i89o 
275 
AN URGENT APPEAL. 
D O any of the good cooks of this depart¬ 
ment know how to cook a steak; 
and do they know it so well that they can 
tell their method so as to be understood by 
a moderate intellect ? Oh, yes I I know 
the papers are full of instructions. The 
latest one to give directions is a butcher. 
Listen to what he says : First, it always 
makes him sick to see a woman cook beef¬ 
steak I She always puts in a piece of 
grease as large as her fist, and cooks it (the 
meat I suppose) without covering till it 
looks like an old rubber shoe sole. He 
puts the clean, empty pan (I’ll warrant his 
wife washed it) over a clear, hot fire, 
covers it, pounds the steak, lays it in and 
covers it quickly ; turns it as soon as it will 
let go of the pan, then turns it every two 
minutes thereafter, takes it up on a hot, 
buttered dish, adds pepper, salt and sugar, 
and then covers it while he makes the 
.gravy with flour, butter and water. O, 
wise butcher! I’ve seen that very plan 
given in a dozen different women’s papers, 
all but the sugar. But he thinks so much 
of his scheme that he wants us all to try it 
and find out that we know nothing about 
cooking a good steak ! 
Ah ! a “ good steak,” he says: any one 
can cook a qood steak, but I can tell you 
just how his plan works. The minute that 
steak begins to cook, the juice begins to 
run, and if you cover it, it runs worse than 
if you do not. As soon as it is taken from 
the stove and covered, it begins to get soft 
and flabby ; and steak-gravy made with 
flour and water is an insult to the steak, 
for the only thing that is fit for steak gravy 
is clear butter and steak juice. 
I will admit just this : I don’t know how 
to cook a medium or a poor steak so as to 
make it good, and if there’s a woman in the 
United States (or in the R. N.-Y.’s family) 
who does know how aside from broiling it, 
I want to hear from her, and I want her to 
pulverize that butcher and his notions I 
I’ve spent an enormous amount of time in 
the last 10 years trying to find out the 
secret, but so far I am free to confess that 
it has been about wasted. I’ve fried the 
meat in butter, and in dripping; I’ve 
heated the pan hissing-hot and clapped the 
steak in and turned it every few seconds 
without covering; I’ve clapped it in and 
covered it till nearly cooked through, then 
uncovered and turned it to finish; I’ve 
sort-o’ stewed it in a little water; I’ve just 
oiled the pan slightly and seared the meat 
on both sides to keep the juice from flowing 
(but it flowed just the same). I’ve salted it 
when half done, and when just done; and 
after taking from the fire, I’ve peppered 
it, and I’ve left it without pepper. Let no 
one say : “ She must be a poor cookI 
deny it, my mother was one'of the best 
cooks in a neighborhood of good cooks, and 
every one of her girls inherited the gift in 
greater or less degree. And as a crowning 
comment on that butcher’s remarks, I want 
to say that the very best way I have ever 
found as yet is to “ put in a piece of grease 
as large as one’s fist,” and cook the steak in 
that as soon as it gets smoking hot. But I 
do hope some one else has a better way. 
This is only one question of many. 
Young housekeepers always want to learn 
new ways of saving time or money, and es¬ 
pecially nice new ways of cooking, and I do 
hope the hundreds of splendid cooks in our 
farm-house kitchens will give us more of 
their good ideas. The finest cookery I have 
ever partaken of was at farmers’ “ feasts ” 
and picnics, and I think the ladies have a 
duty to perform toward some of us who do 
not know so well just how to do things. 
LINA HADLEY. 
THE CONSCIENCE OF THE 
BUTCHER. 
i WONDER if It is true that of all crea. 
tures from butcher to baker and candle¬ 
stick maker,the butcher is most conscience¬ 
less as to equitable dealing? I am one of those 
cranky houskeepers who theorize that to 
the carelessness of buyers, is due in very 
great measure the dishonesty that is doled 
out in small doses by the medium-minded 
tradesmen, whose sense of fair dealing grows 
daily more obtuse by the suspicion, or fact, 
that their patrons rarely go to the trouble 
of putting purchases to the test of the 
kitchen scales. 
For the past six months I have ordered 
the family beef from a butcher who deals 
exclusively in stock grown on the juicy 
meadows of Lancaster County and which 
sells in the Philadelphia market at from 
25 to 35 cents per pound. With two excep¬ 
tions only— when the. weighing was watched 
THE RURAL iNEW-YORKER. 
—the weight of meat sent home, including 
trimmings, during the time mentioned, 
never tallied with my own scales, which I 
knew to be correct. The figures on the 
butcher’s monthly bill varied from five to 
10 pounds in excess of the actual weight 
and the orders were not large for a family 
of three, but taking the lowest deficit of 
five pounds at 25 cents per pound, it obliges 
me to pay at the rate of $15 per annum for 
what I do not get. 
Of course, I protested and informed him 
that I weighed every scrap of meat that 
came into the house, but I only succeeded 
in modifying the evil—he satisfied himself 
with overcharging me five pounds per 
month instead of 10. I then argued that 
the right thing to do was to try another 
butcher, but a friend who seemed to be 
well informed as to the ways that are dark 
and tricks that are vain, assured me that 
it would only be repeating the scheme of 
that immortal fish that Jumped from the 
frying-pan into the fire—that the butcher 
didn’t live who weighed meat with a 
“ Christian conscience,” etc. 
Now the point to this domestic jeremiad 
is : Am I an exceptional victim, or is short 
weight in meat cuts the universal experi¬ 
ence? If so, can cause be shown why 
butchers should be privileged robbers be¬ 
yond other men, or why meat should not 
be as exact in weight as butter, for ex¬ 
ample. which would be no terrifying exacti¬ 
tude, Mercy knows I It is only in the 
aggregate that figures carry force, and al¬ 
though $15 a year filched from one prudent 
pocket is not much, yet a thousand pockets 
suffering similar violence would add $15,000 
annually to the unearned increment of the 
butcher. And only to think what could be 
accomplished with $15,000! Impecunious 
but aspiring youths could be lifted from 
their environment and elevated to noble 
hights from which they would regard 
manual labor with superb contempt; or 
the American Missionary Society could 
send out 500 more pairs of civilized trousers 
to Bombay; or a cargo of reformers could 
be shipped to the Coast of Alaska to pray 
the Indians to desist from their present 
wholesome practice of cremating their 
dead, or any of the thousand other things 
that philanthropic souls are alone capable 
of devising. And that much pin-money in 
the pocket of almost any woman would 
cause her to dance with as much delight as 
did Jane Carlyle’s dog around the heels of 
the great and growly T. C., when he made 
his daily appearance in the breakfast- 
room. 
Now, if it shall appear from the accumu¬ 
lated testimony of other housekeepers, who 
will take the trouble to weigh their meat 
orders for but one week even, that butchers 
are, as a class, devoid of “ Christian con¬ 
science ”—or what might be more to. the 
point, of real pagan honesty—then would it 
not be in the line of Domestic Service Re¬ 
form to do something ? Or would it be 
more in keeping with that exquisite sweet¬ 
ness of feminine loveliness, for us to 
swallow the ignominy of being system¬ 
atically cheated, and Frances Anne Kem¬ 
ble’s advice at the same time. 
“ Better trust all and be deceived, 
And weep that trust and that deceiving.” 
M. W. F. 
[The point in our correspondent’s 
letter which may be applied to dealings 
with tradesmen of every sort is this: 
“ Their sense of fair dealing grows daily 
more obtuse by the suspicion that their 
patrons rarely go to the trouble of putting 
purchases to the test of the kitchen scales.” 
We are all, no doubt, responsible for this 
indirect premium upon dishonesty, and we 
ourselves are not fully convinced that the 
butcher is a sinner above all other trades¬ 
men in the special line of short weight. 
Suppose we set the detective scales at 
work, indoors as well as out! Ed.] 
THE CRITIC ABROAD. 
D EAR DONNA. I arrived in this 
strange village Saturday. Business 
demanded my presence here Monday, and 
of course I visited one of the churches on 
the Sabbath. Being an early arrival, I was 
assigned a position on the high seats. (The 
floor of the audience room is an inclined 
plane, consequently the seats farthest from 
the pulpit are so elevated that unless the 
ladies wear “tenement”— i.e. nine or 10- 
story hats, a man is not obliged to nearly 
dislocate his spinal vertebras in catching a 
glimpse of the speaker on the platform). 
Watching the arrival of thb congregation 
was an interesting occupation, and I had 
the subject, “ Sunday Clothes,” presented in 
a new light. A^young man .wearing good 
clothes, sat just ahead of me. His coat- 
collar was awry, and a twisted suspender 
made an unseemly lump on his right 
shoulder-blade, and must have made him 
uncomfortable. A lady dressed in rich, 
stylish garments trailed up the aisle with 
her elegant shawl so carelessly folded 
around her that at first I really thought 
her deformed. And the heads ! Perhaps 
I was in a critical mood, or the light was 
unfavorable; any way I gained some ‘points’ 
on hair-dressing that I did not before pos¬ 
sess. Now and then I caught the glint and 
gleam of well-groomed locks. Yes, I know 
it sounds horsey; but it describes exactly 
what I saw. A woman possessing a “per¬ 
fect head of hair,” should, I claim, be at 
least as careful and as proud to have it well 
dressed as a man is to have his favorite 
steed’s silky coat perfectly groomed; and 
if she does not possess an abundant growth 
of “ flowing tresses,” all the more reason 
that she should make the very best of what 
she has. If she must wear a “switch” let 
it be the exact shade of her own hair; not 
as one coiffure I noticed, a little knot of iron 
gray in the center with an enormous braid 
of jet black surrounding it, reminding me 
of nothing so much, as of a nebula as 
pictured in our school-book on astronomy. 
With a little study a woman can learn to 
“ do” her hair in some of the simpler styles 
and when she finds one that is becoming to 
her, let her adhere to it; it is better to 
“bring out” one’s features in the most be¬ 
coming light, than to be “in style” and 
look a guy to one’s dearest. 
Mem: Man is blessed above woman in 
one respect—he wears his hair cut short, 
when he has any to cut. H. M. M., you 
will tell me next, I have missed my voca¬ 
tion—that I should have been a tonsorial 
artist; but no ! I believe I am like the 
rest of the boys: I can tell you ladies 
what you should wear; but when it comes 
to putting my advice into practice, I am 
“ not at home.” Isn’t that the regulation 
phrase ? Finally my sister—brethren too, 
when you brush your best coat—or any 
other—be sure the brush finds its way 
to the back of the garment; the age of 
powder—on one’s head—is past, and a 
sprinkling of dandruff across one’s shoul¬ 
ders cannot be attributed to “ye puff 
box.” 
I would not have you think all this audi¬ 
ence were untidy: fact is ’twas the aristo¬ 
cratic congregation of the village. There 
were maidens as fresh and dainty as—Don¬ 
na herself ! matrons as trim and dignified 
as e’er a quakeress; and gentlemen ap¬ 
parently like unto the Chevalier Bayard, 
sans peur et sans reproche ; but the fact 
that impressed me forcibly as I listened to 
the voluntary and watched these strangers, 
was: “ How little it takes to mar a per¬ 
fect whole.” If ’tis So in material things, 
how much m ore in things spiritual. 
The choir chanted the Lord’s Prayer ; the 
sermon—a heart sermon—was delivered ; 
a hymn, the benediction—the service was 
ended. A young woman who occupied the 
seat with me, gave me a friendly nod as I 
handed her the hymn book she had loaned 
me, and said : “ You are a stranger ? Come 
again, we shall be glad to see you.” She 
was a plain enough looking little mortal 
till she smiled—then one forgot her plain¬ 
ness in her sunshine. Unless you have 
been away from home, a stranger in a 
strange town, people, people everywhere 
and not a friend in sight, you cannot re¬ 
alize the pleasure one can experience in an 
episode like the foregoing; it is like the 
breath of March violets across the snow. 
Time’s up, Sis. Oh, yes, I know you will 
ask, so I may as well mention that when 
reached my room at the hotel, the first thing 
I did was to seize a hand-mirror and “ in¬ 
spect my rigging fore and aft.” All ship¬ 
shape, thank you, Bye. the DON. 
Thatcher’s Orange Butter Color Is 
now found in nearly every hamlet that can 
boast of a store, as well as ths largest cities 
throughout the dairy belt in the U. S. and 
Canada, and has been thoroughly tested 
and approved by thousands of our leading 
creamery men .—A dv. 
A NOVEL CHOPPING-KNIFE 
A CHOPPING-knife for cooked pota¬ 
toes is very simply made, and we 
often wonder how we ever did without it. 
It requires no extra dish, as you can chop 
them in the dish you warm them in, before 
putting in the seasoning. The chopper con¬ 
sists merely of a common baking-powder 
can or anything else that is solid and has a 
smooth, sharp edge at the top. We make 
half a dozen holes in the bottom to let the 
air pass out, and it is ready for use. You 
will be surprised to find how quickly the 
work is done. [Good idea ! Ed.] 
C. R. D. 
Pi«sceIImte0U!$ 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention the Rural New- 
Yorker. 
The Shah of Persia 
Though advanced in years, has hair of raven 
hue. Gray hairs are strictly prohibited in 
his dominions, and hence the large ship¬ 
ments to that country of Ayer’s Hair Vigor, 
by the use of which the Shah's subjects save 
not only their hair but their heads. Ayer’s 
Hair Vigor restores the natural color of the 
hair. It should be on every toilet-table. 
“ Some time ago my hair began to fade and 
to fall out so badly that I thought I should 
be bald; but the use of Ayer’s Hair Vigor 
has restored tne original color and made my 
hair strong, abundant, and healthy. It does 
not fall out any more.” — Addie Shaffer, 540 
Race st., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
“My hair (which had partly turned gray) 
was restored to its youthful color and 
’beauty by the use of a few bott'es of Ayer’s 
•Hair Vigor. I shall continue to use it, as 
.there is no better dressing for the hair.” —- 
Gaido Gapp, Georgeana, Ala. 
Ayer’s Hair Vigor, 
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Sold by all Druggists and Perfumers. 
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GARDINER IRON WAGON CO., 
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This is the strongest, cheapest and best 
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Send for circulars and prices if your dealer 
doesn’t keep it. 
THATCHER MFG. CO.. Potsdam, N. Y. 
™al 
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BOX 
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For Weak Stomach—Impaired Digestion—Disordered Liver. 
SOLD BY ALL DRUGGISTS. 
PRICE 25 CENTS PER BOX. 
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B. F. ALLEN & CO., Sole Agents 
FOR UNITED STATES, 3(i.» & 367 CANAL ST., YEW Y ORK; 
Who (if your druggist does not keep them) will mail Beecham’s 
Pills on receipt of price —but inquire first. (Please mention this paper.) 
