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THE RURAL HEW- YORKER. 
JULY 7 
gomtstit (tconotn}). 
KNACK IN AKRANGING FLOWERS. 
A writer in 8t. Nicholas, probably having 
seen, as most of us have, the wonderful lack of 
taste generally exhibited in the arrangement of 
bouquots gives us the following useful hints on 
the subject: 
Many persons who are lucky enough to have 
flowers do not at all know how to arrange them 
so as to produce the best effect, while others 
seom born with a knack for doing such things in 
just the right way. Knack cannot bo taught, 
but there are a few rules aud principles on the 
subject so simple that oven a child can under¬ 
stand and follow them, and if you will keep 
them in mind when you have flowers to arrange, 
I think you will find them helpful. Just as 
flowers are the most beautiful decoration which 
any house can have, so the proper management 
of them is one of tbo gracofullcst of arts, aud 
everything which makes home prettier and rnoro 
attractive is worth study aud pains, so I will tell 
you what these rules arc in the hope that you 
will apply them, 
1st. The color of the vaBe to be used is of im¬ 
portance. Gaudy rods and blues should uover 
be chosen, for they conflict with the dchcato 
hues of the llowers. Bronze or black vases, 
dark green, pore white, or silver, always produce 
a gixxl effect and so does a straw basket while 
clear glass, which shows the graceful clasping of 
the stems, is perhaps prettiest of all. 
2d. Thu shape of the vase is also to bo thought 
of. For the middle of a dmnot-lablo, a round 
bowl is always appropriate, or a tall vaso with a 
saucer-shaped base. Or, if the center of the 
table is otherwise occupied, a large conch shell, 
or shell-shaped dish, may be swung from the 
chandelier above, aud with plenty of vinos and 
feathering green, made to look very pretty. 
Delicate flowers, such as lilies of the valley and 
sweet peas, should be placed by themselves hi 
slender tapering glasses; violets should nestle 
their fragrant purple in some tmy cup and pan- 
BieB bo sot in groups, with no gayer llow'crs to 
contradict their soft velvet hues ; and—this is a 
hint for summer—few things am prettier than 
balsam blossoms, or double variegated holly¬ 
hocks, massed on a Hat plate, with a fringe of 
green to hide tho edge. No leaves should be 
interspersed with these; tbo plate should look 
like a solid mosaic of splendid color. 
3d. Stiffness and crowding are the two things 
to be specially avoided in arranging llowers. 
What can bo uglier than tho great tasteless 
bunches iuto which the ordinary florist ties his 
wares, or what more extravagant? A skillful 
person will untie one of those, and, adding green 
loaves, make tho same flowers into half a dozen 
bouquets, each more effective than the original. 
Flowers should bo grouped as they grow, with a 
cloud ol light foliage m and about them to sot 
off their funns aud culei s. Don’t forget this. 
4. It is better, as a general rule, not to put 
more than ouo or two sorts of flowers into the 
same vase. A great bush with roses, aud 
camellias, and carnations, and rover-few, and 
geraniums growing on it all at once would be a 
frightful thing to behold; just so a monstrous 
bouquet made up of ail these flowers is meauiug- 
less and ugly. Certain dowers, such as helio¬ 
trope, mignonette, and myrtle, nnx well with 
everything; but usually it Is better to group 
dowers with their kind—roseB iu one glass, 
geraniums in another, aud not try to muko them 
agreo in companies. 
Oth. When you do mix dowers, bo careful not 
to put colow which clash side by side. Scarlets 
and pinks spoil each other; ho do hluos aud 
purples, aud yellows and luauvos. If your vaso 
or dish is a very large one, to hold a great num¬ 
ber of dowers, it is a good plan to divide it into 
thuds or quarters, making each division per¬ 
fectly harmonious within itself, ai.d then blend 
tho whole with linos of green and white, and boft 
neutral tint. Every group of mixed llowers re¬ 
quires one littlo loach ol yellow to make it vivid ; 
but this must be skUlfudy applied. It is good 
practice to experiment with this effect. For 
instauco, arrange a group of maroon, scarlet and 
white geraniums with green leaves, and add a 
single blossom of gold-oolored calceolaria, you 
will see at once that the whole bouquet seems to 
dash out aud become more brilliant. 
Lastly. Love your llowers. By some subtle 
sense the dear thiugs always detect their friends, 
and for them they will live longer - and bloom 
more freely than they ever will for a stranger. 
And I can tell you, girls, tho sympathy of a 
dower is worth winnnig, as you will dud out 
when you grow older, aud realize that there are 
suoh things as dud days which ueed cheering. 
ORIGINAL AND SELECTED RECIPES. 
Pea Fritters .—Cook a pint of green peas, and 
while hot mash them, seasoning with pepper 
salt, and butter; then make a batter of two 
well-beaten eggs, a cupful of milk, a quarter 
teaspoonful of baking-powder, and half a cup of 
dour. Stir the pea mixture into this, beating 
thoroughly, and cook as you would griddle- 
cakes. These fritters make a good breakfast 
dish. 
Bluffed Onioris. —Wash and skin very large 
onions; lay them in cold water an hour; then 
parboil in salted boiling water half an hour; 
drain, and while hot extract the hearts, taking 
care not to break the outer layers; chop the 
hearts very fine, with a little salt pork, or ba¬ 
con, bread-crumbs, popper, salt, mace, and wet 
with a Bpoonful of cream; bind with a well- 
boaten egg and work into a smooth paete ; stuff 
the onions with thiB; put into a dripping-pan 
with a littlo hot water, and bako until the onions 
are very tender, meantime basting often with 
molted butter. When done, take tho onions up 
carefully In a vegetable dish ; add to the gravy 
in tho dripping-pan the juice of half a lemon, 
four tahlospooufuls of milk, and a little browned 
flour made smooth in cold milk; boil up once 
and pour over the onions. Serve very hot. 
Gooseberry Trifle.- Scald the fruit, pulp it 
through a sieve, and add sugar to taste; make a 
thick layer of this at the bottom of a deep 
baking-dish ; mix a pint of milk, a pint of cream, 
two weli-boaton eggs, a table-spoonful of corn* 
starch, a cup of sugar; put this mixture over 
the fire and let it come to a boil* stirring con¬ 
stantly. When cold, lay it over tho gooseber¬ 
ries, with a spoon, and put on the whole a syl¬ 
labub. 
Syllabub. —One quart of rich milk, half a pint 
of wine, six ounces of loaf sugar ; put the sugar 
and wine in a bowl; have tbc milk lukewarm; 
put it in a pitcher ; when tho sugar is dissolved, 
pour tho milk in with the wine; hold tho 
pitcher sufficiently high to raise a froth on the 
milk as you pour it into tho bowl; grate nutmeg 
over tho top. 
Another.—One quart of sweet cream, tho 
whites of four eggs, one glass of white wine, 
two cups of powdered sugar ; any flavoring that 
is liked; whip half the sugar into the cream— 
tho rest with tho eggs; mix these, and add wine 
and flavoring at the last. 
Veal Gullets with Tomatoes. —Wash two cut¬ 
lets and wipe them dry; season them with pop¬ 
per and salt; have ready some hot curd and but¬ 
ter in a frying-fan; put the meat into it and fry 
to a nice brown on both sides ; when done, hike 
it ii]) on a dish; have stewed a quart of toma¬ 
toes, seasoned with pepper and salt; pour the 
tomatoes into tho pan with the gravy—after the 
cutlets have boon dished—and stir them well to¬ 
gether ; pour over tho cutlets, aud send to the 
table bot. 
Current Pudding, —Take ripe currants, aud 
having looked them over carefully, cover the 
bottom of a deep pudding-dish with slices of 
bread, slightly buttered, and with tho crust off; 
put a thick layer on tho bread, then a layer of 
sugar, ami then other layers of bread, currants 
and sugar, till the dish is full, finishing tho top 
with bread ; set it into the oven and bako half 
an hour. Serve either hot or cold. 
liaspbet'ry IhuMrng. —Fill a deep baking-dish 
with ripe raspberries, well mixed with sugar, to 
make them sufficiently sweet; beat six eggs as 
light as possible, and mix them with a pint of 
rich milk (cream is bottor) and four tablespoon¬ 
fuls of Bugar; pour this over the raspberries; 
set tbo dish iu a moderate oven, and bake the 
puddiug about half an hour. Serve very ooid. 
Currant Ice. -Pick a snflicieucy of ripe cur¬ 
rants from their stems; then squeeze tho cur¬ 
rants through a hag, and to each quart of juice 
allow a pound of loaf-sugar; mix them together, 
and when the sugar is dissolved, put it into a 
freezer and freeze the same as iee-croam. It 
will be found refreshing in bot weather. 
-♦♦ » 
USEFUL HINTS. 
To Destroy Vermin. —Croton bugs and rod 
ants can bo driven off by sprinkling tbo floor 
with pulverized borax, and leaving a placo for 
them to got out; to kill thorn, mix borax with 
sugar, so they will oat it. For ants or otlior ver¬ 
min, wash the. shelves with a strong solution of 
borax ; then sprinkle tho same with borax mixed 
with Bugar. When whitewashing your room, 
add a tablospoouful of pulverizod borax to each 
pailful of lime. 
Polish for Funtilure. — Equal proportions of 
turpentine, linseed oil and vinegar well rubbed 
in, and then polished with a piece of chamois 
skin, will work wonders with furniture that has 
become dingy from exposure to dust aud old age. 
Destroying Miles on Canaries. —Take some 
carbolic acid and put just enough water to make 
a liquid, and after cleaning your cage with hot 
water, put on tho carbolic acid with a paint brush, 
both on the inBide and outside of the cage; lot 
it dry in the sun, and it will be a sure cure, and 
no injury to the bud. 
Pickled Nasturtium. —Very small green nas¬ 
turtium seeds, picked as soon as the flower has 
fallen, and pickled, make a fine substitute for 
capers in white sauce for boiled mutton. 
To Remove (he Odor of Paint .—Sot a tub of 
cold water—if vory cold or having ice in it all 
the better—in rooms which are freshly painted, 
and it will absorb much of the disagreeable and 
unhealthful odor. Renew tho water daily. 
When possible, keep such rooms constantly open; 
if closely shut, even for a day or night, while 
the paint is drying, especially if the walls are 
papered, the odor seems to become fixed, and it is 
very difficult to got rid of it so that it will not he 
peroelvod for n long time after, whenever the 
rooms aro closed. Ico-cold water is an excellent 
absorbent of impure odors in sick rooms. 
Cleaning Copper .—Take a flannel cloth, dip it 
into a littlo lukewarm buttermilk iu which a tea¬ 
spoon of salt has been dissolved; rub a little 
spot on the kettle; then proceed to scour that 
spot with very fine ashes. After doing the whole 
thoroughly, wash all over in clear warm water ; 
then rub It all over again with fresh buttermilk 
and salt, after which wash again and wipe dry. 
Ijjjgtnur 
SLEEP. 
Sleep, Dr. W. A. Hammond says, may be de¬ 
fined as general repose. Almost all the organs 
rest during sleep. Tho heart, popularly sup¬ 
posed to be in perpetual motion, is at rest <J 
hours out of tho 24, tho respiratory organs 8, 
and the other organs more or less. The brain 
alone is constantly employed during wakefulness, 
and for it sloop was formed and made needful to 
its preservation. It is true that sleep doos not 
give the brain a total recess from labor; imagi¬ 
nation and memory are often vividly active dur¬ 
ing sleep, and unconscious cerebration likewise 
takes place, but enough rest Is obtained for the 
renovation of the brain, and that which has boon 
torn down during wakefulnesH is to a certain ex¬ 
tent robuilt. Sleep is a most wonderful power, 
often stronger than the will, as in the case of 
the sleeping soldier—and more mighty than 
pain, as when sick persons and tortured pris¬ 
oners sleep in the midst of their suffering. No 
torture, it is said, has been found equal to the 
prevention of sloop. Tho amount of sleep 
needed differs according to tho constitution and 
habits. Big brains and persons who perform 
much brain labor ueed a large amount of sleep. 
Children need more sleep than grown people be¬ 
cause construction is more active than decay in 
their brains. 
--♦ ♦ ♦ 
SPRING AILMENTS. 
Pekha.es some of our good country cousins, 
who on the habit of taking pills at night or a 
littlo tonic bitters in tho morning for the pur- 
poso of warding off spring fevers aud tho like, 
will not agree w T ith Dr. Hall, iu proposing for 
the same objects to “eat less.” Ho says, how¬ 
ever, wo do not mean that you will starve your¬ 
self, or that you shall deny yourself whatever 
you likobost, for, as a general rulo, what you like 
best is bcBt for you ; you need not abandon the 
usu of tea, coffee or moat, or anything else you 
like, but simply eat loss of thorn. Eat all you 
did iu w inter, if yon like, but take Iohb in amount. 
Do not starve yourself; do not reduce tbo quan¬ 
tity of food to an amount which would scarcely 
keep a chicken alive, but mako a beginning by 
not going to the table at all unless you feel hun¬ 
gry ; for if yon once gut there you will begin to 
taste this and that and the other, by virtuo of 
vinegar or mustard, or syrup, or cake, or some¬ 
thing nice; thus a fictitious appetite is waked 
up, and before you know it you have eaten a 
hearty meal, to your own surprise, and perhaps 
that, or something else, of those at table with 
you. 
The second step toward tho effectual preven¬ 
tion of all spring diseases, Buuuner complaints, 
aud the like, is—diminish tho amount of food 
consumed at each meal by one-fourth of each 
article ; and to be practical it is necessary to bo 
specific; if you have taken two cupB of coffee, 
or tea, at a inoal, tako a cup aud a half ; if you 
have taken two biscuits, or sliceB of bread, take 
one and a half; if you have taken two spoonfuls 
of rice, or hominy, or cracked wheat, or grits, or 
fariua, tuko one and a half; if you have taken a 
certain or uncertain quantity of meat, diminish 
it by one quarter, aud keep on diminishing in 
proportion as the weather becomes warmer, un¬ 
til you arrive at the points of safety and health, 
and they are two:—1. Until you have no un¬ 
pleasant feeling of any kind aftor your meals. 
2. Until you have not eaten so much at one meal 
but that when tho next comes, you shall feel de¬ 
cidedly hungry. 
Supplies being thuB effectually cut off—that is 
the cause being first removed—Nature next pro¬ 
ceeds to work off the Burplus, as the engineer 
does unwanted steam ; and as soon as this sur¬ 
plus is got rid of we begin to improve; the ap¬ 
petite, the strength, the health, return by slow 
and safe degrees, and we at length declare we 
are as well as ever. 
-- 
MAKING HAIR GROW. 
If tho head be perfectly bald, nothing will 
ever cause the hair to grow again. If the scalp 
bo glossy, and no small hairs are discernible, the 
roots or follicles aro dead; and you might as 
well cause an arm which has been amputated to 
grow again. However, if small hairs aro to be 
seen, there is hope. Use tbo following overy 
day, brash well, and bathe the bald spot three 
or four times a week with cold soft water:—Car¬ 
bonate of ammonia, one drachm; tincture of 
cantharides, four drachms ; bay rum, four ozs.; 
castor oil, two ozs. Some elderly people often 
desire to keep their hair from turning gray. The 
following dye will effect this:—Take the hulls of 
butternuts, say about four ounces, and infuse in 
a quart of water. Then add half an ounce of 
copperas. Apply with a soft brash every second 
or third day. This preparation is harmless, and 
I have reasons for believing so, has never been 
published. It is far bettor than those dyes made 
of nitrate of silver.— Cor. Tribune. 
-» ■ — — ■— 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Toothache Drops. —Oac ounce of alcohol, tw o 
drachms of cayenne, one ounce of kerosene oil; 
let it stand twenty-four hours after mixing. It 
cures tho worst case of toothacho. 
'To llemove Dandruff. —This is a natural secre¬ 
tion, but becomes a cutaneous complaint by neg¬ 
lect. Take an ounce of powdered borax, a piece 
of unslackod limo the size of a chostnut and a 
tablespoonful of spirits of ammonia; put them 
into a quart bottlo and fill it up with boiled or 
pump water. After twelve hours, apply this 
wash to the scalp. Ladies can apply it host with 
a flno sponge, ltinso with tepid water. Aftor a 
few applications the Beales will disappear, tho 
hair bocomoB soft and brilliant, aud young iiair 
will bo seen to start out. Dandruff should be 
cured gradually, so as not to produce Biclt head¬ 
ache or dizziness by its sudden suppression. 
Face Pimples. — Eschew very salt, rich or 
greasy food, and take a dose of magnesia occa¬ 
sionally. Also wash the face occasionally with 
diluted oologuo water. 
A single drop of tho susquiodido chloride of 
iron, put on a corn between tho toes, onco a day, 
with a camel’s hair brush, will effect a certain 
cure. 
Precautions in Scarlet Fever. —Tho funerals 
ol those who die of infectious diseases should 
bo strictly private. Disinfect the clothes, bed¬ 
ding and room by sprinkling them with a solu¬ 
tion of commercial carbolic acid, two parts to 
ono hundred parts of water, or other disinfect¬ 
ants may be used in a similar way. Let the door 
be closed for several days. Sulphur may be burn¬ 
ed iu the room sufficiently to fill it with sulphur 
four times a day. Continue this for four or moro 
days. Then strip off the paper, scrape the walls 
and ceiling, and whitewash them. Scrub tho 
woodwork with strong suds and a solution of 
carbolic acid. 
fdromii) Kjf |Upl)lic. 
CROPS ABOUT HUMBOLDT, TENN. 
For tho past week we bavo had heavy rains, 
real “ ground soakers," which wo were beginning 
to need, after several weeks of dry weather. 
Crop prospects are now good, provided we have 
dry weather for cultivating, during tho remain¬ 
der of tho month. Last week tho wheat liar- 
vest engaged our fanners, and there was consid¬ 
erably over an average crop for Wostern Ten¬ 
nessee. Cotton now looks well, so does tho 
Tobacco crop. Oats are also good; Clover and 
all the grapes we cultivate, line. Early apples 
are now ripening, also peaches in a few forward 
localities where they have a tolerable crop only. 
An article clipped from the Orange Journal, at 
Gladsdeu, a station on the N. O. and Memphis 
It. It., only five mileB from here, will show what 
was done hereabouts this season with strawber¬ 
ries grown on laud that would scarcely make 300 
lbs. of seed cottou to the acre. The writer says : 
“Tho closing shipment of berries was mado 
yesterday. Berries have been gathered from 
about 275 acres of laud, and about 9,525 cases, 
containing 24 quarts each, have been shipped. 
They Bold at an average of about $4 per case, 
which amounts to $38,100 gross. Deducting $2 
per case expense, aud wo have $19,050 net pro¬ 
ceeds in the hands of tho grower. 
“ The $2 expense includes box, material, pick¬ 
ing, freight, and commission oa sales. Of these 
expenses. $5,715 was for pickiug, which is left 
in the hands of the men, women, and children, 
who did the work, to circulate among us, paying 
debts, buying provisions, and doing general 
good. The crop, as gathered this season, show 
