 
too, care should lie taken that all the little 
folds of the outer ea r are carefully and gently 
dried with a soft towel. But 1 come now to 
what is probably the. most frequent way in 
which the ear is impaired ; i.iuit is, by the 
attempt to clean it. it ought to be under¬ 
stood that the passage of the ear does not 
require cleaning by us. Nature undertakes 
that task, and, in the healthy state, fulfills it 
perfectly. Her means for cleansing the ear 
is the wax. Perhaps the reader has never 
wondered what becomes of the ear wax. I 
will tell him. lb dries up into thin tine scales, 
and these peel off, one hv one, from tho sur¬ 
face of the passage, and fall out impercepti¬ 
bly, leaving behind them a. perfectly clean, 
smooth surface. Iu health the passage of t he 
ear is never dirty ; but, if avq attempt -to 
clean it, wo infallibly make it so. Here—by 
a strange lack of justice, as it would seem, 
which, however, has, nodoubt, a deep justice 
at the bottom—the best people, those who 
love cleunliuess, suffer most, and good and 
| carotid nurses do a mischief negligent ones 
avoid. Washing the cur out with soap and 
water is bad ; it keeps the wax moist when 
it ought to become dry and scaly, increases 
its quantity unduly, and makes it. absorb the 
dust with which the air always abounds. 
But the most hurtful thing is introducing the 
corner of the towel, screwed up, and twist ing 
it around. This does more harm to ears than 
all other mistakes together. It drives down 
the wax upon the membrane, much more 
than it gets it out. Let any one who doubts 
this lu" a tube like the passage, especially 
with the curves which it possesses ; let him 
put a thin membrane at one end, smear its 
inner surface with a substance like the ear- 
wax, and then t ry to get it; out so by a towel! 
But, this plan does much more mischief than 
merely pressing down the wax. It irritates 
the passage, and makes it castoff small flakes 
of skin, which dry up and become extremely 
hard, and these also are pressed down upon 
the membrane. Often if is not only deafness 
which ensues, but pain and inflammation, 
and then matter is formed which, the hard 
mass prevents from escaping, and the mem¬ 
brane becomes diseased, and worse may fol¬ 
low. Tho ear should never be cleaned out 
with the serowed-up corner of a towel. 
Washing should extend only to the outer 
surface, as far as the Anger can reach .—The 
; Popular Science Monthly. 
- - 
NUTRITIVE VALUE OF BLACK TEA. 
Tea is not only to he considered as a stim¬ 
ulant, but also as nourishment. That people 
who use tea are able to live longer and do 
more work on an insufficient amount of food, 
: than those who abstain from the beverage, 
! is attributed to its power of preventing the 
waste of the body, and in the animal econ¬ 
omy may be compared to the financial prop¬ 
osition that a “penny saved is twice earned.” 
From the large amount of nitrogen it con¬ 
tains, it may also he considered, to a certain 
extent, a direct’means of nourishment. A. 
Vogel lias thought it wort h Ids while to de¬ 
termine how much of his nitrogen is em¬ 
ployed in tho infusion. The tea examined 
gave 6,6 per cent, ash, and 25.5 of extract, 
which Avas found to contain *1.8 per cent, 
nitrogen, Avhilo the partially exhausted leaves 
contain 5.58 per cent. From this it would 
seem that, unless we contrive to devote the 
Avhole leaf, Ave lose the largest portion of the 
nitrogen. 
FERRETS. 
No person troubled with rats can afford to 
do Avithout some of these animals. They are 
used for driving out rats, catching rabbits 
&e. To hunt rats they are turned out where 
the rats burrow, when they will go slowly 
through the rat holes and as soon as the rats 
scent them they avIU immediately rush out, 
no matter what the consequences will be. 1 
have had them to start in less than a micute 
and plunge Into Lin- water and use all other 
efforts to make their escape. To kill the 
rats it is necessary to be prepared with dogs 
and clubs. It is very easy to teach dogs not 
to hurt the ferrets. It is generally supposed 
that the ferrets catch and kill all the rats, but 
this is not the ease, They will not run after 
a rat. They will kill l he young rata that are 
not old enough t o make, their escape. 
For hunting rabbits they are put into the 
burrow and a net set over it and when tho 
ferret comes in contact with the rabbit he 
clinches it like ahull dog, when the rabbit, in 
trying to make its escape, jumps out of the 
burrow into the net. 
Ferrets are gentle and easily handled. 
When hunting with thorn, they frequently 
come out and can be picked up. The females 
will sometimes bite when they have a nest 
of young. I'lie young will also bite until 
they learn better by being well fed and fre¬ 
quently handled. Their favorite food is flesh 
meat. They do first-rate on broad and milk, 
fed twice a day. The prevailing color is a 
yellowish whito, with pink eyes; some are 
dark-colored with black eyes. The males 
measure about 21 inches long. The females 
are about one-half or two-thirds as large as 
the males and long in proportion. They 
breed once a year, in the spring, five to eight 
at a litter. They are hardy and easily raised. 
They are fierce for blood or meat before their 
eyes are open. By keepirg them, we can 
keep our grain, &e., from the destruction of 
rats and also have a large increase of these 
valuable animals each year. They should be 
kept in u long box with a bed in one end, 
rods across the bottom at the other end, and 
raised from the ground to let the litter 
escape. S. K. Marsh. 
Ionia Co., Mich. 
■-•+-*->-- 
PRESERVATION OF SEALS. 
Mr. FrankBuckland, a well-knoAvn Avriter 
on sporting matters and on the culture of 
fish, and who lias now a museum of fish cul¬ 
ture at South Kensington, has recently called 
attention to a question of both humanitarian 
and commercial importance. 
It seems that the seal hunters are in tho 
habit of shooting the mothers, and leaving 
the young seals to perish from starvation. 
Mr. Buoklaiid describes the complaining of 
these little animals, when left orphaned by 
the cruelty of the hunters, as being most 
piteous, their cries resembling almost exactly 
those of young infants. Ho points out the 
obvious fact, that if the present practice of 
the hunters is not discontinued, that the seals 
will become practically exterminated, and 
that the supplies pf valuable furs obtained 
from these animals will ho lost. It is hoped 
that by Legislation, or through the influence 
Of pecuniary motives, to say nothing of hu¬ 
manitarian considerations, the hunters Avill 
be induced to adopt a more provident system. 
-♦-*->-■ 
To Poison Foxes.— For the benefit of poul¬ 
try raisers, I will give tho following Pro¬ 
cure a young chick, about the size of a robin. 
Make a small incision under the wing, just 
through the skin, and insert a dose of strych 
nine ; tie the chick to a stake with a thread 
outside of the coop where the fox has been in 
the habit of visiting and his next visit will be 
his last. The reason for using live bait is 
this : the fox prefers to kill his own game—to 
be sure that he is always getting it fresh. If 
the bait should not be called for, care snould 
be taken to dispose of it as it would prove 
sure death to the animal eating it.—J. B. Lee. 
