APRIL 4 
OOBE’S BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
domestic (Bqouontir. 
A TALK FBOM RUTH LEE. 
Farmers' wives seem to have things nearly 
all their owa way in these columns, and no 
sooner does a subject under discussion once 
get fairly started, than many of them feel 
like giving the ball a vigorous push as it rolls 
by. Some of us who would never dare to 
speak in a public assembly, grow valiant be¬ 
hind the shelter of a row de plume , and 
manage to say, not only “just a few words,” 
but we keep on talking, till I half expect to 
hear the Editor remind us that it is time to 
close these exercises. 
No one has occasion to complain of par¬ 
tiality, since believers in hop rising, salt ris¬ 
ing, or no rising at all, receive a courteous 
hearing, as well as others of widely different 
opinions. It is wonderful too, how, out of 
such varied material as finds its way into the 
editorial sanctum, there can come forth so 
complete and harmonious a whole as this 
journal, which meets a warm welcome 
around thousands of rural firesides. How 
pleasant it is to grasp friendly, yet invisible 
hands across these pages, though never in 
this mortal life shall we meet their owners 
face to face, and better still if, now and then, 
some tender or cheering word shall chance 
to lift a single weight from a desponding 
heart. 
If some of these good people only lived 
over the way from our house, I fancy that 
they would be excellent neighbors. They 
believe in system, thoroughness and econo¬ 
my, three powerful allies to success, either 
in the house or on the farm, and if they and 
I would practice what we preach, we should 
get along famously together. I fully agree 
with that thoughtful mother who spares her 
boys the humiliation of wearing great round 
or triangular patches, when her own skill and 
a generous supply of pieces make the reseated 
pants look almost as well as new ones. May 
they Hold her in grateful remembrance, long 
after they shall have outlived the era of torn 
trousers. 
Just here, I would suggest that when pants 
need repairing over the knee, it is a good 
way to rip the seams each side of the worn 
part, cut it out, and insert a new piece, 
pressing it nicely before closing the side 
seams again. Neither boy or man need be 
ashamed to wear garments neatly patched, 
if it be necessary, and every girl should be 
taught that mending well is an essential part 
of domestic economy. 
I am somewhat concerned about the future 
of the little girls of one neighborhood, lest 
they shall follow the example of their elder 
sisters—for if this scarcity of good, sensible, 
economical girls shall continue, it may be 
advisable ljy-wnd-by for the young gentlemen 
in quest of wives to migrate to some region 
where the mothers instruct their daughters 
in household arts. It is true, that the girls 
as well as boys of to-day are different from 
those we knew forty years ago, hut there are 
thrifty, industrious ones even now. 
Why, I can count more than a dozen of my 
young lady friends who are altogether too 
good for the average young men of the day, 
and are accustomed to cutting and making, 
not only their own garments, but many for 
fathers and brothers. Only the other day, I 
watched a young girl as she put the fi nishin g 
stitches in an elegant dress, and admired the 
artistic skill which would have been credita¬ 
ble to a professional dressmaker. 
Of course, these friends to whom I refer 
are fanner*’ daughters, for somehow, the 
majority of village and city girls do not seem 
to find so much time for domestic training, 
and all of them live within a few miles of 
each other. Six of them have pianos, are 
fair musicians and can gracefully entertain 
company in the parlor, besides being so well 
versed in kitchen lore, that “ mother” is not 
compelled to be the only household drudge. 
Any intelligent, worthy young man, of equal 
station, might be proud to win a wife from 
this circle of charming, accomplished girls, 
whose mothers have not so forgotten their 
duties as to be willing to send their daugh¬ 
ters adrift in life’s sea, without chart or com¬ 
pass for the voyage, which is sure to be more 
or less stormy. 
A few thoughts on another subject occur 
to me now, but Edith has answered the re¬ 
marks about overworked wives so well, that 
it may be superfluous to add another line to 
her eloquent reply, We infer that our friend 
Esther, whose letters are very interesting, 
is still young, beloved by husband and chil¬ 
dren, and surrounded by home comforts, so 
in these her lot is really blest. Strong and 
self-reliant, an admirable manager and 
economist herself, it doubtless seems very 
strange to her that any- woman can be con¬ 
tent to wear away health and life in such 
fruitless despairing effort; but when her own 
resolute hands grow too weary for the prop¬ 
er performance of her daily labors, she will 
view things in a different light. Then it will 
be easier to appreciate the blessedness of her 
own station and sympat hize more truly with 
her less fortunate sisters. I 
I once entertained similar mistaken views 
of life and its trials, but now, on looking 
back through a loug vista of toilsome, yet 
not unhappy years spent on the farm, I dis¬ 
cover so many grave errors of my own 
judgement and practice, that 1 can afford to 
excuse the failures of others. The remem¬ 
brance of the road, sometimes hard and 
thorny—over which so many poor, unshod 
feet must go, inspires me with tender pity 
for all the inexperienced and overburdened 
toilers, who so often faint by the wayside. 
When our own paths, at last, wind along 
by shining waters, or over the flowery plain, 
what joy to send back some encouraging 
word to the travelers behind us, whose lag¬ 
ging footsteps still linger on a dreary march 
down the rugged mountain way. 
Ruth Lee. 
-- 
ONION PICKLE. 
• ^ _ 
A flicker of variety prompts me to write 
upon tliis subject. 1 like to air my wisdom 
among the sage army of housekeepers. I am 
not a housekeeper, myself, but I remember 
the time when, for u brief season, I wore my 
hair in a quizzical t-op-knot and swayed 
Homebody else’s scepter. 1 realized it. to be 
nice. I took a hold stride toward the demon¬ 
stration of my t heories of practical economy. 
I let nothing run to waste. I cut the daily 
bread over a napkin and put away the 
crumbs for divers commendable uses; I 
treasured up all the apple peelings in bound 
less stores of vinegar (which afterward burst 
its bonds and ran Hiikle-ke-p over the cellar 
floor !) and patiently soaked the latest shadow 
of a roasting ear for contributions to the 
starch box. And I made this afore men¬ 
tioned “ piekle ” to preserve those peeks of 
lovely onions from the destructive Influences 
of the Approaching winter. If anybody 
wants to know just how it tasted let them do 
in like manner. 
I peeled and sliced my fragrant victims, 
washed them through many carefully poured 
buckets of water ; salted them over Sunday 
to draw out the ” taste,” and did the wash¬ 
ing all over again on Monday morning. Then 
I clashed a pail of hot water upon them and 
let Jt cool. I salted them once more and a 
sudden freeze pinned them in tie 1 jura for 
four days. I didn’t care! When they melted 
out they were too much salted, but I soaked 
them into' measures. Then came what fol¬ 
lowed. 
Onion pickle must be seasoned, put into it 
a liberal quantity of horseradish, broken 
pepper, mustard, cloves, ttno liberal quanti¬ 
ties of cinnamon and, in fact, a pinch of 
nearly everything in the spice box, except 
the papers of snakeroot t and saffron blossoms, 
which are always present in view of juvenile 
extremities. 
O peach kernels ! I wonder it they would 
not make a nice flavoring 1 How I wish 1 
could go back over those five years aud 
utilize them by throwing in a handful. But 
alas 1 I here have another reminder of 
wasted opportunities. 1 poured on vinegar 
without stint and they got sour in short 
order. 
“ Onion pickle ? You made it ( Quite nice 1” 
commended my neighbor in spectacles. 
“Yes, very nice 1” lifting the transparent 
rings on her fork in a way that published her 
to my fancy as one who had weighed the 
world’s opinion in a balance and found it not 
worth consideration. 1 was gratified—not 
at this—but at the fact that my efforts were 
appreciated and crowned with abounding 
success. When Madame returned, she 
wanted to get her potato onions in the 
ground in short order for fear of prolonged 
freezes. I regretfully led the way to my 
three jars. She examined the contents, but 
concluded not to plant them. 
Rose Geranium. 
-♦» » 
Coloring Recipes Wanted— Will some of 
the kind readers of the Rural please send a 
recipe for dying a good, bright red on cotton 
that will be permanent for a rag carpet ( 
We see a bright red on calicoes, and wish 
to see as good permanent colors in a carpet 
on cotton ; also some cheap recipes for col¬ 
oring red on woolen. There have been quite 
a number of recipes for different colors that 
did not say whether they could be used on 
woolen, cotton, or silk, or on all. Recipes 
are almost valueless unless they give all of 
the particulars.— e. 
fjatrflits of giusktulr 
ITEMS FROM THE GRANGES, 
The, Plow Makers and the Patrons .—A 
writer in the Chicago Evening Journal, sign¬ 
ing himself “ Middleman,'’ thus states the 
case of the relations of Patrons and plov> 
makers of the Northwest who persist in sell¬ 
ing their plows only through their own chos¬ 
en agents :—The plow manufacturer makes 
implements for use during a very small por¬ 
tion of the year. Now, as he only sells once 
a year, how is he to know how many plows 
to make ! The present system tmswers the 
question fully. The manufacturer goes to 
his agents in the fall and winter and says, 
how many plows will you buy for spring 
trade ? The agent, taking into consideration 
the demand for only a limited territory, and 
that from a standpoint of self-interest, can 
judge better than any other how many plows 
ho is safe in buying. With the data thus 
obtained, and the positive assurance that he 
will get paid for those plows, even if not u 
single one of them is sold, the manufacturer 
can lay in material and run his factory so as 
to produce plows at the lowest possible cost. 
Remove this safeguard, and capital will shun 
the manufacturing business. But, you say. 
Why cannot the grangers do this as well as 
the agents ? The increase of civilization is 
always marked by a division of labor ; sta¬ 
tistics show that some thirty odd new trades 
wore developed in the city of London within 
a short space of time. Now, apply the watch¬ 
word of the grangers, “ first hands,” aud see 
what the result will bo if followed out to a 
logical conclusion I How loug before every 
man will be his own blacksmith, car¬ 
penter, shoemaker, ete.? The grangers are 
simply taking up a new business when they 
undertake to search the country over and 
find the cheapest and best place to buy, a 
business which those now in it have learned 
at considerable expense of time and money. 
They must necessarily have agents to do the 
aotnal business Of receiving, distributing and 
paying for f lic goods. They must pay cash 
before receiving their goods, as the manu¬ 
facturer (having no agent on the ground) 
cannot tell whether he will get his money or 
not. They must order their implements far 
in advance of the time ;for using them, or 
they cannot be made in time and the manu¬ 
facturer will not fill his warehouses aud trust 
to luck for purchasers. They must receive 
their implements and pay for them in ad¬ 
vance of the season, as the present shipping 
facilities could not distribute them if crowded 
into to or three months or less. Finally, to 
do the business as above indicated, they 
must become a partnership or corporation 
with immense capital, which will be utterly 
unwieldy, and in which fraud will run riot. 
If successful, they will give the lie to all pre¬ 
cedent and experience, which have labored 
for years in producing the present systematic 
and perfect, humanly-speaking, method of 
business.” 
Who Are the Sensible Middlemen ?—Brother 
Haskins, of the Vermont Farmer, who is a 
Ratron, we believe, says :— Which is the 
most sensible man—the store-keeper who 
goes winning around that the Granges are 
runining him, who curses the farmers’ pu- 
pers, and stops his advertisements, (thus 
taking of his own accord the direct road to 
bankruptcy,) or he who has sense to recog¬ 
nize that the farmers have found out the 
advantage of buying for cash, and sets him¬ 
self to meeting their demand and making 
money out of it? The farmers are sensible 
that there must be middlemen. They have 
no hostility to middlemen, either as a body 
or as Individuals. What they are hostile to 
is paying more for their goods in one place 
than they can buy them for in another. 
They have found out that under a cash system 
goods may be bought from ten to seventy- 
five per cent, cheaper than they have been 
getting them. They have also found out 
that store-keepere who sell on credit in the 
old way cannot, or will not give a proper 
reduction to cash customers. Usually they 
cannot buy any cheaper at such stores for 
cash than on time. Consequently they have 
to find otlFSr places to trade. Briefly, the 
grangers do not portend ruin to middlemen, 
but on the contrary great success to the 
middlemen who are smart enough to see 
what is wanting and supply the want. 
Patrons of Husbandry Business Arrange¬ 
ments—Order Secrets .—Two Michigan Gran¬ 
ges have adopted a resolution that “their 
attempt to establish business relations fa¬ 
vorable to the pecuniary interests of the 
Patrons, be and is hereby regarded as an 
important secret of the Order, and that any 
member of the Order who shall willfully 
reveal or in any way make known to any 
person not a Patron, the name or place of 
business of the firm, or manufacturer or 
individual with whom the said committee 
have relat ions, lie and is hereby regarded as 
haviug violated their obligations and as sub¬ 
ject to expulsion. 
Who May Become Grangers .—The Nation¬ 
al Grange adopted a resolution expressing 
the opinion “ that no persons are entitled to 
membership In a Subordinate Grange unless 
they are practically and actually engaged iu 
agricultural pursuits.” There are a good 
many Patrons whom such a line would have 
excluded had it been rigidly diawn from the 
outset. 
iggfyimi .Information. 
READING TO THE SICK. 
Florence Nightingale gives the follow- 
ing judicious advice on this subject : 
With regard to reading aloud in the sick 
room, my experience is, that when the sick 
are too ill to read to themselves, they can 
seldom bear to be read to. Children, eye- 
patients, and uneducated persons are excep¬ 
tions, or where there is any mechanical dilli- 
eulty in reuding. People who like, to be read 
to, have generally not much the matter with 
them ; while in fevers, or where there is 
much irritability of brain, the effort of list¬ 
ening to reading aloud has often brought on 
delirium. 1 speak with great diffidence, 
because there is an almost universal impre.% 
siou that it ia sparing the sick to read aloud 
to them. But two things are certain : 
(1.) If there is some matter which must be 
read to a sick person, do it slowly. People 
often think that the way to get it over with 
least fatigue to him U to get it over in least 
lime. They gabble ; they plunge and gallop 
through the reading. There never was a 
greater mistake. Houdiu, the conjurer, says 
that the way to make a story seem short is 
t.0 tell it slowly. Bo it is with reading to the 
sick. I have often heard a patient say to 
such a mistaken reader, “ Don’t read it to 
me ; tell it me.” Unconsciously he is aware 
that this will regulate the plunging, the read¬ 
ing with unequal paces, Blurring over one 
part, instead of leaving it out altogether, if 
it is unimportant, and mumbling another. 
If the reader lets his own attention wander, 
and then stops to read up to himself, or finds 
he has read the wrong bit, then it is ail over 
with the poor patient’s chance of not suffer¬ 
ing. Very few people know how to read to 
the sick ; very few read aloud us pleasantly 
; even as they speak. In reuding they sing, 
they hesitate they stammer, they hurry, 
they mumble ; when iu speaking they do 
none of these things. Reading aloud to the 
siek ought always to be rather slow, aud 
exceedingly distinct, but not mouthing— 
rather monotonous, but not sing-song—rather 
loud, but not noisy—and, above all, not too 
long. Be very sure of what your patient can 
bear. 
(2.) The extraordinary habit, of reading to 
one’s self in a sick room, and reading aloud 
to the patient any bits which will amuse 
him, or more often the reader, is unaccount¬ 
ably thoughtless. What do you think the 
patient is thinking of during your gaps of 
non-readiug l Do you think that he amuses 
himself upon what you have read for pre¬ 
cisely the time it pleases you to go on reading 
to yourself, and that his attention is ready 
tor something else at precisely the time it 
pleases you to begin reading again l Wheth¬ 
er the person thus read to be siek or well ; 
whether he be doing nothing or doing some¬ 
thing else while being thus read to, the self¬ 
absorption and want of observation of the 
person who does it is equally difficult to 
understand—although very often the rendee 
is too amiable to say how much it disturbs 
him. 
--- 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Remedy for Sour Stomach .—Can any of 
your readers give me a remedy for a sour 
stomach f—M vrtvr, 
Yes. Keep the bowels open and eat lit tie 
until nature has re-arranged the disordered 
condition of the stomach and brought it back 
to its normal condition. Drink nothing but 
cold water meantime. 
Catarrh Remedy.—One who was troubled 
with catarrh 14 years cured it by using the 
following -.—Take a pint of soft water and 
(tut in it a tublespoouful of fine table salt as 
much salt may be used as will dissolve well. 
Take two teaspoonfuls before going to bed. 
