358 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 19 
l Woman and Home ] 
From Day to Day. 
THE OLD DAGUERREOTYPE. 
Up in the attic I found them, locked in the 
cedar chest 
Where the flowered gowns lie folded, which 
once were brave as the best; 
And, like the queer old jackets and the 
waistcoats gay with stripes, 
They tell of a worn-out fashion—these old 
daguerreotypes. 
Quaint little folding cases, fastened with 
tiny hook, 
Seemingly made to tempt one to lift up 
the latch and look; 
Linings of purple and velvet, odd little 
frames of gold, 
Circling the faded faces brought from the 
days of old. 
Grandpa and Grandma, taken ever so long 
ago, 
Grandma’s bonnet a marvel, Grandpa’s 
collar a show; 
Mother a tiny toddler, with rings on her 
baby hands, 
Painted—lest none should notice—in glitter¬ 
ing gilded bands. 
Aunts and uncles and cousins, a starchy 
and stiff array, 
Lovers and brides, then blooming, but now 
so wrinkled and gray, 
Out through the misty glasses they gaze 
at me, sitting here, 
Opening the quaint old cases with a smile 
that is half a tear. 
I will smile no more, little pictures, for 
heartless it was, in truth, 
To drag to the cruel daylight these ghosts 
of a vanished youth. 
Go back to your cedar chambers, your 
gowns and your lavender, 
And dream, ’mid their bygone graces, of 
the wonderful days that were. 
—Sunday Evening Post. 
* 
A Chinese proverb says that a hun 
dred men may make an encampment, 
but it takes a woman +o make a home. 
* 
Sleeve ironers are among the newer 
aids to women’s work. The old sleeve 
boards were very awkward to use; the 
new appliance is a nearly oval padded 
board, its wider end just the right size 
to fit the shoulder of a shirt-waist 
sleeve. The board is raised on a sup¬ 
port, which is clamped to the edge of 
the table; thus the sleeve is lifted over 
the board and ironed without creasing. 
* 
A wedding recently attended by some 
of our friends presented one unusual fea¬ 
ture, which, for a time, caused a little 
embarrassment. The guests were throng¬ 
ing into the prettily decorated church, 
fragrant with many lilies, when there 
was a sudden stoppage in their progress, 
and the ushers, who had been convey¬ 
ing women to their pews with much dig¬ 
nity, appeared entirely at a loss. The 
cause of the delay was a large and de¬ 
termined white bulldog, wearing a large 
white satin bow, and an exceedingly 
“sot” expression. His satiny coat was 
as sleek and shiny as the wedding favor 
tied in his collar, and it was evident 
that, being thus adorned, as it were, 
with the garments of festivity, he had 
decided upon being present at the cere¬ 
mony. Now a well-developed English 
bulldog, with an undershot jaw and a 
cavernous mouth, whose pink lips wrin¬ 
kle hungrily to show an exceedingly 
toothy smile, is an animal to be treated 
with moral suasion rather than force. 
The bulldog sat in the middle of the 
main aisle and, judging from his self- 
satisfied expression and Roosevelt smile, 
he had made up his canine mind to ac¬ 
company the bride, his beloved mistress, 
to the altar. As coaxing and endear¬ 
ments failed to make him change his 
mind, the sexton, who did not appear to 
enjoy the job, was finally compelled to 
drag him out bodily, holding back and 
bracing his feet against the carpet every 
foot of the way. He was securely shut 
up in a prison cell until the ceremony 
was over, after which he attended the 
reception with much decorum, and 
thoughtfully refrained from attempting 
to join the bride on her wedding tour 
After all, he is not the only guest who 
imagined that a festal array endowed 
him with special privileges. 
* 
The bodice worn by Filipino women, 
with which we have now become famil¬ 
iar through the illustrated papers, is 
called a kimo. It is described as resem¬ 
bling a square-necked shirt waist with 
enormous sleeves, and the uninstructed 
foreigner usually wonders how the wear¬ 
er manages to stay in it, so voluminous 
it appears. Made of pina, the thin, silky 
pineapple cloth, and trimmed with na¬ 
tive lace or embroidery, it is a very 
handsome garment, and certainly more 
suited to that tropical climate than a 
starched American shirt waist. The 
well-dressed native woman often wears 
crossed over the kimo a fichu or half¬ 
handkerchief of drawn work and lace, 
but her throat is always uncovered, 
choking stocks and collars being un¬ 
known. During the humid heat that 
visits most parts of the United States 
each Summer, many of us would be quite 
willing to adopt the Filipino model, did 
custom sanction it here. 
* 
Now that the R. N.-Y. family is all 
in t'he rush of Spring work, the men get¬ 
ting in and caring for their crops, and 
the women busy with Spring sewing and 
cleaning, it is not the most favorable 
time to talk of reading. But we just 
came across a description of a country 
lunch, from Being a Boy, by Cnarles 
Dudley Warner, and we wonder how 
many of our farm friends have read that 
delightful book, and, equally delightful, 
My Summer in a Garden, by ihe same 
author. Here is what he says about his 
country luncheon: 
We took our luncheon from the wagon 
and ate it under the trees by the spring. 
Baked beans, rye, and Indian bread (moist, 
remember), doughnuts and cheese, pie and 
root beer. What richness! You may live 
to dine at Delmonico’s, or at Phillippe’s in 
Paris where the dear old Thackeray used 
to eat as good a dinner as anybody, but 
you will get there neither doughnuts, nor 
pie, nor root beer, nor anything so good as 
that luncheon at noon in the old pasture 
high among the Massachusetts hills. 
At this season one sees an unlimited 
variety of cushions and cushion covers 
in the large shops, because city people 
who are going away for the Summer 
usually provide themselves with an ex¬ 
tra stock of these comforts. Stamped 
denim or heavy twills seem the favorites 
for serviceable cushions, but the designs 
vary each year. Showy patterns stamped 
in shaded colors, to be outlined with 
heavy silk or tinsel, are still favorites. 
One handsome pattern noted was the 
profile head of an Indian chief, in paint 
and war bonnet, stamped on unbleached 
twill, the outlines to be worked in silk. 
Military, naval, and college emblems are 
still plentiful and popular, and some 
large silk cushions were stamped with 
British soldiers, both in the Queen’s 
scarlet and in khaki, alternated with 
verses of The Absent-minded Beggar, 
printed on the silk in facsimile of Kip¬ 
ling’s manuscript. Frills of scarlet and 
khaki-colored silk finished the cushion. 
* 
At the great Ecumenical Conference 
held recently in New York, 104 Protes¬ 
tant missionary societies were represent¬ 
ed by about 2,000 delegates. President 
McKinley ana Governor Roosevelt gave 
addresses at the opening meeting, and 
ex-President Harrison responded. The 
reports reaa reviewed in detail mission 
work all over the world. Enormous 
audiences attended the meetings, and 
overflowed Into adjoining halls and 
churches. Woman’s work was very 
largely represented, for many women 
missionaries were present, and many, 
too, were the strange and moving tales 
of their work. A feature worth notic¬ 
ing is the fact that all the daily papers 
filled column after column with copious 
reports of the proceedings, some of them 
giving as much space as two or more 
entire pages to the meetings. In other 
words, this great religious gathering 
was as fully reported as an important 
political convention. This was not true 
merely of the more conservative jour¬ 
nals, but also of those priding them¬ 
selves on their essentially modern get- 
there qualities. The fact Is that a good 
newspaper aims fully to report those 
things in which the mass of the people 
are interested. There is an increasing 
interest in religious questions, as shown 
by the space devoted to them in the 
secular press. Surely there is some rea¬ 
son for the optimism which makes us 
believe that this old world is getting 
better, as well as wiser. 
ft 
One of the fashionable combinations 
of the present season that appears odd 
at first, is that of pale blue and helio¬ 
trope. Ordinarily, blue and purple 
seems to be the most impossible, thun- 
derstormy combination any woman 
could put together, but faint delicate 
turquoise, combined with the hue of 
deep-tinted heliotrope, is beautiful, and 
this year it has the elusive quality we 
call style. It is at its best when the 
combination is formed with mousselaine 
de soie or chiffon, when the two colors 
seem to melt one into the other. They 
thus appear in hat trimmings very often. 
A very costly imported gown we saw re¬ 
cently was of black and white silk, 
trimmed with black Chantilly lace, hav¬ 
ing a bertha or fichu with long stole 
ends, made of blue and heliotrope silk 
muslin. It is not safe, however, for a 
woman to select a bright blue straw hat 
trimmed with bright blue taffeta and 
brilliant purple violets, under the im¬ 
pression that she is getting a Parisian 
effect. We saw such a hat on Broad 
way recently, and it looked like the 
nightmare of a dyspeptic milliner. 
Scientific Dishwashing. 
A writer in the American Kitchen 
Magazine tells how she uses a damp 
cloth to give the finishing touch in dikh 
washing. She proceeds as follows: 
Have at hand the following materials: 
A scrubbing brush, preferably of fiber, 
not bristles; a pan of water, a piece of 
soft paper. If you have a garden and 
keep hens, have two pails; one for liquid 
and other refuse, the other for whatever 
is suitable for the hens. The former 
pail, emptied on the compost heap, will 
in time materially enrich the garden 
soil. With the paper rub off each knife 
blade, placing the knives apart for later 
treatment by themselves. Throw the 
paper into the compost pail. Place all 
silver, as well as such small and delicate 
utensils as wire spoons or little sieves, 
in a small-sized container which will 
bear boiling hot water. With brush in 
hand, rinse in the pan of water every 
other article to be wakhed, beginning 
with glass. Remember your motto. Pour 
the rinsing water into the compost pail 
and rinse the pan. Have a tray and a 
clean table surface ready. The tray is 
for glass and silver, for you are not to 
touch them with bare fingers after they 
are dried. Get your dish mop for glass 
and china, and have ready all the dish 
linen. The following will last a family 
of six a week without change: For glass, 
one towel; for silver, one towel; for 
other things, one damp cloth about 16 
inches square and one towel for polish¬ 
ing. 
Place a long j handled soap-holder in 
the empty pan and pour upon it boiling 
water. Pour into another container more 
boiling water and, in passing, give the 
silver a gentle, rinsing douche. Beat the 
water into suds. Wash glass, rinse glass, 
wipe glass. Wash silver, wipe silver, 
one piece at a time, rubbing each well 
in every part. Remove the mop, rinsing 
it, wringing it, shaking it and hanging 
it up by the metal loop in the handle’s 
end. Perhaps you had to screw in such 
a picture-frame loop yourself, when you 
bought the mop, and also the hook which 
holds it to dry in the open air. For all 
other dishes I use nber tied with stout 
strings into small bundles: hard fiber for 
scouring, soft for washing. They are al¬ 
ways hanging outside when unused, and 
are renewed from time to time. A half 
pound of fiber will make up little bun¬ 
dles for months ahead. On the sink I 
keep three pint jars containing soft soap, 
fine white sand and soda in powdered 
form. In the still hot soap suds I wash 
enameled ware, tins and earthen pots, 
scouring the bottoms with sand and a 
half teaspoonful of soda. For cups, 
plates, etc., i take fresh water, using no 
more soap, but putting a level teaspoon¬ 
ful of soda into a pan of the water. Cold 
water will do well for rinsing where 
there is not an abundance of heated 
water. 
And now the damp cloth comes into 
requisition. It is wrung from water un¬ 
til it ceases to drip. With one end of 
the polishing towel in the left hand and 
the damp cloth in the right, hold each 
article in the left hand, wipe off all water 
drops with the right, and, dropping the 
damp cloth, polish with the other end 
of the dry towel. The towel remains 
clean and nearly dry to the last, and 
the china shines as though it had been 
washed, like the glass and silver, in hot 
soapsuds. The pots, tins and iron ware 
wipe only with the damp cloth. Since 
they have been made absolutely clean, 
outside and in, the cloth does not suffer. 
Sometimes stop to wring it out, however. 
At the end rinse it and hang it out to 
dry. 
ARMSTRONG & McKELVY 
Pittsburgh. 
BE YMER-BAUMAN 
Pittsburgh. 
DAVIS-CHAMBERS 
Pittsburgh. 
FAHNESTOCK 
Pittsburgh. 
ANCHOR ) 
V Cincinnati. 
ECKSTEIN 1 
ATLANTIC 
BRADLEY 
BROOKLYN( 
JEWETT 
ULSTER 
UNION 
BOUTHERN 
SHIPMAN 
COLLIER 
MISSOURI 
RED SEAL 
SOUTHERN 
New York. 
Chicago. 
) St. Louis. 
JOHN T. LEWIS & BROS CO 
Philadelphia. 
MORLEY 
Cleveland. 
8ALEM 
Salem, Mass. 
CORNELL 
Buffalo. 
KENTUCKY 
Louisville. 
HE true value of a paint can be 
determined only by a series of 
paintings. It costs more to burn 
off a cracked and peeled surface 
than it does to paint a new one. 
The cost of keeping a house in good 
condition for a series of years is less with 
Pure White Lead than with any other 
paint. When repainting is required the sur¬ 
face is always in good condition. These 
brands are genuine. 
PQFP For Colors use National Lead Company’s Pure White 
PKrr Lead Tinting Colors. Any shade desired is readily 
obtained. Pamphlet giving full information and show¬ 
ing samples of Colors, also pamphlet entitled “ Uncle Sam’s Ex¬ 
perience With Paints ” forwarded upon application. 
National Lead Co ., ioo William Street , New York. 
