THE RURAL NEW-VURKEK 
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“Short Stories 
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1 
A Boy Wanted. 
H ERE is another problem which ap¬ 
peals to many country people. Pos¬ 
sibly some reader can help solve it. 
For the last three years we have been 
reading about the redheads. I suppose 
you have none to spare. We haven’t any 
—i.e., boys. Providence has sent us two 
girls, but we cannot look forward to their 
being farmers when the wife and I are 
too old to continue active farm work. 
We dislike to consider the possibility of 
being compelled to sell the farm and 
move to town. I wonder if any of The 
R. N.-Y. readers know a redhead or a 
towliead who needs a good comfortable 
home? We are not rich, but we have a 
good farm, make a fair living and hope to 
educate our children and that includes the 
boy. G. B. P. 
Pennsylvania. 
A Bunch of Suggestions. 
I1E old theory that baking powder 
mixtures must be baked at once has 
been abolished. A cake may be mixed, put 
nto the pan and put into a cold place, 
if it is not convenient to bake it imme¬ 
diately. The action of baking powder 
is not immediate and very slight in a 
cold place. 
Bayberr.v candles are quite difficult to 
make. Still one loves the odor of bay- 
berries. Here is something new and easy 
to make of bayberries. Put the berries 
in a Hat little bag and use these bags 
in place of ironing wax. The scent when 
the iron passes over this little bag is 
very pleasing. 
Lettuce which has been pulled by the 
roots may be kept fresh a long time by 
placing the roots in water. 
A CONTRIBUTOR. 
Lost: Ten Minutes. 
CSTOMER: “Milk five cents a pint 
and 10 cents a quart! How outrage¬ 
ous! You country people must all be 
rolling in money. Isn’t there any limit?” 
Dairyman (apologetically) : “Well, 
our milk is clean. We hire high-priced 
help and try to handle it. right. Then 
our feed is higher than it was last year. 
Pastures are dry, and the price of every¬ 
thing is high.” 
Customer: “Indeed! Now what I say 
is, why don’t you farmers raise your 
feed and not all the time complain of 
high prices?” 
Dairyman: “We have to let the mill 
man make the bran, madam, and the 
other mill feeds, while cottonseed don’t 
grow in Kentucky, so we can’t make the 
meal.” 
Customer (very knowingly) : “Yes. 
but there’s substitutes and all the papers 
say there are bumper crops. So why 
do you feel obliged to charge me 10 cents 
a quart for the same milk I can’t see.” 
Dairyman: “The bumper crop report, 
Mrs. Smith, is to induce the farmer to 
sell cheap. The fact is there’s very lit¬ 
tle hay in the country. And we barely 
make expenses.” 
Customer: “Oh, the same old story. 
All I say is, and I say it again, you 
ought to raise your own feed and your 
expenses wouldn’t be so much.” 
Dairyman: “If we do raise it our¬ 
selves, Madam, it is worth the market 
price just the same. May I have the 
week’s collection of bottles? I am half 
an hour behind now?” 
II)A EARLE FOWLER. 
Unfermented Grape Juice. 
1 Til IN the past few years the use 
of unfermented grape juice has in¬ 
creased-to a great extent, and it is prob¬ 
able that since Secretary Bryan has set 
the seal of his approval upon the use of 
it, it will be even more popular. It is 
invaluable in the ease of fevers, and is 
considered by physicians to be one of the 
best of tonics, especially in cases of ner¬ 
vous prostration and after surgical opera¬ 
tions or a debilitated condition of the 
system, especially for amende children. 
I often put a small bottle in my little 
daughter’s lunch pail, and it always 
pleases. I have had so many requests 
from strangers as well as my friends, for 
my recipe, that I wondered if the Rural 
sisters would be interested in my way of 
making it. If you want a clear, bright 
crimson juice, use the grapes before they 
are fully ripe, grapes that are entirely 
ripe will give a purple color and a dif¬ 
ferent flavor. I like a mixture of pur¬ 
ple and white grapes, not too ripe, this 
gives a good color and a fine flavor. Pick 
the grapes from the stems, being careful 
not to use any green ones, wash, and 
place in an aluminum or porcelain lined 
kettle, cover with boiling water and cook 
until soft, so the seeds will separate 
readily from the pulp, mash with a wire 
potato masher, and place in a jelly bag 
to drain. Do not squeeze the juice out, 
but hang on a nail to drain. If you wish 
to get as much as possible from your 
fruit, after most of the juice has drained 
from the pulp, it can be put through a 
sieve, and the seeds and skins removed 
from the pulp, sugar can then be added, 
and all cooked until thick, and this makes 
an excellent marmalade. Place the 
clear juice in a clean aluminum 
or porcelain lined kettle, add about 
a cupful of sugar to each quart of 
juice, some tastes like it sweeter than 
others, and if the grapes are very ripe it 
will require less sugar than when they 
first ripen. Bring quickly to the boiling 
point, skim, and put immediately in ster¬ 
ilized cans, being careful to fill the can 
slowly at first and shake the hot juice 
up onto the sides of the can, as the cans 
break much more readily than with 
canned fruit. Seal quickly and you will 
seldom have a can work or mold. I usu-. 
ally fill all the bottles I can get, to give 
away, as a bottle of grape juice seems, 
to be appreciated more than almost any¬ 
thing I can give to a sick friend. I have 
the bottles clean, dry and hot when I 
fill them, though I never feel quite as cer¬ 
tain of their keeping perfectly as I do 
that put in cans, though I use new corks 
and push the cork as far as possible into 
the neck of the bottle, then cover with 
paraffin or sealing wax. 
Michigan. claudia betts. 
D OWN in a Southern mission school 
was a young Northern teacher who 
was over-anxious for her share of 
what good things there were. “A little of 
the escalloped potato, I like the brown 
top, please,” she would say. “It is 
strange how the brown part of her help¬ 
ing always slid off the spoon,” remarked 
the principal in speaking of the incident. 
P OISON IVY AND ANTS.—W. B. W. 
inquires how to rid a place of poison 
ivy. I succeeded in clearing a badly in¬ 
fested place by allowing cows to graze 
where it grew. The cows seemed to rel¬ 
ish it and no bad results were noted. If 
II. D. U. will sprinkle tartar emetic 
mixed with sugar wherever ants congre¬ 
gate, whether indors or out, it will sure¬ 
ly eradicate them. In some cases it may 
be well to add sweetened water in dishes, 
placed on shelves in pantries, but I pre- 
be remembered this is poisonous, and 
must be placed out of reach of children. 
Five cents worth cleared my house of 
them in one season, and they were very 
numerous. r. h. s. 
Connecticut. 
Sweeping Compound. — My grand¬ 
mother used to save all her tea-leaves 
from one sweeping day to the next and 
then wet them, and either pressed out 
superfluous water or else allowed them 
to drain for a few moments in a strainer. 
She then sprinkled them over the car¬ 
pets to be swept and they certainly 
made the carpet look a great deal bright¬ 
er as well as prevented a great deal of 
dust rising in the air to settle on the 
furniture, which necessitated more work 
in dusting. F. B. T. 
The Invalid. —My neighbor’s oatfield 
is full of wild mustard, and it irritates 
me to see it there. Yet I can look above 
it to the blue sky, or beyond it to the 
pine grove, or at the roses in our garden. 
Out of doors is sweet now with pine odor 
for the dry method. In either case it is 
a certain remedy for the pests. It must 
and roses and clove pinks. The sun is 
shining and the birds are singing, and 
every day for a whole week I’ve been 
well enough to get outdoors to sit on the 
lawn seat near the back door. For sev¬ 
eral weeks I haven’t had strength enough 
to. 8. 
Painting Blinds.— Father has been 
painting blinds, a job lie has not attempt¬ 
ed for -10 years. The first one took him 
55 minutes, and he said it made his back 
ache to stoop so many times to dip his 
paint brush into the pail on the ground. 
I suggested a board across the horses 
where he put the blind. The second 
blind he did in half tin hour. s. 
Cook Books. —That bit about cooking 
recipes in paper was very good. Do you 
know a single woman who ever uses the 
average recipe in the average paper? I 
don’t, although we have used a number 
from The R. N.-Y. The best and most 
practical cook book for the country home 
that I ever saw is one that cost a quarter 
and was got out by the ladies of a little 
church in this State. It is just the daily 
recipes they use, and the things they need 
to know, with a few dainty desserts added 
by tin* minister’s wife. A college woman, 
who is companion housekepeer in an ex¬ 
clusive Summer resort took that book 
with her as the only one she would 
need. k. 
Destroying Mice. —Regarding the cat 
and mouse article on page 927, would 
say a mound of concentrated lye placed 
in a shallow dish, such as a tea saucer, 
hollowed out at the top and a little mo¬ 
lasses in the hollow is a good rat and 
mouse trap. They get enough lye in eat¬ 
ing the molasses to kill them, (’are must 
be taken that cats and chickens do not 
have access to it. To purify stale cistern 
September 20, 
water tie a pail to a rope, till it with 
water and churn or plunge it up and 
down in the cistern for a few 
minutes. h. h. 
Michigan. 
Autograph Address Book.— Something 
new has come to me recently, an auto¬ 
graph address book. It is something on 
the line of the old autograph album, but 
has several spaces on its daintily deco¬ 
rated pages, and you write your name 
so it will give your correct address, as 
Miss Mary Strong. .”41 Essex street. Bos¬ 
ton. There is an attractive verse on the 
cover. s. 
“The Miserable Cockroach.” —Some 
years ago our house became infested with 
them to such an extent we almost had to 
leave. I asked an old storekeeper if he 
knew a remedy. lie said he surely did; 
that they had them in their store once, 
and after trying many things tried scat¬ 
tering borax about their shelves and on 
floor or wherever they went, and they, 
left. We used it; they went for us also 
and at once. The remedy is clean, sani¬ 
tary and will harm nothing, w. w., jr. 
About Bananas. —Strawberries and ba¬ 
nanas are good together. Try them for a 
shortcake early or late in the season, when 
strawberries are scarce. Crush the ber¬ 
ries and slice the bananas thin. A farm¬ 
er my uncle knows .buys bananas by the 
bunch, and always keeps a bunch hang¬ 
ing where he and the hired men can get 
at it. The men like fruit as a lunch be¬ 
tween meals, and the farmer says this is 
the cheapest thing he can furnish. A 
health expert says that anybody can eat 
bananas if the fruit is sliced very thin or 
eaten slowly. s. 
A Useful Minister. —Have you seen 
an item that was in the "Boston Globe” 
a couple of weeks ago about the Connecti¬ 
cut minister who was making himself so 
useful in his district, and being upheld 
by his bishop? The minister even cuts 
tie' boys’ hair in the vestry after church, 
he takes the farmers’ supplies to market, 
and brings back what they want. My 
sister has seen his church, she taught a 
few miles from there at. one time. The 
church is a tiny place at a cross road, 
three-quarters of a mile from any house, 
and seven or eight from village or rail¬ 
road. e. s. 
Sanitary Floors. — I beg of every 
woman to clear the floor of her dining 
room and have her husband or some one 
to paint it (preferably a light color), per¬ 
haps give it two coats of paint if it is 
an old ugly floor. When the paint is dry 
use a coat of marnot; this not only gives 
a beautiful gloss but makes a hard sur¬ 
face, which will not show heel prints, etc. 
A few small rugs or pretty pieces of car¬ 
pet put down where tin* most walking 
is done, will make the cleaning easier. 
Gather up the rugs and take the dirt out 
with them, then put an outing flannel cov- 
er. partly saturated with kerosene on 
your broom, and go over the floor; it 
will look as clean and pretty as a pol¬ 
ished table. Of course houses are built 
with the expectation of bare floors now- 
a-days, carpets are so unsanitary. Mod¬ 
ern floors need only a coat of varnish, 
but do have bare floors in Summer if you 
have to fill and paint old floors to get 
them. CORA JUNE SHEPPARD. 
Shut Cellar Window.—I am . often 
surprised t<> see the cellar windows of 
country houses standing wide open in 
mill-summer, though I can remember that 
for years 1 did not know any better my¬ 
self. From fin* first of April I never open 
my cellar windows unless the tempera¬ 
ture outside is, say five degrees lower 
than that indicated by my cellar ther¬ 
mometer, and I am exceedingly careful 
not to leave the windows, open after the 
temperature rises outside. The result of 
this is a dry cellar, and at no time up to 
now has tin* temperature b^en above GO 
degrees, while on Tuesday morning, be¬ 
fore I closed the windows, it was 55 de¬ 
grees. We keep our milk, butter, meat, 
etc., in a safe, and have had no use for 
ice up to 90 degrees or above, we think 
G5 degrees very cool, and milk brought 
from the cellar is very refreshing and 
probably more healthful than when iced. 
The warm air entering a cellar when the 
windows are open causes the dampness, 
so general in house cellars, and very lit¬ 
tle attention to opening and closing the 
windows will prevent this. 1 feel that 
many housekepers would be glad to know 
this, hence this letter. A. c. worth. 
A man in New York went fishing on 
one of the Brooklyn piers, his little daugh¬ 
ter, four years old, went along with him, 
on condition that lie would look out for 
her. The man became so interested in 
his fishing that lie forgot his child, and 
she fell oil' the pier and was drowned. 
This question of taking a "dare” has 
serious consequences. In England re¬ 
cently a rich young man was challenged 
by his companion to jump oil' a boat into 
the river, lie jumped to his death. A 
New York girl recently swam across the 
Hudson River. A 15-year-old hoy was 
dared to equal her record. He plunged 
into the river, started the mile trip, be¬ 
came exhausted, and was drowned. There 
are too many people in this country who 
are afraid to get left. There is a good 
old saying, “Dare to be left, where to be 
left is right.” 
WE WANT 
A great many things. Some of them may have to wait for slow || 
11 growth, but r.ot all. Here are two of these things which we expect to H 
|| have on time: 
A Good Thanksgiving Story ! 
A Fine Christmas Story! 
Do not spend time tracing out nice’distinctions between “good” and || 
II “line.” We want the best stories possible. One is to be printed in our || 
|| Thanksgiving number—the other at Christmas. We want stories of || 
|| farm life—the best of farm life—and we prefer to have them written by |i 
H farm people. We will pay a fair price for a suitable story. 
Do Not Make It Long 
It should be from 1,000 to 2,500 words, boiled down, suggestive, f| 
11 strong and true to life. The Thanksgiving story should be here by No- || 
|| vernber 1 anyway. The invitation is to all, hut we should prefer to 11 
11 have the story right out of the heart of some farm woman to whom life H 
11 has given, through experience, the true Thanksgiving and Christmas spirit. I| 
II Of course we cannot agree to use all the stories which may be sent us. 11 
11 Those not found suitable will be promptly returned. Now, let the story |1 
|| writers put on their thinking caps and see wlmt they can do. 
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