MAY 44 
6 
Woman's Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
COUNTRY COMMENTS. 
The scientists who philosophize on the sur¬ 
vival of the fittest ought to write us a whole 
bundle of essays on the advantages of country 
life. They need not go far for their text. It 
is a singular fact that in towns and villages 
the average youth of 20 is very inferior phys¬ 
ically to the average girl of the same age. On 
every ferryboat or street car one sees straight, 
blooming girls accompanied by little, weazeu, 
effeminate specimens of mankind. Either the 
artificial life of towns is more trying to men 
than women, thus proving u$ the stronger sex, 
or the masculine element is suffering the pen¬ 
alty of tobacco and various dissipations. If 
this state of things continues, the outlook is 
truly appalliug. In 1987 America will proba¬ 
bly be populated by a race of amazons, who 
will hold the masculine sex in steru subjec¬ 
tion. There will be no question of women’s 
rights, because they will be the only people 
who have auy, conclusively proving that 
might is right. 
But, seriously, we do not believe that auy 
one should bring up children in the city, if it 
is possible to do otherwise. You can never 
produce a sound mind in au unsound body, 
and to produce a genuine physical vigor you 
must take the free and natural surroundings 
of country life. We all know plenty of sickly, 
poorly nourished country people, but such 
cases, when not constitutional, are the result 
of neglect in sanitary conditions. We know 
salubrious mountain districts, where the 
women are narrow-chested aud consumptive, 
and the men subject to scrofulous complaints. 
But they live for months together on salt meat 
and fried cakes, with but few vegetables; they 
rarely bathe, and their houses are never ven¬ 
tilated during the winter months. Add to 
these conditions, constant intermarriages, aud 
the wonder is that mental as well as physical 
deficiencies, are not more common amoug 
them. 
It is too often the fashion to sneer at the ig. 
nornnee, not to say stupidity, of country 
people. Yet, strange to say, most of the men 
aud women prominent in city life v ere origi¬ 
nally dwellers in the country; children of 
country parents. Positively it seems as if no 
one were horn in the city—except the babies. 
Prominent artists and literary people, great 
merchants and bankers; the greater propor¬ 
tion always comes from the country. Really, 
rustic life is most conducive to meutal aud 
physical vigor, so let us hriug up our children 
to love the sights aud sou ids of the ever- 
pleasant country. 
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN. 
Here is a bit of comfort for the busy bees 
in the hive. Sir Spencer Wells, one of the 
greatest of living physicians, says; "If over¬ 
work sometimes leads to disease, it is morally 
more wholesome to work one’s self into disease 
than to lounge into it, aud for every example 
where mental or physical overstrain has led to 
ill-health, I can show 20 where want of men¬ 
tal occupation, aud deficient exercise have led 
to equally deplorable results. ” The man or 
woman with nothing to do. is almost certain 
to be beset with all manner of ailments, if for 
no other reason than because they have noth¬ 
ing else to think of except themselves and their 
fancies, aud with no interest in life except 
their own aches aud pains. John Stuart 
Mill says: “There is nothing after disease, 
indigence and guilt, so fatal to the pleasurable 
enjoyment of life as the want of a worthy 
outlet for the active faculties.” 
Mrs. Jenness Miller, the leader of the 
woman’s dress reform movement, receives, 
next to Mrs. Cleveland, more letters than any 
other woman in the United States. 
Mrs. Lizzie H. Monmouth, a woman once 
in prosperous circumstances, but afterward 
reduced to poverty, wrote a pamphlet called 
“Living on half a Dime a Day.” Since she 
has recently died at Canterbury, N. H., it is 
to be supposed that she found out that it was 
easier to die than live ou half a dime a day. 
Such of the readers of the Rural as are in¬ 
terested in poultry may be pleased to learn 
that they have an illustrious precedent, in the 
young Princesses of Wales, who feed their pet 
bantams and lloudans at Saudringham, They 
are very industrious young ladies aud also 
show great aptitude iu cutting aud fittiug 
dresses. 
The richest woman in America is Mrs. 
Hetty Green, who is worth nearly fifty mil¬ 
lions. She is a very bright, keen old woman, 
and by her successful speculations has in¬ 
creased the twelve millions left her by her 
father aud aunt, when a young girl, to the 
enormous sum above named. Bhe is exces¬ 
sively mean, and when she goes to Chicago on 
business stays with a poor sister-in-law to 
save hotel fare, and does her own washing 
while there. She saves about ? 100,000 a year 
iu the way of taxes by having no settled resi¬ 
dence, and if forced to name a spot, claims 
Loudon as her place of residence. She 
has a son who when a lad, some few 
years ago, broke his leg. A friend sent, a 
well-known surgeon, and Mrs. Groen repre¬ 
sented that she could illy afford the necessary 
apparatus, which was furnished by a hospital, 
the surgeon making only a nominal charge. 
A few weeks later the surgeon discovered that 
this woman was worth millions of dollars and 
immediately seut a bill for $1,000, which was 
paid under the threat that if it were not ho 
would sue her for it. 
Poor Hetty Green! Who would be willing 
to take her wealth if obliged also to take her 
disposition? gossiping gertie. 
Chicago. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
No words can express how much the world 
owes to sorrow. Most of the Psa I ms were born 
in a wilderness; most of the Epistles were 
written in a prison... 
If you want knowledge, j'ou must, toil for it; 
if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, 
you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleas¬ 
ure comes through toil, and not by self-indul¬ 
gence and indolence. When one gets to love 
work, his life is a happy oue. 
Prudence, patience, frugality, industry, 
self-deuial, politeness, punctuality, in fact 
every virtue that combines to make the 
strength of a great character and give it 
sufficient momentum to movo men aud man¬ 
age things—these the poor boy finds he must 
have, to secure a position, and to keep it when 
obtained....,.... 
How often do we look upon God as our last 
and feeblest resource. We go to Him because 
we have nowhere else to go... 
Every man has a right to make himself 
something better than he is, but no man has a 
right to claim honor and credit which are not 
due him.... 
The time which a mau wastes in trying to 
force the world to accept him for somethiug 
which he is not, would, if properly used and 
economized, enable him to make himself some¬ 
thing higher aud better than that which he is 
trying to seem... 
The difference between religion and ir- 
religion is a difference of principles and of 
conduct. Compare a godly household with 
a godless, and answer the argumeut if you 
can... 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
THE CUISINE OF A CALIFORNIA 
RANCH 
During the month of my stay on the Browu 
Ranch the “antiquated liens were served in 
such a variety of delightful ways, as to prove 
that if they had outlived their period of use¬ 
fulness as egg-producers, they were by no 
means useless. 
From a pretty extensive acquaintance with 
country life I know that the only orthodox 
ways of cooking poultry are roasting and 
friccassee, or, at best,a chicken pie, while thero 
are dozens of other methods of preparing 
them to be recommended on account of their 
excellence as well as because they furnish that 
variety which is the spice of life. 
Braised Chicken. This is a very good way 
to prepare an old fowl. Drew and stuff a pair 
as for roasting. Take a broad sauce-pan aud 
lay iu it a quarter of a pound of salt pork cut 
in very thin slices; upon these lay the chickens 
side by side with thin slices (another quarter 
of a pound) of saltpork tied over their breasts. 
Season with pepper and salt, pour in a pint of 
boiling water, cover the sauce-pan closely and 
stew gently for two hours aud a half—louger if 
the chickeus are very tough. Take them out 
when very tender and lay on a hot dish in the 
warming oveu while you straiu the gravy. 
Put half of it iu a sauce-pan and boil it rapidly 
to a bright brown glaze, first adding a tea¬ 
spoonful of browned flour wet with cold 
water. Take off the pork from the fowls, 
brush them over with this glaze and browu 
them in a quick oven. Make a generous bowl¬ 
ful of gravy, by skimming the fat from the 
reserved gravy, adding the giblets chopped 
fine aud the water iu which they were boiled, 
thickened with browned flour, season to taste 
and send to table with the chickeus. 
The store-room of this ranch was by no 
means destitute of winter vegetables, and the 
scalloped squash was especially nice. A 
squash of the dark-green, Hubbard variety 
was cut iu pieces, the seeds ta keu out, and the 
pieces laid in a pan and baked until soft. It 
was then mashed very smoothly, seasoned 
with a. large tablespoonful of butter, for a me¬ 
dium-sized vegetable dishful, pepper and salt 
to taste, and two beaten eggs stirred in; the 
mixture poured iu a buttered baking dish, 
strewed with fine bread-crumbs, dotted with 
bits of butter and baked for three-quarters of 
au hour, and uncovered to brown for fifteen 
minutes. 
Oyster-plant, fritters. Make a batter of 
two eggs, a half cup of milk, and a little salt, 
pepper and flour enough for a thin batter, 
scrape the roots and throw at once into cold 
water. When all are scraped, grate with a 
coarse grater, droppiug the grated root at 
once into the batter. Drop by the spoonful 
into hot fat, fry brown and drain in a colan¬ 
der. 
Although, as Bessie said, they did not make 
haste to be rich, nothing was wasted in this 
household, and the remains of the chicken 
were prepared for breakfast os follows: The 
meat was picked from the bones, chopped 
fine, seasoned nicely aud moistened with a 
little of the gravy. This was kept hot; while 
some rice, that had been boiled and pressed 
into a shallow dish the night before, was cut 
into half-inch slices, brushed over with melted 
butter, aud broiled or toasted to a delicate 
browu between a double broiler. The mince 
was piled neatly on those slices aud each one 
crowned with a poached egg. 
You are not to suppose that ouly the oldest 
inhabitants of the poultry yard were served 
at the table of my friend Bessie, I am ouly 
giving palatable ways of cooking such because 
I think these recipes may be new to some of 
your readers. 
Cut a fowl into neat joints, cover with cold 
water, aud boil or rather simmer very slowly 
until tender, seasoning toward the last with 
pepper, salt and a good lump of butter. Re¬ 
move from the fire and let it stand until cold. 
Put, three cups of flour, through which you 
have sifted two slightly heaping toaspoonfuls 
of baking powder, info a cake bowl; add four 
well-bsaten eggs,three tablespoonfuls of melted 
butter, and a little salt to a quart of milk; 
make a hole in the flour aud pour this in slowly, 
beating hard the while. When you have a 
smooth batter, put a layer of chicken in a 
large pudding dish, pour over oue-tbird of the 
batter, lay in more chicken, pour on batter, 
aud so ou, keeping one-t hird of the batter for 
the upper crust. Unless your dish is a very 
wide oue you had better divide the batter iuto 
four portions. Bake in a moderate oven for 
au hour, aud test the batter,to see if it is done 
all through, by ruuuing iu a broom splint. 
8kim all the fat from the gravj r , and if there 
is more than a pint, reduce it by boiling to 
that quantity. Thickeu with a tablespoonful 
of butter cut in bits and rolled iu flour; boil 
up once, season with chopped parsley, pepper 
and salt aud seud to the table iu a boat. 
A tempting -little dessert was made from 
rice and was food fit for angels. Boil a quar¬ 
ter of a pound of rice that has been well 
washed mseveral waters, iu one quart of milk 
(using a double boiler), add a small teaspoon¬ 
ful of salt, five tablespoonfuls of sugar, aud a 
pinch of nutmeg to the milk. Stew until the 
rice is soft and has absorbed all the milk, und 
theu fill small cups with it and set away to 
get very cold, Turu out on a large, shallow 
glass dish, and pour over them two cups of 
cream sweetened and flavored with vanilla. 
If you have not the cream make a thin cus¬ 
tard, with two well-beaten eggs and a pint of 
milk, aud let it get very cold before using. 
PALMETTO. 
WASHING HELPS. 
Lately we have tried putting a little kero¬ 
sene in the water when the white clothes are 
soaked over-night aud it acts like a charm. 
At first I thought it might have au unpleas¬ 
ant smell, but such is not the case. The rin¬ 
sing has a great deal to do with the clear look 
of the clothes. Hard water is the best for 
this purpose, aud ouly a little bluing is to lie 
allowed. The chief thing is to get all thesuds 
out of the articles. Colored fabrics should lie 
washed for the first time in salt and water. 
If the colors uro delicate, the goods should be 
washed, rinsed, starched and well shaken out, 
then hung at once on the lines. It is always 
better to fold clothes the night before ironing; 
it seems to help the smoothing process, A 
great help to washing day is a. mangle, and 
that family is fortunate who possess this very 
useful help. Here again kerosene comes in 
to assist iu laundry work, a spoonful mixed 
in the starch being one of the aids to polish¬ 
ing, nob always known. Sufficient attention 
is not given to sorting and soaking white 
clothes, and sometimes the quality of soap 
makes a great difference and this can be dis¬ 
covered only by a fair trial. Anything that 
helps to make washing day easy, is to he done. 
And of all the ingredients used us a washing 
fluid I prefer plain borax, that can be used 
without injury to fabrics, or to the hands of 
the laundry-maid. A. L. j. 
SPRING CLEANING. 
“Oh, Dear! I wouldn’t mind the hard work 
and discomfort of house-cleaning time, if we 
could only have plenty of fresh paiBt and 
paper, and have something new added to our 
furnishings. We scrub, and clean, aud brush, 
and sweep, aud then put the same old things 
back iu the same old places, and in two weeks’ 
time, when the polish is worn off again, nobody 
but ourselves knows that we have gone through 
tbo ordeal of house-cleanmg; for we look uo 
better or tidier than we did before.” 
In spite of gray hairs and added years of 
experience in house-keeping, I sympathized 
with, if 1 did not quite echo the words spoken 
by my young friend, for our belongings do 
often look especially dingy and old, iu the 
broad light of the spring sunshine, when Na¬ 
ture is setting before us such an example of 
change aud fresh new beauty. To mauy of us 
new furnishings or even fresh paint aud paper 
hangings are unattainable luxuries, aud yet 
spring cleaning is a necessity. I know some 
good people say it is not. that the proper way 
is to keep clean the year round; but as the 
best house-keepers I know, like myself, have 
not been able to do quite that, I am not com¬ 
petent to discuss the question. 
There is some recompense for all our hard 
labor in the feeling that all is sweet and pure 
from cellar to attic, even though our neigh¬ 
bors canuot see any change for the better; aud 
yet 1 would have freshness and chauge if I 
could; it is ouly a natural desire. 
One need uot put the same old things in the 
same old places, al ways, although it is not de- 
si ruble to be in the predicament of the gentle¬ 
man who said he never knew at what poiut of 
the compass his head was to rest at night, 
owing to his wife’s fondness for moving about 
the bedroom furniture. But it is easy to 
move a picture, or some minor object of use 
or decoration, ami so alter the look of things, 
aud yet not disturb the comfort of any oue, 
as would be the case if grandma’s chair were 
moved from its favorite window, or father’s 
from the lamp and hook-staud. 
However, to the majority it is possible to 
add some little article, if it be ouly a uewtidy, 
or bright cushion for the old rocker that is 
too comfortable to be laid aside. If one has 
the will, there is mauy a way to make bright¬ 
ness aud change with hut little expenditure, 
only don’t sit down and lament because you 
cauuot, do as your richer ueighbor, who only 
has to order any thing fancy may dictate; a 
pleasant thing to do, wo all think, and yet, let 
us recollect that some of the pleasantest homes 
we know, are most lacking iu new or elegant 
things. The poorest of rural sisters cau at 
least open wide the windows aud let iu the 
sweet air nud boautiful sunshine, and if her 
house be ever so shabby aud old, it may be a 
happy home—“the sweetest spot on earth”— 
if brightened and beautified by loving hearts 
aud contented minds. mary mann. 
NECK WEAR. 
A dainty addition to the dress for evening 
wear is made from velvet and China silk or 
crepe, or from the latter alone. Cut a band 
an inch aud a half deep to fit the neck, using 
a stiff matt rial for the foundation. Cut a tri- 
augular-shaped piece comiug to a point at the 
waist, aud about eight inches wide at the top 
whore it must fit in to the hand or collar. The 
covering is arranged ou this in pleats. A very 
pretty one was made of white silk aud olive 
velvet. A fold of white silk about oue-third 
of the depth of the baud was placed around 
the top. The rest was composed of a single 
fold of the velvet. The right half of the point¬ 
ed piece was made of narrow pleats laid on 
diagonally, the left was formed of velvet to 
simulate the lappel of the coat. The effect is 
very dressy, and one cau be made for almost 
nothing, from a bit of velvet and au old white 
China silk handkerchief. Another was made 
of lavender silk. A piece an inch wide ran 
down the middle and narrow ones on either 
side wore placed up aud down. Studs were 
simulated with white pearl beads. These little 
articles sell for from $1 upwards, but cun be 
made for much less, even if new material be 
purchased. If of white lace and block velvet 
aud worn over black silk the effect is very 
pleasing and quite redeeming to a shabby 
dress. mrs. g. 
-» ♦ ♦ - 
DOMESTIC RECIPES. 
CREAM INSTEAD OF BUTTER. 
One day I spent half an hour looking 
through a boxful of recipes to find one for 
cake in makiug which sour cream was used 
PluaUattfOtt* gMvertiieittg. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castorla 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she cluug to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castorla. 
