THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.January ^7 
58 
• ... 
f Woman and Home \ 
From Day to Day. 
There is a boy In our town 
(And he Is wondrous wise). 
Who, when the rain comes pouring down 
And clouds o’erspread the skies, 
Says, “I’ll just smile the best I can, 
No matter how It pours, 
And we’ll have sunshine in the house 
If it does rain out of doors.” 
When naughty words swarm through his 
brain 
And clamor to be said, 
He shuts his teeth together tight 
And says, “I’ll kill you dead 
Unless you will be sweet and kind 
And good and full of fun; 
You can’t come out until you are— 
No, not a single one!” 
He thinks when he’s a grown-up man, 
With wise and sober face, 
He’ll do some wondrous deed to make 
This earth a brighter place, 
But nothing in this whole wide world 
Can give more lasting joy 
Or make more solid sunshine 
Than just a little boy. 
—Philadelphia Times. 
• 
We read of an Oregon girl who set a 
trap for a bear recently, and caught a 
man in it. It is suggested that, after 
this, we shall see a steady increase in 
the demand for bear traps. We can’t 
offer an opinion as to the advisability of 
catching men in bear traps, but we have, 
on several occasions, met with a man 
who ought to be kept in one. 
* 
A cooker which stirs itself is one of 
the newest kitchen inventions. It is a 
stewpan with a water jacket, like a milk 
boiler, and a spout opening. Leading 
from the water jacket or outer recep¬ 
tacle is a tube which goes down the in¬ 
side of the inner stewpan, opening 
through perforations in the bottom. 
This being the only outlet for the steam, 
it must pass up into the food, which is 
thus agitated, like blowing air through 
a straw into the bottom of a glass of 
water. It is said that the agitation is 
sufficient to prevent the food from burn¬ 
ing, even though stirring be neglected. 
We are not told, however, how the steam 
tube escapes clogging by the semi-liquid 
food in the cooker. 
This is a good time of year for the 
women folks to plan the flower garden; 
the seed catalogues are beginning to ar¬ 
rive, and it is well to select one’s list, 
chop it down to fit the pocketbook (for 
a seed catalogue is, to a flower lover, as 
alluring as a bargain sale), and send for 
the seed as soon as possible. This gives 
the chance of planning just where every¬ 
thing is to go, and the early seeds are 
then on hand, to be put underground 
just as soon as the soil may be worked. 
It is a sad disappointment, some years, 
to see the ground in good order for 
sweet peas and nasturtiums in March, 
and then realize that the seeds are not 
even ordered. Where but a small sum 
may be spent in flower seeds and bulbs, 
there is additional reason for deciding 
on a well-ordered plan in advance, that 
the most may be made of the materials 
available. 
"You can never make cranberries into 
candied cherries,” says the New York 
Times cook, "though they may tell you 
that you can. A cranberry is a cran¬ 
berry, and a cherry is a cherry, to the 
end of its days, and you can’t make one 
taste like the other. But you can cook 
cranberries so that they will keep sep¬ 
arate, and they are very good for a num¬ 
ber of things, and make a change from 
the ordinary stewed cranberry. You 
take a quart of cranberries and wash 
carefully and turn them into the dish in 
which they are to be cooked. Add but¬ 
ter the size of an English walnut, two 
cupfuls of sugar and a pinch of cinna¬ 
mon, and cook until they are done. 
That sounds a little indefinite but it Is 
easy to tell. They must boil, not too 
hard, and it will be necessary to shake 
the dish in which they are cooking oc¬ 
casionally, and perhaps stir the berries 
up from the bottom of the pan, taking 
care not to mash them. No water Is 
used except that which clings to them 
after they have been washed. When 
they are turned out they will look not 
unlike the candied cherries, though a 
little darker, and each one will stand 
out separately, like well-cooked grains 
of rice. They are good to eat as cran¬ 
berries, and they are pretty for garnish¬ 
ing with rice.” 
Wiiat to do with perpetually restless 
children is often an extremely difficult 
question. In some cases the restlessness 
seems almost a disease and, no effort 
being made to control it, we see such 
children growing up into men or women 
who fritter away their energy in uneasy 
motions and gestures, incapable, appar¬ 
ently, of taking life calmly, until the 
nervous system gives way, and actual 
disease results. We do not approve, 
however, of repressing entirely a child’s 
desire for frequent movement, which is, 
after all, but one expression of the nat¬ 
ural growth of a healthy body. This 
reminds us of the small child described 
in Collier’s Weekly, who says; 
“Ma, may I go out to play?” “No; you 
must sit still where you are.” Pause. 
“Ma, may I go down into the kitchen?” 
"No; I want you to sit perfectly quiet.” 
Pause. “Ma, mayn’t I sit on the floor and 
play marbles?” “I have told you twice 
that I want you to sit Just where you are 
and be quiet, and I mean exactly what I 
say.” Pause. "Ma, may I grow?” 
That recalls a small girl of our ac¬ 
quaintance, who, being warned to sit 
perfectly still in church, was overheard 
asking whether, during the sermon, she 
might be permitted to slip her shoes off, 
so she could wriggle her toes. 
* 
A clergyman not very far from New 
York City has been exciting comment 
lately by his fulminations, not only 
against tight-lacing, but against the 
wearing of corsets of any kind, actually 
asserting, according to popular report, 
that no respectable woman would wear 
this garment. This rigid dominie (it 
wouldn’t be fair to describe him as 
strait-laced), seems to have mistaken 
his day and generation, for although, 
doubtless, there are still women who 
lace tightly, their number has greatly 
decreased, and there is no question that 
this feminine vice has declined ma¬ 
terially within the last 25 years. Our 
mothers and grandmothers could tell us 
stories of tight-lacing chat would make 
that opposing clergyman’s hair curl. 
We have heard of a colonel’s wife who, 
when two strong-armed maids were un¬ 
able to draw the laces of her bodice to¬ 
gether, called in her husband and his 
orderly sergeant, who, after intense ex¬ 
ertion, induced the dress to meet. An¬ 
other case was that of a young lady 
going to her first ball. In the lacing of 
her corsage all the women of the house¬ 
hold had failed, and her brother was 
summoned to give his aid. After some 
futile efforts he wound the silk lacing 
around a bed-post, while the maid drew 
the eyelets close together with a button¬ 
hook. Just as a beautiful fit had been 
secured the young debutante took a long 
breath of relief, and the silk lacing 
snapped with a report like that of a pis¬ 
tol. It was nine o’clock at night, and 
the stores all were closed, but the 
brother went forth, and at last got a 
silk lacing at a barber shop. In those 
days some fashionable young men wore 
a short waist “stay” to make their Shirta 
set smooth, and the barber kept a few 
of the laces to accommodate his dandy 
patrons. In Ford’s delightful Revolu¬ 
tionary story, Janice Meredith, there are 
several references to the cast-iron de¬ 
cision of the heroine’s stays, and to her 
mother’s efforts to give her a fashion¬ 
able waist. 
When a mechanic wounds or lacerates 
his flesh in some accident with tools or 
machinery, his first proceeding, as a 
rule, is to plunge the wounded member 
into turpentine or shellac varnish, if 
either is handy. It is rough-and-ready 
treatment, but is antiseptic, and is in¬ 
dorsed by medical authority. Of course 
the momentary result is a smarting pain 
of exquisite intensity, but it may be 
strongly recommended when other anti¬ 
septics are not at hand. The medical 
authority of The R. N.-Y. states, how¬ 
ever, that bichloride of mercury in solu¬ 
tion is the best antiseptic dressing that 
can be advised for general use, and it 
should always be kept in the family 
medicine closet. The proportions are 
7*6 grains of bichloride of mercury to 
one pint of water, the chemical being 
dissolved while the water is hot. Tab¬ 
lets of the chemical containing the re¬ 
quisite number of grains may be bought 
at the druggist’s. The wrapping sur¬ 
rounding the wound may be kept satu¬ 
rated with the solution, until healing is 
well under way. It must be remem¬ 
bered that this mercury solution, taken 
internally, is a deaaly poison, so it must 
always be properly labeled, and kept out 
of the reach of children. It frequently 
happens that the farm worker sustains 
some lacerated or contused cut while 
handling farm machinery, and this anti¬ 
septic solution will be a valuable aid to 
healing. 
Wall-Paper Suggestions. 
Several questions have to be taken 
into consideration before that of the 
walls can be satisfactorily settled, says 
Collier’s Weekly. Is the room light or 
dark, large or small? Does the sun 
shine in? Is it in the country or in 
town? What is its outlook? For what 
particular purpose is it destined? Must 
a question of old furniture enter into the 
discussion, that which cannot be 
changed or re-covered, or that which is 
so valuable in itself that the room may 
be built up in reference to it? Has the 
individual owner any particular preju¬ 
dice for or against any particular color, 
so that either a depression of spirits or 
an exhilaration is felt? What is the 
room intended to express—comfort, cosi¬ 
ness, hospitality, repose, cheer, dignity, 
airiness or freshness, or shall a question 
of mere formality settle everything? All 
efforts to beautify an ugly apartment 
will be thrown away which ignore any 
or all of these questions. 
That which is to be avoided for any 
and every wall is a paper having gilt 
figures, or figures outlined in gilt. Like 
a double-faced friend, this paper is al¬ 
ways playing you % false. It is never the 
same on any two days or in any two 
situations. It is a shining presence from 
one side of the room, and a dark and un¬ 
responsive one from the other. As you 
look at it from your seat by the fire it 
seems to adapt itself to the color of your 
sofa cushions or to a special hanging. 
But go over by the window and look at 
it again. It has robbed everything about 
it of color, and destroyed your best bits 
of composition. In copper or brass jars 
and utensils, now so universally used in 
decoration and for i ants, this ability 
to take up and reflect lights from every 
part of a room and constantly to change 
as you look is one of their great attrac¬ 
tions, creating their special value among 
those who love color for its own sake. 
But on one’s walls one wants something 
with more reliance in it, else all sense of 
confidence vanishes, and one of unrest 
takes its place. Papers with gilt figures 
have utterly destroyed many a room, 
and are never to be encouraged. 
Flowered papers, by universal con¬ 
sent, are accepted for bedrooms. When 
there is oak woodwork, like that which 
is found in so many small apartments 
and new houses, a groundwork of green 
or of yellow should be chosen for the 
paper. White is not a good groundwork 
for oak, and red is always bad. Red is 
always bad for bedrooms, unless by 
chance one happens to have some rare 
old hangings belonging to palaces. The 
everyday housekeeper should avoid it 
for her sleeping-room. Red, by the way, 
beautiful and fascinating as it often is, 
can never be good in any cheap ma¬ 
terial. One is then apt to get magenta 
—an awful color—or reds with purple 
tones. Nothing is more depressing, or 
spoils a room so easily. Red is a good 
dining-room color, the silver and china 
coming out well against it. It ought to 
have white paint. Red conventionalizes 
a parlor, but the formality is relieved by 
the introduction of specimens of old 
Delft, or blue china, arranged over the 
mantel or on the walls, and by pictures 
in gilt frames. Red hangings must go 
at the window, and white next the 
panes. 
... .Man lives in his relations. One man 
alone is no man at all. Strip a man of 
all relations with fellow-beings, and you 
no longer have a man. but the blas¬ 
phemy of a man.—Professor Graham 
Taylor. 
....De Quincy once observed that the 
most ill-tempered member of a family 
always received the most consideration 
simply because he could make it so very 
uncomfortable for the others. Some¬ 
thing of this principle prevails in all at¬ 
tempts for the social betterment of peo¬ 
ple; it is they who make the most trou¬ 
ble who receive the most careful atten¬ 
tion. 
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‘Housework is had woik without GoldDusf 
Washing Dish Cloths 
Kitchen cloths must of course be washed daily, 
otherwise they harbor grease and odors and [ 
become unhealthy. They should be made of knlt- 
[ crochet-cotton, in a square of suitable size. I 
When you wash them. If you will add a table-1 
| spoonful of 
Gold Dust Washing Powder 
I to the hot water it will cut the grease and clean | 
| them In half the time; dry them out in the sun¬ 
shine and air. 
The above ia taken from oar free booklet 
“GOLDEN RULES FOR HOUSEWORK" 
Sent free on requeat to 
THE N. K. FAiRBANK COMPANY, 
Chloago, St. Loula, Haw York, Bostan, I 
