662 
THE RURAL'NEW-YORKER 
September 16 
[ Woman and Home \ 
r A * A A A A A. A A A ▲ ▲ ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲* 
From Day to Day 
THE OLD MAN AND ME. 
Jenny went an’ married, Billy’s moved 
away; 
Dick has been in Texas fer many a weary 
day; 
An’ nothin’ of the old times about the 
place we see, 
They’s only two—like shadders—the old 
man an’ me. 
He keeps the chimney corner, an’ smokes 
his pipe an’ sighs; 
An’ frequent I can see him bresh the tear 
drops from his eyes; 
An’ I say some word o’ comfort, though 
I’m lonesome as can be, 
Per there’s little in the worl' now fer the 
old man an’ me. 
Can't keep the children with us—they’ve 
got to drift away: 
We’ve reaped a worl’ o’ roses—we’ve had 
our happy day; 
An’ now we’re only shadders, an’ soon 
we’ll cease to see 
The light that makes the shadders o’ the 
old man an’ me! 
—Frank L. Stanton in Atlanta Constitution. 
* 
One of the newer kitchen tools is a 
spatula, rather suggestive of a painter’s 
palette knife. The blade is eight inches 
long and 1% inch wide, with a rounded 
tip. The flat blade is just the thing for 
putting on icing, turning eggs or cakes, 
scraping the bread board, and a dozen 
other things. Such a utensil is not only 
a convenience in itself, but also a sav¬ 
ing of other tools, which may be divert¬ 
ed from their legitimate uses. 
*■ 
At New Albany, Ind., a spinster of 50 
was recently married to a widower of 
78, who had been married six times be¬ 
fore. He is the father of 24 children. 
At Gallatin, Tenn., a colored man of 96 
was recently married to his twelfth wife, 
according to the newspapers. He said 
that he had been the father of 30 chil¬ 
dren, of whom 20 are now living. Ap¬ 
parently, neither of these worthy citi¬ 
zens regards marriage as a failure. 
A new English farming paper is the 
Woman’s Agricultural Magazine, edited 
by the Countess of Warwick. It is to 
be devoted to poultry-raising, bee-keep¬ 
ing, flower and fruit growing, and the 
dairy. Lady Warwick has been, for 
some time, interested in agricultural 
training for women, and has been in¬ 
strumental in establishing classes for 
such education. She is a firm believer 
in intensive culture, and believes that 
England should be able to grow a large 
proportion of the market-garden pro¬ 
ducts now imported from other coun¬ 
tries. 
* 
One of our friends asks for a recipe 
for preserving strawberries in jelly. It 
is, of course, entirely too late for this 
recipe to be of use this year, but as our 
thoughts are now directed to the pre¬ 
serving kettle, it is a good time to col¬ 
lect information on the subject, which 
may be filed away for future reference. 
Our favorite mode of putting up straw¬ 
berries is the preserve cooked in the 
sun, but the jellied strawberries are de¬ 
licious, and really beautiful in appear¬ 
ance. For the following recipe, we are 
indebted to the American Kitchen Maga¬ 
zine: 
“Select the choicest berries, and lay 
aside not necessarily very large ones, 
but perfect, firm and of even size they 
must be. Press the remainder of the 
fruit for juice, taking only what drips 
easily. These berries may be used later 
for a jam. To a pound of juice, allow a 
pound of sugar, and make as one does 
any jelly. Boil fully 20 minutes until 
surely jellied. Meantime weigh the fruit 
selected and an equal amount of sugar. 
Add these then to the jelly, and boil 
carefully a few minutes more. No exact 
time can be given. It would not keep 
with raw strawberries dropped in, 
neither must they be allowed to shrivel 
like preserved ones. Occasionally try it 
on a saucer, keeping the kettle at a sim¬ 
mer only. Do not do much at a time. 
It is better to repeat the operation. 
When it grows firm in the saucer, put in 
a cold place, remove it from the fire 
(and seal as usual when cold), dipping 
'it with care into glasses soon after tak¬ 
ing from the fire. It will not be a jelly 
that molds like gooseberry or like 
quince, and sustains its weight. It is 
likely to fall in luscious masses, catch¬ 
ing the light in its clear red depths, and 
showing the imprisoned berries.” 
• 
The fact that Autumn is at hand is 
shown by the quantity of Summer gear 
now seen on the bargain counters. Many 
stock collars and neakties of flimsy ma¬ 
terials are now sold at less than half 
their former price, but really they are 
no great bargains. They are not just 
the style for wearing with woolen or 
silk waists, and they would not be in 
style next season. Handsome white or 
cream lace ties are among newer styles 
here; they have been worn abroad for 
MRS. M. V. SLINGERLAND. Fig. 249. 
some time. They are 2*4 to three or 
four inches wide, made of heavy, hand¬ 
some lace, and are tied in a small bow 
with long ends. They are quite similar 
to the narrow lace scarfs worn two de¬ 
cades ago, but instead of the Spanish 
guipure then worn, they are of modern 
Flemish or Venice point lace, so-called. 
* 
In reading old-fashioned stories of 
Scottish country life, one often finds 
reference to sowans as a .-upper dish. 
This is made from oat husks, to which 
a good deal of fine farina remained at¬ 
tached, after making oatmeal by the old 
processes. These husks, or seeds, as 
they were called, were put to soak In a 
large vessel, with an abundance of 
water, the vessel being covered over, 
and allowed to stand for two or three 
weeks. During the soaking, the water is 
frequently stirred, and it finally sours, 
becoming a milky fluid. When consid¬ 
ered sufficiently soaked, the whole is 
passed through a strainer to remove the 
husks, and the resulting milky fluid is 
placed on a slow fire, frequently stirred, 
and boiled until it is of the consistency 
of hasty pudding, when it is poured out, 
and served hot or cold, with milk or 
butter. It has a pleasantly acid taste, 
and is nutritious and wholesome. Some 
of our older Scotch friends tell us that, 
as children, their diet rarely varied from 
sowans, oatmeal porridge, and oat cake, 
with occasional “kail” or vegetable soup, 
but this simple food seemed to result in 
strong and \yell-knit bodies, and active 
minds. 
A 
Shirt waists, the most comfortable of 
all Summer garments, are not usually 
flattering to stout women, and many of 
our plump sisters find them very unbe¬ 
coming. It is worth noticing, however, 
that a plump figure looks better when a 
belt is worn corresponding in color with 
the waist, rather than the skirt. The 
effect is to give a longer waist line. It is 
also well, in arranging a ribbon belt, to 
pull it down a little in front, so that it 
slopes down from the back. This also 
suggests slenderness. The plump woman 
may not wear so wide a girdle as her 
slim sister, and if she wrinkles the rib¬ 
bon down a little in the front, so that 
it slopes down and is a trifle narrower 
than at the back, it will suggest slender¬ 
ness. White waist ribbons, which soon 
soil, may be carefully washed in soap 
bark suds, or they may be dyed in deli¬ 
cate tints. One package of dye, discreet¬ 
ly managed, will give many different 
shades. 
* 
The Charleston News and Courier 
seems to take rather a bilious view of 
New England cookery. In a recent is¬ 
sue this comment occurs: 
A reputable New England paper, The 
Waterbury American, reports: “The latest 
development in the fritter line is the water¬ 
melon fritter—cubes of the fruit being first 
soaked in sweetened brandy, then dipped 
in batter and fried in hot fat.” And the 
same people put sugar on their tomatoes 
and cook beans, bacon, and molasses to¬ 
gether, and eat the compound. It is an 
open question whether they are really 
morally responsible for their general cus¬ 
sedness. 
Our authority on the Yankee dietary 
says that New England must plead 
guilty to putting molasses on its beans, 
but that the alleged watermelon fritter 
doesn’t sound like a Yankee invention; 
soaking the fruit in brandy is entirely 
too bacchanalian for the Land of Steady 
Habits, where the imagination of the 
most reckless cook is not likely to travel 
beyond hard cider. As to the moral ef¬ 
fect of Yankee cooking, we have always 
believed that the shiftlessness of the 
most ignorant class in the South is 
mainly due to badly-cooked food. A 
good southern cook is, we know, one of 
the blue ribbons of her exalted profes¬ 
sion; but we have heard criticisms, par¬ 
ticularly of mountain cooking in North 
Carolina-, which bring to mind a pessi¬ 
mistic Spanish proverb which asserts 
that Heaven sends victuals, but the 
devil sends the cooks! 
The Rural Portrait Gallery. 
MRS. M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
Readers of The R. N.-Y. are familiar 
with the name of Prof. M. V. Slinger- 
land, of Cornell, whose writings on en¬ 
tomological subjects do not merely give 
dry facts of science, but make them in¬ 
teresting reading for the vast unscien¬ 
tific majority. Several months ago we 
presented a picture of Prof. Slingerland, 
and in the present issue, the Woman and 
Home Department introduces Mrs. Sling¬ 
erland, who, in response to a request for 
some information about her personal 
tastes, writes us as follows: 
“I was born on a farm in Onondaga 
County, and there my childhood was 
passed among flowers and fruits, with 
the farm animals for friends. It was 
there my interest in the insect world 
was first aroused, and my first entomo¬ 
logical collection formed. There was 
plenty of opportunity for studying the 
habits of insects, but none whatever of 
learning their names. This interest was 
the beginning of a desire for a college 
education and a more intimate acquaint¬ 
ance with those who were making Na¬ 
ture Study their life-work. After being 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
graduated from the Skaneateles High 
School, a course was taken in the nat¬ 
ural sciences, and painting and drawing 
at Clinton Liberal Institute, Fort Plain, 
N. Y. Then followed a short appren¬ 
ticeship at teaching. In 1888, I entered 
Cornell University, where I took a 
special course in drawing anu the nat¬ 
ural sciences, making a specialty of en¬ 
tomology, and working in the labora¬ 
tory with Prof. Comstock, and at tne in¬ 
sectary with Prof. Slingerland, who was 
then Prof. Comstock’s assistant. Since 
my marriage to Prof. Slingerland, I have 
been able to help him somewhat in his 
work, by pen-and-ink drawings for 
photo-engraving, and by making large 
colored charts to illustrate his lectures 
in Nature-Study work. But home duties 
must come first, and oftentimes the art 
and science get left out in the busy life 
of a housekeeper. We have a little girl 
four years old, who must have her share 
of attention. She is already showing an 
interest in the insect world, and once 
entertained a caller by pouring into her 
lap from a box a half-dozen of her pet 
‘kitty-pillars,’ as she calls them.” 
With both heredity and environment 
leading her towards natural science, it is 
not surprising to learn that the tiny 
Miss Slingerland has already acquired a 
sympathy for “kitty-pillars.” 
....A correspondent of The Spectator 
tells of an aged parrot of most conserv¬ 
ative instincts. The owner recently pur¬ 
chased a new carpet for the dining 
room, where the parrot lives, and Polly 
strongly objected to this innovation. 
She screamed: “Take it away!” till she 
was exhausted; and at last she refused 
to eat her food till a square of the old 
carpet was placed around the cage. She 
then once more became cheerful and re¬ 
conciled to life, though she still refused 
in her walks abroad to venture beyond 
her beloved piece of old carpet. 
The Best 
Machines for 
Keeping Time 
that it is possible to 
make are American 
Waltham Watches. 
Get the “ RIVERSIDE ” 
movement. 
For sale by all retail jewelers. 
“The Perfected American Watch,” an 
illustrated book of interesting informa¬ 
tion about watches, sent free on request. 
American Waltham Watch Co., 
WALTHAM, MASS. 
B.»B. 
wouldn’t you rather 
have choice Dry Goods—get right styles, 
at prices that show a positive saving ? 
That’s a genuine less-price proposition. 
Stores everywhere talk low prices— 
and there’s no end of places you can pay 
low prices for low-price poods—hut where 
is there anything unusual for you in 
that ? 
We’ve extended to every State a repu¬ 
tation for selling best goods to be had 
for the money. 
Beginning this new Autumn with 
stocks of goods—high standard of selec¬ 
tion, more liberal variety—and prices, 
that when investigated will proclaim the 
store’s merits in tones that will do your 
sense of personal interest convincing 
good. 
Ask for samples of the nobby new 
Plaids 35c., 50c. 
Handsome Skirting Plaids 75c. 
Dressy new Dress goods 50c., 75c. 
Variety runs up to highest-class things 
that cost much more, and worthy oi 
their cost. 
If interested, all you need do is express 
a preference, and we’ll supply samples 
liberally. 
Opened some new American Dress 
Goods—25c., 35c.—splendid inexpensive 
styles. 
BOCCS & BUHL, 
Department C, 
ALLEGHENY, PA. 
