THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 18, 
134 
[ Woman and Home j 
From Day to Day. 
My fairest child, I have no song to give you; 
No lark could pipe in skies so dull and gray ; 
Yet, if you will, one quiet hint I’ll leave you, 
For every day. 
I'll tell you how to sing a clearer carol 
Than lark who hails the dawn on breezy 
down, 
To earn yourself a purer poet's laurel 
Than Shakespeare’s crown. 
Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be 
clever; 
Do lovely things, not dream them, all day¬ 
long; 
And so make Life, and Death and that For 
Ever, 
One grand sweet song. 
—Canon Charles Kingsley (1819-1875). 
* 
The country dweller should add to her 
collection of sofa pillows some filled with 
the leaves of sweet fern and bayberry, 
which are now as popular as pillows of 
balsam fir. Gather the leaves and dry 
carefully during the Summer, then use 
them to fill linen or canvas pillows. They 
retain their fragrance, suggestive of the 
sweet Summer fields, throughout the sea¬ 
son. 
* 
Grenadine carreau is one of the new 
thin fabrics consisting of a transparent 
grenadine ground barred with solid-woven 
square plaid, all in white, printed over 
with a delicate flower design in colors. 
This material costs 45 cents a yard. Linen 
is again to be a favorite material the com¬ 
ing Summer, but a readymade linen cos¬ 
tume may run up to an appalling figure. 
One beautiful white linen costume noted 
had a deep shoulder cape, which w r as 
strapped in front to give a coat effect; the 
cape was edged with tiny tassels and the 
whole costume trimmed with bands and 
big medallions of embroidery, drawn-work 
and appliqued braid. This dress cost $55. 
A skirt, waist and coat of tan linen, heav¬ 
ily trimmed with lace embroidery of the 
same color was priced at $75. Charming 
Summer frocks of soft, thin silk in light 
colors and white—Habutai and louisine— 
elaborately shirred and trimmed with lace, 
cost $30 to $38. 
* 
We have heard women say that it is 
w r aste of time to put up preserves, when 
any grocery will sell a nice little jar, put 
up in glass, for 10 or 15 cents. We have 
just been testing a 10-cent jar of straw¬ 
berry preserve. Tt has its analysis printed 
on its label, as the law now directs: 
“fresh fruit, 20 per cent ; apple juice, 30 per 
cent; sugar, 15 per cent; corn syrup, 35 
per cent.” This is certainly an improvement 
over the mixture of apple, pumpkin and ani¬ 
line coloring, further doctored by coal-tar 
flavoring and Timothy seed, which was 
found masquerading as strawberry jam in 
some localities, but it could hardly be re¬ 
garded as a substitute for the domestic 
product. It possessed no strawberry flavor 
whatever, and the syrup had the exceeding 
stickiness of very stiff honey, combined 
with a coarse molasses flavor. We shall 
still remain loyal to our homemade straw¬ 
berry jam, cooked in the sun, and re¬ 
taining the rich aroma of the fresh 
fruit. 
* 
A weird experiment in invalid dietary 
is related by the Youth’s Companion. The 
story was told by an old physician who 
had practiced for nearly 50 years in a 
small country town. One day he was sum¬ 
moned to a farmhouse, where he found 
a woman in a high fever, and evidently 
exceedingly ill. He said to her hus¬ 
band. who was the only other person in 
the house; 
“Your wife is very sick and must have 
nothing to eat except milk and beef tea, 
but I want you to give her a cup of one 
or the other every two hours.” When he 
came the next morning and asked about 
his patient, her husband said: 
“That beef tea don’t agree with her, 
doctor. It certainly don’t. She began to 
feel bad as soon as she took it.” 
“That’s odd,” said the doctor. “You 
didn’t give her any little bits of meat 
in it, did you?” 
“No, sir, I strained it first on account 
of the grounds.” 
“Grounds!” roared the doctor. “What 
did you make that beef tea out of?” 
“Corn beef and the best green tea. I 
boiled ’em together all yesterday after¬ 
noon to get the strength out. But it 
don't agree with Iter, doctor. It certainly 
don’t.” 
* 
Walking hats for early Spring are after 
English models in rough straw—green, 
brown, straw color and dull reds. Many 
are trimmed with twists of maline the 
same color as the hat, but more stylish are 
bunches of flowers which do not approach 
nature in tint, but harmonize with the 
color of the straw. Sometimes, however, 
they are trimmed with very natural-look¬ 
ing fruit. Such hats cost from $5 to $12. 
The woman with a slim pocketbook need 
not think, however, that she is barred 
from obtaining a pretty and stylish hat 
at a much lower price. There are plenty 
of pretty hats of braids, maline, and 
mousseline de sole, separate or combined, 
that cost from $2 up; some need no trim¬ 
ming at all, others merely a rosette or 
cluster of flowers. Some very pretty 
hats of pyroxiline braid—which is merely 
a sort of mohair with a metallic luster— 
were recently noted for $2.50 in all colors 
and shapes. They were very handsome in 
red and brown. In planning for the 
Spring and Summer wardrobe, and es¬ 
pecially in buying a hat, it will be wise 
to arrange for a thoroughly harmonious 
“color scheme,” as the artists say. In 
other words, buy garments that will com¬ 
bine well. If you have a wood-colored 
covert coat, don't buy a gray walking 
skirt to wear with it, and if your jacket 
suit is dark blue, don’t indulge in a 
lavender waist or a purple hat. No 
matter how limited the wardrobe it should 
be selected with this idea in view. 
Hillside Farm Notes, 
I wonder if Charity Sweetheart or any 
other readers of The R. N.-Y. have ever 
tried cooking little pieces of codfish with 
salsify? The fishy taste makes the oys¬ 
ter taste more natural. I have tried it 
in soup, and like it very much. 1 have 
also made escalloped oysters by cook¬ 
ing the salsify and codfish together till 
tender, then putting a layer of the salsify 
and codfish alternately with cracker 
crumbs and seasoning with salt, pepper 
and butter and adding milk enough to 
moisten the crackers. 
Charity’s letters bring back old times to 
a good many readers, I fancy; and one 
is divided, as of old, between a desire to 
give her a good scolding and a feeling 
of sympathy for her trials. Her letters 
remind me of 'a somewhat eccentric but 
wonderfully good-hearted old lady who 
used to attend our Town Sunday School 
Associations. She delighted in saying 
something that would arouse antagonism 
and bring half a dozen people to their 
feet to remonstrate by the time she sat 
down. She always succeeded in bringing 
out the truth she wanted, to impress on 
Sunday School workers by presenting the 
other side. I often wonder if Charity 
does not intend to hit both sides. Her 
letters certainly stir one up, and are al¬ 
ways interesting. I am glad she has 
taken up her pen again, emma l. bliss. 
He that knows not and knows not that he 
knows not is a fool—shun him; 
He that knows not and knows that he knows 
not is simple—teach him ; 
He that knows and knows not that he knows 
is asleep—rouse him ; 
And he that knows and knows that he knows 
is a wise man—follow him.—From Th» 
Arabic. 
Farm Fare in Michigan. 
The farmers’ table in Michigan is much 
better supplied than the average town 
dweller’s. Vegetables, fruit, pork, milk, 
potatoes, beans, eggs and poultry are pro¬ 
duced on the farm, and no money estimate 
is placed on what is used. It is possible 
to get a meal of clean, nourishing food 
of good variety without drawing on paper 
bags or tin cans. The writer has lived 
in a suburb of a big city and bought 
provisions for a large family, and she 
sees a vast difference between buying at 
retail and sending to cellar or storeroom 
for supplies. Last year I canned 400 
quarts of fruit and used it; the cost of the 
same in tin cans from a grocer’s shelf 
would have been enormous. In Illinois I 
paid 25 cents daily for milk, which did 
not equal in quantity or quality what one 
cow produces. I have paid 20 cents for 
enough navy beans to cook in a four- 
quart milk crock, while here I do not 
measure pork or beans, as both are “in 
the house.” I do not think the Hope 
Farm man has overdrawn the picture of 
the Madame’s menu, or those who have 
written of “One Day’s Work” have ex¬ 
aggerated the quality of food supplied on 
the average farm, a Michigan woman. 
The Bookshelf. 
I he Common Lot, by Robert Herrick. 
— lo work, t,o live plainly, to enjoy 
simple pleasures far removed from the 
restless luxury of the rich—these make 
up the common lot, and the moral 
strength of a great nation. Air. Her¬ 
rick’s novel deals with the career of a 
young architect, educated by his mil¬ 
lionaire uncle, first at Cornell, afterwards 
in Paris. He returns to Chicago, highly 
educated, full of artistic sensibility, but 
ready only for luxurious leisure. He 
is prepared to live on his dead uncle’s 
money, but not to do a man’s work among 
men. But the dead millionaire, in life 
a hard master, leaves his money to found 
a technical school for the children of 
workingmen, and his nephew must learn 
to apply his education to the common 
lot. Unhappily he loves ease and lux¬ 
ury, and soon learns that to be successful 
in competitive business, he must do as 
others do—trample under foot all sense 
of honor and of pity, drive the weak 
out of his way, and smother all instinct 
of honesty under the profits of “graft.” 
Finally he is horrified by the sight of 
a burning building—a lath-and-plaster 
shell, marked “fireproof”—which he had 
designed, in which many lives are sacri¬ 
ficed to the greed of the owners. He 
tries to make restitution; gives up his 
Judas profits, and goes back to hard 
work and plain living—the common lot. 
It is a most absorbing story, which will 
hold the reader’s attention to the very 
end, but it deserves close study also as 
a picture of one of our greatest national 
dangers. As a study of contemporary 
Chicago life, it may be called a coming 
classic; anyone who has lived and worked 
among the people of that city will recog¬ 
nize its actual truth. Published by the 
Macmillan Company, New York, it is 
now in its sixth edition; price $1.50. 
Old-Fashioned Cranberry Pie.—An ex¬ 
cellent cranberry pie, which should be 
made the day before it is used, is made 
by lining a pie plate with a light paste 
and filling with uncooked cranberries. 
Add to this two-thirds of a cupful of New 
Orleans molasses and three tablespoonfuls 
of brown sugar and a lump of butter. 
Bake in a moderate oven for three-quar¬ 
ters of an hour. If a small dough chim¬ 
ney can be placed in the center of the 
pie the syrup will boil up in this and not 
be lost. Another cranberry pie is made 
of one cupful of chopped cranberries, a 
half cupful of seeded raisins, mixed to¬ 
gether. Add to them a cup of sugar, half 
a cup of water, a tablespoonful of flour, 
a teaspoonful of vanilla. Bake with an 
under and upper crust. 
The Old Reliable 
ROYAL 
BAKING POWDER 
ABSOLUTELY 
PURE 
There is no substitute 
When you write advertisers mention The 
I t. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and 
"a square deal.” See guarantee, page 18. 
LAMP-FITS. 
How do you know what 
chimney fits your lamp ? 
Your grocer tells you. 
How does he know? 
He don’t. 
Do you then s 
That’s about how lamps 
are fitted with chimneys by 
people who don’t use my 
Index; and they complain 
of bad chimneys ! Lamp- 
Fits indeed ! Do you want 
the Index? Free. 
Macbeth, Pittsburgh. 
TELEPHONES 
AND LINE MATERIAL FOR 
WARMERS* LINES 
so pimple you can build your own line. 
Instruction book and price list free. The 
Williams Telephone & Supply Co. 
78 Central Ave., Cleveland, O. 
TELEPHONE APPARATUS 
OWN YOUR OWN TELEPHONE LINE. 
Our telephones are powerful, loud- 
talking and absolutely guaranteed. 
OUR PRICES ARE RIGHT. 
Telephones that work on any line. 
Large Catalog No. 9 Free. 
CONNECTICUT TELE. & ELEC. 
_Meriden, Conn., U. S. A, 
CO., 
TELEPHONES 
FOR FARMERS’ LINES 
Build your own lines. Inexpensive 
and simple. We will tell you how. 
Book ol Instructions Free. C N 302 
THE NORTH ELECTRIC CO. 
152 St. Clair St. Cleveland, Ohio. 
Telephone 
Facts 
Facts are what the farmer wants, 
whether buying a team or a telephone. 
If you want to know bow others have 
built successful telephone lines write 
^ for free book 102. Our book F. 102 “Telo- 
pbone Facts for Farmers” gives 
the facts you ought to know about 
Af telephones for farm use, 
and whether you buy 
STROMBERG- 
CARLSON 
TELEPHONES 
or not you will be in pos¬ 
session of information 
which will enable you to 
buy the right telephone, 
build the right line and 
save unnecessary exper¬ 
imenting. We send it free. 
Stromberg-Carlson Tel. 
Mfg. Co.. Rochester, 
N. Y., Chicago, III. 
“ With its head in the clouds.” 
PIKES PEAK 
One of the most famous moun¬ 
tains in America stands about mid¬ 
way between Denver and Pueblo. 
Forty years ago, it took as many 
days to reach it as it now takes 
hours, so improved are the trans¬ 
portation facilities. The 
NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES 
and their connections offer fast 
and luxurious trains with only one 
change between New York or 
Boston and important points in 
Colorado. 
A copy of “America'sWinter Hesorts.” will 
be sent free, postpaid, on receipt of a postage 
stamp by George U. Daniels, General Pas¬ 
senger Agent, New York Central & Hudson 
River Railroad. Grand Central Station. New 
York, 
