THE RURAL WEW-YORKER 
make very little smoke by putting the broiler 
through the narrow drop door at the side of 
the range. mrs. economy. 
boards about two feet long by one foot wide, 
and one inch thick, four pieces eight inches 
long, three inches wide and one inch thick. 
These last pieces had a slot five inches long, 
leaving one-and-a-half inch at each end. 
These are to be nailed to one of the boards at 
the sides, and close to the end (one at each 
side corner). This makes the bottom or bed 
of the press. Six or eight bars will bo needed 
to fit the slots, and as long as the boards are 
wide; also a few wedges. 
When the ferns are obtained, put on two or 
three thicknesses of paper,then a layer of ferns, 
another of paper, ferns again, and so on till 
the press is full as desired. Put on the other 
board, fill the slots with bars, and wedge 
them down tightly. 
My friend says it does the pressing beauti¬ 
fully. I fancy it might do good service in 
pressing sheets, towels, etc., if they were nice¬ 
ly folded. MAY MAPLE. 
and two Sevile oranges among them; quarter 
the peel and boil till tender enough to pierce 
with a straw; put on the orange peel first in 
cold water enough to cover; add the lemon 
after removing the seeds; slice the fruit, ami 
when the peel is cooked, strain oil' the water, 
cut up fine with a pair of sharp seLsors, 
measure all together and allow one pound of 
sugar to each pint, or a little less, of fruit. 
Boil all up about au hour. The peel must be 
looked to and scraped well, as the scale insect 
is ofteu bud on it, and if not known its pre¬ 
sence is often mistaken for discoloration. 
This marmalade is much cheaper than that 
bought at the grocers, and will fill the empty 
jars that qan lie again filled with autumn fruit, 
as the marmalade is a healthful conserve for 
children and will be relished in hot weather. 
What a rushing, hurrying season this has 
been ! Spring has hardly come when we are 
at once into the heats of the summer. The 
flowers came and departed all too quickly. 
I hardly saw the violets till the unusual heat 
had withered them on their stems. The apple 
trees blossomed a week earlier than usual— 
and before we had time to enjoy them, the 
blossoms were dropping and fading, and now 
the roses are here. They too seem as if they 
had come before their season, and a winter of 
unusual snow has been the death of many a 
choice variety. No amount of care and cul¬ 
ture can coax into blossoming the feeble 
branches left of those that did not die outright, 
and as in other things, one is taken and an¬ 
other is left; Jacquiminot lived out of doors 
and looks thrifty—but the old York aud Lan¬ 
caster bushes eight feet high, are cut to the 
ground. 
But we are not altogether discouraged and 
mean to go on planting aud hoping there 
will he a change some time in the beauty of 
our surroundings when the small things have 
grown to tree and shrub. Each year has its 
own particular beauty, and so amidst all the 
disappointments we learn to work aud wait 
hopefully. 
excellence, it is the bight of foolishness to 
keep her drumming on a piano—encouraged 
by an interested teacher. Tf a young man 
talks like a parrot and has no more sentiment 
than an owl, it is equally absurd to scud him 
to a theological seminary; or if there is any 
truth in the orthodox joke, if a boy is honest 
and truthful to send him to a law school. 
The useful urts, domestic industry, offer as 
wide a field for the development of artistic 
taste as do the aesthetic, with a far greater 
probability of success, both philanthropic and 
financial. There is far more room for the 
development of a finer art iu dress and furni¬ 
ture than there is in music or painting. It is 
evident that the artistic spirit of this country 
is undergoing a rapid and healthful develop¬ 
ment. Music, the drama, painting, fancy- 
work and literature will not be appreciated 
or rewarded less: in fact, the common people 
will be able to reward those who excel the 
more with the rapidly growing tendency to 
improve manufactures and elevate and com¬ 
pensate the industries of ever}’-day life. 
Dressmaking, housew ork, work iu the dairy, 
farming, stock-raising or horticulture, in fact 
all necessary industries, are ns important, 
should be as much honored and as highly 
compensated, as the tine arts or professions. 
The tendency of popular thought ami edu¬ 
cation is unquestionably in the right direction 
and we should do what we can to strengthen 
the cause of the workingmen aud women, 
whether they excel iu dressmaking or cattle- 
raisiug, iu music or iu the pulpit, for the art 
or general productive and formative energy 
of any country is, as Ruskin has reminded us, 
an exact exponent of its ethical life. 
J. H. G. 
itlli.ocfUanfott.d 
That Feeling 
Of exhaustion expressed in the words 
“all run down,” indicates a thin and 
depraved state of the blood, reacting 
upon the Nervous System. Nothing 
will reach this trouble with more speed 
and certainly than Ayer’s Sarsaparilla. 
“ I was all run down,” writes Mrs. 
Alice West, of Jefferson, W. Ya., “be¬ 
fore I began to take Ayer's Sarsaparilla, 
and now 1 am 
GAINING IN STRENGTH 
every day. I intend using it till my 
health is perfectly restored.” 
“ Being very weak ami despondent 
after an illness which caused frequent 
loss of blood, I tried Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, 
and two bottles have restored me to my 
former health,” writes Miss Blanche S. 
Brownell, 4 Bovlston Place, Boston. 
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, 
Prepared by T>r..T 0. Ayer & Co., Lowell, 
Bold by all Druggists. Price $1; six bottles, $a. 
HOW TO EAT STRAWBERRIES. 
A dish of ripe strawberries “smothered iu 
cream” is sometimes more agreeable to the 
imagination thau acceptable to the stomach. 
The cream or milk often serves only to dis¬ 
guise the over-ripeness aud mushiness of un¬ 
sightly and unwholesome berries, aud the 
dressing probably originated for that service. 
While strawberries that are just fully ripe 
aud freshly picked are unsurpassed by any 
fruit in healthfulness and zest, there is per¬ 
haps no fruit that offends the stomach more 
when over-ripe, because of the rapidity of its 
decay. Au English mode of serving this fruit 
at the table takes it freshly picked,with all its 
sheen of shining dewy, perfect ripeness un¬ 
tarnished by the picker’s hand, who takes it 
only by the stem, severing it with the thumb 
nail, thus presenting it in its full beauty. 
The happy partaker also takes the berry by 
the stem, dips its moist and glowing crown in 
powdered sugar, and thus obtains and enjoys 
to the full all the aroma of its then abundant 
juice. But this is only practicable where the 
strawberry bed is uuder good keeping and 
within short hand can’iage of the dining table 
or the refrigerator. As to the sugar, it is a 
superfluity with perfect berries just ripe. 
BROWN’S FRENCH DRESSING, 
TJic Original. Beware ol Imitations. 
AWARDED HIGHEST PRIZE AND ONLY 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
MEDAL, PARiS EXPOSITION, 1878 
Highest Award New Orleans Exposition. 
There is enough in the sphere of wife and 
mother —properly Jllh'd —to satisfy the heart 
and mind of every reasonable woman. 
“ It seems as if them as aren’t wanted here 
are the only folks as aren’t wanted i’ the other 
world.”. 
A weak man sinks under prosperity as well 
asunder adversity. A sfroug mind has two 
highast tides—when the moon is at the full 
and when there is uo moon. 
Be all ungentleness and harm excluded from 
the temples of the household gods!. 
The poor mau with industry is happier than 
the rich mau in idleness. The slave is ofteu 
happier thau the master, who is nearer imdone 
by license than his vassal by toil. 
No varnish can hide the graiu of the wood ; 
and the more varnish you put on, the more 
the grain will express itself. 
It is almost the beau ideal of happiness for 
a man to be so busy that he does not know 
whether he is or is not happy . 
“ The tale of the divine pity was never yet 
believed from lips that were not felt to be 
moved by human pity.”.. 
“ Men aud women make sad mistakes about 
their own symptoms—taking their vague, un¬ 
easy longings, sometimes for genius, some¬ 
times for religion, and, oftener still, for a 
mighty love.”. . 
CHINE. Highest j&agfR NOTHING! Can be 
medals from Anwrl- madowith from one 
can Insuuit.-, New -tV ^Aj> p i,n to the largest 
York* Burlington ^ H „ quantity of fresh 
County Agricultural ■’f ST’aSB T milk, producing tie- 
Society, No.L»4; No. rpLJjB finest butter in two 
"• ■ "V*-fcsaiTjjl minutes Therelsa 
$.*•. L.OJ).; paeklug I, ■ ajffl clear profit of front 
anti boxing 1" per ■-rrc-frfM to MO per cent, 
cent, extra. Desertp- | j. The remaining milk 
five circulars sent L 111 { renUiiaaltltsswct v 
free on application aj JUIHlMLA s, ness ami can be 
used with coffee, tea. cic. This machine also pro¬ 
duces the finest Ice cream In four minutes. 
County agents, with first class reference, wanted. 
F. A. FRANK, Patkntkk & Sou: MaNT'FActvkkr 
Principal ome: :Ub East Md Street. New York. 
THE INNOVATIONS OF CITY PEOPLE. 
I was reading a short article by Helen Her¬ 
bert, the other day, entitled “ The Emigration 
of the Fairies,” and one or two sentences 
found echo in my heart as they would in the 
heart of any true lover of Nuture. 
Queen Tita complains: “ They have cut 
down our forests, dammed our streams, etc.” 
The king answers: “ It is true, oue by one our 
haunts and trysting places have been de¬ 
stroyed. As you kuow, this wood is the only 
one left in all the country around.” 
So it is in the country around here. When 
we came here five years ago, a short walk in 
almost any direction would bring us to some 
beautiful spot, beautiful by Nature, and as 
God made it, and our walks were refreshing, 
aud we never wearied of the enjoyment we 
derived from them. Then, too, we could en¬ 
joy berrying excursions and come home with 
our baskets and pails full of w ild blackberries. 
Since then rnuuy city folks have come here 
aud settled, aud they are striving to their 
utmost to have all rural beauties improved 
away. You can now walk but a short way 
before you meet a fence barring your progress, 
or see the axe leveling noble trees seemingly 
for no other purpose thau to destroy nature. 
Far aod near, even on the loneliest roads, the 
blackberry bushes have fallen before the 
sickle aud a wild blackberry bush is uow a 
rarity. If they build they strive to make 
their home os near a city one as they can. 
Every natural beauty must be done away 
with; stiff walks aud stiffer beds of flowers, 
adorn their grounds, while as for trees if they 
have any, the}’ are purchased, and set out 
with geometrical precision. 
Last year they attacked the banks of our 
lovely stream, calling it improvement to cut 
down the lovely vines, underbrush and trees. 
Why can’t people who don’t love nature as 
she is, remain in the city, where they evi¬ 
dently beloug, being too great devotees to 
improvements to enjoy real country life. 
Often, when passiug some of these improved 
grounds, 1 unconsciously compare them with 
those of the Rural, at River Edge, which are 
most exquisitely kept, yet so arranged that 
you forget the art, aud fancy it all natural. 
There every turn brings some new and unex¬ 
pected beauty to view, and 1 wonder not at 
the happluess of those who dwell there. 
AUNT EM. 
A PRETTY HAND-BAG. 
I was attracted this morning by a very 
handsome hand-bag in the window of a fancy 
store. It was marked £12. Upon pricing the 
materials I found it could bo made for less 
than one-tbird of that sum. Small brass rings 
rather larger than an ordinary finger-ring 
are 50 cents for four dozen, and about six dozen 
are necessary. Four balls of crocheting silk, 
£1.20; beads, 25 cents; and plush and ribbon, 
£1 25. A quantity of the beads, which were 
a sort of shimmering sea-green in color, are 
threaded on a ball of the silk, aud the rings 
covered with crochet in single stitch, each 
stitch containing a bead. These rings are 
sewn together five deep and 14 the other way, 
which double makes the size of the bag in 
width. The spaces iu betweeu the rings, and 
the inside of the rings, are crossed with a 
thread of the silk thickly strung with beads, 
aud caught aud fastened on the back. This is 
doue with a needle. Now you have the shape 
of the bag, but it is not deep enough. To 
make it the requisite size, crochet with the 
silk, joining it to the ring and bead work, in 
simple bar crochet, working in a bead here 
and there. This outer covering is slipped on 
over a bag of plush or silk and lined with 
sateen. Shirr with a draw-string made of 
pale blue-green ribbon the color of the beads, 
aud finish with a fringe of the beads. The 
color of the silk and plush was cardinal. 
In New York where materials for fancy 
work are much cheaper, this might be made 
for two dollars. I hope 1 have made the di¬ 
rections clear. m. m. 
San Francisco, Cal. 
WANTED.—AGENTS to -ell a first-class ami ran 
Idly selling Invention. Wo cau guarantee big profits 
to the right kind of men. 
HI LI- M’F’G CO , Buffalo. N. 
<IJC to S.S a day. Samples worth *1.50. FREE, 
y Lines not under the horse’s feet. Write 
Brewster Suteiy Hein Holder Co., UoUv.Mich. 
ft-ix;ant large 
UUU TURKISH HUGH 
Given to the 1.A DIES of purchasers of Sample 
Harness with a view of an agency In territory where 
we have no agent. Send for full particulars. 
SHERWOOD HA RNESS CO., Syracuse. S. Y. 
H ATLJ M A antl ail rm KK 
LX I 1*4 IWI XX can bt rural only by 
III lvl> * Hr. Itair’H Sj/n/rnt. 
St Page TreatUa »ent Free. Dr. W. B. Hair, Cincinnati, 0. 
Domestic Cccmoimj 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED. 
This Magazine portrays Ameri¬ 
can thought and life from ocean to 
ocean, is tilled with pare high-class 
literature, aud can be safely wel¬ 
comed in any family circle. 
PRIGE 25c. OR $3 A YE AR BY MAIL. 
Sample Copy of current number mailed upon re¬ 
ceipt of 25 cts.; back numbers, 15 etc. 
Premium List with either. 
Address.- 
a. T. BUSH & SON, Publishers, 
130 & 132 Pearl St., N. Y. 
PITHS 
Don’t yon eat too much? 
Are you a borrower? 
Do you nag? 
Are you in the habit of frequently telling 
your wife how your mother did? 
Can you expect your children to be polite 
when you order them right and left without 
even a “please” or u “thank you?” 
Do you buy your wife's clothes for fear she 
might spend a dime too much on them? 
Were you too tired last night to wish the 
members of your family a good night, and 
was it too much trouble this morning to say 
“good morning?” 
Do you ehew and smoke? If so, pray don’t 
grumble over the tea, sugar and coffee bills. 
Do you keep your promises to your chil¬ 
dren? 
How about that money from the butter aud 
eggs? 
ECONOMICAL MEAT HINTS. 
The members of my family are very fond of 
sweet-breads, but as that is an expensive dish 
and one not always to be bad, I have found au 
excellent substitute in the form of calves’ 
brains. Blanch and cook the same as you 
would sweetbreads. 
The boues and trimmings from roasts and 
steaks (I use the tough end of the steaks too), 
furnish the material for our soups aud stows. 
I prefer a llat-bone sirloin steak to a porter¬ 
house. A porter-house steak is always au ex¬ 
pensive cut, for aside from the small portion 
known as the filet, it is usually not as tender 
as the flat-bone sirloin and the end which 
weighs almost, if not quite as much as the 
broad part is absolutely worthless in tin shape 
of steak. 
Do you fry your steak ! If so, try broiling 
it for the next half dozen times you cook it. 
If you then prefer fried to broiled steak, I shall 
be disappointed. I use a wire broiler .and 
GOLD MEDAL, PARIS, 187S. 
BAKERS 
FERN PRESS. 
KITCHEN TALKS. 
While calling on a friend, the other day, I 
saw a little machine that I am sure many of 
our Rural girls would like to possess. It was 
a fern press. I asked my friend for a draw¬ 
ing of it, but she was, like myself, not one bit 
of an artist, and uever could draw a straight 
line. But I'll do the best l can at describing 
it, and I think the brothers, or even the girls 
themselves, if they are handy with tools, cau 
fashion oue. The machine consisted of two 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
Oranges and lemons were never so cheap 
with us as this season, aud we have been bus}’ 
putting up a quantity into marmalade for 
present use. or to keep, if need be. The best 
recipe we have found is called 
st. clement’s preserve: 
Take equal quantities of oranges and lemons 
