1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
871 
The Catnip Garden. 
EUGENE FIELD’S STORY OF NEW ENGLAND 
CATNIP AND COLORADO CATS. 
Part II. 
Away up on top of a very high moun¬ 
tain near Del Norte, there lived an old 
Maltese cat, the maternal ancestor of 
many generations of her species. She 
had come across the plains in a prairie 
schooner in 1859 with a party of emi¬ 
grants, and now she lived in the hospital 
loft of the stable nearest the summit of 
an imposing peak, not far from Del 
Norte. One night this old Maltese cat 
was traversing the ridgepole of the 
stable, when she was brought to a sud¬ 
den standstill by the breeze blowing 
from the northeast. 
“Wee-ow-ow!” exclaimed the old Mal¬ 
tese feline; and her eyes glittered 
strangely, her tail began to expand, and 
her venerable fur rose on her back. 
“Why, grandma,” inquired one of the 
younger cats, a demure maiden tabblie 
of uncertain age, “why, gran’ma, what 
ails you?” 
“Wee-ow-ow!” replied the old Maltese 
cat again. “Wee-ow-ow! I smell cat¬ 
nip!” 
Now the other cats had heard about 
catnip, but had never seen any. The 
tales which the Maltese cat had told 
about her experiences with the favorite 
weed before she left hr kittenhood home 
in Maine had been handed around among 
the other cats of Colorado as quaint le¬ 
gends. All the other cats had heard tell 
of the subtle glories of catnip, but none 
had ever beheld or even whiffed the 
grateful herb. 
“Where?” asked twenty young cats In 
chorus. 
“Oh! I don’t know,” replied the old 
Maltese cat, “but I can smell it, and I’m 
going to follow up the trail until I find 
It.” 
With these portentous words the old 
Maltese cat whisked her tail, gave a wild 
“Wee-ow” and started on a run for Den¬ 
ver, 300 miles away. 
“Wee-ow-ow!” cried the other cats, 
and the kittens, too, and off they started 
for Denver, giving the old Maltese a hot 
race over hill and valley, peak and plain, 
mead and wold. 
The word was passed around, and the 
cry went up here and there like wildfire 
—“Catnip; catnip! catnip! We’re going 
to get some catnip!” The tidings reach¬ 
ed Alamosa, and ran along the whole of 
the mountain range of Colorado. The 
excitement was intense, cats hurried 
from every house, cabin, barn, stable, 
shed and mine, and joined the vast pro¬ 
cession. Every city, town, hamlet and 
camp was instantly deserted by its cat 
population, such a yowling had never 
before been heard, such a seething army 
of cats had never been seen. The miner 
in his lonely hut, hearing the awful rush 
sprang from his cot and cried: “The 
snow-slide! the snow-slide! Run for 
your lives!” But it was only the cats 
on the gallop to Denver! Oh! it was a 
prodigious spectacle, and the old Maltese 
cat led the van! 
Judge Toll was dreaming pleasant 
dreams that night, when he was awak¬ 
ened therefrom by a din which threw 
him into a cold sweat. He crawled out 
of his bed, slipped anxiously into his 
trousers, seized his faithful shotgun, and 
stole softly to his window. The strange 
noise seemed to come from the front 
yard, yes, from the rows of catnip 
bushes! 
Then the judge peered out of the win¬ 
dow, and what do you think he saw? 
Myriads of cats—billows of cats! Cats 
of every size, weight, color, sex, condi¬ 
tion and description—black cats, white 
cats, tabbie cats, Maltese cats, tortoise¬ 
shell cats, brindle cats, spotted cats, 
striped cats, brown cats, yellow cats, 
mauve cats, fat cats, lean cats, stump¬ 
tailed cats, one-eared cats, wall-eyed 
cats, three-legged cats, mamma cats, 
papa cats and kittens—oh, yes, kit¬ 
tens of every kind, and without number! 
And there they were in Judge Toll’s 
front yard, among and on the rows of 
catnip bushes—purring, sprawling, yowl¬ 
ing, like so many demons. 
“Pur-r-r,” said the old, way-back Mal¬ 
tese cat, all the way from Del Norte— 
“pur-r-r! oh! isn’t this lovely? It’s the 
first catnip I’ve had going on twenty- 
five years—pur-r! I thank heaven that 
I have lived to see this grateful fruit 
introduced into the Rocky Mountain re¬ 
gion!” 
And then all the other cats—there 
must have been a million of them— 
purred in chorus so loud that it sounded 
like an awful, lingering peal of thunder. 
But this was not all. Oh, no! By the 
bright moonlight Judge Toll could see 
myriads and myriads of other cats surg¬ 
ing down from the mountain ranges and 
through the valleys and over the plains 
—from Georgetown, Salida, Idaho, Gol¬ 
den, Boulder, Crested Butte, Tincup, San 
Juan, Pueblo, Durango, Cucharas, Buena 
Vista, Conejos, Manitou, Rosita, Sagu¬ 
ache and Trinidad—the foothills were 
alive with cats, the mountain peaks 
swarmed with cats and cats, cats, cats 
swept along like a swirling torrent to¬ 
ward one focal point, Judge Toll’s cat¬ 
nip bed! 
And lo! the cats were coming from 
other directions, too—from the arid 
plains of Kansas and from Deer Trail, 
from Monotony water tank and from the 
dreary confines of Nebraska—the breeze 
blowing from the north brought the 
noise of vast armies of cats on their way 
from Laramie and Cheyenne! 
The cats already in the judge’s front 
yard—how they purred and writhed and 
yowled and how the sparks of electricity 
shot from their furry backs as they 
rubbed affectionately up against the rows 
of catnip! It was, in fact, a carnival— 
a cat saturnalia! 
The judge said to himself: “I will 
shoot in among all these trespassers and 
drive them away. What right have they 
to devastate my beauteous exotics?” 
But then came the second better 
thought. Would it not be cruel to de¬ 
prive these creatures of the long-denied 
pleasure they were now enjoying in the 
catnip bed? None of them, save the old 
Maltese, had ever before seen or tasted 
the precious herb—they knew of it only 
from the legendary lore with which the 
old way-back Maltese cat had regaled 
them, their fathers, their mothers, their 
grandmothers, their grandfathers, and 
so on ad infinitum. 
And the more Judge Toll thought it 
over the more he became satisfied that 
he ought, in all humanity, to let the cats 
stay and enjoy the catnip. So at last he 
went back to his bed and renewed his 
slumber as best he could. 
When he got up next morning and 
looked into his front yard, not a cat was 
to be seen, nor yet a vestige of the cat¬ 
nip, either. The turf was widely rent 
and torn up, and every leaf, twig, sprig 
and root of catnip had disappeared. It 
was conjectured that the cats took it 
all away with them. They must have 
had a terrible battle over the remnants 
of the feast, for here and there on the 
despoiled turf lay eyes and ears and bits 
of tails and tufts of fur—silent but elo¬ 
quent evidence of the last tragic scene 
of all. 
Rural Recipes. 
No seed where labor Is not free 
Can yield such life as yields 
The golden grain of liberty 
That crowns Columbia’s fields. 
We love the bread that saved our sires 
When hungry and forlorn, 
And every Autumn feast inspires 
Our praise of Indian corn. 
—American Kitchen Magazine. 
New England Mincemeat.— This dif¬ 
fers from most recipes in the use of 
baked instead of chopped apples. We 
greatly prefer good beef suet instead of 
meat in any mincemeat. Three large 
lemons, three large apples, one pound 
of stoned raisins, one-half pound of cur¬ 
rants, one pound of suet, a half-tea- 
spoonful of salt, two pounds moist sugar, 
one ounce of sliced candied citron, one 
ounce of sliced orange peel and the same 
quantity of lemon peel, one teacupful of 
cider, two tablespoonfuls of orange mar¬ 
malade, one-half pound almonds chopped 
fine. Grate the rind of the lemons, 
squeeze out the juice, strain it and boil 
the remainder of the lemons until tender 
enough to pulp or chop very finely. Then 
add to this pulp the apples, which should 
be baked and their skins and cores re¬ 
moved; put in the remaining ingredi¬ 
ents one by one, and as they are added 
mix everything thoroughly together. 
Put the mincemeat into a stone jar with 
a closely fitting lid. 
Orange Filling.—This is a delicious 
new cake filling. Boil 1 V 2 cupful of 
granulated sugar with one-third of a 
cupful of water until the syrup spins a 
thread when tested. In a good-sized 
bowl have the three yolks of three eggs 
beaten until very light. Pour the syrup 
gradually into these, stirring vigorously 
all the while; then beat the mixture un- 
until stiff and cold and add to it the 
grated yellow rind of two oranges, being 
careful not to include any of the bitter 
part; a teaspoonful of lemon juice and 
the juice of a large sweet orange. Put 
the filling between the layers of the cake 
and over the top when both filling and 
cake are perfectly cold. It will thicken 
and harden considerably more after 
standing a few hours. 
Swedish Buns.—These are made with 
very little trouble when molding bread. 
Take one pound of light bread dough 
add one-half cupful butter, roll out one- 
fourth inch thick, spread with butter, 
sugar, cinnamon and currants. Fold as 
for jelly roll, cut into half-inch slices, 
set these rings side up in a pan, let rise 
to double their bulk, and bake; ice when 
cold. 
Cranberry Puffs.—This is a delicious 
new recipe from the Boston Cooking 
School. Sift together two cupfuls of 
sifted flour, four teaspoonfuls of bak¬ 
ing powder and one-third teaspoonful 
of salt; rub one-fourth cupful of butter 
into the flour, and two well-beaten eggs, 
one cup of rich milk and stir into the 
flour with one pint of cranoerries. Fill 
buttered cups about half full of mixture 
and steam one hour in a closely-covered 
steamer. Serve with cranberry sauce. 
To make this, boil two cupfuls of sugar 
and one-half cupful of water five 
minutes, add a cupful of thin cranberry 
juice, let it boil, and serve hot. If a 
thicker sauce is desired stir in one-half 
or one teaspoonful of cornstarch (made 
smooth in a little water). Let cook 10 
minutes, add a teaspoonful of butter 
and a tablespoonful of lemon juice to 
accentuate the flavor. 
Cheese Cakes.—These old-fashioned 
little tarts are great favorites with Eng¬ 
lish housekeepers, but are not very often 
seen on American tables. One cupful of 
curd drained dry, the yolks of three 
eggs, three cupfuls of rich milk or 
cream, half a cupful of dried currants, 
and half a cupful of sugar. Mix, drop in 
tart pans lined with puff paste, and 
bake. When cold cover the tops with 
icing made of the whites of the eggs 
and powdered sugar, and set in the oven 
two or three minutes before serving. 
They may be flavored with nutmeg or 
lemon extract if desired. 
Sand Cakes.—Cream together one cup¬ 
ful of butter and two of sugar; two well- 
beaten eggs, and three cupfuls of flour. 
Roll very thin, cut in squares with a 
sharp knife, spread the white of an egg 
on top, sprinkle with cinnamon and 
sugar, press an almond in the center of 
each, and bake quickly in a very hot 
oven. 
Christmas Cookies—Work together 
two cupfuls each of butter and sugar, 
add two beaten eggs, one cupful of milk, 
flour sufficient to make a soft d ugh with 
half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar 
sifted through the flour. Flavor with 
vanilla or orange juice, with a little of 
the grated peel. Roll thin, cut in small 
cakes and bake. 
MOTHERS.— Be sure to use“Mrs Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best. — Adv. 
Had* ■ that makes your 
8 o‘?co? horses glad. 
WATCH CHARM FREET^JdZnnin^MmS 
will receive a nice watch oharm by sending 4c. stamps 
to JOHNSON & FIELD M’F’G. CO., Racine, Wla 
DIETZ 
No. 3 Street Lamp 
HAS A SHINING RECORD 
OF 20 YEARS. 
It is offered as an effectual 
antidote for “outer 
darkness,” and is thor¬ 
oughly well made on 
scientific principles. 
It will give more light 
than any gas-burning 
lamp, do it cheaper and 
do it wi*?. kerosene (coal 
oil). 
It cun be lit and regu¬ 
lated from the outside; 
can continue in business 
despite the wind; can 
and will give you entire 
satisfaction, by reason 
of its absolute relia¬ 
bility. 
It U but one member of 
an enormous family of 
“ light goods ” that we 
build, and to whom we 
would be glad to intro¬ 
duce you by means of 
our Catalogue, which we mail free upon application. 
If you insist upon having the very best goods 
made, your dealer will give you “ Diet*.* 
If you cannot obtain this Lamp of your dealer, we 
will deliver it, freight prepaid, to any part of the U. S. 
or Canada, upon receipt of its price, viz.. $0.00. 
R. E. DIETZ CO., 
87 Laight Street, New York. 
Established In 1840. 
IN LIFE 
A farmer’s 
boy or girl 
can get an 
education in 
a few months 
at home that 
will tit them 
to take posi¬ 
tions in town 
or city, where 
they can earn 
good salaries 
from the start, 
continue their 
studies and earn more as they learn 
more. By our method of Education 
by Mall we have prepared farmer’s 
boys for positions in machine or elec¬ 
trical works, or with architects. 
By our Method 
FAKMF.K8' 
BOYS 
FAK.VF.KS' 
(JIKLS 
Have Become! 
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Draftsmen, 
Electricians, 
Surveyors. 
Stenographers, 
Book-keepers, 
Designers. 
Write, staling subject in which interested. 
The International Correspondence Schools, 
COE’S 
ECZEMA CUBE, SI. Large sample 
mailed free. Coe Chem. Co., Cleveland, O 
UNITARIAN PCB f ^ A irress 8ent 
MISSIONS, 150 Holland St., Syracuse, N. Y. 
Elgin Watches 
are sold by jewelers everywhere In various sizes 
and styles, at prices to suit. Send for free booklet 
to the ELGIN NATIONAL WATCH CO., Elgin, Ill, 
