FEB IS 
*16 
his three meals a day. Then again, I’ve read 
so much about folks feeling above their hired 
girls, and using them as inferiors, and thus 
making housework appear to be degrading 
and making good help scarce, and I think 
refusing to eat with the hired man looks very 
much in the same light. It looks as if you 
thought him an inferior when he does the same 
work as the professed owner of the farm (who 
often doesn’t possess much more worldly 
goods than the scorned hired-man). Now I hope 
the sisters will not seize and pick my few re¬ 
marks all to pieces, and make me feel as if I 
had committed an awful crime in expressing 
my opinions on a subject of so much interest 
to agricultural households. 
DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY. 
This very necessary element in the happi¬ 
ness of the family circle can be attained only 
by the consent and mutual forbearance of 
* both parties. “Bear and forbear” is a good 
motto for a young couple to begin life on. I 
sometimes doubt whether a very happy fami¬ 
ly relation can be maintained without the 
help of God’s grace. At best we are only 
grown-up children, and often commit faults 
for which we would punish the little ones. 
Says a gentleman writing to the Toronto 
Globe: 
“Sometimes my wife and I say on Sunday: 
‘Now let us agree that we will not say a single 
cross word to any one this whole week. Let 
us be studiously polite to each other and to 
the children. Let us be very mindful of the 
feelings of every person with whom we may 
come into contact. Let us not fret, or com¬ 
plain, or do anything that good, decent, well- 
behaved Christiaus should not do.’ And if 
when the next Sunday shall come we have, 
throughthe grace of God, kept this resolve, it 
goes without saving that we have been happy 
and the world has perhaps been made a little 
better for our being in it.” 
A little more of this spirit would save many 
a family from the scandal and disgrace of a 
divorce conrt. If husbands and wives would 
only stop to think how very paltry any cause 
for disagreement is in comparison with their 
love for each other, how much easier it would 
be to meet each other half way in giving in. 
A newly married couple were once drawn 
into a dispute that bade fair to be their first 
quarrel. Finding that they could not agree, 
the husband said, “Who should give in, the 
stronger or the weaker party?” 
“Neither,” replied his wife, giving him a 
kiss of reconciliation and peace; “but the one 
that loves the most.” 
Now, if you look at it in that light, suppos¬ 
ing you love each other rightly, you will both 
be striving, not to see who shall get his or her 
way, but who shall be proven to love the 
most. 
Pride between married people is a bad ad¬ 
viser. Jack, in the gayest of spirits, gives 
utterance to some little jest, meant, perhaps, 
to be a very loving one. Clara, whose mood 
just then is not a lively one, or who possibly 
is of such a disposition that she cannot appre¬ 
ciate a jest, frowns and sulks, and pouts, and 
poor Jack, unconscious of any wrong inten¬ 
tion, does not see where he has offended. Now 
a little explanation would set everything 
right, but Clara is proud, and stands on her 
dignity, and so the little breach goes on 
widening, until perhaps she goes home to her 
mother. 
Tact is sometimes helpful where mere for¬ 
bearance would fail, but it is so easy for a 
woman with her life behind her to lecture and 
give advice, that I am reminded of a remark 
of the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher: “No 
man’s foresight is equal to other peoples’ hind¬ 
sight.” SELMA CLARE. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Tillotson says to be always intending to 
lead a new life, but never to find time to set 
about it, is as if a man should put off eating 
and drinking from one day to another, till he 
is starved and destroyed. 
Most men, says W. R. Alger, live blindly 
to repeat a routine of drudgery and indul¬ 
gence, without any deliberately chosen and 
maintained aims. Few live distinctly to de¬ 
velop the value of their being, know the truth, 
love their fellows, enjoy the beauty of the 
world and aspire to God. 
“I will tell you a good proverb,” says the 
Rev. J. Vaughan, “I wish you would always 
remember it. ‘God has given us eyelids as 
well as eyes.’ Do you understand it? What 
are eyelids for? Not to see. Your eyes are 
to see with. Your eyelids not to see. Re¬ 
member there are a great many things in life 
—bad things—and God has given us eyelids 
that we may not see them, as well as eyes to 
look at the good things. Use your eyelids. 
Do not see the bad things. Do not -see them.” 
A young man engaged in scoffing, in a bar¬ 
room, offered to sell his interest in Christ for 
$5. A stranger quietly took out a $5 bill, with 
pen and paper, and asked the young man to 
write; “I,-, hereby renounce, both now 
pud fpreyer, all claim lmay have in jlesus 
NEW-YORKER. 
Christ, for the sum of” —his hand trembled 
and stopped. Ashy pale, he said: “ No, I 
may need Him by-and-by.”. 
Moody reminds his hearers that Christ 
never failed to distinguish between doubt and 
unbelief. Doubt is can't believe ; unbelief is 
won't believe. Doubt is honesty; unbelief is 
obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbe¬ 
lief is content with darkness. Loving dark¬ 
ness rather than light—that is what Christ 
attacked. 
In the same address he said: “What about 
evolution?.That upsets more men than 
perhaps anything else at the present hour. 
How would you deal with it? I would say to 
a man that Christianity is the farther evolu¬ 
tion. I don’t know any better definition than 
that. It is the farther evolution—the higher 
evolution. I don’t start with him to defend 
it. I destroy by fulfilling it. I take him at 
his own terms. He says evolution is that 
which pushes the man on from the simple to 
the complex, from the lower to the higher. 
Very well: that is what Christianity does. It 
pushes the man farther on. It takes him 
where Nature has left him, and carries him on 
to hights which, on the plane of Nature, he 
could never reach. That is evolution. ‘Lead 
me to the Rock that is higher than I.’ That 
is evolution.” . 
The Independent says: “Many things are 
said of Christ in the Bible which are true of 
him only in reference to his human nature; 
and so also many things are said of him in the 
same book which caDnot possibly be true, ex¬ 
cept in respect to his divine nature. It is only 
when we recognize Christ as both human and 
divine that we can understandingly read and 
• receive all that the Bible says about him. 
Christ in this respect is to thought the great 
and glorious mjstery of the Gospel.”. 
The Bible tells us that Christians, in the 
matter of promoting the Kingdom of Christ 
among men, are “ laborers together with 
God.” They do not work alone. God works 
with them, and by them and through them. 
He associates his power with their efforts, 
and they associate their efforts with his pow¬ 
er. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, and God 
gives the increase. Human efforts approved 
by God,and accompanied by divine efficiency, 
are sure to succeed . 
A DEFENCE OF PIE. 
HENRY STEWART. 
It is the fashion just now to decry and 
abuse all sorts of pies as being indigestible, 
unwholesome, and consequently productive 
of disease. It is alleged that the prevailing 
dyspepsia which is the favorite national ail¬ 
ment, is due to the pie which is so popular, 
and that the fat used so plentifully in the paste 
is the principal cause of this prevalent dis¬ 
order of the digestive functions. All these 
allegations I deny, and will undertake to show 
that pie is nutritious and healthful—when it 
is well made and the paste is light. A heavy, 
soggy pie is no doubt injurious just as heavy 
sour bread is: but that is not the fault of the 
pie itself, but of the cook. Moreover, I allege 
in my turn that the prevalent habit of eating 
too fast and of drinking too much during 
meals—and I can prove it too—is really one 
cause of dyspepsia, the other being the excess¬ 
ive unrest and w’orry common to the Ameri¬ 
can people, from the bottom to the top. 
I well remember, when young, being on a 
visit to England and dining at a popular hotel 
at which a vegetarian association had their 
headquarters and partook of their feasts. By 
some mistake the people of the hotel served 
the vegetariau banquet in the room devoted 
to the “ordinary,” and the “ordinary” dishes 
were served up to the vegetarians. The latter 
were late and their dinner was cut up and 
nearly all eaten by the “ordinary” guests, be¬ 
fore the mistake was explained. The dinner 
was all pie. There was a most savory vegeta¬ 
ble pie, filled with what looked iike turkey- 
stuffing; other pies of turnips, carrots, onions, 
etc., etc., lemon pies, custard pies, mince pies 
(without meat) and a lot of indescribable pies 
all inclosed by the lightest of puff paste and 
very toothsome. When we had eaten all the 
pies, and were about to take hold of the pud¬ 
dings, a frenzied waiter bore in upon us, hold¬ 
ing aloft a steaming beefsteak pie, and ex¬ 
plained that we had got the wrong dinner, and 
that the vegetarians had got ours. Then our 
proper repast was brought in—the grand beef¬ 
steak pie, a venison pie, a rook pie, pork and 
ham pie; and then apple pie, cranberry and 
other tarts, and mmce pies. 
Here was a pious feast, truly and wholly 
English, lacking only the national roast sir¬ 
loin. Even the vegetariaus^-the Graham 
bread and oatmeal eaters- Seeiliul, fed 
upon pie, and their sort of feeding is supposed 
to be based upon its digestibility and health¬ 
fulness. 
What is there in pie, that is necessarily 
unwholesome, or burdensome upon the house¬ 
wives, that Mr James Wood at a farmers’ 
institute should say, “The burdens of Ameri¬ 
can wives would be much lightened if it were 
not for pie, and that pie is the cause of Ameri¬ 
can indigestion”? There are flour and fat (lard 
or butter) and fruit or succulent vegetable. Is 
the flour unwholesome ? It may be, especially 
the white new-process kind which is all starch; 
but if it is, it is for what it lacks rather than 
for what it contains. Is the fat unwholesome ? 
Not at all ; for butter and lard are really 
wholly digestible and the most nutritious of 
foods. A leading physician recently stated 
in a medical journal that the popular pre¬ 
judice against fat food was quite a mistaken 
one, that the prevalent consumption in this 
country might be avoided much better by the 
use of more fatty food than by the use of cod 
liver oil which was necessarily employed be¬ 
cause of the prejudice against pork, lard and 
butter in our household cookery. It is true 
there are mistakes made even by physicians 
in their views of professional matters; but it 
is very well established that the fat in our food, 
when taken in such an intimate mixture as in 
well made pastry, is healthfully assimilated 
and is far more wholesome than sugar. Indeed 
the excessive quantity of sugar used by 
Americans in the form of confectionary, as 
well as in our food, is far more detrimental to 
health than is the fat in the pastry. 
Now with regard to the very common habit 
of drinking at meals, much that is derogatory 
of the practice might very justly be said, more 
especially when hot drinks, as tea or coffee, 
are taken. A small quantity of wine or of cold 
water is admissible; but a large quantity is 
certainly provocative of indigestion by exces¬ 
sively diluting the semi-liquid food and the 
digestive fluids, and hastening the passage of 
the food from the stomach into the intestines 
where it is only partially digested. It is a 
better practice to drink before meals, and the 
use of nutritious soups at the beginning of a 
meal is beneficial because the fluid is quickly 
absorbed, and the fat in it, in a finely divided 
condition, is formed into an emulsion with 
the digestive fluids, and passes rapidly into the 
circulation. Long before the meal is finished 
the soup, if taken in a moderate quantity, is 
passed into the blood and is aiding in the sup¬ 
ply of sufficient saliva and other digestive 
secretions to dispose successfully of the solid 
foods which follow it. The habit of drinking 
too much, at all or any tunes, is quickly fixed, 
and then is difficult to overcome. Many persons, 
myself included,never drink betweenmeals.and 
at meals only moderately. A quart of liquid 
per day is sufficient, along with the large 
quantity of moisture in the solid food, for a 
full-grown person, and needs to be exceeded 
only by those who are given to the habit of 
chewing tobacco, by which an enormous 
amount of saliva is wasted and must be re¬ 
placed. 
I would like to discuss the other suggestion 
made by Mr. James Wood, viz., that pie is a 
burden upon American wives. On the con¬ 
trary,it is their delight,and I am sure a skillful 
housekeeper is very much gratified by any al¬ 
lusion .tothe excellenceof her “piesand things” 
(often slyly meant as “pizen things” by their 
arch enemies). A well made pie is a work of 
art and a means of mental culture. It is a 
matter of the nicest calculation and most ju¬ 
dicious selection of materials and means, and 
as such the making of it is not a labor but a re 
creation. I have seen a young lady labor most 
exhaustively over a performance on the piano, 
but never over a pie, which is a quiet, restful 
and pleasing work; and when it is taken from 
the oven brown, sweetly odorous, aromatic, 
and light as snow-flakes, it is a triumph which 
any young housekeeper may well rejoice over. 
No, a pie is not a burden, physically, intel¬ 
lectually or digestively; but a thing to be 
cherished and glorified. 
THE POSSIBILITIES OF A BEEFSTEAK. 
“Palmetto” has written of the “possibili¬ 
ties of a mutton chop,” but I do not recall any 
gastronomical writer that has sung the es¬ 
pecial praises of a beefsteak in a deserving 
manner. The habitues of the famous “Beef¬ 
steak Club,” in King William St., London, of 
which the Prince of Wales is a member, un¬ 
derstand its virtues. Not so the housewife 
who twice a day is content to throw her steak 
on a frying-pan, and transmit it to a dish, 
charred in one place, underdone in another, 
and reeking with greasy gravy. I do not for 
a moment believe that any lady who has read 
the Rural for any length of time, would be 
guilty of such cookery; but in my summer- 
ings- at mountain and sea-side resorts I have 
known hostesses who were. 
I will not discuss the superiority of certain 
cuts of beefsteak, fgp the country house¬ 
keeper it is often “Hobson’s choice”—she 
must take what she can get, or go without. 
If you find that a sirloin or porter-house is 
out of the question, console yourselves with 
the fact that many epicures pronounce a steak 
from the round the best flavored in the whole 
beef. If the rest of the animal was tender, 
this will be also. 
There will always be poorly-cooked steaks, 
though columns should be written telling how 
not to, as well as how to cook them. And yet 
the dir°ctions are so few and simple: a clear 
fire, a hot and slightly-greased gridiron, an 
evenly-cut steak, and a little judgment. Do 
not season it until after it leave's the fire. Do 
not stick a fork into the meat to turn it. 
If your broiler is not a double one, turn the 
meat by inserting a fork into the outer rim of 
fat. Turn before any signs of scorching are 
observed, and cook from five to 12 minutes 
according to the thickness of the steak, and 
whether it is wanted rare or well-done. 
A Pliiladelphia broil is very handy where 
wood is used for fuel, and could not be told 
from a broiled steak except from the fact that 
the marks of the gridiron are wanting. Make 
a smooth and clean frying-pan very hot. Do 
not use any fat but lay on the meat, turn and 
cook exactly as above, and in either case as 
soon as done transfer to a hot dish containing 
butter, and some pepper and salt. Turn the 
meat over once or twice before sending it to 
the table. 
So much for a plain steak. You may vary 
it indefinitely by sauces or other concomi¬ 
tants. For breakfast, scrambled eggs, or a 
plain omelet, or a home-made sausage accom¬ 
pany it nicely, and seem to quite change its 
nature. Fried bananas are especially nice 
with steak. They are served on a separate 
dish. Cut large bananas in four lengthwise 
and fry in a little butter. They are very rich 
and two slices are enough for each person. 
Fried tomatoes, or fried cucumbers in their 
season, are a nice garnish. Potatoes cut in 
little balls with a vegetable cutter, and fried 
in hot fat also garnish nicely, as do little 
cakes of mashed potato, molded and fried. A 
thick, juicy steak served in a border of boiled 
macaroni, that has been drained and seasoned 
with butter, grated cheese, pepper and salt, is 
a whole dinner in itself. Those of my read¬ 
ers who live where the field mushrooms can 
be bad for the picking are to be envied. 
Broil a beefsteak in the Philadelphia style, as 
described above; dish it, add a little butter to 
the gravy in the pan and put in a quantity of 
peeled and sliced mushrooms. Fry for five 
minutes and pour over the steak. Put a 
little water in the pan, give one boil and 
pour over all. 
In reading about the vegetable beefsteak 
recently, I could not help reflecting that a 
place like Epping Forest, where steaks grow 
on trees, cannot be a bad place to dwell in. 
Some readers may be interested in the follow¬ 
ing account of this strange edible, given in 
the English Mechanic: 
This fungus (Festuliua hepatica), which re¬ 
sembles a great red tongue protruding from 
tree stems, when once known can never be 
mistaken for any other species. When young 
it is a dull, pale, purplish red, but becomes 
more red and passes through brown to black 
as it decays. The under side is cream color, 
with minute red points occasionally, becom¬ 
ing yellowish red as it grows. It generally 
confines itself to old (and often prostrate) oaks 
but in Epping Forest it is not uncommon on 
the beech, and it has been observed on the 
chestnut, walnut, willow and other trees. Al¬ 
though such a large fungus, frequently weigh¬ 
ing from four to six pounds, its growth is 
very rapid, soon appearing and again disap¬ 
pearing, on ancient trunks in autumn. When 
cut, broken or bruised, it distills a copious red 
juice like beef gravy. 
“When grilled,” says Dr. Badham, “it is 
scarcely to be distinguished from broiled 
meat;” and Berkely describes it as “one of the 
best things he ever ate when prepared by a 
skilled cook.” There is a very slight acid fla¬ 
vor in the fungus when cooked, which adds 
considerable piquancy to the dish; it is ex¬ 
tremely tender, succulent and juicy, and re¬ 
sembles tender steak or tongue in a remarka¬ 
ble manner, the juice it distills being in taste 
and appearance like gravy from an excellent 
broiled rump steak. Of course, it should be 
gathered when quite young, fresh and clean, 
and at once prepared for the table in the fol¬ 
lowing manner: Wash and dry, cut into inch 
slices half an inch wide, soak in scalding wa¬ 
ter for five minutes and stew with butter and 
herbs; yelk of egg may then be added, and 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castoria. 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
Yi’hen she had Children, shp gfjyg f)]rm Castoria. 
