/ 
FES. 63 
©OBE’S BUBAL N 
iomestic <£caitcnw. 
HOUSEHOLD MAT TEES. 
PROFESSIONAL HOUSEKEEPERS. 
To turn the taste and attention of working 
women to household work, especially cook¬ 
ery, seemed to Mrs. Hodges’ dear-sighted 
common-sense the best tiling to be done, and 
to train women for household services is just 
what, through the Training School, .-be is 
now doing. While the instruction to work 
Among the plans suggested by a writer in 'tig girls is gratuitous, iu La tresses may attend 
a recent English journal for the lessening of 
the care of mistresses in moderate circum¬ 
stances, is that of professional housekeepers, 
who shall go from house to house, like a 
music teacher, and to be paid according to 
the number of hours her services are re¬ 
quired. The business of this professional 
housekeeper sh ill be, to do all the market¬ 
ing, keep the book account of tlie kitchen, 
and look sharply after the work of the ser¬ 
vants, thus relieving the mistress of the 
house, who may be incompetent, or an in¬ 
valid, or engaged in other business, or too 
much occupied with the care of children to 
attend to such matters. The housekeeper, 
having been specially trained for such busi¬ 
ness, thoroughly understands marketing—in 
which there is a great deal of money saved 
or wasted—and can in the course of an hour 
or two accomplish as much for the welfare 
of the family as an untrained mistress could 
in a whole day, while the expense of employ¬ 
ing her would be nearly, if not quite, can¬ 
celled by the resulting benefits of her econo¬ 
my and wise management. The plan, al¬ 
though perhaps impracticable, even in cities, 
has at least the merit of originality, and is 
indicative of the forced attention of women 
everywhere to the difficult, question of 
“Help.” 
In cities housekeeping has become so ex¬ 
pensive as to be regarded as a luxury by uo 
means in the reach of people who must study 
economy ; and it is a brave young woman 
who feels equal to the inevitable combat 
with “ butcher and baker, and candlestick 
maker,” and cook and laundry woman. 
While country women And it exceedingly 
difficult to get help of any sort, women in 
cities always have an abundant supply at 
command, hut of such quality as to drive 
them to distraction. The domestics are not 
all in the blame. Bread, bed, and pastry 
t o classes in cookery by paying a respecta¬ 
ble fee, and have the privilege of sending 
the 1 ". s erva.nt.3 for training in special matters, 
at hah rates. While of course the establish¬ 
ment m.gt, most likely, always depend upon 
a contributed fund for its support, the value 
of its wol r can lordly be too much over¬ 
rated. Mor»pver, the school fills demands 
from the eouiiVy for help, and the applica¬ 
tions for servants from both town and coun¬ 
try are constant. One may address either 
Mrs. C. M. Hodges, or Miss Carson, 46 East 
Tenth Street, New York City, “Training ' 
School for Women.” ")f course it is super¬ 
fluous to remind person* who may have oc¬ 
casion to address either, o enclose a stamped 
envelope for reply. 
So much on the subject of “ Help.” Is 
there no way of getting al<Ag without it, or 
with much less ? I was irueh interested a 
few days ago, in a discussion between two 
women on the subject of simplfying house¬ 
keeping. The more ardent of the two was 
not a housekeeper, but a “ woman vf fam¬ 
ily,” and of large and varied experience. 
She contended that housekeeping wa\ ren¬ 
dered far more burdensome than need V- in 
that a greater variety of food was furnished 
than either health or appetite demanded 
While she was right in that particular, ah 
housekeepers know that housekeeping is a 
mattresses, I am decidely of the opinion that 
the good, old fashioned straw bed, which can 
every three months bo exchanged for fresh | 
straw and the tick washed, is the sweetest 
and healthiest of beds. If, in the winter sea- ! 
sou, the porousness of the straw bed makes 
u. "two UQCSinfortable, spread Over it 
a comforter ur two woolen blankets, which 
i should be wusbvd as often as every two 
weeks. With this arrangement, if you wash 
all the bed-covering as often uuo- m ...... 
or two weeks, you will have a delightful, 
healthy bed. Now, if you leave the bed to 
air with open windows during the day, aud 
not make it up for the night before evening, 
you will have added greatly to the sweetness 
of your rest and in consequence to the tone 
of your health. L heartily wish this good 
change could be everywhere introduced. 
Only those who have thus attended to this 
important matter can judge of its influence 
j on the general health and spirits. 
WEARING SPECTACLES. 
When the eyes begin to fail use them as 
little as possible at night, and avoid reading 
fine print or doing any work by lamp light, 
which triesthem. But when you instinctively 
adjust your book so as to get a better light, 
when the eyes are easily fatigued and there 
ic a sense of effort to make out the letters in 
print or to take stitches in sewing, spectacles 
are needed. They are the last thing to bo 
bought for cheapness. Brazilian glasses are 
best, because of nature’s make, aud most 
difficult to be scratched, but you should 
wear manufactured glasses first until the eye 
becomes accustomed to their use. Always 
most exigent profession—that what is tucked I note the number of your glasses and tho date 
„ .. it * if i-^11 
away to-day, puts iu an appearance to-mor¬ 
row, and that the easiest and best way is to 
keep affairs “ up to the mark’’all the time 
—if one can ! 
During the past Autumn I heard the Na¬ 
tional Grange lecturer, Mr, Thompson, and 
his talk revealed a sincere sympathy with 
farmers’ wives. I ventured to suggest to 
him the advantages that would be derived 
from co-operative work. Perhaps he knew 
of localities where the heavy work of house¬ 
making do not come by inheritance any ! holds—such as washing, ironing and baking 
more than dressmaking, editing a newspaper, 
or singing oratorios. To expect a girl to 
broil and cook and bake to perfection, when 
she has never been taught how, is to expect 
miracles. In France, it is a saying that when 
a son has neither brains nor common sense 
enough to make even a third-rate la wyer, 
agriculturist or merchant, he is “made” a 
journalist, and any one acquainted with 
French journalism can well believe it. Very 
much the same course has been followed in 
regard to the doing of housework, and with 
a similar result. 
To educate women for housework was the 
idea that found development in the Training 
School In this city, founded and conducted 
by Mrs, C. M. Hodges, a woman of heart 
and wealth, who looked about her to see in 
what way she could best help women. She 
began first by admitting sewing girls into 
her own private residence, where they were 
taught how to sew. She soon found, how 
ever, that the supply of sawing women in 
the city greatly exceeded the demand, and 
the compensation paid by the largo clothing 
establishments for work done was too small 
to keep body aud soul together. For exam¬ 
ple, some of the best houses in the city pay 
for making a calico wrapper—the making of 
which occupies an entire day, with the use 
too of a machine—13 cents ! Another house 
paid for the malting of a similar garment, 
with rather more work on it, 37 cents! Con¬ 
sidering the cost of living, when a small 
room with board in a decent place cannot be 
had for less that $6 or $7 a week, how are 
such girls to live, in any honest way i On 
the other hand, a woman who goe3 as dress¬ 
making seamstress in a family, understand¬ 
ing her business, commands from $2 to -33 a 
day. The reason why the large establish¬ 
ments pay so little for machine-made gar¬ 
ments, is partly due to the large purchase of 
sewing machines upon the installment plan. 
Hundreds of families—especially among for¬ 
eigners—buy machines in this way, with the 
privilege of paying for them in work done : 
the pay i3 trifling, but the work is done by 
boys oi* girls wUosb time is considered of no 
value, and after the machine Is paid for, they 
continue to do work at the same rates for 
the sake of having a little “ spending money,” 
their circumstances or habits being such that 
they are not dependent upon the sewing ma¬ 
chine earnings for a livelihood. The conve¬ 
nience of large manufacturing establish¬ 
ments is in favor of getting work done as 
cheaply as possible, ju3t as men and women 
like to buy ready-made garments as cheaply 
as possible. 
—was done in some co-operative way, just 
as butter and cheese making i No, ho know 
of none. Had not the women—tho Gran¬ 
gerizes— discussed the matter in Grange 
meetings ? Not to his knowledge. Isn’t it 
practicable ? Is it not in tho direct province 
of the Grange to establish laundries and 
bakeries, just as much as to build railroads 
and sell farm produce in the aggregate # 
Will not some of the thinking, intelligent 
women connected with this movement put 
the matter under discussion, and let us know 
the result ? To be able to get along without 
a “hired girl” is a thing to be desired, in 
many families, above most others. Their 
extravagance, inefficiency, and insolence 
make their employment at, the present time 
a matter of grave consideration, A good 
one is a treasure beyond price, and scarce as 
of first using them—if lost, you can tell 
Wnah number you want. Glasses should be 
washed in cold water every clay, wiped rlry 
with a linen fabric and then with buckskin, 
never with paper, as it scratches them. 
-- 
TOOTHACHE.’, 
For the benefit, of those who may need a 
little consolation, we publish the following 
from a correspondent of an exchange .- 
“ If any one of our readers suffer from 
toothache, or neuralgic affections, arising 
from teeth in any state of decay, they may 
experience relief, Instantaneous and perma¬ 
nent, by saturating a small bit of clean 
cotton or wool with a strong solution of am¬ 
monia* and applying it immediately to the 
affected tooth. Tho pleasing contrast in¬ 
stantaneously produces, in some cases, a fit 
of laughter, although a moment before 
extreme suffering and anguish prevailed. I 
have used the remedy for over one year, and 
have obtained sufficient proof to warrant 
publication.” 
-M-*- 
AFTER-DINNER NAPS. 
Many persons are in the habit of sleeping 
HOW DO EELS BREED? 
I wouuo like to ask a question or two 
through the columns of tho Rural, New- 
Yotucer After reading Mr. Strickler’S 
letter in of Dec. 12th, in which he 
«... , - eel never has eggs trt mo.^v 
its body,” i would like to know to what, 
class the cel belong-., and by what earthly 
means it can increase ? 1 bad always thought 
that every thing, from man flow,. t, Q t i 10 
lowest form of animal life, was either w,,-. 
parous or oviparous ; but it seems that eels— 
according to Mr. StRICKLER, at least, do not 
belong to either of those great classes. Ho 
agrees that they are either male or female, 
but of what usfti would a distinction of sex 
be when neither eggs nor young is produced 
by them ? He seems to hold out tho idea that 
he has the grand secret, but wants a reward 
for trying the experiment, which 1 don’t, 
think he will ever get; tor if an eel pro¬ 
duces neither eggs nor young it never 
“breeds,” so he will have to “think” again 
before commencing eel culture. 
Ralston Station, Teun. F. F. Hynds. 
About Ed Propagation,—In looking over 
the Rural New-Yorker, I see different 
views as to how eels bring forth 1 heir young. 
I have been somewhat interested to know 
how this is accomplished. 1 have heard dif¬ 
ferent opinions for the last, forty-five years 
and have never found out yet. J live on the 
Brandywine and my lot joins the race that 
runs the Hour mill on the tide. There is some 
twenty feet, fall from my lot to tho tide 
water, and the young eels come out of tho 
tidewater, and go on up the stream by mil- 
| lions. In the last of May and first of June, 
for two or three weeks look in the edge of 
the water and you can see eels from 1*^ to 
3 inches long on their way up the stream ; 
and in the fall of the year, they go down. I 
have seen them caught from six inches to 
three feet long. It is my opiiuion that they 
bring forth their young in the tide. 
Wilmington, Del. A. C. Brinton. 
-«•-*--*--• 
NUMBER OF EGGS IN THE STURGEON. 
Mn. Frank Buckland states, in Land and 
• Water, that lie bus lately had the oppor¬ 
tunity of examining the viscera of a sturgeon 
caught at Selby in Yorkshire. The follow¬ 
ing is an extract from his article on the sub¬ 
ject : “The eggs filled a very large iron pail; 
1 they were surrounded by awhile, milky sub¬ 
stance, the exact nature of which I do not 
understand. Each egg is perfectly round, 
- and about the size of ordinary partridge 
shot. The fish weighed one hundred and 
seventy-one pounds 1 The length was seven 
feet nine, girth five feet t hree. Mr. Searlo, 
my secretary, and myself have carefully 
l weighed the eggs, and the result is that 
for half an hour or an hour immediately there were forty-live pounds* weight of ©ggs. 
n/ffflp dinner. TAn mirmtaa 9 nlenrv H^frirA l u. _ _* _ n _ _ a 
minutes’ 
before 
angels ; a bad one Is a thorn in the flesh—a dinner is worth more than an hour after. 
continual source of torment. 
Mary A. E. Wager. 
lUgteitiq information. 
DIO LEWIS’S RECEIPT FOR A BED. 
Of the eight pounds which a man eats and 
drinks in a day it is thought that not less than 
five pounds leave his body through the skin. 
And of these fi ve pounds a considerable per¬ 
centage escapes during the night while he is 
in bed. The larger part of this is water, but 
in addition there is much effete and poison¬ 
ous matter. This, being in great part 
gaseous in form, permeates every part of 
the bed. Thus all parts of the bed—mattress, 
blankets, as well as sheets—soon become 
foul, and need purification. The matress 
needs this renovation quite as much as the 
sheets. To allow the sheets to be used with¬ 
out washing or changing three or six months 
would bo regarded a3 bad housekeeping, but 
I insist, if a thin sheet can absorb enough 
of these poisonous excretions of the body bo 
make it unlit for use in a few days, a thick 
mattress, which can absorb and retain a 
thousand times as much of the poisonous 
excretions, needs to be purified as often 
certainly as once in three months. A sheet 
can be washed. A mattress cannot be 
renovated in this way. Indeed, there is 
no other way of cleaning a mattress but by 
steaming it or picking it to pieces, and thus 
in fragments exposing it to the direct rays of 
the sun. As these processes are scarcely 
practicable with any of the ordinary 
It rests and refreshes and prepares tho 
system for vigorous digestion. If sleep 
By boiling them and Bpreading them out on 
paper, we found that there were 1,280 eggs 
to tlie ounce ; thus the total number of eggs 
contained in this one sturgeon amounted to 
is taken after dinner it should be in the sit- the vast amountof nine.hundred and twenty- 
•_*_ . _ 11 _ i *_* __ii!_• _i . J 
ing posture, as the horizontal position is unt- 
l’avorabie to healthful digestion. Let those 
who need rest and sleep during the day take 
it before dinner instead of after, and they 
will soon find that they will feel better and 
that their digestion will be improved there¬ 
by. 1 
-- 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Air the Spare Beds .—Here is a hint for 
housekeepers, and a very important one. j 
Merely covering up a bed with blankets and | 
counterpanes will no more protect it from 
dampness or keep it dry than a pane of 
one thousand six hundred (931,600). When 
the reader is eating caviare he will have 
some idea of the number of young sturgeons 
that are thus destroyed at a single mouthful 
in the form of eggs. It is a most remarkable 
thing that a creature of such a gigantic size 
as a sturgeon should germinate originally 
from an egg no bigger than a partridge shot. 
It is a greater wonder than an oalc from an 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
California Salmon.—A. Palmer sends out 
the following statement; The General Gov- 
glass will keep out light. The atmospheric ! ernment, at its salmon breeding establish- 
moisture will penetrate all woven fabrics. 
Hence, the importance of keeping the beds 
in spare rooms regularly aired. Many a 
deal* friend or welcome visitor has been sent 
to au untimely grave or afflicted with dis¬ 
ease, by being put into a bed which had been 
permitted to stand unoccupied. Keep tho 
spare beds, when not in use, free from all 
covering but a light spread. 
Cure for Corns .—Ten cents’ worth of mu¬ 
riatic acid and acid of niter will take out any 
number of corns and warts. Scrape around 
the corn and put the acid around it a few 
times; and then you can take tho point of a 
knife, or even a pin, and lift it out at the 
root. Put a little grease in it when it is re¬ 
moved. 
A greater boon than fame or wealth, 
Ts life’s chief blessing, perfect health 
Yet many have il. not, because 
They've violated Nature’s laws. 
mentonthe McCloud River, Cal., has col¬ 
lected, the present season, #>.763,900 salmon 
spawn which have been distributed as fol¬ 
lows: Maiuo 100,000; Massachusetts 300,000; 
Rhode Island 100,000 ; Connecticut 300,C0h ; 
New York 929,000; New Jersey 225,000 ; 
Pennsylvania 450,000 ; Maryland 375,000 ; 
Michigan 750,000 ; Wiseon-in 100.000; Min¬ 
nesota 250,000 ; Towa 300 G:»0 ; Utah 150,000 ; 
Colorado 25,000 ; Illinois 50,000 ; Virginia 
50,000:, Canada 25,000 ; N vv Zealand 25,000. 
Tho balance were hatched and returned to 
McCloud River. 
American Fish in France .—We notice the 
indefatigable Seth Greek has been sending 
American trout to France, where they have 
been, and are being, distributed among the 
French pfsiculturists. Judging by a transla¬ 
tion from one of the French papers, there is 
great hope that the introduction will prove 
successful. 
