FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Wherever New England thrift and 
energy founds a new home, Thanksgiv¬ 
ing Day becomes the focus of the year’s 
festivity—the harvest feast of the family 
prosperity. An old-fashioned descendant 
of the Puritans cannot understand 
Christmas cheer, for his forbears looked 
upon the feast of the Nativity as a 
heathen saturnalia ; but Thanksgiving 
Day calls into play his warmest emotions. 
It is the one great American festivity. 
Some old New England families still 
cling to the custom of placing by each 
plate at dinner, five kernels of Indian 
corn, in memory of the ration to which 
their Pilgrim forefathers were reduced 
when help came. When we give the day 
up to festivities, without remembering 
its origin, we lose sight of the right 
Thanksgiving spirit, which should in¬ 
clude a great deal more than a big dinner. 
And a big dinner, served by a tired 
woman, who has worked herself ill to 
prepare it, may be an occasion for 
thanksgiving on the part of her guests ; 
but assuredly not for the founder of the 
feast. 
* 
The programmes of the coming farm¬ 
ers’ institutes seem to us to be very one¬ 
sided. There is plenty of instruction 
offered for the men, but the farmers’ 
wives and daughters are entirely left 
out. Discussions upon balanced rations 
for the stock, and the management of 
the dairy are, certainly, valuable ; but 
the programme might be made all the 
more valuable by a discussion upon bal¬ 
anced rations for the family. The agri¬ 
cultural colleges are adding courses in 
domestic science to their curriculums, 
and lectures by teachers who have had 
especial opportunities to study this 
science as applied to farm housekeeping, 
would be of infinite value. The insti¬ 
tutes recognize the farmer’s needs, and 
his place in the world’s economy ; now 
let them recognize the needs and rights 
of the farm housewife. Rearing a fine 
crop of healthy boys and girls is an im¬ 
portant duty, and the farmer’s wife has 
quite as strong a reason for demanding 
wise instruction on such questions, as 
her husband has for his queries on the 
care of fall calves. We think that a lec¬ 
turer on cooking or domestic sanitation, 
capable of illustrating her talks with 
demonstrations of good farm housekeep¬ 
ing, would be a valuaole adjunct to 
every farmers’ institute. Few demon¬ 
strators of domestic science treat this 
matter exactly from this point of view. 
There is, necessarily, such a difference 
between farm housekeeping and city 
housekeeping, that the instruction must 
be suited to the special needs in both 
cases. When we have learned to make 
the very most of the plainest condi¬ 
tions, we shall be in a position to better 
them. 
* 
It is said that Miss Alice Stone Black- 
well, editor of the Woman’s Journal, is 
devoting a good deal of her time and 
attention to finding situations for men 
as kitchen maids. She says that the 
chief difficulty she meets in the way of 
getting housework for her prot6g&$ to 
do is the conservatism of women. In 
her experience, there are always more 
young men willing to take domestic ser¬ 
vice than there are Yankee housewives 
willing to give them a trial. She affirms 
that it is as hard to convince some women 
that men can do housework as it is to 
convince some men that a woman can be 
a principal of a public school. But, she 
continues, the women who venture upon 
the new departure are sometimes re¬ 
warded by finding in it a perfect solution 
of the vexed “ domestic problem.” Mrs. 
Isabel C. Barrows, who is one of the in¬ 
novators, proclaims that the young man 
now doing her hou&ework is the best 
help she has had in 30 years. The man 
giving such distinguished satisfaction is 
a college graduate, who finds his educa¬ 
tion most useful in the kitchen. Per¬ 
haps this is the legitimate outcome of 
woman’s incursion into what we are 
accustomed to regard as purely mascu¬ 
line fields of labor. 
* 
But the idea of masculine help in the 
kitchen is not entirely new. Here is 
what one worthy farmer’s wife, blessed 
with sons only, says of her experience : 
One morning, I had the headache, and I tell 
you I looked ’round discouraged. All the morn¬ 
ing work to do, besides a large churning, and 
dinner, supper and lunch to get for three hired 
men, besides my man and four boys. I followed 
Nathan to the door, and said I, “ Nate, doesn’t it 
look as if I ought to have one boy to help me to¬ 
day, when you have so many?” He looked up 
quick a minute, and then said, “That’s just the 
way it looks. You keep Tom.” And you don’t 
know how that boy rested me before noon. He 
swept, tended the fire, helped me wash the dishes 
and make the pies, then gathered the vegetables 
and helped get them on to cook, set the table, 
pumped water, and he was pretty handy, too, 
considering he wasn’t used to it. But I’ve had 
him every day since In the house, more or less, 
and I mean to keep on getting help out of those 
boys. Their father may as well let me have part 
of the good of them. They’re so strong, too, ever 
so much better than girls. 
One of the Boston public schools has a 
domestic science class of boys, and very 
neat they look in their caps and aprons. 
Without any idea of becoming a domestic 
servant, after the style encouraged by 
Miss Blackwell, there is no reason why 
a boy should not be all the better for a 
little training in this line. 
COMBINATION DRY SINK AND 
KITCHEN TABLE. 
F IG. 319 shows a very convenient 
article of kitchen furniture. It is 
a dry sink for washing dishes close be- 
MOVABLE DRY SINK. Fig. 319. 
side the kitchen stove, or in the dining¬ 
room on cold days, with closet and 
drawers beneath. The leaf shown in 
the rear can be raised to a level position, 
by means of braces, affording room for 
dishes, etc. When the dishes are washed, 
this leaf folds forward over the top of 
the sink, making a kitchen table. Large 
castors are used, so that it can be readily 
moved about to any position, or shoved, 
if need be, into another room. Any 
housewife will quickly appreciate the 
convenience of such a piece of furniture, 
and as it is little more than a box, it 
can very easily and cheaply be made in 
the home workshop. D. w. 
THE DUTIES OF A TRAINED NURSE. 
M ISS MARION E. SMITH, chief 
nurse of the Philadelphia Hos¬ 
pital, gives some valuable information 
in The Philadelphia Times regarding 
the work of trained nurses in the United 
States. She says: 
“The duties and privileges of a per¬ 
manent graduate nurse in charge of a 
hospital ward or floor are numerous. 
She must have a sense of duty strong 
enough to make her hesitate not a 
moment to report neglect of duty or in¬ 
fringement of rules. She must be un¬ 
falteringly honest, sober-minded, never 
flippant in speech or act. She has charge 
of both nurses and patients under care. 
She must be held responsible for the 
conduct and discipline of her patients 
and the general morals of the floor. 
She will see that the wards are clean, 
and this includes everything in them— 
so clean that they cannot be made 
cleaner ; orderly, quiet, well ventilated 
and of the proper temperature ; that 
bath-rooms and water-closets are in per¬ 
fect order, clean, and disinfected daily. 
She should personally daily inspect ice 
chests, vessels, cupboards and closets, 
and see that they are odorless and sweet; 
should see that dining-room and kitchen 
are free from roaches, and that the food 
is served hot and punctually ; that linen 
closets and supply cupboards are well 
stocked and always ready for inspection; 
that the medicine, treatment and diet 
lists are corrected daily, and are neat 
and accessible. There are still, strange 
to say, more hospital positions than there 
are women of the right sort to fill them, 
while there is no scarcity of the other 
kind.” 
alternately, the spice and beads. Fasten 
these strings close together on a pole 
with tiny gilt-headed tacks, and the por¬ 
tiere is complete. They are very pretty, 
and impart a pleasant spicy odor to the 
apartment where used. m. lane griffin. 
Table for Plants —For the woman 
who loves house plants and has no con¬ 
servatory or bay window in which to 
grow them, a low table made to fit the 
window is one of the most convenient 
ways of caring for them. The gude 
mon made one for my south window, 
and it has saved me much time and 
strength. Castors are fitted into the legs, 
so if the night is unusually cold, with 
very little effort, the table is moved back 
from the window and, in the morning, is 
as easily replaced in its sunny location. 
By placing the smaller plants next to 
the window and the larger ones back, I 
am able to have 25 or 30 pots of thrifty 
plants with very little outlay of time or 
strength. ella f. flanders. 
T 
LOW-COST BALANCED RATIONS. 
‘HE R. N.-Y. advises farmers to use 
cheaper substitutes for potatoes. 
Why not, also, cheaper substitutes for 
meat ? The following tables represent 
the substantial parts of two good daily 
balanced rations : 
Carbo- 
Amt. 
Price. Prot. 
Fats. byd. 
Cost. 
Food Mater’ls. 
Ozs. 
Cts. Ozs. 
Ozs. 
Ozs. 
Cts. 
Beef, round.... 
10 
8 1.80 
1.23 
5 
Pork,shoulder 
. 4 
6 .54 
1.12 
1.5 
Potatoes. 
,3 2 
60 .67 
.03 
5.73 
2 
Flour.. 
.12 
2.5 1.32 
.13 
8.99 
1.87 
Sugar. 
2 
5.5 .... 
.... 
1.96 
.69 
4.33 
2.51 
16.68 
11.06 
Beans. 
4 
100 .92 
.08 
2.37 
.42 
Oatmeal. 
. 4 
2.5 .60 
.28 
2.73 
.62 
Milk. 
,48 
2.5 1.73 
1.92 
2.26 
3.75 
Flour. 
10 
2.5 1.10 
.11 
7.49 
1.56 
Sugar. 
1.87 
5.5 , 
1.83 
.65 
Butter. . 
.14 20. 
.12 
.... 
.17 
4.35 
2.51 
16.68 
7.17 
The difference in the cost of these two 
rations would amount to $7 a month for 
a family of six. Potatoes this year should 
be classed as luxuries ; as a rule, meat al¬ 
ways should be classed as a luxury. The 
second table contains only one luxury— 
milk. The butter part of-the milk, as 
compared with the fat of meats, is a 
luxury. The remainder of the milk is 
one of the most economical of food 
materials. 
By substituting fat pork for butter- 
fat, and corn meal for flour in the second 
table, one of the cheapest of rations 
could be formed about as follows : 
Carbo- 
Amt. 
Price. 
Prot. 
Fats. 
hyd. 
Cost. 
Food Mater’ 
'Is. Ozs. 
Cts. 
Ozs. 
Ozs. 
Ozs. 
Cts. 
Beans. 
.... 6 
100 
1.38 
.12 
3.55 
.62 
Oatmeal ... 
.... 6 
2.5 
.90 
.42 
4.09 
.94 
Corn meal.. 
.... 6 
1.5 
.55 
.23 
4.24 
.56 
Skim-milk. 
.48 
1 
1.92 
.02 
2.40 
1.5 
Fat pork... 
6 
.02 
1.66 
,,,, 
.75 
Sugar. 
5.5 
.... 
1.96 
.69 
4.77 
2.45 
16.24 
5.06 
It is a doctor’s advice to housekeepers 
to watch the kneading boards of their 
domain. More and more, as women 
better appreciate the ubiquitousness of 
germs and microbes, is it understood 
that only in eternal vigilance is there 
safety, and the molding board is one of 
the places where inspection is needed. 
Much more sanitary, because more easily 
kept near the chemically clean point, 
are the marble or heavy glass trays for 
kneading bread that are found in many 
modern kitchens. 
Brass Bedsteads are now made with 
two dust-proof drawers underneath. 
The length of the drawers is the same 
as the width of the bed. One drawer 
opens at the upper end of the bed, and 
on the opposite side, the drawer is at the 
lower end. The plaited valance to match 
the draperies is fastened separately to 
the front of the drawers, and when they 
are closed, they are not noticeable, as 
the folds hang together, and the lace- 
trimmed bed cover falls over the top of 
the valance. There is space between 
the closed top of the drawer and the 
bed, thus allowing circulation of air all 
around. 
Such foods as beans, oatmeal and corn 
meal ,must be thoroughly cooked. The 
above tables do not take into account 
fruit and the lighter vegetables, some of 
which, perhaps, are needed for a whole¬ 
some diet. They are given simply to in¬ 
dicate the direction in which economy 
may be found. e. e. h. 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
An Aromatic Portiere. —Those who 
admire the Japanese portieres made of 
cane and beads, can have one even pret¬ 
tier, with a little patient work. Get 
several pounds of allspice and the same 
quantity of cheap, gilt glass beads, the 
longest to be had. Measure the length 
of the door frame to be used, and with 
stout flax threads—measured the desired 
length—and a long, fine needle, string 
We offer Special 
Prizes to best agents 
in addition to a good com¬ 
mission for every sub¬ 
scriber secured. 
Mrs. V., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
writes : “ Our commissions and 
prize have wiped out one hundred 
dollars church indebtedness.” 
We divided nearly 
$15,000 last year 
among 440 agents, as 
special rewards, to 
our best workers. 
We shall do the same this year. 
The Curtis Publishing Company 
Philadelphia 
The Ladies’ Home Journal 
Mason & Hamlin 
PIANOS AND ORGANS. 
The best that skill, capital, and up-to-date methods can produce. All important improvements in 
Reed Organs have emanated from this house. The Mason & Hamlin Pianos are characterized by the 
same highest degree of excellence. New and most attractive styles introduced this season. Cat- 
aloguej free. Address: Mason & Hamlin Co., Boston, New York, Chicago, or St. Louis. 
