212 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 18 
I Woman and Home j 
From Day to Day. 
There was a man who never told a lie— 
But he’s dead; 
Never said it was wet when the weather was dry— 
Never said 
He’d caught fish when he hadn’t caught one, 
Never said he’d done something that he hadn’t 
done, 
Never scolded his wife, and never got mad, 
And wouldn’t believe that the world was so bad. 
A respecter of men, a defender of woman, 
Who believed the Divine, and in that which was 
human. 
Meek as Moses—he never was understood, 
And the poor man died of being too good, 
And he’s dead. 
There was a woman who never had gossiped a bit 
—She’s dead, too; 
Who hated all scandal, nor listened to it; 
She believed in mankind, took care of her cat, 
Always turned a deaf ear to this story or that; 
Never scolded her husband—she never had one; 
No sluggard was she, but rose with the sun; 
Never whispered in meeting, didn’t care for a 
bonnet, • 
Or all of the feathers that one could put on it; 
Never sat with the choir, nor sang the wrong note; 
Expressed no desire to lecture or vote; 
For the poor soul was deaf as a post—also dumb; 
You might have called forever and she wouldn’t 
have come. 
And she’s dead. — Outlook. 
* 
An Italian delicacy is “little birds 
with polenta.” Polenta is a musical 
name for corn-meal mush, and one trav¬ 
eler expresses the opinion that the lit¬ 
tle birds are nothing more than spar¬ 
rows. However, they are nicely cooked, 
half a dozen of the birds being spitted 
on a stick, alternating with slices of 
bacon. The polenta is well seasoned, 
and the dish is very satisfying. 
* 
A Wisconsin assemblyman has intro¬ 
duced a joint resolution looking to the 
protection of the health of women in 
the State of Wisconsin by making a law 
to prohibit tight lacing. He says that 
tight lacing is a menace to the health of 
posterity, and that there is imperative 
need of legislation to stop it. Freder¬ 
ick the Great held the same opinion, but 
women outwitted him when he tried to 
enforce his ideas. 
* 
Discussing army rations before a re¬ 
cent meeting of physicians in New York, 
one army surgeon remarked that, as 
now made, the hard-tack was composed 
of fine wheat flour, mostly starch; it 
would be far more nutritious if made 
from entire wheat flour. The combina¬ 
tion of entire wheat with corn meal or 
with nuts would, in the opinion of this 
doctor, make a very nutritious food. We 
use the entire wheat bread in prefer¬ 
ence to that made from white flour, but 
have never experimented with corn-meal 
mixture. We have an impression, though, 
that entire wheat, with a little corn 
meal, would make an excellent steamed 
bread of the Boston type. 
* 
A Long Island woman who had been 
cleaning gloves with gasoline became 
impatient because they did not dry out 
quickly enough, so she held her gloved 
hands over a heated stove. The gloves 
ignited in an instant, and the flames 
were communicated to the wearer’s 
clothing. The fire was extinguished by 
rolling the victim in a snowbank, but 
she was badly burned, and slight hopes 
are entertained of her recovery. One 
rarely sees directions for cleansing cloth¬ 
ing with gasoline or benzine without 
warning as to their inflammability, the 
usual advice being to perform such 
work in a room without fire or artificial 
light. One cannot imagine anything 
more reckless or foolhardy than the ac¬ 
tion which led to the result noted above. 
One cannot call it an accident—it was 
inevitable in such a case. Once more, 
don’t use such modes of cleaning in any 
room containing fire, and don’t keep 
such stuff in pantry or closets. One dis¬ 
astrous fire within our knowledge was 
caused by upsetting a two-ounce bottle 
of benzine in a large clothes closet. A 
lighted lamp was brought in contact 
with it, and an explosion was the result. 
* 
Two women arrived rather lale at a 
New York theater one evening recently, 
and sat down with a good deal of bustle, 
finally removing their large and spread¬ 
ing hats. There was one vacant seat in 
front of the two women, and one of 
them, when she removed her hat, skew¬ 
ered this erection to the back of the 
seat with her hatpins. The second wo¬ 
man attempted to do the same, and a 
man who was seated in front of her 
sprang up with a howl, and displayed 
the hat impaled on the shoulder of his 
dress coat. The owner of the hat gave 
a scream, and reached for her headgear, 
which was detached, and the afflicted 
man sank into his seat, while the women 
offered disjointed apologies. There are 
several morals concealed in this little 
incident, and one of them is a wai’ning 
against the reckless use of human pin¬ 
cushions. Evidently the man in this 
case was not the person who used to 
punctuate his person with assorted pins, 
as a means of recreation at one of the 
dime museums. 
* 
Describing a Japanese inn, an Eng¬ 
lishwoman comments on the smiling 
politeness with which the traveler is 
welcomed. At meals, the guest must sit 
cross-legged on the floor in front of a 
small table. Unlimited rice forms a part 
of every meal, taking the place of bread. 
Japanese cooks prepare fish very well, 
and make a variety of palatable soups, 
but it is only of late years that these peo¬ 
ple have begun to eat meat to any ex¬ 
tent. Retiring to rest, if the night be 
warm, under the green mosquito net, 
and lying on the silk futons (or soft 
quilts) spread on the spotless matted 
floor, the happy guest will meditate on 
being in Japan undisturbed, let us hope, 
by the scurrying of the rats among the 
wainscoting of the walls and ceiling, 
recollecting that the noise is of good 
omen, for when the rats are about there 
can be no fear of fire, and all is well. 
He must accustom himself to the hourly 
visitation of the watchman, who, carry¬ 
ing a paper lantern, walks along the 
passages of the inn, beating together 
two hard pieces of wood in order to 
frighten away thieves and ghosts. 
* 
Are there not a good many people of 
fair intelligence who do not understand 
the formality of sending money by 
mail ? A friend of ours had two experi¬ 
ences lately, in which persons buying 
money orders had retained the orders, 
under the impression that they were re¬ 
ceipts, and then felt rather indignant 
because the money was not acknowl¬ 
edged by the supposed receiver. It re¬ 
quired some persuasion, before they un¬ 
derstood that the receiver of the money 
must sign and present the order. An¬ 
other point in postal matters that needs 
attention is the full prepayment of for¬ 
eign letters. Domestic postage being 
two cents for one ounce, senders often 
overlook the fact that the foreign limit 
for five cents is one-half ounce, and a re¬ 
cent statement from the British post 
office declares that 25 per cent of the let¬ 
ters received from America are insuffi¬ 
ciently stamped. A large proportion of 
these letters are from business firms 
which ought to know better. The care¬ 
lessness of letter-winters is often amaz¬ 
ing. The R. N.-Y. could tell harrowing 
tales of persons who send subscriptions 
without name or address, or without 
both. The oddest incident of this kind 
we can recall was that of a man who 
wrote four successive letters, two of 
them headed “ At Home,” and two of 
them without even that clue, one being 
without signature either. Months after¬ 
wards he called in the office, possibly to 
express his opinion of a paper that 
didn’t acknowledge subscriptions, and 
he was the most astonished man within 
the four seas when confronted with his 
own letters. The moral of this is to 
avoid slovenly habits, even in the most 
informal correspondence, and to write 
full name and address to evtry com¬ 
munication, until it becomes second na¬ 
ture. It is often supposed that women 
are the chief offenders by such careless¬ 
ness, but experience shows that men are 
equally careless. 
* 
North Dakota has enacted a law by 
which any person taking out a marriage 
license must pass a physician’s examina¬ 
tion, and prove that his family history 
is free from tuberculosis, insanity or the 
drink habit, before such license is issued. 
Most people will agree with the motives 
that prompted such legislation, without 
believing that it will accomplish the end 
sought. We have often wished that our 
laws made both marrying and unmarry¬ 
ing a little more difficult. But owing to 
the diversity of law among different 
States, nothing is easier than for per¬ 
sons whose marriage is illegal in one 
Sta + e to journey to an adjoining State, 
where such restrictions are not in force, 
for the occasion. In some States, the 
marriage of first cousins is illegal, but 
persons within the forbidden degree of 
consanguinity may be married in an ad¬ 
joining State, and then return to live in 
the State prohibiting such a union. A 
number of western young women re¬ 
cently established a Bachelor Girls’ As¬ 
sociation, whose members pledge them¬ 
selves to entertain no marriage propos¬ 
als until the age of 30 years has been 
reached. The promoters of this move¬ 
ment think that the divorce evil may be 
partially eradicated by this organization. 
Handmade Rugs. 
NEW IDEAS IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY. 
Bart I. 
Hooked Rugs. —The hooked, or rather 
the handmade rug, which for generations 
has been a feature of New England farm- 
FRAME AND CROSSPIECE. Fig. 79. 
houses, has far greater possibilities than 
are usually brought out. As generally 
seen, it is made of cast-off clothing of 
poor material, often of cotton, hooked 
in straight lines as closely as possible— 
a hard, stiff rug with no semblance of 
beauty, either of design or color. It is 
not of the making of such a rug that I 
wish to give a detailed account, but 
rather the evolved form of the handmade 
rug, which is thick, soft, with a velvety 
sheen upon it ; a rich-looking rug which 
would find admirers in any market, 
and from a practical experience in pro¬ 
ducing such rugs, I can state that they 
bring readily a better price than the 
commoner kinds of Oriental rugs. 
The Foundation. —The first thing re¬ 
quired is a piece of new, firm, not too 
closely woven burlap. It must be three 
or four inches larger all around than the 
finished rug is intended to be, for it 
must be doubled under at the edge to 
strengthen it when tacked on the frame, 
to prevent the burlap pulling where the 
tacks are put in ; after the rug is hooked, 
this plain edge of burlap is turned under 
and hemmed. 
The Frame. —The frame must be made 
of soft wood, and consists of two pieces, 
two inches wide and three or four feet 
long, with a row of half-inch holes bored 
at exactly the same distance through 
either end of each piece, and also of 
two short cross-pieces not more than 15 
inches long, with a fixed peg near each 
end. These pegs should slip easily into 
the auger holes, thus making an adjust¬ 
able rectangular frame. To keep the 
frame true and well squared, it is advis¬ 
able to have a piece nailed on each of 
the cross bars, and accurately fitted so 
as to come out flush against the length¬ 
wise pieces when the frame is put to¬ 
gether ; this braces the corners. It adds 
greatly to the convenience if a carpen¬ 
ter’s wooden button is screwed on within 
half an inch of each end of these top 
braces, so that, when the frame is put 
together, they can be turned so as to 
cover the pegs, thus holding the latter 
securely in the holes ; see Fig. 79. Th’s 
frame is an improvement over the old 
ones that were large enough to take 
a good-sized rug, into which the burlap 
was sewed and rolled up as it was hooked. 
This kind of frame is very awkward, and 
occupies needless room. 
The Hook. —The choosing of a hook 
is very important, for if too small, it will 
HOOK FOR RUGMAKING. Fig. 80. 
not catch the cloth readily, and if the 
handle is too small, it cramps the hand 
to use it, while if too large, it is clumsy, 
and retards the worker. The best hook 
is not over five inches long, the handle 
representing about half the length, and 
is made of a fortypenny nail (about a 
quarter of an inch thick), filed and sharp¬ 
ened at the end, and given the proper 
curve, which enables the user to hold 
the hook almost horizontally, yet the 
point pierces the burlap almost verti¬ 
cally. See Fig 80. 
The Material Used. —The next thing 
is the cloth used. Of course, one may 
use old woolen clothing, as the New 
EDglander has done; but the following 
are some of the objections to such ma¬ 
terial : It takes far more goods than one 
anticipates to make a square foot, so 
that, when a rug is three-quarters done, 
one is dismayed to find herself out of 
material, which cannot be matched with 
new goods, because the old is likely to 
be faded. As a result, the rug is patched 
out, and is but a makeshift after all. 
This is, doubtless, the reason why New 
England rugs have presented such a 
hotch-potch appearance. Further, col¬ 
ors that are suitable for go wns lack the 
necessary warmth of tone which an 
The palate is almost 
tickled with Scott’s Emul¬ 
sion of Cod-liver oil. The 
stomach knows nothing 
about it, it does not trouble 
you there. You feel it first 
in the strength it brings ; it 
shows in the color of cheek 
and smoothing out of 
wrinkles. 
It was a beautiful thing 
to do, to cover the odious 
taste of Cod-liver oil, evade 
the tax on the stomach, and 
take health by surprise. 
It warms, soothes, strength¬ 
ens and invigorates. 
50 c. and $ 1 . 00 , all druggists. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
