874 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 16 
I Woman and Home j 
From Day to Day. 
A THANKFUL SONG. 
I’m thankful for the Summer with its blos¬ 
soms an’ its bees, 
I’m thankful for the Winter with its blus¬ 
ter an’ its freeze; 
I’m such a thankful feller that I couldn’t, 
if I’d try, 
Say whether I’m more thankful for De¬ 
cember or July. 
Of course, there’s disappointments, an’ 
there’s trouble, more or less, 
But I’m so brimmin’ over with the sweets 
o’ happiness 
I don’t have time to worry o’er the bitter 
things, you see, 
For the Lord jes’ keeps me busy bein’ 
thankful’s I can be. 
Some wait till after harvest an’ the crops 
are gathered all. 
Then have a day o’ thankin’ in the latter 
part o’ Fall; 
Their songs while crops are growin’ have 
a limpin’ in their rhyme, 
The Lord must wait their pleasure for a 
truly thankful time. 
But I jes’ bubble over with contentment 
an’ delight, 
For blessin’s showered on me ev’ry mornin’, 
noon an’ night; 
No matter if I’m plantin’ corn or busy 
cuttin’ hay, 
Each sunrise marks the dawnin’ of a new 
Thanksgivin’ Day. 
I’m thankful for the orchards an’ the 
medder plots o’ grass, 
I'm thankful for the weeds that nod a wel¬ 
come as I pass; 
I’m thankful for the Nation an’ its inde¬ 
pendent way, 
An’ I’m jes’ more’n thankful I’m a-livin’ 
here to-day. 
I’ve got enough to keep me, an’ a little bit 
to spare; 
Life’s evening frost has caught me an’ it’s 
sort o’ nipped my hair; 
I’m thankful, though, for that—for all—for 
ev’ry thing—an’—yes, 
I’m thankful I can sing a song jes’ filled 
with thankfulness! 
—Leslie’s Weekly. 
* 
Tiie Atchison Globe observes that 
townspeople have no reason to laugh at 
a genuine country boy. He is so natural 
and decent, as a rule, as to make a town 
man ashamed of himself, and a big city 
man would take to the woods if be 
could only realize his inferiority to the 
real country boy. 
* 
A poultry farm at Frankfort-on- 
Main, Germany, said to be one of the 
largest in the world, is conducted by a 
woman, Fraulein Spatz. She has re¬ 
cently visited this country, and has in¬ 
vested in a number of American poul¬ 
try appliances, including incubators. 
The farm she manages is said to include 
10,000 acres of land. 
* 
An egg-bo'iler with an alarm bell is a 
recently-patented invention. As is well 
known, the preferable way to cook an 
egg is to put it in cold water, and then 
bring this to the boiling point, when the 
egg should be taken out. The ebullition 
of the boiling Water causes the alarm 
bell of the patent egg-boiler to ring, 
thus calling attention to the fact that 
the eggs should be taken out. 
* 
A French nun, Mother Mary Teresa, 
Superior of the Sisters of Charity in 
Tonkin, recently received the Cross of 
the Legion of Honor for heroism on the 
field of battle. While caring for the 
wounded, she was wounded during the 
Crimean War, during the Austro-Italian 
War, and during the Franco-Prussian 
War. She has passed through cam¬ 
paigns in Mexico, Syria, and China. 
During her Chinese service, a grenade 
fell into the ambulance under her care, 
and this brave woman, reassuring the 
wounded, carried the grenade about 80 
yards away before it burst, wounding 
her severely. It was for this service 
that she received the decoration. Sure¬ 
ly the men we love to honor as National 
heroes show no greater courage than 
this good woman, whose whole life is 
spent in noble self-forgetfulness. 
* 
It is said that, after a very stormy 
morning session at a woman’s club, the 
presiding officer opened the afternoon 
session by remarking; “Ladies, after we 
have finished the Lord’s Prayer, let us 
silently ask that there be more wisdom 
and less noise vouchsafed to us.” 
It is said that the character of subse¬ 
quent proceedings showed a full answer 
to the prayer. We have often been in 
homes where that prayer seemed to be 
quite as much needed as in any club 
meeting. 
* 
Remember that corn meal is quite 
easily contaminated by strong odors. It 
should not be kept near salt fish, onions, 
ground coffee, or mustard pickles. 
Southern housewives say that it should 
never be kept in a metal or earthen 
vessel; rather a bag or a well-ventilated 
wooden receptacle. If shut up too tight 
it is likely to acquire a musty flavor. 
Not every American cook gets the best 
results from our National cereal, but 
southern people, who make varied use 
of corn meal, say that the kiln-dried, 
bolted, and finely-ground meal of com¬ 
merce, cannot possibly ^approach, in 
flavor, the coarser meal made in small 
mills. It seems that with corn, as with 
wheat, we are losing the life of the 
grain through over-fine preparation. 
The New York Sun has this to say of 
hygienic pie: 
A shepherd of the people, who is called 
the Pie King of New England, has founded 
a sanitary pie, “made under perfect hy¬ 
gienic conditions” and warranted to be 
‘‘perfectly digestible.” Such a pie may 
win the favor of weaklings and valetudina¬ 
rians, but the born eater of pie, the allotted 
bondsman of pie, will scarcely condescend 
to the level of perfectly digestible pie. The 
little touch of doubt and danger is the ro¬ 
mantic charm of pie. The timid soul may 
weigh out his diet and feel his pulse when 
he consumes a cracker. The nature worthy 
of great pie is above such scruples. A pie 
of genius is worth a twinge or two. From 
the pie founder the brave expect not safety 
but skill. 
After this burst of eloquence, we may 
continue to eat our holiday mince pie 
with a serene and quiet mind. 
* 
A pessimistic and, we judge, dyspep¬ 
tic Kansas man complains that the 
political cyclones of that State are 
largely due to bad cooking. He says 
that if we give men and women good, 
wholesome food, they will have good 
wholesome minds with which to con¬ 
sider public questions, and continues 
that if the women of Kansas knew how 
to cook, the men would not give the 
State a bad name by political vagaries. 
We think that the women of Kansas 
may deal righteously with their bilious 
critic, and persuade him of the error of 
his ways; if they do not feel able fully 
to do the matter justice, they might 
ask the assistance of Mr. Coburn. We 
always had an idea that Kansas cook¬ 
ing combined the standard old dishes 
of New England with the toothsome 
fried chicken and feathery corn bread 
of the South, and that it was something 
to make a hungry man feel at peace 
with all mankind. Only recently we 
met with a critic who declared that no 
New Englander knew what good cook¬ 
ing was, because he came from a local¬ 
ity where people ate molasses on fried 
pork, and the same authority defined 
Philadelphia scrapple as an ingenious 
composition of miscellaneous meat, held 
together by hog bristles, on the same 
principle that hair is added to plaster! 
The prevalence of these unkind criti¬ 
cisms makes us wonder whether this 
land has been visited by a sudden wave 
of acute dyspepsia. Nothing else can 
account for such unkind comments on 
National cookery. 
* 
The State of Tennessee was orig¬ 
inally named Franklin, and a century 
ago, when peltries were current cash, 
all the State officials received their sal¬ 
aries in the form of skins. It was 
enacted by the General Assembly, that 
on and after January 1, 1788, the Gov¬ 
ernor should be paiid annually 100 deer¬ 
skins, the chief justice 500 deerskins, 
the Governor’s secretary 500 raccoon 
skins, and the clerk of the House of 
Commons 200 raccoon skins. Members 
of the Assembly were to be paid three 
raccoon skins per day, and the justice’s 
fee for serving a warrant was put at 
one mink skin. Of course at that time 
these skins possessed fixed values, so 
that they were then as easily computed 
as our dollars and cents. 
Rural Recipes. 
SEASONABLE SUGGESTIONS FOR FARM- 
RAISED MEATS. 
Next to the production of good and 
wholesome meat its cooking ranks in 
importance. After the slaughtering of 
home-fattened pork, the housekeeper 
has a great deal of responsibility in 
the avoidance of waste. Here is a tested 
recipe for liverwurst or liver sausage, 
which is nicer than that which is filled 
into sausage casings and smoked. After 
washing the pig’s liver, cook until ten¬ 
der with some fat pieces of the head. 
Keep well covered with water while 
boiling; when cool run all through the 
meat-chopper and season with one and 
one-half tablespoonful each of salt, pow¬ 
dered sage and black pepper, then stir 
in a quart of the liquor in which the 
liver was cooked. Pack into jars and 
when cold slice it, dip in egg and bread 
crumbs and fry brown. It is also good 
served cold cut in thin slices. This will 
keep several weeks in a cool place. 
Pigs’ tongues can be made into a 
handsome dish, suitable for a “com¬ 
pany” tea by jellying as follows: Boil 
three fresh tongues in about two quarts 
of water, containing two teaspoonfuls of 
salt, a bay leaf and a bit of red pepper 
pod; when tender remove from the 
water and cool. Then skin them; put 
them in a mold and pour over them a 
pint of melted aspic jelly, made as fol¬ 
lows: Boil a veal shank in three pints 
of water; after a half-hour’s cooking 
throw in one clove of garlic; when the 
liquor is reduced to about one pint take 
out the garlic and add a tablespoonful of 
gelatin which has been previously dis¬ 
solved in three tablespoonfuls of water, 
one-half teaspoonful of salt, and three 
dashes of red pepper; next add a table¬ 
spoonful of tarragon vinegar and a half 
cupful of cold cooked vegetables cut in¬ 
to nice shapes—carrots, beets, pickles or 
olives—anything of the kind that may 
be left over, and pour over the tongues 
and set away to cool. This is well worth 
the trouble, for the flavor is delicious, 
and the appearance most attractive. 
The vegetables added to the jelly are 
intended as a garnish, and not as an 
addition to the flavor. They are sliced, 
and then stamped into stars, rings, dia¬ 
monds, etc., with a vegetable cutter. 
Barberries are often used with them, the 
little scarlet fruit looking very pretty in 
the clear jelly. 
Still another dish to be supplied by 
the family pig is spare-rib potpie. Cut 
the ribs into pieces about four inches 
square, cook until tender in water which 
just covers them, and when done pour 
off the liquor, cool, and take off all the 
fat. Remove all the ribs but a single 
layer at the bottom of the pot, season 
with salt, pepper and powdered sage; 
add a layer of thickly sliced potatoes 
(which season also) and some tiny bak¬ 
ing-powder biscuits made of very soft 
dough; continue these layers until the 
meat is all used, finishing with a layer 
of the biscuits. Now pour on the 
strained liquor made boiling hot, adding 
enough boiling water to come nearly to 
the top of the biscuits, not to cover; fit 
a tight lid on the pot, put a weight on it, 
and boil 40 minutes without removing 
the lid. When done, arrange the solid 
parts neatly on a hot platter, thicken 
the gravy with flour and butter rubbed 
together, cook three minutes, and pour 
it over the contents of the platter. 
Barbecued pork is the loin, roasted in 
a hot oven. The pork is sprinkled with 
flour, pepper, and salt, and basted with 
butter; do not put any water in the pan. 
Pour into the gravy half a teacupful of 
walnut catsup, and serve with fried ap¬ 
ples. 
Pigs’ hearts are usually made into 
head cheese or scrapple, but they may 
be cooked as a separate dish as follows: 
Remove the ventricles and dividing 
walls, wash, and wipe dry. Fill with a 
dressing made of three tablespoonfuls 
chopped ham, four tablespoonfuls bread¬ 
crumbs, a little melted butter, and some 
pepper and salt. Beat an egg, and use 
it to bind the dressing together; fill the 
heart with it. Tie each heart separately 
in a piece of cloth, and boil for three 
hours in salted water. Then remove the 
cloth carefully, rub the heart with but¬ 
ter, sprinkle with flour, and brown in a 
brisk oven. Serve with apple jelly and 
mashed potatoes. 
How to Make Blood Pudding. 
My husband Is a German, and each Win¬ 
ter at butchering time I am asked, “Why 
don’t you learn how to make blood pud¬ 
ding?” As I have never yet met anyone 
who knew enough about it to teach me 
full particulars, I concluded to ask you to 
help me. Perhaps some of your German 
readers make “blood pudding,” and can 
enlighten me. I wish to know each step 
from the catching of the blood to the serv¬ 
ing of the delectable (?) known as German 
blood-pudding. MRS. w. F. F. 
Albemarle Co., Va. 
Ans. —We can give the English mode 
of making blood sausage, or, as it is 
inelegantly named in some districts, 
black hog-pudding. Catch the blood of 
a pig, and to each quart of blood, add 
one large teaspoonful of salt, and stir 
without ceasing until the blood is cold. 
Simmer half a pint of crushed oat3 
(Embden groats, to use the English 
term), in just enough water to make 
them tender, but not thin. For each 
quart of blood prepare one pound of 
chopped pork fat, any of the inside fat 
being used; one-half cupful bread 
crumbs, one tablespoonful chopped sage, 
one teaspoonful chopped thyme, three 
drachms each allspice, salt and pepper, 
and one teacupful cream. When the 
blood is cold, strain through a sieve, 
add the chopped fat, then the oats, and 
last the seasoning. Put in large sausage 
skins, tying in links nine inches long, 
boil gently for 20 minutes, then take out 
of the water and prick; eat cold. We 
believe that this recipe is varied by 
using a little chopped pork with the fat, 
and by omitting the crushed oats, sup¬ 
plying their place with bread crumbs 
only. We should be glad to add the 
German recipe, if any of our readers 
can supply it. 
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