9o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 30 
Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
"THE BOYS ARE THERE.” 
I keep a-readin’ the papers, for the mother 
she says, says she: 
"I reckon they’ll have some news to-day of 
the fightin’ over the sea. 
I wish that the war was ended!” That is 
her daily prayer. 
(She made a flag for the regiment, and she 
knows that the boys are there!) 
I 'mind me how that mornin’ when we 
heard the bugles blow 
An’ the bright brigades were formin’, she 
told the boys to go! 
How they left their farewell kisses on her 
lips an’ silver hair, 
An’ marched away for the flag that day. 
.... She knows that the boys are 
there! 
For many a message has come to her ’crost 
the ocean’s foamy track: 
“The flag still waves o’er the regiment— 
we’re beatin’ the rebels back!” 
An’ "Dove an’ life to you, Mother, ’neath 
the home skies sweet an’ fair.” 
Oh, her heart’s at sea with her country, for 
she knows that the boys are there! 
But when, in the evenin’ shadows, the wail 
o’ the wind she hears, 
She looks afar where the broad seas are, 
through a silent rain of tears; 
An’ I say—I say: “They’ll be home some 
day; there’ll be a step on the stair. 
An’ brave, strong arms around you of the 
boys who are fightin’ there!” 
An’ that is her sweetest comfort, an’ her 
tears they cease to flow; 
“Oh, I ’mind me—oh, I ’mind me how I 
told the boys to go!” 
“Yes, an’ you made a flag for them!—the 
flag of your country fair—” 
Willi her head on my breast she whispers: 
"I’m glad that the boys are there!” 
—Saturday Evening Post. 
* 
The newspapers told recently about a 
farmer in Maine whose barn had long 
gone unshingled, because the old man 
was too infirm to do it himself, while 
one son was in the Klondike, and an¬ 
other in the Philippines. Recently, how¬ 
ever, the farmer’s daughter came home 
from normal school, and demonstrated 
the practical value of her education by 
shingling the barn. That was a demon¬ 
stration of the value of manual training, 
and it also disproves the masculine as¬ 
sumption that a woman can’t do any¬ 
thing with a hammer except hit her 
thumb. 
* 
A vegetarian in New Jersey sent the 
following bill of fare to a New York 
paper, being his Thanksgiving dinner; 
Baked beans, boiled turnips and pota¬ 
toes, boiled onions, pumpkin pie, wal¬ 
nuts and whole wheat bread. The crust 
to the pumpkin pie is made from cotton¬ 
seed oil and whole wheat flour, and is 
said to be sweet and delicious. We are 
not told whether this vegetarian permits 
the use of nulk and eggs, which would 
be, in the unvegetarian mind, some relief 
to the plain vegetables. Even with this 
addition, a good many of us would not 
feel very thankful for that dinner. We 
think that it could be improved upon, 
even from the vegetarian standpoint, 
for, in spite of the proteids and carbo¬ 
hydrates of the whole wheat, beans and 
walnuts, the remainder of the list is de¬ 
cidedly watery. 
♦ 
Miss Anna Barrows, of Boston, editor 
of the American Kitchen Magazine, has 
been selected to address a number of 
farmers’ institutes in New York and 
New Jersey during the present season, 
dealing with various questions of do¬ 
mestic science. Miss Barrows is emi¬ 
nent in her field, and her addresses will 
possess muCh interest and value. The 
R. N.-Y. has urged, more than once, that 
the woman’s side ..e represented at the 
farmers’ institutes, and the discussion of 
domestic work, not as commonplace 
drudgery, but as an important science, 
should be regarded as a needed feature 
in such gatherings. The woman’s side 
of farm life includes some disadvantages 
and inconveniences which do not trouble 
the men; if we are to make the girls in 
love with the country home we must 
dignify the work thereof by recognizing 
its value. 
* 
The Winter fires give an extra amount 
of cleaning, for no matter how carefully 
we fill stoves or remove ashes, much 
dust lodges upon everything within 
reach. Around the kitchen stove it is 
especially hard to keep things clean, for 
the dust settles upon greasy places, 
where nothing but washing will remove 
it. We find Gold Dust one of the best 
washing powders for such purpose, 
especially in cleaning the oilcloth around 
the stove, or any spots in the floor. 
Where rag carpet is used in the kitchen, 
the same powder will be found a valu¬ 
able aid in washing it. Personally, we 
do not like a carpeted floor in the 
kitchen, but many country housewives 
find it a comfort, in the Winter, especial¬ 
ly. It must, however, be washed at in¬ 
tervals. The Gold Dust is also our pref¬ 
erence in cleaning a sink, where any 
accumulation of grease is likely to cause 
trouble. 
* 
An excellent steamed pudding of en¬ 
tire wheat flour is made as follows, the 
recipe being given in the American 
Kitchen Magazine. Sift together one 
pint of whole wheat flour, one-half tea¬ 
spoonful soda, one-half teaspoonful salt, 
from one-fourth to one-half teaspoonful 
mixed spice. Mix with one ounce of 
melted shortening or one-half cupful of 
chopped suet, and one-half cupful each 
of molasses and sour milk. When fresn 
fruit is used, such as chopped apples or 
berries, the milk is unnecessary. Steam 
the pudding either in one large mold, 
or in individual cups. Any steamed 
pudding looks very nice if steamed in 
custard cups or bakers, and turned out 
upon a dish, with a dusting of powdered 
sugar over each one. The Kitchen 
Magazine shows how the hard sauce 
served with such a pudding may be piled 
up in little cups made from half a lemon 
or orange peel, notched around the edge, 
these being placed by the puddings, on 
the same dish. 
* 
It was recently announced by some of 
the western papers, that a man from 
Cold Springs, Idaho, had started to Chi¬ 
cago to select a batch of brides for a 
number of hard-working ranchers in the 
Nez Perces district. These ranchmen 
have been settled in that part of Idaho 
for several years, have comfortable 
homes, and would like to meet with 
good and industrious helpmeets, but the 
Idaho girl crop is short, and there is no 
chance for them there. After reading 
about the many hard-working factory 
girls of the East, they decided that some 
of them would be willing to try ranch 
life, and would make desirable wives, so 
a sum of money was subscribed among 
them, and one of their number sent to 
Chicago on this quest. The bride- 
hunter is provided with photographs of 
the would-be Benedicts, so that the 
young women may pick out their 
choice. After all, this is merely an at¬ 
tempt to regulate supply and demand, 
and without doubt we have- many among 
us who are descendants of just such 
marriages, contracted by early colonists, 
who traded so many pounds of tobacco 
for some discreet bride, brought over 
from the mother country to the Vir¬ 
ginias. 
* 
We have a fondness for old customs, 
and like to adhere to them, but there is 
one old usage, now dying out, whose 
passing may be hailed with thankfulness 
by all thoughtful people. We mean the 
custom of New Year’s calls, as carried 
out in many American towns and vil¬ 
lages. The idea of greeting one’s friends 
upon that day, and offering good wishes 
for the coming year, is a very kindly 
one, but when it degenerated into a rout 
of uninterested callers, many of whom 
were barely acquaintances of their en¬ 
tertainers, it was time to stop it. There 
was a still more serious side to the cus¬ 
tom, and that was the intemperance in¬ 
duced by it. Custom sanctioned the 
offering of intoxicating drinks at every 
house, and many a man could trace his 
subsequent degeneration to this very 
circumstance. It is only when we com¬ 
pare modern customs with older fash¬ 
ions that we realize the gain in temper¬ 
ance sentiments, even among those who 
are opposed to what they consider ex¬ 
treme views on the subject. The Scotch 
hold their great New Year’s festivity on 
New Year’s Eve, this being Hogmanay 
Night, often referred to by Scotch poets. 
To insure good luck for the coming year, 
the first person to enter the house on 
New Year’s Day should be masculine, a 
dark man, according to Scotch tradition, 
and he should carry a sprig of something 
green or growing. The custom of “first- 
footing”—of making calls on friends 
early on New Year’s morning, in the 
hope of being the first caller, is still ob¬ 
served by many of our Scotch friends. 
Among the dainties usually offered by 
Scotch hostesses at this time is short¬ 
bread, known in the north of England as 
fleed cake. It is made by working flour 
and butter together, by a long process of 
rolling and beating, until a stiff dough 
is formed, without the use of any liquid. 
It is sweetened, and formed into flat 
round cakes about one-half inch thick. 
We have heard of inexperienced house¬ 
wives whose shortbread, carelessly 
mixed, melted into a species of grease 
spot during the baking. 
Wise Words About Reading. 
It is generally better, at least when 
one is old enough to have formed defi¬ 
nite tastes and come to know what are 
the lines of study one prefers, to read 
upon some regular lines rather than in 
a purely desultory fashion, says James 
Bryce in the Youth’s Companion. To 
have a fresh curiosity, alive to all that 
passes in the world of letters or of 
science, is no doubt good; but to try to 
read even the few best books in more 
than a few branches is out of the ques¬ 
tion. The field of knowledge has now 
grown too wide and too much subdi¬ 
vided. For most of us the safer plan is 
to choose some one, or at most some two 
or three subjects, and so direct our read¬ 
ing as to concentrate it upon them, and 
make each book we study help the 
others, and carry us further forward in 
the subject. 
To know even one subject pretty thor¬ 
oughly is a great gain to a man. It 
gives him something to think about 
apart from his daily occupations. It 
forms in him the habit of sound criti¬ 
cism, and enables him, even in subjects 
with which he has only a speaking ac¬ 
quaintance, to detect imposture, and dis¬ 
cover when a writer is really competent. 
The suggestion that reading should not 
be desultory, nor take too wide a range, 
does not of course mean to exclude 
poetry and fiction from anyone’s read¬ 
ing. So little good poetry appears from 
year to year that the time needed to read 
it is but small; while fiction is read so 
rapidly that it does not interfere with 
the pursuit of any other regular line of 
study for which a man may find that he 
has a taste. What I wish to dissuade is 
the notion which some men, and more 
women, entertain, that it is the duty of 
a person of cultivation to try to read all, 
or even a large proportion, of the books 
of importance, or reputed importance, 
that are from time to time published on 
various topics. There is no use trying 
to do this. The attempt only produces 
a general “seatterment” of mind. 
A fourth maxim may be thought ques¬ 
tionable, for it is not quite in accord¬ 
ance with modern practice. It is this: 
Read the works of the great authors be¬ 
fore you read criticisms upon them. Let 
them make their own simple impression 
on your mind; and only after they have 
done so, read what other people have 
said about them. If the book is suffi¬ 
ciently important, and you have time 
enough, you can afterward plunge into 
the comments and criticisms, or may 
study the life of the author, and see 
what were the conditions which helped 
to mold him. But the main thing is to 
read him in the first instance with your 
own eyes, and not through some one’s 
else spectacles. 
Sometimes it is better not to read 
much about the personal life of an 
author. He may have put the best of 
himself into his books, and the record of 
his private history may diminish the 
strength of the impression. There are, 
of course, some pieces of criticism by 
eminent writers upon other writers 
Which are themselves masterpieces, and 
ought to be read by whoever wants to 
know how to comprehend and judge 
works of imagination. 
) l0THE L R LtR. 
THE SINGER 
The Handy 
EXTe N810N Ieaf 
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Copyright, 1899. 
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THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
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