tJ 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
nov. a? 
ECONOMY IN THE HOUSEHOLD. 
HOW MRS. M’GOOCHEN DID HER WORK. 
The Brunswick (Mo.) Brunswicker is re¬ 
sponsible for the. subjoined contribution to 
domestic literature : 
One morning, about two weeks ago, Mrs. 
McGoochen beamed balmy across the break¬ 
fast table on her husband, and informed him 
that she had concluded to discharge the hired 
girl and do her own work. This announce¬ 
ment startled Mr. McGoochen almost as 
much as if she had declared her determina¬ 
tion to commit suicide. He had long known 
that hired help was a heavy drain upon his 
meager salary, but his w ife had educated 
him to regard it as indispensable, and he had 
made up his mind to endure it forever. That 
she should voluntarily offer to dispense with 
the service of a girl was something for which 
he was not prepared. Looking at her with 
an expression in which hope and doubt pain¬ 
fully mingled, he said : 
“ You—why—you can’t do it Eliza.” 
• •‘Can’t do it, indeed ! I’d like to know 
what’s the reason i Lots of women in this 
town do a great deal more, and think noth¬ 
ing of it. Our family’s small—just you and 
me and Henry Ward ; and if I can’t do the 
work for us three, I’d better go to a hospital 
and be done with it.” 
“ What, put you into the notion f” asked 
her husband, hardly yet recovered from his 
surprise. 
'• Well, Peter,” she replied, speaking in a 
tender, self-reproving tone, “i’ll tell you. 
I’ve been tliinkly lately how hard you have 
to work, and liow little I have done to assist 
you, in comparison with what 1 might and 
ought to do, and it appears to me that I 
should try to reduce our expenses as much 
as possible, and the best way I know of is to 
do my own housework. We are poor, just 
making a beginning in life, and it is my duly 
to help you.” 
With a voice almost choked with emotion 
at this unexpected evidence of his wife’s de¬ 
votion and energy, he feebly essayed to 
break her resolution, saying that he didn’t 
want her to be a slave to him, that she was 
too delicate for the task she contemplated, 
that all he asked of her was continued love 
and sympathy. 
“ Oh, that’s all romance,” interrupted Mrs. 
McGoochen. “ It’s high time my love and 
sympathy was assuming a practical form. 
I’ll discharge the girl this very day. But 
their is ane condition, Peter.” 
“ Name it, my noble wife.” 
“That new carpet you thought we were 
unable to get. Now, if I do my own work it 
will save at least a hundred dollars a year, 
and you can certainly afford the carpet.” 
“Of course my love, if you are satisfied 
you are not undertaking more than you can 
perform.” 
She was satisfied, and as it was settled. 
Mack lugged the carpet home at noon, and 
found the girl gone. His wife was gone, too, 
but she returned shortly, having only been 
around telling the neighbors that she was 
now doing her own work. Dinner was late, 
but then it was the first meal by her fair fin¬ 
gers, and he could make allowance for the 
novelty of the position in which she found 
herself placed. 
Acting on her suggestion, Mack brought 
home a new rocking chair when he came to 
supper. They were saving a hundred dol¬ 
lars a year, and could well afford such little 
things. When his wife returned from her 
visit to the rest of the neighbors, whom she 
had been informing that she was now doing 
her own work, alio was delighted with the 
new chair, and declared that they must have 
a full set of furniture to match it. “ You 
know, Peter, that l will more than save the 
cost of it in the course of a year, and I will 
feel so proud to know that rny labor secured 
it.” This was said so beseechingly, aud she 
hung so lovingly on his neck the w hile, that 
Mack couldn’t resist the appeal. The furni¬ 
ture was sent down the next day. 
About three dny3 after Mrs. McGoochen 
coaxed Peter Into buying her a silk dress, 
and t he next day she wheedled him out of a 
set of jewelry. It was the same old plea— 
she was lightening the expenses so much by 
doing her own work that she felt that she 
was entitled to something extra. It would 
amount to no more, she reasoned, than the 
hire of a girl, and Peter could well afford to 
give it to her. 
Mack began to get uneasy. Was there 
after all, any saving in doing without a hired 
girl ? Wouldn’t that sort of economy bank¬ 
rupt him in less than a year ? He got a 
piece of paper and figured : 
Expenses one week without help: 
Carpet. $20 00 
Furniture. 60 00 
Dress and Jewelry. 80 00 
Total.$160 00 
Cost of help one week ... .. 2 00 
Balance In favor of a domestic.$148 00 
McGoochen was astonished. Grasping the 
paper and his hat he made rapid strides for 
home. Opening the door the first objeel 
that met his frenzied gaze was the hired 
girl. 
-- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Baked Squash. —Take squash, cut in two ; 
clean inside ; put into the oven flesh side up, 
an hour before dinner. Serve hot, with 
butter, pepper and salt. Squashes not. quite 
ripe are also good thus baked. 
Ginger Snaps.— One pint of molasses, one 
cup of butter or lard, one tablespoonful of 
ginger and cloves each, one tablespoonful of 
cayenne pepper ; Hour enough to roll out. 
very thin. Bake on flat tins. 
Quick-Baked Butler Pudding.—One pint 
of milk, four tablespoonfuls of flour, or 
better, two of flour and two of corn starch, 
two eggs, juice of a lemon. Bake on a tin 
plate, in a hot oven, twenty minutes. 
Wedding Pudding.— One cup of molasses, 
one cup of chopped raisins, one cup of milk, 
one-half cup of butter, one teaspoonful of 
soda, one desert spoonful of mixed spices, 
one egg, four cups of flour. Bteam three 
hours. 
Indian Pudding. —Boil a quart of milk 
and stir in four tablespoonfuls of Indian 
meal and four of grated bread or crackers, 
three tablespoonfuls of sugar, four eggs, a 
piece of butter as large as a walnut, and a 
little salt. Bake it three hours. 
Squash Pie. —Take Hubbard squash ; 
treat in all respects as for pumpkin pies ; cut, 
stew, mash—add milk, eggs, sugar and spice 
to taste. Bake nicely. They arc much 
superior to pumpkin pies. These pies can be 
made very wholesome to dyspeptics by the 
e,rust being made of Indian meal, thus: 
Butter the pie dish nicely, and sprinkle over 
it evenly the meal, say of an inch thick. 
Will cut out nicely if just right. 
Cream Muffins. —On© quart of rich milk, 
or if you can get it, half cream aud half milk ; 
one quart of flour, six eggs, one tablespoon¬ 
ful of butter, one of lard, softened together. 
Beat whites and yelks, separately, very 
light; then add flour and shortening and a 
scant teaspoonful of salt, and stir in the 
flour the last thing, lightly as possible, and 
have the batter free from lumps. Half fill 
your well buttered muffin ring?, and bake 
immediately in a hut oven, or your muffins 
will not be good. Send to the table the 
momeut they are done. 
12UW Jnfiormation. 
THE SICK ROOM. 
BY MRS. ANNIE ST. CLAIR. 
HOW TO ADMINISTER A CROUP BATH. 
The method of administering this bath 
has been thoroughly tested by practical ex¬ 
periment, and the following directions should 
be exactly followed if the effect desired is to 
be realized : 
Take the child upon the lap, pin a large 
bed blanket around the neck, suffering it to 
fall closely over the whole body of the child 
and the person holding it, who can complete¬ 
ly undress it without suffering the air to 
reach the skin. Instead of a bathing or 
common tub, fill, while the child is being 
undressed—for time is of the greatest im¬ 
portance—an ordinary wash-boiler with 
water heated as warm as one can bear the 
hand in. Slip the child from the knees into 
the boiler, allowing the blanket to fall all 
oyer the vessel, not unfastening it from the 
neck. Let the water come quite over the 
shoulders and up around the throat. 
Time the bath by the effect. If relaxation 
of the stricture takes place at once, continue 
not a moment longer. If relief is not ex¬ 
perienced, and the child is moderately strong, 
it may be continued as long as ten minutes. 
Lift the child gently to the lap, suffering the 
blanket to fall closely around its person, and 
draw as near the lire as may be ; and with 
a soft cloth, heated, rub the skin dry and 
keep the child closely wrapped in the blan¬ 
ket, without dressing, for some time, as a 
sudden return of the paroxysm may necessi¬ 
tate a repetition at any moment. 
The same method may be used in any ease 
of violent cold, cramps, or wherever great 
care is needed to prevent the access of cold 
air. 
-♦♦♦- 
HOW TO SAVE YOUR EYES. 
When will those working by lamp light, 
have the sense to understand the use of 
shades to protect the eyes / We see persons 
sitting holding their sewing or other work 
before and near to a lamp, while the light is 
blazing full into their eyes. It is plain that 
the object that they work upon cannot be 
seen with so great, distinctness while the 
field of their retina Is already occupied by a 
blaze. But they work on for hours, and 
though the next morning their visual organs 
tell of the abuse by redness and inflamma¬ 
tion, the workers are too dull to learn the 
lesson of experience offered them. Circular 
paper shades can be obtained fora few cents, 
and those not only protect the. eyes from the 
excess of light, hut serve as a reflector 
behind the blaze, increasing the illumination 
one-half. Besides the above-mentioned evil, 
there is that of the varying quantity of 
light thrown into the eye by its being sud¬ 
denly and alternately directed toward the 
blaze or obliquely away from it, by which 
the pupil has not time to adapt itself to the 
increase of glare ; whereas, with the use of 
the shade, the illumination would be uni¬ 
form. The number of persons in the corn 
munity having spots light or dark, in their 
field of vision, arising from injury to the 
retina by the ill usages which we are men¬ 
tioning, is greater than is commonly im¬ 
agined. It must he borne in mind that these 
spots are a serious step toward amaurosis 
and gutta serona, such as plunged in darkness 
the latter years of the great Milton, and 
many others more eminent for their talents 
than their caution. 
PERMANENT CURE FOR CANCER. 
Mrs. M. A. V., gives in the Country 
Gentleman, this process for curing cancer : 
A sticking plaster is put over the cancer, 
with a circular piece cut out of the center a 
little larger than the cancer, and a small 
circular rim of healthy skin next to it is ex¬ 
posed. Then a plaster, made of chloride of 
zinc, blood root, aud wheat flour, is spread 
on a piece of muslin of the size of the circu¬ 
lar opening, and is applied to the cancer for 
twenty-four bourn. On removing it the 
cancer will be found ns though burned into 
it, appearing of the color aud hardness of an 
old shoe, and the circular rim outside of it 
will appear white and parboiled as if scalded 
by hot steam. The wound is now dressed, 
and the outside rim soon suppurates, and 
the cancer comes ont a hard lump, and the 
placo heals up. 
The plaster kills the caucer, so that it 
sloughs out like dead flesh, and never grows 
again. The application is painful, but the 
pain is of comparatively brief duration, 
which uny one so affected cheerfully en¬ 
dures. Not a case has been known of the 
reappearance of the cancer where this 
remedy has been applied. This cure for 
cancer was published in I860. Perhaps 
there are many who can tell more about it. 
REMEDY FOR WOUNDS. 
Every person should know how to treat 
a flesh wound. Every one is liable to be 
placed in circumstances away from surgical 
and veterinary aid, where he may save his 
own life, the life of a friend or a beast, 
simply by the exercise of a little common 
sense. Lu the first place, close the lips of 
the wound within the hands and hold them 
firmly together to check the flow of blood 
until several stitches can be taken and a 
bandage applied. Then bathe the wound 
for a long time in cold water. Should it be 
painful, take a panfnl of burning coals and 
sprinkle upon them common brown sugar 
and hold the wounded part in the smoke. 
In a minute or two the pain will be allayed, 
and the recovery proceeds rapidly. In my 
case a rusty nail had made a bad wound in 
my foot. The pain and nervous irritation 
were severe. This was all removed by hold¬ 
ing it in smoke fifteen minutes, and I was 
able to resume my reading in comfort. 1 
have often recommended it to others, with 
like result. 
--<*-*♦- 
Cold Ffet at Night are thus deprecated 
by the Science of Health :—“ Never go to 
bed with cold feet. Never try to sleep with¬ 
out being perfectly certain that you will be 
able to keep them warm. To lie one night 
with cold feet gives such a strain to the sys¬ 
tem as will be felt seriously, perhaps ending 
in a fit sickness.” 
Stiff J£u)htq-|§^[d. 
SALTPETER IN THE HOG-PEN. 
1 brksumk that many are not aware of the 
presence of saltpeter in their hog-pens, or its 
effect on the health and life of their hogs. It 
is a deadly poUiou to swine, and a hog that 
has once got a taste of it will dig for and eat 
it until it kills hirn, and that will not be long, 
either, if lie is left in a pen whero he can get 
at it. I have seen hogs refuse to eat coin 
aud root for the nitre. Add to this tho fact 
that most farmers keep their hogs in their 
barn cellars, which are perfect nitre-beds 
—that is, they contain ull tho conditions for 
the formation of nitre of potash or saltpeter 
—a valuable fertilizer, but dangerous food 
for pigs. 
The ammonia, and especially the liquid 
portion from horses and hogs, contains nitro¬ 
gen, which, in warm weather, rapidly de¬ 
composes and turns to ammonia, which 
unites with the oxygen of the air and forms 
nitric acid. All soil contains more or less 
potash, and this uilric acid, leaching into tho 
soil in the bottom of the pen, or the dirt that 
has been carted in, unites with the potash 
and forms nitrate of potash. There is no 
danger of their getting it as long as the pen 
is wet, hut when It becomes dry, the salt¬ 
peter will crystallize in the dirt, and if the 
pigs get at it there will be sudden and mys¬ 
terious death in the pen, and tho owner will 
wonder what ailed his pigs, they weighing 
well, and the next he knew they wore dead. 
How shall we avoid the danger ? First, by 
never putting pigs in an old pen after the 
manure is got out, until the bottom is well 
covered with fresh dirt; thou koep it well 
covered with loam in dry as well as wet 
weather, remembering that it is in dry dirt 
only that it can crystallize, and while it is 
wet they cannot get at it.—IV. E. Partner. 
-*-*“*- 
REMEDY FOR THE HOG CHOLERA. 
A WIUTF.R in the Southern Cultivator 
relates the following experience which will 
be interesting to our readers : 
Last year J lost nearly all my hogs with 
hog cholera. My neighbor lost none scarce¬ 
ly, which led me to believe that he must 
possess a sovereign remedy for this evil. I 
asked him why he lost no hogs. His reply 
was that “ he kept them clear of worms and 
stimulated will) black pepper. Said be, “I 
first fed them on corn soaked in lye and 
OOpperas, to clear them of worms ; after¬ 
wards gave them plenty of black pepper. 
Those t hat were sick got well, and those that 
were well remained so, of course." 
This year 1 have given my hogs an occasion¬ 
al dose, twice a week, of kerosene oil, said to 
be n preventive of cholera. Several of my 
neighbors lost nearly all their hogs, and six 
weeks ago mine showed signB of disease, and 
I concluded to try the “lye and pepper.” I 
prepared it as follows :—First, shell an ear of 
corn and soak in strong lye all night ; next 
morning add a half a toaspoonful of pul¬ 
verized copperas—mix and feed in a trough. 
This was repeated on the following morning, 
and a half teaspoonful of black pepper was 
added. After this I put a teaspoonful of 
pulverized pepper in the food, boiled grits, 
every other morning for a week. 
Result—My hogs stopped dying, all that 
ate got well, and are as thrifty now as I 
could wish, The above, is tho dose for a 
single hog. It is simple and reliable ; as a 
preventive it can’t be beat, and 1 have seen 
hogs sick, very sick, too, restored to good 
health by the use of this remedy, 
■ ■ •» ♦ » 
PIG-PEN PAPERS. 
Pneumonia in a Pig .—Give according to 
ftize, a half to two drachms of saltpeter, and 
one to three ounces of Glauber’s salt. After 
six hours, and then thrice daily, one powder 
of the following composition should bo 
thrown on the tongue, viz Tartar emetic, 
twelve grains; powdered opium, twelve 
grains; saltpeter, one ounce and a half ; mix, 
and divide into eight powders. Clysters are 
valuable. When the inflammatory symp¬ 
toms have abated, half drachm doses of sal- 
ammoniac thrice daily for several days, are 
very beneficial. Warm stable; plenty of 
dry litter ; access to fresh water ; light diet ; 
gruel, sour milk, fruit, linseed tea, &e., &c. 
Fattening of Hags —This is the time of the 
year when so rnuny thousands of swine are 
fattened. Hundreds of thousuuds will be fed 
with corn on the aides ox banks where 
streams of water run at the foot and hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollar’s worth of ma¬ 
nure will he washed away during every 
heavy shower of rain, lu England where the 
soil is kept in the highest state of fertility, 
any farmer allowing his manure to be wasted 
in this wav would be placed in a lunatic 
asylum,— Working Farmer. 
