598 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 1 
l Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
THE FISHERMEN’S PRAYER. 
Lord God, Thy sea Is mighty; 
Lord God, our boats are small; 
But Thy heart’s open haven 
Shall save us, each and all. 
God of the meek and lowly, 
God of the tempest-tried, 
Be with us when we struggle, 
And stand our wheel beside 
The grit and grace, oh, give us, 
Until life’s cruise shall close, 
To batten down the hatches 
And stand our wheel beside. 
And when the toil is ended. 
And when the fishing's done, 
Grant us in Thee to anchor, 
After a voyage well run! 
—McClure’s Magazine. 
* 
The Boston cooking school advises 
the addition of tea to apple pie. Three 
tablespoonfuls of freshly-made Japan 
tea and a pinch of nutmeg are the flav¬ 
orings given. 
* 
A writer in What to Eat remarks 
that cookie dough should be handled 
very lightly, if at all, yet it is often dif¬ 
ficult to shape the cookies without a 
certain amount of kneading. Trouble 
of this kind may be obviated by spread¬ 
ing a clean white cloth over the mold¬ 
ing board, dredging thickly with flour, 
and dropping the dough upon this from 
the spoon. Pat the dough into shape 
with the spoon, dredge lightly with 
flour, and roll out with a floured rolling 
pin. It is then very easy to mold the 
cookies, and there is little trouble from 
sticky dough. 
* 
The British post office is a most 
obliging institution, forwarding every¬ 
thing from a letter to a pot of jam, but 
one of the most unique parcels ever 
transmitted was a living and breathing 
young woman. She was a foreigner, a 
stranger in London, who desired to 
reach one of the suburbs. Being hope¬ 
lessly lost, and a very sensible person, 
she entered a postal sub-station where 
she stated her wishes. For the sum of 
threepence she was conducted by a 
special messenger to her destination, the 
messenger delivering her to her friends 
and receiving a receipt for her. We are 
not told whether she was transmitted 
under parcels-post rules. 
* 
A medical specialist advises bicar¬ 
bonate of soda as a simple tooth powder 
to be used after eating acid fruit, or in 
cases where the saliva is very acid, the 
alkali of the soda neutralizing this con¬ 
dition. This is a good thing to bear in 
mind at this season, when much acid en¬ 
ters into our diet. A simple and effica¬ 
cious homemade tooth powder consists 
of one-half ounce each of orrisroot and 
precipitated chalk, and one teaspoonful 
of bicarbonate of soda, thoroughly 
mixed. The soda is one of the cheapest 
and most useful of toilet requisites; a 
little occasionally added to the water 
used in bathing is very comforting, es¬ 
pecially to those who perspire freely, 
and it is excellent for incipient fever 
sores, hives, and similar skin eruption 
* 
The recent articles on Brain Work in 
Animals, published in The R. N.-Y., 
refer to incidents which seem to show 
reason and memory on the part of ani¬ 
mals. The action of a Chicago parrot, 
which recently drove away two burglars, 
certainly suggests applied memory and 
intelligence. The burglars broke into 
the house during the day, while all the 
occupants were out. They had packed 
up a quantity of jewelry, and were about 
to enter the drawing-room, where the in¬ 
telligent parrot swung in its cage. 
Polly ordered them to get out, before 
they had a view of the bird, and then 
screamed: “You brute, don’t strike a 
poor, defenseless woman.” Afraid of an 
alarm, the burglars left, escaping 
through an alley with only part of their 
booty. This is almost as good as the 
old story of a clergyman’s parrot, which 
escaped from its cage, and flew to the 
top of the tallest tree in the orchard. 
The entire family, and a number of the 
neighbors, collected under the tree in 
the hope of capturing the truant, where¬ 
upon Polly turned one wicked eye to¬ 
ward the anxious crowd beneath, and 
remarked solemnly: “Let us pray.” 
* 
A good many farmers know how dif¬ 
ficult it is to keep a really good farm 
hand, when they find such a paragon. A 
Maine woman, however, has settled 
upon a satisfactory plan, according to 
an Augusta paper. A local clergyman 
describes her expedient as follows: 
One day a large and heavy woman, ac¬ 
companied by a comparatively small and 
ineek-looking man, came in and asked to 
be married. Everything was regular, and 
the ceremony was performed. After it was 
all over the bride explained her position. 
“You see, sir,” she said, “farm hands are 
mighty hard to get in this part of the coun¬ 
try, and they are even harder to keep. You 
get a good hirei man, and get him well 
broke in to work around the farm, and the 
first thing you know he quits the job and 
goes off to town or somewhere else. Last 
Spring I had a first-class hand, about as 
good as I ever expect to get; but just when 
the season got right busy he up and quit 
me. I Just made up my mind that I wasn’t 
going to be left in the same fix this Sum¬ 
mer, so here we are.” The bridegroom in 
the case simply stood and smiled meekly. 
He had nothing at all to say. 
* 
A household puolicatioii recently of¬ 
fered a prize for the best answers to the 
question “What Constitutes a Good 
Neighbor?” The first prize went to a 
woman in Tennessee, who gave her es¬ 
sentials as follows: 
The maintaining of sanitary conditions 
In house and surroundings. 
A pleasing appearance in windows, veran¬ 
das, garden and lawn. 
Reasonable restriction in regard to chil¬ 
dren, chickens and dogs. 
The absence of useless, disagreeable, or 
painful noises. Where love and common 
sense reign, a household can be happy with¬ 
out transforming itself into a circus; and 
can maintain discipline without rending the 
skies with wails of whipped children. 
The habit of not “dropping in” during the 
visited party’s busiest hours, or “running 
over” unannounced at any hour of the day. 
Familiarity needs bounds in order to be 
lastingly agreeable. 
An absence of the borrowing habit. Also 
of harmful gossip. 
Ready sympathy and help in times of 
sickness or accident, but not in obtrusive 
and overwhelming quantities—leaving some¬ 
thing for God and quiet to perform. 
The Summer Tablecloth. 
It is a great saving of laundry work 
and also of the household linen to use 
no tablecloths in Summer. Even for the 
ordinary late dinner a polished table, 
with a pretty centerpiece of white linen, 
garnished with flowers and silver, look 
suitable for the season, while it goes 
without saying that in the daytime, un¬ 
less the napery is of the freshest and 
best, a bare table is much more at¬ 
tractive, says a writer in the New York 
Tribune. Many a time a spotted cloth 
is used to save the washing and give 
more time to do up the cotton frocks 
and shirts. 
“ But my taDie is ugly,” says one 
housekeeper. “If I had a beautifully 
polished mahogany, it would be differ¬ 
ent. My table would look common.” 
My dear woman, all natural woods are 
beautiful if well kept. Your oak or 
black walnut will do perfectly well, if 
you rub off the scratches and stains 
which deface it. Give it a coat of brown 
shellac and rub it well with raw linseed 
oil with a few drops of turpentine once 
a week, polishing it off with an oiled bit 
of flannel after every meal, and never 
touching it with water. If you do this 
you will soon have a table to be proud 
of, even if it is not mahogany. 
The best centerpiece for everyday use 
i(s a hemstitched damask square. At a 
camp cottage, where the pine wood table 
refuses to be polished into prettiness or 
refinement, a clever woman has over¬ 
come the difficulty, and at the same 
time dispensed with tablecloths, by cov¬ 
ering her table with a dark blue denim 
cover that reaches to the ground. On 
this she puts her white centerpiece, and 
also a white doily to match, under every 
plate. The effect is exceedingly good. 
Storiettes. 
A Matter of Sight. 
The traveling eye doctor came along. 
The man of the house was out in the 
barn sorting potatoes for seed. Hi3 
wife told the doctor that she guessed 
her husband wanted some glasses, for 
he had been complaining about his old 
ones. So she went out and called him. 
He came slowly in through the shed 
walk, dusting the grime off his hands. 
“Yes,”’ said he to the doctor, “I have 
been havin’ quite a tussle with them 
eyes of mine. Guess I’ve either got to 
have some new specs or git tongs to 
hold my papers with. Hain’t got much 
ready money jest now. Jest got up 
March hill, ye see, and it’s seed and fer¬ 
tilizer and all that to buy. But trot 
out yer glasses, mister, and we’ll see if 
we can trade.” 
So the doctor opened his case and 
commenced to try on the glasses. As 
each was fitted on his nose the farmer 
first looked gravely on to the page of the 
weekly paper and then off at the wall. 
“No, that ain’t it yet,” he would say. 
At .last he seemed to get discouraged. 
“I don’t believe ye’ve got anything in 
your stock,” said he, “that’s goin’ to do 
me any good. Guess we might’s well 
stop tryin’.” 
Quoth the doctor, “Well, try these, 
it’s the last pair we haven’t tested. If 
they don’t fit we’ll call it a bad job.” 
And he carefully placed the glasses 
astride the farmer’s nose and passed the 
paper over to him. The farmer read for 
a while in silent delight and then he 
looked at the doctor. 
“Complete!” cried the farmer ecstati¬ 
cally. “I nain’t seen so well to read for 
years. These are just what I call fust 
class!” 
“I’m glad I suited you,” said the doc¬ 
tor as he tucked $3 in his vest pocket 
and hastened away. “I thought I could 
fix you before we got done.” 
“And he fixed me,” said the farmer, 
telling about the matter the other day. 
“When I went to look at them glasses 
after supper, blamed if I didn’t find that 
they were nothin’ but jest bows—not a 
speck of glass in either side of ’em. It 
cost me $3 to find out that my old eyes 
are pretty good to read with, after all.” 
—Lewiston (Me.) Journal. 
Our Umbrellas 
It was raining hard, and Miss Matilda, 
looking from her window, saw two 
school girls hurrying homeward under 
umbrellas. 
“Look at those silly youngsters!” 
Miss Matilda said. ‘They fancy they’re 
not wet. They’re bent forward, and 
hold their umbrella quite over their 
noses, while the rain pours down on 
their backs. But they don’t know that, 
bless you! It’s dry in front, and they 
don’t see what is going on behind them. 
They make me think of some people I 
know, who are so intent in saving the 
great world out in front that they for¬ 
get the mischief that is going on right 
back of them—in their own home, 
may be. 
“I read in a paper the other day high 
praise of a talk given before a mother’s 
club on the’Moral Training of Child¬ 
ren.’ The woman who gave it is a good 
earnest soul, and has some fine theories, 
but she hasn’t the least suspicion of 
what any of the neighbors could tell her 
about the moral training her two 
boys are needing. Her moral umbrella 
is a good one, but she isn’t hokLng it in 
the right place. 
“I’m not saying anything against out¬ 
side work,” concluded Miss Matilda, 
“ but I’ve always thought it was sen¬ 
sible advice that Nehemiah gave his 
men: each to build and watch over 
against his own house.”—Forward. 
HE continual breaking of 
lamp-chimneys costs a 
good deal in the course of a 
year. 
Get Macbeth’s “pearl top” 
or “pearl glass.” You will 
have no more trouble with 
breaking from heat. You will 
have clear glass instead of 
misty ; fine instead of rough ; 
right shape instead of wrong; 
and uniform, one the same as 
another. 
Our “ Index" describes all lamps and their 
prupir chimneys. With it you can always order 
the right size and shape of chimney for any lamp. 
We mail it FREE to any one who writes for it. 
Address Macbeth, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
The University of Notre Dame, 
NOTRE DAME, INDIANA. 
CIhhhIch, Letters, Economh s and History, 
Journalism, Art, Science, Pharmacy, Law, 
Civil. Mechanical and Electrical Engineer¬ 
ing;, Architecture. 
Thorough Preparatory and Commercial 
Courses. Ecclesiastical students at special rates. 
Rooms Free. Junior or Senior Year, Collegiate 
Courses. Rooms to Rent, moderate charge. 
St. Edward's Hall, for boys under 13. 
The 57 th Year will open September 4th, 1900. 
Catalogues Free. Address 
Rev. A. MORRISSEY, C. S. C., President. 
SAVE'/^youf 
mb ■ ■ mm ■ now wasted 
ki I I b I up chimney 
I Uk Li BY using 
THE ROCHESTER RADIATOR. 
COST $2.00 AND UP. 
Money refunded if not satisfactory. 
Write for booklet on economy in 
heating homes. 
ROCHESTER RADIATOR CO., 
«7 Furnace St., Rochester, N. Y. 
When you want soap—that’s soap, buy 
B.T. Babbitts 
Best Soap 
When you want cheap jewelry and stuff that won t last, buy soap with 
a premium, and be dissatisfed with both. 
I Babbitt’s Best Soap sells without schemes. It has led all laundry 
soaps for nearly half a century. 
B. T. Babbitt, New York 
“ Babbitt’s certainly pays 
11 
