574 
T«£C RURAL NKW-VORKEK 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day. 
O LI >-FA SI 110 NKI > 13 RE A K FAST. 
I. 
How dear to my lioart is that scene of aiy 
childhood 
Which fond recollection recalleth to 
view; 
The damask-clad board with its lavishly 
piled food, 
I (electahie fare my young appetite knew. 
The thick, juicy beefsteak, the omelette by 
It, 
The crisp, fried potatoes, seductively 
brown, 
The rampart of toast with the marma¬ 
lade nigh it—■ 
Ambrosial breakfast, where now thy re¬ 
nown? 
The old-fashioned breakfast, our fore¬ 
fathers’ breakfast, 
The long ago breakfast of vanished re¬ 
nown. 
II. 
Those rich-tinted wallies, how toothsome 
and tender, 
Their dimpled delights on those morn¬ 
ings of yore; 
IIow oft to their delicate charms I’d sur¬ 
render. 
How sweet the libation I’d over them 
pour. 
Mow calm the content that would softly 
enfold me 
As each melting mouthful slipped lus¬ 
ciously down, 
And how I’d have sorrowed had anyone 
told me 
That opulent breakfast would lose its 
renown. 
The old-fashioned breakfast, our fore¬ 
fathers’ breakfast. 
The long ago breakfast of vanished re¬ 
nown. 
III. 
How 
bleak is this modern r< 
morning, 
•past 
of the 
It 
dilTeretli far from the 
dream, 
feast 
of my 
That 
succulent fern the bare 
lug, 
table 
adorn- 
I 
yearn to devour with 
cream. 
saga 
r and 
I'm weary of hay, predigested and sli 
redded, 
On 
health-giving sawdust I 
frown. 
look 
with a 
The 
pangs of dyspepsia are 
loss 
to he 
dreaded— 
Oh, bring back the breakfast of ancient 
renown: 
The old fashioned breakfast, the dear deadly 
breakfast, 
The long ago breakfast of vanished re¬ 
nown. 
IV. 
Rut is there no hope? Must I ever con¬ 
tinue 
on Hakes of dried science to nourish my 
brain? 
While “vigor” and “force” feed my muscle 
and sinew, 
My poor, patient palate petitions in vain, 
Hear meal of my youth, with what rapture 
I'd hail thee, 
Could I but before thy abundance sit 
down ! 
With keenest enjoyment I’d basic to assail 
thee, 
Thou memorial breakfast of blessed re¬ 
nown ; 
The old-fashioned breakfast, our fore¬ 
fathers' breakfast, 
The long ago breakfast of vanished re¬ 
nown. 
—Richmond News-1,eader. 
* 
Cream of vegetable soup is very rich 
and nourishing, but is made entirely 
without meat. Melt four tablespoons 
of butter in a saucepan and add one-half 
cup each of cut celery, turnip and car¬ 
rot ; also a tablespoon of minced onion, 
a bay leaf, blade of mace, bit of parsley, 
and cook slowly twenty minutes. Then 
add three tablespoons of cornstarch or 
twice as much flour, and when blended 
pour over it gradually three pints of hot 
milk. Add two teaspoons of salt, a little 
pepper, and cook all in a double boiler 
for twenty minutes. Rub through coarse 
sieve and add two egg yolks beaten with 
one-half cup of cream. 
* 
The low rolling collar worn by young 
girls, ordinarily called the Puritan, is 
very becoming, and is especially suit¬ 
able with tailored shirtwaists. It is now 
much worn, and is a boon to the short¬ 
necked damsel who is miserable in a 
high stock. In addition to the stiff linen 
Puritan collar, similar shapes are made 
of lace and insertion, or fine tucking 
edged with lace. These are for wear 
with fine muslin waists, or shirtwaist 
dresses, not with stiff linen tailored 
waists. Such collars should never be 
worn, however, with the guimpes of 
jumper dresses, which should always be 
finished with an attached stock; the sep¬ 
arate collar is out of harmony witli the 
style. 
* 
The close-fitting skirts now worn de¬ 
mand a smoothly gored petticoat. A 
good model is a seven or 10-gorcd skirt, 
with the gored top smoothly faced, and 
the placket fastened with four glove 
clamps, which snap close; a two-inch 
fly underneath prevents the placket 
from gaping. A deep ruffle edged with 
one or more narrow ones will give any 
fullness desired at the bottom. Striped 
cotton or seersucker made after this 
pattern has the flounce trimmed with 
bias hands of a solid color. This makes 
a practical and nice-looking petticoat for 
general wear. The seersucker skirts are 
more in favor than for several seasons, 
and the readymade garments seem bet¬ 
ter made than formerly. There are also 
some pretty models in solid-colored cot¬ 
tons having a deep flounce trimmed with 
several hands of bias striped seersucker. 
* 
While street dresses still show the 
highest and tightest of stocks fancy 
muslin blouses for house wear are 
shown with the collarless or Dutch neck, 
and this is a very comfortable Summer 
model. A waist buttoning down the 
hack, with a yoke of line tucks, is a de¬ 
sirable model for this purpose. The col¬ 
larless neck may he round, or cut square, 
simply trimmed with lace or handing; 
the sleeves are elbow length. We have 
seen some attractive models made of 
black crossbar muslin, the square neck 
trimmed with black swiss embroidery. 
Worn with a separate black skirt, or 
with one of the same material, such a 
waist would be cool and pretty, and 
wotdd save washing. Of course a black 
lawn corset cover would he needed 
under it. One great advantage of the 
collarless and short-sleeved waist is that 
the woman who does her own work may 
dress neatly and becomingly for the 
afternoon, and yet attend to her evening 
chores without the discomfort of stiff 
collar or cuffs that must he turned hack 
to prevent soiling. 
* 
Many old-fashioned country gardens 
show a clump or two of the Virginian 
spidenvort with its pretty blue flowers. 
This really deserves more admiration 
than we usually bestow upon it; it comes 
up smiling and hearty every year, in 
spite of neglect, and though the flowers 
are not lasting, they have a quaint beauty 
of their own. This is one of the plants 
introduced to cultivation by John 
Tradescant the younger, gardener to 
Queen Henrietta Maria of England; 
from him it derives its botanical name 
of Tradescantia, bestowed upon it in 
17is. The two John Tradescants, father 
and son, were, as their epitaph in Lam¬ 
beth churchyard says, “Both gardeners 
to the Rose and Lily Queen,” the wife 
of Charles I. The elder Tradescant es¬ 
tablished the first botanical garden in 
Great Britain, while his son traveled 
widely, and together they collected 
many curious specimens, now in the 
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The 
epitaph on the tomb of the two Trades¬ 
cants -ends thus: 
Transplanted now themselves sleep here; 
and when 
Angels shall with their trumpets waken 
men 
And lire shall purge the world, these 
hence shall rise 
And change this garden for a paradise. 
Porto Rico Salad.—Take the inside 
leaves of a head of lettuce and line a 
salad bowl several layers deep. Fill 
middle of howl with sliced tomatoes, 
green peppers, onions and cucumbers. 
Cover with French dressing to which a 
dash of mustard has been added. 
The Rural Patterns. 
No. 2100, child’s low-necked dress 
with short sleeves. An excellent model 
for any of the sheer white goods com¬ 
bined with embroidery or lace; four 
sizes, V 2 to 5 years. No. 2428, girls’ and 
child’s one-piece dress, known as the 
envelope dress. A pretty model for 
chambray, linen or Indian-head cotton; 
six sizes, 2 to 12 years. No. 2441, girls’ 
jumper dress, with guimpe having long 
or three-quarter length sleeves. Nile- 
green linen has been used in the devel¬ 
opment of this stylish little frock, the 
guimpe being made of white swiss with 
a green embroidered dot; four sizes, G 
to 12 years. No. 2417, girls’ Russian 
dress. 'I bis stylish little frock is devel¬ 
oped in dull red Italian linen; four sizes, 
6 to 12 years. No. 2413, child's Empire 
dress, with high or Dutch neck and long 
or short sleeves. Pink-and-white em¬ 
broidered French batiste has been made 
up into this dainty little Empire frock; 
five sizes, 1 to 9 years. 
No. 242.7, child’s set of short clothes, 
consisting of dress with long or short 
sleeves, petticoat having an underwaist, 
drawers and cap. Batiste and jaconet 
are the best materials for this outfit; 
four sizes, J/> to 3 years. No. 2421, 
girls’ and child's underwaist and draw¬ 
ers. Cambric, lawn, batiste, nainsook or 
jaconet are all used for garments of 
this character; six sizes, 2 to 12 years. 
No. 2433, ladies’ work apron. Striped 
blue-and-gray gingham has been used to 
develop this smart little work apron; 
four sizes, 32, 36, 40 and 44 bust. No. 
2445, child’s overalls, with back extend¬ 
ing to or above waistline. Dark blue, 
brown, green or tan denim is usually 
July 11, 
chosen for these little all-cover gar¬ 
ments ; five sizes, 1 to 9 years. No. 
2437, girls’ slip, with princess front. An 
excellent model for any of the sheer 
white goods, or China silk in any pre¬ 
ferred color to wear under the white 
dress; four sizes, 6 to 12 years. Price 
of all patterns 10 cents. 
My Poppy Dream. 
Poppies are for dreams, we all know. 
The connection is obvious enough, but 
the scarlet blossoms of my dream were 
yet a good way removed from those 
white poppies of the Levant which yield 
the opium of commerce. They were 
probably much bigger, for one thing. 
They were fully as large as tea saucers, 
and a brave clear scarlet with what 
looked like a brush-daub of black near the 
base of each petal, and in the center a 
big black crown bordered by innumerable 
quaking black stamens. Those who 
know the hardy poppies will recognize 
Papaver orientale of the catalogues as 
the subject of all this enthusiasm, hut 
to dream a poppy dream like mine you 
must have seen these gorgeous blossoms 
for the first time. If, like me, you were 
driving home from the village some 
lovely June morning, carrying the flow¬ 
ers tenderly all the way and conscious 
of the package of seeds you were to 
have as soon as thev were ripe: if with 
all this you were horn with a love for 
flowers and the desire to have them al¬ 
ways about you, why then you, too, 
would dream of the poppy show one day 
to grow beneath your own fostering 
hands. 
It all came true, as they tell us now 
all one’s day dreams will if they are of 
good things and are held to faithfully. 
I he seed came to hand in the course 
of a few weeks and was sown at once, 
as my friend advised. I also carefully 
marked the spot, as the plants were not 
promised to appear before the following 
Spring. All that was 10 years ago, at 
least, and it will be safer to speak of 
last year’s seed. In early Spring this 
season I found some small seedlings in 
a flower bed. I doubt if they were 
there last Fall, for I had pansies and 
larkspur sown in the bed, and used to 
watch the small plants, hoping for a 
safe Winter for them. But a small 
washout and too much freezing and 
thawing left me only one pansy plant 
and not a single larkspur; so the poppy 
plants were a sort of consolation prize. 
They must have come from seed scat¬ 
tered over the bed when the poppy cap¬ 
sules were gathered after ripening. I 
have never known them to self-sow, 
which seems curious, as each capsule 
contains many seeds, and they certainly 
are more sure to germinate if sown at 
once. The only way to account for the 
fact that perennial poppies are rare 
plants in country gardens seems to me 
to lie in this slowness of old seeds. 
Dealers must, perforce, send us seeds 
nearly a year old. (And who can guess 
how much older is much of the seed in 
every packet we buy!) I do not know 
that old seed will never come up, but 
doubt if it will. 
Nothing more able to take care of it¬ 
self in the perennial border could he de¬ 
sired. One of my four old roots now 
stands where was once a flower bed. 
It is turf-bound and does not bloom 
very freely, hut comes up bravely every 
Spring and if given half a chance would 
certainly double its this year’s output 
of seven blossoms. You will maybe say, 
“With a whole chance why not 28 blos¬ 
soms?” But do not be too sure. Cul¬ 
ture and high-living will work wonder¬ 
ful improvement with some plants. But 
commercial fertilizers and such enrich¬ 
ment as delights pteonies, evening prim¬ 
rose and Phlox must he kept away from 
these hardy poppies. This I have for 
two seasons proved to my cost. Strange 
that I should have forgotten this Spring 
that not a blossom appeared upon the 
best of my poppy plants last year be¬ 
cause I let it share in the fertilizers 
given plants near it! - Of my four ten- 
year-old roots the one that had received 
least attention bore most flowers. Two 
dozen poppies from one root is a fair 
average, but not all will he out at one 
time, which prolongs the flowering sea¬ 
son, of course. 
OLD-FASHIONED PLANT LOVER. 
