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December 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
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| Woman and | 
I The Home. \ 
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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Tjie choicest garb, the sweetest grace 
Are oft to strangers shown; 
The careless mien, the frowning face 
Are given to our own. 
We flatter those we scarcely know; 
We please the fleeting guest; 
And deal full many a thoughtless blow 
To those who love us best. 
Love does not grow on every tree, 
Nor true hearts yearly bloom. 
Alas for those who only see 
This cut across a tomb! 
But, soon or late, the fact grows plain 
To all through sorrow’s test; 
The only folks who give us pain 
Are those we love the best. 
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in History. 
* 
One suggestion made at a Missouri 
woman’s club, was that steps be taken 
to fit up a room in every country town 
where the farmers’ wives, with their 
children, could rest while waiting for 
the menfolks to transact their business. 
It is often the case that there is nowhere 
for the wives to wait while in town, ex¬ 
cept a grocery store, and a comfortable 
room, with toilet conveniences, would 
certainly be a great boon. 
* 
A great many styles of pinballs are 
seen among the little gifts at this season. 
Patriotic colors being the vogue, a group 
of three balls, red, white and blue, is 
pretty and effective. The pinball is 
made by winding soft wool into a ball, 
and then crocheting a covering of silk to 
fit over it. Each ball is fastened to a 
narrow ribbon, the ribbons being drawn 
through a ring at the top. The balls are 
all stuck full of pins, so that they bristle 
like a thistle bloom. 
* 
A time-honored joke is that of the 
young housekeeper whose flinty-natured 
pound-cake was described by her hus¬ 
band as running about 20 ounces to the 
pound. We have heard, too, of an ama¬ 
teur cook whose leaden biscuits were 
attributable to the fact that she had 
used tooth powder instead of baking 
powder as leavening material; but we 
read recently of an English soldier cook 
whose results were still more impossible, 
from the alimentary standpoint. The 
Autumn maneuvers of the volunteers 
ended with a dinner to the regimental 
sergeants, and one of them, who prided 
himself on his culinary talent, made a 
huge plum pudding for this festive occa¬ 
sion. Said he : 
I had made the pudding two days before, had 
it boiled, and now, reheated, it made its appear¬ 
ance amid the welcome shouts of my brother 
warriors; and I naturally felt a bit proud of it, 
for I hadn’t been a ship’s cook for nothing. 
“ Seems mighty hard,” remarked the sergeant 
major, as he vainly tried to stick his fork into it, 
“ Have you boiled us a cannon ball, Browney ? ” 
“ Or the regimental football ? ” asked another. 
“ Where did you get the flour ? ” questioned 
Sergeant Smith. 
“ Where ? ” I retorted. “ Prom store No. 5, of 
course.” 
“ The deuce you did ! ” roared the quartermas¬ 
ter sergeant. ‘‘Then, hang you, you’ve made 
the pudding with Portland cement! ” 
And so it proved. The pudding is now preserved 
in the battery museum. 
* 
Think of a doll’s bouse that costs $125 ! 
Sucb a one was a leading attraction in a 
New York toy store. It was beautifully 
complete, lighted with electricity, and 
having, as the house agents say, all 
the modern improvements, including a 
colored butler, cook and nurse, the last- 
named being seated in a rocking-chair, 
feeding the baby. There was a well- 
stored linen closet, a kitchen with every 
appliance, a gorgeous drawing-room and, 
acme of realism, two bicycles in the hall! 
No wonder every small girl who came 
into the store hung over that marvelous 
domicile as though bewitched. 
Among the season’s mechanical toys 
are fat little hens that lay eggs while 
you wait. A cow which gives real milk 
is another rural suggestion—though the 
illusion is a little disturbed by lifting a 
lid or trapdoor in Bossy’s back for the 
purpose of inserting the milk. The me¬ 
chanical cow associates with a mechan¬ 
ical pig, which grunts as it walks, and 
with bleating sheep, braying donkeys, 
and dancing bears. Many of the me¬ 
chanical toys are very expensive, but 
there are plenty of cheap ones, too. There 
seems to be a wonderful increase in the 
number of parlor games, and many of 
them are very instructive. The coming 
generation should be a very intelligent 
one, if opportunities are used aright. 
* 
The Atchison Globe observes, pessi¬ 
mistically, that what the West wants is 
a women’s magazine that will teach cor¬ 
rect cooking of beefsteak, pork chops 
and ham gravy. The women read en¬ 
tirely too much about ways to serve ter¬ 
rapin. The editor in question often ex¬ 
presses grave misgivings on the score of 
feminine advancement; he seems to fear 
that, because a few women have strayed 
into political pastures, their sisters will 
follow their example, and abolish the 
domestic virtues. We think, however, 
that his despondent attitude is uncalled- 
for. _ 
FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS' PLAYTHINGS 
Where little folks are to be found, are 
to be found playthings, usually very 
much scattered about. Fig. 397 shows 
a way to make the little people orderly. 
This box-like affair has a top on which 
they can play—using it as a table. A 
drawer in each end holds childish treas¬ 
ures, as also do the two closets below 
FOR THE CHILDREN’S TOYS. Fia. 397. 
them. These closets also afford excel¬ 
lent opportunities for “ keeping house ” ! 
Such an affair can be as plain or as 
elaborate as one chooses. In either case, 
it will be a joy to the children and a 
relief to their elders in the matter of 
once-scattered playthings. 
There is one excellent feature about 
such a device as this that might not be 
thought of at first glance. It is of the 
utmost importance that children be 
taught orderly habits from the start. A 
neat little receptacle like this makes it a 
pleasure for the little folks to gather up 
their treasures, and put them carefully 
away when playtime is over. D. 
CLEANING AGATEWARE. 
Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln gives some ex¬ 
cellent advice in regard to cleaning 
agateware pans and kettles, in the Ameri¬ 
can Kitchen Magazine for December. 
She says that this ware may be kept 
smooth and clean by using a little extra 
care, not to have the heat too intense, 
not to cook or boil at a galloping rate, 
and if by any mishap things do burn on, 
to remove the pan at once ; but do not 
add cold water immediately, as a sudden 
change of temperature may crack the 
glazing. 
Do not try to dig or scrape off the 
burned portions, but fill the pan with 
water, add one or two tablespoonfuls of 
washing soda, and let it heat slowly. If 
burned on the outside as well, immerse 
the pan in a larger one filled with soda 
water. The burned part will come off in 
flakes after this treatment, without any 
expenditure of strength. 
Even when there are no burned-on 
portions to be removed, there is always 
more or less brown scum which adheres 
and marks the water level, and this 
should be scoured off at every washing. 
Wring the cloth quite dry, and either 
scour the brown marks directly with a 
piece of mineral soap, or rub the cloth 
with fine scouring sand or ashes, or the 
soap, and then a few vigorous strokes 
well directed, where needed, will quickly 
remove all traces of roughness. 
Don’t trust to the eye, but let the 
finger tips tell whether the surface is 
smooth or rough. Don’t have the cloth 
so wet that the grit of the soap is dis¬ 
solved before it has a chance at the 
stain, and don’t half do it, trusting for a 
more convenient time for thorough 
work. For if the pan be used before 
cleaning, and the old stain be burned in 
again, it will be made harder to remove. 
Clean the outside always, the bottom 
particularly, as well as the inside. 
After the glazing crackles, the brown 
stains seem to penetrate all through the 
pan, and then she knows of nothing 
that will remove the discoloration. 
SAVE YOUR BACK. 
“ Just see that man on his bicycle, 
bent up almost double. I think it is 
perfectly ridiculous. I don’t believe it 
is good for any one to ride that way,” 
declared my neighbor, and she turned 
away from the window and went back to 
her work over the wash tub. I watched 
her with interest. She was a tall woman, 
and her tub was on a rather low bench. 
Consequently, when she fished up a drip¬ 
ping garment and began rubbing it on 
the scrubbing board, her position was 
remarkably like that of the bicyclist we 
had just seen scorching by. 
A few days before, 1 had seen this same 
neighbor washing floors. She used a 
long-handled mop, and did not have to get 
down on her hands and knees to do her 
work ; but her pail of water was on the 
floor, so that when she stooped over to 
wring out her mop, she had to double up 
like a jackknife. Why didn’t she observe 
these things herself, I wondered, and see 
that she was doing the very same thing 
she condemned in the bicycle rider ? Why 
didn’t she have her tub higher, and by 
soaking her clothes a while, avoid, to 
some extent, the labor of scrubbing ? 
Why didn’t she stand her pail upon a 
chair, or better still, upon a table, so 
that she could wring out her mop with¬ 
out bending her back ? Why did she see 
no connection between the way she used 
her back and the way her back used her ? 
Lastly, why didn’t I present the case 
to her and show her a better way ? Be¬ 
cause I knew it would do no good what¬ 
ever. SUSAN BROWN ROBBINS. 
A PRETTY GIFT. 
A useful gift, of a nature that might 
possibly fill the gaps in the list where 
nothing seems to fit, is a case for 
holding postal cards. Cut four pieces of 
thin cardboard, 6^x4 inches, and cover 
one side of each, using whatever ma¬ 
terial one fancies. Plain or figured 
India silk is light and effective, or one 
may choose plain for two pieces and fig¬ 
ured for the other two. If the outside 
of the case is painted or embroidered, 
use the plain color there with the fig¬ 
ured for lining, the ribbon hinges being 
of a shade to match the cover, or else to 
harmonize with the design on the lining. 
A fine, gray linen, with “Postal Cards” in 
fancy script on the front cover is, also, 
suitable. The case I saw had a Christ¬ 
mas card let into the linen, that is, the 
linen was cut and turned back under to 
form a frame for a tiny frosted land¬ 
scape, the word “Postals” being printed 
diagonally across one corner. Bright 
silk with contrasting ribbons gives a 
pretty lining. 
Before outside and lining are over¬ 
handed together, the bands of half-inch 
ribbon for hinges are put on in the 
manner familiar to people who remem¬ 
ber the little books for holding “ shin- 
plasters ” one used to see when that 
light-weight fractional currency was in 
vogue. The puzzling ribbons hold the 
contents of the case whichever way the 
covers are opened. To arrange them, 
lay the covered pieces for the lining, 
silk side up, before you. On one make 
an X of the ribbon crossing in the 
center and reaching over the sides 1%- 
inch from the corners of the cardboard. 
Suppose we call this the right-hand 
cover. Now across the left-hand cover, 
lay two straight bands from side to side, 
each one inch from the ends. Turn the 
right and left-hand covers together with 
the ribbons between them, and sew each 
ribbon over the side from where its end 
projects, being careful to sew always 
one end of each to a right-hand cover, 
and the other end to a left-hand cover. 
After the ribbons are securely fastened, 
overhand on the decorated pieces for 
the outside, and the case is ready to re¬ 
ceive a supply of postal cards, and to 
make glad the heart of somebody who 
likes pretty things on desk or table, and 
appreciates the always knowing where 
to find things that are likely to slip out 
of sight. P. T. PRIMROSE. 
HOME LIFE IN PORTO RICO. 
The special correspondent of Harper’s 
Weekly, describing domestic habits in 
Porto Rico, says that the native early- 
morning meal is a cup of coffee with milk 
—addiction to the black-coffee habit does 
not exist on the island—and a piece of 
bread. Breakfast is served at 11 or 12 
o’clock, and is seldom elaborate, unless 
guests are in the house. Boiled eggs, 
bread, and coffee satisfy the ordinary 
man, but the hungry man eats his gar¬ 
licky beafsteak in addition. 
Dinner is tlte meal of the day, and is 
eaten between 6 and 7 o’clock. This is 
the native’s only full heavy meal, and 
this fact may account for his ability to 
eat a quantity of food which leaves the 
average American a victim to indiges¬ 
tion and remorse. The positions of honor 
at a dinner table are, among the older 
and non-traveled residents, in the fol¬ 
lowing order : the head of the table to 
the most distinguished guest; the rest, 
in the order of their rank and import¬ 
ance, ranged around to the right, the 
host occupying the last seat after his 
guests. The women sit at the left of the 
table, all together. Among the more 
cultured classes, the host occupies the 
head, the hostess the foot, the places of 
honor being the seats to the right and 
left of the host. 
The evenings in the home—for in¬ 
stance, of an alcalde, the mayor of a 
town—are spent around the center of the 
marble-topped table, in lazily rocking to 
and fro in the big chairs. The men 
smoke their cigarettes—the women never 
smoke—and a flow of small talk, filled 
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HOME JOURNAL 
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The Curtl* 
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Publishing Company 
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Philadelphia, Pa. 
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