FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Students of sociology are led to be¬ 
lieve that much of the intemperance and 
misery among poor people in the great 
cities is directly due to the lack of domes¬ 
tic training on the part of the wives. 
When a tired workingman comes home 
to find a supper so miserably cooked as 
to be uneatable, served in a dirty, un¬ 
tidy room, it is not strange that the 
hungry worker goes impatiently to the 
nearest saloon, where he is sure to get pal¬ 
atable food. There is no doubt that the ap¬ 
petite for liquor very often follows where 
the lack of properly cooked and nour¬ 
ishing food produces a constant craving 
for something in the form of stimulant. 
A writer in the New York Times states 
that a laboring man recently observed 
to him that one-half the domestic infe¬ 
licity of the poor is due to the men’s 
wives not knowing how to cook a decent 
meal. He did not express it in just those 
words, his remark being that “ One-half 
the bad wives that men has got is owin’ 
to their not knowin’ how to cook.” 
* 
Some two years ago, the Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
started a cooking school in the crowded 
tenement district of New York. Classes 
in cooking, cleaning and general house¬ 
work were started, where poor girls 
could be taught, free of charge, how to 
make home both comfortable and attrac¬ 
tive. Unfortunately, this project was 
abandoned for lack of funds. Recently, 
however, a social and industrial settle¬ 
ment called Hartley House has been es¬ 
tablished in the congested Fifteenth 
Assembly District of New York. This 
district consists of 23 blocks, and con¬ 
tains 40,000 people ; through a large por¬ 
tion of it the population is over 500 to 
the acre. One block in the district con¬ 
tained, last year, a population of 3 279. 
It is in this teeming population, where 
there are 14 000 children with no other 
playground than the streets, no parks, 
and only one bathtub to every 440 fami¬ 
lies, that Hartley House begins its work, 
with cooking classes, sewing classes, 
recreation rooms and playgrounds. Our 
domestic symposium told of the neces¬ 
sity for household training to insure 
happiness in a comfortable home ; Hart¬ 
ley House points to it as an ally against 
drunkenness and vice in the dwellings 
of the very poor. 
* 
Another helpful feature at Hartley 
House is the ‘‘ mothers’ tea,” held once 
a week, to which all the poor women 
of the neighborhood are invited, with 
their babies. At these teas, a short talk 
on hygiene is given by a prominent 
physician, who gives the mothers many 
practical ideas about the care of child¬ 
ren. We often think that such talks are 
needed by many well-to-do mothers. We 
think that fully three-fourths of the 
anxiety suffered by young mothers 
comes from ignorance and its results ; 
they do not know how to care for the 
baby wisely, and both they and the 
child suffer in consequence. It is a re¬ 
alization of this which caused one of 
our symposium correspondents to say 
that she wished for the training of a 
doctor, nurse, and kindergartner. It 
would seem as though we might divide 
many home-keeping women into two 
classes: those who practice domestic 
science without studying it, and those 
who study domestic science without 
practicing it. Let us try to eombine the 
two, in the case of both mothers and 
daughters. One whose knowledge of 
physics teaches her not to put water in 
a baking-pan, because it cannot be 
heated above the boiling point, will 
surely do better cooking than she who 
measures by guess, and explains her 
failures by a reference to “ luck”. 
A SURE RIDDANCE FOR FLIES. 
U M M E R after summer had we 
waged diligent war against the fly 
pest, with every so-called “ effectual 
riddance” ever heard or read of. Table 
linen had been sprinkled with lavender 
and other compounds ; pots of various 
colored and scented plants had been 
placed upon sideboard and window sill 
with the eager, persistent hope of entic¬ 
ing Mrs. Fly to settle upon their beauty 
and regale her prying nose, and stupefy 
her obnoxious self with their perfume ; 
the result invariably was a persistent 
refusal on her part to make a settlement 
anywhere beyond the bounds of our 
dinner. Finally, in desperation, the 
following simple plan was tried, with 
results entirely satisfactory : 
An ordinary powder bellows was filled 
with insect powder ; all doors and win¬ 
dows of the dining room and kitchen 
were closed, and we walked about the 
rooms holding the bellows up at arm’s 
length, manipulating it constantly with 
finger and thumb, until its contents 
were exhausted ; it was then refilled and 
again emptied in like manner, until the 
process had been repeated four times. 
This quite sufficed to permeate the air 
of the rooms with the powder. 
The last box of powder exhausted, we 
left the room, closing the door quickly. 
Fully an hour was allowed to elapse be¬ 
fore the door was again opened. The 
insect powder had settled; and upon 
floor, table, window ledge and mantel, 
lay the entire swarm of flies, either 
dead or struggling in the agonies of dis¬ 
solution. We did not wait to ascertain 
whether or not these agonies would be 
relieved by the incoming fresh air. The 
remainder of the task involving the fate 
of the fly population, was simply and 
speedily accomplished. A big feather 
duster soon transferred both insect pow¬ 
der and flies from table, window ledge, 
etc., to the floor where, with a broom, 
they were swept together upon a shovel, 
looking like a heap of dusty, animated 
tea leaves, and consigned to the fire-box 
of the kitchen stove. 
While discharging the bellows, keep 
the mouth closed and hold a handker¬ 
chief to the nose, for although Persian 
insect powder is not poison to humanity, 
it is, nevertheless, like dust, disagree¬ 
able to both throat and nostrils. If the 
little bellows cannot be had, the powder 
might be distributed through the air of 
the rooms, by putting it in a shallow, 
open box, the box to be held in one 
hand, while a fan in the other is held 
up over the box and kept in rapid mo¬ 
tion, so as to force the powder in clouds 
through the air of the rooms. 
We repeated the operation a few 
times, at intervals during the season ; 
care was also taken that none of the 
eggs and young should be allowed to 
mature about the premises. Housekeep¬ 
ers should bear in mind the fact that 
flies, like all other insects, live with the 
one purpose of perpetuating their kind. 
Therefore, when waging war on the ma¬ 
ture ones in the house, do not forget 
the eggs which they have deposited in 
the waste from the kitchen—carelessly 
left in barrels and heaps, and in the 
stables and outhouses, but have con¬ 
venient to all these places the means of 
sure destruction of both eggs and young. 
This is simply a box of slaked lime ; a 
shovelful of which should be shaken 
every morning during spring and sum¬ 
mer, through all outhouses and over all 
decaying matter wherein the eggs may 
be deposited. The actual moments ex¬ 
pended in the performance of this task, 
will be but few, and if a small box of 
lime, with a shovel or a shingle, is pro¬ 
vided for each outhouse, barrel, etc., 
one will seldom grudge the time required 
to shake a layer of lime over each fresh 
relay of waste, as added to barrels and 
heaps. By observing these simple rules 
one summer, we find the percentage of 
flies in the one following, immensely re¬ 
duced. If each housekeeper would de¬ 
termine thus to destroy the flies, instead 
of trying to drive them off with fan and 
screen, the fly pest would obviously 
diminish. m. lane griffin. 
A CO-OPERATIVE MENDING DAY. 
HAT plan have we found most 
effectual in interesting young 
girls in the homely duties of the home ? 
Just Nature’s own plan. The mother is 
naturally interested in her young daugh¬ 
ter ; other duties, other interests, should 
not separate them. The young girl is 
naturally interested in whatever mother 
is doing. If mother is kneading bread, 
the child wishes a molding board of her 
own, and she should have it. If mother 
is washing, the little one wishes a wash- 
tub, too. At the cookstove, if there be 
a corner where the high chair may be 
out of the way, that the little girl may 
watch the process of cooking the steak, 
she will never forget just how mother 
does it, and the making of the gravy is 
no secret when those helpful hands are 
strong enough to do these things. In 
after years, when the mind is filled with 
a multiplicity of duties, many of these 
minor duties are done almost auto¬ 
matically, because the hands practiced 
them in childhood. Where there are two 
or three girls nearly of an age, I do not 
think it best to have one help about one 
kind of work all the time, but alternately, 
changing once a week, or at any time 
the mother thinks best. 
I do not like to stop without mention¬ 
ing the sewing and reading hours. First 
we sew a little while and talk about 
what we read yesterday, and both are a 
delight. The youngest girl’s sewing is 
generally some garment to be a surprise 
present for some one. Mother’s mend¬ 
ing basket is not an institution in our 
home ; we have mending day or days, 
as the case may be, and the young boys 
as well as the young girls have a share 
in it. It is nothing less than cruel to 
“ bring up a boy ” unable to sew a button 
on his clothes. Our mending days were 
termed picnic days” by a youn^ girl 
friend, and they are a special delight to 
our youngest girl, doubtless, because 
there are other appreciative admirers of 
her work besides mother. In this way, 
we find time for reading every day, 
every member taking part, and reading 
aloud while the others are at work. We 
have a small book case nearly filled with 
first and second readers. Baby makes 
his own selection ,and reads from the 
pictures with as much decorum and sin¬ 
cerity as any of us, and is listened to 
accordingly. Tear the book ? No, a 
child is easily taught to be very careful 
of books and papers, while nursing. 
Human nature is always more ready to 
receive instruction when in a quiet, con¬ 
tented frame of mind. Much of the 
discontent, fretfulness, and apparent 
laziness among children, is caused by 
disordered digestion, brought on by 
irregular eating. There should be reg¬ 
ular hours for eating for every member 
of the family according to his age. 
It is certainly due to civilization that 
some measures be taken soon, to provide 
instruction and pay teachers for those 
who have not home advantages. If this 
Uniced States were to be transported to 
the tropics, perhaps it might be all right 
to rear a nation of school teachers, 
lawyers, and philosophers; but if a 
woman could learn all that is taught 
from books, and knows not how to care 
for creature comforts, she would be only 
half a woman after all. 
MRS. R. M. WARD. 
LABOR-SAVING IN SUMMER. 
I N arranging her work, my neighbor 
washes on Tuesday. Monday morn¬ 
ing she churns, replenishes the bread 
and cake boxes, puts away the Sunday 
clothing, that even in the best-regulated 
families appears on chairs Monday 
morning,<and puts the parlor and sitting- 
room in order. When she gets supper, 
she puts the clothes to soak, and early 
Tuesday morning, the long lines of 
snowy garments flutter in the breeze. 
In the summer, she takes the sheets, 
pillow cases, knit underwear, night 
dresses, and towels from the line, folds 
and airs them, and lays them away for 
wear the next week. Dreadful, isn’t it? 
But the wrinkles are in the garments, 
instead of being in her serene face. 
In hot weather, she vetoes pie. From 
strawberries to peaches, the fruit comes 
on the table with plenty of sugar and 
cream. Harvest apples and early pears 
come on in a low glass dish daintily 
garnished with green leaves. Then 
there are platters full of baked sweet 
apples which can be taken plainly, or 
with sugar and cream. 
Unlike many housekeepers, this one 
rests when she is tired, sits down for 10 
minutes in the rocking chair, and lets 
her baking dishes stand, goes to bed for 
half an hour in the afternoon, and 
actually carries a magazine out to the 
hammock before her week’s patching is 
done. And though many a good house¬ 
wife, in her desire to perform all her 
work “just so,” considers any deviation 
from her usual order a sign of “ slack¬ 
ness,” she will be wise to follow the 
example of my neighbor during these 
warm days, when it is a necessity to 
preserve our strength, hope daring. 
Borax for Housecleaning. —I had a 
valuable lesson from a southern house¬ 
keeper in regard to using powdered 
borax in cleaning. I found it invaluable 
as an insecticide. Cockroaches will not 
haunt a kitchen where borax is scat¬ 
tered on the floor, and it is harmless to 
domestic pets. I think this virtue, its 
being safe, made me think more of it; 
but I learned to clean paints, wash win¬ 
dows and my pantry shelves. Pouring 
the water used with it for washing pur¬ 
poses down my sink, purifies and keeps 
it free from odors. My doctor said that 
it was the best disinfectant I could use, 
and told me to keep it on my washstand, 
and let the children use it in their bath 
and for brushing their gums and teeth. 
In washing white paints and windows, 
I use a chamois skin and tepid water, 
dissolving about a handful of borax to 
a bucketful of water. It does the work 
in half the time, and cleans much bet¬ 
ter ; no danger of removing the surface 
paint in washing woodwork, as one 
sometimes does in washing with soap. 
After washing clean with a chamois 
skin, wipe dry with a soft cloth. With 
white paints, it is particularly good, but 
one may safely wash all kinds of wood¬ 
work with it. I had long known its 
medicinal virtues, but had to learn by 
experience its wonderful powers in 
housecleaning. kentuckienne. 
HALL’S | 
Vegetable Sicilian 
HAIR RENEWER 
Beautifies and restores Gray 
Hair to its original coIcm- and 
vitality; prevents baldness; 
cures itching and dandruff. 
A fine hair dressing. 
R. P. Hall & Co., Props., Nashua, N. H. 
Sold by all Druggists. 
