626 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 20, 
Woman and the Home 
- ■ m 
From Day to Day. 
FOLDED HANDS. 
I toil no more—my day is done; 
I low much I wrought I may not know; 
I watch the low descending sun 
And see the night approaching slow. 
My day’s work as it is must stand, 
For labor’s joy no more is mine; 
The tools drop from my nerveless hand, 
My dim eyes see no mark or line. 
I little thought to leave it so— 
Unfinished, to the plan untrue; 
Another day I thought to know, 
When I might change or start anew. 
With weary hands 1 now must see 
Another’s skill my task complete; 
The gift of use is gone from me— 
The gift that makes all life seem sweet. 
The pleasant labor of the day, 
The following hours of welcome rest— 
Those from my life have passed away, 
No longer has it aim or quest; 
I sit and wait—and all the hours 
The happy past before me stands; 
With dimming eyes and failing powers, 
I live the life of folded hands. 
—New' York Sun. 
* 
Diana ribbon combs are among the 
newer hair trimmings. They consist of 
a rather slender circular comb having 
the top perforated at distances about 
an inch apart, so that ribbon may be 
woven through to form a fillet around 
the hair, with a full little rosette at 
either side. The effect is very becom¬ 
ing, and the ribbon may be easily re¬ 
moved to substitute a different color. 
These combs cost 50 cents. 
* 
When grating a lemon for flavoring 
one should remember that the yellow 
rind contains the volatile oil that gives 
/he flavor, while the thick white skin 
beneath is so bitter that it will curdle 
milk or custard. It does not contain the 
lemon flavor, and every precaution 
should be taken to keep it out. Grate 
carefully, turning the lemon just as if 
peeling an apple, and you will keep to 
the oily yellow outer rind, while avoid¬ 
ing the undesirable bitter beneath. 
* 
There are a good many advantages in 
paying the housekeeping accounts 
promptly, and never running bills, and 
not the least is the opportunity it gives 
for recognizing the items and thus 
avoiding the possibility of paying twice 
for an article. There is some truth in 
the ancient anecdote of the saddler who, 
losing the value of one saddle through 
a dishonest customer, put the same item 
in the yearly bills of 12 other customers, 
10 of whom paid it without any pro¬ 
test. 
♦ 
Jacket suits of striped galatea are 
among the Summer’s favorite models. 
An attractive style has a gored skirt 
with two inch-wide bias bands of the 
material; the bands are about two inches 
apart, the lower one about six inches 
above the hem. These bands do not 
cross the front gore, but terminate at 
its seam at each side, these front gore 
seams being strapped with the bias bands 
their full length. The jacket is a three- 
button cutaway, the seams of the side 
forms being strapped with bias bands, 
and similar bands outlining the edge. 
These galateas cost from 12J4 to 18 cents 
a yard, wash well and are very durable. 
* 
•Here is another Washington pie, an 
old-fashioned Southern recipe, which is 
not really a pie at all: Six yolks of eggs, 
three light cups of sifted flour, two tea¬ 
spoonfuls of cream of tartar, two cups 
of sifted sugar, all mixed thoroughly; add 
the whipped whites of six eggs, and 
just as the cakes are to be baked add 
four teaspoonfuls of sweet milk, with 
one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda 
in it; bake in jelly cake pans in a 
quick oven. The mock charlotte for fill¬ 
ing between the cakes is: One pint of 
sweet milk in a double boiler and when 
it begins to boil put in two eggs, whites 
and yolks well beaten, one cup of sifted 
sugar, one cup of sifted flour, and stir 
until thick. Flavor with vanilla and 
mix chocolate with it, or keep it plain, 
and spread between cakes and sift 
powdered sugar on top of cake. 
* 
The babies have taken to straw bon¬ 
nets this season, and very quaint and be¬ 
coming they are. They are worn by 
children from one year old up, some 
being exactly the shape of the little 
round muslin caps, while others spread 
out into delightful little coal scuttles. 
They are made of very soft straw, often 
fancy braids, some being of open-work 
Tuscan lined with soft silk. The trim¬ 
ming is usually the softest satin ribbon, 
though small flowers, such as tiny rose¬ 
buds, are also used. Whatever the trim¬ 
ming, it is always massed just over the 
ears, at the top of the ties, the upper 
part being left flat. Where the little bon¬ 
net has a flaring brim it is lined with 
quillings or flutings of soft silk giving 
a delightful frame for the baby face. One 
quaint model was a close cap of fine 
lace-like Tuscan lined with pink Liberty 
silk; the edge was slightly fluted, and 
set closely with a row of tiny tight pink 
rosebuds; there was a little knot of pink 
silk at the top of one tie, and a little 
cluster of rosebuds with fine foliage at 
the other side. A similar model was 
carried out in blue with forget-me-nots. 
Hats of mushroom and shepherdess 
shapes, made of soft Tuscan and Leg¬ 
horn, with ribbon loops and ties, are 
also fashionable, and more practical for 
Summer sunshine than the close bonnets. 
In washing headgear there are some 
pretty models in linen or pique, the 
foundation being a close-fitting cap, 
while two large pointed ears or flaps 
turn back, on on each side. These flaps 
are buttonholed around the edge, and 
embroidered. For Summer coats the 
choice for small children remains pique; 
there are many handsome models of lace 
and embroidery with silk lining, but 
they are very perishable. The pique is 
always readily laundered; it may be en¬ 
tirely plain, or it may be enriched with 
hand embroidery until it is as costly as 
the perishable silk and lace. A pretty 
model for a child of four to six years 
was a loose coat of white pique button¬ 
holed all around the edge with Delft 
blue, and fastened with large Delft blue 
buttons. The pique bonnet worn with it 
was embroidered in blue also. 
Cream Peppermints. 
Will you give a recipe for making cream 
peppermints? MRS. G. B. k. 
The recipe for French creams given 
on page 460 will make very nice pepper¬ 
mints. Here is another recipe that will 
be found excellent: 
Five-Minute Peppermints.—Stir one 
cup of sugar and one-fourth cup of boil¬ 
ing water over the fire until boiling be¬ 
gins. Then cook five minutes without 
stirring. Remove from the fire and beat 
until creamy, adding meanwhile six 
drops of oil of peppermint and enough 
color paste to give a delicate green or 
pink tint. Drop in rounds from the tip 
of a spoon on to confectioner’s paper to 
cool. When the syrup is too thick to 
drop in smooth rounds add a few drops 
of boiling water and stir while it is 
melting. Then remove from the fire, and 
stir and drop as before. 
The Rural Patterns. 
No. 2435, ladies’ tucked shirtwaist with 
back yoke. Any of the season’s shirt-* 
ings develop well in this style; six sizes, 
32 to 42 bust. No. 2440, ladies’ shirt¬ 
waist. Gray and black striped hand¬ 
kerchief linen was made up into this 
stylish shirtwaist; six sizes, 32 to 42. 
No. 2418, ladies’ tucked shirtwaist, with 
three-quarter length sleeves and a re¬ 
movable chemisette. Copenhagen blue 
pongee or rajah silk develops charmingly 
in this stylish model; six sizes, 32 to 42. 
No. 2142, ladies’ shirtwaist, with three- 
quarter length sleeves and a removable 
chemisette. The material used for this 
charming design is soft coral-pink mes- 
saline, and the removable chemisette is 
of cream-colored filet lace; six sizes, 32 
to 42. No. 2071, ladies’ tucked shirtwaist 
with long or elbow sleeves. Dotted swiss 
or any of the pretty cross-barred lawns 
make up well in this pattern ; six sizes, 
32 to 42. 
No. 2432, ladies’ three-piece skirt, 
closed at left side of front and with 
an inverted box plait at center-back 
seam. This pretty model is particularly 
adaptable to the separate skirts of serge, 
thin flannel or heavy linen; seven sizes, 
22 to 34 waist. No. 2442, ladies’ five- 
gored skirt. A charming model for the 
skirt of an entire costume, or as a sepa¬ 
rate garment to wear with shirtwaists is 
here shown, and is adaptable to almost 
any material; six sizes, 22 to 32. No. 
2426, ladies’ jumper dress, with an at¬ 
tached five-gored skirt. Plain colored 
linen, chambray or lawn trimmed with 
bands of a contrasting color makes this 
a very pretty dress; seven sizes, 32 to 
44 bust. No. 1587, ladies’ seven-gored 
flare maternity skirt, in short-sweep or 
round length and with an under box- 
plaits or gathers at the back. Thin serge 
is one of the best mediums for this 
model; seven sizes, 22 to 34 waist. No. 
2201 , ladies’ six-gored skirt, with plaits 
at front and back and in medium-sweep 
or round length. Adaptable to serge, 
mohair, Panama cloth or heavy linen; 
seven sizes, 2 to 34 waist. Price of all 
patterns, 10 cents each. 
“I’m glad the sky Is painted blue, 
And the earth is painted green, 
"With such a lot of nice fresh air 
All sandwiched in between.” 
Mary Ainge De Vere. 
Adopting City Customs. 
The country is so rapidly becoming like 
the city that it seems likely in a few 
years the good old rural fashions will 
have disappeared entirely. With the 
telephones and the trolleys, the rural 
mail and the better roads, the stream¬ 
ing of young country people to town 
and the desertion of city people to the 
country things are getting hopelessly 
mixed. Some of the new styles are all 
right, but others never should be al¬ 
lowed to creep into the country homes 
for a minute. Among other things that 
the new state of affairs has brought is 
the decline of neighborliness in country 
communities. The newspapers will have 
to revise their jokes about the exces¬ 
sive interest country women feel in 
each other, for the old, friendly inter¬ 
est that city people dubbed curiosity or 
plain meddling is dying out rapidly. 
In many neighborhoods the women do 
not visit once a year in each other’s 
homes, and often the newcomer is ig¬ 
nored entirely. “Too busy” is the pre¬ 
vailing excuse, but it is like all other 
excuses, overworked. The plain truth 
of the matter is that with the telephone, 
the daily mail and other interests in life, 
women get careless and indifferent, and 
no longer see the need of social inter¬ 
course as in the old days. 
A young farmer brought his wife and 
baby to a prosperous community, and 
during the entire year they lived there 
not a single neighbor woman came to 
see them. The baby was too small to 
take to church and other gatherings, so 
that poor lonely woman endured a 
whole year of misery. To be syre, she 
had her husband and the baby, but the 
former had to be about his work and 
the latter slept most of the time. If she 
could have had some of the relatives or 
friends from “back home” it would have 
been easier, but after 12 lonely months 
they moved “back home,” where the 
people were civilized, as she expressed it 
bitterly. When she poured out her woes 
to her mother that good woman said 
with a guilty start that there was a 
stranger in their neighborhood that she 
had never visited. Then the homesick 
young mother recalled that she had 
often neglected newcomers, and won¬ 
dered if she had just received her pay 
along that line. The little lesson did a 
great deal of good, and at least a dozen 
families make it their business to wel¬ 
come strangers promptly now. 
The woman who has never ha’d the 
experience of being a “stranger in a 
strange land” can scarcely realize what 
it means to move into a new neighbor¬ 
hood. Even if the neighbors call 
promptly and act as if glad to welcome 
the stranger, it is hard enough, but when 
they stand aloof and neglect the home¬ 
sick one altogether it is doubly hard. 
The guilty ones are apt to plead that 
they are too busy to be sociable, but 
surely with all the labor saving devices 
for working in the house, and the great 
scarcity of hired men, and the many 
things that can be bought readymade 
for the whole family, it would seem 
rather a shallow excuse. And even if 
there are no strangers in the neighbor¬ 
hood there are always lonely old ladies 
and busy mothers of little children who 
need visitors. However much a woman 
may love her children, she is glad to see 
other people occasionally, and often it 
is real missionary work to visit a neigh¬ 
bor. The young mothers are glad of 
help and counsel in their perplexities, 
and the lonely old ladies enjoy above 
everything else the sight of a kindly 
face and the sound of a sympathetic 
voice. So don’t be in haste to copy city 
customs, especially the ones that make 
people forget to be kind and thoughtful 
and neighborly. It may be all right in 
a crowded flat to ignore your next door 
neighbor, but out in the country every¬ 
thing is different. Let us cling to the 
old kindly customs, no matter if city 
papers do poke fun at us, for the world 
will never have too much of the real 
neighborliness and good will. 
HILDA RICHMOND. 
