74 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 3 
[ Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
I used to think th’ rrifeasly way 
They treated me was tough; 
An’ what I thought I used to say, 
An’ say it pretty rough. 
An’ Ma she’d kind o’ calm me down, 
An’ mebby kiss me, too, 
An’ say “There’s lots o’ boys in town 
That has it worse than you.” 
I couldn’t understand, yer see, 
Why we was always skimped; 
The other boys spent money free, 
Their mas an’ sisters primped, 
But we just seemed to scrape along 
An’ never get ahead; 
An’ when I asked Ma what was wrong, 
“Pa’s paying debts,” she said. 
But worse for me than all the rest 
Was wearin’ Dad’s old clothes; 
Ma made ’em over just th’ best 
That she an’ sister knows; 
But, lordy me, they had no style 
From ankles up to throat, 
Th’ pants just made the fellows smile— 
They hollered at the coat. 
I always felt so ’shamed an’ mean 
I’d sneak around to school, 
For fear th’ grammar girls had seen 
Me togged out like a fool. 
But now their sneers I never note, 
Nor care for what they’ve said; 
I’m proud an’ tender with th’ coat— 
For Dad, dear Dad, is dead! 
—Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
• 
The German recipe for pepper nuts, a 
Christmas dainty, given in The R. N.-Y. 
for January 6, includes potash, which is 
quite frequently used in cakes contain¬ 
ing honey or molasses, especially by 
foreign cooks. It should ’be added that 
bicarbonate of potash is the substance 
required. A friend informs us that cases 
are known where inexperienced cooks 
have used the ordinary potash of com¬ 
merce (potassium hydrate, or caustic 
potash), the result being cramps and 
nausea, although the amount used was 
not sufficient to cause the shocking 
burning that would result from tasting 
this fiery alkali in its ordinary form. 
* 
At the recent meeting of the Illinois 
State Dairymen’s Association a report 
was read concerning the operations of a 
woman’s buttermaking association, said 
to be the only known organization of the 
kind. This is the Sangamon County 
Buttermakers’ Association, composed en¬ 
tirely of farmers’ wives or daughters. 
Before its organization the merchants 
of Springfield purchased annually more 
than $100,000 worth of butter outside 
Sangamon County. This led the women 
to encourage buttermaking at home, and 
two annual butter shows have since been 
held. There is no doubt that such an 
association may do much for the encour¬ 
agement and improvement of the home 
dairy, which often goes to the wall as a 
result of the creamery. There are still 
many places where a home dairy with a 
home trade may be profitable, and those 
enterprising farm sisters in Illinois evi¬ 
dently appreciate this fact. Their or¬ 
ganization is worthy of imitation. 
* 
Among the new cotton materials re¬ 
cently displayed is foulardine, a very 
fine close-woven stuff, with a smooth 
silk finish, printed in patterns like a 
foulard silk. So perfect is the resem¬ 
blance that a close examination is re¬ 
quired to show that it is not silk, but 
cotton. It is no doubt subject to the 
process called mercerizing, now applied 
to many cotton fabrics, which gives the 
silken finish. These foulardines ‘have 
colored grounds, with white figures, and 
since the patterns selected are those 
familiar in printed silks, the resem¬ 
blance is very striking. A foulardine in 
blue and white, black and white, or 
brown and white, would fill the place of 
those useful sateens once so popular. 
The price is 12% cents a yard. We do 
not expect that they would wash, hence 
they would not be advisable for chil¬ 
dren’s wear, but for the elder members 
of the family they would be desirable. 
A blue-and-white foulardine, with a 
guimpe or yoke of thin white material 
(which should be separate, for conveni¬ 
ence in washing), would be very pretty 
and smart. 
* 
A woman whose heroism is certainly 
greater than that of the soldier who 
faces shot and shell is Miss Mary Reed, 
an American missionary, whose story 
is told in Collier’s Weekly. In 1884 
Miss Reed went to India, and followed 
both at Cawnpore and at Gonda what 
she very firmly believed to be her voca¬ 
tion. But at length she became ill, and 
returned home. There she made the hor¬ 
rible discovery that the name of her ill¬ 
ness was leprosy. One of her physicians 
chanced specially to nave studied this 
loathsome and incurable disease in the 
Sandwich Islands. Her position was, of 
course, agonizing beyond words. But 
she met it with a sort of faith we call 
sublime. She told herself that she had 
received a divine summons to a life of 
self-abnegating service. Only to a sister 
did she impart tne ghastly truth, after 
speedily obtaining an appointment to 
the superintendence of the Asylum for 
Lepers at Chaudag, in tnc Himalayas. 
Here, among 90 inmates, tn s ill-starred 
woman has ever since remained. To 
her patients she gives all -he modern 
remedies of science. For herself she 
trusts entirely to prayer. Of late it is 
declared that she is much better, and 
two or three doctors nave even affirmed 
that her case is not one of leprosy at 
all. This again has been contradicted. 
Probably incessant prayer has acted as 
a physical tonic. Why should it not so 
act when one bathes in its influence a 
mind and temperament profoundly de¬ 
vout? 
Suggestions in New Skirts. 
In looking at Spring suits, which al¬ 
ready fill the windows of the New York 
stores, one is Impressed by the total dis¬ 
appearance of the habit-back skirts. Of 
course plenty of them are worn, and 
plenty of them still hang m the stores, 
but they are no longer the mode. It 
was not surprising that this tashion so 
soon passed out, for the excessive tight¬ 
ness and plain fit was not only ugly, but 
in many cases absolutely indecent. The 
newest plain skirt has a sloping double 
box pleat in the back; 'it is called the 
Watteau back, and flows out very grace¬ 
fully, becoming either to a full or slender 
figure. While there as a slight dip at 
the back, it is not an actual train, such 
as worn last year. At the sides the 
skirt fits very smoot">’y. In some styles 
the smooth fit over the hips is secured 
by tiny side pleats, stitcned flat, slop¬ 
ing towards their greatest depth at the 
front, in place of darts. The rapidity 
with which the pleatless, gatherless 
habit back went out of fashion is a 
warning against selecting an extreme 
style, when a gown is to give much ser¬ 
vice. There is an indication tnat kilt- 
pleated skirts are to be worn; they went 
out with the jersey, and it is therefore 
natural to imagine tha- ^ney will come 
in again with that garment. The ex¬ 
amples seen are laid in side pleats about 
two inches wide, sloping narrower at 
/the top, around the back and sides of 
the skirt, the front being plain. They 
will have to be shorter than the pre¬ 
vailing mode if they become popular, 
for no woman can move m a kilted skirt 
that touches the ground all around with¬ 
out feeling as though she walked all 
over herself at every second step. Such 
skirts mean an extra amount of ma¬ 
terial, an extra weight to carry, and 
a good deal of trouble for the home 
dressmaker who tries to copy the style. 
They will, no doubt, be fitted over a 
sheath lining. The old kilted skirts, as 
worn 20 years ago, were often held in 
place, after firm pressing, by tapes 
basted underneath, without lining. 
Those tapes had a painful habit of com¬ 
ing unstitched, when any extra strain 
was given, which was distinctly morti¬ 
fying to the wearer. We think, how¬ 
ever, that in point of total depravity, no 
part of fashionable costume ever equaled 
the reeds and tapes used to distend the 
back of the skirts, from 15 to 18 years 
ago. Unless these appliances were al¬ 
most clamped and riveted in place, they 
were bound to give way at some critical 
period, and then the unhappy wearer 
would see her fashionably-bulging skirt 
collapse like a punctured tire. Even 
that, however, was less inconvenient 
than the “pull-backs” that preceded 
them. Even the eelskin skirts that ap¬ 
peared last year were hardly so ugly or 
awkward as the tied-back skirt at its 
worst, when the London Punch satirized 
the fashion by picturing a party of 
women resting against easels, like so 
many plaques, because their tight skirts 
would not permit them to sit down. 
Every period seems to bring some ugly 
and silly fashion, and, unfortunately, 
there are always women who wear them, 
merely because they are the passing 
style, without regard to beauty or sense. 
Weak 
Children 
How sad it is to see weak 
children—boys and girls who 
are pale and thin. They can¬ 
not enjoy the sports of child¬ 
hood, neither are they able 
to profit by school life. They 
are indeed to be pitied. But 
there is hope for them. 
Scott’s Emulsion 
has helped such children for 
over a quarter of a century. 
Your doctor will tcil you it is both 
food and medicine to them. They 
begin to pick up at once under its 
use. Their color improves, the flesh 
becomes more firm, the weight 
increases and all the full life and 
vigor of childhood returns again. 
At all druggists ; 50c. and $1.00. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
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For cotton or mixed goods, be sure to get the 
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If you use dyes that claim to color both cotton 
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