780 
THE reURAI> NEW-YORKER 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
THE LONG DAY CLOSES. 
No star is o’er the lake 
Its pale watch keeping; 
The moon is half awake 
Through gray mist creeping. 
The last red leaves fall round 
The porch of roses; 
The clock hath ceased to sound, 
The long day closes. 
Sit by the silent hearth 
In calm endeavor 
To count the sounds of mirth 
Now dumb forever. 
Heed not how hope believes 
And fate disposes: 
Shadow is round the eaves, 
The long day closes. 
The lighted windows dim 
Are fading slowly; 
The fire that was so trim 
Now quivers lowly. 
Go to the dreamless bed 
Where grief reposes; 
Thy book of toil is read, 
The long day closes. 
—Henry F. Chorley. 
% 
Very nice pancakes, which are lighter 
and more digestible than ordinary wheat 
cakes, have for their basis dry bread, 
ground very fine in tbe meat grinder. 
The dry bread is used in place of flour, 
and the pancakes are made just the like 
ordinary wheat cakes apart from this. 
* 
Tar and asphalt are two abominable 
stains children are very likely to get on 
their clothes on a Summer excursion. 
Soap and water will not remove them; 
indeed, washing in soapsuds “sets” as¬ 
phalt stains hard. Rub tar stains with 
soft unsalted grease, let alone for awhile, 
then wash in gasoline or hot suds. Wet 
asphalt thoroughly with kerosene, let 
stand for a time, then wash in turpentine 
or alcohol. 
£ 
Rather an odd item of news was the 
recent announcement that the Teddy Bear 
Makers’ Union had ordered a strike in 
that industry. Several thousand makers 
of Teddy bears were to go out in a gen¬ 
eral demand for higher wages and more 
sanitary shops. The organizer of the 
United Hebrew Trades regretted that 
they must make thousands of children 
unhappy by a famine in Teddy bears, but 
the conditions of the trade demanded re¬ 
dress. * 
Ciierry shortcake will soon be in sea¬ 
son. Stone the cherries and sprinkle 
them generously with granulated sugar 
and let them stand for at least two hours 
before serving. Make the cake of one 
pint of flour, measured before sifting, 
one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, half a 
teaspoonful of soda, one-fourth of a tea¬ 
spoonful of salt, four tablespoonfuls of 
butter, one teacupful of milk. Mix the 
other dry ingredients with the flour and 
rub through a sieve, rub the butter into 
the mixture and add the flour; butter 
two tin pie plates, spread the mixture in 
them and bake in a quick oven from 18 
to 20 minutes; butter the cakes and put 
a thick layer of cherries between them 
and put the cherries on top and pour the 
juie'e over the cake. 
* 
The office of Experiment Stations of 
the U. S. Department of Agriculture has 
recently issued Bulletin No. 255, “Edu¬ 
cational Contests in Agriculture and 
Home Economics.” This is intended for 
use in farmers’ institute and agricul¬ 
tural extension work, but it will be very 
helpful to Granges and local societies, as 
it gives exact rules for governing a va¬ 
riety of crop and other contests—even 
farm planning and weed and insect col¬ 
lections. The household contests include 
sewing, cooking, decoration, furnishing 
and home interior planning, and even the 
putting up of a school lunch. Copies of 
this useful bulletin may be obtained from 
the Superintendent of Documents. Gov¬ 
ernment Printing Office, Washington, 
D. O., price five cents in coin. Do not 
send stamps for any publication issued 
by the National Government, as all their 
matter is franked. 
* 
Years ago a witty woman asserted 
that in studying American history she 
gave her deepest sympathies to the Pil¬ 
grim mothers, because they had to stand 
all the Pilgrim fathers did, and the Pil¬ 
grim fathers, too! Isn’t it possible that 
the farm woman who is blamed or criti¬ 
cized for encouraging her daughters to 
leave- the farm may be in a similar posi¬ 
tion? The average farm, under the best 
conditions, means plenty of hard work 
for the housekeeper. If the home asso¬ 
ciations are pleasant—if it is a place 
where affection and a congenial commu¬ 
nity of interests are the ruling factors— 
the hard work is lightened by the spirit 
that pervades it. If. on the contrary, 
the home life is a monotonous round of 
toil, its gray bleak outlook unrelieved 
from day to day, and further embittered 
by harshness or lack of sympathy, it is 
not surprising that its advantages are not 
apparent. The uplift of any occupation 
or condition of life means, first of all, 
the uplift of the human material com¬ 
posing it. 
Two Cherry Puddings. 
Cherry Roly-poly.—Into one pint of 
flour mix one-half teaspoonful of salt and 
three level teaspoonfuls of baking pow¬ 
der ; rub in one tablespoonful of butter 
and add enough milk to make a stiff 
dough. Toss out on a floured board and 
roll out half an inch thick and in rectan¬ 
gular shape. Have ready some cherries 
stoned and well drained; lay them on the 
surface, pressing them slightly into the 
dough. Dredge with flour and roll over 
into a loose roll. Pinch the ends to¬ 
gether and wrap in a cloth; lay it in a 
steamer and steam about an hour. Make 
a sauce of the juice of the cherries and 
as much water; add sugar to taste; let 
the mixture boil; thicken it with corn¬ 
starch ; stir in one heaping tablespoonful 
of butter and serve at once. 
Cherry Puff Pudding.—Mix well one 
pint of flour, one and one-half teaspoon¬ 
fuls of baking powder, with enough milk 
for a soft batter. Put into well-greased 
cups alternate spoonfuls of batter, with 
layers of stoned cherries. Steam 20 min¬ 
utes. Serve with hot, foamy sauce made 
as follows: Half a cup of butter, one 
cup of powdered sugar, one teaspoonful 
of vanilla and two tablespoonfuls of cherry 
or fruit juice. One-fourth cup of boiling 
water, white of one egg beaten to a 
foam. Cream the butter and sugar and 
add vanilla and juice. Just before serv¬ 
ing add the boiling water, stir well, then 
add the egg and beat till foamy. 
Three Raspberry Desserts. 
Raspberry Cream.—Press one quart of 
red raspberries through a sieve and add 
to the pulp one cup of sugar. Soak two 
tablespoons of gelatin in half a cup of 
water until soft. Whip one pint of thick 
cream to a solid froth. Pour half a cup 
of boiling water over the gelatin and 
when it is dissolved add it to the berry 
pulp. Set it in a pan of ice water and 
stir until it begins to thicken ; then fold 
in the whipped cream, turn it into a 
fancy border mold and set on ice until 
firm. When serving, heap fine, red rasp¬ 
berries in the center, or if another shaped 
mold is used, around the base. 
Raspberry Cobbler.—Sift two cups of 
flour with two teaspoonfuls of baking 
powder and one-lialf teaspoonful of salt. 
Rub in two tablespoonfuls of butter. Add 
one beaten egg to one small cupful of milk 
and mix into a soft crust. Line the sides 
of a deep baking pan. Mix three pints 
of raspberries and currants with two cup¬ 
fuls of sugar and two tablespoonfuls of 
flour. Cover with a top crust and bake. 
Serve warm with cubes of cheese. 
Raspberry Jelly.—Two tablespoonfuls 
of granulated gelatin, put to soak in one 
cupful of cold water; in half an hour add 
one cupful of boiling water, one tablespoon¬ 
ful of lemon juice and when gelatin is per¬ 
fectly dissolved one tumbler of raspberry 
jelly. Keep warm and stir until all is 
completely blended, then turn into a mold, 
which has been wet with cold water and 
set directly on the ice as soon as the 
mixture cools. This jelly is very pretty 
molded as a border, turned out just be¬ 
fore serving and filled in the center with 
ice cold, sweetened whipped cream, fla¬ 
vored with vanilla. 
Date Jelly.—Pour a cup of cold water 
over one-half box of gelatin and allow 
it to stand 10 minutes. Squeeze the 
juice of two lemons over two cups of 
brown sugar. Add the cold water with 
gelatin and then two and a half cups of 
boiling water. Boil up with the rinds 
of the lemons, strain and put in mold. 
While the jelly is still hot drop into it 
half a pound of dates that have been 
washed and stoned. A little of the 
syrup of preserved ginger, with three 
or four pieces of the ginger itself, 
chopped, is an addition to this dish. 
The Rural Patterns. 
When ordering patterns always give 
number of patterns and measurements 
desired. 
The first group shows TOGO mannish 
shirt waist for misses and small women, 
16 and IS years. 7766 Russian blouse 
waist, 34 to 40 bust. 7818 semi-princess 
gown, 34 to 42 bust. 7003 six-gored 
skirt for misses and small women. 14, 
16 and 18 years. 7784 four-gored skirt, 
22 to 34 waist. 
The second group includes 7*64 tucked 
blouse, 34 to 42 bust. 7880 fancy blouse, 
closing in back, 34 to 40 bust. 7S71A 
semi-princess gown, 34 to 42 bust. 7858 
two-piece tucked skirt. 22 to 30 waist. 
7882 four-piece draped skirt, 22 to 32 
waist. Price of each pattern 10 cents. 
A Form of Farm Economics : The 
Farm-wife’s Playtime. 
It may seem that because I dare to as¬ 
sociate the words “farm-wife” and “play¬ 
time” I do not take my part in life seri¬ 
ously, or that 1 belong to the very pros¬ 
perous farming class. Rather, I am of 
the hard-working class, and really think 
I have, in the past, taken my life much 
too seriously. My neighbors would tell 
you that I attend to my work, but they 
could not tell you how hard the learning 
has been, for I have striven to overcome 
the prejudice in our community against 
the town girl as a farmer’s wife. That 
is quite a task when inexperience con¬ 
stantly reminds one that there is some 
foundation for the mistrust. 
I settled down to this life and learned 
to love it. The compensations are so 
many and so varied. For 10 years I did 
not take a real pleasure trip away from 
home. 1 went shopping and calling, but 
home and its work were usually on my 
mind. I saw women on farms about me 
doing likewise. We shook our heads if 
.Tune 21, 
Farmer Blank spoke of sending his tired 
wife to the seashore for a week; consid¬ 
ered him a little boastful. Under my 
self-constituted regime, I began to real¬ 
ize that I was losing my enthusiasm, was 
not growing tired of my work, but of my¬ 
self. I argued that others must be much 
better managers than I, to accomplish so 
much more. I disapproved of myself and 
trifles worried me. I am quite sure that 
members of my household were noticing 
and suffering from my impatience and 
irritability. 
About this time an odd thing occurred. 
I \va$ summoned some distance from 
home to attend a funeral, was absent 
three days and returned refreshed and 
enlivened! I had not expected even to 
be calm. It slowly penetrated my con¬ 
sciousness that my rested body was re¬ 
paying me by giving me a saner view. 
That made me think further and i de¬ 
cided that most of my sins of omission 
and commission had resulted from a 
body’s being taxed, day after day, on and 
on, in the same manner. I even sug¬ 
gested to myself that perhaps I was not 
naturally an ill-natured woman, and that 
the frequent rebukes to the children had 
been given because I had been too tired 
to understand them. The play-emotions 
within me that had been all but swal¬ 
lowed up were now protesting most vig¬ 
orously for recognition. The forces of 
the opposition came clamoring forth with 
the time-worn arguments: 
“There is so much to do, how can you 
leave?” and I answered: “We’ll see.” 
“The neighbors will think you are not a 
good farm-wife,” and I knew that would 
need a brave defender. However, I re¬ 
solved that I would no longer be a mental 
coward in this matter of a busy woman’s 
play-time. I would advocate it at every 
turn of the road. 
You may think that I made sudden 
plans for the spending of some time at 
seashore or mountain or town. But the 
plan that seemed most pleasing to me did 
not cost a cent, and was one by which 
the children could be with me and my 
home not far or long away. It was sim¬ 
ply that on one day of each week during 
the pleasant weather I arranged my work 
so that from 10 till four I was a free 
woman. I set no particular day, because 
the weather was such a factor in our 
pleasure, but on one day of each week 
I drove out with my little ones and a sim¬ 
ple lunch. We had previously made ar¬ 
rangements to pick up another brood and 
we made our way to the day’s picnic 
ground, the choice of which was quite 
without previous planning. One day, in 
a spirit of fun, we allowed the horse to 
go where he willed and he took us to the 
creamery ! Nothing daunted were we, for 
there was a stream and a hillside near. 
I found that there were trees in the 
wood quite near my home of which I did 
not know the name, or -use of the wood. 
Of bugs and birds I knew only a very 
few and I have since learned that we 
have 150 different kinds of birds in this 
community. Great country woman had 
I been! We heard, without trouble, 
operas by beautiful and gifted singers, for 
whose names I was obliged to search 
frantically, if I wished to retain any de¬ 
gree of standing with my followers. The 
children soon learned to "begin where 
they had left off” with their playing, and 
mother’s heart was made glad by their 
comradeship. Together we fished, searched 
for flowers and made willow whistles. We 
were soon joined by other mothers and 
children, and grew to know each other 
better during that Summer than during 
all the previous years. Many a woman 
decided that if she were worth her salt 
she was worth that little play-time. 
This seems a very simple plan to be 
writing about, but it has meant so much 
to me and my home that it seems won¬ 
derful to me. It was sufficiently suc¬ 
cessful to draw the attention of the vil¬ 
lage folk to the group of farm-wives who 
could play one day each week from l (| 
till four! They may have spoken of us 
among themselves as being in revolt and 
have sensed another cause for the high 
cost of living. We were not revolting 
against our work, we were coming into 
our own. We knew that it was not out 
husbands’ plan of living that we had 
been following so meekly, but our own. 
There had been no cause for us to demand 
the time—it was a question of managing 
for it. And it made for efficiency, both 
in the managing and in the realization. 
L. S. 
