FROM DAY TO DAY. 
DECIDED convenience in sickness 
is a bed-tray for serving meals, 
forming a bandy substitute for a regular 
invalid’s table, which is often quite ex¬ 
pensive. It is a board, two feet six 
inches long and 18 inches wide, one side 
slightly hollowed out, the other side 
and ends straight. On the under side, 
a leg is screwed at each corner, about 12 
inches being a good height. When one 
is sitting up in bed, this tray may be 
placed across the knees with perfect com¬ 
fort, and without any danger of upset¬ 
ting. It may be made by the home car¬ 
penter, and prettily painted with enamel 
paint, would form a very useful Christ¬ 
mas gift for an invalid friend. 
* 
Several of our readers express de¬ 
cided disapprobation of that “Biography 
of a Bedbug” as a feature of the WOman’s 
Department. Says one, “ We always ex¬ 
pect something dainty and nice in that 
department, and to think that it should 
have been so invaded was too bad. I 
hereby move that Mr. Slingerland move 
his ‘bugology’ into another pew 1” That 
biography was smuggled into the 
Woman’s Page during a brief period 
when the household editor was repre¬ 
sented by an empty chair. The new in¬ 
cumbent assures her readers that if Mr. 
Slingerland’s cimex ever does acquire 
wings, as he suggests, she will see that 
the invader is compelled to fly into an¬ 
other department of the paper. 
* 
The first convention of Jewish women 
to be held in this country opened in 
New York, November 15. It is called 
the National Council of Jewish Women, 
and is an outgrowth of the Congress of 
Women at the Columbian Exposition in 
1893. In different parts of the country, 
there are now nearly 50 sections in ex¬ 
istence, with a total membership of 
more than 3,000. The stated purposes 
of the Council are “ to bring about 
closer relations among Jewish women ; 
to furnish by an organic union a medium 
of communication and a means of proie- 
cuting work of common interest; to 
further united efforts in behalf of 
Judaism by supplying means of study, 
and in behalf of the work of social re¬ 
form by application of the best philan¬ 
thropic thought.” Jewish women are 
well-known for their earnest and far- 
reaching philanthropic work, and this 
convention shows that they are fully 
abreast of their sisters of differing faiths 
in modern intellectual activity. 
THE NOONDAY REST. 
MONG the helpful institutions that 
owe their birth to the club idea 
among women are the noonday rests or 
lunch clubs, now in operation in most of 
the larger cities. Chicago has a number 
of these organizations, one of the best 
known being the Greek Letter Club and 
its branches, Alpha, Beta, and so on. 
These must not be regarded as charit¬ 
able institutions. They are self-support¬ 
ing conveniences for the benefit of self- 
supporting women, and the charity idea 
is entirely lacking. 
The main idea is the same in all these 
clubs ; it is the providing of a whole¬ 
some lunch, neatly served, at a moder¬ 
ate cost. But to this they add social 
and educational advantages of a varied 
class ; they seek to create a home atmo¬ 
sphere for the many working women 
who must live in boarding houses, and 
they afford sisterly help and sympathy 
to the isolated. The club members pay 
monthly dues (usually 25 cents), but 
they may bring a visitor at any time on 
payment of a five-cent fee, in addition 
to the cost of their meal. The serving 
is done on the cafeteria plan-; that is, 
the guests select their table and provide 
themselves with knives, forks and 
plates ; they are then served by attend¬ 
ants at the large table, where the entire 
list of viands is displayed, but there are 
no waiters. They receive a check for 
their lunch, and, after finishing, are re¬ 
quired to remove their empty dishes 
from the table and place them on a 
dumb waiter or butler’s tray. The food 
is varied, excellent and well cooked. 
Prices charged are extremely moderate ; 
five cents for meat, three cents for all 
vegetables, three cents for tea, coffee or 
milk ; three cents for pie. The bill of 
fare always includes seasonable fruits 
and vegetables, and while the portions 
of meat served are necessarily smaller 
than in ordinary restaurants, they are 
sufficient. The moderate prices permit 
one to select a varied meal for a very 
small amount; from 11 to 15 cents gives 
one a good meal. There is always a 
comfortable sitting-room, with books 
and magazines, where the club members 
may rest if they desire ; very often the 
lunch hour is enlivened by excellent 
music, performed by some friend who 
gives her talent to the club. 
The educational advantages include 
lessons in languages, literature, Delsarte, 
music, embroidery and art. The teachers 
are always capable and experienced, and 
the charge to club members is but 10 
cents a lesson. The lessons are usually 
given in the evening, as a rule, between 
six and eight, and the students may then 
get their evening meal at the club. A 
woman physician is in attendance cer¬ 
tain days, and her fees are very moder¬ 
ate. The Alpha Club, in addition to its 
other conveniences, has dormitories, so 
that a club member unexpectedly be¬ 
lated may find a place to sleep. 
The purely material advantages of 
these clubs become almost insignificant 
when compared with the great good they 
accomplish in other ways. They afford 
sympathetic companionship to many a 
friendless girl ; they fortify her self- 
respect, and teach her that she is more 
than a mere working machine. The lone¬ 
liness of country life is often commented 
on—far worse is the loneliness of un¬ 
friended life in a great city. The con¬ 
tinual procession of strange and un¬ 
friendly faces, with a background of 
bricks and mortar, gives one a far keener 
sense of isolation than an unchanging 
country landscape. To many of the 
girls the officers of the club are their 
closest friends, to whom they go for 
help and sympathy. 
Many of the clubs assist in the organ¬ 
ization of boarding places or club homes, 
where a sort of cooperative housekeep¬ 
ing gives greater comfort, with less ex¬ 
pense, than in an ordinary boarding¬ 
house. This plan is now being tried by 
a good many of the girls ; it enables 
them to obtain better accommodations 
than a boarding-house supplies, at far 
less cost. 
The active management of these clubs 
is in the hands of good women who freely 
give themselves and their labor for this 
purpose. For example, the Silver Cross 
Club is managed by the King’s Daugh¬ 
ters ; it is the headquarters of the or¬ 
ganization in Chicago, and while by 
serving lunch they cover the rent of the 
rooms, there is no attempt to gain any 
other profit. All the attendants in charge 
belong to the order, even the neat- 
handed colored women in the kitchen 
displaying the little silver cross. It is a 
pleasant relief from the monotony of 
business life to enter their big, airy lunch 
room, on the thirteenth floor of a tall 
office building ; to see the little tables 
with a few flowers or bit of green, sur¬ 
rounded by gaily chattering girls, or to 
peep into the pretty sitting-room, with 
lounges, rocking chairs, book-case and 
piano. To many a working woman, this 
is the only glimpse of home, and it cer¬ 
tainly arouses a spirit of mutual help¬ 
fulness among the members. Only those 
who have been compelled, day after day, 
to eat a tasteless lunch with a herd of 
other hurried workers, in a crowded 
cafeteria or lunch-room, can fully appre¬ 
ciate the blessings of a woman’s lunch 
club. _ 
TABLE NAPKINS. 
HE subject of providing a sufficient 
number of pretty table napkins, 
at a small cost, is interesting both to the 
woman with a large family, and also to 
the one who must, of necessity, count 
the value of each penny. The provident 
housewife has learned that it is far 
cheaper to make her own napkins. She 
chooses two materials—linen, either the 
very coarse woven, or else the smooth 
such as we use for aprons, and Indian 
Head domestic. The first named mater¬ 
ials are used for best napkins ; these are 
ornamented with embroidery or drawn- 
work as taste and time decide. The last 
named material is for napkins in con¬ 
stant use. This particular brand of 
domestic is especially good for this pur¬ 
pose ; it is coarsely, not loosely, woven 
and resembles cotton duck to some ex¬ 
tent. The usual price is 15 cents a 
yard, but in some places it may be found 
at a cheaper price. Where one finds 
remnants they may be bought for a 
mere song, yet answer the purpose 
nicely. One yard makes four good-sized 
napkins, and will make six if smaller 
sizes are preferred. 
As for the ornamental part, that rests 
chiefly with the maker. A fringed edge 
is preferable to a hem. After the napkin 
is cut in a square shape, measure from 
the edge an inch, or 1%, for fringe. 
Draw a thread at this distance all around 
the napkin. Then measure another half 
inch inside the drawn thread space, and 
this is where the drawn-work begins. A 
simple design is to draw the thread in 
three-quarter-inch wide stripes about an 
inch apart, on all the four sides, draw¬ 
ing the threads completely out. On one 
side of the napkin, hemstitch the side 
of each stripe nearest you, then turn the 
napkin upside down and hemstitch the 
other side. When you begin those last 
rows of hemstitching, leave half the 
threads in the first bunch of stitching, 
take up the last half of the first bunch 
and the first half of the second bunch, 
and so on to the end. This makes a 
fence-row which is very pretty. The 
open squares at the corners may be filled 
in with a spider, or left open. 
Another pretty style of hem-stitching 
is to draw the threads so as to form a 
row of squares. Hem-stitch these, let¬ 
ting the thread go through the center of 
the square at each stitch. This work is 
very effective done with red thread, as 
the stitch shows more plainly. 
Many outline some pretty figure on 
the napkin ; any figure could be used, 
and one who has a stamping outfit needs 
no suggestions. The colored plates in 
the flower catalogues may be used very 
nicely. Mark over the outline of the 
flower on tracing paper laid above the 
cloth ; when the paper is removed, there 
is the pattern. Turkey-red cotton is 
well liked for outline work, but all the 
fast colors may be found in the linen 
threads; and this affords a pleasing 
variety. mart hardy. 
Calliop8I8 and Narcissus. —I can in¬ 
dorse what Linda Wilton McNeil said, 
on page 647, of the calliopsis. I had a 
plant last winter, that made my window 
gay. In June, it was set in the flower 
bed, where it bloomed very freely all 
summer. The branches that broke off 
were stuck in the earth, where they 
rooted, and after a time, bloomed. 
Last October, I took up three thrifty, 
though belated, seedling phlox plants. 
The largest one soon began to bloom, 
and kept right at it all winter. At no 
time was the stalk without its small 
cluster of bright flowers. The others 
were not so early, but constant when 
they began. These outdoor plants were 
a very great pleasure to the household 
all winter. 
Why do narcissus buds dry up and not 
bloom ? The buds half open, then dry 
and drop off. The plants look very 
thrifty, and have many buds. This has 
happened for three years. White Sweet 
narcissus is the variety. mater. 
[Probably it is owing to some injury 
to the roots or bulbs.—E ds.] 
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When Mr. Beecher Sold 
Slaves in Plymouth Pul-pit 
The most marvelous scene ever witnessed 
in a church , when men and women 
almost lost themselves in hysterical ex¬ 
citement y and threw watches , rings 
and jewels on the platform and 
in the collection baskets. Mrs. 
Henry Ward Beecher describes 
the great event in the Christ¬ 
mas Ladies' Home Journal , 
while De Thulstrup shows 
the actual scene in a 
realistic picture . 
One Dollar for One Year 
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA 
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