374 
May 26 
Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
BORROWING THE BABY. 
“Good mornin’. My ma sent me 
To ast you how you was, 
An’ hope you’re well—you know 'at Is 
Th’ way she alius does. 
My ma—she sez, you’re strangers. 
But then she kind o’ thought 
She’d like to borry th’ baby 
’At you folkses ’as got. 
“My ma sets by th’ winder 
An’ watches you an’ him, 
An’ kind o’ smiles an’ cries to wunst, 
’Cause he’s like baby Jim. 
Who’s Jim? He was our baby— 
We named him after Pa. 
Say, c’n we borry your baby 
A little while fer Ma? 
“My ma she sez she wouldn’t 
Mind if your baby cried, 
She sez ’t’d be like music— 
Since little Jim has died. 
She sez she’ll be good to him, 
An’ she’d like a whole lot. 
If we c’n borry the baby 
’At you folkses ’as got.” 
—Baltimore American. 
* 
The General Feneration of Women’s 
Clubs will hold its biennial meeting in 
Milwaukee, Wis., next month, and one 
unique feature will be a “man’s night,” 
at which only men will speak or sing. 
This seems a sumciently remarkable fea¬ 
ture, but it is still more remarkable 
when we learn of the reason for insti- 
tuiting it. It appears that the meeting 
is to be held in Milwaukee because of 
the earnest solicitation of the business 
men’s clubs, some of them even offering 
to pay all the expenses of the conven¬ 
tion. So much purely commercial profit 
will accrue from the meeting that busi¬ 
ness men felt inclined to offer it every 
inducement. In recognition of this sub¬ 
stantial inducement on the part of the 
men, the “man’s night” has been estab¬ 
lished. 
* 
New linen and cotton dress skirts 
snow some decided differences from 
those of last season. Many of them 
suggest to a thrifty woman, the possi¬ 
bility that they may not launder well, 
for they follow the lines of the elaborate 
cloth skirts, with stitched tucks to pro¬ 
duce a flare. Many have the tunic ef¬ 
fect, coming down to a point in front, as 
was seen last year, hut with a back hav¬ 
ing several stitched tucks. Sometimes 
the edge of the tunic is defined with 
open hemming. One novelty in the 
crash skirts is [the tunic effect formed of 
diagonal plaid, large lines of deep red 
or blue on the ordinary twine color. 
Many of the white pique skirts, which 
seem likdly to be as popular as in pre¬ 
vious seasons, are made with similar 
tunic and tucks, but they will be very 
difficult to iron. 
* 
Every Spring we see some new de¬ 
velopment in flowers or leaves for mil¬ 
linery use; something that suddenly at¬ 
tracts public caprice, and becomes for 
the time, the one trimming to be worn. 
The first two weeks in May saw a sud¬ 
den development of Chrysanthemums 
and wheat. The Chrysanthemums are 
made of some crapy material, after the 
model of the biggest mop-headed, fuzzy- 
wuzzy blooms that ever left Japan. 
Their colors are left to the wild imag¬ 
ination of the milliners, and they show 
all the tints unknown to the spectrum. 
In yellow and terra-cotta shades they 
are exceedingly like the natural blooms, 
but we have not yet become reconciled 
to Chrysanthemums of forget-me-not 
blue or iridescent pea green. A black 
and yellow Miss Hobbs turban, trimmed 
with black and yellow Chrysanthemums, 
is exceedingly smart. Wheat as a hat 
trimming has suddenly appeared on 
many of the Short-backed sailors, and 
other headgear of similar shape, a little 
THE RURAL 
sheaf of grain standing up in the midst 
of a big rosette. lit is quite pretty, but 
to a vivid imagination, gives a shivery 
suggestion of funeral decorations. 
* 
Hebe is a school composition on boys, 
written by a girl of 12 years. It gives 
the impression that her view of life is 
distinctly pessimistic: 
The boy is not an animal, yet he can 
be heard to a considerable distance. 
When a boy hollers he opens his big 
mouth like frogs, but girls hold their 
tongue till they are spoken to, and then 
they answer respectable and tell just how 
it was. A boy thinks himself clever be¬ 
cause he can wade where the water is 
deep. When the boy grows he is called 
a husband, and then he stops wading and 
stays out nights, but the grown-up girl 
is a widow and keeps house. 
* 
One of the newest outing hats is the 
Ladysmith. Its general outline is sug¬ 
gestive of a shallow helmet, the crown 
being rounded and sloping into the brim. 
It is made of flexible straw, and the 
brim is sometimes turned up in the 
back. The only trimming is a fold of 
muslin or soft silk twisted about the 
crown. The flat wide-brimmed golf hats 
of last year are distinctly out of date; 
they are still seen in a modified form, 
but the trimming is put on differently, 
disguising the shape. Many of them 
are trimmed with a scarf having fringed 
ends, a style of trimming we never re¬ 
commend, because with regular wear, 
the fringed ends soon look “frazzled,” 
and they are rarely becoming except to 
a young face. 
* 
The point of view may vary very 
rapidly sometimes, when it becomes a 
question of our own belongings, or those 
of others. The New York Sun has this 
to say of one anxious mother: 
The mother of several sons was walk¬ 
ing with her daughter down the street 
when they saw a boy, his legs coiled 
round a tree-trunk while his head hung 
downward some distance from the 
ground. Had the legs slipped the boy 
must have fallen and his skull probably 
split open. Round the tree stood a circle 
of admiring youths. “Just look at 
that dreadful boy!” cried the mother. 
“Oughtn’t he to be taken home and 
spanked well?” “Why, Mother,” cried 
the daughter, as they drew nearer, “it s 
our Tommy! I don’t believe there’s an¬ 
other boy there brave enough to do that.” 
“Of course, there isn’t,” returned the 
mother, joyously: “not one of them would 
have the courage but Tommy. I’m proud 
of him.” 
* 
Down in Missouri they celebrate any 
great public festiv.ty with a burgoo. 
This is a culinary mystery to the effete 
East, but the St. Louis Republic says 
that for a “burgoo” of 60 gallons 10 
hours’ cooking is given to the following 
ingredients: 
Twenty-five pounds of beef bones sawed 
short for the extraction of the marrow; 
40 to 50 fat half-grown chickens chopped 
into small pieces; 75 half-grown squir¬ 
rels, especially the saddles, with the 
heads, which are full of brains; 50 
squabs; one large Gulf of Mexico turtle 
chopped into small pieces; 25 pounds of 
fresh pork; 12 pounds of Jersey butter, 
browned and drawn; 15 pounds of old 
ham, chopped fine; one bushel of Irish 
potatoes, sliced; 10 bushels of scarlet to¬ 
matoes; four bushels of onions; three 
bushels of carrots; the milk of 100 sweet 
roasting ears of corn; five pounds of 
macaroni; all the vegetables in season 
in proportion; 200 to 300 pods of cayenne 
pepper, chopped fine. 
When the burgoo is done it is a rich 
deep red in color. Bread is fried and 
cut into dice, and served with it. It is 
evidently a food to be eaten by faith 
rather than sight, but it seems less du¬ 
bious than some of the supplies at a 
barbecue. 
NEW-YORKER. 
A Transformed Farmhouse. 
Part II. 
She went to tne guest room first. 
Here stood an old mahogany bed and 
bureau, of no great beauty or value, but 
substantial and good. They were pol¬ 
ished till they shone, and each rejoiced 
in new coverings. The bed had a quaint 
old blue and white spread, woven many 
years before, but as Marcia knew, to be 
prized more highly to-day than ever. 
The bureau had a frilled white muslin 
square on it, and an inexpensive tray or 
two of blue and white china. The walls 
were papered in Delft and blue and 
white in a large, old-fashioned pattern. 
The floor had a cheap matting, and its 
center was covered with a blue and 
white Japanese rug. It would not re¬ 
ceive much wear nere, and so was not a 
foolish purchase as it would have been 
for another room. There were a couple 
of mahogany Chairs with chintz cushions 
like tne paper;—Marcia had recovered 
all the chairs in the house herself—and 
a willow rocker. There was a good- 
sizea table at one side with some books 
on it. The washstand had been an 
anxiety, for there was none in the house 
like the furniture and she did not wish 
to use another wood, while buying one 
of mahogany was out of the question. 
A compromise was finally made by get¬ 
ting a cheap iron one painted white, and 
putting it behind a dainty screen; this 
was originally a small clothes-horse, but 
was now disguised by a covering of 
paper, like that on the walls, tacked on 
over unbleached cotton. There were 
muslin curtains in the windows, as fresh 
as possible, and the effect of the whole 
Marcia pronounced “charming,” with 
complacent self-approval. 
She passed out and crossed to her 
mother’s room. This Mrs. Noble had 
begged her not to change, but Marcia 
had papered it like the hall, put up mus¬ 
lin curtains, spread a bright rug by the 
bed, and lowered the family pictures a 
foot, and ft was vastly improved. Her 
own room was lovely, though simple. 
A white paper covered with huge roses, 
was on the wall, and the chairs were 
covered with chintz to match. Marcia 
had repainted the furniture nerself with 
two coats of White paint; she had also 
nailed strips of wood to the four corners 
of the bed and others across them, until 
she had a framework from which to 
hang a canopy of muslin curtains; a 
valance to matdh reached from the mat¬ 
tress to the floor, where a matting took 
the place of the discarded carpet; the 
room was dainty and pretty enough to 
suit the most fastidious and exacting of 
womankind. The room over the kitchen 
belonged to the hired girl, when they 
had one. It had always been close and 
hot, and crowded with furniture too 
shabby to be used elsewhere. Now it 
was fresh and cool, with open windows, 
a little iron bed with a white spread, a 
plain chair or two, a shelf of books, and 
a washstand with a mirror over it. The 
floor was painted yellow and a strip of 
freSh rag carpet lay by the bed. “I 
fancy our next girl may stay,” Marcia 
thought contentedly. 
Down stairs the dining room was now 
one not only in name but in fact. To be 
sure the lounge was still there, but it 
had been recovered, and the book case 
changed into a cupboard. Plates and 
cups were visible through the glass 
doors; and it wore quite a fashionable 
air. A very simple oak side-board stood 
opposite it. Mrs. Noble felt this was al¬ 
most too “stylish,” but still she admired 
it. This floor was stained brown, and 
nearly covered with a plain, finely 
woven English rug of olive green. The 
walls, too, were olive, and held a few 
framed photographs. Marcia luckily 
owned a dozen fine ones, brought her 
from Europe by a class-mate. The open 
windows looked into a shady side porch, 
and altogether everything seemed cosy 
and home-like. Best of all Mrs. Noble 
had promised that there should be no 
more meals served in the kitchen. The 
“best room” was inspected last. It had 
been rather difficult to arrange, for 
Marcia wished it dainty and yet not too 
fine for daily use. It was a north room, 
and as a substitute for sunshine it had 
now a yellow paper with large but in¬ 
distinct figures in the same shade. The 
floor was stained brown like that of the 
dining room, and a large rug of mixed 
but harmonious colors lay upon it. “No 
one would ever guess its origin,” 
thought Marcia. It looked Oriental, it 
was thick and velvety, and would wear 
a lifetime, but it was really woven in 
the city from all the old carpets of vary ¬ 
ing ages and textures in the house. The 
mantel and wood-work were white. On 
the walls were hanging shelves also 
white, some filled with books, some hold¬ 
ing pieces of Grandmother Hood’s old 
blue china, rather cracked, to be sure, 
but of beautiful color. There were 
framed photographs here also, not many 
but good ones, a Madonna, a Venetian 
scene in colors, and a silver print of 
Windermere. There was a low white 
table with books on it; a pretty willow 
rocker; a box-couch made by the village 
carpenter and draped with the other one 
of Marcia’s pair of Italian blankets. It 
had some pillows made from a discarded 
featherbed and covered with Oriental 
cottons. The chairs were the old ones, 
recovered with remnants of tapestry. In 
the windows under tne muslin curtains 
were green-painted boxes full of beauti¬ 
ful ferns, and a great pot of them stood 
in the empty fireplace also. Marcia sat 
down in the rocking chair. 
“It’s certainly a ‘transformation,” she 
mused. “It is cheerful, and fresh, and 
harmonious. I’ll not be ashamed now 
to have any one of the girls visit me. 
Mbther and Father are really delighted, 
and when I tell them that I’ve spent 
less than a hundred dollars on it all 
they won't be able to believe me. It’s 
all perfectly satisfactory, simple, suit¬ 
able to our station in life, and yet as 
pretty as can be. Isn’t it pretty, 
Mother?” she repeated aloud, as Mrs. 
Noble appeared in the door. 
“Pretty?” repeated her mother with 
emphasis, “there isn’t as pretty a house 
at the Corners, no, nor in the village 
either. Marcia, what a thing it is to go 
to college!”-American Kitchen Maga¬ 
zine. 
-UlMSTRONQ McKELVY 
Pittsburgh. 
BEYMER-BAUMAN 
Pittsburgh. 
DAV18 -CHAMBERS 
Pittsburgh. 
FAHNESTOCK 
Pittsburgh. 
ANCHOR ) 
> Cincinnati. 
ECKSTEIN j 
ATLANTIC 
BRADLEY 
BROOKLYN 
JEWETT 
ULSTER 
UNION 
SOUTHERN 
SHIPMAN 
COLLIER 
MISSOURI 
RED SEAL 
SOUTHERN 
New York. 
| Chi 
Chicago. 
>St. Louis. 
JOHN T. LEWIS & BROS CO 
Philadelphia. 
MORLEY 
Cleveland. 
SALEM 
Salem, Mass. 
CORNELL 
BufTalo. 
KENTUCKY 
Louisville. 
MPLOV a practical painter. There’s 
no economy in buying ready-mixed 
paint and employing a tramp to 
slather it on. The experienced painter will 
tell you that if you want paint 
which lasts you must use Pure 
White Lead. To be sure that 
it is pure, see that the packages 
bear one of the brands named 
in margin. 
KtQSaKa For colors use National Lead Com- 
fllLL pany’s Pure White Lead Tinting Col¬ 
ors. Any shade desired is readily 
obtained. Pamphlet giving full information and 
showing samples of Colors, also pamphlet entitled 
“Uncle Sam’s Experience With Paints” for¬ 
warded upon application. 
National Lead Co., ioo William Street, New York. 
