INDIAN SUMMER. 
With the dying of the autumn come the “ Indian 
summer ” days; 
O’er all the purple hillsides, hangs a tender veil of 
haze, 
The warmth of golden sunrise, the splendor and 
the glow 
Of “Indian summer ” sunset, like no others that 
we know. 
A-backward glance of summer, no, ’tis not the 
summer day, 
This richness and this splendor never glows from 
closing May; 
’Tis.the frosty, cool September, ’tis the summer’s 
brightest hours, 
Caught and ’prisoned in these brief days, like dis¬ 
tilled perfume of flowers. 
The quiet of. each perfect day, that glows from 
sun to sun, 
Is like some spot along the brook, where deep, 
still waters run; 
Yet the silent forests echo accompanying sounds 
of sport, 
The deep-mouthed baying of the hounds, and 
firearms’ report. 
As we bask in tropic splendor of the “ Indian 
summer ” day, 
A truant thought will wander,to the beauty passed 
away; 
The tender green of springtime, summer roses 
drenched with dews, 
And the later gorgeous coloring of the brilliant 
autumn hues. 
The mosses and the graceful ferns still lend a 
touch of green, 
While russet leaf and somber tints, give back¬ 
ground to the scene; 
Yet there’s something indescribable, the hush, 
the mellow light, 
The calm like that which lingers ’round a soul 
prepared for flight. 
“ Indian summer ” splendor, though we must let 
you go, 
Still in the heart we’ll cherish your beauty and 
your glow, 
As the memory of some friendship that cheered 
us on through life, 
Whose love has e’en outlasted earth’s jealousies 
and strife. —Belle H. Gardner. 
HAVE WE KEPT IN STEP WITH OUR 
HUSBANDS? 
A S time rolls along, and we note the 
improvement in the manner of 
doing farm work, and the vast improve¬ 
ment in the machinery used in doing 
that work, in the last 40 years or so, it 
would seem interesting to note whether 
there has been as much improvement in 
housekeeping, and the manner of living, 
in that time. Many things now done by 
machinery, were done by hand then. 
Washing machines were few and far be¬ 
tween in farm houses, the pounding bar¬ 
rel and its clumsy pestle filling that 
place to the best of their ability, though 
the heavy, watersoaked barrel, smaller 
at the top than at the bottom did not 
look like a suitable thing for a woman 
to lift or handle. Wringers were still 
to be invented. Kerosene, with all its 
convenience, comfort, usefulness and 
danger was on the eve of reaching us. 
Whatever work the housewife did before 
daylight or after dark, was by the light 
of the tallow dip or molded candle. 
Meat was prepared, for sausage or mince 
pies, by chopping in a wooden bowl, 
with a knife with one wide blade. Coffee 
came green from the grocery, was 
roasted in the stove oven and ground, a 
little at a time, in a small handmill. 
Also pepper, cinnamon, cloves, etc., were 
prepared in the same manner and mill 
at home. 
Preserving fruit, vegetables and meat 
in air-tight cans began about this time ; 
the farmer’s wife, before this, put up so 
many gallons of preserves, half sugar, 
half fruit, cooked until very rich and 
thick, and put in a cool, dark, dry place, 
so many gallons of pickles, sweet and 
sour, a quantity of jelly and apple but¬ 
ter. The rest of the fruit was to be 
dried. All sorts of contrivances were 
arranged for increasing the capacity of 
the stoves ana fireplaces as driers, and, 
as the womenfolks worked with aching 
arms and blistered fingers, the flies 
feasted and multiplied without let or 
hindrance, as screens were not in fashion. 
Sewing by hand, in a neat and sub¬ 
stantial manner, was only a common 
accomplishment in those days, and, even 
after the sewing machines came, it was 
many years before they were generally 
used in the farm homes. Then, if Johnnie 
chanced to break a stitch in his trousers, 
while playing ball, the garment did not 
dissolve into its original parts, without 
a moment’s warning; but thread was 
thread, and the stitches lasted with the 
garment. Women who did tailoring for 
families went from house to house, not 
only doing the sewing needed, but tak¬ 
ing the place of the local page in the 
county paper of to-day. For many years 
after some of these inventions had been 
in use, the farmer’s wife continued to 
knit all of the stockings and mittens for 
her family, often doing a few extra 
pairs, if she were uncommonly deft, to 
trade with the pack peddler when he 
came along bending under his heavy 
load. Now these articles may be bought 
already knitted, for very little more than 
the yarn is worth, and that exacting, 
nerve-straining work is no longer neces¬ 
sary. Now knitted underwear takes 
the place of the stiff, uncomfortable 
cotton cloth, is cheaper, and much easier 
to wash. 
The flour-sifter, egg-beater, tins with 
removable bottoms, double boilers, jelly 
press, the improved stoves with reser¬ 
voirs and other hot water arrangements, 
the gasoline and kerosene stoves, and 
alcohol burners, the light, smooth gran¬ 
ite ware, the asbestos plate and bak¬ 
ing powder, make cooking very different 
work ; and though some of our modern 
dishes are fearfully and wonderfully 
compounded, and should astonish even 
the modern stomach, we venture to say, 
on the whole, that farmers in general 
are living in a more healthful way than 
they used to do. 
Pork and various dishes containing 
corn meal are not so commonly used as 
they were, and where pork is used by 
the farmer, it is often of tender age and 
raised on sweet apples and clover in a 
clean pasture, instead of the old way of 
stuffing older animals with corn until 
very fat, while kept without exercise in 
a cold, dirty pen. 
Fruit, in abundance, is used both win¬ 
ter and summer, the women filling many 
cans with vegetables and, sometimes, 
with meat, with which to fill in any lack 
in the fresh supplies. The cereals are 
used simply cooked, with a dressing of 
sugar and cream. Tne latter, by the 
way, has been pronounced by eminent 
physicians better than cod liver oil in 
nutritious qualities. A great variety of 
both vegetables and fruits are raised, so 
that one need never be at a loss in hav¬ 
ing an appetizing variety. 
The old-fashioned winter quarters for 
poultry, where the poor hen, not only 
did not produce eggs, but just endured 
a miserable existence during the winter 
months, have been condemned,and a more 
humane treatment given for which the 
family have the thanks of the poultry in 
the form of a well-filled egg basket and 
a comfortable table supply. 
The housewife has been relieved of 
the dairy work which took so much of 
her mother’s and grandmother’s time. 
The men, having taken butter-making 
in hand, have learned that it pays to 
make it a business the year ’round, and 
not have it an incidental, often an acci¬ 
dental, along with the other work, as 
it must needs be when carried on by a 
woman who had much housework and 
small children to look after. With most 
of us, also, more attention is given to 
convenience and purity of water supply, 
thus lightening labor and increasing 
health. 
The houses are built more and more 
convenient, with some ideas of light, 
ventilation and comfortable chambers. 
Chambers used, too often, to come where 
it happened, people sometimes saying 
that it toughened children to sleep in a 
cold room, though it often took the 
children half of the night to warm their 
beds enough to sleep comfortably dur¬ 
ing the other half. Now such harden¬ 
ing is not considered wise, but useless 
exposure. Rubbers are now provided 
for children to keep their feet dry and 
ward off consumption, their eyes are 
cared for, and their teeth. In fact, in 
looking the matter over thoroughly, I 
think the children fortunate who are 
beginning life about the year 1890. 
CLARA T. SISSON. 
A TRIO OF HELPS. 
W HEN the fire is out in the kitchen 
stove, and it is too warm else¬ 
where in the house for fire, yet not 
warm enough to raise yeast, it is well to 
have about the house some contrivance 
that will overcome the difficulty. A 
very simple device that I have used a 
long time, with most satisfactory results, 
is shown at Fig. 236. Take a cracker 
box or a similar one from which one 
side has been removed; in one of its 
narrowest sides, saw out a piece six 
inches square, set up the box so that 
this will be on top. Place a pan of water 
over the aperture, and the vessel con¬ 
taining the yeast sponge over the water. 
Put a small lamp in the box, and its 
heat will keep the water warm all night, 
and raise the sponge beautifully. 
In a sick room, this will be found in¬ 
valuable, as the kettle of water can be 
kept hot all night with the night lamp, 
the box making an excellent shade for 
the lamp. The mother who has her 
babies’ food to prepare through the 
night, can place it by her bed side, and 
have the water all ready without having 
to keep Master Baby waiting, when he 
wakes in the middle of the night with 
the conviction that he is being starved 
to death, and proceeds to inform the 
entire neighborhood of the fact. 
If the outside of the box be unsightly, 
cover it with cretonne, or stain with 
some dark color. Any lamp may be 
used, provided the top of the chimney 
do not reach the top of the box by an 
inch or so ; this would shut up the flame 
and cause the wick to smoke and be dis¬ 
agreeable. The box has been christened, 
by a grateful mother to whom I gave 
one, the good Brownie. 
An excellent cover for barrels, pans, 
buckets, open cooking vessels and dozens 
of other things can be made thus: Put 
a piece of telegraph or similar wire 
very loosely dround the barrel or vessel 
to be covered, and twist the two ends of 
wire together so as to form a handle 
about an inch long. The wire hoop thus 
formed should then be laid on a piece of 
cheese-cloth or heavier cloth, and the 
material cut an inch larger all around, 
than the hoop; the edge of the cloth 
should then be turned over the wire and 
sewed to it neatly all around. The wire 
being larger around than the article to 
be covered, acts as a slight weight, hold¬ 
ing the cloth firmly against the edge of 
the barrel or vessel, effectually barring 
the passage of insects or dust. It is 
light, easily removed, and particularly 
useful to cover boiling vessels of jellies, 
preserves, etc., where rapid evaporation 
of water is desired. 
Where is the house without its empty 
spools and missing door knobs ? Here 
is a way to substitute one for the otner. 
Put a screw through the hole in an 
empty spool, taking care that it be 
three-quarters of an inch longer than 
the spool; then with the screw-driver, 
put them somewhere near the place of 
the missing knob. Paint or gild the 
spool, and tie around it a pretty bow of 
ribbon with short ends. You will find 
this both useful and ornamental. TSpools 
may also be used to advantage for hang¬ 
ing clothes, if one have no closet hooks.— 
EDS.] M. LANK GRIFFIN. 
A GASOLINE EXPLOSION. 
T HE gasoline stove is a great inven¬ 
tion. In the summer, there need 
be no overheating of the house with a 
coal cook stove. Turn a screw, light a 
match, wait 30 seconds, put on the 
water and have it boiling within four 
minutes—that’s great; turn off the fire, 
and stop the heat when the meal is 
ready—that’s greater. But there are 
drawbacks. The daily papers seemed 
to make a specialty of reporting gaso¬ 
line accidents last summer. 
One likes to be reasonably safe, and 
the stove on hand was of the “ drip- 
cup” style, requiring one to generate 
sufficient gas to start it, and then doing 
a deal of sputtering when starting. So 
it was condemned in family council, and 
the “newest thing out” with all the 
embellishments and safety devices was 
invested in. Then we were happy. It 
couldn’t blow up—the agent said so. It 
was of the anarchist type—generated its 
own gas. No fussing about it. Now 
let the paper report its accidents, we 
were safe. We could eat, drink and be 
merry. 
But—there are drawbacks. The five- 
gallon gasoline can was kept in the 
woodshed, eight feet from the kitchen. 
That is safe, because the insurance man 
said so. It couldn’t go off unless some 
one took a light into the room while gas 
was escaping. As none of the family 
has a desire to go “off”, there was no 
danger from this source. But the gaso¬ 
line went, went on its own hook and 
without a light to blaze the way, until 
furnished by itself when it got started. 
The Modem 
STOVE POLISH 
BUSTLESS, ODORLESS, 
BRILLIANT, LABOR SAVING. 
Try it on your Cycle Chain. 
i. L. PRESCOTT & CO., New York. 
