4889 
THE RURAL WIW-YORKER. 
403 
rebel. Better by far that the same time be 
spent in guileless play. Let their natures de¬ 
velop vigorously. It is in accord with nat¬ 
ural laws that children should, in great part, 
choose their own pastimes. Guided by whole¬ 
some study, later years will develop the 
earnestness of purpose, which we may hope 
will seat them on a sound hobby that they 
may safely and with benefit to society ride 
through life. 
HANDY. 
W E have recently hung up a slate and 
pencil in the kitchen for putting 
down items needed from the store. 
Orders are taken and goods delivered on 
Thursday of each week. A treacherous mem¬ 
ory sometimes causes a clog in the domestic 
working, but now when an article is needed 
it is at once placed on the slate, and taken off 
from our mind. It is hardy. We have also 
grown tired of running upstairs or going 
without, when in Deed of a pin in the kitchen. 
A small pin-cushion suspended just above the 
kitchen table now supplies us. 
Just such little contrivances prevent fric¬ 
tion, and friction you know, good women, 
wears and tears and ages. 
STARCH, AS MADE AND USED BY A 
MAN. 
W HILE reading the columns of starch 
lore in the R. N.-Y. of April 6, the 
writer was forcibly impressed by the fact 
that enough labor, time and worry are an¬ 
nually lost by each housekeeper in handling 
starch, to raise §100 worth of fruits and 
flowers. 
This is made less surprising when one con¬ 
siders that the great diversity of methods of¬ 
fered by the writers exhibits a total lack of 
aDy certain knowledge of the subject. How¬ 
ever, since all the conditions influencing it are 
uniform, and are under one’s c mtrol, it is 
apparent that the work should be governed 
by uniform rules. The women have done well 
in the effort to help each other, though the 
writer believes that each would-be helper 
benefited herself most in the attempt to help 
her neighbors. 
Since every woman and her mother have 
for a thousand years starched and ironed 
various things variously, no two alike,though 
all striving to the same eDd; and since not one 
woman in 1,000, though possessing the requi- 
site strength, can get, or keep after getting, 
employment in one of our large laundries, it 
is strongly suggestive of prejudicial influence 
exerted by former radically wrong methods. 
In California there are two laundries that 
employ, each,on an average, 200 hands. The 
stock of those companies is at or above par. 
Do they know how to starch and iron ? Nu¬ 
merous visits to those institutions, with note¬ 
book in hand, enaole the writer to give the 
general principles employed by them—besides, 
he can do the work himself. Some things 
must be understood, or, at least, accepted as 
facts; then when you have the principle and 
know the rules—the details being left to you— 
you will succeed if you have tact, courage 
and muscle; if you have not these requisites 
but nave the knowledge, you are still helped. 
It is the starch more than the cloto, that is 
to be treated, the cloth merely holding the 
starch while you punish it. Starch alone is 
all that is needed to make a shirt-bosom as 
smooth as a mirror—you probably know how 
that looks—and as stiff and “springy” as a 
carpenter’s saw. It is nonsense to try to 
work a body of starch into a fabric already 
loaded with water—dry the goods. A small 
amount of suet is sometimes added to the 
starch while cooking, to make the work 
easier for green bauds; but as it sometimes 
causes a blister, when a little too much is add¬ 
ed or when it is not properly mixed, it is un¬ 
safe; besides,it is not needed for a good ironer. 
A capable man will iron aud fluish from 60 to 
125 shirts a day; but though he cquld do 500 
he could not polish one with a common iron. 
The “polisher must be very hot, aud run 
very fast with heavy pressure. Ironing and 
polishing shirts is as hard work as chopping 
wood and harder than sawing it; so the wife 
had better get her husband to investigate the 
matter: the result would serve to illustrate 
some of the trifles that women do. A polished 
sui face will wear twice as long as au unpol¬ 
ished one without becoming soiled; but if you 
want whiter aud neater-looking linen just 
dampen it slightly after it has been polished 
and dry it with a common iron. Now mix 
the required amount of starch with a little 
cold water; then after taking out a-fourth of 
it, cook t ie remainder about 15 minutes; re¬ 
move it from the fire, and when slightly 
cooled add the rest. The added starch should 
whiten the mass just perceptibly, aud ihe 
starch should then be as thick as you could 
work or wring it into the cloth. While the 
starch is as hot as can be borne, turn the 
shirt-bosom, and grasping the body, around 
the bosom, with the left, use the right hand 
to work and wring in all the starch you can. 
Wring off the surplus, and turning the bosom 
treat it in the same way. Throw it on the 
table and hold it while with both hands 
y r u straighten the bosom and vigorously rub 
the starch into it with tne “heel” of your 
hand. It is nearly smooth, and comparative¬ 
ly dry, so throw the bottom up on the bosom, * 
and the cuffs on that end roll tightly, after 
which it may rest awhile, as this serves to dry 
it in a degree and absorbs the surplus starch. 
But since you did so good a job in the starch¬ 
ing you need only wait to “get your breath,” 
so get a seven-pound, or larger, iroD, which 
must be hot enough to brown the shirt at 
once if allowed to rest on it. Unroll the shirt 
and straighten out the wrinkles, having the 
collar always to the left. Take it by the back 
of the collar and the center of the lower pos¬ 
terior end, and with a sort of toss outward 
and a draw toward you, the shirt’s back lies 
doubled lengthwise. Be lively now, while 
you rub the hot iron over it, else you will 
scorch it. Pick it up by each end and turn, 
spreading the whole front up; and now your 
iron flies over that. Then to the sleeve?. 
Your iron is slightly—only slightly—cooled 
now, so turn the cuffs wrong side up and run 
the iron, lightly the first time, then with pres¬ 
sure, clear across and back; repeat it, and 
change to the other cuff; then you may turn 
them right side up and finish them with about 
three long, heavy strokes forward and back 
for each. Now to the collar-band, and then 
to the shoulders, after which comes the 
“tug of war.” If you have acted just right 
your iron is still hot enough to smooth 
the bosom,but I fear you have been a little 
slow and awkward, so you had better get 
a hotter one—heat is essential. Get 
one as hot as you can use without burn¬ 
ing. Take hold by the left shoulder and the 
center of the front flap and raise it up so 
that the uncut cloth of the back will lie under 
the bosom when put down, and lay the center 
line of the bosom on the edge of the table, 
the right half hanging over; since the wrin¬ 
kles are partly smoothed out, there is no dif¬ 
ficulty in gliding the iron— lightly —from bot¬ 
tom to top. Try it; better be compelled to 
dampen it again than not learn how to do it 
right. .Again push the iron over it, this time 
with pressure; now fairly ride it up and down 
a few times, to make it solid; put it up on the 
table and treat the other half in the same 
way. Well, there; you have been out a frac¬ 
tion over eight minutes, and it looks like a 
“ store ” shirt; but if the work has been an 
item of importance you must economize by 
putting on a little more. As your polisher is 
just a little too hot to iron with, it is about 
right, so now push a hard, smooth board into 
the shirt under the bosom, and with a soft 
cloth dampen the surface of about one fourth 
of the bosom—be careful there Dot to use too 
much water—now grasp the polisher firmly 
with the right, and, laying the left hand over 
it, put the rounded heel upon the cloth, 
throw on your weight and make the iron fairly 
dauce crosswise over that bosom, finishing by 
long strokes up and down with the bottom of 
the iron. Good! At last it is a “ thing of 
beauty;” and when vour “guid mon ” makes 
your cheeks red with praises you needn’t tell 
him that you learned how ’twas done from 
Downieville, California. p. h. r. 
WASHING. 
I WOULD like to give a few hints on wash¬ 
ing, on points on which others in their 
abler articles have not touched, and to me 
they are such great helps that I want other 
hard-working women to try them. I soak my 
white clothes in hot suds over-night; in the 
morning, I rub them out slightly and after 
making suds of cold water I add two table¬ 
spoonfuls of spirits of turpentine to a boiler 
of clothes. Let boil 20 minutes aud rub out 
of lukewarm wa'er and rinse. The clothes 
will come out snowy and sweet-siuelling with¬ 
out half of the rubbing. This treatment will 
not make the clothes tender aud is better than 
any washing fluid I have ever used. The 
views expressed in the Special, about washing 
colored clothes in starch water, setting the 
colors of delicate prints with salt water, etc., 
are mine also, only I use bran in a coarse sack 
instead of flour, which answers the purpose 
equally well and is more economical. But in 
washiug very dirty overalls, a job that falls 
to the lot of every farmer’s wife whose hus¬ 
band raises large quantities of potatoes, I 
want to give my plan. I had just such a pair 
yesterday, firm, thick and stiff with dirt. 
Well, verily, the “spirit was willing, but the 
flesh was weak,” aud, like Samantha Allen, 
I “ sithed a deep sigh ’’ and went at them, 
but my weak hands aud wrists refused to do 
the heavy work, so I got my scrubbing brush, 
(an ordinary one without a handle) and lay¬ 
ing the overalls, a part at a time, on the wash¬ 
board, I soaped them thoroughly and 
scrubbed them with the brush. The dirt 
could not stand that treatment and I came off 
victorious. 
I heartily sympathize with “ Farmer’s 
Wife" in her detestation of the one-third law, 
while she earns one-half, but it seems to me 
that it would be better to economize with her 
remnants, making them go as far and look as 
well as she possibly can, in order that her 
one-third may be large enough to keep her 
from the Old Ladies’ Home. 
MRS. H. L. SKEELS. 
The flower bud may be perfect but with 
out sunlight, without warmth and food, it re¬ 
fuses to unfo d. So it is without the expand¬ 
ing influence of an education the mind 
blights—it brings forth neither^flowers nor 
fruit. 
A BATCH OF CAKES. 
F ROM the following recipe I made three 
cakps this morning, which proved to be 
very good: Three table-spoonfuls of buttfr 
worked into three cups of "sugar, three well 
beaten eggs, three cups of sweet milk, six 
cups of flour through which I sifted six tea- 
spoonfuls of baking powder. Beat up well. 
I first made a layer cake in three parts, be¬ 
tween which I pnt lavers of soft chocolate 
icing. The second cake 1 baked in a small* 
round 'tin, intending to cover it just before 
it is eahn with sweetened and flavored 
whipped cream. To the third I added one- 
half cup of flour, and a cup of raisins. This 
may be spiced to taste. I think it less work 
to make the three cakes at one time than to 
bake at different times and I like the variety. 
Another cake which the children think 
very nice and pretty is made in this way: 
Separate the whites and yelks of three eggs, 
saving the white of one for frosting. Add to 
each, well beaten, two-thirds of a cup of 
sugar, into which has been worked one table¬ 
spoonful of butter. Add to each one-half 
a cup of milk. Sift for each one-and-tbree- 
fourtbs cup of flour with one-half tea-spoon¬ 
ful of saleratus and one tea-spoonful of cream- 
of-tartar. Bake in layers, placing first a yel¬ 
low cake, then a white to which has been]added 
two or three drops of coloring, sufficient to 
make it a delicate pink. Place the white 
cake upon the top and frost. It cu's very 
prettily. The yellow portion should be fla¬ 
vored with lemon, the pink with rose, the 
white with vanilla. susie e. Kennedy. 
Save the rose leaves. We dry the petals 
between sheets of unglazed white paper, hav¬ 
ing never been successful in putting them in 
jars with salt between the layers. We should 
be glad of information as to the best way of 
preserving the leaves for perfume jars and 
for flavoring extract. 
|UimUanrou.$ ^Uvrrtisfng. 
When You Know 
That scores of people 
have been cured of 
Boils, Carbuncles, and 
Scrofulous Sores by the 
use of 
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla 
why not try it your¬ 
self] As a blood-puri¬ 
fier, this medicine has 
no equal. Listen to 
f ood advice: Take 
yer’s Sarsaparilla, 
and no other. 
“ I had numbers of 
carbuncles on my neck 
and back, with swellings in mv armpits, 
and was tormented with pain almost beyond 
endurance. All means of relief to winch I 
resorted failed until I began to use Ayer’s 
Sarsaparilla. One bottle of this remedy re¬ 
stored me to health.”—S. Carter, Nashville, 
Tennessee. 
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla, 
Prepared by Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Mass. 
Price St; six. So. "Worth S.> a bottle. 
THE CREAT ENCLISH REMEDY. 
Beecham’s Pills 
For Bilious and Nervous Disorders. 
“Worth a Guinea a llox ”—but sold 
for 25 cents, 
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Every Mother wants these 
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WELLS, RICHARDSON & CO., 
BURLINGTON, VT. 
ICE CREAM at HOME! 
Made cheaply and quickly by using a Triple Motion 
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Will freeze in half the t 'me 
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GRATEFUL-COMFORTING. 
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GOLD MEDAL, PARIS, 1878. 
W. BAKER & CO.’S 
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