10 
From Day to Day. 
THE NEW YEAR. 
The corridors of Time 
Are full of doors—the portals of closed years. 
We enter them no more, though hitler tears 
Beat hard against them, and we hear the 
chime 
Of lost dreams, dirgelike, in behind them ring, 
^ At Memory’s opening. 
t But one door stands ajar— 
The New Y’ear’s; while a golden chain of days 
Holds it half shut. The eager foot delays 
That presses to its threshold's mighty bar; 
And Fears that shrink, and Hopes that shout 
aloud, 
Around it wait and crowd. 
» 
It shuts back the Unknown. 
And dare we truly welcome one more year, 
Who down the past a mocking laughter hear 
From idle aims like wandering breezes 
blown? 
We, whose large aspirations dimmed and 
shrank 
Till the year’s scroll was blank ! 
We pause beside this door. 
Thy year, O God, how shall we enter in? 
How shall we thence Thy hidden treasures 
- win ? 
Shall we return in beggary, as before, 
When Thou art near at hand, with infinite 
wealth, 
Wisdom, and heavenly health? 
—Lucy Larcom. 
* 
. Tije obstacles which beset the pathway 
of a photographer when he endeavors to 
- secure “a pleasant expression” are many, 
particularly when his sitters are of a ten¬ 
der age, says the Youth’s Companion. 
“I don’t believe whipping does children 
a particle of good,” sais Mrs. Green, re¬ 
turning flushed and discouraged from a 
visit to the photographer, with her 
Tommy. “Here I’ve spent over an hour 
in that hot room, trying to make this child 
look pleasant. I’ve slapped his hands 
twice, and he looked crosser each time 
than he did before!” 
* 
A friendship calendar is one of the 
newer ideas. It contains a leaf for each 
day of the year, with the date at the top, 
and a blank space below. The pages have 
two perforations at the top for mounting 
in a holder, and can thus be detached as 
desired. The leaves are removed from the 
mounting, and sent to various friends near 
and far; each friend writes some sentiment 
on one leaf or more as desired, signing it 
as in an autograph album. The leaves 
are then assembled and mounted, and the 
recipient of the gift has a greeting from 
some friend every day in the year. Such 
a calendar would be especially prized by 
one far removed from friends and 
kindred. 
* 
We were discussing school work gener¬ 
ally, and the high school girl wisely ob¬ 
served that “queerness'’—any oddity of 
manner or disposition—hampered a pupil 
in school life quite as much as mental 
incapacity. It was usually observed that 
a pupil whose previous training made him 
unable to enter into the general life of 
-the school found equal difficulty in main¬ 
taining proper standing in the class room. 
The boy or girl whose isolated home gives 
few social opportunities may complain of 
I this as a species of youthful snobbery that 
' is unable to see the sterling worth be- 
' neath an awkward exterior, but we do not 
entirely agree with this. We cannot ex¬ 
pect unformed young people to be more 
tolerant and philosophical than their 
elders, or better able to look beneath the 
surface. Many a shy, awkward girl, who 
thinks she is overlooked or misjudged by 
\ her classmates, would find, if she made 
an honest self-examination, that her shy- 
" ness is but one form of self-consciousness 
or conceit, and that she is isolated largely 
because she never attempts to enter into 
, the feelings of others. A kindly, sympa- 
* thetic and responsive nature makes itself 
felt in spite of unbecoming clothes or lack 
of social training. If we are prepared to 
look upon our associates as agreeable and 
interesting, we usually find our own per- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
cover off while the gravy is cooking, or it 
will not brown well. The process is sim¬ 
plified by using flour previously browned 
in the oven. The flavor of the gravy may 
be varied by using peppercorns and bay 
leaves in place of the sauce, but a small 
amount of this excellent old sauce is an 
improvement to any gravy. 
For roast chicken, put the giblets in a 
saucepan and cover with cold water; let 
simmer as long as the chicken cooks. 
About 20 minutes before serving, stir a 
tablespoonful of flour into the fat in the 
pan, putting it on top of the stove to 
brown, stir in a half-pint of the liquid in 
which the giblets were boiled; stir con¬ 
stantly until it boils, flavor, and, if liked, 
chop the giblets fine, add to the gravy, and 
serve. For smothered chicken, thicken as 
before, but use milk instead of water or 
giblet stock. Gravy for roast turkey is 
made with the giblet stock. 
Most wild game, when roasted, is liber¬ 
ally basted with butter, and then served 
with the gravy from the pan. Venison has 
a thickened gravy, flavored with currant 
jelly and sherry. 
If you wish to avoid the use of “hog 
tat” we advise you to buy good beef suet, 
and try it out carefully; this is excellent 
for cooking; we do not recommend cotton¬ 
seed oil in any form. To our personal 
palate the peculiar flavor is intensely dis¬ 
agreeable. We do not know how it could 
be refined in a small way. “d able oil” is 
a refined cotton-seed sold for about $1 a 
gallon; we believe it is quite largely used, 
but is never satisfactory for frying fish and 
oysters, which shrivel when cooked in it. 
Those who do not mind the taste find it 
satisfactory for other cooking, but one of 
our friends who made conscientious efforts 
to use it in the Middle South says it was 
finally given up on account of the flavor. 
Much of the cheap, so-called “olive” oil 
is cotton-seed filtered through olive pom¬ 
ace; we only buy Italian oil, which comes 
in tins at 60 cents a quart. Perhaps some 
of our readers may be able to give us a 
less discouraging view of cotton-seed oil; 
we can only offer the opinion of those who 
find its peculiar twang intensely disagree¬ 
able. _ 
Cakes Without Eggs. 
When hens “go dry” eggless cakes are 
in demand, and a few tested recipes will 
be useful. 
Nut Cake.—One and one-half cups of 
brown sugar, one-half cup of butter, one 
cup of sour milk, one cup each of raisins, 
currants and nuts; one teaspoonful each 
of cinnamon, cloves, allspice and soda. 
Three cups of flour. 
White Cake.—One cupful of granulated 
sugar, three tablespoonfuls of shortening, 
one cup of milk, half a nutmeg and a 
pinch of ground cinnamon, or any other 
spice that may be desired; one teaspoon¬ 
ful of soda and two of cream of tartar 
and two and one-half cupfuls of flour 
This, baked in a rather slow oven, gives 
a result which is a good imitation of the 
old-fashioned “election cake.” Raisins or 
currants may be added as desired. 
Fairy Ginger Cake.—Quarter of a cup 
of butter, one cupful of sugar, half a cup¬ 
ful of milk, two of flour, half a teaspoon 
ful of soda, half a teaspoonful of ginger. 
Dissolve the soda in the milk. Otherwise 
put the ingredients together in the order 
they are mentioned. Spread as thin as 
possible on flat tins and bake brown. Cut 
into attractive forms while hot, just as it 
comes from the oven, as it will be thin 
enough to break if it is left until cold and 
brittle. 
sonality reflected back in the same form. 
As for the minor details of dress and man¬ 
ner, it does seem to us that in the present 
age there is no excuse for anyone, how¬ 
ever isolated, being so “queer” as to excite 
ridicule or remark. Shopping by mail is 
open to everyone; everything can be 
bought in that way. If the purse is slen¬ 
der there is all the more reason why 
thought should be given to one’s pur¬ 
chases, and even the study of a mail-order 
catalogue will give many suggestions. 
Few girls are born without some feeling 
for good taste in dress; if absolutely 
without it no amount of social culture 
will replace the want. We think some 
really conscientious mothers make a mis¬ 
take at times by overlooking the value of 
externals. They think that if the funda¬ 
mental verities are impressed upon char¬ 
acter the mint, anise and cummin of social 
life may be omitted. This is a mistake; 
sound mahogany never shows the beauty 
of its grain so fully as when highly pol¬ 
ished, and a sincere and well-balanced 
character shows to best advantage when 
expressed in courtesy and refinement. It 
is true that varnish and veneer may imi¬ 
tate honest mahogany, and artificial breed¬ 
ing may give apparent refinement to an 
ignoble character, but neither is an argu¬ 
ment against genuine polish. 
* 
If you have the patience to pick out 
butternut meats the following is a deli¬ 
cious cake, as given by the Chicago Rec¬ 
ord-Herald: Beat half a cup of butter to 
a crdam. Gradually beat in 54 of a cup of 
granulated sugar, and then 1 cup of butter¬ 
nut meats and 1 egg beaten without sepa¬ 
rating. Sift together 2 cups of entire 
wheat flour, 1/3 of a cup of pastry flour, 
y 2 teaspoonful soda, j4 teaspoonful salt, '/> 
teaspoonful mace, J4 teaspoon ful cloves, 
and 54 teaspoonful cinnamon. Add this to 
the first mixture alternately with 1 cup of 
sour milk. Beat thoroughly and turn into 
little tins fitted with rounds of paper on 
the bottoms and thoroughly buttered. 
Bake about 25 minutes. The recipe makes 
18 cakes. When cold, *ce with the icing 
macle of brown sugar, and decorate with 
halves of butternut meats. The icing is 
made as follows; Boil 1 cup of brown 
sugar and 1/3 cup of water to 240 degrees 
Fahrenheit. Then pour in a fine stream 
or to the white of one egg, beaten very 
light. Continue the beating while the 
syrup is being added to the egg and for 
some minutes afterward. Without a ther¬ 
mometer, to decide the temperature, boil 
the sugar until it spins a thread about 3 
inches in length. 
Gravy Making; Cotton-Seed Oil. 
l’lease let some of your good cooks tell 
o/arefully, minutely, how to» make gravy 
after cooking beef, chicken, game, etc. I 
would also like information in regard to the 
use of cotton seed oil for cooking and frying. 
How can it be refined in a small way? Tell 
us all you can of it. I want to avoid the 
use of hog fat. reader. 
Ohio. 
The subject of gravies is a very large 
one, yet the process is extremely simple. 
The most usual faults are carelessness in 
incorporating flour, which causes lumps, 
and imperfect cooking, which leaves a 
flavor of raw flour. We make gravy for 
any roast meat about half an hour before 
serving. If there is much fat in the pan 
most of it is poured off, leaving about two 
tablespoonfuls or thereabouts. Dry flour 
is slowly sifted into this liquid fat, care¬ 
fully mixing with a spoon; hot water is 
then added, stirring carefully, at the rate 
of one cup of water to one level table¬ 
spoonful of flour. The water should not 
be boiling, or lumps will be formed. Care¬ 
fully scrape and rub into the gravy the 
browned juices on the bottom of the pan: 
then add a little flavoring (we always use 
Worcestershire sauce) and put back in the 
oven. If you use a covered pan, take the 
Pay no attention to anony¬ 
mous letters. 
Pay no money for anony¬ 
mous lamp-chimneys. 
My Index tells all about 
lamps, their proper chimney 
and care. It is free. 
Address, MACBETH, Pittsburgh. 
January 5, 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
Nervous? Nine times 
out of ten it’s because 
your system is run 
down. Don’t prop 
yourself up with stim¬ 
ulants— b ui l d your 
health with food. 
Scott's 
Emulsion 
is the greatest food in 
the world. Cod Liver 
Oil — Hypophosphites 
and Glycerine. 
Not one drop of 
alcohol. 
ALL DRUGGISTS; 
50c. AND $1.00. 
Tanks and Towers 
Made by CALDWELL are of the strong¬ 
est and most durable construction, wear¬ 
ing and standing a lifetime. Hundreds 
of country bomes, many near you, are 
enjoying their superior service. 
First cost small, benefits resulting great 
and lasting. AbIc for Illustrated catalogue. 
IV. E. CALDWELL CO., Louisville, Ky. 
«""» 
Wind Mills, Pumps, G»b Unglues. 
The CANADIAN West 
uTh. Best WEST 
T HE testimony of tens of 
thousands during the 
past year is that the 
Canadian West fs the best 
West. Year by year the 
agricultural returns have in¬ 
creased in volume and value 
and still the Canadian Gov¬ 
ernment offers 160 acres free 
to every bona fide settler. 
GREAT ADVANTAGES 
The phenomenal Increase in railway 
mileage—main lines and branchos—has 
put almost every portion of theoountry 
within easy reach of churches, schools, 
markets, cheap fuel and every modern 
convenience. The ninety million bush¬ 
el wheat crop of this year means 
$60,000,000 to the farmers of Western 
Canada, apart from the results of other 
grains us well as from cattle. 
For literature and information address 
Superintendent of Immigration. 
Ottawa, Canada 
or THUS. DUNCAN. 
Canadian Government Agent. 
Syracuse Dank Bldg., 
Syracuse, New York 
OUR SEEDS,PLANTS, 
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FRUIT AND ORNAMENT. 
AL TREES have betn the 
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The best ure always most sat¬ 
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THE! STOltltS Sc HARRISON CO., 
BOX 456, PAINESVILLE, OHIO. 
MAP OF THE 
r WORLD ■ 
Valuable reference map 
in full colors, on heavy 
paper, 42 x 64 inches, mounted 
on rollers, edges bound in cloth. 
Shows our island possessions, 
Pacific Ocean cables, railway lines 
and other features of Japan, China, 
Manchuria, Korea, and the Far 
East. Sent on receipt of 125 cents 
in stamps. 
W. B. KNISKERN, P. T. M., 
CHICAGO, ILL. 
^Chicago fc North-Western Railway^ 
