446 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 26, 
l Woman and Home \ 
From Day to Day. 
INTROIT. 
’Twere bliss lo see one lark 
Soar to the azure dark. 
Sinking upon Ills high celestial road. 
I have seen many hundreds soar, thank God ! 
To see one Spring begin 
In her first heavenly green 
Were grace unmeet or any mortal clod. 
I have seen many Springs, thank God! 
After the lark the swallow. 
Blackbirds in hill and hollow. 
Thrushes and nightingales, all roads I trod. 
As though one bird were not enough, thank 
God ! 
Not one flower, hut a rout, 
All exquisite, are out: 
All white and golden every stretch of sod. 
As though one flower were not enough, 
thank God! 
—Katherine Tynan in New York Tribune. 
* 
A wooden clothespin makes a very good 
scraper for porcelain-lined kettles; it re¬ 
moves adhering particles without marking 
the surface, says a correspondent of 
Good Housekeeping. 
* 
The slip-over dressing sack is a pretty 
new style, shaped like a clerical cotta; 
that is, it has the fullness of a kimono 
gathered into a circular yoke sufficiently 
large to be slipped over the head, and 
there is no other opening. The sleeves 
are wide and flowing. The same style is 
^nade with a square Dutch yoke The yoke 
band and trimming may he either lace, 
embroidery or a contrasting color in lawn. 
* 
When new potatoes come in, serve 
small ones in the French peasant manner. 
Wash, then boil in the skins. When 
cooked, peel quickly, and shake over them 
a sauce made of melted butter flavored 
with a few drops of vinegar and a little 
French mustard. An English method is 
to use the melted butter, without any 
flavoring, and then sprinkle over the pota¬ 
toes a little chopped parsley, just before 
serving. 
* 
A lemon rice pudding is a wholesome 
dessert, and very much nicer than the 
ordinary way of cooking this cereal. Boil 
a cup of well washed rice in a quart of 
milk until very soft. Add to it while 
hot the beaten yolks of three eggs, the 
juice and grated rind of two lemons, eight 
tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. 
If too thick, add a little milk. It should 
be rather thicker than boiled custard. 
Turn it into a pudding dish, beat the 
whites of the eggs very stiff with six 
tablespoons of powdered sugar, spread 
over the top and brown delicately in a 
slow oven. 
* 
Prairie grass furniture is among the 
styles specially recommended for Summer 
homes; it is pretty and durable, and well 
suited for a country house. It is made of 
wild grass from the Western States, 
manufactured by machinery into twine¬ 
like strands, then woven or braided over 
strong frames. Tt is dyed forest green, 
and is very pretty and artistic. Chairs 
cost from $4 to $15. Reed or rattan furni¬ 
ture is another pretty style in both natural 
color and green; there are a great many 
pretty pieces, tables, chairs, settees, book¬ 
cases. etc. A room furnished in bamboo 
may be made very bright and pretty at 
small expense. 
* 
A reader asks how to make old- 
fashioned panada from soda crackers, so 
that it will not he a soggy mass, with 
here and there a bit of hard cracker. 
Real panada, which should be like a jelly, 
cannot be made in a hurry. Put six soda 
crackers in a deep bowl, sprinkling a little 
sugar and a pinch of cinnamon between 
and over them. Pour in gently enough 
warm—not hot—water to cover the 
crackers one inch deep; put on a close lid, 
and stand in a pan of boiling water on 
the stove. Cook for a full hour after the 
water in the outer pan begins to bubble. 
All the water in the bowl should be 
soaked up, and the crackers should be 
like a jelly. Toast panada is made by 
cooking slices of toasted stale bread—it 
must be very light—in the same way. 
* 
In the annual report of the Jacob A. 
Riis Neighborhood Settlement—which is 
doing a great work for some of The 
R. N.-Y.’s poor neighbors over here on 
the East Side—we find this note, which 
interests us in connection with our recent 
letters about city help for the country: 
All of last Winter we were much troubled 
over “one of our boys” of sixteen who seemed 
to prefer the street corners to any work. 
When we had a call in the early Spring for 
a hoy to go to work in the country we offered 
it to him. He said he “would give it a 
trial": so. after explaining the boy’s 
character as honestly as we could to the 
employer, he was engaged and we left him 
with trembling doubt as to the outcome. The 
first letter to the mother complained of the 
necessity “for a bath once a week, but I 
have chicken for dinner on Sunday." The 
fact that both he and his employer desired 
lo keep together this Winter makes us hope 
he has at last found his place. 
A Little Girl’s Frock. 
Not all The R. N.-Y. mothers may 
know of a heavy, yard-wide, white mate¬ 
rial called “Indian head." It strongly re¬ 
sembles linen, but costs only 14 cents a 
yard. For little girl’s dresses, outgrown 
in one season, it seems a sensible economy, 
for if made by a good design and trimmed 
with real linen it is quite good enough for 
any occasion in the country. We have 
just finished such a dress for Pet, and 
think she can begin wearing it to church 
now. The Russian blouse type was the 
pattern chosen, three pleats front and 
back, whole from shoulder to hem, with 
a low-down belt and closing at the left 
front. Cuffs, belt, a two-inch band at 
the closing and a big shawl sailor collar 
are all of linen in a medium light blue. 
Bess gave it all a pretty Frenchv finish 
by working the edges of cuffs and large 
collar in button-holed scallops done with 
white embroidery linen. She also worked 
a blue anchor and bars on the V worn in¬ 
side the collar. 
We have for two seasons back cut Pet’s 
everyday ginghams by a similar pattern. 
They are quickly made, and when worn 
with a patent leather belt which slips un¬ 
der three little bands of gingham they 
have a jaunty look at absolutely no added 
expense of material or labor. 
R. ITHAMAR. 
Herbs of the Garden. 
—“Here’s flowers for you 
Hot lavender, mints, savory marjoram.” 
Opening a drawer where are laid away 
garments seldom worn, the smell of laven¬ 
der fills the room, and Shakespeare’s 
words come to mind. Truly the flowers 
of this herb are delicious, as they are 
dried and put away in coarse muslin 
hags. Besides the delicate perfume that 
is imparted to anything that is near by, 
these flowers are useful in keeping away 
moths from woolens. The dried stalks 
and leaves make an excellent fumigator 
for plants, and as a disinfectant for a 
sick room, if the patient is removed while 
it is done, the room will long retain the 
tonic fragrance. The plant is easily prop¬ 
agated from cuttings or by division, and 
at the blossoming time in late July should 
be cut before fully opened. There is 
often difficulty in germinating the seed. 
How fond old writers were of mint, de¬ 
claring that it would make comfortable 
the head and memory. Pliny said: “The 
smell of mint doth stir up the minde and 
taste to a greedy desire of meat.” 
The housewives of England and the 
continent of Europe demand many culi¬ 
nary herbs with which we are but little 
acquainted, but all agree in the uses of 
mint, which is used for many purposes. 
The spearmint is the basis of mint sauce, 
and is usually boiled with fish, but few in 
this country know its value in giving a 
flavor to green peas and the first new 
potatoes. 
In heathen mythology Persephone was 
said to have transformed her rival Mentha 
into an herb and the many varieties we 
know prove that even in such a lowly 
position Mentha obtained immortality. It 
was grown in English gardens long be¬ 
fore Chaucer and anyone walking beside 
a brook in a meadow lot in midsummer 
can find the dark-leaved peppermint with 
its lavender flowers full of invigorating 
if pungent sweetness, and Culpepper enu¬ 
merates 40 maladies for which mint is 
good. Sage is associated with goose 
and cheese and we forget that it has gay 
and well-bred cousins, the Salvias, as we 
see it in the kitchen in its quiet gray 
green foliage. It must have some health¬ 
giving qualities to account for the old Eng¬ 
lish rhyme: “Who eats sage in May, shall 
live for aye.” It has been said to strength¬ 
en the memory, and I know of one family 
when a mild decoction was given to the 
children as a punishment for forgetfulness. 
An embrocation with sweet oil and tur¬ 
pentine is excellent in chronic rheuma¬ 
tism, and a gargle for sore throat, or for 
eruptions of the mouth, when infused with 
honey, is said to be of value. 
The thistle has been considered as food 
for the donkey, and synonymous with stu¬ 
pidity, but has lately been found as palata¬ 
ble as spinach, and of it Shakespeare said 
—“I have no moral meaning, I meant plain 
holy-thistle.” It was said in those days 
to cure forgetfulness and be a remedy for 
the plague. Rosemary is a strong aro¬ 
matic and stimulating plant, at one time 
held in great esteem as a medicine for 
jaundice or a torpid state of the digestive 
organs, and is still used in cases of colic 
or flatulency, while mixed with castor oil 
it is a remedy for. baldness, as also is 
sage. There are two sorts of thyme and 
the same of savory, used for the dressing 
of fowls, for which the Summer savory is 
the favorite. The garden thyme is often 
made into a tea, and according to an old 
writer it is “A noble strengthener of the 
lungs, as notable a one as grows”—and 
another declared, “It is a special help 
to melancholic”; also the oil is extracted 
as a cure for toothache. The wild thyme 
grows on open, lonely tracts of country, 
its purple flowers bringing fragrance to 
widespread heath, or sunny hank of aro¬ 
matic pillows for the weary traveller. 
The “true balm,” Melissa officinalis, is 
well known and of value for healing 
wounds. Infusions of balm leaves have 
long been a popular remedy in fevers, and 
as a cool and grateful drink in inflamma¬ 
tions. Tansy, catnip and hoarhound each 
have a place in the old materia medica and 
were used as a tonic drink long after they 
had fallen into disuse for other purposes. 
So, too, the camomile was a specific for 
agues, and is still used as a tonic for the 
stomach, while the herb called wormwood 
(Artemisia) has many wonderfully good 
qualities. It has been prescribed for men¬ 
tal disorders, and is very efficacious in 
bruises and sprains. Motherwort is used 
to strengthen the heart, and valerian is a 
mild nervine to humans and intoxicates 
cats. After sweet marjoram, used as a 
fragrant bathing decoction, the most im¬ 
portant herb is parsley, ever useful and 
in demand for many purposes. “As she 
went into the garden for parsley to stuff 
a rabbit,” says Biondello in “Taming of 
the Shrew”—and the crisp, curled leaves 
are indispensable for many a culinary 
dish, from flavoring soup to a pretty gar¬ 
nishing. It also has a place in medicine. 
Seed of all these plants will germinate 
easily except parsley, which is slow to 
sprout and should be soaked before sow¬ 
ing, while the soil of any well-kept gar¬ 
den will grow herbs. There are other 
varieties included in the list to form the 
herb garden, all with their uses, and of 
value, for “the leaves are for the healing 
of the nation.” annie l. jack. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8- 
The Prizes of Life 
The world’s rewards 
are for its workers. 
Sometimes a man or 
woman inherits afortune. 
More often than not it 
is like a lottery ticket, 
that makes either a fool 
or a loafer of the one 
who draws it. 
You can make more 
money representing The 
Ladies’ Home Journal and 
The Saturday Evening 
Post in your community 
than many men you 
know make who are in 
business for themselves. 
Commissions, bonuses 
and prizes do this. 
While selling our periodicals is 
an earnest, serious pursuit, it is light 
and agreeable work which leaves 
you physical freedom and mental 
freshness to devote to your personal 
advancement or healthy amusement. 
We want you to have both. 
We can “show you” if you 
“want to be shown.” 
The Curtis Publishing Company 
2886-E Cherry St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
W. L. Douglas 
*3= & *3= SHOES men 
W. L. Douglas $4.00 Cilt Edge Line 
cannot be equalled atany price. 
W. L. DOUGLAS MA KES & SELLS MORE 
MEM'S $3.50 SHOES THAN AMY OTHER 
MANUFACTURER IM THE WORLD. 
^1 n nnn REWARD to anyone who can 
O I UjUUU disprove this statement. 
If I could take you into my three large factories 
at Brockton, Mass., and show you the infinite 
care with which every pair of shoes Is made, you 
would realize why W. L. Douglas $3.50 shoes 
cost more to make, why they hold their shape, 
fit better, wear longer, and are of greater 
intrinsic value than any other $3.50 shoe. 
W. L. Douglas Strong Made Shoes for 
Men, $2.50, $2.00. Boys' School & 
Dress Shoes, $2.50, $2, $1.75, $1.50 
CAUTION. —Insist upon having W.L.Doug- 
las shoes. Take no substitute. None genuine 
without his name and price stamped on bottom. 
Fast Color Eyelets used ; they will not wear brassy. 
Write for Illustrated Catalog. 
\V. L. DOUGLAS, Dept. <2, Brockton, Mass. 
■vVpCi Simpson - Eddystone 
Shepherd Plaids 
Nothing more appropriate and 
becoming for Spring and Summer 
dresses. Surely no more durable, 
economical and attractive material 
at the price. 
Ask your dealer for 
Simpson- Eddy stone Shepherd Plaids. 
IEDdystomE 
PRINTS The Eddystone Mfg Co (Sole Makers) Philadelphfot ' 
Three generations of Simpsons 
have made Simpson Prints. 
