232 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 25 
From Day to Day. 
Whichever way the wind doth blow 
Some heart is glad to have it so; 
Then blow it east or blow it west, 
That wind that blows, that wind is best. 
My little craft sails not alone; 
A thousand fleets, from every zone, 
Are out upon a thousand seas; 
And what for me were favoring breeze 
Might dash another with the shock 
Of doom upon some hidden rock. 
And so I do not dare to pray 
For winds to waft me on my way, 
But leave it to a higher will 
To stay or speed me, trusting still 
That all is well, and sure that He 
Who launched my bark will sail with me 
Through storm and calm, and will not fall, 
Whatever breezes may prevail, 
To land me, every peril past, 
Within His sheltering haven at last. 
Then whatsoever wind doth blow, 
Some heart is glad to have it so; 
And blow it east or blow it west, 
The wind that blows, that wind is best. 
—Caroline A Mason. 
* 
A woman in New Jersey was recently 
scalded badly by the explosion of a coffee¬ 
pot in which she was boiling coffee. 
Evidently the coffee-pot was not tested 
for high pressure. 
* 
Among the tropical fruits occasionally 
seen in New York markets is the alliga¬ 
tor or avocado pear—aguacate, as it is 
called in the Spanish West Indies. It is 
like a huge green pear, having a tough, 
green skin inclosing soft buttery pulp, 
with a large, hard stone in the center. 
The avocado is not eaten as a dessert, 
but as a salad, being dressed like lettuce 
or any other salad. 
* 
The Medical Record describes some 
samples of flannel tested by an English 
trade journal, which were found to be 
heavily loaded with chloride of zinc. If 
such materials were worn next to the 
skin, the consequences would, probably, 
be serious. A case is recorded where 
a number of street laborers suffered 
seriously from skin irritation caused by 
chloride of zinc washed out of their over¬ 
alls. Surely a severe punishment should 
be devised for any manufacturer guilty 
of dressing his fabrics with such danger¬ 
ous compounds. 
* 
A number of business women who were 
discussing ways and means recently, 
came down to the subject of mending. 
They were all women with small salaries 
and long hours, consequently there was 
no explosion o f horror when one of them 
explained that she always mended her 
stockings by running a thread around 
the hole, drawing it up like a shirring, 
and then tying the thread in a knot. 
Some one asked her if the knot didn't 
hurt her feet, but she said that didn’t 
matter, because the laundress always 
lost those articles the second or third 
time of washing. A second economist of 
labor caused some diversion by explain¬ 
ing that she mended her stockings with 
sticking-plaster! She simply pasted a 
plaster of sufficient size over the hole, 
and then felt perfectly satisfied with the 
result. Personally, we are not yet suf¬ 
ficiently progressive to replace old-fash¬ 
ioned darning with either of the methods 
described above, but there are occasions 
when sticking-plaster is a desirable 
mending material. Taffeta silk waists 
often crack at the seams, in places where 
the most modest darn would be con¬ 
spicuous, and such places may be neatly 
mended with a strip of plaster, which 
brings the edges close together, and 
leaves little trace of the break. The 
same mending material is often useful 
when kid gloves begin to split. 
* 
One of our contemporaries recently 
offered prizes for essays upon “ Woman’s 
Spending Money ”. Three of the prize 
essays first printed give one the impres¬ 
sion that women don’t possess any spend- 
in g money. These are written by wo¬ 
men, while three masculine competitors 
write, with candid fairness, of the wife’s 
right to a share in the family purse, and 
tell how they arrange this in their own 
households. But the women’s essays 
give us a lingering heartache. One of 
them, an ex-schoolteacher, writes : 
We have been married for 34 years. I have 
done almost all kinds of work, both in the house 
and in the fields. I have worked in the harvest 
field day after day, thereby saving the wages of 
a man, but I never had a dollar offered me for 
such work. I have willingly cared for hogs and 
cattle, often watering them when no one else had 
the time to do this, but when sold, the money all 
belonged to the head of the house. W r e have 
raised thousands of bushels of grain. One year 
wedhrashed 1,500 bushels of wheat. Not a dollar 
or a penny was offered to me, though my work 
was just as hard for me as the men’s work was 
for them. I do not complain of this, but I do not 
think it right. I never asked my husband for 
necessary money but what he gave it to me. But 
I do not like to have to ask for it. The man may 
say he would be glad if he could get it by merely 
asking for it. I would answer him that I do not 
get money merely for the asking, but that after I 
have honestly earned money, it is not just or fair 
that I am compelled to ask for it, thereby mak¬ 
ing of myself a beggar. It is just as humiliating 
to me to ask husband for money as it would be 
to ask it of any one else. * * * Several years 
ago, I formed a resolution that I would not beg, 
and of late I have managed to get along on what 
money I could earn by my own individual efforts 
from the sale of my poultry, butter and eggs. 
This I do, notwithstanding the fact that I keep 
all the household expenses, all grocery bills, and 
I buy all my own clothing, shoes and all, and 
most of the time, I pay my own doctor bills, and 
frequently when I take off marketing, the head 
of the house will say to me, “ Wife, bring me 
some tobacco.” I consider this about the last 
straw, but the tobacco comes, however. 
The three women whose experience is 
embodied in the quotation above, all 
write uncomplainingly and, evidently, 
love their homes, yet one of them says, 
“ Have often thought if it were not for 
the disgrace, I would go out to work for 
a few weeks, and clothe myself.” In a 
great many eases, it is the pressure of 
custom which causes this injustice. 
Among mechanics and artisans, it is the 
common custom for the husband to hand 
his week’s wages to his wife, who is the 
family treasurer. A farmer naturally 
does not receive his money so regularly ; 
his income is fluctuating, and part of it 
may take the form of exchange or “ trad¬ 
ing.” This, doubtless, operates against 
the establishment of a regular household 
allowance. But there is no reason why 
the wife should be treated as an unpaid 
dependent, without the discretion of 
spending what is needed for household 
comfort. The men are not always to 
blame. If a woman accepts this system 
at the beginning of her married life, with 
no protest beyond a little occasional 
weak grumbling—if a mistaken feeling 
of pride or delicacy prevents a frank 
statement of her feelings—she has put 
the remedy out of her own hands. It is 
one of the evils that grow by usage. 
Handmade Rugs. 
NEW IDEAS IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY. 
Part II. 
Stencil for Pattern. —To make a 
design, use brown paper, cut a stencil 
from it, and give it two coats of shellac 
on both sides. I use large sheets of 
pressboard for my own designs so that I 
may use a stencil 50 times without spoil¬ 
ing it. But I do not recommend press- 
board for general use, as it is too difficult 
to cut, and the brown paper will be dur¬ 
able enough for ordinary purposes. 
Having decided on a design, which 
must be stamped on the burlap (I use 
common liquid bluing and scrub it 
through my stencil with a nail brush), 
adjust the frame so as to be two or three 
inches wider than the design. Double 
the burlap outside [the edge of the pat¬ 
tern, and tack it at close intervals, so 
that the whole end of the pattern shall 
fall well within the frame. As each 
frameful is worked and clipped, the bur¬ 
lap should be shifted along, keeping the 
edges true and the corners square until 
the whole is finished. Do not try to fill 
the frame from one side. Work from the 
end to the middle and then turn the 
frame around and work from the middle 
to the outer edge. Place the frame in a 
horizontal position resting on two tables, 
or on a table and a window-ledge suf¬ 
ficiently low to enable the worker to sit 
in an easy position. If proper attention 
is paid to the height of the chair and of the 
frame, it will save the cramped position 
and aching back of which some complain. 
If an erect position is maintained, one can 
work hours at a time without fatigue. 
Method of Working —Begin at the 
right hand lower corner, and work from 
right to left, but learn to master the 
materials so that you can work in any 
direction with equal ease. Hold the 
end of a strip in the left hand under the 
frame, push the hook through the bur¬ 
lap, catch the end of the strip, and pull it 
up about three-eighths of an inch. Each 
time the hook is pushed through, bring 
up a loop until the strip is used, then 
bring the end to the top. No ends must 
be left on the under side, and the goods 
must be kept close and firm against the 
burlap underneath. The chief difference 
between the new handmade rug and 
others is in the way the loops are pulled 
up. 1 recommend workers to pull them 
up of unequal lengths, varying from a 
quarter to three-eighths of an inch, for 
the reason when the rug is sheared it is 
necessary only to clip off the tops of the 
highest loops. The shorter loops be¬ 
tween, which are not clipped, give firm¬ 
ness, while those sheared give the vel¬ 
vety appearance so much admired. 
Differences from the Old Rugs.— 
This point cannot be urged too much, 
though it is directly opposed to the old 
method, where the loops were drawn up 
uniformly, and were not clipped. An¬ 
other point of difference is that, in the 
new method, the strips are not drawn 
up in straight lines except to outline a 
pattern or to edge a border. My plan is 
to take three or four stitches up, and 
skipping over two threads of the burlap, 
take as many back, up and back, thus 
making an undulating arrangement 
which covers the ground without filling 
every hole. By working these undulat¬ 
ing, curved lines across the frame, a 
beautiful shaded effect can be produced 
in filling a plain center, especially if the 
slightest difference has been secured in 
dyeing the goods. In such a case, let all 
the darker pieces be used at one end, 
and gradually work into the lighter 
ones, which gives a silky appearance. 
Oriental Designs. —Yet observing all 
these points will not secure a beautiful 
rug unless the design is artistic and the 
colors good. I would advise workers to 
study any Oriental rugs within reach. 
Note the few simple colors used, and 
how they are interchanged ; also, that a 
pattern is separated from the ground by 
a fine outline which is dark blue, brown, 
black or red if both pattern and ground 
are light in color ; and is of cream color, 
yellow, old pink, gray green or some 
light tone if the pattern and ground are 
dark. Note, too, that a definite border 
is seen on all such rugs, a border with 
smaller borders on either side, perhaps ; 
at all events, a border separated from 
the general ground of the center by firm 
lines, and with an outside edge an inch 
or more wide, of dark color which serves 
as a frame or a setting to the whole. 
Attractive Patterns. —In establish¬ 
ing and fostering a farmhouse industry 
by which we produce a great variety of 
handmade rugs, my experience has taught 
me that plain centers with a simple bor¬ 
der from 6 to 15 inches wide, make the 
most beautiful and distinguished rugs. 
The plain center is, moreover, easier to 
work and morejrestful, to the eye. For 
example, a rug with a center of soft Gobe¬ 
lin blue may have a border of ivory, old 
pink and a light, dull olive. Let me here 
caution workers against the use of strong 
color. Greens are a special snare, for 
though they may look modest in the 
piece, when worked in connection with 
other colors, they are intensified tenfold, 
and only the dullest gray or yellow- 
greens are safe. 
Combinations of Colors. — Another 
beautiful combination for a rug is a dull 
terra cotta center with a border worked 
in old pink, olive, light dull yellow and 
black on a cream ground. An ivory cen¬ 
ter is charming with an old pink border 
having a touch of green. A rich effect 
for a hall or library is produced with a 
terra cotta center and a border of dark 
blue, green and a dull, dark yellow. A 
tan center may have an old pink, sage 
green, light yellow and black border, and 
an old rose center may have the design 
in cream, sage green and golden brown. 
Indigo blue, old ivory and forest green 
blend well. helen r. albee. 
Naming the Wild Flowers. 
A FIRST STEP IN SCIENCE MADE EASY. 
What would you think of a friend who 
professed great love for your children, 
yet would not take pains to ask or re¬ 
member their names ? Could you really 
take as much pleasure in meeting a com¬ 
pany of delightful people if you knew 
the names of none of them, however 
familiar their faces ? Like all physical 
faculties, memory grows strong with 
use and exercise. The more you use 
your brain, the better brain you have to 
use. 
A severe beginning about a simple 
matter, but some of my dearest friends 
appear perversely to cherish an ignor¬ 
ance that seems to me as foolish as it is 
useless. Everybody loves wild flowers; 
but even those who walk farthest in 
search of them, and bring home most 
treasures, will very likely confess to 
knowing only such names for them as 
their grandmothers used, or such as they 
have themselves invented. 
Without stopping to urge that botany 
is not a hard or a dry study, or that such 
books as try to do its work in a vague 
way (supposed to be easy), but, in my 
opinion, so inaccurately as to be almost 
worthless, without further excuse or 
preamble, I would call attention to an¬ 
other way of getting a most helpful-les¬ 
son in botany at small expense of both 
money and brain fag. The Ladies’ Home 
Journal for March gives a page to wild 
flowers with reproduced photographs so 
perfect and so lifelike as to make it 
easier than not to learn the name, hab¬ 
its and characteristics of root, leaf and 
blossom of nine of our earliest, there¬ 
fore, best-loved Spring flowers. Is not 
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