127 
FEB. 21 
THE 
HEW-¥©RKER. 
partson the “Medici” looks uncompromisingly 
stiff. 
Manufactured seta in lace goods are small, many 
of them barely covering the upper portion of the 
shoulders and only reaching a few Inches down 
the front. Very few are made exclusively of lace 
and insertion, most have intermingilnga of silk 
and mull or snow-flake, or some similar material. 
Fichus and capes are shown In a great variety 
of styles and combinations, the most striking ones 
being in black. Chenille, Jet, French and Chantilly 
laces are usual garnitures, and they are disposed 
lu every way which the taste and ingenuity of the 
designer can devise. 
It is whispered In the privacy of the boudoir 
that these capes and fichus, both In white and 
black, not only finish a toilet most charmingly, but 
that they have the additional merit of being very 
useful on occasion. For example, a black silk 
dress which has a worn appearance across the 
back, over the bust and at the elbows, can, by 
means of one of these capes, a pair of scissors and a 
lew yards of lace, be made to put on an appearance 
of extreme juvenility. Ihe scissors are apphed to 
the sleeves at the elbows (or thereabouts), and the 
result of the surgical operation Is completely hid¬ 
den under a mass of tastefully arranged rows of 
lace. 
This Is, however, strictly mb-rosa. For should 
it ever become generally known, every lady who 
appeared with one of these “studies” In lace and 
jet, would be suspected of wearing it to cover a 
greater or less muhinide of “shiny" and worn 
sins on part of her dress; which would, of course, 
he a cruel libel in most oases, perhaps. 
Messrs. Lord & Taylor of Broadway and Twen¬ 
tieth Street, who kindly supplied Information de¬ 
tailed above, have a fine line of lace goods in 
stock. Faith Kifley. 
- *■*■» - 
COFFEE HOUSES AS A SUBSTITUTE. 
A movement well deserving of public notice has 
been inaugurated In the border town of Annan. 
A noble lady the (the Marchioness of Queens- 
berry), out-distancing the well Intentloned efforts 
of Good Templars and teetotalers, has taken a short 
cut to the reform of our national vice- which has 
always, even to put It mildly, been an ultra-fash¬ 
ionable one In Annan—by opening a coffee palace 
that, in attractiveness and comfort and cheapness, 
can more than bear comparison with the old 
places or resort it is intended to rival and sup¬ 
plant. 
So far it has succeeded beyond expectation 
—perhaps not financially, though of that her lady¬ 
ship takes small account, but-ln the list of young 
men who have joined as members of tlie reading 
and recreation rooms, to which t he upper story 
has been devoted and the numbers who resort 
to the eleguntly fitted up bar, on the ground floor, 
for a cup of tea, cocoa, or coffee, all at the mod¬ 
erate sum of Id., or to Indulge In a regular feed 
for something less than Od. For the more am¬ 
bitious. a private room adjoins the public one* 
where lor a trilling gratuity to the civil attentive 
keepers of the place-old retainers of the Kin- 
mouth family-a comfortable lunch will be set 
out on a neatly-covered table at the same cheap 
rate as is charged in the bar. 
A framed tariff, in good large type, hangs con¬ 
spicuously over the chimney-piece, so that those 
of limited meaus can calculate their expenses t.o 
a nicety before ordering what they want. 
Surely this is the royal road to the reformation 
so earnestly desired and so greatly needed. That 
many resort to the public houses for the sake oi 
the convivial enjoyment to ho found there, too 
often to escape from a comfortless, unhappy home 
and not from the mere love of drink, only the 
pessimist will bo prepared to deny. And If an 
equally, or perhaps more attractive place of re¬ 
sort Is Offered them, where the company Is as 
good or better, where no half-lnebrlated fool 
plays the Jester tor the amusement ot his fellows, 
only a stage less maudlin than himself—where 
no fumes of stale drink make the atmosphere al¬ 
most unbearable, and where uothlDg that can 
hurt either mind or body tempts the weak or un¬ 
wary— then those' who know anything of a move¬ 
ment like the present, und watch with sanguine 
expectation tor a visible return, m the best of all 
currency, to the twice noble lady who has Initiated 
and carries on at her own risk this attempt to do 
battle with the country’s curse. a. l. o. s. 
WOOLENS. 
What warmth and comfort In the very pronun¬ 
ciation! I have just repaired some flannels and 
for wristbands took the tops ot a pair of old socks, 
stretched them on the press-board, which tapers, 
drew the sleeve over It till the turned-lu edge just 
overlapped the raveled edge of the sock-rib; I 
felled the sleeve to it, nicely drew it off, turned it 
and sewed down the sock edge. This makes an 
elastic hand which yields to the motions ot tbo 
body. It would be better, of course, to have knit 
flannels entire, but they are very expensive, a 
double set costing and lasting only two winters. 
Good tlanuel ono yard wide may be bought for so 
cents per yard, and 10 yards will make two sets tit 
economically cut) of shirts and drawers, Shrink 
the flannel, out to lit closely and finish the tt'nsl 
and anklco with a knit, rib, put on as directed 
above. They will last three winters. 
Now that striped stockings are so fashionable, 
all the odd bits of bright, colored yarn may go to 
make up a pair of hose lor a child, stripe accord¬ 
ing to quantities of each color. Use white for the 
top, heel and toe, gray, black or drab Tor the 
ground, make a brood stripe just above the shoe 
top grading Into narrow stripes on each side, of 
bright red or blue with a mlugllng of green or 
orange. 
Sock ribs lose their elasticity with age, and be¬ 
come discolored by bad wasnlng. Wind these 
Into a ball f ir darning the feet of old socks and 
save your pretty white yarn for knitting fleecy 
new ones. Knitting is play and may be done 
while warming your feet, at twilight or during the 
reading hours of lODg winter evenings when too 
tired to do anything, but knit; and listen to the 
reading of a charming story. m. n. s. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ CORNER. 
What history of the i nlted States can I get 
which would be suitable for a school district 
library ? I would like one recently written, and 
coming down as nearly as possible to the present 
time. F. d, c» 
Ans.— Barnes's Brief History of the United States, 
Published by a. L. Barnes & Co., 113 and 115 Wil¬ 
liam st„ N. Y. City. Price ft.so. Rldpath's is 
also good; it Is more detailed. Price S3. Both may 
be obtained fvom the American News Co. 
What will remove grease, &c., from woolen and 
other goods? t. b. a. 
Ans.—U se “Household Ammonia;” ask your 
grocer for It. 
Will some of the “ Rural” ladles give recipe for 
bandoline. ‘ j. c. q. 
Ans.—T he simplest Is soap and water. This Is 
not always efllclent. Here Is a venerable and fam¬ 
iliar one: Take bruised quince seeds, a table-spoon¬ 
ful ; clear rain-water a pint. Boll gently to three- 
quarters of a pint, then strain through muslin, and 
add alcohol or brandy, and Cologne water, of each 
two tablespoonluls. 
can you tell me the name of the publishers and 
the price of the book, ■■ Twenty-five cent dinners 
for a family of six,” and “FLfteen cent dinners for 
a family of six” ? What do you consider the best 
work on Elementary Entomology. Who is pub¬ 
lisher and what is the price? Correspondents. 
Ans.—W e refer you to the American News Co., 
where Information can be obtained and books pro¬ 
cured. In reply to the second question we would 
recommend “Packer's Guide to the study of 
Insects.” This may also be purchased of the 
American News Co, 
— —* — 
The doctors say that sealskin Is unhealthy. 
Bless them! Now. if they can be induced to say 
the same of six-button kids, point lace, and a few 
such trifles, coming generations of married men 
will rise up and call them blessed.—Boston Tran¬ 
script. 
Domestic (tfonomji. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
SANITARY ADVICE IN VERSE. 
If the Editors will permit, my fourth and last arti¬ 
cle will consist of a poem, copied from an old news¬ 
paper, which sums up the whole in a few lines, and in 
better words than T can command. 
Mary Beal M’Louth. 
There’s a skin without and a skin within, 
A oovering skin and a lining skin ; 
But the skin within is the skiu without, 
Doubled inwards and carried completely throughout. 
The palate, the nostrils, the windpipe, and throat. 
Are all of them lined with this inner coat. 
Which through every part is made to extend 
Lungs, liver and bowels, from end to end. 
The outside skin is a marvelous plan 
For exuding the dregs of the flesh of man. 
While the inner extracts from the food and the air 
What is needed the waste in his flesh to repair. 
While it goes well with the outside skiu, 
You may fed pretty sure all’s right within, 
For if anything puts the inner skin out 
Of order, it troubles the skin without. 
The doctor, you know, examines your tongue 
To see if your stomach or bowels are wrong; 
If he feels that your hand is hot and dry 
rie is able to toll you tho reason why. 
Too much brandy, whisky or gin 
Is apt to disorder the sltin within; 
While if dirty, or dry, the skin without 
Refuses to let the sweat come out. 
Good people all! have a care of your skin. 
Both that without und that within; 
To the first you’ll give plenty of water and soap. 
To the last little beside water, we'll hope. 
But always be very particular where 
You get your water, your food, and your air, 
For if these be tainted, or rendered impure. 
It will have its effeot on your blood, be sure. 
The food which will ever for you be the best 
Is that you like most, and ean soon digest, 
All unripe fruit and decaying flesh 
Beware of, and flsh that is not very fresh. 
Your water, transparent and pure as you think it. 
Had better be filtered and boiled ere you drink it; 
Unless you know surely that nothing unsouud 
Can have got to U over or uuder the ground. 
But of all things tho most I would have you beware 
Of breathing the poison of once breathed nir; 
When m lied, whether out or at homo you may be. 
Always open your window ami let it go free. 
With clothing and exercise keep yourself warm, 
And change your clothes cpnekly if drenched in a 
storm: 
For a cold caught by chilling tho outside skin 
Flies at once to the delicate lining within. 
All you who thus kindly take care of your skin. 
And attend to its wauls without and within, 
Need never of cholera feel any fears, 
And your skin may last you a huudred years.” 
-* ♦ • 
A CHAPTER ON CARPETS, 
MAUV F. mVlOUII. 
In the purchase of a carpet, like anything 
else sustaining muck wear, the hest of its kind 
is always the cheapest. In the various Brus¬ 
sels and velvets the back should be firm and 
the pile close and thick. For three-plies, in¬ 
grains, etc., the entire weave should be close, 
with no loosely-drawn threads on top, as is 
often the case in large figures. Ail raised fig¬ 
ures wear off first, and extremely brilliant 
colors show fade and soil quicker than subdued 
colors or neutral tints. Now that we have 
patent exhibitors that seem to display a thou¬ 
sand yards at once, no one need remain in 
douot one minute as to bow a pattern will look 
when on the floor. It is always best to know 
the exact size of the room to be fitted, and 
have tho figures matched where, purchased. 
Be certain it lies smooth and eveu on the 
floor, as ever so small a bulk will soon show 
wear. AhvayB place something under to les¬ 
sen the friction, particularly under stair car¬ 
pets. Paper will answer if uothing better is at 
hand, but for rooms and halls straw is much 
superior, as the dust passes through it. and lies 
on the floor. With velvets, Brussels, etc., 
make it a rule to sweep but little. Pick every¬ 
thin g off that eau be gathered in that way, and 
use dust-pan and brush, brushing the dust 
right into the pan. and never sweeping It the 
length of the room as is common with other 
carpets. 
Give plenty of air without allowing the sun 
to strike constantly on one 6pot, as through a 
door or wiudow. Stained spots may be greatly 
benefited by the judicious use of analine dyes, 
and it will brighten faded colors to dampen 
them with water in which a small quantity of 
spirits of ammonia and borax has been mixed. 
A new broom should he kept for the use of 
carpets that are to be swept, as woolen carpets 
wear off very fast if swept with old, stiff, 
short brooms, and pieces of oil cloth or oil 
cloth mats should be UBed in front of the grate 
or 6tove. 
On festive occasions, when dancing and 
promenading are the “order of the day,” a 
cover of unbleached muslin stretched tightly 
over the carpet will preserve it unsullied. It 
has always been our custom to change the 
strips of carpet as they become worn, ripping 
them apart and putting the outside strips in 
the center, chauging agaiu anil again as long 
as there is any beauty or wear m i i. and finally 
cutting across the middle and tui uiug the ends 
together. The strips need not all be cut one 
length and the seams will not all corue in a 
line—then it can be renovated with a border. 
Of course 6uck a carpet descends iu the social 
scale, from parlor to bed-room and dining¬ 
room, and finally finishes off iu the lutehen, 
where it can be pieced out to proper size with 
oil cloth. 
The most common insect we have to contend 
with is the moth, and after having the binding 
eaten off from several carpets I have learned 
that a slight dnst of Scotch snuff around where 
the carpets are tacked will keep them away. 
Salt is gootf but draws dampness. Strips of pa¬ 
per dipped in turpentiue or carbolic acid and 
placed under the edges are also good, but scent 
a room so strongly that it is very unpleasant. 
A wet towel spread over a suspected harbor of 
the insects aud pressed with a hot. flat-iron is 
sure death, but ueeds to be repeated often, 
To cleanse a carpet on the floor, clean, damp, 
sawdust is very good swept, back aud forth. 
It catches the dnst, and will not soil even del¬ 
icate colors. A broom dipped iu a large pan 
or pail of water and drawn across a few feet 
at a time—dipping the broom afresh in the 
water aud not having it too wet—is a good 
method. Tho water may need changing and 
a pieee ot oilcloth should be placed uuder the 
vessel ot water. When a carpet is lifted from 
the floor, give a thorough shaking, then hang 
across a line, aud whip wuh long withes. 
This is all that most carpets need. If there is 
grease on it, spread on a clean floor, use a 
brush, hot water, soap, and plenty of spirits 
of amuiouia, rub both sides and rinse. 
Rag carpets may be scrubbed with a broom 
to very good advautage, afterward hanging to 
dry. If very dirty soak first. To disinfect 
carpets from the sick room of contagious dis¬ 
eases. should never be neglected, as their 
properties of absorbing moisture make them 
graud receptacles of disease. 
After takiug them from the floor aud cleans¬ 
ing them, if they caunot be washed, the entire 
surface should be wiped off with a cloth dipped 
in water strongly impregnated with carbolic 
acid, after which they should be hung iu the air 
in some out-building, until all danger is past. 
Another plan is to smoke them over sulphur, 
but I his is sometimes injurious to the colors. 
Not uncommonly we hear t he complaint of 
fleas harboring iu carpets, aud when once lodged 
iu a soft carpet, it is some task to got rict of 
them, Plenty of salt, swept hack aud ft n th 
over the surface is u sure remedy, as they will 
not stay anywhere, where salt eomes in con¬ 
tact with them. 
Somebody has discovered that old rug car¬ 
pets may be rejuvenated by a coat of paint, 
aud it is asserted they both look and wear well. 
The carpet is stretched tightly ami tacked, 
then a coat of paint of the sanio kind as ap¬ 
plied to the oiit&ido of tho building is brushed 
heavily on and carefully dried. The color is 
generally huff or orange, and may be striped, 
bamd or left plain. Old carpets, unlike many 
things, never cease to be useful. After they cau 
no longer be used as a covering for the floor, 
hey make good mats for the hot-bed and cold- 
frame ; useful coverings for sick animals; safe 
wraps for our bulbs and tubers in cellars that 
are not quite frost-prool, and when worn en¬ 
tirely into shreds, good mulch about young 
shrubs if covered with soil; or they can be placed 
in the forks of fruit trees to catch inserts, and 
are of great value in the lining of a rockery, 
etc., etc. 
■-» ♦ ♦ - 
COLORING RECIPE8. 
Brown on Cotton or \V oolen. 
For 10 pounds of cloth or yarn, take two 
pounds catch, put into cold water sufficient to 
cover the goods, heat uu til dissolved ; then add 
one-fourth pound blue vitriol, previously dis¬ 
solved. Put iu the goods and scald one hour 
or more, wring from the dye. Dissolve six 
ounces bichromate of potash in hot water, 
put iu the goods, let simmer fifteen minutes 
and boil five minutes, stirring constantly. Dis¬ 
solve the cuteh in iron and the bichromate in 
brass. Rinse Ihoroughly in clear water or in 
suds. 
Yellow on Cotton. 
Dissolve one-half pound sugar of lead in hot 
water and one-fourtli pound bichromate of 
potash in cold water—both in wooden vessels. 
Dip first in lead water, wring, then dip in 
potash and wring out. Repeat until the desired 
shade is obtained. This is for five pounds of 
goods. 
Orange on Cotton. 
Take a lump of lime as large as your fist, pour 
on to it a pail of boiling water, let it settle, 
pour off the water and while boiling, dip in 
cloth colored yellow as above, and you will 
have a beautiful oraDge. 
Blue on Cotton. 
Take two ounces oxalic acid; two ounces 
Prussian blue and dissolve in separate pails of 
hot water- Dip tho goods first in the acid, 
then in the bine. Wring dry and repeat until 
the color suits. 
For Green. 
Dip bine into a yellow dye as above, and it 
will produce green. 
To Dye Scarlet. 
To every pound of yarn lake one gallon soft 
water, one ounce of pulverized cochineal; two 
ounces cream-of-tartar; one ounce solution of 
tiu. When the water boils put in the cream-of- 
tartar, then the cochineal. When dissolved, 
add solution of tin; put the yarn in, stirring it 
all the time, let it boil 15 minutes, air it once 
or twice, rinse iu soft water, and you will have 
a splendid color. 
Salmon on Cotton. 
One pound copperas; one-half pound saler- 
atus, dissolve in hot water. Dip first in cop¬ 
peras and air five minutes, then in saleratus, 
and dry in the hot sun.—Mas. E. M. Dutton. 
DOMESTIC RECIPES. 
Potted Fresh Fish. 
Clean, wash and let remain over night in 
cold, salted water. For six pounds of fish 
allow three ounces of salt, two of ground pep¬ 
per, two of allspice and one of cloves. Into 
an earthen jar put alternate layers of fish and 
spice with a dust of flour aui a few bits of 
butter. Pour over equal parts of vinegar and 
water till the fish is well covered, tie a floured 
cloth over the top to prevent the 6team es¬ 
caping and bake five hours. Let remain until 
cold, then cut iu slices. * Mrs. L B. 
Cream-of-Tarlor Biscuits. 
One quart of flour ; one pint of milk; one 
teaspoonful of soda; two of cream-of-tartar 
aud one of salt. Butter the size ot an egg. Mix 
the crcam-of-tartar with the flour, rub in the 
butter and salt, dissolve the soda in a tea¬ 
spoonful of boiling water, aud mix all together 
lightly. s. r. 
QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 
Chocolate for Cake. Aimline for Cake. 
Please give directions for preparing choco¬ 
late to put between layers of cake and on top, 
also is aualine poisonous ? I refer to it as used 
in small quantities for coloring cake etc. 
A Young Cakemakkr. 
Ans. —1, Giate oue-fourth pound of chocolate, 
add a teacupful each of milk aud powdered 
sugar. Roil slowly—careful not to burn it— 
and when quite stiff stir iu ihe beateu yelk of 
an'egg." Take from tho fire at once, flavor, and 
spread over the cake. Or, take whites of two 
eggs, beaten stiff, one aud one-half cup of 
powderedj sugar and six tablespoousful of 
grated chocolate. Flavor with two teaspoons- 
ful of vanilla. !J. It is poisonous. 
Flickering Lamp, 
What will prevent a student lamp from 
flickeri ng ? Reaper. 
Ans —Do not press the glass chimney too 
far down in ifie socket. Allow the air to draw 
freely through the a>r holes. 
Correction.— “ Lemon Juice," the heading 
of a recipe iu last week’s Rural, ought to 
have read Lemon Jelly. g. m. 
