8 32 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day 
It Couldn’t Be Done. 
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done, 
But he with a chuckle replied 
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would 
be one 
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried. 
So he buckled right in, with a trace of a 
grin 
On his face. If he worried he hid it. 
He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
That couldn’t be done—and he did it. 
Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do 
that— 
At least, no one ever has done it”; 
But he took off his coat, and he took off 
his hat, 
And the first thing we knew he’d.be¬ 
gun it. 
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, 
Without any doubting or quiddit, 
He started to sing as he tackled the thing 
That couldn’t be done—and he did it. 
There are thousands who’ll tell you it 
cannot be done, 
There are thousands who prophesy 
failure; 
There are thousands to point out to you, 
one by one, 
The dangers that wait to assail you. 
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin, 
Then take off your coat and go to it. 
Just start in to sing as you tackle the 
thing 
That “cannot be done”—and you’ll do 
it. 
—Edgar A. Guest in Brockton School 
Helper. 
* 
A MONG household conveniences in wire 
is a dish drainer that has a com¬ 
partment in the center in which flat sil¬ 
ver is stood upright to drain. It costs 
40 cents. Another convenience is a wire 
vegetable basket, to be used when drain¬ 
ing vegetables after boiling; it comes in 
different sizes, at 12 and IS cents. A 
wire lettuce washer or salad basket costs 
40 cents. 
* 
R EGULAR wear soils a light-colored 
raincoat as much as any other gar¬ 
ment, but it should never be cleaned with 
naptha, chloroform, gasoline, or similar 
cleansing agents, because they injure the 
rubber in waterproof materials. Lay the 
garment flat and scrub it on both sides 
with abundant soap and water. Rinse 
with clear water, wipe off, and hang it 
up to dry. Of course wringing must not 
be attempted. 
* 
T HE Philadelphia Record says that 
one afternoon a very stout woman 
was rambling along a country road when 
she suddenly noticed a little boy walking 
closely beside her. Not knowing the 
youngster, she was naturally somewhat 
surprised. 
“Look here, little boy,” she heatedly 
cried, “why are you following me along 
like that? Go away from me instantly.” 
“I ain’t doin’ nothin’, lady,” pleaded 
the little fellow. “Please don’t send me 
away.” 
“You must go away at once,” repeated 
the perplexed woman. “Why do you 
wish to follow me?” 
“Because,” was the startling rejoinder 
of the youngster, “you are the only shady 
spot along the whole road.” 
* 
T HE New York Child Labor Commit¬ 
tee has been investigating the cases 
of children working in the tenements in 
this city. One case reported was a girl 
14 years old, who made artificial violets. 
She had to make 576 of these flowers, and 
paste them into wreaths to earn 10 
cents. Her average weekly earnings were 
under $2. Another family of flower mak¬ 
ers consisted of a grandmother and three 
girls, aged eight, 13 and 15. These three 
children, working with their grandmother, 
were able to earn between $6 and $7 a 
week. They began as early as five in the 
morning, worked till school time, then 
began work again after school, continu¬ 
ing until late at night. Many children 
working in the tenements are five to 
eight years old, and the Child Labor Com¬ 
mission is anxious to do away with this 
class of labor entirely. 
* 
T HE statement was once made by a 
famous general that an army is no 
stronger than its feet, and those who are 
forced to keep about, while suffering dis¬ 
comfort in those useful members, will ap¬ 
preciate this saying. A housekeeper who 
must be much on her feet, will find it 
worth while to remember this. Ill-fitting 
shoes, and especially old ones with worn 
soles and crooked heels, lead to endless 
troubles. The idea that “anything is 
good enough” for wear around the house 
is a sad mistake. Proper bathing and 
rubbing relieve foot troubles, and a 
careful rubbing down of calluses with 
manicure sandpaper often prevents trou¬ 
blesome corns. Frequent change of stock¬ 
ings is another help. Sea salt, baking 
soda and borax are all helpful to tired 
or aching feet. Often, after a long and 
busy morning’s work, a woman who has 
no time for actual rest will find her 
fatigue wonderfully lessened if she can 
take a foot-bath and change shoes and 
stockings. 
Seen in New York Shops. 
HE dealers in lace and embroidery 
are complaining bitterly of dull 
trade, due to changes in fashion. Irish 
lace is quite out of style here, though it 
is said that Queen Mary’s visit to Paris 
has induced its use there. A great deal 
of the finest underwear is now made up 
as lingerie sans garniture, entirely with 
out lace, or is trimmed with Madeira 
work, directly on the fabric, instead of 
edgings and insertions. A great many of 
the most fashionable blouses have no 
lace or embroidery, also wash dresses. 
The disappearance of masses of coarse 
machine-made lace and embroidery cer¬ 
tainly shows a refinement of public taste, 
and we should like it to continue. Man¬ 
ufacturers tell us that there is a great 
improvement in these machine-made 
trimmings, many of the better grade being 
“hand-finished,” so that they resemble 
more closely the “real” laces. 
Parasols take many strange shapes this 
year, some being veritable domes, while 
others have the spread of a Chinese pago¬ 
da ; another style is very flat and shal¬ 
low. The standard style is a moderate¬ 
sized rather flat coaching parasol. This 
is especially pretty in changeable taffeta; 
the more elaborate ones have shaped, not 
gathered circular flounces, forming a 
point at the tip of each rib. More showy 
are parasols covered with Roman stripes 
or checks; the latter are often black and 
white check with a deep satin border of 
some bright color. Velvet parasols are 
seen in some shops, very handsome and 
costly ones, but they seem absurdly in¬ 
congruous. A striking feature in many 
new parasols is the length of the handle, 
52 inches, which accommodates stick-up 
hat trimming. 
A pretty little touch is given to the 
white vestee worn with a colored linen 
gown by sewing on the pearl buttons with 
a crow-foot of colored silk. Four-hole 
butons are used; first the stitches are 
put across diagonally, then from each 
side to one hole already used. It is very 
simple, but gives the effect of a decor¬ 
ated center to the button. 
Millinery foliage this year seems to 
take every color unknown to nature. 
Even where the flowers copy nature close¬ 
ly, the leaves are often some odd color, 
such as bronze, light brown, or blue gray. 
Leaves shading from pale yellow to deep 
orange were seen on one hat. With the 
vogue for white hats came pure white 
foliage; laurel sprays and wreaths, and 
bunches of “dusty miller,” some of these 
creations resembling quite strongly the 
decorations of a wedding cake. White 
chip hats are very often trimmed with 
flowers or foliage entirely white. A very 
odd trimming on a sailor hat was a 
wreath of white leaves at the base of the 
crown, above this a wreath of yellow 
roses, and rising above the roses a ruche 
of orange tulle. A leghorn hat had a 
wreath of bright orange leaves with a 
bunch of brown roses at the back, while 
another had a wreath of yellow leaves 
and an oddly shaped bow of cobalt blue 
velvet. Hats of white rice straw are 
trimmed with pink foliage and roses, 
while oddest of all was pink roses with 
Canton blue leaves trimming a white hat. 
Wreaths of brown foliage are often com¬ 
bined with tiny flowers in bright shades 
of yellow, blue or pink. 
Little handkerchiefs of very sheer linen 
had a picot edge crocheted over the nar¬ 
row hem in colored thread, and a little 
design in colored cross-stitch in the cor¬ 
ner. All the work was fairy-like in 
fineness. 
White pique bedspreads printed in col¬ 
ored flowers vary in price from $1.50 up. 
The handsomer ones, ranging in price 
from $2 to $5.50, are block-printed in 
the old-fashioned way. They have bor¬ 
ders and center designs of fruit and flow¬ 
ers in bright colors. These bedspreads 
are offered especially for Summer use in 
country homes. 
Berry Puddings. 
Blackberry Pudding.—Wash and drain 
large plump berries. Butter a drop cake 
tin or old deep cups and put in berries 
till half full. Cover with sugar and add 
a dot of butter about half as large as a 
small walnut. Cover with the batter 
given below and bake forty minutes in a 
moderate oven. Serve with sweetened 
cream. 
Batter.—Beat together two eggs, two 
small cups of flour, pinch of salt and 
enough sweet milk to make a batter a tri¬ 
fle thicker than pancake dough. Lastly add 
two small teaspoons of baking powder. 
Nearly fill the cups with this mixture and 
bake. 
Huckleberry Pudding. — Wash and 
drain the berries and place in a pudding 
dish to the depth of one and one half 
inch. Sprinkle lightly with flour and add 
one level tablespoon of butter cut in little 
bits. Make your batter by beating to¬ 
gether two eggs, one cup of sugar, one 
and one half cups of flour, one and one- 
half teaspoons of baking powder and 
sweet milk to make rather a thick batter 
—not quite so thick as cake dough. Pour 
over the berries and bake in a steady 
oven. Over the top when half done put 
several pieces of butter. Serve with 
cream. 
Mulberry Pudding.—Take two cups of 
mulberries and one cup of stoned cher¬ 
ries, as the mulberries are rather flat 
alone. Put in a baking dish and cover 
with a batter as for blackberry pudding. 
Omit the butter. Serve with whipped 
cream. 
Red Raspberry Pudding.—Make a bis¬ 
cuit dough by any reliable recipe and roll 
it rather thin. Put half in the bottom of 
a buttered baking dish and cover with a 
one inch layer of crushed red raspberries 
sweetened to taste. Bake the other half 
of the dough in another pan and when 
done place on top of the berry layer. 
Out and serve with cream. This is a 
“mussy” looking pudding, but very good. 
Berry Tapioca.—Soak and cook the 
tapioca allowing as much tapioca as ber¬ 
ries. Sweeten to taste and beat well to 
distribute the sugar. Have ready in¬ 
dividual dishes half filled with straw¬ 
berries, red raspberries or blackberries 
drained as dry as possible. Cover with 
the warm tapioca and serve warm or 
cold with or without whipped cream. 
Old-Fashioned Berry Blanc Mange.— 
Make the blanc mange by any tested re- 
oipe and pour into individual cups to 
harden. Drop cake tins will answer or 
the little individual fancy tins most 
housekeepers have. Turn out on little 
fancy plates and add to each serving two 
tablespoons of crushed and sweetened 
berries. Red raspberries are perhaps the 
best for this with a dash of currant juice 
to impart a slightly tart flavor. 
HILDA BICHMOND. 
A Suggestion on Contentment. 
E read many articles in agricultural 
publications on two subjects, how 
to interest and keep the boys and girls on 
the farm, and life in our country towns. 
What is written on either of these sub¬ 
jects has a tendency to destroy the in¬ 
fluence of the other until we are led to 
feel as Edward Everett Hale says, there 
has been so much said, and it has been 
so well said, that it is hardly necessary 
to say anything more. Yet there is one 
point that should be emphasized in cap¬ 
ital letters, i.e., that we shall never suc¬ 
ceed in interesting young people in the 
farm home, or teach them to love and re¬ 
spect their native town, its people, 
schools, churches, or public officers by 
running these things down. No, it is 
about time, if we would have the coming 
generation respect and love their sur¬ 
roundings to begin to boom them a little. 
Older people were never known to in¬ 
terest young people in things, in which 
they took no interest themselves. This 
is generally the reason why the boys leave 
the farm and why many girls often long 
to when they don’t. As the little girl 
told her mother, they realize that “wom¬ 
en have a hard time of it anyway.” The 
July 18, 
older people often seem more discontented 
and grumble at -the farm, and farm life 
more than the younger ones. 
Young people should be taught to love 
their native town, and its people in their 
childhood. With some, this love is in¬ 
stinctive; while with others a continued 
course of grumbling on the part of their 
elders against everything and everybody 
in the township, has a strong tendency 
to alienate their affections, and make 
them long for new scenes and people of a 
more interesting mold. They eventually 
find that the world is the same the world 
over with the exception of climates, etc. 
And I will admit that our New Eng¬ 
land climate has its “drawbacks” but it 
has compensations as well. “Laugh and 
the world laughs with you,” is as true of 
country as city. If we love our home and 
native town we are apt to be interested 
in it. Enthusiastic parents invariably 
have enthusiastic children. Unless you 
take an interest in bettering the condi¬ 
tions of farm life or town affairs you aro 
hardly in a position to grumble at those 
conditions. 
And often those conditions are not as 
bad as we try to make them appear. 
Many farmers of today engaged in the 
struggle for wealth are in the same con¬ 
dition as other people of different pro¬ 
fessions engaged in the same pursuit. 
They are unhappy not so much because 
they have no means of enjoyment, as be¬ 
cause they cannot afford to take time to 
enjoy themselves. There is no place in 
the world where the environment is more 
suited to promote happiness than on the 
farm. Here you may have without an 
effort, the birds and flowers, green grass 
and beautiful trees, beautiful landscapes 
and sunset skies; and if you would com¬ 
mand more pleasures, you may easily ob¬ 
tain them, if you will not make the child¬ 
ish mistake of wishing for all things on 
the land and sea at one and the same 
time. 
Children who have too many pleasures 
are generally the most discontented, and 
this is sometimes the case with children 
of older growth. We must not live only 
for pleasure, though while doing our du¬ 
ties we may find it. In studying the 
great text book of nature country peo¬ 
ple may find not only profit but unlimited 
pleasure; unlimited because there is al¬ 
ways something new to learn. There is 
no end to this volume and we need never 
throw it aside. There are no graduates in 
the study of botany, geology, ornithology, 
etc. They may be indefinitely pursued, al¬ 
ways with interest. These are the pleas¬ 
ures which have been “added unto” the 
joys of farm life, and are very effective 
in interesting the boys and girls on the 
farm where they have been intelligently 
introduced . ALICE E. PINNEY. 
Keeping a Stove Clean. 
Will some of The R. N.-Y. family tell 
me how to keep the kitchen stove clean 
where one room has to do duty for two, 
dining room and kitchen? We have al¬ 
ways had two rooms, and I have washed 
my stove all over, so as to have 
clean pots and pans, and yet prefer a 
clean washed stove. But since moving 
here I must put my large cook-stove in 
the dining room, as the little kitchen is 
too small. I have the stove polished, but 
cannot scour the bottoms of the pots and 
pans every meal, so now I am disgusted 
with kitchen stove polished. This stove 
has been washed for 10 years, ever since 
we have had it, and was always clean if 
not so good looking. The lids were al¬ 
ways red, as there is a continual fire in 
the stove whenever the weather permits. 
I thought you might know of a varnish 
or something that could be used, and 
would not smell so badly. MRS. w. II. G. 
We should like to hear from others as 
to this problem. Personally, we have 
never approved of this plan of washing 
the stove. If it were a galvanized sur¬ 
face it would be different, but it is not; 
cast iron is not intended for water treat¬ 
ment, and oxidation must result. If the 
stove is well brushed we do not think 
that the cooking utensils are badly soiled, 
unless soft coal or wood is burned, and 
the soot resulting would soil kettles 
whether the stove was washed or pol¬ 
ished. After 10 years of washing it will 
be difficult to give the stove a hard pol¬ 
ish and we think part of the trouble 
comes from this, and there will be im¬ 
provement if the stove takes a better 
polish. What do other housekeepers say 
to this problem? Have they tested any 
varnish that is desirable for a kitchen 
stove? 
