1902 
487 
An Emergency Dinner. 
The ingenuity of the housekeeper on 
a farm is often taxed to the utmost to 
provide for the unexpected guest who 
arrives near the dinner hour, for in ac¬ 
cordance with unwritten law the mid¬ 
day meal Is one which never varies 
three seconds in its time of being served, 
and that is on the stroke of 12 by the 
kitchen clock. The butcher and the 
baker who dwell in the adjoining town 
are unable to contribute to her needs, 
and she must make the most of the ma¬ 
terials at hand, and providing the meat 
is sometimes the most difficult part of 
the meal, even if the brooks are full of 
fish, and the chicken yard of fowls, for 
it takes time to catch and prepare 
either; more time than the emergency 
dinner ever allows. It is frequently 
here that pork, much abused from a hy¬ 
gienic point of view, has to play a lead¬ 
ing part in the dinner; but there are 
many ways of serving it which often 
prove delectable to those who only par¬ 
take of it on rare occasions. 
Pork freshened in the potato water 
with the boiling potatoes, and then fried 
to the perfection of crispiness, and 
served with fresh lettuce is both whole¬ 
some and palatable. Pieces of pork may 
be turned through the meat chopper, 
then mix the meat with eggs, and cook 
the same as in scrambled eggs. Or a 
batter can be made from one egg, flour, 
sweet milk and baking powder; pour 
this over thin slices of pork in the fry¬ 
ing pan, and cook all together. The pork 
should be partially fried before adding 
the batter. Again, an excellent meat 
pie can be made from salt pork if an 
hour’s warning be given. Cut the pork 
iuto dice pieces, fill into a deep baking 
dish, add one sliced onion, a few sliced 
potatoes, the regulation seasoning of 
sage, or Summer savory, salt and pep¬ 
per, a sprinkling of flour, and one pint 
of water. Cover with a biscuit crust. 
Just before removing from the oven pour 
over one pint of fresh sweet milk, allow¬ 
ing it to penetrate the pie, and nicely 
brown before taking out. 
It is practical and saves much anxiety 
many times to keep a supply of canned 
goods on hand, as they may be utilized 
in many ways, although canned meats 
are never equal to prime cuts, and it re¬ 
quires usually a little culinary skill to 
make them as palatable as the good cook 
desires, yet the use of them is often im¬ 
perative to form a variety. Canned fish 
does not require much attention, but 
may be served as it is, excepting mack- 
eral, which demands a dressing of 
cream and butter. Fish salads are out 
of the question in a hastily-prepared 
meal. It is an improvement to smother 
canned beefsteak in onions. Canned 
corn and roast beef may both be com¬ 
bined with scrambled eggs and served 
on toast, forming savory dishes when 
seasoned properly, which takes little 
time to prepare. Toast is the house¬ 
keeper’s solace when time is limited, as 
everything imaginable and a few things 
you do not imagine may be served on 
toast, from quail to codfish, dried beef, 
eggs in various ways, and many kinds 
of vegetables, asparagus and mushrooms 
being exceptionally good. 
Shortcake, which can also be pre¬ 
pared very quickly (one will bake in 15 
minutes) is a great help in an emer¬ 
gency dinner, for by L-.viding it can be 
made to answer a twofold purpose, using 
it as a dessert and also in the meat 
course. Leftovers of cold veal, mutton, 
beef, or fowls, when reheated in a lib¬ 
eral allowance of stock, may then be 
poured over crust, and will form enough 
to serve a tableful, whereas the meat in 
itself would have been inadequate. 
The use of canned vegetables on a 
farm is as necessary often as to those 
living in any other locality. The vege¬ 
table garden cannot be relied upon at all 
seasons, and the time it takes to gather 
the fresh vegetables is frequently a 
source of great inconvenience to a hur¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ried housewife, although she may gather 
them at other times and can them her¬ 
self. The supply of canned stock should 
never be permitted to run low, or the 
lack is sure to be felt. The housekeeper 
on the farm has an advantage over many 
other housekeepers in serving vege¬ 
tables, in always having a plentiful sup¬ 
ply of fresh sweet cream to season them 
with, which imparts a flavor milk and 
butter can never give. Another easily- 
prepared dish is tomatoes and macaroni. 
The macaroni will cook in 10 minutes 
and the tomatoes reheat in less time. 
Drain the macaroni, pour the tomatoes 
over it, and season with butter, salt and 
pepper. 
Potatoes always form part of an emer¬ 
gency dinner, although mentioned last. 
The quickest and easiest way to serve 
them is mashed, only let them be well 
prepared; a badly mashed potato is 
one of the poorest articles of food ever 
placed on the table. Drain the potatoes 
perfectly dry, and let them steam a few 
minutes before mashing, which must be 
very thoroughly done. Season with salt, 
pepper, one tablespoonful of butter, and 
one cupful ot cream to three pints of po¬ 
tatoes. Beat until as light as a foam 
and pile lightly on a dish. Do not crush 
into a hard mound smoothed over with 
a knife blade, and decorated with cob¬ 
blestones of butter. It spoils the pota¬ 
toes, and they are not realistic graves. 
The desserts are the simplest parts of 
an emergency dinner, for there is usual¬ 
ly stale cake, or crackers in the house, 
which may be served with whipped 
cream, or a boiled custard. Soak the 
crackers in hot water and spread over 
with butter before adding the sauce. 
The above-mentioned shortcake is an¬ 
other quickly-made dessert. Split and 
butter the cake and fill with canned 
fruit. Serve with sweetened cream. 
Steamed suet puddings when made rich 
enough with fruit will keep indefinitely, 
and can be got ready at a moment’s no¬ 
tice by simply reheating, and serving 
with a boiled sauce. sabaii rodney. 
A Woman Mail Carrier. 
RURAL DELIVERY IN FEMININE HANDS. 
The occupation of rural mail carrier 
for a woman is undoubtedly something 
of a novelty, but I find it not an un¬ 
pleasant nor very difficult position to 
fill. Aside from an occasional unpleas¬ 
ant incident I find the life of an R. F. 
D. carrier rather a pleasant one. My 
usual round of work begins by getting 
to the post office at about seven o’clock 
in the morning, taking my mail from a 
basket where it has been thrown by the 
postmaster as the mails come in during 
the day, and packing each individual’s 
mail by itself, which usually requires 
about 30 to 40 minutes, packing in our 
pouches in order of boxes on route. I 
get on the road slightly before eight 
o’clock, very often furnishing my first 
patrons their mail while they are eating 
their breakfast. While the town folks 
have hardly thought of their mail my 
farmers have been able to see the 
weather and market reports and import¬ 
ant general news before beginning their 
day’s work. The boxes on the route are 
so placed tnat we do not have to leave 
our buggy to serve them, many times 
placing the mail in the box as our horse 
walks by without stopping, or pass It to 
the hand of some anxious one waiting 
to receive it. We notice where there 
are very old persons in the families 
served they are at the box to meet us 
and exchange a cheery good morning. 
When the patron has mail to send out 
it is placed in the box and the signal 
put out, which is easily seen as we drive 
up to the box. 
We carry stamps, envelopes, postal 
cards; issue money orders, register let¬ 
ters, and, in fact, supply our patrons 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— AUv. 
anything they can get at the post office, 
besides doing any little shopping they 
may call for. Our route is about 24 
miles, and usually takes about six hours 
to make, serving about 80 boxes and 
handling about 5,000 pieces of mail per 
month, the Department requiring us to 
keep strict account of each variety and 
piece of mail handled. The most notice¬ 
able feature of our work has been the 
great increase of papers taken. In many 
instances people who only took one 
weekly paper now get several dailies, 
more weeklies, with frequently some 
of the best magazines, showing how 
quickly the farmer has taken advantage 
of the refining influences of the good 
things furnished by the rural free de¬ 
livery. LILLIAN OHLOTFELTY. 
Iowa. 
Advertising Philanthropists. 
“It’s amazing how generous some 
folks are,” said Mr. Applegate, in the 
Youth’s Companion. He had been study¬ 
ing one of the cheap periodicals that 
seem to exist for the benefit of equally 
cheap advertisers. “I cal’late if I had 
time to write letters, and postage 
stamps to mail ’em, I could fill the barn 
chamber with things that’s offered free. 
“Here’s a man wants to send medicine 
to cure consumption. Another’ll give 
you a gold ring, if you’ll only ask him 
foi it, and another says he’ll tell you, 
for a stamp, how to get a chiny tea-set 
free. As near as I can reckon, there’s 
30 concerns advertising here to give 
away sixteen hundred and eighty-seven 
dollars’ wuth of valuable articles, not 
counting the books and circulars and 
free prescriptions for never-failing medi¬ 
cines. 
“Don’t s’pose they’d really do it, do 
you? No, neither did I. Things that 
are wuth having are wuth paying for, 
and my experience is that you always 
do pay for ’em some way or other. 
There’s a catch in these ‘gift’ offers, 
same as there was in that bargain young 
Jed Hopkins made with his pa. 
“You know his pa, Eli Hopkins? 
Meanest man in town. Doesn’t think 
any more of a dollar than some folks 
do of their lives, Eli doesn’t. Well, one 
year he told Jed that if he’d do all the 
work on a certain patch of corn he 
should have old Spotty’s next calf. Jed 
didn’t have much of anything he could 
call his own, except his warts, and he 
jumped at the chance. Calf was turned 
right over to him when it arrived, too. 
Oh, yes, and Jed had all the care of it. 
“Come along about time when the 
butcher would have bought the calf— 
that is, if Jed hadn’t been going to raise 
it, as he thought he was—and one day 
old Eli says, ‘I dunno, my son, but you 
and me’d ought to have a settlement 
about that there critter ’fore he runs ye 
too fur in debt.’ 
“ ‘Settlement?’ says Jed. ‘Why, I 
earned the calf, and you give it to me!’ 
“ ‘Sure enough,’ old Eli says. ‘But 
that calf ain’t lived on wind, you recol¬ 
lect, and we didn’t make any trade about 
the feed. I cal’late the calf’s wuth so 
much, and the milk he’s drunk was wuth 
so much.’ It was about 75 cents more 
than he reckoned the calf to be wuth. 
‘But seeing’s I don’t want to be hard 
on ye,’ says old Eli, ‘I’m willing to take 
the calf for his board, and call it square.’ 
“I should be afraid, if I let one o’ these 
philanthropists give me a calf, that he’d 
make me pay high for the milk,” Mr. 
Applegate moralized, as he tossed away 
the paper, “and more’u likely he’d find 
some way to make me do the milking, 
too.” 
THERE IS A CLASS OF PEOPLE 
Who ore Injured by tne use of coffee. Recently there 
bus been placed In all the grocery stores a new pre¬ 
paration called GRAIN-O, made of pure grains, that 
takes the place of coffee. The most deUcate stomach 
receives It without distress, and but few can tell It 
from coffee. It does not cost over % as much. 
Children may drink It with great beuetlt. 15c. auh 
J6o. per package. Try Jt. Ask for URAIN-O 
V I 
t! 
Everybody 
Who suffers from Bodily 
Aches and Pains, such as 
Rheumatism, Gout, Lum¬ 
bago, Headache, Pleurisy, 
Sciatica, Sprains and Brulsaa 
Should Use 
StJacobsOil 
It Conquers Pain { 
Prica, *50 and goc. 
X bold by aix dkalkiui in gmicnm 
Banner Lye 
The best help in cleaning household 
and .farm utensils. 
Makes pure soap without boiling. 
COSTS LITTLE 
EASILY LAID 
, (TRADE-MARK REGISTERED! 
BOOKLET “KV 
t\A-* • L ' ' V 
THE STANDARD PAINT CO 
.. - . ; 
102 William St., New York. 
NO PAINTING REQUIRED ^SSTSSSg 
Roofing. Can 
be easily laid 
as tho work 
only consists of 
nailing and ce¬ 
nt e n 11 ng the 
Joints. Samples, prices & bookletgiving Instructions 
ASPHALT READY ROOFING CO. for laying sent 
X36 Water St., New York. free postpaid. 
Bicycles Below Cost 
OOOO llieycles, overstock. For SO days 
only we will sacrifice at leaa than actual 
fa co°a? New 1902 Models. 
“Bell Iso," completo $8.7 6 
“Cossack," fSZSSs $0.76 
“Siberian," .Be.uty $10.76 
Neudorf," rkct, T c 
no finer bicycle at any price. ^ * Mm M o 
Choice of M. & W. or Record tires 
and best equipment on all our bicycles. 
Strongest guarantee. 
We SHIP ON APPROVAL 
C.O.D. to anyone without a cent deposit 
& allow IO DAYS FREE TRIAL 
before purchase is binding. 
500 good 2nd-hand wheels $3 to $8. 
Do not buy a bicycle until you have written 
for our free catalogues with large photographic 
engravings and full descriptions. 
MEAD CYCLE COm Dept.i75N Chicago. 
THE 
THOUSAND 
ISLANDS 
'There may be somewhere on tlie 
earth a more delightful region 
than that of the Thousand Islands, 
but if there is, it lias not been dis¬ 
covered. It is the Venice of 
America, but also has good hotels 
that can be kept warm if there 
shall happen to he a cold rainy 
evening. It is as fine as the Bay 
of Naples, with 2,000 picturesque 
Islands scattered along the 25 
miles of one of the most beautiful 
rivers in the world. You can find 
out a great deal regarding it in 
No. 10 of the “Four-Track Series,” 
“The Thousand Islands.” Copy 
will be mailed free on receipt 
of a two-eent stamp by George 
Jl. Daniels, G e ne ra l Passenger 
Agent, New York Central & Hud¬ 
son River Railroad, Grand Central 
Station, New York. 
