670 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
August 17, 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day. 
CLOSING THE DOORS. 
I have closed the door on Doubt; 
I will go by what light 1 can find, 
And hold up my hands and reach them out 
To the glimmer of God in the dark 
and call: 
“I am Thine, though I grope and 
stumble and fall. 
I serve; and Thy service is kind.” 
I have closed the door on Fear. 
lie has lived with me far too long. 
If ho were to break forth and reappear, 
I should lift my eyes and look at the 
sky, 
And sing aloud, and run lightly by ; 
He will never follow a song. 
1 have closed the door on Gloom. 
His house has too narrow a view. 
I must seek for my soul a wider room, 
With the window's to open and let in 
the sun, 
And radiant lamps when the day is 
done, 
And the breeze of the world blowing 
through. 
—British Weekly. 
* 
The newspapers report that Prof. 
Greenberg of Columbia College, who is 
making scientific investigations on 
Prudence Island, near Providence, R. I., 
discovered in some cellars there, hams 
and shoulders packed in barrels of wood 
ashes which have been laid away for 
a century. The meat was said to be 
in fine condition, and of the highest 
quality. We do not know whether this 
is merely a newspaper story.or not, but 
it is a fact that this form of storage is 
found very satisfactory. The cellar 
must be dry, cool and airy; the meat 
well wrapped, and then buried in clean, 
absolutely dry wood ashes. A great 
many farmers still practice this method 
with much satisfaction. 
* 
Accordion and side-pleated skirts are 
among the new Autumn models. Do 
women really wish to wear heavy and 
cumbersome skirts, after the plain and 
comfortable models of the past two sea¬ 
sons? Certainly not, but the men who 
manufacture piece goods wish to dispose 
of their unsold fabrics, therefore we 
are to use more material in our gowns. 
Then we shall hear once more that we 
are slaves to foolish fashion. The full 
paniers were an effort in this direction, 
but while trimming that imitates paniers 
is quite popular, full bunches of ma¬ 
terial are not, and some other plan 
must be tried to use up piece goods. 
After all, are 'women really responsible 
for the foolish fashions? 
* 
Here is a recipe for stuffed eggs, 
which are very desirable for the picnic 
lunch-basket as well as for the home 
table: Boil nine eggs hard, then drop 
them into cold 'water; remove the shells 
and slice them in half. Take out the 
yolks, mash them to a paste, and add 
one tablespoonful and half of melted 
butter, two teaspoonfuls of cream, two 
teaspoonfuls of minced parsley and two 
teaspoonfuls of minced chives. Add a 
liberal sprinkling of pepper and salt. 
After mixing all together, press them 
into the white egg “cups,” and if the 
eggs are for a picnic, press every two 
together and wrap them in waxed paper. 
If they are for a home meal, set them 
in a buttered pan to brown slightly and 
serve them with tomato sauce. 
* 
In taking a general view of popular 
reading—the class of fiction furnished 
by those best-selling publications most 
widely circulated—we are often im¬ 
pressed by the moral slackness they dis¬ 
play. They are not frankly vicious or 
immoral, but they make special heroes 
of young men who get rich quick by 
sharp practice, that just escapes the law, 
or by working some clever piece of near¬ 
knavery on public or employer; they 
glorify the “spender” who flashes like 
a meteor along Broadway (sometimes 
subsiding, as the daily papers tell us, into 
the seclusion of a prison cell), and in 
the entertainment provided by these ad¬ 
ventures, peppered by a liberal seasoning 
of up-to-the-minute slang, we lose sight 
entirely of wavering lines of right and 
wrong. It is quite impossible that young 
people can read much of this stuff with¬ 
out receiving a vulgarized and debased 
view of life. Careful parents used to 
keep old-fashioned “dime novels” out of 
the hands of their young people, yet the 
boy who is taught by his reading to 
start off on an Indian hunt is not nearly 
so dangerous as the one who learns that 
he ought to hunt “easy money” that is 
acquired without work. One would be 
warned against such reading if it came 
from low-grade publishers, but this is 
not always the case; some of them make 
the greatest pretensions to high stand¬ 
ards. We think there never was a time 
when it was more necessary to study 
the family reading closely, if we would 
avoid the confusion of moral ideals that 
comes from a debasing greed for mate¬ 
rial ease and pleasure. 
* 
Many newspapers recently published 
ghastly stories about a certain “death 
farm” in Illinois, where one dweller 
after another was struck down by a 
mysterious death. The strange in¬ 
fluences brooding over the farm were 
described with a wealth of detail that 
would have gladdened Edgar Allan 
Poe, and the descriptions of a weird 
sulphurous haze that hung over the 
farm at sunrise and of the deadly well 
which poisoned the milk of cattle drink¬ 
ing from it, suggested the enchanted 
castle in some mediaeval romance. It is 
reassuring to learn, however, from one 
of the New York dailies, that the whole 
story was manufactured by an unvera- 
cious press correspondent; that the 
abode of horrors is a fertile and well- 
kept farm where a tenant died from 
plainly natural causes, and all the other 
stories related were unscrupulous manu¬ 
factures. There would be no occasion 
to refer to this ridiculous fabrication if 
it were not for the fact that where a 
thousand persons have read the ab¬ 
surd story perhaps a dozen will read the 
denial of it. It was printed far and 
wide, but few papers will print the 
truth about it; they expect their readers 
to be amused for the moment, and for¬ 
getful afterwards. Yet there are many 
foolish people who will be affected by 
such a story, and who will be unconsci¬ 
ously prejudiced against farm life by 
it. It may be well to remember this 
the next time one reads some disagree¬ 
able newspaper story; a good deal of 
the alleged “news” recalls Josh Billings’ 
wise verdict that “It iz better not to 
no so mutch than to no a lot that aint 
The Rural Patterns. 
When ordering patterns always give 
number of patterns and measurements 
desired. 
■The first group shows 7,468, fancy 
blouse, 34 to 40 bust. With or without 
chemisette and high collar, with sleeves 
open or closed, with or without under¬ 
sleeves. Two yards 36 inches wide, 1 
yard 18 inches wide for collar, 54 yard 
18 inches wide for undersleeves, J4 
yard for chemisette and stock collar, 
for medium size. 7,493, blouse or shirt¬ 
waist, 34 to 44 bust, 583 embroidery pat¬ 
tern for scallops, 652 embroidery pat¬ 
tern for daisies. With round or square 
collar, three-quarters or set-in long 
sleeves; 2 yards 36 inches wide for 
medium size. 7,470, semi-princess gown, 
34 to 42 bust, 3 yards 36 inches wide 
for blouse and upper portion of skirt, 
3 yards 36 inches wide for front and 
lower portion of skirt and trimmings, 
54 yard 18 inches wide for collar, for 
medium size. 7,477, four-piece enve¬ 
lope skirt, 22 to 30 waist; with or with¬ 
out plaited portion, with high or natural 
waist-line; 5 yards of material 36 inches 
wide for plain skirt when material has 
figure or nap, 4% yards 36 inches wide 
when material has neither figure nor 
nap, 1 yard 36 inches wide for plaited 
portions, for medium size. 7,483, four- 
gored skirt, 22 to 30 waist. With high 
or natural waist-line, with tucked or 
plain front gore; 4J4 yards 36 inches 
wide to make with tucked front gore, 
254 yards 36 inches wide with 1% yards 
of flouncing, 44 inches wide to make 
with plain front gore as shown in small 
view, for medium size. 
The second group includes: 7,484, 
tucked blouse or shirt-waist, 36 to 46 
bust. With rolled-over or straight cuffs, 
with or without high turned-over collar; 
254 yards 36 inches wide, 2 yards 44 
inches wide, for medium size. 7,476, 
fancy blouse, 34 to 40 bust. With or 
without lining, with or without revers, 
with high or round neck, with set-in 
sleeves in three-quarter or full length; 
2J4 yards 36 inches wide with 54 yards 
27 inches wide for trimming, 54 yard of 
all-over lace 18 inches wide, 3 yards 
of lace for frills, for medium size. 7,340, 
semi-princess gown, 34 to 42 bust. With 
set-in sleeves in three-quarter length 
with cuffs, or loose in elbow length, 
with square collar or high neck and 
turned-over collar; 554 yards 36 inches 
wide with 1 yard 27 inches wide for 
trimming, for medium size. 7,301, 
girl’s dress, 8 to 12 years. With sleeves 
sewed to the armholes, with or without 
shield, with straight plaited skirt; 3j4 
yards 36 inches wide with 1 yard 27 
inches wide for the trimming, yard 
of all-over lace 18 inches wide and 54 
yard of lace for under sleeves, for 10 
year size. 7,482, girl’s costume, 8 to 12 
years. With belted blouse and six- 
gored skirt and collar that can be made 
square or round; 4(4 yards 36 inches 
wide, J4 yard 27 inches wide for collar 
and cuffs, for 10 year size. Price of 
each pattern, 10 cents. 
Two Connecticut Recipes. 
Election Cake.—This has been in the 
family for years, and is excellent. 
Four cups of sugar, four eggs, two nut¬ 
megs, two cups of butter. Rub sugar 
and butter to a cream, add the eggs 
well beaten. Take one half of the 
above, add three cups of warm milk, 
one cup of yeast and flour to make 
quite stiff, raise it until quite light, 
then add the other half with raisins, 
citron, and a little soda if you wish. 
Bake one hour. This makes five loaves. 
Mock Mince Pie.—One cup of sour 
milk, one cup sugar, one cup of raisins 
chopped, not very fine, two eggs, one 
teaspoonful of cloves, one of cinnamon, 
a little nutmeg and pepper and salt; 
bake with two crusts. You would not 
know this from the genuine mince pie. 
f. j. B. 
Leaks. 
Sometimes it seems a little surprising 
that thrifty people do not give a little 
more thought to the expenditure on 
food. It should be understood that the 
writer is no advocate for shabby meals 
—shabbiness and economy are by no 
means synonymous. On the contrary, 
one can give the impression of quite 
plentiful resources on a moderate in¬ 
come by thinking out details. To some 
this may seem a waste of time, con¬ 
sidering that the time taken in the pre¬ 
paration of food is so out of proportion 
to the time needed for its dispatch. But 
it seems worth it when one considers 
the matter carefully. Our men-folks 
give much thought to balancing rations 
for their animals; can we not follow 
more closely than we do for the human 
rations? Man liveth not by bread 
alone, and is it not worth while to 
cater with some reference to mind as 
well as body? The occasions when the 
whole family is together seem so im¬ 
portant that it is worth real thought to 
make things festive and interesting, and 
a new dish or an old favorite to show 
that individual tastes have been con¬ 
sidered, sometimes does wonders in 
starting the feast of reason and the 
flow of soul. 
Some households have quite expensive 
tastes in some articles of food and it 
is a problem for every careful house- 
maker to find out where the leaks are— 
that is, where there is expenditure with¬ 
out adequate return either in food value 
or enjoyment. In some cases the packet 
breakfast foods seem to be one of these 
leaks. They are so attractive and uni¬ 
versal that it is possible to look upon 
them as indispensable, bub it may be 
that the money put into some other dish 
will give far more satisfaction, and yet 
one need not sacrifice variety. Those 
who like cream of wheat can find a 
very good substitute in farina, which 
can be bought in bulk at about three 
cents a pound. Our wheat can be picked 
over, washed, dried and ground in the 
coffee mill, and with a double boiler 
one can cook it thoroughly and have 
a very palatable cereal. Both these are 
altered and improved by cooking in 
half milk and half waiter—skim-milk is 
quite satisfactory. Then comes the old, 
old English dish, venerable enough to 
deserve a capital letter, Frumenty, made 
by cooking clean wheat in water till 
each grain bursts and water is absorbed, 
then add milk thickened with a little 
flour and season with salt to taste. 
Corn mush does not appeal to some 
palates, but this same despised mush 
fried, and served with thick brown sugar 
syrup may be quite welcome. 
Odd and ends often develop into an 
excellent dish. This was demonstrated 
when a little cold meat was chopped 
finely, put into a greased dish, covered 
with a thick layer of macaroni which 
had been previously served with chop¬ 
ped onion and white sauce, the whole 
covered with bread crumbs, a little 
grated cheese and bits of lard, pepper 
and salt to taste. Many an expensive 
dish has been less relished. Once one’s 
mind is turned into the track, it is inter¬ 
esting and pleasant to find how the 
maximum of value can be obtained at 
the minimum of cost. a. e. f. 
