FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Some ingenious woman discovered the 
fact that common, everyday denim made 
an excellent covering for the bedroom 
floor, and now the furnishers are offer¬ 
ing printed denim made especially for 
this purpose. It is printed in several 
tones or in contrasting colors, and gives 
the effect of an ingrain carpet. The 
breadths are stitched together by ma¬ 
chine. The denim is superior to mat¬ 
ting inasmuch as dust does not readily 
sift through it, to be again disturbed by 
walking over it, a hygienic point we 
often overlook in furnishing our bed¬ 
rooms. 
# 
A number of new cotton and linen 
materials are now used for sofa cush¬ 
ions and table covers or summer por¬ 
tieres. Corduroy cloth is a very hand¬ 
some ribbed material, to be obtained in 
a variety of colors; it is very effective 
when worked boldly with what is 
called coronation cord. It is 33 inches 
wide, and costs 40 cents a yard. Ticking, 
in a variety of charming colors, can 
hardly be recognized as the utilitarian 
fabric with which we cover our mat¬ 
tresses ; and this, too, makes attractive 
covering for cushions. The width and 
price are the same as the corduroy 
cloth. Villa cloth is yet another inex¬ 
pensive furnishing fabric. There is a 
tendency now to make the sofa cushions 
a trifle smaller than they were, and to 
finish them with cord rather than ruffles. 
Bulgarian linen, a heavy gray material 
45 inches wide, makes handsome cush¬ 
ions or table covers ; it costs $1 30 a 
yard. The revival of cross-stitch em¬ 
broidery has brought back the canvas 
so popular 20 years ago, in new and im¬ 
proved forms. Berlin, Vienna, and Java 
canvas are used, and among working 
materials, we find a new cotton floss 
with a silk finish, which may be ob¬ 
tained in charming colors and shades. 
All the old stitches are revived, and 
women are learning to work the angu¬ 
lar initial letters found on bygone 
samplers. 
* 
The cooking classes in the Philadelphia 
public schools opened this autumn with 
an enrollment of 2,182 pupils, and the 
number will be enlarged as soon as ac¬ 
commodations can be provided. While 
we still believe that the greater part of 
a girl’s domestic training ought to be re¬ 
ceived at home, there is no doubt that 
organized instruction in these lines adds 
dignity to domestic economy, and gives 
increased respect for it. Young girls 
often seem to acquire a distaste for 
housework while at school, because their 
point of view puts it in a minor place 
compared with mathematics and the 
’ologies. It is only in later life that we 
realize how much more important it 
may be to cook a dinner in one language, 
rather than to describe the operation in 
seven. 
* 
Milkweed pods make quite a good sub¬ 
stitute for down in filling cushions. The 
pods should be gathered while still green, 
but after they are fully grown. Open 
the pods, slip off the seeds from the mass 
of silk which clings together, and after 
removing the green seed-core, throw the 
silk into a bag. Keep this bag hung up 
near the stove in the kitchen, adding 
new silk as the pods are gathered each 
day. It takes about a barrel of pods to 
fill a pillow 25 inches square. Let the 
silk dry in the bag for fully two weeks 
after the last green silk is added to it. 
To fill the pillow, baste the edges of the 
ticking or other inside cover of the 
pillow around the mouth of the bag. 
Arrange the string that ties the bag so 
that it can be slipped off when this is 
done, and then pour the silk in. Baste 
the edges of the cover together quickly 
when it is filled, and sew them firmly 
afterward. 
# 
If we are tempted to melancholy in¬ 
trospection, it is well to remember 
Sidney Smith’s specific against this feel¬ 
ing. He says : 
I ODce gave a lady two and twenty receipts 
against melancholy; one was a bright Are; an¬ 
other, to remember all the pleasant things said 
to her, and still another, to keep a box of sugar¬ 
plums on the chimney piece and a kettle simmer¬ 
ing on the hob. 
Remembering all the pleasant things 
said to one seems a wise preservative of 
cheerfulness. But some minds seem to 
act as a filter, which retains all the dis¬ 
agreeables of life, while allowing the 
better part to flow through. 
TEACHING CHILDREN AT HOME. 
OMETIMES this seems very neces¬ 
sary. There are often long vaca¬ 
tions in rural schools, only 18 or 20 
weeks of school in a year ; or a farmer 
may live at a very inconvenient distance 
from school, or there may be many other 
good reasons for a farmer and his wife 
teaching their children. At first sight, 
this seems like imposing a great loss 
upon a child and, of course, many par¬ 
ents are wholly unfit for such work. But 
not a few are fit, and when they are, 
there is more to be said in favor of home 
teaching than most people imagine. 
The one great and almost, if not quite, 
insurmountable difficulty which all 
schools have to meet, especially graded 
schools, is the fact that a large number 
of children of very different capacities 
have to be put in the same class and 
kept along in their studies together. 
In a class, there will be some bright 
pupils who see through things quickly, 
learn easily, and remember what they 
learn. Then there will be some who 
are the opposite, and some between 
these extremes. Perhaps I ought to say 
that brightness in school is not always 
a sure sign of success in life, for the 
dullest in school many times attain 
greater success than their associates. 
But certain lessons are assigned to a 
class, some pupils get it quickly and 
then play, some need all the time, and 
some cannot learn the lesson at all. We 
find in the schools some pupils kept 
back, some urged on much too fast, and 
others progressing well. Then some 
who get on well in language, geogra¬ 
phy and history, drag in arithmetic, and 
some are just the opposite. 
At home, each pupil can progress 
according to his or her ability. He can 
get the whole of the lesson, and can 
thoroughly understand each part of a 
topic before taking up another part. If 
compelled by illness or other cause to 
omit lessons for a day or more, he does 
not have to keep right on with a class, 
but begins where he left off, thus often 
saving much loss. Then he forms the 
invaluable habit of home study, and does 
not suffer the great loss which comes 
from short terms of school and long 
vacations. One thing which a country 
child can learn at home which the great, 
costly, well-equipped city schools can¬ 
not teach, is daily habits of industry, 
doing useful and helpful work, learning 
to use hands and arms and feet, being a 
helper and worker, which a city child 
can seldom be. 
I have by no means exhausted the list 
of advantages derived from home study, 
but I wish to give a little practical ex¬ 
perience. In seven years of home teach¬ 
ing, I have grown better and better sat¬ 
isfied with results. I had no theory in 
the beginning as to home teaching, but 
it did not seem best to send a child 1% 
mile just to spend a few minutes twice 
a day in learning to read, so we began 
to teach at home. I had friends who 
were teachers, and got hints and sug¬ 
gestions from them. Then I began to 
read the Journal of Education, and to 
obtain and read State, city and govern¬ 
ment educational reports. This has 
opened up the educational world to me. 
The paper especially keeps me posted as 
to educational changes and progress. 
Many farmers have to do with schools, 
and all such would be greatly benefited 
by reading this paper. I have examined 
many educational periodicals, and have 
never found any other so well fitted to 
read. I enjoy teaching; it keeps my 
mind active, I know much more about 
the children, and they enjoy it, too As 
to the time it takes, if the children went 
to school, they would have to be car¬ 
ried much of the time, some of them to 
the village three miles distant, or else 
they would have to stay away from 
home. They can get their lessons and 
do many chores and light work at home 
which my wife and I would have to do if 
they went away to school; so that I do not 
think we lose much, if any, time by 
teaching at home. 
We mostly use the long evenings for 
recitations, when possible. By our 
methods, we can use such books and 
supplies as we think best, and can take 
up studies which are recommended by 
the best school authorities. Whatever 
Sweetness and Light. 
Put a pill in the pulpit if you want practkhl 
preaching for the physical man ; then put the 
pill in the pillory if it does not practise what it 
preaches. There’s a whole gospel in Ayer’s 
Sugar Coated Pills; a “ gospel of sweetness 
and light.” People used to value their physic, 
as they did their religion,—by its bitterness. 
The more bitter the dose the better the doctor. 
We’ve got over that. We take “sugar in ours”— 
gospel or physic—now-a-days. It’s possible to 
please and to purge at the same time. There 
may be power in a pleasant pill. That is the 
gospel of 
Ayer’s Cathartic Pills. 
More pill particulars in Ayer’s Curebook, ioo pages. 
Sent free. J. C. Ayer Co., Lowell, Mass. 
3j 
tH 
J 
8 
they go over, we make sure that they 
master. The older ones have a thorough 
training in mental arithmetic which is 
gained by few country pupils. They are 
acquiring power to learn from books, 
something which many country children 
lack. j. w. newton. 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
Do not work buttonholes with too 
coarse a thread, says The American 
Queen. D twist for silk and woolen 
goods, and 45, 50 or 60 thread for cotton 
materials are of the correct thickness. 
When tablecloths are beginning to 
wear out in the fo’ds, cut two or three 
inches off one end and one side, and 
rehem them. This process will change 
the places of the folds, and will add new 
life to the cloth. Napkins and towels 
may be treated in the same way. 
Medicine spots or stains can be re¬ 
moved from silver spoons by rubbing 
them with a soft cloth dipped in sul¬ 
phuric acid, then carefully washed off 
with soap suds. Stains may be removed 
from the hands by washing them in cold 
water to which a little sulphuric acid 
has been added. Use no soap. 
$io a Week 
for a Family 
of Eight 
A helpful article by Mrs. 
S. T. Rorer in the October 
Ladies’ Home Journal 
Other features include: “When 
Moody and Sankey Stirred the 
Nation”; a page of Kellar’s 
tricks for parlor amusement; four 
pages of new ideas in needle¬ 
work, etc. Handsomely illustrated. 
One Dollar a Year Ten Cents a Copy 
The Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia 
DAVID COPPERFIELD 
is, beyond doubt, the greatest of Dickens’s stories. 
It is said that he so regarded it himself. Agnes 
Whitfield, the heroine of the story, is one of the 
most charming characters of English literature, 
and the other characters, if not so pleasing, are 
no less pronounced. A “ Micawber,” a “Uriah 
Heep ” and “Barkis is willin’,” are familiar 
quotations. These and others are so often refer¬ 
red to that, if it were a task Instead of a pleasure, 
one would need to read it. We have a small 
stock of these books in large, plain type, on gOov. 
paper and nicely bound in cloth, that we can 
give for one new yearly subscription, while the 
stock lasts. Send the $1 and the name and ad¬ 
dress of the new subscriber and we will send the 
book prepaid. _ 
EVANGELINE FREE. 
Did you ever read that pathetic story of the 
Arcadian farmers as told by Longfellow in that 
famous poem, Evangeline ? If not, you have a 
rare treat in store for yourself. The story of 
Evangeline, the farmer’s daughter, betrothed to 
Basil, the blacksmith’s son, separated on their 
native shore while being driven into exile by 
order of the English king, and wandering sepa¬ 
rately in search of each other through American 
forests, to meet again only on the brink of the 
grave, is a tale of pathetic and touching devotion 
that delights and fascinates every one who reads 
it. We have secured a handsomely bound illus¬ 
trated edition of this book, that we are going to 
give to every one who sends us one new yearly 
subscription. Send $1 with name and address of 
new subscriber, and we will send you this hand¬ 
some book postpaid by return mail. 
The Rural New-Yobkeb, New York. 
