784 
NOV 24 
or back into the parlor, where with boobs and 
work baskets it gave a very home like look to 
the apartment. The piano, a rented one of 
course, was an upright, and helped in the 
furnishing after Judith had decorated it with 
a pretty scarf of olive felt, with a running 
arabesque in dark red crewels. 
Two light wicker-backed chairs cost SI 50 
each, and when we had a friend or two to 
spend the evening, they were embellished by 
splashy bows of cardinal ribbon. If they 
came to supper we took off the bows to make 
them look more like dining chairs, and bor¬ 
rowed extra ones from the landlady. Splint 
rockers at Macy’s can be bad for 79 cents 
—aesthetic with a cushion of pale green plush, 
and bows of terra cotta, and pale green rib¬ 
bon. But easy? Oh, no! you can’t have every¬ 
thing for a cent. Our latest purchase was an 
old-fashioned Boston rocker — though why 
called “ Boston ” I can’t pretend to say. It is 
cushioned with cretonne of a pattern as an¬ 
tique as the chair. This chair cost $1.50, the 
cretonne, cotton and braid another dollar, 
and you couldn’t buy more comfort with $20. 
A pretty little bamboo set of shelves ($1.50) 
holds our one extravagance, our pretty set of 
china, but even this latter we got for a song, 
by buying odd pieces at odd times. Pretty 
Madras curtains for our windows have been 
added lately, and, at $2. per pair, give an air 
of elegance quite in contrast to the shabby 
boarding-house air of the rooms we had left. 
We have furnished our table delightfully 
again by contrast for $2. each per week, re¬ 
ducing the cost of living to $3.50 per week. 
If you care to hear, I shall at a future day 
tell you how we managed to do this, and, my 
word for it,"you will want to sup with a 
BREAD-WINNER. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Use well the moment: what the hour 
Brings for thy use Is In th.v power; 
And what, thou best canst understand. 
Is what lies nearest to thy hand. 
Goethe. 
Tiie Independent says there are sorrows of 
the heart which men experience in this world, 
that in kind and intensity pass beyond all 
relief from merely human resources. There 
is but one being in the universe that can sup¬ 
ply the effectual antidote for these sorrows, 
and that being is God himself who invites us 
to cast all our burdens upon him, with the 
assurance that he “careth for us.” It is alike 
his province and his pleasure to make all 
things work together for good to them that 
love him. 
It has been forcibly said of the Gospel of 
Christ that it is a stream which a child may 
ford; and in which an elephant can swim. 
It is so simple as to what is to be done in the 
matter of our salvation, that young children 
can receive it and be saved by it; and at the 
same time it is so grand and great, indeed, so 
vast in its dimensions, that men of the highest 
intellectual grade can find in it the most 
ample opportunity for the exercise of all their 
powers... 
Josh Billings said, in his quaint way, 
many people spend their time trying to find 
the hole where sin got into the world. If two 
men break through the ice in a mill-pond, 
they had better hunt for some good hole tew 
get out, rather than get into a long argument 
about the hole they cum to fall in. 
There is a whole sermon in the couplet 
translated from the German by Longfellow, 
“Joy and Temperance and Repose, 
Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.” 
There is an element of humor as well as 
truth in J. G. Holland’s statement that it 
would seem as if Nature, in making up man¬ 
kind, had always’ been a little short of ma¬ 
terials, so that if special attention were be¬ 
stowed on the form and face, the brain suffer- 
ered, and if the brain received special 
attention, why then there was something lack¬ 
ing in the body. 
The following is from Life: Conscientious 
Scruples.—Obadiah, of Fifth Avenue (to Mrs. 
Obadiak); “Aren’t you going to church this 
morning, my dear?” Mrs. O: “No; I am 
compelled to stay at home. Parker says the 
footman is sick. Fancy how it would look 
driving to church without a footman on the 
box!” Mr. O: “Why don’t you take a stage?” 
Mrs. O: “Because I think it is downright 
wicked that the stages are permitted to run 
on Sunday.” 
Thatcher’s Orange Butter Color is 
now found in nearly every hamlet that can 
boast of a store, as well as the largest cities 
throughout the dairy belt in the U. S. and 
Canada, and has been thoroughly tested and 
approved by thousands of our leading cream-, 
pry men.—Adv. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Domestic (Ecorromij 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
“I can’t do everything.” This is the plea 
of lazy egotists, or of those who don’t do any¬ 
thing properly. 
EXTRACTS FROM SUNDAY EVENING 
TALKS AT THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Benevolence, generosity, beneficence, 
benignity, charity, liberality, munificence, 
and other similar words cannot be separated 
from one another. To attempt to define any 
one necessarily defines, in part, the others. 
I wish to talk of that feeling which urges one 
to love mankind and to promote their happi¬ 
ness; that feeling that can’t reconcile itself to 
the infliction of unnecessary pain of any 
kind; that delights in a neighbor’s success and 
grieves over his misfortune; that would never 
strike an enemy that is down, or use a friend 
to his disadvantage. . 
There is very little real benevolence in the 
world, because the word is so comprehensive 
that it includes nearly every other good quali¬ 
ty. To say that he is a truly benevolent man 
is nearly the same as saying that he is a truly 
good man. But in colloquial language it has a 
more specific sense—a narrower sense,and it is 
very often misapplied. 
“Benevolence begins at home.” Is that a 
true aphorism? What does it mean? It be¬ 
gins at home. Where does it endl How far 
should it be confined to home ? Have you a 
right to give to another while your wife or 
child needs anything whatever at home? We 
will all of us agree that if our wife is hun¬ 
gry, we are not called upon to give the last 
morsel to another man’s wife who is also hun¬ 
gry. 
Are you one of those who would justify the 
act of stealing a loaf to give to your hungry 
child? Do you think that God would counte¬ 
nance the act? 
Every man and woman owe something to 
society, because it is an aggregate of individ¬ 
uals that makes society, the same as a smaller 
aggregate of individuals makes a family. 
What is the family to do in order to best pro¬ 
mote the best interests of society? The par¬ 
ent must educate his children, as best he may 
morally, intellectually and physically. That 
is his first duty to society, and one’s first duty 
to society is evidently one’s first duty to God. 
Now if I have the means to do this and my 
means will permit me to do no more, am 
I to neglect my own child’s education to help 
the education of my neighbor's child? There 
is no such thing as a healthy, intellectual or 
moral progress if the physical progress is 
neglected. The child that is crying of hun¬ 
ger, is not in a condition to study Latin or 
algebra; he is not in a condition to listen to 
the teachings of Christ. It is the parent’s 
duty to allay that hunger and until he does 
so, he has no right to give to a neighbor's 
hungry child that for which his own craves. 
* * * 
In these days of great wealth for the few, 
a contribution of $10,000, for a monument; 
the founding of the--home, or the 
maintenance of decrepid --is not un¬ 
common. The papers dwell upon the chari¬ 
tableness of the douors, and Mr.-’s name 
is carried down as the founder of that insti¬ 
tution. But how often do you hear of a 
cas * where an unknown man gives $10,000 to 
alleviate the suffering of his fellow men, as 
in the case of the stricken Jacksonville 
people? 
“You tickle me and I’ll tickle you” is a 
favorite form that pseudo-benevolence takes, 
a cordial agreement that people tacitly or 
openly enter into, that each, without cost, 
may further certain ends of the other. 
* * * 
Naturally, benevolence, charity, generos¬ 
ity assume many sham forms,—just as does 
Christianity. They are the disguises for 
those who desire, in one way or another, to 
appear what they are not. Simply that. I 
see that you are stuck, my friend; here are 
$50. I hepe the sum will carry you through. 
At any rate don’t come to me for more.” At 
home he remarks to his wife: “I gave Smith, 
the ne’er-do-well, $50. I could not well avoid 
it. He helped us you know in years gone 
by and he reminded me of it. I am done 
with him.” What do the angels in Heaven 
say of that act of benevolence? 
* * * 
When you have occasion, my friends, to 
ascertain whether a given individual is act¬ 
ing from benevolent motives, go to his home, 
pee if it is in order, See if bis children are 
candid and fearless; see if the wife is ready to 
split with a desire to show up the weaknesses 
and reproachable acts of her neighbors. 
Talk with the servants; question the children. 
I want to see the man’s family that gives 
$100 to some charity, or that sends it to 
foreign lands, before I can judge whether it 
was a selfish or a benevolent act. I want to 
see if his family is happy and benevolently 
provided for; if his children are young devils, 
or if, in their bright faces, the innocence and 
frankness of childhood glow. I want to see 
if that home is in order. 
* * * 
There is a tendency in this age, particular¬ 
ly it seems among literary persons, to under¬ 
value the Bible. The lawyer in his office 
reads and studies volume after volume of legal 
lore, bending every energy to keep posted on 
the latest decisions of the highest authorities 
in the land, in order to keep pace with his 
profession, aud to be ready for every emerg- 
gency. How often do we find one of this 
class in the Sunday School, studying for only 
one short hour, the law of the Lord, the great 
fundamental principle upon which all other 
laws are based? How many of them, think you, 
could be found who could respond to the 
words of the psalmist, “Oh, how I love thy 
law! It is my meditation all the day.” The 
student who goes into ecstacies over the writ¬ 
ings of Dickens, Thackeray, Goethe and the 
more modern writers, may think the study of 
the Bible unworthy of his attention. Does 
he ever pause to think who endowed these 
authors he so much admires with their intel¬ 
lects? 
DINNER DISHES. 
A Good dinner does not depend upon the 
number of its courses, but upon their har¬ 
mony, and in a degree, upon the newness, 
and originality of its dishes. Routine in 
cookrng is the worst enemy of the palate. 
The most excellent article of food, cooked in 
the most artistic manner, making its appear¬ 
ance with looked-for regularity, will come to 
be loathed. When I recall the “Steak or 
Chop?”, “Steak or Chop?” of a former board¬ 
ing-house, at which these delectable viands 
were served either underdone or charred, 365 
times in the year, I can appreciate the feeling 
of old John Randolph of Roanoke, who had 
such an aversion to mutton that he said he 
would any time walk a mile to kick a sheep. 
Rather hard on the poor sheep, which certainly 
never asks to be made into mutton. 
A consommd, a filleted sole, a roast of beef, 
with vegetables, and a tart or pudding make 
an excellent dinner; but let its exact counter¬ 
part be served to you every day for a month, 
and you would welcome porridge and molas¬ 
ses by wav of a change. Few families, or 
even boarding-houses serve the same dinner 
several days in succession; but it is very com¬ 
mon to have a certain bill-of-fare for each day 
in the week, and to cling to it with a persist¬ 
ency worthy of a better cause. 
Beef, mutton, veal, corn-beef, fish and poul¬ 
try follow each other with nauseating uni¬ 
formity. A man’s stomach is about as un¬ 
ruly an organ as a woman’s tongue, I was 
about to say; but mindful of the fact that I 
am talking to women, I will let the noun 
stand in the common gender. A dinner that 
would be accepted with appreciative delight, 
if a matter of surprise, a person is very 
likely to rebel against if it is a certainty. No 
one likes to have his calendar read “boiled 
mutton, corned beef, liver and bacon,” etc, 
instead of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.” 
A beef’s heart, is a nice little, economical 
dinner, and the difference between its cost 
and that of a joint or steak will “put money 
in your purse.” It will probably cost you 
from 10 to 15 cents, aud must be fresh. Buy 
at the same time 10 cents’ worth of soup bones, 
and make your butcher understand that you 
mean “bones”, and a variety of them,—a bit 
of mutton scrag, of knuckle of veal, and a 
beef bone of some sort. “The bones that I 
sell to the bone man for almost nothing would 
furnish soup for the whole village,” said a 
village butcher to me one day, appreciative 
of the fact that he told me, as with an uncouth 
attempt at a compliment, “there was one 
woman who knew how to buy soup meat.” 
Soak the beef’s heart for an hour in a large 
pan of cold water, and meantime put the 
soup bones over the fire with four quarts of 
cold water, placing them where a gentle 
simmering will be maintained. Wash the 
heart well in two or three waters, and make 
for the cavities a dressing of stale bread, a 
minced, fried onion, plenty of finely minced 
celery, parsley, and salt and pepper. Press it 
in well, and sew up in a thin cloth that fits 
exactly. Plunge it into the pot of soup, and 
let it cook slowly three hours, adding to the 
soup the usual vegetables, aud herbs. 
Cook in another saucepan a cupful of 
celery cut in dice, uatil tender; just before 
dinner, melt a tablespoonful of butter in a 
small saucepan, stir in an equal amount of 
flour, add equal parts of the water in which 
the celery was cooked, and broth from the 
soup-kettle; season with salt and pepper, and 
add the drained celery. Dish the heart a few 
minutes before sending to table, and when 
you come to carve there will also be a brown 
gravy in the dish. Carve down, not across, 
in thin slices, and serve, grape, currant, or 
plum jelly with it. The meat is little inferior 
to venison, which it resembles. It is nice 
sliced cold, and the remains, minced, and 
heated with some of the sauce, with toast and 
egg, give a delightful breakfast. 
Stuffed with oysters, and served with an 
oyster sauce, it makes a nice little entree at a 
modest company dinner, but don’t forget 
jelly, and crisp celery. Have the soup 
strained and set away until the next day, and 
when the cake of fat is removed from the top, 
you will have three quarts of rich, dark- 
brown stock, the heart giving a better color¬ 
ing than caramel, to say nothing of flavor. 
Speaking of the barmo^' of a dinner, it is a 
barbarism to serve certain vegetables with 
meat. They should always be a separate 
course by themselves. London Society says 
a man who knows what he is about always 
declines asparagus when it is not offered as a 
separate course. Truly it deserves such a 
distinction. In a mcl6e with gravy and meat 
it becomes limp, and looks as wretched as it 
tastes under the degradation of being eaten 
with a fork. Beans, peas, and artichokes, un¬ 
less used as a garnish, should be sent to the 
table as entries. 
An interesting writer on cookery suggests 
that the incongruous, inharmonious, and un¬ 
savory mixtures composing the usual bills of- 
tare of all classes of people, have much to do 
with our social, mental, and physical ail¬ 
ments, and that a harmonious adjustment of 
the things we eat and drink would in a great 
measure prevent disease, vice and crime. 
SUPPER DISHES. 
If there is a brook on the farm, sardines, 
served on a bed of water cress make an appe¬ 
tizing and attractive supper dish. Garnish 
with pieces of lemon, and pass one of the lat¬ 
ter to each person. 
Any country butcher can supply a beef’s 
tongue. Keep it in brine for several davs, 
then boil till tender, and when cold and firm 
slice in thin slices. Remove the skin while 
hot. The pink slices make a pretty and at¬ 
tractive dish, garnished with the crisp pale- 
green inner leaves of lettuce or with parsley 
or celery tops. A stoned olive here aud 
there, one to be passed to each guest, is a fea¬ 
ture liked by some. Another use for tongue 
is in salad. Cut half a tongue in small dice 
with the whites of three hard-boiled eggs; add 
the white hearts of two heads of lettuce torn 
in shreds, or an equal quantity of the white 
stalks of celery cut in dice, and mix well with 
a salad dressing; place in the salad dish, and 
sprinkle with the crumbled yelks of the eggs. 
This should be done the last thing before 
placing it on the table. If you object to oil, 
make a nice boiled dressing. Beat two eggs, 
add half a teaspoonful each of sugar and 
made mustard, and three tablespoonfuls each 
of butter, sweet cream and vinegar; place 
over hot water in a double boiler and stir un¬ 
til as thick as boiled custard. When cold, 
season to taste with salt and Cayenne, aud 
thin with lemon juice if too thick. 
A handsome dish is made as follows : Boil a 
chicken, aud while it is getting cold strain the 
liquor in which it was cooked, remove the 
fat, season with salt, pepper, celery, mace aud 
lemon juice, and reduce by boiling to about a 
pint. Chop the meat of the chicken when 
firm and cold with the third of a cold-boiled 
tongue; add a cup of fine bread or cracker 
crumbs and two well beaten eggs. Make 
quite moist with the liquor, and if not seasoned 
sufficiently by this add more. Butter an 
earthen dish, preferably of an oblong shape, 
fill with the mixture, packing it in tigntlyand 
leaving room for it to swell. Set in a steamer 
over boiling water and cook two hours. Let 
it cool before turning out on a platter. Gar¬ 
nish with cold boiled beets, and serve some of 
the above salad dressing in a separate dish. 
Lettuce and cresses may be interspersed with 
the beets. palmetto. 
When Baoy was sick, we gave her Castorla, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castorla, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castorla, 
When she had Children, she gave them.Castorla 
