668 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 27, 
WnmJUl JinH flip HaITIP suggest that a good man y wage-earning 
wlllclll UIIU lllv/ 11U111C women are not rendered restless by lux- 
From Day to Day. 
CONSIDER THE LILIES. 
* 
He hides within the lily „ 
A strong and tender care, 
That wins the earth-born atoms 
To glory of the air; 
He weaves the shining garments 
Unceasingly and still, 
Along the quiet waters 
In niches of the hill. 
O Toiler of the lily. 
Thy touch is in the Man ! 
No leaf that dawns to petal 
But hints the angel-plan. 
The flower horizons open! 
The blossom vaster shows! 
We hear the wide worlds echo,— 
Sec how the lily grows! 
Shy yearnings of the savage, 
Unfolding thought by thought, 
To holy lives are lifted, 
To visions fair are wrought; 
The races rise and cluster, 
And evils fade and fall. 
Till chaos blooms to beauty, 
Thy purpose crowning all! 
—W. C. Gannett. 
* 
Silver holders for domino sugar are 
novelties; they are shaped like a nar¬ 
row trough with two sides but no ends, 
just the width for a single row of blocks 
of sugar. The holder has claw feet and 
a hook-like handle, and costs about $6 
in solid silver. 
* 
We all have our ideals as to what 
constitutes culture and gentility. The 
Youth’s Companion says that in the 
privacy of his home the village butcher 
was telling his wife of the arrival of 
a new Summer resident. “She came 
in to-day,” he said with enthusiasm, 
“and I can tell you she’s a real lady, 
brought up select and exclusive. She 
don’t know one cut o’ meat from an¬ 
other, nor veal from mutton.” 
* 
Whalebone used to be quite cheap 
in the old days of whaling, when it was 
used both in corsets and umbrella ribs, 
but nowadays all sorts of substitutes 
are used in corset-making, because 
whalebone has advanced in price to an 
enormous degree. One substitute is a 
highly-tempered steel covered with a 
rubber composition; this is not used in 
cheap grades, which more often are 
stiffened with composition bones of 
various sorts. One of the greatest im¬ 
provements is the tempering of light, 
tough steel bones, though nothing equals 
the vanished whalebone for lightness, 
toughness and flexibility. 
* 
Among new dress goods changeable 
mohair taffeta suggests the old-fash¬ 
ioned fabrics of our grandmothers. It 
is fine, lustrous and light as a silk, with 
the mohair quality in wearing; 54 inches 
wide, it costs $1.29 a yard. All the shot 
and changeable effects are now very 
fashionable. Taffeta, changeable, shot 
or plain, is to be the most popular dress 
silk the coming Summer. It is used a 
good deal in millinery, and also in the 
newest hand-bags. A modern adapta¬ 
tion of the old-style purse with rings is 
shown in the “bracelet-handled” hand¬ 
bag. This is purse-shaped, the ends 
fringed, gathered by rings at the middle, 
with a bracelet ring to hold by, and the 
styles include changeable taffeta with 
gold or silk fringe, as well as lace lined 
with silk, gold or silver net, etc. These 
bags cost from about $2 to $15 each. 
* 
A good many writers tell us that much 
of the unrest among modern women is 
due to the luxuries and privileges be¬ 
stowed upon them. This assertion is 
not especially soothing to hard-working 
farm women, who do their duty with¬ 
out complaint, but who are not likely 
to have any excess of luxury imposed 
upon them by their share of the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar. The report of the Min¬ 
imum Wage Commission of Massachu¬ 
setts gives the following statistics, which 
ury either: 
In Massachusetts 60 per cent of the 
women over 18 years of age who work in 
retail stores receive less than $8 a week. 
Of the women who work in candy factor¬ 
ies 93 per cent receive less than .$8 a week 
Of the women who work in laundries 75 
per cent receive less than .58 a week. Of 
the women who work in cotton mills 67 per 
cent receive less than $8 a week. Forty- 
one per cent of the candy workers, 10.2 
per cent of the saleswomen, 16.1 of the 
laundry workers and 23 per cent of the 
cotton workers earn less than ,|5 a week; 
and respectively 65.2 per cent, 29.5 per 
cent, 40.7 per cent, and 37.9 per cent of 
these women workers earn less than $6 a 
week. 
* 
The tuberous-rooted sunflower or 
girasole, commonly called Jerusalem 
artichoke, is used quite freely as a veg¬ 
etable in Europe, and is found useful 
by English cooks late in the season, 
as a substitute for potatoes. The tubers 
are peeled, thrown into water contain¬ 
ing a little vinegar, to prevent them 
from turning black, then put into boil¬ 
ing salted water, and boiled fast for 
15 to 30 minutes, according to size. 
They are then served with white sauce 
or melted butter. The following is an 
English recipe for fried girasoles: Take 
some boiled girasoles and cut them in 
halves, place them on a dish or plate, 
and grate over them the rind of a lemon, 
also sprinkle a little sugar and let them 
stand a short time while you make a 
batter. Dip each piece of girasole into 
the batter and drop into boiling fat. Fry 
a pale brown, drain on paper. Sprinkle 
with powdered sugar and serve hot. 
Cinnamon may be used instead of lemon 
rind, and the slices dipped into egg and 
then bread-crumbed before frying, in¬ 
stead of the batter. The tubers are 
also used to make soup, just as one 
would make potato soup. We know by 
experience that anyone who once gets 
the Jerusalem artichoke into a garden 
will spend the rest of his existence 
trying to get it out, for though hand¬ 
some in flower it is a persistent weed, 
so there may be some comfort in eating 
this persistent invader. 
Soft Soap. 
I would like to know how to make the 
old-fashioned home-made soap with ashes; 
how strong to make the lye and how much 
grease, such as rinds and cracklings. 
s. c. L. 
We do not advise making soap in 
this way, thinking commercial lye pref¬ 
erable, but the following is the recipe: 
Stand lye barrel on a platform with a 
sloping board in center for lye to run 
on; raise the barrel, a little on the plat¬ 
form ; set down below a large pail to 
catch the lye. Cover the bottom of the 
barrel with clean straw, put on this a 
peck of slaked lime, then fill barrel 
with pure unleached wood ashes, pound¬ 
ing down each layer put in. When the 
barrel is full, scoop out a hole in the 
top, large enough to hold two quarts of 
water; fill this hole with water, and have 
a pail and dipper near the leach, so that 
water may be added as desired. The 
lye will begin to run in about 36 hours; 
if it is not strong at first it should be 
poured back over the leach. It is usu¬ 
ally strong enough after the first two 
quarts have run out. It should be 
strong enough to bear up a potato. 
When sufficient lye for a boiling is se¬ 
cured put it in the kettle, and add 
grease, pork rinds, etc., which need not 
be tried out, as the lye dissolves it; 
leave in the kettle a day or two before 
boiling. In using commercial lye, five 
pounds of grease are used with one pail¬ 
ful of lye, which is afterwards thinned 
with two pailfuls of water, but we have 
never had a recipe for soap made with 
ash leach where exact proportions were 
given; the makers always say, “Use 
judgment.” When the soap is well 
boiled, so that no grease rises on the 
top, and it becomes a jelly when cold, 
put in a barrel, stirring in enough weak 
lye by degrees to make it the thickness 
desired. The rule is to take out some 
strong soap in a saucer, and stir in 
enough weak lye to be just right, using 
the same proportions for the large 
quantity. If the supply of weak lye is 
not sufficient, rain water may be added. 
This new soap is very strong, and hard 
on the hands. It must be put in a 
strong barrel, or it will eat its way out. 
However, we would advise using the 
wood ashes around fruit trees, and mak¬ 
ing soap with commercial potash. 
Write for 
FREE 
Style Book 
and 
Samples 
Save $8 
Suit or 
Overcoat 
Direct 
from Mil] 
$10to 
$18 
(Made-to-Mcasnrt) 
Worth 
$18 to $30 
Molasses Vinegar. 
Some time ago you printed a recipe for 
making vinegar which was given by a lady 
who stated it had been in use in her fam¬ 
ily for over 30 years and that the vinegar 
so made seemed as good as that made 
from cider. Will you print this recipe 
again ? s. w. c. 
We judge the inquirer refers to the 
following recipe for molasses vinegar: 
One quart baker’s yeast; one quart 
sugar; one quart New Orleans molasses. 
Stir thoroughly and add nine quarts soft 
cold water. Stir well, and put into a-j 
stoneware or glass vessel; tie a thin! 
cloth over the mouth ; do not cork; stand 
in a warm (not hot) place. In three 
weeks fermentation will be complete, all 
impurities settling to the bottom, when ] 
it should be poured off carefully into a 
clean vessel. By “baker’s” yeast is, 
meant the mild pleasant-tasting fermen- 
tive used by all bakers in the making 
of bread before the existence of com¬ 
pressed yeast, and yet used by the frugal I 
housewife living far from compressed 
yeast. If compressed yeast is used, 
break a cake into small pieces, put it j 
into a vessel and pour over it a small j 
cupful of lukewarm water and let stand 
until entirely dissolved, stirring occa¬ 
sionally. At the same time put into a 
vessel that will contain about two gal¬ 
lons a pint of flour and pour upon it 
about a quart (not more) of scalding 
water. Pour slowly and stir vigorously 
all the time until all lumps have disap¬ 
peared. then beat well and let stand 
until cool. Now add the dissolved yeast 
cake, and a teaspoonful of salt, beat 
well, cover with a cloth and stand in a J 
warm place. Let it rise 24 hours, stir- I 
ring down in the meantime a half dozen 
or more times. By this time it will have 
done rising, and you can proceed to 
make your vinegar, using the measure¬ 
ments already given. This vinegar is j 
recommended as excellent in flavor. 
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iipiiii a jjkDis Prairie Dogs, 
Woodchucks, Gophers, 
and Grain Insects. 
"The wheels of thegods 
grind slow but exceed¬ 
ingly small.” So the weevil, but you can stop their 
*with “Fuma Carbon Bisulphide are doing. 
EDWARD R. TAYLOR. Penn Yan, N. Y. 
FUMA 
All the 
Hard 
Work 
Takeiv 
Out of 
Scrubbing 
Mop the floor — 
sprinkle on Old 
Dutch Cleanser 
and scrub well. 
Dirt and spots go 
flying; for the fine 
particles of Old 
Dutch Cleanser 
get down into the 
cracks and crevi¬ 
ces, that are so 
hard to get at or¬ 
dinarily, and take 
out all the dirt. 
Old Dutch 
Cleanser 
Many other uses and full directions on large Sifter-Can 10c. 
