252 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 1 
From Day to Day. 
A Pennsylvania man, aged 102, was 
recently married to a woman two years 
his junior. These centenarians were 
lovers 40 years ago, had been separated 
by circumstances during the Civil War, 
and never met again until recent years. 
* 
It is said that a wife-training corpora¬ 
tion has been organized in New York, 
its amiable object being “to instruct 
married women in the art of making 
home happy.” Why shouldn’t we re¬ 
taliate by a women’s matrimonial trust, 
which will insist upon a certain stand¬ 
ard of masculine perfection ? This is a 
reform for the girl bachelors’ association 
to consider. 
* 
A young woman in Michigan died re¬ 
cently from brain fever, the result of 
her extraordinary quantity of hair. She 
boasted a chevelure which reached near¬ 
ly to her feet, but the weight of hair 
caused continual headache. She would 
not consent to have any of it cut off, and 
the fever that caused her death appears 
directly attributable to this excessive 
quantity of hair. 
■# 
One of the commodities sold in the 
French market at New Orleans is “ re¬ 
duced” tomato sauce. It is described as 
resembling a ball of moist red clay. A 
piece of this material is stirred up with 
hot water, and the result is tomato 
sauce. This evaporated sauce must be 
a great convenience, but one would need 
to become accustomed to its use, before 
it would appear .very acceptable. 
* 
An unusual mail package recently de¬ 
livered to a western man was a cocoanut, 
covered with its natural husk. The nut 
was not wrapped in any way, neither 
did it carry any tag, the address being 
written upon the husk. A cocoanut in 
its full natural dress is very different in 
appearance from the denuded nut seen 
in our markets, and its surface is smooth 
enough to be written upon with ease. 
One neat housekeeper finds a use for 
every snip of white or light-colored ma¬ 
terial, as an aid to dishwashing. These 
scraps are put in a little basket near the 
range and, in piling up the dishes, but¬ 
ter plates, or any other very greasy 
vessels are wiped with one of these 
snips before being put in the water, the 
rag being burned. The dishwashing is 
reduced in laboriousness, because of the 
removal of this extra grease. 
A recently returned globe-trotter 
told, while in New York, of a craze 
which existed in Papeete, the capital of 
Tahiti, during his visit there, until it 
nearly bankrupted the city. One day a 
man arrived from nowhere in particular 
on a tramp schooner that came from the 
same port. The visitor brought with 
him a common, every-day merry-go- 
round such as one sees at Coney Island, 
only much less gaudy and glittering. 
Soon after securing an anchorage, the 
visitor ripped all the sails and a few 
spars from his vessel, and rigged up a 
tent From the hold of the schooner he 
brought forth a lot of battered wooden 
horses, some cogwheels and a hand 
organ. In an hour he had his merry-go- 
round ready for business, and opened up 
at a franc a ride. How those natives 
struggled to climb over one another to 
get on those horses could never be ade¬ 
quately described. The scramble can 
only be imagined. They rode all day 
and they rode all night, and they spinned 
around and listened to the one sad tune 
of the hand organ with the wildest de¬ 
light. Day after day the merry-go-round 
man kept open tent, and took in loads of 
money, and natives who had never done 
a day’s work toiled for a franc so as to 
be able to take a ride. Many spent their 
earnings, while others begged and bor¬ 
rowed. Bills went unpaid at the stores, 
and at last the treasury of Papeete was 
endangered, and its credit weakened, by 
the mad desire of the populace to patron¬ 
ize the machine. Finally the munici¬ 
pality could stand it no longer. The 
man had amassed a fortune of 40,000 
francs, and had a good prospect of own¬ 
ing the island. So the city council 
passed a law banishing him, and confis¬ 
cating his merry-go-round. Of course, 
he took his money with him. The gov¬ 
ernment then made a tour of the other 
Tahitian Islands with the machine, and 
found it a much more lucrative means of 
collecting revenue than the ordinary tax- 
gatherer. 
* 
We recently referred, in these col¬ 
umns, to the yard-of-silk frauds, who 
continue to advertise quite widely. The 
following letter from a young reader 
gives experience with this class of swin¬ 
dlers : 
The Persian Silk Company, of Bloomfield, N. J-, 
is a fraud, and I desire you to tell the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. that, if they send for silk for crazy 
patchwork as the advertisement calls for, they 
will get only silk thread. The Company agrees 
to send 15 yards of silk in yard lengths, but when 
it comes, it is 15 yards of thread in yard pieces. 
I think there are more little girls defrauded than 
women, and it is bad for children to see older 
people practice such bad things. 
Illinois. a subscriber’s daughter. 
Papers which permit the entrance of 
such advertisements are fully as crim¬ 
inal as the advertisers. We are often 
shocked by the class of advertising seen 
in some so-called family papers. 
Early in March, feminine New York 
was affected suddenly with a violent out¬ 
break of purple velvet hats. First we 
noted one or two on Broadway; then 
the same headgear appeared on the fer¬ 
ryboats, and by the middle of the month 
it was safe to assume that one would 
meet several of these hats on every 
block. Pansy purple has been a very 
fashionable color for several months, 
but why should these hats become so 
noticeable within a few weeks ? Many 
of them are trimmed with velvet pan¬ 
sies or violets, and they are certainly 
rich-looking, though not always becom¬ 
ing. Violets always become very popu¬ 
lar in millinery at this season, being ex¬ 
cellent to brighten up the Winter head- 
gear, and they are much worn already. 
The purple hats are seen in the toque 
shapes, and crush crowns with narrow 
brims; they are usually trimmed en¬ 
tirely in purple shades, without other 
colors. 
* 
An ingenious little invention described 
by Harper’s Bazar would be much appre¬ 
ciated in city or country during one of 
those -exasperating freezes which so 
often follow a midwinter thaw. It is a 
little piece of iron attached to the sole 
of the overshoe, directly under the in¬ 
step, which effectually prevents any 
slipping and sliding on ice or snow, and 
at the same time does not interfere in 
the least with ordinary walking. It is 
a very small piece of iron, with a hinge 
allowing the upper part to be turned 
under if so desired, and finished in sharp 
points that catch in the ice and prevent 
the feet from sliding. These small pieces 
of iron are fastened under the instep of 
the overshoe, and are not heavy enough 
to make the overshoe perceptibly heavier 
in consequence. The name of this little 
invention is the creeper, and people in 
the northern and western part of New 
York State, as well as farther out west, 
consider it a necessity from the time of 
the first sleet-storm until all danger of 
snow and ice is over. The creepers can 
be put on heavy boots, if so desired, and 
undoubtedly, many falls have been 
averted by the use of these simple little 
things. It has never been known 
whether the inventor realized a large 
sum for his invention, but certainly it is 
one of the most ingenious things of the 
sort that has ever been put before the 
public. 
* 
In an address delivered before the 
Housekeepers’ Alliance of Philadelphia, 
Mrs. Mary Hinman Abel, the author of 
Sanitary and Economic Cookery, ob¬ 
served that the woman who thinks she’ll 
let her child have another half-hour of 
sleep at the cost of a hurried breakfast, 
wrongs the child. The half-hour is bet¬ 
ter passed at a leisure breakfast. The 
criminality of saving on food for dress 
was dilated upon. Mrs. Abel says the 
majority are rather underfed. The peo¬ 
ple who eat only from a “ 6enseof duty ” 
are to be pitied. Men, as a rule, eat 
three pounds of food a day; women 
eight-tenths as much, and children ac¬ 
cording to age. “ The seat of courage is 
the stomach,” and overeating is not as 
bad as undereating, unless one leans to 
dainties. Though all necessary susten¬ 
ance is to be had in meat, milk and cere¬ 
als, we are lucky enough to draw on all 
climes, our proteid requirement being 
affected by climate, occupation, habit 
and other conditions. Meat seems to 
have an advantage in that it is appetiz¬ 
ing, easily prepared, easily digested, and 
a small quantity suffices. Vegetables 
are much more difficult to serve in appe¬ 
tizing forms. We must not forget that 
the rational diet is the mixed diet. In¬ 
deed, the world over, it’s meat and 
bread, and meat and vegetables. A vege¬ 
table diet may be healthful for a bit, but 
it is not cheap, since vegetables are 
not cheap (far from it much of the 
time), and the olive oil or oil of nuts 
also adds much. As a matter of senti¬ 
ment, the unpleasantness of it is ad¬ 
mitted. However, that seems to have 
been the plan of creation and, to come 
down to latter-day knowledge, the very 
same slaughter goes on with every drop 
of water we drink. 
Handmade Rugs. 
NEW IDEAS IN A DOMESTIC INDUSTRY. 
Part III. 
Dyes and Colors —I have now reached 
the most delicate point of all—the actual 
coloring; for though the workmanship 
be good, the design artistic, unless a per¬ 
fect harmony be secured in the coloring, 
the rug will not be a success. Take the 
one color mentioned above, cream color ; 
it is not a cream color at all in the gene¬ 
rally accepted sense Unless it be dark¬ 
ened until it is a dirty white or deep 
ivory, it will have a glaring result when 
introduced with colors. To obtain this, 
flannel should be wrung out of warm 
water, and dipped in a decoction of coffee 
set with copperas, which gives a grayish 
white ; coffee set with alum gives a yel¬ 
lowish white, both artistic. A mixture 
of tea and coffee gives a little more of a 
tan color, not much, however. Make 
your own experiments, but be careful 
not to put in too much copperas, as it 
makes a decided gray if used too strong. 
Vegetable Dyes. —Many people have 
a preference for vegetable dyes, and I 
give a few suggestions for their use : 
Brown —A strong decoction of beech 
bark set with alum gives a reddish 
brown. 
Greenish Yellow. —Maple bark and blue- 
stone. Maple bark set with copperas 
gives a very dark almost black color. 
Light Tan —Pour boiling water over 
tan bark in a brass or copper kettle, and 
let stand over night. Boil 1% hour, and 
strain. Wash the cloth in soapsuds, and 
rinse; then dip in strong alum water. 
Wring and put into a bark decoction. 
Boil an hour, stirring and lifting oc¬ 
casionally. To make a darker shade, 
dip into a bath of weak lye or lime water. 
Another Tan —Make a strong decoction 
of hemlock bark by steeping in water. 
Wash the goods, rinse, and let remain in 
the dye overnight. Press the goods well 
under water. This needs nothing to set 
the color. 
Pink —Balm blossoms steeped in tin 
and set with alum make a deep pink. 
Yellow. —Saffron set with alum makes 
a light yellow. Golderrod blossoms 
steeped until a strong solution is made, 
give yellow of various shades if the cloth 
is first scalded in alum water. The dye- 
flower, the sunflower, sneezeweed, Broom 
sedge, bay leaves and hickory bark also 
yield yellows. 
Deep Yellow. —A deep yellow is ob¬ 
tained for five pounds of cloth, by boil¬ 
ing one-half peck of peach leaves or 
Black-oak bark to make a strong decoc¬ 
tion. Strain and put in one-half cupful of 
muriate of tin. After wringing the cloth 
from warm water, stir in the decoction 
for a few minutes. By adding a table¬ 
spoonful of extract of indigo to the yel¬ 
low dye, a green is produced. Work the 
cloth in it for five minutes, air, and if 
not dark enough, add more extract until 
the color suits. 
Another green is made by boiling to¬ 
gether, half and half, Yellow oak and 
hickory bark. Add extract of indigo, a 
little at a time, until the color suits. 
Black is derived from Black walnut 
bark, brown from Black walnut and but¬ 
ternut, golden broYn from Chestnut oak 
bark, red from madder set with alum 
and cream of tartar, and a pink from 
cochineal set with cream of tartar. 
Chemical Dyes —Of the above, I know 
little from actual experience save that 
they have been culled from various reli¬ 
able sources, and many, doubtless, will 
know th.3 proper directions for using 
them. For my own purposes, I have 
used the Diamond Dyes with such beauti¬ 
ful results that the more laborious 
methods of steeping bark and blossoms 
have not seemed practical. I never use 
any of the dyes pure, as they are exceed¬ 
ingly crude in color. 
In dyeing 1,000 yards of flannel. I have 
reduced my experience to a few simple 
recipes derived from a narrow range of 
colors. They will prove valuable to 
workers who cannot afford to waste 
goods in experiments. I use a measure 
holding a pint, in which I mix my dye, 
first with a little cold water as directed, 
and then fill with boiling water, after¬ 
ward pouring the dye stuff into bottles 
ready for use. In this way, my dye is of 
uniform strength, and produces the same 
results month after month. For two 
yards of goods, I use about eight quarts 
of water, which covers the goods easily, 
and the following recipes are arranged 
for that proportion. A greater or less 
quantity of goods may be dyed by main¬ 
taining the same proportion of dyestuff, 
of water and of goods. In the folio -ving 
recipes, a package of dye is used to make 
a pint of dye fluid for wool. 
Light Old Pink. —Eight quarts of water, 
two tablespoonfuls terra cotta, one table¬ 
spoonful of orange, and one-half tea¬ 
spoonful of indigo. 
Pale Raspberry Pink. —Eight quarts of 
water, three teaspoonful3 terra cotta, 1 % 
teaspoonful light blue. 
Terra-Cotta. —Eight quarts of water, 
12 tablespoonfuls of terra-cotta, three 
tablespoonfuls orange and two table¬ 
spoonfuls of olive green. 
Browner Terra-Cotta. —Eight quarts of 
water, 12 tablespoonfuls terra-cotta, 
three tablespoonfuls of olive green, and 
two tablespoonfuls of orange. 
Without Macbeth lamp- 
chimneys, you throw away 
money and comfort. But get 
the right one for your lamp. 
The Index free. 
Write Macbeth Pittsburgh Pa 
