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TI-IIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 27, 
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Housekeeping Hints ' 
Helps for the Home 
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The Last Half of the Dishes.} 
{{TT’S the last half of the dishes that I 
A dread to wash,” sighed the oldest 
little daughter of a busy mother. Dear 
little maid, I expect we can all sympath¬ 
ize with her! And so, year in and year 
out, a vast army of dish-washers both old 
and young attack that last half of the 
dishes with main strength and the scrap¬ 
ing knife. Is it any wonder that we 
dread it, and lose time and patience over 
the disagreeable task? Just a little pre¬ 
vention will work wonders in this in¬ 
stance, however, and is worth many of 
the proverbal pounds of cure. If the 
baking dishes cannot be washed at once, 
place them in a sink or a large pan and 
till with water; even if they must stand 
for several hours before being washed, 
they will not be sticky or unpleasant. 
When food is taken from the dish in 
which it is cooked, fill the emptied uten¬ 
sil with water, and when convenient place 
at the back of the stove where it will keep 
warm. If the dish is very greasy, add a 
little soap powder or soft soap to the 
water, or a few drops of ammonia, and 
keep the water moderately warm. When 
this is emptied, the dish will be in no way 
unpleasant to handle. 
If food has burned in a utensil, a spoon¬ 
ful of wood ashes, kept in a convenient 
place for this purpose, added to the water 
and kept moderately hot will remove 
the burned particles. 
A good kettle scraper can be found for 
a dime with which all particles can be re¬ 
moved without difficulty from these soaked 
pots and pans, and the washing is quickly 
over with a delightful absence of scraping 
on dried, discouraging surfaces. If the 
cleansed surface is not entirely smooth, 
rub with a little good scouring powder. 
Just a little forethought makes the wash¬ 
ing of the last half of the dishes as 
agreeable as the first. 
ALICE MARGARET ASIITON. 
boiler of clothes, or if you do not boil 
your clothes (I do not), put it in the 
machine to rub them in. Set the re¬ 
mainder of can of lime on an old plate 
in your fruit cupboard—you will not be 
troubled with mouldy or musty fruit— 
and although it is slaked, it will be just 
as good for the next mess of washing 
fluid. 
I think one of the first things we 
should learn when we begin housekeep¬ 
ing is that there will be blue days, no 
matter how well you plan; days when 
“everything comes all 4n a heap.” You 
just can’t see through, and on just these 
days each man on the place needs some¬ 
thing that makes it necessary for him 
to make frequent journeys through your 
kitchen, and be thankful if the sitting- 
Destroying Black Ants. 
How can I eradicate black ants from 
(he house? I know of an ant hill not 
far away. R. d. u. 
Pennsylvania. 
If these ants come from the ant hill 
punch a hole with a crowbar down into 
it about two feet deep. Pour in half pint 
of bi-sulphide of carbon and immediately 
cover with a thick blanket—all over the 
ant hill. This liquid evaporates and 
forms a poisonous gas—death to all 
breathing things—which will penetrate 
through the “hill” and kill the ants. 
Winter and Summer Screens. 
I keep two sets of window screens, 
one that I have tacked cloth over, that 
I keep in the bedroom windows all Win¬ 
ter, even in zero weather; these I am 
just putting away for the Summer 
screen. f. w. 
Your idea of cloth screens for the bed¬ 
room windows in Winter is a splendid 
one where a person cannot quite bear to 
have fully opened windows. If the cloth 
is sufficiently thin, with open mesh, con¬ 
siderable fresh air is secured without 
Housekeeper and Housekeeping. 
AM an old woman now, and as I look 
hack over 40 years of housekeeping 
and home-making there are many times 
that I might have done better, many 
times just for lack of practical teaching. 
I see women often who are doing work 
in the hardest way because they really 
know no other. Here are a few things 
I have learned from experience. Remem¬ 
ber I have lived on a farm where there 
has always been a shortage of ready 
money. I think if many farmers’ wives 
should speak out their real thoughts I 
would not be lonesome for want of a 
crowd. 
When you get up in the morning, as 
soon as you are dressed, do comb your 
hair. This seems an unnecessary thing 
to say, but I know several young wives 
who get the breakfast and appear at the 
table with their hair uncombed, and it 
seems to me a very untidy habit. 
I have always found the best time to 
make my beds was before breakfast. I 
like to have them all out of the way. 
Of course, if there are small children 
let them sleep in the morning; it is 
good for them; but insist that they get 
up as soon as awake (this does not mean 
babies but older children). Perhaps some 
one will say, let your beds air. I say 
air your bedrooms and your beds will be 
aired. Don’t fail to change beds often, 
taking off the under sheet and putting 
the top sheet in its place. Be sure to 
keep the sheets with the right sides to¬ 
gether ; then the same side is toward the 
bed, and where the person had lain will 
always be inside. 
During the summer I use the sheets 
and pillow slips without ironing. I can 
almost smell the sunshine when I go to 
bed if they are taken from the line on 
a sunny day and put on the bed, which 
has also had a sun bath while I was 
doing the washing. 
A good Avashing fluid is made of one 
pound of lime (such as you get in cans 
for whitewashing) and two pounds sal- 
soda. Dissolve in a gallon of water, let 
it settle, and keep in a jar, jug, or in 
glass cans. Add one-half teacupful to a 
room and chamber stairs are not includ¬ 
ed in their travels. Don’t be cross; it 
isn’t nice for a woman to get fretty. 
Candidly, it is far better not to add that 
to the other burdens you have to bear, 
for if you can keep a little sunshine in¬ 
side and keep pegging Avith system you 
will (when night comes and your house 
is clean, your baking done and a good 
share of that awful accumulation of 
work straightened out) feel much more 
self-respect than you would if your 
nerves (othenvise temper) had got the 
best of you. 
Now, don’t think that in the 40 
years of housekeeping I have always 
followed this golden rule. If there are 
any housewives who have they must be 
fitted for the skies. And if any gude 
mon can be found avIio doesn’t add his 
mite to make you feel discouraged on 
such days I propose that he be carefully 
rolled in pink silk paper, then put in a 
glass case, and sent to the Panama Ex¬ 
position. MRS. VAN. 
The Lame Housekeeper. 
IIIS is a dinner served recently, the 
work done without leaving my seat, 
a one-burner oil stove on one corner of 
the built-in kitchen cabinet. Our pantry 
workroom is smaller and more conven¬ 
ient by far than any I have ever seen 
described anywhere. We had boiled po¬ 
tatoes, boiled eggs ‘carefully Avashed and 
put in with the potatoes at the last 
minute’ lettuce, cold coffee, fresh rolls 
and apple pie. I had to have some one 
set and clear the table for me, but can 
manage the dishes, sitting down. For 
convenience to a lame person, Sister has 
found for me a really practical and in¬ 
expensive alcohol iron. • Four bakers 
drive by here daily, and by buying the 
food fresh it seems wholesome. One man 
has food as good as Ave can bake at 
home. This is about the only labor-sav¬ 
ing thing that comes to one’s door in the 
country. The other is the opportunity 
to send one’s flat wash to the laundry at 
a very reasonable rate, they Avear it out 
rapidly, though. e. s. k. 
drafts. The idea of open windows in the 
sleeping room is fast gaining ground, 
and a screened window may be considered 
a semi-opened one. To one Avho becomes 
accustomed to plenty of fresh air at 
night, closed windows produce a feeling 
of intolerable stuffiness. 
Thinning Peanut Butter. 
Could you tell me whether there is 
any way to thin peanut butter that has 
become too dry? F. av. 
Peanut butter may be thinned for ta¬ 
ble use by the addition of a little warm 
water, with, or without, the addition of 
salt, as desired. The writer much pre¬ 
fers peanut butter that has been thinned 
and salted in this way to the pure article, 
and it goes further Avith the children. 
M. B. D. 
Summer Milk and Egg Dishes. 
W HILE the hens and cows are busy, 
Avith brimming pails and crowded 
nests “June Meals” are in order. 
Here are a few samples from the Wis¬ 
consin farmers’ institute: 
Cake Custard.—To use up any kind of 
layer or plain stale cake, crumble it with 
the hands into a dish; if you have two 
cups of crumbs, take juice of one lemon, 
add sugar and three-fourths of a cup of 
hot water, make rather sweet; Avhen cold 
pour over cake. Make a custard Avith 
two eggs, one tablespoon corn starch and 
one pint of milk; cool, then pour over- 
cake. Any kind of nuts chopped and 
sprinkled over the top is an improve¬ 
ment. 
Milk ,Sherbet.—Four cups milk; juice 
of three lemons; IV 2 cups sugar. Mix 
juice and sugar, stirring constantly Avhile 
slowly adding milk; if added too rapidly 
biixture will have a curdled appearance, 
which is unsightly, but will not affect the 
.quality of sherbet; freeze and serve. 
Baked Eggs with Cream.—Scald a 
scant one-half cup thin cream or rich 
cnilk; break in three eggs, sprinkle a few 
jgrains of salt over the Avhites; set the 
dish in a pan of hot water and bake 
in a moderate oven. When the eggs be¬ 
gin to set, sprinkle Avith grated cheese 
and return to the oven to finish cooking. 
A Layer-Cake Suggestion. —When 
layer cakes are taken from the oven, if 
turned upside down on a cloth and a 
damp cloth placed OA r er them, they usu¬ 
ally drop out unaided. MRS. F. w. 
No Place Like Home. 
We are all interested in knowing how 
“the other half lives.” Dr. M. C. Tan- 
quay of the Kansas Agricultural College 
is now in Crocker Land, that vast unex¬ 
plored region in the Far North. A let¬ 
ter recently came from him—brought by 
Eskimos to the Greenland coast and sent 
by way of Denmark. The story of house¬ 
keeping in the snow will interest some of 
our people who find the temperature far 
above the melting point. 
All members of the expedition are in 
good health and are having a wonderful 
time. I haven’t even had a cold since 
we came. We are living in a large and 
comfortable house which we built last 
Fall. The main room is IS feet by 2 6 
feet. The room, in which Mr. Ekblaw 
and I live, is eight feet by 10 feet. lie 
and I had a snow house built just out¬ 
side in which we sleep part of the time, 
in our reindeer sleeping bags that the 
Eskimo Avomen have made for us. The 
Eskimo women do all our sewing and 
they are good at it, too. One night my 
Eskimo and I stayed with a family com¬ 
posed of the man, his wife, and four chil¬ 
dren, the oldest being a girl of 14. They 
lived as most of these Eskimos do in Win¬ 
ter, in a rock igloo, which is something 
like a Kansas cyclone cellar. To get in¬ 
side, you crawl on your hands and knees 
through a dark narrow passage, 20 to 
80 feet in length. This ends in the 
igloo proper, Avliich in this case was not 
larger than eight by 10 feet and scarcely 
high enough to stand in. You always 
encounter at least half a dozen dogs in 
the dark passageway. The fact that I 
stopped there overnight, being one of 
eight people in the room, that I didn’t 
mind it in the least, that I slept well, 
that, if I did not relish It, I at least 
ate their raw meat for breakfast, tells 
you how near I am now to being a real 
Eskimo. 
What They Say About It. 
Y OUR woman’s department of May 80 
was an extraordinary fine feast 
Though only a poor masculine be¬ 
ing I was as much interested in it as any 
could be, I think. J. F. CASS. 
Washington. 
I should be glad to help ever so little 
in making the magazine number, for I 
enjoy it very much. The new depart¬ 
ment, however, is all right. Women like 
to be entertained as well as “uplifted.” 
New York. mrs. etiiel d. mcnickle. 
I congratulate you on the great im¬ 
provement of the Woman and Home De¬ 
partment. Y r ou have certainly made a 
very liberal advancement, for which the 
women will be pleased and give a gener¬ 
ous patronage. A. M. 11 . 
Ohio. 
I agree with the subscriber who said 
it was Avorth eA T ery penny of two dollars 
instead of one. So here goes to back it 
up. I am much pleased Avith the new 
edition of Woman and Home that Ave re¬ 
ceive once a month. It did seem that 
The R. N.-Y. Avas only to be of interest 
to the men. But now, as it is, mother 
and daughter want it also, for the new 
edition has made it of interest to them 
also. MRS. FRED LE BRENZ. 
Minnesota. 
I sent you two subscriptions (trial) 
for the Ohio State Penitentiary, thinking 
it might help some poor creature when 
he should be liberated. Now the Gov¬ 
ernor, acting with the authorities, has 
provided a 1,500-acre farm, and men are 
there from the “pen”—trusties, etc., car¬ 
ing for cattle and crops. No bars, no 
Avails! Their hearts are touched. 
Cincinnati, O. av. m. a. 
My wife was very much pleased with 
the ladies’ hand bag you sent me. She 
did not expect it to be half as good as 
it is. Any time I can put in a good 
Avord for The R. N.-Y. you can depend 
upon me doing it. leavis myles. 
Texas. 
What I like about this monthly wom¬ 
en’s number is that we can tell Avhat we 
Avant discussed or talked about. Some¬ 
how most of the magazines I see ap¬ 
pear to be conducted by people avIio never 
lived in the country at all. Farm women 
need some chance to earn a little money 
of their own to spend as they please. 
Show us I10AV to earn it. Mrs. j. c. 
New York. 
I am so glad avc are to have a chance 
to help in this new Woman and Home. 
Farm women are just like other women. 
They do not like to be patronized. Nat¬ 
urally we resent having some city woman 
come and tell us about housekeeping 
when she could not possibly step into our 
home and hold it together economically. 
Indiana. MBS. s. B. J. 
I like the new magazine edition very 
much. I am glad you are discussing 
some of the house pets, for only those 
who have tried it can know Avhat a bright 
little canary means to a lonely farm 
woman. mrs. h. g. k. 
New Jersey. 
We are just two old folks, never had 
children. We came here 18 years ago 
as old folks. This avus new land, had 
been pinery, so we had the old stumps 
and windfalls. We had been in North 
Dakota as homesteaders; that is why I 
think that story in The R. N.-Y. is just 
like old times. MRS. s. K. K. 
Wisconsin. 
