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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
In a recent address, Mrs. Ellen II. 
Richards remarks that there are about 
50 agricultural colleges and experiment 
stations in the United States, costing 
many millions of money, for the study 
of the food of pigs, cows and horses. 
A cow is worth, perhaps, on an average, 
$50. It is important that she should be 
well fed, so that the most may be made 
of her capabilities. A man is worth 
$3 000 to $300,000, measured by his 
capabilities, salary, etc. (Five per cent 
of $3.000=$150, the salary of a very igno¬ 
rant man; five per cent of $30,000=$1,500, 
a common salary of teachers, while $15,- 
000 is a common salary of a skilled engi¬ 
neer.) We send our young men to col¬ 
lege to be fitted for $30,000 teachers and 
$300 000 engineers, and we take less care 
of their food than does the farmer of 
that of his $50 cow. 
* 
WK^often describe a successful man 
as selfmade, because his own energy 
and ability grasped every opportunity 
as it came before him ; but if we look a 
little further back, we usually find that 
the selfmade man was really ready¬ 
made, for all the qualities that make 
the success of maturity are grounded in 
child-life. Tbe girl who is allowed to 
shirk all responsibility because, as her 
mother says, she will only be young 
once—the boy whose follies are excused 
on the ground that boys will be boys— 
will find a vast difference when disre¬ 
gard of the rights of others is carried 
beyond the family circle. No child can 
become a useful or thoroughly happy 
member of society if allowed to grow up 
with the idea that the consequences of 
his own follies or self-will may be 
shirked or passed over. “Discipline 
must be maintained,” as Mr. Bagnet 
says, and childhood is the time to begin 
its application. 
* 
Edwafb Atkinson observes that we now 
enjoy the greatest abundance of the best 
food materials at the least cost; but 
in common practice, this food material 
is subjected to the very worst methods 
of cooking that can be conceived. Hence 
arises a monstrous waste of energy 
which might be readily saved, and there 
is no better place to make a beginning 
than at the agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tions. Mr. Atkinson thinks that there 
should be one or two food laboratories in 
which the highest scientific work may 
be conducted, corresponding to that of 
Germany, where the greatest progress 
has been made ; while, on the other 
hand, at the agricultural experiment 
stations, arrangements may be made at 
very little cost for testing, in common 
practice, the application of the scientific 
data developed in the laboratory. 
* 
Perhaps one of the most useful quali¬ 
ties the house-mother can possess is ihat 
of calmness in an emergency. Often we 
hear of a danger that might be averted 
by the use of instantaneous common 
sense, or of an accident in which the use 
of the same quality is literally a matter 
of life and death. Dr. Weir Mitchell, 
lecturing before a class of trained nuises, 
told of a nervous patient who accident¬ 
ally swaLowed a dose from the wrong 
bottle. She shrieked out that she was 
poisoned, and one of the nurses, going 
into convulsions, screamed “Aconite!” 
Another nurse, seeing that the patient 
was going into convulsions, in which re¬ 
lief wouLd be impossible,coolly remarked: 
“ Don’t be frightened. See here,” tak¬ 
ing a dose of the medicine herself. She 
then left the room to rid her mouth of 
the poison, procured an emetic, and sent 
for a doctor. Her coolness saved the 
life of the patient. Most women know 
what should be done in an emergency ; 
the difficulty is to retain proper presence 
of mind. Self-control iD all the little 
things of daily duty will aid in acquir¬ 
ing the same virtue for extraordinary 
occasions, when the issues of life and 
death depend upon it. 
* 
It is said that Helen Keller, being 
asked to define love, explained it as the 
feeling every one has for every one else. 
It is one of the compensations for the 
silent, viewless world in which this blind 
girl lives, that it includes love and kind¬ 
ness only. She has no knowledge of 
envy, hatred, malice, and all unchari¬ 
tableness, consequently she has never 
experienced these feelings. It is notice¬ 
able that the children in a good-tem¬ 
pered household, where family jars are 
rare, seem naturally even-tempered and 
amiable, as a rule. They are not accus¬ 
tomed to quarreling, and it does not 
come naturally to them. If the parents 
are not only peaceful, but sunny-tem- 
pered, too, ever disposed to see the 
bright side or, if that fail, to polish up 
the dark one, the children make fun of 
their mishaps, and take life easily. It 
is the parents who set the pace. Are 
you making your home atmosphere a 
peaceful one ? 
STAINING FLOORS. 
HE use of hardwood floors, rather 
than carpets, is constantly in¬ 
creasing, even in the most unpretentious 
houses. It is not a matter of fashion 
only ; people realize the danger to health 
that lies in a dust-gathering carpet, 
especially in a bedroom An experienced 
dealer in paints and oils says that the 
first thing to do in staining floors, espe¬ 
cially old floors, is to give them a good 
scrubbing with a strong solution of soda 
and water—just ordinary cooking soda 
and hot water. That is the bast way in 
the world to get grease from woodwork. 
After that, the stain should be applied 
with a broad, soft hair or bristle brush, 
the kind used for whitewashing—not a 
paint brush. Under ordinary circum¬ 
stances, one coat is sufficient, but where 
a deep color is desired, another may be 
added. Then, of course, the floor should 
not be used until it is thoroughly dried. 
The mixing of the stain is important, 
but anybody with ordinary intelligence 
can do it. For walnut, one must use 
burnt umber; for cherry, powdered 
burnt sienna ; for oak, yellow ochre ; for 
mahogany, about half and half burnt 
umber and powdered burnt sienna. 
These should be mixed with turpentine 
about the consistency of thin paint. 
Where a slight polish is desired, a small 
quantity of any ordinary varnish may 
be used—say about one-eighth part var¬ 
nish to seven-eighths of turpentine. But 
varnish is not recommended for a floor 
that is to be walked on. For stairs to be 
covered by a carpet or matting, where 
only the niches between the bannisters 
are exposed, varnish is an addition to 
the stain, for it is easily kept in good 
condition with a feather duster or a 
moist dust rag. 
The cost of these stains is very little. 
The floor of an ordinary room—say 13x16 
feet—should not cost at the outside more 
than 40 cents. That does not include 
the brush, which will be about 25 or 50 
cents, and will last for years if properly 
cleaned after using. 
The materials and methods for polish¬ 
ing these floors are as simple and inex¬ 
pensive as the stains, though they re¬ 
quire more elbow grease in applying. 
These materials are wax, crude oil and 
kerosene. Wax is the most satisfactory, 
and the best method of applying it is as 
follows : First go over the floor with a 
clean, dry cloth to remove all dust; 
then, with a cloth, flannel if possible, 
saturated with crude oil. Last apply 
the wax with a stiff scrub brush. The 
wax should be held over the fire and 
allowed to soften before being rubbed 
on the brush. Thus polished, a floor 
will be almost too slippery to walk on, 
and will shine like glass. To keep in 
perfect condition, it needs to be done 
about once every two weeks, though, of 
course, much depends on the purpose 
for which the room is used. 
Kerosene is excellent for stained floors, 
but should never be used on varnish, as 
it eats it off. It should be applied about 
once a week with a woolen rag, after 
the floor has been wiped off with warm 
suds. And kerosene used for this pur¬ 
pose is one instance where the best 
article is not the most desirable, for the 
best grade of oil is not the most desir¬ 
able for polishing, the second grade is 
the most satisfactory, as well as the 
cheapest. 
There are several polishes to be 
bought at paint shops, but they are all 
made of about the same ingredients as 
those mentioned. They are not so 
cheap, neither are they any better. 
There are also different kinds of brushes 
and gloves to be used in polishing floors 
and. paint work, but, while they are ex¬ 
cellent and answer the purpose for 
which they are sold, they were invented 
to encourage the spending, not the sav¬ 
ing, of money. The best appliances for 
applying polish to painted floors are 
flannel cloth, good bristle brushes and 
elbow grease._ 
THE BABY’S PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
N an address delivered before an audi¬ 
ence of physicians, Dr. H. L. Taylor 
spoke of the necessity of some physical 
training to induce normal development 
on the part of infants. He observed 
that, since the infant had such ample 
endowments and spontaneous impulses 
to wholesome activity, our first and 
most important care must be to avoid 
undue interference or repression. The 
babies will attend to their own gymnas¬ 
tics if not prevented. It is evident that 
the movements of the trunk and limbs 
should not be impeded with wrappings ; 
baby’s activity should have free play. 
The clothing should be loose and simple, 
fitting in successive layers so that all 
can be put on at once; the Gertrude 
suits and shorter skirts now in vogub 
look in the right direction. Even little 
babies should have their skirts thrown 
back from time to time, and be allowed 
freely to kick their feet; short skirts 
should be put on early. There seem to 
be important advantages, also, in leav¬ 
ing the feet naked until the child walks. 
The baby’s bath, says Dr. Taylor, 
should be made to contribute to its 
physical training, and twice daily it 
should have a special air bath. The first 
may well be in the morning, when it is 
tubbed. It should not be hastily cov¬ 
ered, but kept exposed to the air for 
some time, while the skin is rubbed 
until it glows. At bedtime, all clothing 
should be removed, and the baby placed 
on a blanket, rubbed, rolled over and 
exposed to the air. Even little babies 
enjoy this, and long before they can 
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walk, they look forward to it. When 
old enough to toddle about they seem 
to enjoy nothing so much as this rub 
and frolic, and when running about un¬ 
clothed, everything takes on a new and 
more attractive aspect. These air baths, 
as well as rubbing and the application 
of water, are true gymnastics for the 
skin- and vessels, a refreshing tonic 
and a protection against microbic in¬ 
vasion and sudden change of the tern 
perature. 
As a contrast to the health and com 
fort induced by the treatment Dr. Tay¬ 
lor describes, we have only to recall 
some of the unhappy infants we see, 
swathed in numerous befrilled and em¬ 
broidered garments, to whom any easy 
and natural movement is an impossi 
bility. The robust babies that walk 
early are always those that have been 
permitted to lie rolling and kicking on 
a quilt, in easy garments that give 
warmth enough without restraint. It 
is noticeable that an infant brought up 
in a large family always learns to walk 
earlier than an only child, and this is, 
doubtless, not only the result of imita¬ 
tion, but also of simpler conditions of 
life. The only child is likely to be cod¬ 
dled and overdressed; the baby in a 
large family has an abundance of healthy 
play, and soon vies with the other 
children in activity. 
Profitable 
Employ-men t 
We want to engage the 
services of energetic men 
and women to represent 
The Ladies’ Home Journal 
—to look after renewals 
and to secure new sub¬ 
scriptions. 
The Curtis Publishing Company 
Philadelphia 
$5 to $8 an Acre. 
Bay County Land Office, Bay City, Mich,, 
offers for sale 10 000 acres finest land in Michigan, 
covered with maple, elm. ash, oak and basswood. 12 
miles from Bay City on good roads and In Bay Coun¬ 
ty, the garden of the State. Climate soli and timber 
unsurpa sed Farmers and tluibermen. write for 
maps J®'" Mark this Ad. for reference. 
Dairy and Truck Farm for Sale 
Containing 325 acres. Well adapted to dairying 
and all kinds of truck farming. Fine for straw¬ 
berries. Will sell with or without stock, imple¬ 
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of peaches, apples, plums, grapes, etc., for famtly 
use. Nicely situated. T. B. Parker, Goldsboro,N.C 
Harvest Excursions! 
AUG. 3 AND 17, 
SEPT. 7 AND 21, 
OCT. 5 AND 19. 
To the Farm regions 
of the West, North¬ 
west and Southwest. 
Round trip tickets will 
be sold on dates named 
at allC., B. & Q. stations 
and at many Eastern 
points at about half fare, good for 21 days. Stop 
over allowed on going passage. Ask your local 
agent for particulars. 
GO WEST AND LOOK FOR A HOME. A handsome 
illustrated pamphlet describing NEBRASKA sent 
free on application to P. S. EUSTIS, Gen’l Pass. 
Agt., C., B. & O. K. R., Chicago. 
