©14 
THE RURAL NEVV-VOKKER 
June 10, 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day. 
THE SERMON OF ST. FRANCIS. 
Up rose the lark into the air, 
A shaft of song, a winged prayer, 
As if a soul, x'eleased from pain. 
Were flying back to Heaven again., 
St. Francis heard; it was to him 
An emblem of the Seraphim ; 
The upward motion of the tire, 
The light, the heat, the heart's desire. 
Around Assisi’s convent gate 
The birds, God's poor who cannot wait, 
From moor and mere and darksome wood 
Came flocking for their dole of food. 
“O brother birds,” St. Francis said, 
“Ye come to me and ask for bread, 
But not with bread alone to-day 
Shall ye be fed and sent away. 
“Ye shall be fed, ye happy birds, 
With manna of celestial words; 
Not mine, though mine they seem to be. 
Not mine, though they be spoken through me. 
“O doubly are ye bound to praise 
The great Creator in your lays; 
He giveth you your plumes of down, 
Y’our crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown. 
“He giveth you your wings to fly 
And breathe a purer air on high, 
And careth for you, everywhere, 
Who for yourselves so little care!” 
With flutter of swift wings and songs, 
Together rose the feathered throngs, 
And singing scattered far apart ; 
Deep peace was in St. Francis’ heart. 
He knew not if the brotherhood 
Ilis homily had understood; 
He only knew that to One ear 
The meaning of his words was clear. 
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
* 
Rolled apple dumplings may be 
tested as soon as the Red Astrachau 
comes in. Make a rich baking powder 
biscuit dough, roll out in a thin sheet, 
cover thickly with chopped apples, roll 
up compactly, then cut into slices about 
two inches thick. Place in well 
greased baking pan, not too close to¬ 
gether, and pour over the following: 
Mix one tablespoonful of hour with 
one cupful of sugar, add one cupful 
of boiling water, stirring till it boils 
and thickens smoothly. Flavor with 
nutmeg or cinnamon. Bake and serve 
with cream and sugar. 
* 
The house centipede, often referred 
to as a “thousand-legs,” is not un¬ 
common in houses, and its menacing 
appearance, as it rushes across wall 
or ceiling usually caitses disgust 
or terror. Its bite is somewhat poi¬ 
sonous, but we think it rarely stays 
long enough in one place to do 
any biting; as a rule we only see its 
light brown body, fringed with feathery 
legs, racing for a hiding place. We have 
been interested to learn from an Edu¬ 
cation Department bulletin by Dr. E. 
P. Felt, that the house centipede may 
be fairly considered a helpful insect, 
since it devours house Hies, cock¬ 
roaches and other insects. Still, its 
nightmarish appearance, to say nothing 
of its bite, prevents us from feeling 
really grateful, and we are not inclined 
to encourage its visits. 
• * 
This is a good season of the year to 
make a careful trial of the fireless 
cooker. We have given its principle 
several times; a thoroughly insulated 
tight box, mate by lining any box with 
a well-fitting lid generously with non¬ 
conducting material; then partially 
cooking the food, taking it from the 
stove while boiling hot and enclosing 
in the cooker for several hours. The 
simplest form of the cooker is lined 
first with plenty of paper, then padded 
all around with hay, a hole being left 
in the middle for the cooking vessels, 
and a hay-stuffed cushion laid over 
the top before closing the lid. The 
breakfast cereals are admirably cooked 
in this way, and one of our correspon¬ 
dents, a few months ago, told us how 
she used the hay-box in supplying the 
men with a hot dinner when they were 
ditching in back fields. A good many 
practical women use the hay-box to les¬ 
sen the use of the stove on hot days. 
Of course it is only used for things 
boiled or stewed, but think of all the 
soups, cereals, vegetables, meats and 
even desserts that may be prepared in 
that way. 
* 
Mulberries are very little used here 
as a rule, but an acceptable jelly can 
be made from them. For this use full- 
sized berries that are hard and red, not 
fully ripe. Put the berries on to boil 
with one-third their proportion of wa¬ 
ter; when soft, strain as usual, bring 
the juice to a boil, skimming carefully 
and then add heated sugar, a pound to 
a pint of juice. Boil three minutes, 
and then test it; it is usually ready to 
stiffen with this amount of boiling, but 
should not take more than five minutes 
at the most. Mulberry preserve is 
made with the ripe fruit. First the 
juice is extracted by cooking some of 
the fruit in a stone crock without any 
water, and then dripping as for jelly. 
This juice is brought to the boil and 
skimmed carefully. Sugar is then added, 
2*4 pounds to the pint of juice, and 
when this boils up the fruit is put in 
whole and ripe, in the proportion of 
two pounds to the pint of juice. The 
preserve is then boiled very slowly for 
45 minutes, or until it thickens nicely. 
It should be carefully skimmed, and 
stirred gently, so that the fruit is not 
broken. Some cooks advise taking it 
off the stove at the end of half an 
hour, and letting it stand until the next 
day, when the syrup is strained off, 
boiled down and poured over the fruit 
again, like sweet pickles, but we think, 
if care is taken in the slow boiling this 
is unnnecessary. 
* 
Now our useful contemporary, “The 
Delineator,” is taking a whack at the 
farmer. In the June number is an ar¬ 
ticle by William Atherton Du Buy, en¬ 
titled “The Useless Tragedy of the 
Farmer’s Wife,” with the further state¬ 
ment that “prosperity on the farms may 
mean more land and happier men, but 
the work-crushed women only die the 
faster.” Here is Mr. Du Puy's pro¬ 
gram of the farm housewife’s day: 
From 4 lo G A. M.—Breakfast for the men 
and getting them off to work. 
From <> to 8—Washing dishes and milk- 
buckets and putting away the milk. 
From 8 to 9—Getting children off to 
school, churning, working the butter. 
From 9 to 10—Getting in vegetables, dress¬ 
ing poultry and odd jobs. 
From 10 to 12—Getting a boiled dinner for 
the family and hired men. 
From 12 to 1 I’. M.—Serving dinner and 
cleaning up. 
From 1 to 3—Sweeping, cleaning house and 
making beds. 
From 3 to 4—Ironing, scrubbing and odd 
jobs. 
From 4 to 5—Gathering eggs, care of poul¬ 
try. 
From 5 to 0—Getting supper for family 
and hired men. 
From 6 to 7—Serving supper and clean¬ 
ing up. 
From 7 to 8—Straining milk, washing 
utensils, preparing for breakfast. 
From 9 to 10—Mending clothes for chil¬ 
dren and men folks. 
This practically completes the woman’s 
eighteen-liour day, when there are no ex¬ 
tras. Interspersed with the other tasks are 
those of taking care of two or four small 
children. There is often extra work, as 
the washing must be got in some place, the 
clothes of the children made, fruit in sea¬ 
son put up, an extra lunch for the men 
in the harvest-time prepared, and countless 
other such possibilities. 
If all the attention now given the 
woman on the farm enabled either the 
“muckrakers” or their readers to see 
the one underlying cause for overwork 
and narrow living on the farm—the 
fact that the farmer is overtaxed for 
what he buys, and underpaid for what 
he sells—there might be some hope 
that the general public would aid in 
reforming conditions. But it is easier 
to denounce the farmer as narrow¬ 
minded and uneducated, and to con¬ 
tinue thriving by some special privilege, 
while underpaying him as before. Af¬ 
ter all, every lasting reform that im¬ 
proves farm conditions will start with 
the farmers themselves, and will gain 
its strength from their consciousness 
of their own united power. 
The Rural Patterns. 
The lingerie bonnets shown are pretty 
models for Summer wear. In the il¬ 
lustration the Corday bonnet is made of 
white lawn with frill of embroidery 
and band, of ribbon, while the close-fit- 
ting bonnet is made of Dresden dimity 
with ribbon trimming, but both can be 
varied in a number of ways. All-over 
embroidery, lace and embroidered net 
6334 Lingerie Bonnets, 
Women’s, Misses’, Children’s, 
all are used for the Corday bonnet, 
while for the close-fitting one any 
pretty Summer material is appropriate. 
White lawn or batiste could be utilized 
with the center of the crown and the 
brim embroidered in some simple de¬ 
sign, or with the brim trimmed with 
lace bandings and the crown with a 
medallion in the center, while figured 
materials such as the one illustrated, 
are many. The Corday bonnet consists 
of the crown, the band and the full frill 
6346 Princesse Costume, 34 to 42 bust. 
Embroidery Pattern 412. 
which serves as a finish. The close- 
fitting bonnet is made with crown and 
brim and the crown is shirred and ar¬ 
ranged over the edge of the brim to 
which it is attached. Ribbon rosettes 
and strings make the finish. The quan¬ 
tity of material required for the 
woman’s or misses’ size is, for the Cor¬ 
day bonnet, 1 yard 24, yard either 32 
or 44 inches wide, with 2J4 yards of 
embroidery for frill; or 1% yards of 
material 24 or 32, 1 yard 44 inches 
wide when the frill is made of material, 
with 1 yard of ribbon for trimming. 
The close-fitting bonnet will require 1 
yard 24 to 32 or 44 inches wide with 
5J4 yards of ribbon for rosettes and 
ties. The pattern 6334 is cut in sizes 
for women, misses and children; price 
10 cents. 
The princess costume shown is a 
model very often seen in wash dresses, 
but is appropriate for all sorts of pop¬ 
ular fabrics. The inserted pleats are 
evidently adopted as a modification of 
the narrow lines so long prevailing, and 
are likely tp be very popular. The 
gown is made with front, side-fronts, 
back, side-backs, and under-arm gores. 
The pleated panels are separate and 
joined to the skirt portion. The sleeves 
are in one piece each, fitted by means 
of dart seams, and the neck can be 
finished with one collar or the other or 
be made collarless on the high or 
Dutch lines as liked. The quantity of 
material required for the medium size 
is 10kj yards 27, 6% yards 44, or 5 
yards 52 inches wide. The pattern 6346 
is cut in sizes for a 34, 36, 38, 40 and 
42-inch bust measure; price 10 cents. 
Occupations for Invalids. 
A recent exhibit on view at Teach¬ 
ers’ College, Columbia University, New 
York, showed occupations for invalids, 
and was of especial interest in showing 
the influence of such occupation in re¬ 
storing the normal activity of the pa¬ 
tient. The director of this exhibit, Miss 
Susan E. Tracy, superintendent of a 
training school for nurses at Jamaica 
Plain, Mass., puts actual occupation 
much higher as a means of stimulating 
interest than games or similar amuse¬ 
ments. Some of these occupations may 
be made remunerative, too, a very im¬ 
portant matter in the case of an in¬ 
curable. or a lingering convalescence, 
where expenses are heavy and the fam¬ 
ily poor. One pathetically interesting 
exhibit was the work of a child of 
four recovering from pneumonia, in a 
family too poor to provide amusement; 
there were comical little turtles made 
from raisins, with cloves for legs and 
head; little roosters were made from 
melon seeds, with feather tail and red 
cloth comb, and doll’s furniture was 
made from eggshells. A girl of 12 
with hip disease which condemned her 
to a restricted attitude, made stuffed 
rag animals, crochet work and paper 
picture frames, which were salable, 
while calling for small outlay. A girl 
of 16, only able to use her right hand, 
did painting and leather work, while a 
boy of 10, in constant pain, did stencil¬ 
ing, advertising signs, etc. Older per¬ 
manent invalids did basketry, beadwork, 
wood carving and artificial flowers, 
while patchwork, quilting and knitting 
were done by old women, and netting, 
rope work and whittled puzzles were 
made by old men. Infectious diseases 
shut out anything that could not be dis¬ 
infected, so paper work was recom¬ 
mended for them, which, while cheap 
enough to be destroyed without com¬ 
punction, would train the hands for 
permanent work afterwards. Modern 
nursing has progressed far enough from 
the methods of Sairey Gamp and her 
friends, and the recognition of occupa¬ 
tion as a therapeutic agent is something 
for the home nurse to consider, as well 
as professional. What weariness is 
greater than the dead monotony of un¬ 
occupied days, when the mind cries out 
for wonted duties or pleasures, while 
the weakened body still holds us pris¬ 
oners ? _ 
. -~i 
Italian Rice Soup.—This is piccotta, 
a favorite Italian dish. Cook a half 
cup of rice in a pint of stock and rub 
through a sieve. Thicken a quart of 
boiling milk with a tablespoonfiW of 
butter and two of flour; add a cup of 
grated cheese and the rice stock, a tea¬ 
spoon of salt. Serve quite hot with 
bits of toasted brown bread. 
