820 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
THE WIFE. 
I am young, O shaggy mountains; I am 
young and you are old; 
You are mighty, brooding pines, and 
I am small; 
And your great, gaunt shadows crush 
me with a horror still and cold, 
And your sullen silence holds me like 
a pall. 
Just to-day I went for water to a little 
silver spring 
Where the air was sweet and scarlet 
berries grew; 
And my dreams came flocking homeward 
and my haunting fears took wing 
Till the night crawled forth to meet 
me. Then I knew. 
I am stranger to your silence; I am alien 
to your might; 
I am longing for a little, laughing 
world 
Where the days went dancing past me, 
for my heart was very light— 
And from many friendly hearths the 
smoke upcurled. 
Yet he loves you, lonely mountains, and 
he says he loves me too, 
And his cabin nestles trusting at your 
feet; 
But ray heart is torn with longing for 
the gentle land I knew— 
And the careless hours when life was 
very sweet. 
Will you always frown upon me through 
the weary, weary years 
Till my dream home fades to silence 
and to night? 
I was gay, O brooding mountains, till 
you taught me pain and tears. 
I am alien to your solitude and might. 
—Helen Cowles Le Cron in “Poetry.” 
# 
A convenience in making a draped 
waist is an invisible waist foundation, 
which comes ready for use for 75 cents. 
It is made of black or white net; size 
is reckoned by waist measure only. Net 
is the only lining used in a great many 
waists, and it is also used for under¬ 
skirts with a lace or silk flounce. 
* 
A chest of silver sounds very impos¬ 
ing in a list of wedding presents, but it 
does not necessarily mean a very large 
expense. One of the great New York 
silversmiths offers a selection which be- 
bins with a chest of 20 pieces for $32, 
and rises by gradual steps to a chest of 
801 pieces at $2,605. A popular selec¬ 
tion is a chest of 27 pieces at $54; it 
contains 12 teaspoons, six dessert forks, 
six dessert knives, one sugar spoon, one 
preserve spoon, one butter knife. 
* 
Some of our friends have been prepar¬ 
ing picture postcards so that they would 
give pleasure to children in various large 
institutions. The address and message 
being on the face of the card, the picture 
on the back, it is easy enough to paste 
two together flat, so that the writing is 
hidden inside and there are pictures on 
both sides. Library paste should be used, 
and the cards put under a weight until 
dry. Children may do this very neatly, 
and give pleasure to many whose lives 
offer few opportunities for pretty things. 
* 
It seems odd to see corsage bouquets 
offered especially for wear with bathing 
suits. They are made of rubber flowers, 
and cost from 75 cents up. Seaweed 
would seem more appropriate. Bathing 
suits are surprisingly elaborate, when 
compared with old styles, many having 
Norfolk or Russian effects, with slashed 
or pleated skirts. While mohair remains 
the standard material for bathing suits 
of moderate price there are many models 
in silk, the material being messaline, silk 
serge or moire, ratine often being used 
as a trimming. 
* 
Recently a number of New York 
manufacturers of fruit syrups and flavors 
were prosecuted for using saccharin in 
place of sugar in their preparations. It 
is only within the past few months that 
the city board of health decided the use 
of saccharin to be a violation of the sani¬ 
tary code, though the Department of 
Agriculture classed it as an adulterant 
in 1911. This substance is derived from 
coal tar, its noticeable quality being in¬ 
tense sweetness; it is said to be 300 
times as sweet as sugar. It does not ap¬ 
pear to possess the nutrient qualities of 
true sugar, and is considered doubtful in 
its effect on digestion, though it is be¬ 
lieved that it may be used in small quan¬ 
tities without harm. It is used by peo¬ 
ple trying to reduce flesh, because it does 
not increase weight as sugar does. How¬ 
ever, it should never be used knowingly 
without competent. medical advice. Some 
of the European countries prohibit it en¬ 
tirely. About the time the Government 
placed it on the prohibited list, we were 
rather surprised to receive a number of 
recipes for preserves, pickles, etc., in 
which saccharin formed an ingredient. 
These recipes were written as though 
sent in by farm housekeepers, hut we 
viewed them with a suspicious eye, and 
dropped them gently into the waste bas¬ 
ket. We do not know their source, but 
a market for saccharin in the home, 
where pure food laws could not touch it, 
would have been quite worth while when 
this chemical sweetener was driven out 
of commercial preparations. 
More About Canned Chicken. 
I want to say in regard to the canned 
chicken that the liquid the chicken is 
cooked in will be a jelly in the jar. If 
that jelly turns back to liquid I believe 
it is because it is not keeping. I had a 
rooster this Spring that I had no use for 
and so cooked and canned, thinking how 
nice to have it ready for the fairs this 
Fall. It had been canned a month or 
six weeks when I noticed the jelly was 
gradually turning to liquid. One day I 
tried the cover and it was loose. It was 
quite a good-sized bird and I think it was 
packed in the jar rather solid for one 
hour’s cooking. Had I boiled it an hour 
and a half or two hours do not think 
it would have loosened. I always leave 
the clamp off my jars and test them 
every few days for several weeks after, 
as I did it last Fall as an experiment. 
I also canned roast pork, and was very 
much pleased with the results. 
ANNA P. LOVERING. 
‘•Pin Money” Pickles. 
Will you publish a recipe for making 
mixed sweet pickles after the manner of 
“Pin Money” pickles made in Virginia? 
b. w. M. 
This recipe is unknown to us. Will 
some reader who is acquainted with it 
send it to us? It would doubtless be 
welcome to others beside the inquirer. 
Sale for Hair Combings. 
Do you know of any hair dealers 
where they buy hair combings? I have 
a number of ounces that I would sell; it 
is very nice. Buyers go through the 
village here, but I did not hear of it till 
they were gone; they paid 50 cents an 
ounce. They wanted all they could find. 
E. J. 
We applied to several prominent deal¬ 
ers in hair goods in this city, but they 
all say that combings are only used by 
manufacturers of the cheaper goods, and 
that they themselves do not handle them. 
This is what a fashionable Fifth Avenue 
dealer says: 
I never heard of anyone in this coun¬ 
try collecting combings; they make a 
business of it in Europe. You say they 
get 50 cents an ounce; that is a very 
high price, as combings are only sick 
hair, and when it dies it falls from the 
head. Besides, they have a great deal of 
work to do to them before putting them 
on the market; I do not see how they 
could make anything on them, as no first- 
class house would sell combings. I 
should think if anyone made a business 
of it, it would be a wholesale house. 
Another famous artist in hair adds 
the following information: 
Combings are purchased by those deal¬ 
ers who handle inferior goods. However, 
the gathering of combings is a regular 
business, but is not done in this country 
as the labor is entirely too high, as 
combings are practically of no value. It 
is the labor that puts them into usable 
condition, which gives them a value. 
Hair cut from the head is always of 
value and the value of cut hair depends 
on the color and the length of the hair. 
This firm never purchases combings, 
though combings form the largest por¬ 
tion of hair that is sold. In Europe it 
is gathered from the garbage cans and 
garbage trimmings, and then cleaned and 
assorted as explained. 
Iodine Stains —These stains will dis¬ 
appear as if by magic if soaked in a 
weak solution of ordinary household 
ammonia. MRS. II. D. 
Pineapple Cores. —Don’t throw away 
the core of pineapples. Take all the 
pieces and cores of pineapples, put on 
the stove, boil until they are in condition 
to strain juice with fine bag. This will 
make a fine syrup for hot cakes and it 
is a part of the pineapple generally 
thrown away. h. m. 
The Rural Patterns. 
When ordering patterns always give 
number of pattern and measurements de¬ 
sired. 
The first group shows 7786 box plaited 
blouse, 34 to 40 bust. 7881 loose belted 
coat, 34 to 40 bust. 78S4 semi-princesse 
dress for misses and small women, 14, 
16 and 18 years. 7867 girl’s Balkan 
dress, 6 to 12 years. 7S78 child’s blouse 
dress, 4 to S years. 
The second group includes 7871 child’s 
one-piece kimono, 1, 2 and 4 years. 7861 
infant’s dress and barrow-coat, one size. 
7883 boy’s Russian blouse suit, 2 to 6 
years. 7870 boy’s blouse, 4 to 10 years. 
7819 child’s overalls, 2 to 6 years. Price 
of each pattern 10 cents. 
A Wise Woman’s Talk. 
“A day or two ago I went to one of 
the high-class stores to buy 25-cent ging¬ 
ham for one of my grandbabies,” said 
Mrs. Sage. “I had to wait quite awhile 
because two or three handsomely dressed 
women were at that counter buying for 
a Summer’s outfit of morning dresses, 
evidently. One selected a lavender and 
a mustard color and a light blue and a 
gray, all in solid color and a sort of linen 
effect at 29 cents a yard. I could see 
that it meant freshness and neatness and 
variety every morning all Summer, and 
the faded dresses given to the wash 
woman every Fall. Now give me one 
of those neat suits to wear to the village 
or for a neighborhood call this season 
and I should call myself very nicely 
fixed. But this was not what I set out 
to talk about.” 
“The shape and carriage of those 
women interested me. There was some¬ 
thing distinctive about them. I said 
they were handsomely dressed, but there 
July 5, 
were no rearing-out head plumes, no at¬ 
tempts at display and showy trimmings. 
They showed they were ladies by the 
way they held themselves and moved 
about. Thinking it over I concluded it 
was more than half corsets. Probably 
they -went to the fitters and paid $10 to 
$20 for the mould into which to shape 
themselves. It would be skilfully adapt¬ 
ed to each figure, but also fashioned on 
correct lines. I doubt if any woman 
could, by any taking pains, stand and 
walk in just that way without the moral 
support of such a corset.” 
“That is about what a good boarding 
school does for a girl, I told myself. It 
gives her a pattern of a lady. It shapes 
her manners and her voice and her use 
of words. There’s a good deal said on a 
farm about blooded stock. Any man 
knows a carriage horse from the plug 
that will do for the cultivator or dump 
cart. Now a good many country boys 
and girls have in them the making of im¬ 
proved stock, but they need a model, a 
form to shape themselves in. It is not 
enough to say, Oh, I am smart. I can 
carry myself as well as the next one! 
The Egyptians couldn’t make brick with¬ 
out straw. They needed the material nec¬ 
essary to their work, and so do we all. 
The boys or girls will not get far beyond 
where they started unless they have a 
plan or map of some sort. They will 
get a good deal out of the right sort of 
books, therefore if possible help them to 
get the books from which they can learn 
something. But they will get more from 
the people from whom they can learn 
something. Turn it which way you will 
your young people are going to shape 
themselves in great measure by the peo¬ 
ple they are with. Therefore look out.” 
“But someone will say, were those 
ladies you admired really any better than 
more commonplace folks? I think they 
could be trusted to behave better under 
trials than would people less well bred. 
I could see one of those ladies carrying 
herself with a serene dignity that would 
make her mistress of the situation under 
any domestic affliction. She would not 
be floored by misfortune. I have seen 
delicately bred women slave for their 
families, smile under losses, endure de¬ 
privations without a murmur and save 
the day for husband or children where a 
woman of less courage would have gone 
under.” a. t. S. 
A Gold and Silver Dessert. 
Cook the juice of one lemon in three- 
fourths of a cup of sugar till clear, using 
more sugar if the lemon is extra sour. 
Then add one pint of boiling water and 
thicken with two tablespoons of corn¬ 
starch. When this has become colorless 
and no starchy taste remains, pour slow¬ 
ly over the stiffly beaten whites of two 
eggs, whipping constantly that the boil¬ 
ing mixture may cook the froth and hold 
it stiff. Pour into a mould, or into sepa¬ 
rate cups, and set in the ice chest. Make 
a boiled custard, using the yolks of the 
eggs with milk, etc. Chill this also. At 
time of serving turn out the mould onto 
a pretty dish, or the cup-sized moulds 
each on a china saucer, and pour custard 
around. If a candied cherry be placed 
on the top of each white mound it is 
very decorative. The white part will be 
light-textured and tasty, and should be 
just stiff enough to hold its shape. 
PATTIE LYMAN. 
More About Canning Fish. 
I think you are in error on page 741 
as to canning fish. I have put up many 
hundred cans of salmon, halibut, trout 
and clams, cooked 1% to two hours in 
an open kettle, and never lost a can. 
It is true that salmon canneries use 
steam at 15 pounds or a heat of about 
240 degrees, but this is done to make 
the bones soft. The same thing can be 
done in open kettle by cooking four or 
five hours. I fear that glass jars or 
cans would burst at 240 degrees and if 
not sealed they could only be heated to 
212 degrees. A. G. K. 
A Dishwashing Help. —When you 
have a basin or other cooking dish with 
the contents burned or dried on, just 
turn the dish bottom side up over an¬ 
other larger dish of water aud place on 
the stove and let boil. The dried con¬ 
tents may be easily removed with 
scarcely any work. mrs. h. c. 
