MOORE’S BUBAL NEW-YORKER, 
<§an«sti([ (Kcattamg. 
ECONOMY IN PREPARING CLOTHING. 
Oh, ye busy housewives, how I do pity 
and sympathize with you, and wonder how 
you get along ! Bub all this does not en¬ 
lighten me, so please allow me to tell yon 
what I am doing at present. The busy days 
of fall and early winter being over, Ium pre¬ 
paring for spring and summer, that I may 
not be so busy and overworked when warm 
weather comes, with its many cares for the 
farmer’s wife. 1 am making under-gar¬ 
ments every day, and outside garments 
suitable for summer wear for myself and 
family ; also my summer bedding, while my 
old, worn out clothes are torn into carpet- 
rags—then they are out of the way, and 
when I want them they are ready for use, 
and 1 am not obliged to take a busy time to i 
prepare them. Do you thiuk my clothing 
out of style aud fashion because made now 
instead of six months hence ? 1 do not, for 
this sort of apparel is but little affected by 
fashion, consequently is not as changeable as 
other things. I have time now to finish ' 
them a3 they should be—that is, with the j 
trimmings, etc., that they would otherwise 
have to do without. Then, when spring 
comes, be it ever so sudden, my three little 
ones will have suitable clothing ready to put 
on. 
My hours for sewing can then be devoted 
to Sunday or One garments, which might be j 
ailected by fashion (myiolher sewing being 
out of the way), I have time to make those 
as stylish us I please. It being early in the 
season, I have the pleasure of wearing them 
the entire summer, and we ore not obliged 
to stay away from this place or that because 
our clothing Is not ready to wear, or what is 
still worse, yet in the merchants’ hands, j 
Another item, not n very small one either, is 
this : Summer goods are always cheapest 
late in the fall and winter—that is when I 
buy thorn ; in the same way I buy and make 
much of ray winter clothing, L c., buy late 
in the spring and summer and make them 
whenever I have time to do so. 
Lastly, I take a little time to write to the 
dear old Rubai,. How 1 wish I had time to 
do so the year round, and at the same time 
had- a little more ability. We all love to 
write to our friends, and 1 claim t he Rural as 
mine for it seems to me to be. 
Binghamton, N. Y. Bernice Better. ‘ 
take out the meat, strain off the soup and 
return it to the pot again, thicken it with a 
little flour mixed with water; then add some 
parsley, finely chopped, with more salt and 
pepper to the taste, and some dumplings 
made of a teaspoonful of butter to two of 
flour, moistened with a little water or milk. 
Drop these dumplings into the boiling soup ; 
let them boil live minutes, and serve them 
with soup in the tureen. 
FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN. 
Cut up a large chicken into meat joints. 
Throw them into boiling or salted water for 
two or three minutes. Take them out, and 
rub each piece with a lemon cut in half. 
Melt an ounce of butter in a sauce-pan, add 
a tablespoonful of flour, white pepper, salt, 
powdered nutmeg to taste, and half a pint 
of white stock, with an onion, a bunch of 
parsley, and some button mushrooms ; stir 
the sauce till it boils, t ien put in the piece of 
fowl and let them stew gently. When done, 
I removing the onion and parsley, lay the 
pieces cf fowl neatly on a dish, stir into the 
sauce, off the fire, a couple of yolks of eggs, 
| strained and beaten up with the juice of a 
lemon, and pour it over the piecas of fowl, 
arranging the mushrooms around them. 
----- 
TO BROjlL A FOWL. 
Split the fowl down the back ; season it 
very well with pepper, and put it on the 
gridiron, with the inner part next the fire, 
which must bo very clear. Hold the grid¬ 
iron at a considerable distance from the lire, 
and allow the fowl to remain until ibis nearly 
half done; then turn It, taking great care 
that it does not burn. Broil it of a fine 
brown, and serve it up with stewed mush¬ 
rooms, or a sauce with pickled mushrooms. 
A duck may bo broiled in tins same way. If 
the fowl is very large, half roast it, then cut 
it into quarters, and finish it on the gridiron. 
It will take from half to three.quarters of 
an hour to cook. 
Orient ijiij and Useful. 
USEFUL RECIPES 
FOR THE SHOP, THE HOUSEHOLD AND THE FARM. 
TO COOK SARATOGA POTATOES.' 
They can be prepared to perfection in any 
kitchen by the use of a very sinjnie appara¬ 
tus, consisting of a sharp blade set slanting 
into a wooden trough, with a narrow slit in 
the bottom, two wire screens or sieves and a 
common spider. Select eight large potatoes, 
pare them and slice very thin with the cut¬ 
ting machine, soak them in cold water for 
two hours, and stir common table salt into 
the water, one tenspoonfuJ t.o a quart, and 
allow them to remain in the brine half au 
hour longer. Pour them upon the screen to 
drain aud then put on a spider, with a pound 
of clear lard, over a brisk fire. Wipe the 
sliced potatoes dry on a towel, wait until the 
lard is smoking hot, and pour a large plateful 
into the spider. The result is like a small 
sea in a white squall, anil now the cook 
shows the artistic soul, which every votary 
of that noblest of arts must possess to be 
worthy of the name. Patient aud calm, 
with steady aud incessant motion of the 
skimmer, she provents adhesion of any too 
affectionate slices, and watches carefully for 
the tender blush of browtmess to appear. 
Slowly it creeps and deepens until it rivals 
the hue of the fragrant Havana. Haste then 
takes the place of caution, lest any martyrs 
burn for the perfection of the others ; and 
they must be quickly spread on another 
sieve to drain umil dry and greiissjless 
enough for the fairest fingers, then served 
hot, to melt away like a kiss on sweet lips, 
with a d 3 dng crackle like the falling loaves 
of autumn.— Ex. 
—--■ 
GOOD BEEF SOUP. 
Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put 
it on to boil in one quart of water to every 
pound of meat, and a large teaspoonful of 
salt to each quart of water. Let it boil two 
hours and skim it well. Then add four lur- I 
mps, pared and cut in quarters, four onions, : 
pared and sliced, two carrots, scraped and J 
cut in slices, one root of celery, cut in small 
pieces, aud one bunch of sweet herbs, which 
should be washed and tied with a thread, as 
hey are to be taken out when the soup is , 
served. When the vegetables are tender, 
We find the following in the Scientific 
American:—Save the scales of the forge 
(oxide of iron) for use in annealing hard cast 
iron or steel. 
The best way to avoid water pipes freez¬ 
ing and bursting is to have a cock in the 
cellar, by which the water can be turned off 
from the entire house. 
Rubber rings, slipped over bottles in pack¬ 
ing, ensure safety against breakage. 
Protosulphate of iron in powder, rubbed 
HP with raw linseed oil, is an antidote, for 
external poisoning by cyanide of potassium. 
Leather can be made hard by saturation 
in h solution of shellac In alcohol. 
In taking up bolts, the time used in care- 
j fully cutting the belt square is always time 
I saved. 
Before washing almost any colored 
fabrics, soak them in water, to each, gallon 
of which a spoonful of oxgall has been add¬ 
ed. A teacupful of lye in a pail of water is 
said to improve the color of black goods. A 
strong tea of common hay will improve the 
color ol’ French linens. Vinegar in the 
rf using water, for pink and grecu, will bright¬ 
en those colors ; and soda answers the same 
end for both purple and blue. 
To make silk which has been wrinkled 
appear like new, sponge on the surface with 
a weak solution of gum arabio or white glue, 
and iron on the wrong side. 
1 ho advantage iu tensile strength, when 
holes are dialled in steel rather than 
punched, is calculated to be 15-5 per cent. 
To test the quality of wool, take a lock 
from the sheep’s back and place it on a 
measured inch. If the spirals count from 30 
t.o 34 in the space of an inch, it equals 
the finest Electoral or Saxony wool grown, j 
The diminution of the number of folds to 
the inch shows the inferiority. 
An excellent bronze for small castings 
tnay be made by fusing together 95 parts of 
copper by weight and 30 parts of tin. 
Paraffin is the best material for protecting 
polished steel or iron from rust. 
Put hard sand instead of ashes on slippery 
sidewalks. 
The parings of a bushel of apples are said ! 
to yield a quart of cider.hy the aid of a hand 
press. 
A French meter is about fifty' times the 
diameter of a five cent piece. The same j 
coin weighs exactly five grammes. 
id ! A cracked bell which gives a jarring 
a sound may be improved by sawing or filing 
le the raptured edges so that they are not 
id brought together by the vibration of the 
;s blow. 
M Photographers who use largo quantities of 
r. nitrate of silver should allow all the excess 
'; of silver, acetic acid, and other matters 
n from the plates undergoing development to 
run into stone jars containing fragments of 
zinc. By that means the metallic silver may 
be collected; it should then be digested 
with dilute sulphuric acid, washed and dried 
, in au oven so that quite large saving may re- 
' r suit. 
( j j Lead !» parts, antimony 3 parts, and 
\ bismuth 1 part is an alloy which expands on 
rl cooling, and which will be found useful in 
; filliug small defects in iron casting, etc. 
t [ It is said that charcoal will fatten fowls 
f an(J at the same time give the meat improv 
r ed tenderness and flavor. Pulverize and 
f mix with the food. A turkey requires about 
a gill a day. 
. Lampblack and butter are used to prepare 
3 ribbons in hand stamps. 
, The following ia a convenient table for 
l sign painters, or others who have occasion to 
, m ‘ike lettering. Supposing the liight of the 
capital letters to be ten, the widths are as 
follows: B, F, P, ten : A, C, D, E, G, H, K, 
N, 0, Q, R, T, V, X and V, eleven ; I, 
five: J, eight: S and L, nine: M and W, 
. seventeen : Z ami &, twelve: Numerals ; 
, 1 er l uaj8 flv e : 2, 3, 5, 7, s, nine: 4, eleven : <)’ 
■*, ten. Lower case letters (Light six auda 
half) : Width : a, b, d, k, p, q, x and z, 
seven and a half : c, e, o, s, seven : f, i, j, l, 
t, three : g, li, n, u, eight: m, thirteen: r, v’ 
y, six : w, ten. 
Glycerino is an excellent coating for the 
interior of plaster molds, 
A strong solution of sulphate of magnesia 
gives a beautiful quality to whitewash. 
Glass can be drilled with a tool moistened 
with dilute sulphuric acid. This last 
is better than turpentine. 
To wash calico without fading, infuse 3 
gills of salt in 4 quarts of water. Put in the 
calico while the solution is hot, and leave 
until the latter is cold. It is said that in this 
way the colors are rendered permanent and 
will not fade by subsequent washing. 
Rancid butter, pork, and lard casks may 
be purified by burning straw or shuvingstiu 
them. 
White lead rubbed up with linseed oil to 
the consistence of paste is an excellent 
application for burns. 
Gelatin mixed with glycerin is liquid while 
hot, but an elastic solid when cold. Useful 
for hermetically sealing bottles. 
To clean cider barrels, pour iu lime water, 
aud then insert a trace chain through tile 
bung hole, remembering to fasten a strong 
cord on the chain sous to pull it out again. 
Shake the barrel until nil the mold inside is 
rubbed off. Rinse with water, and finally 1 
pour in.-i. little whisky. 
A piece of paraffin candle about the size of ' 
a nut, dissolved in lard oil at 140'’ Fah., the 
mixture applied once a month, will keep 1 
boots waterproof. 
Adding to the width of a belt and of the 
faces of the pulleys increases immensely the 1 
power of conveying force. A wide belt, 1 
is always better than a narrow one strained 1 
to its utmost capacity. c 
Black cement for bottle corks consists of 1 
pitch hardened by the addition of resin and ’ 
brickdust, * 
One ounce each of muriate of soda, cream ’ 
of tartar, and alum, boiled iu a gallon of 1 
water, gives plate a, beautiful whiteness. 
Dip the article iu the mixture, remove, aud 
rub dry. c 
Soap and water is the best material for 1 
cleaning jewelcry. s 
Awnings may be made waterproof by 
plunging first in a solution containing 20 per ^ 
cent soap, and afterwards in another solution ' 
containing the same percentage of copper. ^ 
Wash afterwards, 0 
A handful of quicklime, mixed in four j * 
ounces of linseed oil and boiled to a good I ^ 
thickness, makes, when spread on plates 
and hardened, a glue which can be used in ^ 
the ordinary way, but will resist fire. 
A good walnut stain for wood is composed | u 
of water, 1 quart; washing soda, Dg 
ounces; Vandyke brown, 2% ounces; ' 
bichromate of potash, }{ ounce. Boil for " 
ten minutes and apply with a brush, either r 
hot or cold. 
A piece of alum as hig as a hickory nub ' () 
will render clear a pail of muddy water. !’ 
Dissolve the alum, stir and allow the impuri- ! 
ties to settle. 11 
The length of the double whiffletre© and 
the neck yoke for a sleigh should be just ^ 
as long as the sleigh is wide from the center j 
of one runner to the other. u 
Jnformatiotr. 
HYGIENE OF THE SEWING MACHINE. 
is Rome weeks ago one of our contributors 
s condemned the sewing machine as harmful, 
o asserting it to be injurious to the health of 
4 operatives. Hud we noticed the somewhat 
y strongly-expressed but erroneous sentiment 
cl it would have boon omitted, modified, or 
ii commented ou at the time. However, per- 
s- haps it is well that it was published, inas¬ 
much as it, has called out tile advocates of 
1 the great labor-saving invention so pointedly 
ii condemned. For instance, Mrs. C. S. Noursic, 
ii in an article “ About Sewing,” (see Rural 
ot Jan. 80, page S3,) very aptly and truly 
u says:—“Rawing machines—Messed bo the 
man to whom the idea of freeing woman 
1 from her inexorable bondage to the needle 
t first occurred !—have really rendered it a 
I possible thing for those who have large fam- 
• ilies to accomplish all necessary sewing with 
j such dispatch as to leave a margin for books 
r society, and that rarest of all boons to 
) an American woman—vest.” 
' As to the hygiene of the sewing machine, 
■> | that question was considered some years 
, ago by Dr. A. FC, Gardner of New York, a 
, well-known practitioner, who has made fe¬ 
male diseases a specialty. He gave it as his 
: opinion, based upon many years’ study of 
sowing machines of all patterns, that the in¬ 
vention is the greatest boon of the nine¬ 
teenth century, especially to woman, and 
that without any appreciable drawback. 
Heavers Unit no injurious effects whatever 
aie caused by it beyond the exhaustion 
which is felt from this as from every over¬ 
work. “Finding,” he Bays, “no proof that 
physical disease originates from, or is even 
aggravated by, the use cf the sowing ma¬ 
chine, I am forced to believe that in the 
moderate use of Urn muscles of the lower 
limbs the analogy holds good in this as in 
every other form of labor, that use strength¬ 
ens tiio organs ; that while the use of half 
the body is not so conducive to health or to 
an equal development of the entire body, as 
if the whole frame were exercised, that, it is 
certainly better than no exercise at all, 
which falls to the lot of (he confined hand 
sewer.” Dr. Gardner reiterated these con¬ 
clusions in 1872. 
The above opinion is confirmed by other 
physicians who have given special attention 
to the subject. For example, Dr. Ohd, iu 
his report on the sanitary circumstances of 
dressmakers and needlewomen in London, 
describes several large workshops where 
machine work was done, and comes to the 
conclusion that, where the work is constant 
and regular, the influence of the sewing 
machine is, for the most part, beneficial to 
the workers, inasmuch as they can earn at 
least half as much again as needle-workers, 
whether payment ia made according to time 
or by the piece. 
The results of a series of observations 
made by l)r. Ekpagne, Professor at the 
Montpelier University, France, upon a por¬ 
tion of the inmates of a public institution in 
that city, numbering in all 14(5, were pub¬ 
lished in 1869. Although the substitution of 
an artificial motive power is strongly advo¬ 
cated by that writer, the opinion is expressed 
that the use of the machine wit h foot power 
itoea not exercise any general deleterious in¬ 
fluence ou the health of those operating it, 
apart from general fatigue and muscular 
pain from overwork. 
Dr. F. Decaihne, another prominent 
French physician, has made very careful and 
extensive inquiries upon the same subject, 
first among families of his acquaintance and 
subsequently amoug professional operatives, 
—occupying some two years in the investi¬ 
gation. The total number of women exam¬ 
ined was 661, varying in age from 16 to 28 
years, all accustomed to about the game kind 
of food and subject to similar hygienic con¬ 
ditions, except that while 380 worked in 
shops, 281 worked at home. All were care¬ 
fully questioned as to the effects of their 
work upon the muscular system, the digest¬ 
ive organs, the respiratory and circulating 
apparatus, the nervous system, and the sex¬ 
ual organs. Dr. E.’s general conclusions, for 
even a synopsis of which we have not space, 
were favorable to the use ,,t the machine,— 
ami that, in no case was it more injurious 
than hand sewing. His final conclusion in 
stated in this positive sentence “ The use j 
of the sewing machine, without overwork, 
is attended with no greater inconvenience to 
health than working with the needle.” 
Other European and American authorities 
confirm the abovo opinio:, . and conclusions, 
especially the Massachusetts State Board of 
Health, which reported 1 • ■ crably upon the 
use of the Sewing Machine in 1872. 
