326 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 30 
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Woman and 
: 
The Home. ♦ 
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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
A combing sheet is an aid to cleanli¬ 
ness in the bedroom. It consists of a 
large square of unbleached muslin, to 
be placed on the floor in front of the 
looking-glass while the hair is being 
brushed. It is especially desirable when 
the hair is disposed to fall out badly. 
* 
A woman desiring to enter the training 
school for nurses, in connection with 
Roosevelt Hospital, New York, in ad¬ 
dition to credentials of health and char¬ 
acter, must furnish a dentist’s certificate 
testifying that her teeth are in good 
order. Many persons do not realize how 
far the general health may be affected 
by imperfect teeth, or to what extent 
they are an index of the constitution. 
While there is a great variation in the 
teeth of different persons, no one pos¬ 
sesses teeth so sound and healthy that 
they need no care for their preservation, 
while defective teeth would be greatly 
improved if they received regular at¬ 
tention from the first. It is a decided 
error to neglect a child’s first teeth, 
merely because they are not permanent. 
If the temporary molars decay early, they 
should be properly filled, thus saving the 
child from the miseries of toothache, and 
keeping the gums in better condition 
for the second teeth. 
* 
“Golf bonnets” are said, by the 
authorities on coming fashions, to be one 
of the novelties promised for next Sum¬ 
mer. They are merely old-fashioned 
sunbonnets, either slatted or corded, of 
the style supposed by some writers to be 
the exclusive prerogative of the country. 
Made in pink, blue, or primrose muslin, 
bordered with little frills and tied with 
broad strings, they are generally becom¬ 
ing, and form sensible headgear. It is 
predicted that they will be adopted for 
many outdoor sports. Bright red being 
a favorite color on the golf links, it is 
said that this flaming hue will be fav¬ 
ored for these bonnets, as for other 
accessories to the costume. It would 
seem from the adoption of these bonnets 
that the tanned, weather-worn com¬ 
plexion displayed by many feminine de¬ 
votees of outdoor sports is no longer 
viewed with favor. The golf bonnet is 
a wise innovation, and one that will 
make us look upon our oft-despised sun- 
bonnets with more respect. 
* 
It is said that there are now about 
4,500 women physicians in the United 
States, as against 527 in 1870. While 
they, doubtless, suffer from competition, 
like men in the same profession, most of 
them appear to do well, and one or two 
of the leaders are credited with an 
annual income of $25,000. In Great 
Britain, the prejudice against women 
doctors has passed away slowly, and 
there are still restrictions in some of 
the schools, disbarring them from equal 
privileges with the men. India offers 
the best field for English medical women, 
as the native women are not usually 
allowed to receive treatment from men. 
The chief medical adviser to the Ameer 
of Afghanistan is a woman, who was 
the introducer of vaccination into that 
country. The Emperor of Abyssinia has 
recently appointed a woman graduate of 
the University of Zurich as physician to 
his household. Several Chinese women 
have obtained medical degrees in this 
country. Many women are now qualified 
as chemists and apothecaries, especially 
in Great Britain ; several of the great 
London hospitals employ women dis¬ 
pensers. America seems to have a 
monopoly of women dentists, statistics 
giving 337 of them. 
Aluminium cooking vessels are a fea¬ 
ture in some of the stores, and they are 
now cheap enough to grow rapidly in 
favor. The weight of this metal is only 
about one-third that of iron; conse¬ 
quently, aluminium pans and kettles 
would save much strength about the 
kitchen. The metal is strong, durable, 
and practically incorrodable. It is said 
that no food now known to man can 
affect this metal in the slightest degree ; 
it is free from poison, and will not taint 
any food. This fact would seem to render 
aluminium kettles especially valuable for 
pickles and preserves. The metal is a 
very quick conductor of heat. Aluminium 
vessels should not be scrubbed with any 
of the scouring compounds, but washed 
with hot soap-and-water; this retains 
the silvery luster. In addition to the 
cooking vessels, all sorts of trifles are 
shown in the stores devoted entirely to 
this metal. Individual butter plates of 
aluminium, made in the same patterns 
as those of silver, are pretty, cheap, and 
indestructible. Salt and pepper shakers, 
tea and coffee strainers, tea balls, pow¬ 
der boxes, pin trays, and toilet articles 
of all sorts, are shown in this material. 
The application of aluminium to the in¬ 
dustrial arts is a matter of congratula¬ 
tion for all housewives. 
PROFITABLE BUSINESS FOR WOMEN. 
Farmers’ wives and daughters usually 
care for the poultry, but I have noticed 
that they seldom reap the harvest; the 
eggs go to pay the grocery bills, and the 
surplus chickens to help out the bill of 
fare. This is all right, as women expect 
to be helpmeets, but if they can make 
the poultry business profitable enough 
to do this and furnish a little income 
beside, so much the better. 
Let me tell you of my poultry experi¬ 
ence. We first kept a mixed lot of chick¬ 
ens, descendants of Leghorns, Javas and 
Plymouth Rocks. They were a help to 
us in our living, but I was ambitious to 
make them do more, so I went into the 
breeding of purebred fowls. I selected 
the White Leghorns as being hardy, 
handsome and good layers. I started in 
a small way, buying a dozen late- 
hatched chickens when four weeks old. 
They were shipped half way across the 
State, but reached me in good condition. 
Two died later ; the others were given 
the best the farm afforded, and grew 
apace. There were five pullets and five 
cockerels. 
The next Spring, I sold two cockerels 
and a few eggs for hatching, sufficient 
to pay for the first cost of my chickens, 
and raised a fine lot of young fowls. I 
placed advertisements in poultry and 
farm papers. I studied up the fancy 
points and disqualifications of the Leg¬ 
horns, so that I could score my own 
fowls, thus saving what others usually 
pay for scoring. My business grew, and 
I often shipped eggs and fowls to as dis¬ 
tant points as Montana and New Mexico. 
I have not made a fortune, but the 
“ chicken money ” has enabled me to 
hire heavy work done in the house, and 
supplied me with books and other coveted 
articles. 
I think that any energetic woman with 
a knack for business will find the breed¬ 
ing of purebred fowls profitable. In even 
so commonplace a business as poultry 
raising, there is much to learn, so it is 
well to be cautious in first investments; 
let the business and one’s knowledge 
grow together. Do not try keeping more 
than one breed, unless you have plenty 
of room and plenty of yards (as they 
must be yarded during the hatching 
season at least), and lots of time to de¬ 
vote to the work. Do not allow adver¬ 
tising to eat up all your profits. A breed¬ 
er’s card in one or two poultry papers 
will not be expensive ; keep them in all 
the year, changing in Spring and Fall. 
Take the fowls to poultry shows and 
county fairs, and if your yards are near 
a public road, they will advertise them¬ 
selves. If the returns are small the first 
year, do not get discouraged, and think 
that you will try another breed, or go 
out of the work ; it takes time to work 
up a good business of any kind. 
MARY 8. 8TEI.SON. 
BAKING FISH. 
Many housekeepers never prepare fish 
in any way except frying, ignoring the 
ways in which a handsome dish is pre¬ 
pared by baking or boiling. Haddock 
and cod or, if far from the coast, lake 
whitefish,are especially nice when baked. 
The Boston Cooking School Magazine, 
tells how to bake a fish, as follows : 
Remove the eyes from the head and 
the fins from the body of a dressed fish 
weighing about four pounds. Soak in 
cold water about five ounces (one-fourth 
loaf) of bread, from which the crust has 
been removed, for 15 minutes. Put the 
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