FROM DAY TO DAY. 
When a baby is first learning to walk, 
his efforts are very much aided by hav¬ 
ing a little strip of rubber fastened to 
the sole of each shoe, across the ball of 
the foot. This prevents the little feet 
from slipping back, and certainly lessens 
the strain upon the tiny ankles. 
* 
It has been remarked that children 
get their morals from their diet ; they 
certainly get their teeth, nerves and 
muscles from it. When feeding them, 
we must remember that we are not 
merely feeding for daily needs, but lay¬ 
ing up capital for them to draw upon in 
maturer years. 
* 
To keep a feather duster in good con¬ 
dition, it should always be covered when 
not in use. For this purpose, a deep 
cuff of ticking, hemmed at both top and 
bottom, is slipped over the feathers. 
This not only keeps them from becom¬ 
ing dusty or broken, but also preserves 
the springiness of the feathers. 
* 
An embroidery chatelaine is a pretty 
gift for a woman fond of sewing. It con¬ 
sists of thimble-bag, scissors, needle- 
book, emery-cushion and pin-cushion, 
attached to varying lengths of No. 7 
ribbon, all the ribbons being attached 
together at the top, with a large rosette, 
under which a large safety-pin is sewed 
for fastening the chatelaine to the 
wearer’s belt. 
* 
A London firm makes a bread-cutting 
and buttering machine, which will cut 
and butter 60 slices of bread per minute, 
acting efficiently even upon new bread. 
It will slice up a full-sized ham in four 
minutes, and is especially valuable to 
the firms furnishing cheap luncheons. 
Such a machine would fill a long-felt 
want in households where the tired 
mother is kept busy all through tea- 
time, trying to satisfy the children’s ap¬ 
petites for bread-and-butter. 
* 
One of the newest bedroom pincush¬ 
ions is in the form of a flat roll, as long 
as the width of the bureau. It is placed 
across the back of the bureau. The 
material almost invariably used is col¬ 
ored China silk, with a covering of sheer 
white lawn. It is edged all around with 
a ruffle of lawn or lace, over one of silk, 
with a heading of lace beading, baby 
ribbon being drawn through this, and 
allowed to hang in loops at intervals 
through the entire length. A more 
elaborate cushion would be covered with 
washing net over the silk, this net being 
very often used for the accompanying 
bureau cover and mats. 
* 
A pretty and novel needle-book is 
made with a cover formed from the little 
brass rings so often used in fancy work. 
Each side of the cover requires seven 
rings, a little larger in size than a 
copper cent. Each ring is filled with 
spokes or cross-bars of tiny gilt beads, 
and is then covered with crocheted em¬ 
broidery silk. The rings are then 
grouped, one in the center, and the re¬ 
maining six in a circle around it, and 
fastened together. Two leaves of white 
flannel are then cut the size and shape 
of the ring covers, the edges being 
buttonholed with the embroidery silk. 
The leaves and covers are fastened to¬ 
gether at the back by a bow of ribbon, 
and have ribbon ties in front. 
* 
A study of the literature of modern 
child-training sometimes makes us won¬ 
der whether the wife and mother has 
any rights that the spinster is bound to 
respect. The good ladies who are giv¬ 
ing their lives to the study of other 
peoples’ children are insistent that the 
average mother has no knowledge of 
children or their requirements, until one 
wonders that the race has existed so 
long, under such mismanagement. An 
old Russian proverb says : “ God could 
not be everywhere, so He made mothers.” 
But a modern lecturer (whose name is 
prefixed with “Miss”) declares that 
most mothers are absolutely ignorant of 
the most essential points of physical 
knowledge, and that the mental environ¬ 
ment of the nursery is all wrong. The 
teaching of nursery rhymes is also wrong, 
according to this lady. It is quite pos¬ 
sible that .the chanting of the multipli¬ 
cation table might be more educational 
than Banbury Cross, but would it be 
equally efficacious in amusing the baby ? 
No doubt, speaking from a high moral 
standpoint, it is better to instruct than 
to amuse, but this is not usually the 
baby’s view. The lecturer quoted also 
says that women should not try to make 
their daughters think them perfect; 
many times the daughter is brighter 
than the mother. That is, no doubt, 
true, but we doubt whether any girl 
will be the worse for thinking that a 
good mother is perfect, and we see so 
much self-sufficient brightness on the 
part of the younger women that it is a 
marked relief to meet with a girl who 
looks up to her mother on the score of 
her moral qualities. Without question, 
every mother is not wise, yet there is a 
wisdom of the heart that often out¬ 
weighs the wisdom of the head with 
which these modern critics would in¬ 
struct us. Formerly, it was the lords of 
creation who told us how badly we mis¬ 
managed our children and home, but 
now even they must quail before the 
unattached instructress. Perhaps, when 
the mothers are less busy in actually 
caring for their children, they may have 
leisure enough to tell other people how 
it ought to be done. 
A HANDY PRESERVE CLOSET. 
RESERVES should have a dark, 
cool resting place until used. The 
closet shown in Fig. 355 serves this pur¬ 
pose admirably. It is built, as shown, 
beneath the cellar stairway, thus afford- 
A HANDY PRESERVE CLOSET. Fia. 355. 
ing a cool, even temperature. When the 
door is closed, it will, also, be as “ dark 
as a pocket ” inside. Such a closet can 
very easily be made, since its back, top, 
and part of its sides are already at 
hand. _ w. e. 
WORK FOR THE COUNTRY GIRL. 
WHAT HOME EMPLOYMENT IS OPEN TO HER ? 
GREAT many of the women’s jour¬ 
nals give, from time to time, in¬ 
formation regarding occupations open 
to women who wish to add a little to 
their personal means, without taking up 
a regular trade or profession. Unfor¬ 
tunately, this advice and information is 
usually given from a standpoint totally 
foreign to that of the farmer’s daughter. 
The various employments suggested, 
either call for more leisure than she has 
at her command, or for a class of cus¬ 
tomers quite out of her range. 
In the endeavor to obtain some prac¬ 
tical opinions on this subject, questions 
were sent as follows to a number of prac¬ 
tical women : 
According to your observation or experience, 
is it possible for the women or girls on a farm 
to acquire knowledge of a trade or profession 
without leaving home? Dothe farmers’ daughters 
in your locality usually seek some means of be¬ 
coming self-supporting ? If they do not marry, 
what means of support are open to them in farm 
communities ? 
The responses given are all from prac¬ 
tical experience. There are no rosy 
generalities, and if the outlook offered 
is not encouraging, it must be noted 
that the one thing that a farmer’s daugh¬ 
ter should understand thoroughly—the 
art of housekeeping—is always in de¬ 
mand. 
In Prosperous Kansas. 
In answering your questions, let me 
say that the answers are confined to this 
locality, which is very prosperous, as 
well as much enlightened, much more 
so than many rural districts that I have 
been in. It is not possible for the farm¬ 
er’s daughter to learn a trade without 
leaving home, although I have known of 
a few cases where girls became dress¬ 
makers after doing plain sewing and 
gradually working themselves up until 
they made a living at the trade. Such 
girls in our locality usually seek some 
means of becoming self-supporting. The 
educated women can teach school, and 
many in this locality do. A seamstress 
that can go from house to house in the 
country, and sew just fairly well, can earn 
about $1 per day and board. There seems 
to be a demand here for such labor. If a 
woman is so situated, she can run a 
poultry farm, and simply make a living. 
I have not known any one to make 
money to put in the bank at this. If a 
woman in this country has land, even a 
small lot, she can raise small fruits ; 
there is a demand for fresh fruits, home¬ 
grown, well picked and measured. 
There is a big opening for first-class 
girls for domestic work, girls who can 
cook, keep house and, above all, main¬ 
tain a good reputation. Such girls when 
found find homes readily at $2 and $2 50 
per week. Girls are well treated and 
not overworked. 
Kansas, e. .teannetta zimmerman. 
The Daughter’s Share. 
From observation, it seems impossible 
for the women or girls on the farm to 
acquire a knowledge of any trade or 
profession without leaving home. Visit 
the homes of our prosperous farmers, 
surrounded as they are by fertile acres 
and fine buildings, and you will find the 
majority of the daughters absent. A 
few, perhaps, have become teachers, but 
the greater number have gone into the 
dressmaking and tailor shops, or the 
stores of the adjoining towns, while 
those of the poorer class of farmers may 
be found doing kitchen work in the 
towns. It seems as though it were any¬ 
thing to get away from the farm life. 
Ask many of these why they leave the 
home, and they will tell you that it is be¬ 
cause there are no inducements to re¬ 
main. They look around and see many 
who have spent the best years of their 
lives in farm work, receiving but their 
board and necessary clothing, and when 
the time came for dividing up the 
property, the boys were given the farms, 
and the girls were given a miserable 
pittance of a few hundred dollars. Mat¬ 
rimony being their only outlook, and 
not much choice being afforded, too often 
they were forced to seek refuge in a 
brother’s home, and be treated as though 
they were a burden. 
This state of affairs might be remedied 
if the daughters were given the assur¬ 
ance that, if they helped to manage the 
home, when the time came for a division 
of the property, they would share 
equally with the brothers. With this 
incentive, there would be more interest 
manifested, and remunerative work 
could be accomplished, the daughters 
then feeling that they had become self- 
supporting. Avenues of profitable work, 
such as the fruit and vegetable garden 
in the summer, and such staples as but¬ 
ter, eggs and fowls throughout the year, 
might be opened, and a portion of this 
revenue could be expended in books and 
magazines, and other things that would 
tend to make the home one of cul¬ 
tured refinement and happiness, in fact, 
the ideal home. n. mac donald. 
Canada. 
Hard Living in Eastern Massachusetts. 
As far as I know, every farmer’s daugh¬ 
ter leaves home to find work. They come 
to the various factories and shops here 
by hundreds. In many cases, the father, 
and often the mother also, works out¬ 
side. This district is a poor place to 
make a living on a farm. Some farmers’ 
wives >and daughters pick blueberries 
in the summer, and pick and screen cran¬ 
berries in the autumn. I know of no 
way in which a farmer’s daughter in this 
vicinity could be self-supporting at 
home, except in the usual way of raising 
chickens, turkeys, etc., and then I fancy 
there would be little made. Even two 
economical people with a good farm two 
miles away, cannot seem to live on it, 
and have to raise ready money by a 
mortgage. With an income to live on, 
farming does very well here, but other¬ 
wise, it is a very hard life. One of our 
farmers, with more property than usual, 
sent his daughters to college ; after that, 
they taught. Elizabeth bobinson. 
Eastern Massachusetts. 
Care of Flannels —Flannels that are 
properly eared for will be soft and fluffy 
as long as they last, instead of being 
harsh and fllled-up after the first few 
washings. I have three little children 
who wear flannel underclothing the 
greater part of the year, and I have 
learned not to trust these clothes to the 
tender mercies of a washerwoman, but 
always wash them myself. The follow¬ 
ing is the method used : Soft water is 
heated until it is as warm as one can 
bear the hand in comfortably, and 
enough white soap is dissolved in it to 
make a good suds. The garments are 
put in a small tub, and the suds poured 
over them. Then they are washed care¬ 
fully, rubbing as little as possible to get 
them clean, and putting the soap in the 
water, instead of rubbing it on the 
clothes. They are passed through the 
wringer into the rinse water, the latter 
being just the same temperature as the 
first. Then they are hung out where a 
gentle breeze can blow through them. I 
always buy white or light-gray flannel, 
as the hot water is likely to make red or 
light colors fade, western housekeeper. 
A bright girl writes 
from Cambridge, Massachusetts: 
“Last fall I read an article 
under the head of ‘ Earning Money 
for Christmas.’ I was not so 
much interested in earning money 
for this purpose as I was in ob¬ 
taining the necessary sum to at¬ 
tend the Christian Endeavor Con¬ 
vention in San Francisco this 
summer, and was unwilling to ask 
my father for assistance. I wrote 
for information, and took up the 
work. I worked only during lei¬ 
sure hours, and, thanks to your 
generous assistance, have earned 
enough to take the desired trip, 
including a visit to Yellowstone 
Park, and to pay all the incidental 
expenses.” 
This is only one of hundreds 
of similar letters received. 
The Curtis Publishing Company 
Philadelphia 
The Ladies’ Home Journal 
