898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 17, 
l Woman and Home 
From Day to Day. 
THE DUEL. 
The gingham dog and the calico cat 
Side by side on the table sat.; 
'T was half-past twelve, and what do you 
think? 
Neither of them had slept a wink ! 
And the old Dutch clock and Chinese plate 
Seemed to know as sure as fate, 
There was going to he an awful spat. 
(I wasn't there—I simply state 
What was told to me by the Chinese plate.) 
The gingham dog went “bow-wow-wow !” 
And the calico cat replied ‘meow!” 
And the air was streaked for an hour or so 
With fragments of gingham and calico, 
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney 
place 
Up with its hands before its face, 
For it always dreaded a family row ! 
(Now mind, I'm simply telling you 
AVhat. tbe old Dutch clock declares is true.) 
The Chinese plate looked very blue 
And wailed: “Oh, dear! what shall we do?” 
But the gingham dog and the calico cat 
Wallowed this way and tumbled that 
And utilized every tooth and claw 
In the awfullest way you ever saw— 
And, oh ! how the gingham and calico flew! 
(Don't think that I exaggerate—• 
I got my news from the Chinese plate.) 
Next morning where the two had sat 
They found no trace of the dog or cat! 
And some folks think unto this day 
That burglars stole that pair away: 
But the truth about that cat and pup 
Is that they ate each other up— 
Now, what do you really think of that? 
(The old Dutch clock it told me so, 
And that is how I came to know.) 
—Eugene Field. 
* 
A stitch ripper is a convenient little 
tool for the work basket; it looks like a 
combination of scissors and knife, pulling 
out stitches without the risk of cutting 
the fabric. It costs from 25 to 50 cents, 
according to the style of handle. 
* 
Mock mince pie is a familiar economy, 
and now we hear of mock pumpkin pie, 
which is a convenient substitute when the 
pumpkin crop fails. Grate sweet apples, 
add milk, sugar, ginger and cinnamon, and 
one egg for each pie. Make the filling of 
the same consistency as pumpkin, and 
bake just like it. 
* 
Several readers have given their expe¬ 
rience in mixing fruit for preserve or jelly. 
Among the combinations tested crab apple 
and wild grapes proved especially good. 
The two fruits should be cooked together, 
and made like any other jelly. The pro¬ 
portion may be whatever is most conven¬ 
ient; half and half, or one-third grapes to 
two-thirds apples, will be found excellent. 
* 
Rice pudding made as follows is very 
highly recommended: Put a quart of milk 
in the double boiler, and add three table¬ 
spoonfuls of rice; let it cook slowly until 
the rice is swollen and soft. Then put 
rice and milk in a baking dish, adding 
half a can of condensed milk, well stirred 
in. If desired more sugar may be added, 
but the condensed milk makes the pudding 
quite sweet enough for most palates. 
Flavor with nutmeg if desired, and bake 
until browned on top. The condensed milk 
makes the pudding rich and creamy. Tap¬ 
ioca pudding is made in the same way, 
with one cupful of tapioca slowly cooked 
in the quart of milk, to which half a can 
of condensed milk is later added. 
* 
There is one Thanksgiving Day cus¬ 
tom, apparently on the increase in our 
locality, which we think might well be re¬ 
strained or abolished, and that is organ¬ 
ized begging by masquerading children. 
Years ago the children would disguise 
themselves with masks and comic cos¬ 
tumes, and, blowing horns, would visit 
their neighbors, offering a basket to re¬ 
ceive gifts of cake or apples. Now, in 
some places, they go about in droves, visit¬ 
ing total strangers, and even stopping peo¬ 
ple on the street to ask for money. Such 
children are a public nuisance, and their 
impudent begging is thoroughly demoral¬ 
izing, for as a rule they do not come 
from needy homes. We do not know how 
this custom originated; perhaps it is a 
variation of the Old World’s Christmas 
mummers, engrafted upon the American 
holiday. . 
>. * 
Here is one woman’s formula for mak¬ 
ing starch: Three parts water to one part 
starch. Dissolve starch in a little cold 
water, put three parts on stove with a lit¬ 
tle piece of borax (powdered will do just 
as well), let the water come to scalding 
point. While water is heating, scrape a 
little white wax in the starch as fine as 
possible; into the hot water pour the 
starch very slowly, stirring all the time. 
If put in too quickly starch will be boiled, 
thus spoiled; then put a small piece of 
white soap into the starch and whip until 
a good froth of soap lather is formed on 
top. Dip the articles to be ironed, and 
rub; repeat two or three times; fold to¬ 
gether; leave them alone a few hours be¬ 
fore ironing. When ironing a small bowl 
of water with a little rag should be placed 
handy to dampen the article as needed, and 
a large dry cloth whenever drying is de¬ 
sired. Irons should never be washed, but 
rubbed clean with a piece of pumice stone 
and white wax on a piece of rag if any¬ 
thing adheres during ironing. They can 
also be cleaned by an occasional rubbing 
with kerosene. 
* 
Dr. TI. W. Wiley, of the Department of 
Agriculture, has been telling us many 
weird and disquieting facts about adulter¬ 
ated food lately. On the whole, the most 
cheerful thing brought to light is the fact 
that all the pate-de-foie-gras analyzed 
proved to be veal, which relieves us from 
any anxiety concerning the poor bilious 
geese whose engorged livers are supposed 
to form the basis of that delicacy. Dr. 
Wiley attacked the use of preservatives 
and antiseptics in food products, and de¬ 
clared that he “stood as the champion of 
the poor overworked stomachs of man¬ 
kind.” “I stand as the advocate of light¬ 
er work, less hours, and more pay for the 
stomachs,” repeated the doctor. He then 
explained that there were three ways, 
desiccation, canning, and cold storage, in 
which food could lie preserved. Among 
the strange stuffs that had recently come 
to his attention, Dr. Wiley said that a 
cargo of broken eggs from China was the 
latest. According to the Government ex¬ 
perts, these eggs are gathered in China, 
broken and mixed with five or six pounds 
of boracic acid to the one hundred pounds 
of liquid eggs, and shipped to this country. 
Dr. Wiley declared that Chinese broken 
eggs were in great demand and were 
used by the most prominent caterers in 
making fancy cakes. “We don’t need to 
go to China for eggs,” continued the doc¬ 
tor, “and I don’t propose that a lot of peo¬ 
ple shall unconsciously eat a lot of borax 
that they don’t need and want without 
their knowing it. After that, if people 
with their eyes open want to satisfy their 
tastes with green or blue cake or any other 
chromatic taste they may do so.’” 
Home-Corned Beef. 
Here is an old home recipe for corning 
beef, which will be especially useful to 
those who kill their own beef cattle as 
well as pork. To every hundred pounds 
of beef take nine pounds of salt, four 
pounds of sugar or two quarts of good 
molasses, two ounces of soda, one ounce 
of saltpeter, and just enough water to 
cover the meat—about four or five gallons. 
Strew some salt over the bottom of a bar¬ 
rel; mix about half the amount of salt 
given with half the given amount of sugar 
or molasses, and rub each piece of meat 
thoroughly with it before placing it in the 
barrel. Dissolve the saltpeter and soda to 
getlier in hot water, add the remainder of 
the salt and sugar and about four or five 
gallons of cold water. Pour this over the 
meat. Place a board on top of the meat, 
with a weight heavy enough to keep it 
under the brine. It may be kept an indefi¬ 
nite time in the brine, but is salt enough 
to cook after five or six days’ corning. 
Spiced corned beef is made as follows, 
the recipe being an old one, we think of 
German origin: Rub twelve pounds of a 
round of beef with half a pound of coarse 
sugar. Let it stand for two days, turning 
it two or three times. Take a large tea¬ 
spoonful of mace, a teaspoonful of black 
pepper, two of cloves, half a teaspoonful 
of cayenne, one small grated nutmeg, two 
ounces of juniper berries and one-half 
ounce of saltpeter. Stir all these season¬ 
ings together, adding a teaspoonful of 
sugar and rub the mixture thoroughly into 
the meat and all over it. Then let it stand 
for three days longer. At the end of this 
time rub half a pound of fine salt into the 
meat. Finally, let it stand for twelve 
days, rubbing the meat and turning it 
daily. If it is to he cooked immediately 
and not dried, wash it, but do not soak it. 
Lay it in a pot that just fits it, and pour 
over it a quart and a half of water. When 
it comes to the boiling point skim it care¬ 
fully, add a carrot, a small onion, a bay 
leaf and a few sprigs of parsley. Let it 
simmer very gently for four and a half 
hours. Take it from the fire, put it undes 
a heavy weight and let it cool in the liquid 
in which it was cooked. Serve in thin 
slices when perfectly cold. 
Baked Vicar of Witikfield Pears. 
On our place in Hudson two or three 
old trees of this variety bore enough fruit 
to let us enjoy the luxury of having them 
baked. They are delicious, and no other 
seems quite to equal this sort for that 
purpose. They should not be peeled, but 
each pear should be cut in two, the cores 
gouged out, and the cavities filled with 
sugar, and laid in shallow pie pans half 
filled with water, and baked for two to 
four hours, the supply of water being kept 
up. Even if granulated sugar is used the 
pears become dull red, or pink, in color, 
but the flavor will be so fine that none will 
go to waste, and everybody will call for 
more. Has that old favorite, Flemish 
Beauty, entirely gone out of the market? 
No other pear can approach it for canning 
purposes. When the jar is opened the 
fragrance fills the house, and the eating of 
them is a never-to-be-forgotten experience. 
J. y. p. 
R. N.-Y.—We fully endorse this opinion 
of the Vicar for baking, but we prefer to 
peel the pears and bake them whole, put¬ 
ting them in a deep crock, with a lid. and 
baking for four hours or longer, in sweet¬ 
ened water (not a heavy syrup). Both 
pears and syrup become a handsome deep 
red. 
FREE 
SEND FOR IT. 
A new “Royal Baker and Pastry Cook.” A col¬ 
lection of the best practical receipts for every day 
American cookery. Revised edition, with ample 
notes, comments and directions. Ask lor the new 
edition. 
ROYAL BAKING POWDER CO., NEW YORK. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
It. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
Factory 
Prices. 
We sliip direct to the user 
from ourown fac¬ 
tory on 
360 
Days 
Approval 
Saving you all dealers’ 
K.i.m.iw sic.i k.u go anc j nfiddlemeu’s profits. 
We pay the freight and guarantee satisfac¬ 
tion under $20,000 bond. 
Kalamazoo 
Stoves and Ranges 
both steel and cast-iron; new patterns, large 
square ovens, guaranteed firo hacks. Shipped 
blacked and polished ready for use. If not 
satisfactory in every way, send it back and 
we refund every cent paid us. We are actual manu¬ 
facturers, not simply jobbers—the 
only manufacturers of stoves in 
the world selling exclusively to the 
user direct. Send postal for ap 
proval offer and catalogue No. 114 . 
KALAMAZOO STOVE CO., MFRS., 
Kalamazoo, Mich. 
We fit all our ranget and cook etovea with our 
imttnt oven thermometer which make* baking eaey! 
GOLD COIN 
Stoves and Ranges 
at W holesale Prices, 
To introduce this well known 
line in your town, or where 
they are not now 
sold, we will send 
on approval, 
freight p'Cpaid, 
securely crated, 
nicely blacked, 
ready to set up a 
<i O 1.1) COIN 
KtNCE orHeat- 
ingstovo at whole¬ 
sale prices. This 
line has been man 
ufactured for over 
„ forty years and 
this fact aiono is a sufficient guarantee as to 
their value Write to-day for illustrated catalog and 
wholesale prices. Gold Coin Stove Co., Troy, N.Y. 
<$* s ' 
Then they’re not 
iA HOOD’S. Jr J 
HOOD RUBBERS 
HOOP \ 
TRADE ( RUBBtg company ) MARK) 
BOSTON 
NOT MADElSYA TRUST 
/F yOL/ CF/V/VOT C£T Trt£S£ 
BB/fS BBOA/rOi/fiBBMBB-tyB/rBt/S) 
TELEPHONES 
FOR FARMERS A SPECIALTY 
WE GUARANTEE OUR MAKE 
SEND POSTAL FOR PRICES. 
STANDARD TELEPHONE & ELECTRIC CO., 
MILWAUKEE, W1S. 
TELEPHONE APPARATUS 
OWN TOUR OWN TELEPHONE LINE. 
Our telephones are powerful, loud- 
taIking and absolutely guaranteed. 
OUR PRICES ARE RIGHT. 
Telephones that work on any line. 
Large Catalog No. 9 Free. 
CONNECTICUT TELE. & ELEC, CO., 
Meriden, Conn,, U. S. A. 
How to Organize 
A Farmers’ Telephone Co. 
We have published a very in¬ 
structive telephone book espeo- 
cially for the man who wants 
to know ALL about telephone 
matters. It tells how to organ¬ 
ize, how to build the lines; 
about different types of ’phones, 
construction; gives by-laws, and 
constitutions; in faot it is a tele¬ 
phone encyclopedia every farm¬ 
er should have. We send it free 
if you mention this paper. Ask 
for Book F- 102 , “Telephone Facts 
for Farmers.” You will get it by return 
mail. Address nearest office. 
Stromberg-Carlson Tel. Mfg. Co. 
Rochester, N. Y.— Chicago, III. 
