1911. 
407 - 
Keeping Goose Grease. 
I think if your correspondent who 
wishes to keep goose fat from getting 
rancid will be careful to see that all 
water and moisture is tried out of the 
fat, it will keep a long time in a cool 
place. I lost quite a lot of lard one 
year; it all became moldy. An old 
housekeeper told me always to try out 
the fat until the cracklings were a deep 
brown (not burnt) and settled to the 
bottom of the kettle and my lard would 
not mold. When my children were 
young I always kept goose grease to 
ward off colds. When night came I 
greased their throats, chests, noses and 
bottom of feet, rubbing in until the skin 
absorbs much of the oil and usually the 
cold will be gone in the morning. 
MRS.' J. C. P. 
Those Shoe Numbers. 
I am interested in the letter of Mrs. 
J. C. regarding the mystifying numbers 
in shoes, page 245. A retailer tells me 
that that is the exact purpose of them, 
to conceal the real number, and this is 
done to help the retailer. For example a 
lady comes in and wants a No. 2 shoe. 
The dealer sees at a glance that she 
wears a No. 4, but if he should tell her 
so she would at once go elsewhere to 
trade. If he fits her and *she, after 
getting home, finds out that he has sold a 
larger pair than the number she called 
for, the result would be the same. With 
the present mystifying assortment of 
digits in a shoe the dealer knows the 
number, the customer buys the shoes and 
gets some that fit and goes home satis¬ 
fied with the fiction that she (rarely he) 
is wearing a shoe several sizes smaller 
than the real thing. The customer is 
saved innumerable corns and incidentally 
a hurting of the pride, and the dealer is 
saved a customer. If Mrs. J. C. orders 
by number she may be assured that the 
dealer will know what she wants, and 
she ought to know whether the shoes fit 
or not even if she is not sure of the 
number. If she has trouble in getting 
fitted, the exact size of the feet, length, 
width, height of instep, etc., would prob¬ 
ably insure well-fitting shoes, w. h. h. 
To Keep Ham for Summer Use. 
Slice rather thick, one-half or three- 
quarters -of an inch, and fry as for the 
table. We save the ham fat as we fry 
in the Winter until we pack, which we 
usually do the last of February or 
March. Use clean crocks which have 
been well scalded and wiped dry. Do 
not use pickle crocks or ones that have 
had poor butter in. Heat the left-over 
ham fat and cover well the bottom of 
the crock. When the ham is fried as 
for the table, place a layer in the crock 
and cover with a plate and place a flat¬ 
iron or weight on the plate to press the 
meat down into the fat. As the meat is 
cooked place alternate layers of meat 
and fat with the plate and weight on 
top until the jar is almost full. Cover 
well with a half-inch or more of fat, 
using Jard if there is no* ham fat 
enough. Allow to cool with weight on 
top. When cold remove weight and 
cover with paraffin paper. Cover crock 
with heavy brown paper, well tied down. 
Keep in a cool, dry place. The water 
must be all cooked out of the meat and 
fat or it will not keep well. When 
wanted for use, take out and heat through. 
Long heating will make it dry and hard. 
Keep the meat always well covered with 
the fat in the crock and do not let the 
crock remain long in a hot kitchen. The 
fat left when all the ham is gone can be 
used to warm potatoes or if cleansed 
for frying purposes. I use two or three 
spiders for the frying, keeping the fat 
in one, and cook the fat until no small 
air bubbles can be seen rising to the top. 
These show the presence of water in 
fat. We put down sausage in the same 
way, making the sausage into cakes an 
inch or more thick and three or four 
inches in circumference. Ours kept until 
used up, about September 1. A neigh¬ 
bor keeps hers the year round in this 
way- MRS. j. c. p. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Lawn Furniture and City Boarders. 
Cousin Ellen writes, “I want you to 
have some rustic furniture, such as I 
saw in the White Mountains last Sum¬ 
mer. Lyman can make it with what 
tools you have about the place, and it 
would be so artistic on your porch, or, 
if you didn’t think it fine enough for 
that, out under your big maple, or what¬ 
ever your great dooryard tree is. I tried 
to get some one to photograph things for 
for me, but not a snapshot could I cap¬ 
ture, so I sat down and tried to make 
some sort of scrawl that would show 
how the sticks were arranged. My draw¬ 
ing will make you smile, but I know 
Lyman can make out what I tried to 
show. 
“The chairs and stand had seats or 
top of two-inch plank stained dull green. 
Holes were bored through and the legs 
driven in. The rest of the material was 
white birch with the bark on. Gray 
birch is nearly as pretty and more dura¬ 
ble, they tell me. There was no mor¬ 
tising, the pieces being just nailed to¬ 
gether. You would be surprised to see 
how easy the chairs were. Their seats 
were lower than those of dining room 
chairs, and the backs came up well above 
the head of the person seated in them. 
The upper crosspiece of the back was 
above shoulder height and the lower one 
came a trifle above the belt, or at about 
wa_line-when I sat down in one. Of 
course, holes for the back legs had to 
be bored on a slant, and I think there 
was a little mortising done where the 
tallest pieces crossed in the center of the 
back to let them fit into each other 
somewhat, and so allow the cross pieces 
to go flatly across. My drawing, poor as 
it is (Fig. 137) will show how the legs 
were braced by cross-bars. But you 
won’t guess how pretty and how com¬ 
fortable these birch chairs are till you 
see one and sit in it. 
“Anyone could make a stand with a 
few directions. There was one in the 
dining room at the camp which had a 
big copper jardiniere on it, holding a 
plant, or a sheaf of goldenrod, or what¬ 
ever the Lady of the Hilltop chose. The 
top of this stand was only about 4 inches 
square. It was stained green, but had 
half sticks of birch, mitered at the cor¬ 
ners and nailed to its edge as a border. 
Crossed braces below were nailed to the 
under side of the top and two pairs go¬ 
ing inside the legs and two pairs out¬ 
side at their lower ends. 
“And I can tell you how to make a 
table large enough for books and a 
work basket, or even to set a tea tray 
upon. Get a square box about six inches 
deep and as near to three feet square as 
you can find. Take four stout pieces of 
birch with the bark on for legs, but do 
not have the table quite as high as those 
in the house. Nail the four legs one 
into each corner of the box and because 
of the angle you can get them so firmly 
placed as to need no cross braces. Now 
add a second top to your table big 
enough to extend four inches beyond 
the box on all sides. Stain this and the 
sides of the box dull green. The whole 
will be staunch and strong and have a 
pretty rustic look. 
‘There is something very neat and 
decorative about the chalky tone of the 
White birch, but your Red cedar with 
its shaggy brown bark is effective, too, 
and I fancy more durable than the birch. 
Any of these articles could be made of 
the cedar, though the chair might need 
to season for a while lest its resinous 
gum soil the clothing. They told me that 
the White birch was used when fresh cut 
without being kept to dry and season. 
I hope they housed the furniture as soon 
as Summer was over, for a farmer told 
me that while birch firewood would 
keep well under cover it would turn to 
punk in one year if left outside.” 
If we should decide to fall in with the 
plan Bess keeps writing about and take 
city boarders during July and August 
I shall surely do my best to get some 
of this rustic furniture made. Nothing 
makes grounds look more attractive than 
plenty of seats in shady places, and what 
lightens the work of sweeping and “pick¬ 
ing up” indoors as much as the habit of 
living out of doors? 
For the rest I shall adopt the policy 
recommended in a recent R. N.-Y. and 
set prices high enough to afford to give 
our guests all the luxuries we can pro¬ 
vide. They come to the country to get 
the best of cream, eggs, poultry, fruit 
and vegetables. They may groan and 
writhe over the expense, just as we do 
when we’ve been traveling or shopping, 
but having paid the price they will take 
solid comfort every day in getting their 
money’s worth. We’ve a little horse they 
mighty enjoy driving, but I know the 
utter inhumanity ignorance begets in city 
people as to horseflesh. Their only idea 
of driving is usually to put the horse 
through regardless of hills and the load 
it has to draw. I shall therefore beg 
that Dolcie’s hire be set high enough to 
give her needed rest between drives, or 
else limit her use to so many hours or 
miles a day. r. ithamar. 
Whex you write advertisers mention The 
I t. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee page 20. 
There are any 
number of wrong 
chimneys for every 
lamp. 
But there is 
always a right one. 
Macbeth lamp- 
chimneys arc made 
of Macbeth “Pearl 
Glass.” They make 
a lamp do its best— 
give the most light and the 
steadiest light. 
“Pearl Glass” is tough. Only 
misuse makes it break. 
To find tlxe exact chimney you need for any 
style or size of lamp or burner get my Index. 
It is free — but full of valuable information. 
Macbeth 
Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. Pittsburgh 
Chicago: Phii.adki.phia: 
178 East Lake Street -12 South Eighth Street 
New York: 19 West 30th Street 
Keg. U. S. Pat, Off, 
TAPESTRY RUG, 
WOOL, 9x12 ft., 
Art Squares—9 x 12 
ft., *3.25 up. Fine 
Smyrna Rugs—9 x, 
12 ft., *6.98. Mat¬ 
ting — from 13c a yard 
up. Oil Cloth — 24c a 
yard up. Linoleum—41c 
a sq. yard and up. Brus¬ 
sels Carpets—40c a yard 
up. 
$ 7.48 
Just think! Floor 
coverings as fine 
as can be made— 
beautiful, long last- 
g, guaranteed' with 
bright, fadeless colors— 
at regular manufactur¬ 
er's prices , one-third, to 
one-naif less than retail! 
We buy in big lots. You 
Know that saves money. 
Roxboroilh Rugs 
Tlict O o hi hnaffninn tn fln4 a n .. n i»l _: _. . . 
Just as big bargains in 
Body Brussels, Axmin- 
sters, Velvets, Ingrains, 
Wiltons, Rag Carpets, 
Carpet Linings, Cocoa 
Mats and Lace Curtains. 
Talk about handsome 
patterns! We have 
them for parlor, 
bedroom, dining 
room and kitchen. 
ROXBOROUGH RUG CO., Dept. 377 , Philadelphia, Pa. 
Get a postal right now, 
and write for our hand¬ 
some illustrated cata¬ 
logue. It tells all about 
each article and gives 
■•ou the exact low price, 
aon’t put off writing! 
You won’t have to buy 
unless you want to, but 
by all means send for 
the catalogue, and see 
the low prices. 
A Ziuays^lll^pgiMjT 
Ready ^ 
Wise foresight should 
lead you to keep in the 
cupboard a half dozen or ^ 
more handy packages of 
Uneeda Biscuit 
They won't get broken, musty, 
soiled or soggy like ordinary 
soda crackers because their | 
crisp, clean freshness is Ilf 
protected by the 
moisture-proof 
and dust-tight ^® 
package. 
Never Sold 
in Bulk 
■lM;0te j moistu/e-proaf 
j f l : package 
NATIONAL BISCUITS-COMPAH Y 
