IO 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 6 
[ Woman and Home j 
From Day to Day 
OLD SONGS. 
There is many a simple song one hears 
To an outworn tune, that starts the tears; 
Not for itself—for the burled years. 
Perchance 'twas heard in the days of 
youth. 
When breath was buoyant and words were 
truth; 
When joys were peddled at Life's gay 
booth. 
Or maybe it sounded along a lane 
Where She walked with you—and now 
again 
You catch Love’s cadence, Love’s old sweet 
pain. 
Or else it stole through a room where lay 
A dear one dying, and seemed to say: 
“Love and death, they shall pass away.’’ 
It rises out of the Long Ago, 
And that is the reason it shakes you so 
With pain and passion and buried w r oe. 
There is many a simple song that brings 
From deeps of living, on viewless wings, 
The tender magic of bygone th’nsrs. 
—Richard Burton, in Lyrics of Brotherhoi d. 
* 
Sew a bit of thin chamois leather 
around the inside of a shoe heel, if the 
heels are tender; it will prevent sore¬ 
ness, and also saves the Stockings. It is 
a very good plan with children’s shoes. 
* 
In making an oyster stew, many New 
England cooks add three or four clams, 
which bring out the flavor of the oysters, 
and give a delicately-saline taste that 
adds much to the stew. It is worth try¬ 
ing. 
* 
Readeks of David Harum will remem¬ 
ber his appreciation of that surpassing 
pudding which his sister served on spec¬ 
ial occasions. Here is the recipe for 
making it, according to Mrs. Janet Mc¬ 
Kenzie Hill, of the Boston Cooking 
School: Pour a cupful of hot milk over 
a cupful of bread crumbs; when cold add 
three-fourths cupful of sugar, a scant 
teaspoonful of salt, the yolks of four 
eggs, half a pound each of raisins and 
currants, one-half cupful of chopped al¬ 
monds, half a pound of suet, and a tea¬ 
spoonful of ground cinnamon; steam for 
six hours. Serve with whipped cream 
sweetened with maple sugar. 
* 
In answer to a young girl who asked 
her to recommend the best book on eti¬ 
quette, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox re¬ 
sponded that the best guide in such mat¬ 
ters is a good unselfish heart; necessar¬ 
ily good, because goodness is the very 
foundation of good manners; unselfish, 
because selfishness is invariably “bad 
form,” and will crop out unless uproot¬ 
ed. It is undoubtedly true that, no mat¬ 
ter how ignorant a girl may be of 
complicated social forms, she can never 
be called vulgar so long as she is modest, 
gentle, unselfish, and thoughtful of 
others. Artificial good breeding chiefly 
consists in the simulation of considera¬ 
tion for others; a better substitute is 
the real good breeding of the heart. 
* 
A truly American frosting, either for 
little cakes or large ones, is made from 
maple sugar and pecan nuts. Boil 1 y 2 
cupful of powdered sugar, one cupful of 
maple syrup, and one-half cupful of thin 
cream together, in a perfectly smooth 
saucepan, until, when tried, a soft ball 
may be formed in cold water. Remove 
from the fire, and add three-fourths cup¬ 
ful of chopped pecan nuts, and beat until 
of the right consistency to spread; then 
spread quickly over the cake, as it hard¬ 
ens rapidly. If desired, the nuts may be 
sprinkled on the surface after the frost¬ 
ing is spread, instead of being mixed 
with it. By adding a larger number of 
nuts, this same recipe makes pecan- 
maple pralines, a delicious candy; it 
should be dropped in little piles, from 
the tip of the spoon, upon buttered 
paper. This frosting is truly American, 
and a farm dainty, too, since the sugar 
is the only outside product. 
* 
A Chicago swindler, who has grown 
rich through cheating women, was re¬ 
cently arrested, charged with using the 
mails for fraudulent purposes. He ad¬ 
vertised extensively, offering to send 500 
samples of silk and other articles upon 
receipt of 25 cents. As an extra induce¬ 
ment, he guaranteed to reproduce, in 
oils, photographs sent him by customers. 
Of course he did not carry out his prom¬ 
ises. When arrested, numerous photo¬ 
graphs were found, and his mail, on the 
day of capture, contained nearly $200, 
in sums varying from 25 cents to $3. 
The swindler had a varied list of names. 
It is always wise to look with suspicion 
upon advertisements which promise so 
much for so little. 
* 
Two more easy-work-at-home firms 
were closed up recently by fraud orders 
from the Postmaster-General, one being 
in New York and the other in Jersey 
City. They advertised for women who 
wished to make $5 weekly at 'home, the 
work offered being embroidery. A de¬ 
posit of $1 was required, for which ma¬ 
terials worth 15 cents were mailed to 
the applicant, who soon found that she 
could neither furnish satisfactory work, 
nor secure the return of her $1. One 
would think that 'these schemes were so 
fully exposed that no one could be de¬ 
ceived by them, yet the swindlers grow 
rich, and for one brought to justice, a 
dozen others continue to thrive. It is 
best to consider that, in every case, 
“easy work at home” spells fraud! 
* 
An endless chain of silk skirts is a 
queer idea, but a New York firm is doing 
business on this system, apparently 
with entire success, furnishing silk 
skirts, said to be worth $6.25, for 25 
cents. Each purchaser buys a 25-cent 
coupon, and also pays $1.25 for a book 
containing five coupons, which she sells 
to friends for 25 cents each. Each of 
these purchasers is again expected to 
buy a book of coupons, to be sold to five 
women, -who carry out the same plan, 
and so on indefinitely. The company is 
doing a rushing business. It is said that 
tne business is entirely legitimate; last 
Summer a firm sold shirt waists in the 
same way, and it is said that a church in 
New Jersey is selling silk skirts under 
similar conditions. But these endless- 
chain schemes are rather a nuisance to 
persons with a wide circle of acquaint¬ 
ances. 
The Rural Portrait Gallery. 
MRS. II. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Our readers are familiar with the po- 
mological work of Prof. Van Deman, and 
we have no doubt that the picture of 
Mrs. Van Deman, shown at Fig. 5, will 
be viewed with interest by the women 
folks. In response to a request for in¬ 
formation concerning her, we are told 
that Mrs. Van Deman, whose firm, yet 
gentle and kindly face gives a strong 
index to her character, was born on a 
farm in Morgan County, Illinois, where 
she spent her childhood in the usual 
manner of farmers’ girls. At the age 
of 15 years the family moved to eastern 
Kansas, where she had experience in 
pioneering on a Government homestead 
on the virgin prairie. Here she soon be¬ 
came a teacher in the public schools, 
alternately teaching and attending the 
State Normal College at Emporia, up to 
the time of her marriage with Professor 
Van Deman, who had also become a 
citizen of Kansas a few years previous, 
on December 28, 1876. 
Their married life was begun on an¬ 
other prairie homestead, near Geneva, 
Kansas. Mrs. Van Deman shared her 
husband’s lot in his pioneer work on the 
farm, where the wild prairie was turned 
into fields and orchards, until he was 
called to Washington, D. C., to organize 
and conduct the Division of Pomology in 
the United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture. For two years after he began 
that work, Mrs. Van Deman remained 
on the farm of 240 acres, conducting its 
affairs with discretion and success; be¬ 
sides personally attending to her house¬ 
hold duties. Then the wife and two 
children, a vigorous boy and baby girl, 
joined the husband and father in Wash¬ 
ington. There five years were spent, 
not in a fashionable life, but in earnest¬ 
ly maintaining the home. Occasionally 
she traveled with her husband on his 
trips of investigation of the fruit indus¬ 
try in various parts of the country, once 
MRS. H. E. VAN DEMAN. Fig. 5. 
going to California. Now they are both 
again living in the country, which life 
they greatly prefer to that in the city. 
The farm, with its fruits, flowers, fowls, 
freedom and fresh air are, to Mrs. Van 
Deman, immensely more enjoyable and 
elevating than life in the midst of brick 
and mortar and asphalt pavements. In 
reading of the careers of great soldiers, 
legislators, or men of business, we are 
often told of the aid given them by their 
wives. It is only fair that the same rec¬ 
ognition should be given to the earnest 
women of our country homes, who are, 
as a rule, homemakers in the fullest 
sense of the word, and, in many cases, 
progressive business partners as well. 
German Blood Pudding. 
My recipe, given in response to re¬ 
quest, is as follows: After catching the 
blood, say about one gallon, add two 
tablespoonfuls of salt. Keep stirring it, 
or it will get thick. Stir until cool, then 
strain through cheesecloth. Add to one 
gallon of blood four pounds of fresh 
bacon, preferably from the back, boiled 
till well cooked, then cut into small 
squares three-eighths of an inch in di¬ 
ameter. Stir 1% cupful of rye flour in 
water to the thickness of cream, one 
large teaspoonful of ground cloves, one 
large teaspoonful of ground black pep¬ 
per. Mix these with the blood thor¬ 
oughly. If one objects to putting the 
sausage in animal casings, make casings 
of clean old muslin on a sewing ma¬ 
chine; make them 12 inches long and 
about two inches in diameter when 
filled. When filling see that you get the 
bacon distributed equally to each casing. 
To keep the blood from coming through 
the muslin casing, turn, dampen, and 
rub them with flour, then turn again be¬ 
fore filling. After filling and tying up, 
drop them in boiling water; keep tossing 
them so that the bacon will not settle in 
one place. Boil until no blood follows 
the prick of a darning needle. When 
done lay on ja board to cool, in a cool 
place. They may be eaten cold or, as we 
like them best, cut through the center 
lengthwise, after removing the casing, 
then fried until they have quite a little 
crust on the fiat side. 
New Jersey. mrs. h. hidlman. 
R. N.-Y.—Another friend gives us a 
recipe in which the blood, after stirring, 
is mixed with milk, two pints of milk to 
one pint of blood. It is flavored with 
pepper, salt, ginger, allspice, and a little 
clove and marjorum. One egg is beaten 
into the mixture, and it is poured into 
a greased baking pan, and a little bread, 
cut in small pieces, added. The mix¬ 
ture is baked, not too hard, and eaten 
warm. 
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