Mie Nituaoj 
FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Bureau for decorative purposes may 
now be obtained in almost all colors. It 
is often used as a wall-covering, either 
stretched over the entire wall, or put 
on as dado, frieze, or panels. It is not 
very desirable, however, from a sani¬ 
tary point of view, because its loose tex¬ 
ture catches dust very easily. Denim is 
applied as a wall covering in the same 
way, and we have also heard of this 
material being used as a floor-covering 
in a room which did not receive rough 
usage. The newer denims for decora¬ 
tive use are much softer in texture 
than the old weave, making them more 
attractive as draperies. 
* 
Many parents have the idea that child¬ 
ren should be allowed their own way 
until they are old enough to be reasoned 
with, considering it useless to exact an 
obedience that they cannot understand. 
A kindergarten lecturer at one of the 
university extension meetings combated 
the let-alone theory on the ground that, 
while the parents were waiting, habits 
were being formed, and that these habits 
were the expression of character. Her 
judgment was that “character training 
should begin early, long before the child 
is conscious of the fact that he is being 
trained or that he can set up his will in 
opposition to the will of others.” This 
is an expression of the old philosophy 
that as the twig is bent the tree is in¬ 
clined. Habit becomes second nature, and 
we need work on the childish character 
while it is yet malleable, rather than 
wait until fixed and, perhaps, undesir¬ 
able habits, have declared themselves. 
* 
Grass stains make an unsightly blot 
on inany*children’s garments at this sea¬ 
son, and they often seem quite difficult 
of removal. As a rule, such a stain 
dissolves immediately in alcohol while, 
if applied at once, ammonia and water 
will be found efficacious. Where the 
color of the material might be faded by 
alcohol or ammonia, the stain might be 
moistened and put out in the sun, being 
kept moist until it changes from green 
to brown, when it will wash out. Mil¬ 
dew, which has been a troublesome blem¬ 
ish upon clothes exposed to moisture 
during this warm summer, may be re¬ 
moved by moistening the spot, putting 
upon it a layer of chalk and salt, and 
then exposing to strong sunlight. The 
blessed sunlight is the best of all bleach¬ 
ing and disinfecting agents, and no one 
can better appreciate its virtues than a 
housekeeper who has been compelled to 
dry her clothes in a species of oven pro¬ 
vided for that purpose in a modern apart¬ 
ment house. Of course, it is very de¬ 
lightful to be quite independent of the 
weather when wash-day comes around, 
but many a city housewife would gladly 
exchange all that convenience for the 
whiff of clover and outdoor freshness 
that comes in with an armful of coun¬ 
try-dried clothes. 
In a recent paper upon infantile mor¬ 
tality read by Dr. Baker of the Michi¬ 
gan State Board of Health, it is stated 
that all the principal causes of infant 
mortality are mostly due to ignorance, 
and are directly preventible. Alluding 
to the alleged fact that an unduly large 
proportion of dying children are the first 
babies born to their parents, Dr. Baker 
observes that it should not be necessary 
for young mothers to make such experi¬ 
ments at the expense of human life ; the 
necessary education ought to be provided 
for and obtained in a cheaper and more 
humane manner. The remedy is the edu¬ 
cation in sanitary science of the girls who 
are to be mothers of the next generation. 
A noticeable feature in all tables of infan¬ 
tile mortality is the small proportion of 
babies nursed by the mother, as com¬ 
pared with those artificially fed. For 
example, in a list of 718 deaths from in¬ 
fantile diarrhea, but 30 of the infants 
were nursed, the remaining 688 being 
artificially fed,either wholly or in part. It 
is also noted that infants nourished only 
by the mother are almost wholly exempt 
from cholera infantum, this disease be¬ 
ing caused by changes in the food or 
drink, due to bacteria or fungi. In the 
light of this fact, surely a mother should 
exhaust every expedient which may ren¬ 
der her able properly to nourish her 
child, before resorting to the bottle. 
SCHOOL DRESSES. 
HE schools will soon be open again, 
and the children’s frocks must be 
looked to. While the summer cottons 
and ginghams will serve at first, we 
shall soon sea cold days, when some¬ 
thing warmer must be provided. The 
washing, too, has to be considered in 
most busy households, and very light- 
colored or easily crumpled school frocks 
are a mistake. For girls from seven 
to 12, a serge skirt and chambray or 
linen blouse make a pretty school suit, 
and this combination has been very 
popular all summer. Dark blue or deep 
Indian red serge will make a pretty 
skirt, which is cut with gores at front 
and sides, and box pleats in the back. 
It should be fastened to a muslin under¬ 
waist, this distributing the weight more 
evenly than if supported by straps over 
the shoulders. The blouse is full, with 
sailor collar and turnback cuffs, and 
may be either plain or trimmed with 
white cotton braid. A chambray or 
linen in a solid color is preferable to 
stripes or figures. Plain Holland is 
excellent for this use ; it washes well, 
and looks very nice with a little white 
braiding. If a long-sleeved underwaist 
of canton flannel is worn, these washing 
blouses may be used in the cold weather. 
They are much less trouble in washing 
than the entire frock. 
For the little girls, some saving in 
washing is effected by making all their 
school frocks with guimpes, as the 
sleeves are always soiled before the 
skirt and waist. During the winter, 
they may, if desired, wear washing 
guimpes with their woolen frocks, if a 
thick, long-sleeved underwaist is worn. 
Of course, they will wear arsons at 
school, though the older girls usually 
rebel against this fashion now. Very 
pretty little girls’ aprons are now made 
with a bib and straps passing over the 
shoulders, descending to the belt at 
the back, like those worn by hospital 
nurses. They are often quite elabor¬ 
ately trimmed, having frills along the 
straps, widening to epaulettes at the 
shoulders. 
Frocks to be worn under aprons should 
be plainly made, all superfluous bretelles, 
berthas, or epaulettes being in the way. 
The sleeves and yoke are the only parts 
exposed. For this reason, neat-looking 
little frocks may often be made from 
old material, the best being reserved 
for these exposed portions. The pretti¬ 
est sleeve will be tight all the way up, 
with a short, round puff at the top. A 
good many of the little girls’ frocks are 
now made with gathered baby waists, 
a return to an old style that is always 
becoming to slim little figures. The 
skirts are usually gored at front and 
sides, instead of being gathered, the 
back being pleated. 
In making over old clothes for the 
children, if a guimpe be used, it is often 
possible to combine materials that would 
be too scant alone, or an old garment 
may be sufficient for the skirt and waist, 
with guimpe and sleeves of contrasting 
goods. In making a new frock, it is 
certainly wiser to make with little extra 
trimming, for this is less necessary when 
the garment is new, while it will pro¬ 
vide a change later, when necessary to 
freshen it. The selection of colors for 
children is much the same as for their 
grown-up sisters, excepting only the 
fashionable purple and plum shades, 
which look a trifle too old for them, and 
which are not often very becoming to 
children. Indeed, they are often very 
unbecoming to their elders, though this 
does not at all interfere with their 
popularity. _ 
WATERY CUSTARDS. 
RS. A. B., Illinois, asks whether 
there is any way to prevent a 
custard from separating and becoming 
watery. This trouble is due to a sepa¬ 
ration of the casein, caused by too high 
a temperature, or overexposure to the 
heat. In a baked or steamed custard, 
nothing can be done to restore the 
smoothness, but if the baking dish is set 
in water while cooking, it will be kept 
at a uniform heat, and will be less likely 
to separate. The water will not allow 
the custard to be raised to a higher tem¬ 
perature than 212 degrees F., the boil¬ 
ing point of water. If a soft custard (a 
boiled one) should separate, beat hard a 
few minutes with a Dover egg beater, 
and the custard will be restored to a 
smooth condition. 
Custard may be made as follows with 
every possibility of success : One pint 
of milk, two eggs, three tablespoonfuls 
(or less) of sugar, one-half teaspoonful 
of flavoring. Beat the eggs, add sugar 
and flavoring, mix well, stir in the milk, 
and pour into cups. Set the cups in a 
pan of hot water, and bake about 20 min¬ 
utes, or until a knife blade will make a 
clean cut. [prof j edith f. mcdebmott. 
Michigan Agricultural College. 
BABY’S BOTTLE. 
MONO the southern “ mammies,” a 
bottle baby received much sympa¬ 
thy, and as it grew older, many faults 
and follies were overlooked, for what 
could you expect of a “ poor chile ” that 
had been deprived of its natural food ? 
In these days, bottle babies are too 
numerous to excite sympathy, and if 
their bottle and its contents are kept 
clean and sweet, they do not need it. 
During hot weather, mothers cannot 
be too careful in cleaning the bottles 
and tubes, for in them often lurk the 
germs of disease. One of my little girls 
lost her mother when she was a week 
old. She was cared for (or tmcared for) 
by different relatives, her milk allowed 
to become sour in the bottle, so that, 
when I took her at four weeks of age, 
she was sick. A quantity of physicians’ 
powders and pellets came with her nurs¬ 
ing bottle. I stowed them away on the 
top shelf of the cupboard, bought a new 
lot of rubbers, made some limewater 
and commenced the siege. She grew 
better rapidly, gaining a pound of flesh 
each week for the first month. I had 
once helped to nurse a little baby through 
cholera infantum, caused by failure to 
keep the long rubber tubes in good condi¬ 
tion, so I thought to discard these, using 
just the rubber nipples; but baby did 
not seem strong enough to manage 
these, would choke and then refuse to 
nurse, so I was obliged to U9e the tubes 
until she was six months old. 
I kept two outfits, one for day and one 
for night, the one not in use, kept soak¬ 
ing in cold water containing a pinch of 
soda. Every morning, the two bottles 
and rubbers were thoroughly boiled, 
placing them in cool water, and bring¬ 
ing them to the boiling point. Baby 
was fed regularly, and after each meal, 
the bottle was rinsed and placed in cold 
water until reeded again. I scalded all 
the milk she drank the first year of her 
life. This might not agree with all 
babies, but it is much safer during hot 
weather, and does not injure the quality 
of the milk if not allowed to boil; let it 
just come to the scalding point and re¬ 
main at that temperature for about 20 
minutes. I added about one-third water 
to the milk before scalding, also a little 
loaf sugar. 
If the milk did not seem to digest 
well, I added a teaspoonful of limewater 
to each bottle of milk. This is easily 
made, and recommended by physicians. 
I place a few lumps of fresh, unslaked 
lime in a two-quart glass jar, fill with 
water, and after an hour or so, cover 
and set in a cool place. It is ready for 
use the following day. One can buy the 
prepared limewater, but my experience 
is that it is not so good. 
This matter of cleanliness is so im¬ 
portant that it pays even to be fussy 
about it, and it will not do to leave it to 
hired help. They are likely to think 
that, if the bottles look clean, they are 
all right, when often they are not. 
MARY S. 8TEI.SON. 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
The books in the Congressional Li¬ 
brary are being dusted by compressed 
air before being moved on to their new 
shelves. A rubber hose is attaehed to 
the air compressor of the pneumatic 
tube sytem, a broad nozzle being placed 
on the end of the hose. This enables 
the operator to play a strong stream of 
air upon the dusty books. Some one 
suggests that the housekeeper of the 
future will do all her dusting by the 
pneumatic method, oblivious of the fact 
that this merely deposits the dust in 
another place. This is the disadvantage 
of the feather duster ; it merely flicks 
the dust off the furniture, and leaves it 
to float about until it finds a place of de¬ 
posit. Very delicate pieces of china or 
bric-a-brac, however, must often be 
dusted with little bellows, this being 
the only way of removing dust from the 
intricate surfaces. 
The Mother’s Opportunity. —Much 
has been said about the life of the farm¬ 
er’s wife, but nowhere can a woman’s 
influence be felt more keenly than on 
the farm. It often rests with the mother 
alone whether or not the boys and girls 
receive any more schooling than can be 
obtained in the little red school house. 
It rests with her whether her children 
shall be among the representative peo¬ 
ple, or just the ordinary plodders whose 
lot in life is to make it easier for some 
one else. In order to “ run the race 
that is set before us,” one needs 
brains, and brains must be fed, so it 
behooves the average woman, whether 
she be farmer’s wife or the wife of the 
city merchant, to know how to cook. 
In the words of the late Kate Field, 
“ Be a cook first, and anything you 
choose afterwards.” e. f mcd. 
HALL’S 
Vegetable Sicilian 
HAIR RENEWER 
Beautifies and restores Gray 
Hair to its original cole* and 
vitality; prevents baldness; 
cures itching and dandruff. 
A fine hair dressing. 
K. P. Hall & Co., Props., Nashua, N. H. 
Sold by all Druggists. 
