gomestty (Bcmtmrar. 
SETTING THE TABLE. 
“What makes you so particular about ^ 
the knives, Azalia f" said Aunt Mautiia ^ 
yesterday. “ If we have victuals enough I p 
don’t know as it makes much difference how n 
the things are. put, on. For my part I don't j r 
want anything to eat these warm days.” n 
“There’s everything in looks^ aunty,” I tc 
replied. “Let me get dinner this noon, and tl 
I will promise t o bring back your appetite.” p 
This was a golden opportunity, and I im- B 
proved it so well that when my good aunt n 
left the table she declared that she had be¬ 
gun to follow Dio Lewis’ rule of rising from d 
a meal while still hungry. Half—I had s< 
nearly said all—depends upon the way in o 
which a table is laid and the food arranged g 
upon it. I have the charge of the dinner w 
this summer, and I will give my plan, which, 1 
if Aunt Martha reads and approves, will, 1 a 
am sure, be adopted in her family. I make n 
my arrangements in the morning; and, by ii 
the way, I fully indorse ail that was said u 
last, season in favor of cold dinners. T make ii 
some nice, dainty pudding, corn starch or a 
tapioca, and I try to have variety, at least 
in the looks. Sometimes I spread I he white 
of an egg, beaten to a stiff froth, over the 
top of the pudding, and then jelly cut in 
thin stripes and laid against the white, in 
the form of diamonds or squares. This is J 
done in the morning, that it may cool before c 
dinner. When the family tiro of puddings I li 
have some other dessert—a beautiful lemon f 
pie, with frosting on the top, shaded to a b 
lovely brown in the oven; or a dish of cocoa- 11 
nut and sliced orange in a glass plate, 1 « 
never ccuflne myself to recipe books, though a 
when I want some dish cooked in a new V 
wav I am not above receiving a hint from s 
Prof. Blot. But there are so many pleasant a 
combinations that one may study out all by a 
one’s self. Yesterday I mudo a very nice l 
dessert in this wayI cracked some hiekory v 
nuts and picked out the meat These, be- r 
ing finely chopped, I boiled for uu hour in t 
sugar and water, till a thick sirup was t 
formed. It made a beautiful dish when 
cold, with pulverized sugar sifted over it, , 
and wns delicious besides. Cold meat, light t 
biscuit baked in the. morning, lettuce ar- j 
ranged on a plate like a rosette, with r.o r 
steins in sight, and a radish peeping out here r 
and there from among the crisp leaves; ; 
spiced currants and a plate of cake to eat j 
with the blanc mange, completed the meal. ( 
I make coffee, season it, and put in the cellar , 
to cool. When we tire of that, I have lem¬ 
onade or iced tea. I hold that the more 1 
beautiful a table is made to look the better 
will the food taste ; so I Like care to have 
flowers always, arranging them in various 
ways. Just now the Lily-of-the-Valley 
leaves are beautiful, hanging over the side 
of a white vase. I selected the largest that 
1 could find this morning, and with two fine 
pansies and a bit of locust for sweetness, 1 
had a beautiful bouquet for the center of 
the table. One of the hottest days last 
week I shut the blinds in the dining room, 
kept the doors closed except that which 
opened into the cellar, and going into the 
room shortly after, I entirely forgot, in the 
dark, delicious cooliness, that the thermom¬ 
eter was 92° in the shade. I meant the 
others should forget it too, so I broke off 
several branches from a maple tree in front 
of the house, and laid the large green leaves, 
one by one, in wreaths around each of the 
plates, the top of each leaf over the stem of 
its neighbor; the effect was charming, and 
you have no idea what a sense of cool luxury 
peovaded the room. 
Too much time '{ Too much fuss and bother ? 
But. nothing, 1 hold, is too much trouble that 
makes homo pleasant. Think of the children 
coming home from a heated school-house to 
a shady dining room and prettily set table. 
A bit of a bouquet at each plate would take 
but ten minutes of time, and would do more 
to make them in love with home than all the 
silver that could be used, I think. Little 
things! Who knows their power? Who can 
estimate the influence they exert over young 
hearts? It may be that oven in so simple an 
act as setting a table we shall teach them to 
feel that in all the wide world there is no 
place like home. Put on the knives and 
forks so that they will look as if they had 
been placed and not thrown down. Let the 
salts be in the same relative position on the 
tabic. Have the chairs set straight and the 
cloth laide enly, Avith an absence of crumbs. 
Where a dining room is used for nothing 
else, the table may be kept in order very 
easily, the dishes being put on after each 
meal. The plates should be turned down 
for dinner, the cups piled up neatly in their 
place, and the saucers beside them within 
easy reach. It looks well, where there is a 
pile of dishes, plates, saucers or sauce-plates, 
to turn the top dish downward. 
Beautiful dishes can be arranged later in 
the season, Avhen fruit is plenty. Pears or 
grapes, with their own leaves, are very 
pretty and acceptable in a warm day. Cur¬ 
rants dipped in while of egg, and afterwards 
in sugar, look well in a glass dish with cur¬ 
rant leaves around the edge. It is pleasant 
to have napkin rings for each member of 
the family. Quite pretty ones of Scotch 
plaid may be bought for fifty cents each. 
But where there are no rings the napkin 
may be folded very prettily. 
“ Whatever is worth doing at all is worth 
doing well.” Let lis pay more attention to 
some of these little things, and thus make 
our homes beautiful and enjoyable to a 
greater degree than ever before, as the. 
warm, uncomfortable days come upon us. 
Half the heat, half the fatigue and annoy¬ 
ance—yes, 1 will go so far as to say that 
much of the disgust felt at the sight of focal 
in the extremely hot weather, a touch of 
which has already reminded us of the com¬ 
ing weeks, may be avoided by a little pleas¬ 
ant attention to the setting of the table. 
A. Zalia. 
jrgt^tiiq JnJformatioti:. 
DOMESTIC BREVITIES. 
A. Household Ornament. — E. Heyseu, 
Madison, (la., describes it in the Fruit Re¬ 
corder in this wise:—A small Avire basket 
lined with various colored t issue paper, nicely 
fringed, hangs in a corner of the loom; a 
bunch of gay Southern moss hangs in wavy 
flakes around the basket. In the basket sets 
a two-pound oyster can, filled with water 
and a sweet potato. It has sent out a num¬ 
ber of vines several feet in length, guided by 
strings over the clock, around picture frames, 
and twining through mantle ornaments, 
adding beauty and cheerfulness to the room. 
It may not be generally known that with a 
vessel kept full of clear water in a warm 
room a sweet potato vine will grow all win¬ 
ter. It is not necessary that the sun shines 
upon if. 
To Take Marks off of Furniture .—Have 
neglected to Avrite to the Rural in some 
time. Will you tell the many lady readers 
how t took the white spots and marks off 
my varnished furniture and made it look 
new and glossy. Bimply by wetting a sponge 
in common alcohol camphor and applying it 
freely to the furniture. It has nearly if not 
quite the same effect that varnish does, and 
in much cheaper.— Bernice Better. 
To Kill, Flies.—I am told by one who has 
tried it that a strong tea of quassia sweet¬ 
ened with molasses Avill kill flies, and has the 
advantage of not being a deadly poison. It 
is said, too, that horses washed with a tea 
made of quassia will not be tormented by 
flies. It can be bought at any drug store, 
and is worth trying if it will abate the fly 
nuisance any.—F. w. 
lied Bug Exterminator Wanted,. —A sub¬ 
scriber wishes some good housewife to tell 
her through the columns of the Rural of a 
sure bed bug exterminator; also a mouse 
and rat exterminator, or something to drive 
them away. This is a queer question, but 
necessity says it must he asked. ’ The answer 
should be from practical experience. 
EijsiS .—A German girl tells me that in 
Germany they pack eggs Avith the small end 
down, in dry ashes, and find no trouble in 
keeping them.—B. 0. D. 
-- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Red Currant .Telia. —Put your currants in a 
bell-metal kettle and scald them well; when 
cool press them through a sieve, getting out 
all the juice, but be careful not to allow any 
skin or seeds to pass through the sieve ; 
measure the juice and put It back again in 
the ket tle and let it boil hard for five or six 
minutes, skimming it well : then add while 
on ttie fire boiling, one pound of sifted loaf 
sugar to every pintof juice ; stir till dissolved 
and then it is done and ready to put into the 
tumblers. It has the flavor of the fruit, andis 
a beautiful light, color. It will keep for years 
if necessary. 
< 'arrant and Gooseberry Compote. —Put 
one quart of red currant juice to five pounds 
of lo if sugar ; set on l lie lire, and when, the 
sugar is dissolved put in eight pounds of red, 
rough, ripe gooseberries ; let them boil half 
au hour, then put Into an eurthern nan and 
leave them to stand for two days ; then boll 
them again until they look clear, and let 
them staud aAveek to dry a little at the top, 
then cover them with brandy papers. 
Black Currant Vinegar. —To four pounds 
of ripe fruit put three pints of vinegar ; let 
it stand three days; stir occasionally; 
squeeze and strain the fruit. Boil ten min¬ 
utes, and to every pint of juice add one pound 
of lump sugar. Boil twenty minutes 
TO PREVENT HYDROPHOBIA. s 
- a 
A HIGH medical authority on the subject t 
in New York offers the following simple 
rules, which, if observed strictly, cannot 
fail to lessen the danger from hydrophobia, 
if they do not prevent it entirely : 
l. A dog that is sick from any cause should j 
be Avatched and treated carefully until his c 
recovery. s 
IE A dog that is sick and restless is an ob- t 
jeet of suspicion. This is the earliest peculiar f- 
system of hydrophobia. f 
1IL A dog tlmb is sick and restless and has % 
a depraved appetite, gnawing and swallow- f 
ing bits of cloth, wood, coal, brick, mortar, c 
&c., is a dangerous animal. He should be at l 
once chained up and kept in confinement p 
until his condition be clearly ascertained. 1 
IV. If, in addition to any or allot the fore¬ 
going symptoms, the dog has delusion of the 
senses, appearing to see or hear imaginary 
sights or sounds, trying to pass through a 
closed door, catching at flies in the air when 
there are none, or searching for something 1 
which does not exist, there is great proba¬ 
bility that he is, or is becoming, liydropho- 1 
bie. He should be secured and confined 1 
without delay. 
V. lu case any one i3 bitten by a dog 
whose condition is suspicious, the most ef- 1 
feotive aud beneficial mode of treatment is 
to cauterize the wound at. once with a stick 
of silver nitrate, commonly called “ lunar 1 
caustic.” The stick of caustic should be ! 
sharpened to a pencil pioint, introduced 
quite to the bottom of the wound, and held 
in contact with every part of the wounded 
surface until it is thoroughly cauterized and 
insensible. This destroys the virus by which 
the disease would be communicated. 
There may not he any such thing as hydro¬ 
phobia resulting from the bite of a dog, as 
many profes* to believe ; but it is well to be 
on the safe side, just as it is in the case of 
vaccination for the prevention of smallpox. 
The foregoing rules, however, are not severe 
enough with regard to the disposition of hy¬ 
drophobic dogs ; they should be killed with¬ 
out delay. Wo don’t think it would be ad¬ 
visable to establish a dog hospital. Humane 
as such a measure would be, it would not 
meet with general approval. 
-- 
HOW LONG TO SLEEP. 
There has been a great deal of trash writ¬ 
ten and labeled “ Hygienic,” but the follow¬ 
ing (we are sorry we do not know who wrote 
it) so entirely accords with our own experi¬ 
ence that we recommend it as sensible :-The 
fact is that as life becomes concentrated, and 
its pursuits more eager, short sleep and early 
rising become impossible. We take more 
sleep than Our ancestors, and we take more 
because we want more. Six hours’ sleep 
will do very well for a plowman or a brick¬ 
layer, or any other man who has no exhaus¬ 
tion but that produced by manual labor, and 
the sooner he takesitafter Ills labor is overthe 
better. But for a man whose labor is mental, | 
the stress of Avork is on bis brain and nervous 
system ; and for him who is tired in the even¬ 
ing, with a day of mental application, neither 
early to bed nor early to rise is wholesome. 
He ueeds letting down to the level of repose. 
The. longer the interval between the active 
use of the brain and lus retirement to bed the 
better his chance of sleep and refreshment. 
To him an hour after midnight is probably 
as good as two hours before it, and even then 
his sleep will not so completely and quickly 
restore himasit will his neighborwho isphys- 
i ically tired. He must not only go to bed 
; later, but lie longer. His best sleep probably 
lies in the early morning hours, when all the 
’ nervous excitemeut lias passed away, and he 
- is in absolute rei t. 
same treatment will cure whitlows, and oil 
injuries of tips of fingers. As soou as pain 
and redness appear, the finger should be 
soaked for ten minutes in camphorated 
SAveet oil. The relief is said to be immediate, 
and three applications are generally enough 
to effect a cure. 
- 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Resuscitation of Drowned Persons .—The 
Massachusetts Humane society has issued a 
card with these directions for restoring per¬ 
sons apparently drowned :—Convey the body 
to the nearest house, with head raised. 
Strip and rub dry. Wrap in blankets. In¬ 
flate the lungs by closing the nostril with 
thumb and finger and blowing into the mouth 
forcibly, and then pressing with hand on the 
chest and so on for ten minutes, or until he 
breathes. Keep the body warm, extremities 
also. Continue rubbing—do not give up so 
long as there is any chance of success. 
Charcoal for Wounds.—A correspondent 
of the Scientific American says :—“The best 
simple remedy l have found for surface 
wounds, such as cuts, abrasions of the skin, 
&e., is charcoal. Take a live coal from the 
stove, pulverize it, apply It to the wound and 
cover the whole with a rag. The charcoal 
absorbs the fluids secreted by the wound, 
and lays the foundation of the scab ; it also 
prevents the rag from irritating the flesh, 
and it is antiseptic. 
Reined}) for Looseness in the Rounds or 
Cholera Morbus.—It is an old thing and has 
probably been told thousands of times, yet 
some may have forgotten and others may 
never have heard it. So here goes:—Mix 
two tahlespoonsful of wheat flour with ju*t 
water enough to moisten the flour; drink it. 
If the first dose does not cheek pain, or the 
purging, repeat the dose iu half an hour. 
Severe cases sometimes require a third dose. 
(Momologtcal. 
A WAY 
STOP CHINCH BUGS. 
FOR BOILS—A SURE CURE. 
Dr. Simon, a physician of Loraine, states 
that, as soon as the characteristic culminat¬ 
ing point of a boil makes its appearance, he 
puts in a saucer a thimbleful of camphorated 
alcohol, and, dipping the ends of his middle 
Angers into the liquid, rubs the iu tlained sur¬ 
face, especially the middle portion, repeating 
the operation eight or ten minutes, continu¬ 
ing the rubbing at each time for about half a 
minute. He then allows the surface to dry, 
placing a slight coating of camphorated 
olive oil over the affected surface. He states 
that one such application in almost all such 
cases causes boils to dry up and disappear. 
The application should be made at morning, 
noon and in the evening. He avers that the 
If the bugs are in your corn, say a feAv 
rows, make up your mind to give them that 
amount, and between these rows and the 
remainder of your corn, and on all sides, if 
there is any probability of their coming in, 
ploAv a ditch with a good-sized plow, as deep 
as you can with one horse, throwing two 
furrows, one on one side, the other opposite, 
then hitch your horse to a log, say eight 
inches in diameter and seven feet long. 
Mount your log and drag through your 
ditch or ditches until the earth is as dry and 
fine as flour in Ihe bottom, and on both 
sides. 
Keep it hi this condition by dragging your 
log twice a day. Aud the consequence will 
be that few, very few, bugs will get over, 
the flue earth on the sides affording no foot¬ 
hold. Thus way is simple, easy and sure ; 
and if your chinch bugs can climb the sides 
of such a ditch their power of locomotion is 
better than the breed in Egypt.— Cor. Prai¬ 
rie Farmer. 
■* * ♦ - 
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 
Curculio Catcher .—The Country Gentle¬ 
man says Caleb Brown of Norwalk, Ohio, 
showed us recently a new curculio catcher 
of his invention, that possesses sonic, pecu¬ 
liar advantages, and for a large orchard is 
perhaps the host we- have met with. It con¬ 
sists of a large cloth hooper on a tAvo- 
wiieoled barrow, which is driven under the 
tree, the different branches of which are 
Jarred with a pounder on a pole, and conse¬ 
quently may be used for any tree, however 
large. The insects drop into the hopper, 
which is made of polished rubber cloth, and 
roll or slide down its smooth suifd.ee into a 
box at the center. The touch of a lever 
closes this box, and bolds all the insects se¬ 
curely until the orchard is finished. The 
chief advantages of this contrivance are the 
smooth rubber cloth over which, the insects 
roll freely, and which does not become wet 
with dew ; the jarring with a pole-handled 
mallet, and the ready closing of the box 
which holds the insects. Apple, pear, peach 
aud plum orchards may be rapidly cleared. 
iloir to Manage Potato Beetle*.—C has. V. 
Riley quotes the Prairie Farmer for the fol¬ 
lowing mode of managing these fellows, so 
as not to have to go over the whole field 
with Paris green He begins at one end of 
his potato patch, and scatters finely pulver¬ 
ized air-slaked lime over the potatoes grad¬ 
ually for about ten rods. Lime will not kill 
them, but they do not like it, so they go to 
the part not. limed. The next day he drives 
them ten rods farther, and so on till he has 
i them in a narrow space, and then he puts 
on the Paris green strongly and finishes 
them. We have some doubts whether this 
will Vie found very much better than to apply 
, the Paris green at onceover the whole, and 
, make short work of it. 
