MARCH 40 
hornets, who proceed to business at once. 
Speaking figuratively, and using these homely 
comparisons fully illustrate the position of the 
person who tries to live on public opinion. 
The fashionable lady, desirous of the attention 
of an admiring public, will lend her darling 
little doggie down street with a lovely blanket, 
on its dear little hack. She could not be seen 
wheeling her own baby in its carriage. What 
would people say ! Awful thought! The 
slaves of public opinion find they have a hard 
master. 
Some writer has said: “‘To he insensible to 
public opinion or the estimation in which we 
are held by others, by no means indicates a 
a good and generous spirit. To illustrate; 
there is the woman who does not believe in 
following such extravagant and wicked “city 
ways.” such as using napkins every day. and 
keeping two fires all Winter; such things 
might do in cases of weddings or funerals. 
Another “stuck up” idea is in having “posies 
grow so near the door, you cannot sit on the 
door-step to milk the cow. she believes in hav¬ 
ing things convenient. Fruit and vegetables 
iu bloom are her only flowers. .She loves them 
because their language to her is money. Her 
independence is her pride; she always says: 
“Tf people do uot like my style they must look 
t’other way.” There is the independent man 
who pays “cash down” and has money left in 
his pocket; and to use Ids own words “does 
not ask no favors from nobody." His wedding 
coat, of thirty years ago is as good as new; and 
his son is so awful proud he will not wear it on 
the occasion of his own wedding although it 
fits him just, as well as it did his father, who 
thinks prid© and extravagance will min his 
son. The fat her does uot believe in having so 
many dishes on the table. His mother used to 
put the “Idled dinner” iuto a large pan and set 
it iu the center of the table, and tbe whole 
family ate from the pan. His “wirnmin 
folks" are so foolish they are willing to make 
more work by giving each one a plate at 
the table. But they cannot make him dish 
out "an allowance” to each on© or what they 
call waiting upon the table. He generously 
tells his guests to just help themselves aud will 
pass the platter around, and if a person has not 
had sufficient practice in the handling of meat 
it is not strange if it falls while iu their hands 
and some one can get up a “corner on meat. 
It is well to have respect enough for ourselves, 
our friends, and the public, not to excite con¬ 
tempt, censure or disgust from either source. 
Mary Emvoo-jj. 
MRS. AIKINS’S WAY. 
It was not the custom at Mrs. Aikius’s to put 
off till to-morrow what should be done to-day. 
They usually made it “ day after to-morrow.” 
As a consequence they were apt. to be a little 
behindhand iu their work, yet they were far 
from being an over-worked family. They 
saved themselves well, aud had more time for 
running about and reading story-books than 
many of their neighbors. They had good im¬ 
pulses and would have done much good among 
the needy if it had not been for their unfortu¬ 
nate peculiarity. For instance. there was poor 
Aunt Abby who lived in the city now and was 
so destitute. Mother thought, out a beautiful 
plau for helping her. 
“ Only think, girls, how it must seem to buy 
vour potatoes by the quart, and all your veg¬ 
etables on a similar scale. We’ll just makeup 
a nice barrelful aud send to poor Aunt Abby 
before Thanksgiving. It will last her and her 
boy all Winter. I told her when 1 was down 
1 meant to do it as soon as 1 came home, and I 
wish 1 had when potatoes were first dug. We’ll 
put. the }>otatoes in the bottom and fill iu with 
beets and cabbages and turnips, and a can of 
butter and a chunk of cheese, and golden pip¬ 
pins and everything else we can get together. 
We shall never miss them, but think what a 
blessing they will be to her.’ 
And so they would if they had only gone on 
promptly; but that long delay aud long watch¬ 
ing and waiting made it u rather dear barrel 
to the poor, needy old woman. Thanksgiving 
came and passed but no promised barrel, Fi¬ 
nally some one made a desperate move and the 
whole was made ready one Monday morning 
when they had put off washing just to make 
time. It stood around in the way until Wed¬ 
nesday. when John took it to the depot as he 
went for his evening mail. The freight office 
was closed, so it must stand on the platform 
until morning, and as the thermometer fell to 
six below zero in the night it was a pretty solid 
barrel by morning. When poor Aunt Abby 
had paid her last, dollar to get the barrel home 
I nm afraid she felt that she could have put it 
to more profitable use. 
It is a poor plan to delay when you have a 
kiudness to do, however you may put off your 
own affairs, These matters are “ duties” as 
much as our daily work—“ Ho good to all men 
as ye have opportunity,” aud ‘‘to him that 
knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it 
is sin.” A gift that is timely is a double pres- 
THE RURAL 
ent, aud it adds to the sweet grace of charity 
to have everything arrive in the best possible 
order. Olive. 
A TALK TO GIRLS. 
ANNIE L. .TACK. 
Looking over some numbers of “Our Conti¬ 
nent” of last Summer’s date. I came upon a 
few lines written by ray charming friend 
Louise Chandler Moulton, who always has 
some pointed sentences for every subject that 
engages her pen. She says: have been 
turning over the leaves of an old Ixiok. written 
before 1 was horn, and which was familiar to 
my childhood, and I have come upon the fol¬ 
lowing sensible remark: ‘What ft pity it is 
that the thousandth chance of a gentleman be¬ 
coming your lover should deprive you of the 
pleasure of a free, unembarrassed intellectual 
Fig. 104. 
intercourse with the single men of your ac¬ 
quaintance.’ ” She goes on to say: “ The pity 
of it is, that the ‘ girl of the period ’ so often 
has uo desire for this unembarrassed and sensi¬ 
ble friendship, anil values the men she knows, 
only in proportion as they minister to her 
pleasure or her vanity." 
I should lie very sorry to think that Mrs. 
Moulton is right, or to feel that all girls have 
that feeling on this delicate subject. While I 
know it is true of many. I also know girls who 
chafe at the imputation and ivouder why a 
pleasant friendship cannot, be allowed between 
the sexes without the vanity of either side, of 
friends or of enemies, supposing ft deeper feel¬ 
ing. It is a subject that is often discussed 
among women and my own observation leads 
me to think that the fault is in thegirls. Many 
young men. especially those who are away 
from home, would l>e glad of the quiet friend¬ 
ship aud pleasant home attractions of the fire¬ 
side. and would gladly share their evenings 
among their girl friends, and be loss likely to 
frequent pernicious amusements, if it were not 
for the consenmsniYs. among so many girls, the 
exportation of attentions lo be paid, and the 
gossip of acquaintances. And thus girls who 
do uot feel the least particle of conceit, who 
are capable of friendships, aud too interested 
in other pursuits to care for lovers, must be 
deprived of this pleasant intercourse on ac¬ 
count of Mrs, Grundy and the “ girl of the pe¬ 
riod.” As we advance iu intellectual enjoy¬ 
ment, and reach greater bights of knowledge, 
these things will doubtless lie made straight. 
Meantime, it is a great drawback to those who 
are inclined to a simple aud unembarrassed 
friendship irrespective of sex. 
CULTIVATE A SWEET VOICE. 
There is no power of love so hard to get 
and keep as a kind voice. A kind hand is deaf 
aud dumb. It may lie rough in flesh aud 
blood, yet do the work of a soft heart, and do 
it with a kind touch. But there is no one 
tiling that love so much needs as a sweet voice 
to toil what it means and feels, and it is hard 
to get it and keep it in the right, tone. One 
must start in youth, and boon the watch night 
and day. at. work and play, to get and keep a 
voice that shall speak at. all times the thought 
of a kind heart. But this is the time when a 
sharp voice is apt to lie got. You often hear 
boys and girls say words at play with a quick, 
sharp tone, as ii' it were the snap of a whip. 
When one of them get s vexed you will hear a 
voice that, sounds as if it were made up of a 
snarl, a whine and a bark. Such a voice often 
speaks worse than the heart, feels. It shows 
more ill-will in t he tone than in the words. It 
is often iu mirth that one gets a voice of a tone 
that is sharp, and sticks to him through life, 
auil stirs up ill-will and grief, and falls like a 
drop of gall on the sweet joys at home. Such 
as these get a sharp home voice for use and 
keep their best voice for those they meet else¬ 
where. just as they would save their best, cakes 
and pics for guests and ah their sour food for 
their own tioard. I would say to all boys and 
girls. “Use your guest* voice at home." Watch 
ft by day its a pearl of great price, for it will 
be worth more to you in t he days to come than 
the liest, pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice Is 
a lark’s song to a hearth aud home. It is to 
the heart what light is to the eye. 
Domestic Comom^ 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
JOTTINGS. 
Tomatoes; Salmon: House Cleaning; Beans. 
My tomatoes kept iu glass jars have turned 
out beautifully. The jars were filled very full, 
while hot, with the cooked tomatoes, to which 
only a little salt was added. They were then 
tinned upside down, after the lid had been 
screwed on. and packed iu a box with st raw 
around them to steady them. Every one says 
they are as fresh-tasting as in September. 1 
have had them ferment, and thought it, was 
because some air was left in, owing to the jar 
not, being full enough. 
Noticing the cooking of canned salmon iu a 
late Rural, reminded me that I might men¬ 
tion my method, which is simply to place the 
closed tins iu a boiler of hot water (or put on 
a pot for the purpose): let them heat through 
and open with as little breaking up as possible. 
Turn on to a meat, platter. Have ready some 
white sauce into which parsley has lieen 
chopped fine, and pour ever the fish. I have 
more than once heard the remark. “ Cau you 
get fresh salmou here at this season f’ It is 
uo trouble to prepare it in this way and gen¬ 
erally satisfactory. 
Now that Spring-oleaniug once more looms 
in the distance, I look anxiously iu this de¬ 
partment of ail our papers for any information 
that temls to make the work easy. Let us 
have the experience of those who know, and 
thus help each other. 1 am always glad to 
learn improved methods. 
I was quite amused with “ Boys vs. Ther- 
mometersj” and know that not only hoys, but 
grown people are thus influenced, having seen 
it with young and old iu our household. But 
it is only a sample of everything in life, for 
how many dangera and troubles we pass 
through unknowingly, and it is very much 
like house-cleaning, that, always looks so very 
trying when March comes, but is all over and 
forgotten by June. 
In planting beaus let every housewife re¬ 
member to procure a few of the Golden Wax. 
They are delicate, striugless. light-seeded, and 
useful for ail culinary purposes. The seed is 
rather more expensive than that of other wax 
beans, but, once grown, you will never want 
to be without them. Annie L, Jack. 
•-♦♦♦- 
WOMEN’S UNDERCLOTHING; AIR. 
MRS. E. K. B. 
Several years since a friend who was a 
medical student in the New England Hospital 
for Women and Children, sent me, with high 
recommendation, a pattern for a ganuent that 
she called a “chemilette.” With some doubt 
as to its desirability T modeled a ganuent after 
the pattern, and the result was a nondescript 
article that we wore all inclined to laugh at, 
aud it was especially a subject, of ridicule to 
some of my young girl friends. But, after five 
years’ constant wearing of the “emancipation 
suits,” as they are now called, 1 think neither 
ridicule nor anything else could induce me to 
go back to the old-fashioned underclothes with 
tight hands around the waist, and the uncom¬ 
fortable, low-necked yokes that must tit just so 
or they were constantly hitching out of place. 
And it was my turn to laugh when the same 
girls came to me lately lagging for my 
pattern, ‘ffiocanse their dresses could lie fitted 
so much smoother than they could over a full- 
yoked chemise." 
As the anxiety for a slender form and dresses 
fitted without a wrinkle has iu my case been 
supplanted by the middle-aged desire for com¬ 
fortable, easy clothing. 1 have tiied many of 
the new pat terns for underclothing. I have 
found none, however, that I liked better than 
the one from the hospital, one of its advantages 
being that is easier to make. In fact, I think 
any woman of ordinary “faculty" could en¬ 
gineer a pattern for heraelf simply from seeing 
the picture. It. is an easy matter to eliuuge 
from a larger to smaller size, and it is the most, 
economical of clothing, for there is no bungling, 
there being u<> fullness except where needed. 
For Winter underwear 1 have found scarlet 
Haunel webbing an excellent material. It 
costs rather more than plain flannel at first, 
but as it wears longer, cuts to better adv an¬ 
tage and fits better to the figure, it will give 
more satisfaction in the “long run.” For 
women who lead an indoor life, without much 
exposure to the weather, this flannel suit,, with 
the other usual clothing, is sufficient, hut, I 
have always been in the habit of wearing a 
while cotton garment also cut after the same 
pattern. Of course, the girls who have time 
for fancy work may trim the w hite ones as 
elaborately as they please. 
The friend who gave me the pattern (and 
who is now an unusually successful physician) 
wears no cotton clothing in the Winter. Next 
to the scarlet flannel (which, of course, comes 
to the wrists and ankles, where it is finished and 
fitted close by a narrow webbing made ex¬ 
pressly for that use), she wears a similarly 
shaped garment, made of pretty gray flannel 
and neatly embroidered around the neck and 
wrists w ith silk to match. Next comes one 
thick, felt skirt fastened by buttons to the gray 
flannel at the waist, and over this the flannel 
dross of good material but cut and made so 
plainly that it lias but little weight. Dressed 
in this way, a woman’s clothing is not only 
equally distributed over her body, thus promo¬ 
ting an even temperature lint, what is of still 
more importance, the weight of it is also dis¬ 
tributed, as it cannot, be with the numerous 
aud sometimes heavy skirts that a re often worn. 
air your bedrooms. 
During this Winter weather in more than 
one home the unvent ilated. Hose bed-rooms are 
breeding disease. Their occupants will next 
Spring be complaining of all sorts of aches and 
will lay their troubles all to tbe. “haul \\ inter, 
horrid climate, etc.’’ See to it that none of 
your family come out "growly" in the Spring. 
Make each one open his bed-room window lie- 
fora he loaves it in the moruing, aud unless 
“saarchin kold" comes in t<xi fiercely do not 
close it for an hour at least; 1 have seen peo¬ 
ple air their bed-rooms by opening all the in¬ 
side doors, but what is wanted is fresh outside 
ail*, not merely once a week lint, every day. 
Wheu you take the bod clothes off. do not pile 
them on a chair with the pillows underneath, 
but hung them out-of-doors if you can. A side 
porch with a wire clothes line across ii makes 
a capital place for airing bedding. Then when 
you are ready to finish the work, how cool and 
sweet they smell! If you cannot get out. 
spread them and hang loosely around and in 
tlie windows, in the sunshine if possible. 
CUP-PLATES; WHAT THEY ARE. 
Let all concerned know that cup-plates are 
just what their name suggests, simply plates to 
set the cup iu. Fort y years ago it was consid¬ 
ered just the thing for each person to pour his 
coffee from the cup to the saucer to cool, and 
then drink from the saucer. The cup was 
placed on the table and a circle of coffee rings 
appeared about each cup which vexed the 
soul of the careful house wife, so she provided 
tiny plates to set the cup iu while the saucer 
was doing duty as a month-piece, and thus 
saved her snowy linen. But that mode of en¬ 
joying coffee passed away with our fathei-s. 
and the necessity for using “ cup-plates” disap¬ 
peared, our present cooks being capable of 
having coffee sufficiently " iced before it leaves 
their domain," that the family rather incline 
to the idea that a coffee-stove would be a more 
comfortable addition than the old cooking 
method. Bo the eup-plates were put away, or 
the fond mother, less thoughtful for the coming 
iesthetic craze for old things, gave thorn to the 
little ones to have parties with. The carefully 
put away ones now appear as “ Little butters," 
and are much respected for their age. Some 
were of glasss with a ship under full sail, or 
flowers blooming iu gaiety for n bed of roses 
Or other designs; others were Iron-Stone or 
china just as one’s taste or purse decided they 
should be. M. l. s. 
CUP PLATES. 
I\ answer to Mrs. Jack respecting clip plates 
T would say that mine are made of t he same 
kind of ware as the Koval Stone China from 
Englaud, two-and-one-lialf inches across the 
top. Those that I get here on the mountain 
arc not the real cup plates, but the individual 
butter plate. It is a trifle smaller than the 
cup plate. 1 get one size for both uses, they 
pack away so much nicer than two sizes would. 
But a* you cannot, get the cup plate, give vour 
frieud any size you may chance to have, so as 
not to oblige him to drink his tea hot, as that 
would lie “manslaughter,” and for a napkin 
for such as “your friend,” perhaps you might 
find a piece of linen that has so many colors 
that you could not, toll if it, were stained. It 
is hard enough to bear the censure of our 
enemies, hut when our friends censure us, to 
whom shall we look for sympathy. It hen we 
visit our friends we do not like to feel that 
what they give us is too good for use. So let 
us make our guests feel that, what we have 
is for their comfort, that they may look hack 
to the time they were with us as one of 
pleasure. And lot us not call up the question 
as to how their parent*educated them. Times 
have changed since our parents came to this 
country. Then it was not their privilege to 
have white linen for their tables, or even any 
linen or individual plates. 
TO SWEEP A DUSTY CARPET. 
Have a pail of clean water at the door, wet 
the broom iu it, strike off all the drops, and 
sweep perhaps a yard square. Then wash the 
