268 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 9 
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♦ Woman and ♦ 
♦ The Home.* 
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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
An economical dessert, known as hid¬ 
den bread, is made by cutting slices of 
stale bread into neat pieces, spreading 
with fruit jam, and putting together 
like a sandwich. These jam sandwiches 
are then dipped in a batter made in the 
proportion of one-half cupful of milk and 
one teaspoonful of flour to one egg, the 
whole well beaten together. After 
dipping in this, the bread is quickly 
fried a light brown on both sides, trans- 
fei-red to a hot dish, and dusted with 
powdered sugar. 
* 
The best material for stiffening wash 
silk, laces, and other thin materials, is 
gum-arabic starch. It is made by put¬ 
ting one ounce of gum and one cupful of 
cold water in a bottle which is placed in 
a pan of water and kept over the fire 
until the gum is dissolved. The gum is 
then sti'ained through a piece of cheese¬ 
cloth into another bottle, and allowed to 
cool, after which one-half gill of alcohol 
is added, this causing it to keep ready fox- 
use. For lace, one-half teaspoonful of 
this starch in a small cupful of water is 
sufficient. 
* 
Among the wash fabrics offered this 
Spring, ax-e a great many percales, print¬ 
ed in designs similar to those of India 
silks. The colors ax-e very pretty, and 
this fabric makes px-etty frocks for school 
girls. Percale is vei-y strong, and wears 
well, a fact that has made it popular for 
boys’ shirtwaists. Cotton Bedford cords 
make good material for school frocks, 
having enough substance to be warm on 
damp days, when a starched material 
will lose its crispness. Another sub¬ 
stantial cotton stuff is called worst- 
ette; it is made in mixed weaves, vei-y 
like a woolen material, and is pretty 
enough to make vei-y nice-looking gowns. 
Galatea, one of the pi-ettiest substantial 
linens, is shown in a number of popular 
solid colors. It is very pretty when 
trimmed with white cotton bi-aid, and is 
specially suitable for girls’ sailor suits. 
* 
Well-known women in the great cities, 
who are pi-ominent either socially or 
professionally, are vex-y often called upon 
for aid and advice by young women who 
came to the cities in the hope of achiev¬ 
ing some special ambition. We hear of 
young girls who come to New York, 
secure in the belief that they possess 
talent that must win immediate recog¬ 
nition, without friends, fame, or money. 
Some ax-e would-be musicians or elocu¬ 
tionists, who come here in an effort to 
secure instruction, without any idea as 
to their means of support. Others deem 
their education already finished, and are 
ready to instruct or amuse the metropolis. 
When they find themselves isolated, with 
no prospects of money or fame, they 
hold the stony-hearted city responsible 
for their state, and complain of the 
heartlessness of the modern Babylon. 
They forget that the gi-eat cities have 
their choice of artists from home and 
abroad, whose talents are not a matter 
of experiment. There is plenty of real 
kindliness in the great city, but every 
one is too busy to hunt up the novices. 
Let the aspirant realize with what she 
must compete, before she leaves home 
security for the uncertainties of the city. 
If she must come, let her bring some 
business qualifications, as well as hex- 
real or fancied talent. One is astonished 
at the number of girls who come to New 
York for musical studies, with little or 
no money, and a vei-y hazy idea of the 
way in which they will earn both in¬ 
struction and fame. Unfortunately, our 
cities are already full of would-be night¬ 
ingales, and there are many disappointed 
ones. It is well to remember that, while 
there is always room at the top, the num¬ 
ber of those who get there is necessarily 
limited. When failure comes, it cannot 
justly be credited to the cold indifference 
of the city. 
* 
What a variety of sandwiches are re¬ 
vealed in the lunchboxes carried by a 
group of school children, and how very 
unappetizing many of them are ! There 
are many women to whom a sandwich 
means only pieces of awkwardly-sliced 
meat placed between bread ; yet surprise 
is felt when the small luncli-eater de- 
clai*es that he “hates sandwiches.” If 
a meat filling is used, it is much im¬ 
proved by chopping and flavoring. A 
little tomato or salad dressing mixed 
through the meat, just sufficient to sea¬ 
son, is always an improvement. Neither 
is meat a necessity for filling ; cold baked 
beans, with a little tomato ketchup, 
make a savory sandwich. Raisins, 
chopped and seeded, make a delicious 
combination with lightly-buttered brown 
bread, and dates, frpm which the stones 
have been removed, are equally desira¬ 
ble. Canned fruit, fi-om which the juice 
has been drained, chopped nuts, and sav¬ 
ory combinations of fish reduced to a 
paste, are all desirable for this use. A 
lettuce leaf or bit of water cress is an 
improvement in many sandwiches. It 
is a good plan to make some of the left¬ 
overs into savory sandwiches for lunch 
or tea, as well as for the children’s 
school lunch ; they give a variety to the 
food, and are a means of utilizing por¬ 
tions too small to make up any regxxlar 
dish. 
TEMPER OR TbMPERAMENT ? 
the woman with nerves. ■ 
A subject that seems to interest a good 
many of our readers is the suffering of 
the nervous temperament, and how it 
may be controlled. We have asked 
several of our friends what advice they 
would give (entirely leaving out any 
medical tx-eatment) to a woman who 
suffered from “ nerves” and the sensitive 
irritability that such a condition en¬ 
genders. How far does it seem possible 
to control this trouble, when it is a mat¬ 
ter of temperament rather than bodily 
Tfiealth? It would seem that a perfectly 
healthy person has no right to worry 
and indulge in nerves, unless she is per¬ 
sistently overworked. Lack of self-con¬ 
trol is a prolific source of this trouble, 
and it undoubtedly affects the bodily 
health. 
Change Work and Scene. 
James Freeman Clarke said, “ I do not 
know any more blessed influence for one 
harassed by the cares of business or the 
turmoil of difficult duties, than the im¬ 
mense peace of Nature.” Emerson rep- 
resents a man going out of a meeting of 
excited reformers, and the stax-s looking 
down on him and saying, “ Why so hot, 
little man ?” A month spent among the 
gx-eat mountains of Colorado and the 
vast regions of Arizona would be likely 
to quiet the nerves of most of us. 
Yet it is a matter of tempei-ament and 
of Christian faith. Dr. Clarke’s own 
nature was calm and untroubled. I have 
been a guest at his house, and have seen 
how tranquil and full of quiet was his 
temperament, even thi*ough troubles and 
cares, but it was inborn grace—and good 
temper. But a woman, and one all 
nerves, to whom the falling of a spoon 
or fork is a torture, who lives all the 
time in the country where a deadly quiet 
is broken only by some gossip who comes 
in to tell her that she is terx-ibly failing, 
and didn’t her mother die just about her 
age ? Ah, pity her ! No books or flow¬ 
ers can still those nerves, or cure that 
constant ache in the top of her head! 
Mrs. Stowe said of this large class of 
nervous people who need wisdom and 
lack the will power to control their 
nerves, that they need to cultivate the 
habit of silence towards men and speech 
towards God. 
In the country, a gi-eat deal of blame 
must fall on the constant indoor life that 
women lead—its monotony and isolation. 
I have myself been told when I have 
spoken of getting out of doors in bad 
weather, “ Why, I am sure you get ex¬ 
ercise enough !” Yes, any woman who 
has heavy babies to lift, and cooking to 
do for her family, gets plenty of a cer¬ 
tain kind of exercise; but it is not the 
bracing air of outdoors, the variety that 
men get, if only drawing wood or call¬ 
ing at the blacksmith’s. Many argu¬ 
ments ax-e used for and against the bicy¬ 
cle for nervous people, but one thing is 
certain, that any one who can command 
a gentle hoi’se and saddle, and take rides 
through the countx-y, has a tonic and 
nerve restorer not to be despised. But 
then, wouldn’t any counti-y woman be 
supposed to be wasting her time, and 
thiDk of the work left undone in her ab¬ 
sence ? Ah ! these ruts; how hard they 
are to get out of ! No wonder she en- 
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