Id04. 
Charity Sweetheart’s Letters. 
It is hard to realize that a new year has 
dawned upon us and the Winter has taken 
a turn. I dread the cold dark mornings 
of November and December, for they are 
very dreary to begin the new day. Some¬ 
body must get up first to light the fire 
and start the domestic machinery. Going 
into the cellar with a candle to attend to 
the milk is a dull routine of work that 
must be attended to in the interval of 
getting breakfast ready, and seeing that 
the boys are properly dressed. Then 
comes the hurry for school and putting 
up the lunches, for it is quite a chore to 
get them off during the dark sunless 
mornings. Sherman says, however, that 
he can already see a difference in the 
earliness of the morning, but perhaps it is 
on account of the snow, for we had a 
little downfall before Christmas, and the 
children were happy with their sleds and 
looked quite gay coasting down the little 
hill behind the orchard. They had made 
up a little tune and went down singing 
“I’ll follow, I'll follow my chief,” taking 
turns at being chief, but I noticed that 
each one showed a distinct satisfaction in 
being leader. It’s just the same the world 
over, we all want to be “head,” and it 
showed a great lack of ambition on Cleve¬ 
land’s part when he announced that he 
was at the foot of the class at school, and 
was “going to stay there and not have 
any more bother moving.” Grant was 
quite disgusted with him, for he always 
wants to be first, and bids fair to become 
one of the sort of men who always wants 
to “go you one better,” as the phrase is, 
to his own advantage. 
What a delightful month January is in 
our northern climate. I like to read over 
again Whittier’s “Snow Bound” that an 
unknown friend sent me at Christmas; it 
takes me back to the early days when we 
experienced a great deal of the practical 
part there expressed, and then I can echo 
the plaintive thought, by my own sad ex¬ 
perience, 
“How strange it seems, with so much gone. 
Of life and love, to still live on.” 
I was very busy about the holiday times, 
for Miss Naylor, who lives in some style 
not far from the nearest town, stopped at 
the door to rest one day, and had a cup 
of tea and a bit of fresh spice cake, that 
I had just taken out of the oven. When 
I told her that it was the most useful cake 
we ever used in the Winter, when eggs 
are scarce, she asked for the recipe, but 
said with a sigh that she didn’t believe 
her new untrained cook would make it 
a success. So I put my pride in my pocket 
beside my empty pocket-book and said: 
“If you like I will make you some every 
week, and you can send the man for it 
when he passes to town.” She was just 
delighted, and instead of patronizing me, 
showed her refined ladyhood by saying: 
“Why Charity, how good of you—it will 
be a great favor to me.” So for the 
last two weeks I have had ready a basket 
of cake for her messenger when he called, 
and he brought the price of the last week’s 
batch to me in an envelope. So many 
things, it seems to me, we could do to 
help each other, if there was system and 
good feeling. It is really only a division 
of labor, and the time must come when 
the imperative manual labor question will 
be settled on these lines. Instead of ex¬ 
pecting one person to do all the various 
duties combined, it will become the cus¬ 
tom to bring in other outside workers be¬ 
sides that of the laundry, and lighten the 
burdens of the homekeepers. One pair 
of hands cannot be nurse, seamstress, 
housemaid, cook, and the making of many 
things that take time can be delegated to 
those whose time is more plentiful than 
their money. 
The spice cake is perhaps no novelty, 
but while eggs are still scarce it may be 
a useful recipe to those who are not fa¬ 
miliar with it and is easy to mix and 
bake, while as a rule it is preferred by 
many people to the heavy fruit cake that 
is used by many good housekeepers. The 
ingredients are one cupful of butter and 
two cupfuls of brown sugar, one egg and 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
931 
two cupfuls of buttermilk; a small tea¬ 
spoonful each of allspice, cloves, ginger 
and nutmeg; one cupful of currants, and 
two of raisins, with two small teaspoon¬ 
fuls of baking soda melted in a little 
warm water. It requires five cupfuls of 
flour, or enough to make a soft dough, 
4889 Fancy Puffed Sleeves, 
Small, Modluni, Large. 
and is stirred briskly before putting into 
deep buttered pans. The cakes require 
two hours to bake in a moderate oven 
that will not scorch or give too much heat, 
and the texture is always nicer if cooked 
Slowly. CHARITY SWEETHEART. 
The Rural Patterns. 
It is often possible to remodel an old 
gown or waist and thus bring it up to 
date. An alteration in sleeves is often 
necessary, and for this purpose the pat¬ 
tern No. 4889 will be found very useful. 
The model consists of lining, sleeve and 
puff, but each sleeve is different from 
every other. The elbow sleeve and long 
sleeve with the single puff are made from 
the sleeve only, the one finished at the 
elbow with a frill and shirred at the cen¬ 
tre, the other left plain and its lining be¬ 
ing faced to form a deep cuff. But the 
long sleeves with two and three puffs each 
include both sleeve and puff, the shirring 
being done on indicated lines. The quan¬ 
tity of material required for the medium 
size is for elbow sleeves or sleeves with 
deep cuffs, 2 % yards 21, 2 yards 27 or 1 54 
4880 Girl’s Dress, 8 to 14 yrs. 
yards 44 inches wide, with 2/ 2 yards of 
lace for frills for elbow sleeve and 54 
yards of all-over Gee for cuffs; for 
sleeves with two or three puffs, 454 yards 
21, 3)4 yards 27 or 2 yards 44 inches wide 
with 54 yard of all-over lace. The pat¬ 
tern 4889 is cut in three sizes, small, me¬ 
dium and large, corresponding to 32, 36 
and 40-inch bust measure; price 10 cents. 
The girl’s dress No. 48S0 consists of 
waist and skirt. The waist is made over 
a fitted lining, which is faced to form a 
yoke, and includes full front and backs. 
The sleeves are gathered to form double 
puffs and arranged over fitted founda¬ 
tions, and the bertha outlines the yoke. 
The skirt is circular and is laid in double 
plaits at regular intervals, those at the 
front giving a box plaited effect and those 
at the centre-back meeting to form invert¬ 
ed plaits. The yoke is shaped at its lower 
edge and is arranged over the upper por¬ 
tion of the skirt, then stitched firmly to 
position and is joined to the waist at its 
upper edge, the closing of the dress being 
made invisibly at the back. The quantity 
of material required for the medium size 
(12 years) is 7)4 yards 27, 7)4 yards 32 
or 4)4 yards 44 inches wide with 54 yards 
of all-over lace and 28 yards of banding. 
The pattern 4880 is cut in sizes for girls 
of 8, JO, 12 and 14 years of age; price 10 
cents. _ 
Caterpillar Correspondence. 
The secretary of a Town Improvement 
Society which recently undertook to 
stimulate and assist the neighboring vil¬ 
lagers and farmers in their warfare 
against this year's invasion of insect pests 
found her correspondence diversified by 
letters more entertaining than the writers 
could have expected them to be, says the I 
Youth’s Companion. 
“Dear Miss,” one such epistle ran, “I 
have Worms. They are a new kind T 
never saw before, so I send box with Sam¬ 
ple. Please let me nowe if they are Brown 
Tails or Jipsis or any other kind of dan¬ 
gerous Morth. Please let me nowe soon 
and what to do for it is worrysome to 
have Worms all over the place noboddy is 
acquainted with.” 
The smiling secretary, when she inno¬ 
cently opened the accompanying box, ex¬ 
pecting a single but sufficient specimen, 
was not pleased to have a score or mor© 
of lively and squirming Brown-tail cater¬ 
pillars precipitated into her lap; and when, 
a little later, she was suffering the discom¬ 
forts of the Brown-tail moth rash she felt 
that she had been decidedly magnanimous 
in sending her correspondent a polite and 
prompt reply, untinged by personal re¬ 
proaches. Another letter, from a woman 
who had not lived long in the country, 
showed even greater entomological igno¬ 
rance, and equal anxiety to meet an un¬ 
pleasant emergency. 
“My caterpillars,” this woman wrote, 
“are fat green ones without any hair and 
not at all like the pictures of brown tails, 
but they eat things so 1 am sure they are a 
bad kind, even if they are different and 
not just moulting as perhaps they may be. 
They are very ugly and horrid anyway and 
I want to know how to kill them; but 
please tell me a way that need not mean 
touching them for I really could not do 
that. I want to do my duty to my neigh¬ 
bors and my place, but I cannot handle 
squashy creatures for anybody. I would 
like best something I could sprinkle ihem 
with from a watering pot, but it must be 
something that will not poison currants.” 
Perhaps the most brief and forcible com¬ 
munication received was one which came 
by special delivery: 
Saiotine Lamps (, System ^ 
There will be thousands of Ann 
Arbor Lamps sold for Christmas 
Presents. Kvcry lamp Is a complete 
pas plant In Itself ami gives 100 c. p. 
of pure white light at a cost of less 
than l~lcent per hour. No grease, 
no smoke, no smell. Absolutely 
clean and safe. Agents wanted. 
Write for special Introductory offer 
to-day. Catalog free. We also make 
complete lighting systems for houses 
churches and stores. 
The Superior Mfg. Co., 
2X8 Second St. Ann Arbor,Mich 
GOLD COIN 
Stoves and Ranges 
at Wholesale Prices. 
To Introduce this well known 
Hue in your town, or where 
• they are not now 
sold, we will send 
on approval, 
freight p-epaid, 
securely crated, 
nicely blacked, 
ready to set? up a 
GOLD COIN 
RANGE or Heat¬ 
ing Stove at whole¬ 
sale prices. This 
line has been man¬ 
ufactured for over 
forty years and 
this fact alone is a sufficient guarantee as to 
their value. Write today for illustrated catalog and 
wholesale prices. Gold Coin Stove Co.,Troy, N.V. 
(MRS. WINSLOW’S 
SOOTHING SYRUP 
all pain, cures win’d colic, and Ts the best < 
remedy for diarrhoea. 
TW ENTY-FIVE CENTS A BOTTLE. 
SEND US 
A COW, 
Steer, Bull or Horse 
hide. Calf skin, Dog 
skin, or any other kind 
of hide or skin, and let 
us tan it with the hair 
on, soft, light, odorless 
and moth-proof, for robe, 
rug, coat or gloves. 
But first get our Catalogue, 
giving prices, and our shipping 
tags and instructions, so as to 
avoid mistakes. We also buy 
raw furs and ginseng. 
THE CROSBY FRISIAN FUR COMPANY, 
116 Mill Street, Rochester, N. Y. 
fZQf *On Long or Short 
9 /u Term Investments 
i</> a flLoj 
$35 upward, with¬ 
drawable on 30 
days’ notice. 
Investments bear earn 
lngs from day received 
to day withdrawn. 
Supervised by New York 
Banking Department. 
MONEY received at any 
time in the year, yields 
5 p. c. peraimum for 
every clay we have it. 
You should learn how far our 
operations are removed from 
any element of spec illation. 
Conservative investors will ap¬ 
preciate a plan affording all the 
security and profit without tlm 
annoyance of individual mort¬ 
gage loans. Write for par¬ 
ticulars. 
Assets, . $1,700,000 
Surplus ami I’rolits, 
$100,000 
Our Handsome “ Thanks¬ 
giving ’ Calendar for 1905 
will be sent to anyone 
interested. 
Industrial Savings and 
Loan Co., 
1131 Broauway, New York. 
TELEPHONES 
FOR FARMERS A SPECIALTY 
WE GUARANTEE OUR MAKE 
SEND POSTAL FOR PRICES. 
“Crop of apples promises to be small; 
crop of caterpillars already enormous. 
Man engaged to chop down apple tree; 
but if you can give me, by return mail, a 
good method of extermination, he shall 
kill caterpillars instead. The tree is a 
beauty, but my wife cannot stand the 
crawlers.” 
The “crawlers’” were destroyed and the 
tree was saved. 
STANDARD TELEPHONE & ELECTRIC CO. 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
TELEPHONE APPARATUS 
OWN YOUK OWN TELEPHONE LINE. 
Our telephones are powerful, loud- 
talking and absolutely guaranteed. 
OUR PRICES ARE RIGHT. 
Telephones that work on any line. 
Large Catalog No. 9 Fhee. 
CONNECTICUT TELE. & ELEC. CO., 
Meriden, Conn., U. S. A. 
Come now, own up, tell the honest truth 
You don’t like those gray hairs, do you? And your husband 
certainly doesn’t like them. Then why not buy a bottle of 
Ayer’s Hair Vigor? It restores color to gray hair every time. 
Cures dandruff also. Sold for over sixty years. iow^ Mae 0 ;: 
