374 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 21 
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♦ Woman and ♦ 
♦ The Home. | 
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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
In mending large holes in stockings or 
merino underwear, the work is made 
much easier by hasting a piece of net 
over the hole, and then darning through 
it. It is much easier to keep the work 
smooth, and it is done much more quickly. 
* 
Do you wash your clothespins ? They 
accumulate a good deal of dust, which 
often leaves unsightly marks upon the 
wet clothes. It is a good plan to put 
them in the wash-boiler when the wash¬ 
ing is over, and then into the rinsing 
water. This washing not only cleanses 
them, but aids their durability. 
* 
Tiik value of an exclusively fruit diet, 
urged by a few of the modern reformers, 
is very strongly combated by some of the 
medical authorities. They assert that 
such diet, while found satisfactory by 
strong, full-blooded persons, is detri¬ 
mental to dyspeptics, neurasthenics 
and rheumatics, who need something 
more to build up their tissues. Unfor¬ 
tunate^, it is the delicate semi-invalid 
who always attempts the most daring 
variations of diet. 
* 
Candy-boxes tied with tricolored rib¬ 
bon, and further decorated with the 
Stars-and-Stripes, are prevalent in all 
the confectioners' windows, but more 
novel are boxes in the shape of an army 
knapsack, with a miniature rolled blan¬ 
ket above. It would be hard to find a 
shop window which does not display the 
red, white and blue in some form, even 
the milliners arranging their stock to 
give this effect. Early in the Spring, 
the fashion authorities assured us that 
this would be a blue season, but appar¬ 
ently, they gave us only one-third of 
the truth—the season is red-wliite-and- 
blue. 
* 
The second National Mothers’ Con¬ 
gress met in Washington during the first 
week in May. The president of the 
society, Mrs. Birney, in her opening ad¬ 
dress, urged the cultivation of a patriot¬ 
ism that lives for its country, and that 
we may not mistake vanity for patriot¬ 
ism, emotion and false sentiment for 
strong purpose and high resolve. Her 
address was criticised in some quarters, 
because she upholds a higher patriotism 
than that expressed by the spirit of war ; 
but her opinions will be echoed by the 
many mothers who have given up their 
sons to their country, and who must now 
daily offer their prayers for deliverance 
from battle, murder, and from sudden 
death. 
* 
One bright speech was given by Lillie 
Devereux Blake,the well-known woman’s 
suffragist. She referred to the comments 
upon the many spinsters who are inter¬ 
ested in the Mothers’ Congress, stating 
that every woman is a mother to some 
one. “ Sometimes she mothers her father 
or her brother, and I have an idea that 
every good wife is a mother to her 
husband.’ - 
* 
Those who frequent the business por¬ 
tion of a city are familiar with the 
approach of a small newsboy with one 
paper in his hand, who begs the benevo¬ 
lent passerby to purchase that one re¬ 
maining paper, so that he may go home. 
A woman on a crowded square was rather 
surprised, recently, to see a small boy 
snatch a paper from one who had his 
arms full, and then wriggle through the 
crowd before he could be caught. A few 
minutes later, on turning a corner, she 
was approached by the same boy, who, 
in a tone of whining pathos, said : 
“ Please, lady, won’t you buy me last 
paper, so’s I kin go home to me sick 
mother?” This appeal, however, was 
unheeded, for the woman addressed, in¬ 
dignantly told the boy that she had just 
seen him steal that paper from another, 
and the small speculator, quite un¬ 
abashed, grinned cheerfully and slipped 
into the crowd in search of another 
victim. 
CUBAN HOUSEKEEPING. 
A correspondent of the American 
Kitchen Magazine sends a picture of his 
Cuban kitchen, with its limited appara¬ 
tus, to that journal, and gives a dis¬ 
couraging view of household science in 
that unhappy island. He says : 
“ Our domestic cooking operations are 
limited to the frying pan and the boiling 
pot. The only progress I have noticed 
in the 31 years I am here is the substi¬ 
tution of lard for rancid olive oil in the 
preparation of food. 
“ No ovens are used here outside of the 
public bakeries, and no family ever 
dreams of making and baking the bread 
consumed daily. All bread is served 
mornings and afternoons from the public 
bakeries, mostly in loaves that weigh 
2)4 ounces and cost 2% cents each, or 16 
cents a pound, the price being the same 
whether flour costs $7 or $14 a barrel. 
“ Beef retails at 20 to 50 cents a pound, 
mutton at GO. Beef or mutton raised in 
this climate is rarely, if ever, fat, tender 
or juicy ; and after being fried furiously 
over a charcoal furnace, all its albumin 
is thoroughly coagulated and its cellular 
tissues hardened and difficult of digestion. 
Moreover, it is served on the table in 
thick lumps bathed in the cracked fats, 
and so does not much tempt an appe¬ 
tite already jaded by the scanty oxygen 
of the Torrid zone. 
•‘I am convinced that the concurrence 
of an enervating climate with unscien¬ 
tific cooking is responsible here for a 
considerable part of the high death and 
mortality rates. 
“ The best meats our markets afford are 
not what an American palate would 
esteem to be of the best quality, first be¬ 
cause our climate is not favorable to the 
production of fat beef, and second, be¬ 
cause the beef that comes to us from 
other countries is stripped of its fats by 
the butchers before selling ; but the 
quantities of these fats are limited for 
the reason that, as the Cubans are accus¬ 
tomed to hard meats, the cattle-specu¬ 
lators import only the poorer, cheaper 
cattle for Cuban consumption. 
“ When I inform you that I have seen 
the prototype of our Cuban kitchen in 
the ruined houses of Pompeii, as also the 
general prototype of our domiciles with 
all their characteristic defects, you will 
realize the origin of our unprogressive 
conditions. 
“ The present cataclysm here must re¬ 
sult in the breaking down (or up) of the 
traditions that have bound us to an¬ 
tiquity, and dietary reform must be one 
of the new factors of the reorganization 
of this society.” 
BAGS AND THEIR USES . 
It was a salt bag that began it. “ That 
would make a good handkerchief,” she 
said, and she ripped it open, hemmed it, 
and found herself possessed of a large 
handkerchief which, after it was washed, 
became soft, and was a source of satis¬ 
faction when bad colds came. With this 
beginning, less than a year passed be¬ 
fore she was known to her friends as a 
“ bag crank.” 
The bags in which scraps and animal 
meal came were made of stout cotton 
cloth or drilling, and they seemed to her 
to contain many possibilities. She be¬ 
gan by making of them two shirts for 
her husband. Then she made herself a 
kitchen apron. Next, her dish towels 
giving out, she made bag dish towels 
and found that they answered all the 
requirements. Two of the heavy, stout 
meal bags made two durable roller 
towels. 
The burlap shorts bags, although they 
did not look as attractive, proved to be 
useful in many ways. A curtain was 
needed to hang in front of the hen’s 
scratching shed, to keep the snow out. 
The big 200-pound bags were opened, 
and enough of them sewed together to 
make a curtain the right size. She also 
made a short skirt of these burlap bags, 
which she wore berrying. Her ironing- 
board needed a new covering, and as old 
sheets were at a premium, two or three 
thicknesses of bags went on first. Four 
big bags sewed together without being 
opened made a light-weight horse blan¬ 
ket. 
One interesting fact she learned about 
bags is that the sewing can be ripped 
out very easily, if only you get hold of 
the right end of the thread, or twine. 
After a time, she accumulated quite a 
ball of this bag twine. Her handled 
dish-mop had been growing beautifully 
less for some time. So one day, she cut 
off the old twine, found a book the right 
size, wound on a sufficient quantity of 
the bag twine, slipped it off the book, 
laid the handle on, having the groove 
come in the middle of the “skein,” tied 
it securely, gave it a shake, and there 
was a handled dish-mop to be proud of. 
She got two large knitting-needles, 
and cast on about 100 stitches, still using 
the bag twine, and knit plain till she had 
a square. This she used for a bath rag, 
and found it as rough and stimulating 
as Turkish toweling would be. 
Paper bags she also treasured, espe¬ 
cially large, stout ones. These she used 
in Spring in place of the cedar chest she 
had not. Woolen stockings, mittens, 
flannel skirts,felt shoes and other articles 
were put in paper bags, and tied or pasted 
securely at the top. The names of the 
articles were written on the outsides of 
the bags, which saved time in the Fall 
when they were needed again. 
SUSAN BROWN ROBBIN8. 
From Manufacturer to Consumer. 
For the asking; we 
mail you our Litho¬ 
graphed Carpet Cata¬ 
logue, showing goods 
in lithographed colors. 
Fcrsamples.send eight 
cents. ALLCARPETS 
SEWED FREE. AND 
FREIGHT PAID TO 
YOUR STATION. 
$3.95 • 
Buys this (exact) 
Solid Oak Refriger¬ 
ator. Our 112-page 
Catalogue of Furni¬ 
ture, Draperies, 
Crockery, Baby Car- 
r i a g e s, Stoves, 
Lamps, Bedding, 
Mirrors, Pictures, 
&c., is mailed to all 
who ask for it. 
$7.45 
BuysaMade-to-your-Measure 
All-wool Cheviot Suit, EX¬ 
PRESS PAID TO YOUR 
STATION. Catalogue and 
Samples Free. Address 
(exactly as below.) 
JULIUS HINES & SON, 
Dept. 320. BALTIMORE, MD. 
Eviction Prices 
On Certain Delinquent Fabrics 
They have overstayed their right of occupation. Out they go, 
then, all of them ! The eviction process is a simple one, and 
shall be sharp and immediate. 
Their time for removal has come, and if they will not go 
willingly, they shall be pushed out. As the goods are simply the 
best known to civilization, the trouble must be a matter of price. 
We’ll fix that : 
Paris Novelties 
At $2.75, from $3.50 a yd. 
Novelty bayadere striped silk-and-wool Gren¬ 
adines, in combinations of black with navy- 
blue, green, and rose. 
At $2.75, from $3.50 a yd. 
Bayadere striped Barege, in silk-and-wool 
stripes over grounds of gray, navy blue, 
cardinal, and beige. 
At $2.75, from $3.50 a yd. 
Self-colored silk-and-wool bayadere striped 
Barege, in cadet blue, navy blue, gray. 
At $2.50, from $3 a yd. 
Self-colored silk-and-wool bayadere satin 
striped Barege, in three colors. 
At $2.50, from $3 a yd. 
Satin striped Barege, in self-colored stripes, 
edged with white; colors are Yale blue, 
bluet, brown, and tan. 
At $2.50, from $3 a yd. 
Silk-checked Grenadine; checks of white over 
grounds of marine blue, cadet blue, green, 
beige, and gray. 
At $2.25, from $2.75 a yd. 
Figured self-colored bayadere striped silk- 
and-wool Crepon Barege, in brown, electric 
and navy blue. 
At $2.25, from $2.75 a yd. 
Novelty silk-and-wool Grenadine, in black 
with bayadere stripes of bluet, rose, robin’s- 
egg blue, emerald, and maize. 
At $2, from $2.50 a yd. 
Silk-and-wool figured self-colored Arinure 
Velour, in reseda and tan. 
At $1.75, from $2.25 a yd. 
Moliair-and-wool Ripple Crepons, in marine 
blue, Yale blue, brown, green, gray, and 
beige. 
AS MANY 
At $1.50, from $2 a yd. 
Self-colored silk-and-wool Crepe Barege, in 
seven colorings. 
Other Imported Novelties 
At $1.35, from $1.75 a yd. 
Silk-and-Wool Novelty Bayadere Chevron, 
four combinations. 
At 75c., from $1.50 and $1.75 a yd. 
Plain and figured canvas Etamine, in navy 
blue. 
At 75c., from $1 a yd. 
Silk figured two-toned Poplin, in five com¬ 
binations. 
Fancy Suitings 
At $1.25, from $1.75 a yd. 
Fancy bouretted chrevron striped Melange, 
in eight combinations. 
At 75c., from $1.25 a yd. 
Fancy mixed check Suiting, in various color 
combinations. 
At 50c., from $1 a yd. 
Fancy two-toned granite mixtures, in six 
combinations. 
Medium-Price Stuffs 
At 30c., from 50c. a yd. 
Figured Beiges, in brown and gray mixtures. 
At 30c., from 50c. a yd. 
Two-toned figured Vigoreaux, in four com¬ 
binations. 
At 50c., from 75c. a yd. 
Fancy mixed figured Cheviot, in five combina¬ 
tions. 
SAMPLES AS YOU WISH 
JOHN WANAMAKER 
Broadway 
Section 159 New York 
(Please address exactly as above) 
