530 
'THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day. 
THE MOTHER JOB. 
It really isn’t hard to be a mother, 
There really isn't very much to do; 
The days are just exactly like each 
other— 
You simply shut your eyes and wander 
through! 
For six o’clock is time enough for rising. 
And getting all the children washed 
and dressed. 
And breakfast cooked—it really is sur¬ 
prising, 
But mothers never seem to need a rest. 
The lunches must be packed and jackets 
rounded, 
And everybody soothed and sent to 
school. 
To say that mother rushes is unfounded— 
She's nothing more to manage, as a 
rule. 
Unless it is to finish piles of sewing, 
And cook and wash and iron and scrub- 
and sweep, 
To order food and keep the furnace 
going— . . 
And then perhaps to hide herself and 
weep! 
And when at last she s tucked them under 
covers. 
And seen to doors that Dad’s forgot to 
lock. 
Triumphantly, at midnight, she discovers 
She's nothing more to do till six o clock . 
—Jane Burr, in New York Times. 
A N error in the prize bread recipe on 
page 450 made it read quarts of 
milk and water. Of course it should 
have read pints. 
W HEN coming in chilled from ex¬ 
posure to bad weather or fatigue, 
try a cup of milk, heated very hot, sea¬ 
soned with a small lump of butter melted 
on top, pepper and salt. This is excel¬ 
lent for a tuberculosis patient, a con¬ 
valescent, or for young people under 
weight, and the seasoning often makes it 
acceptable to a person who does not like 
plain milk. 
B ITS of crisp fried bacon left from a 
meal may be chopped or crushed 
line and used over the top of baked 
vegetables, the bacon giving a very agree¬ 
able flavor. Boiled sweet potatoes cut 
lengthwise, laid in a baker, and covered 
with the chopped bacon, may be browned 
in the oven. The bacon is also nice on 
the top of baked beans. 
* 
I N planning the flower garden this year 
try to include some snapdragons 
(Antirrhinums). These are old-fash¬ 
ioned flowers, now brought wonderfully 
up to date by varietal improvements. 
They include a striking range of color, 
from pure white through soft yellow 
shades to blush, rose-pink and deep crim¬ 
son. Grown under glass they are much 
valued by florists for cutting, and are 
very showy in the flower garden. While 
best results are obtained by sowing the 
seeds under glass in early Spring, they 
may be sown in the open the first week 
in May, when they should be in bloom 
by August. A longer blooming season is 
secured by sowing them in August, carry¬ 
ing the young plants over Winter in a 
well-protected cold frame, and setting 
them out when danger from frost is over 
in the Spring. 
A NEAT white muslin cap, trimmed 
with material matching the house 
dress, is a very desirable part of one’s 
working costume. Everyone knows that 
nothing makes a busy woman look so 
"distressed” as untidy hair. She can 
s'ip olT her soiled apron in a moment, 
but without time to rearrange her hair 
she may feel slatternly just when she 
wishes to look her best. The old-fash¬ 
ioned dusting cap was efficient, but not 
handsome; the modern caps, brought into 
vogue by the useless little boudoir caps, 
are pretty and becoming. One of the 
best models is the Dutch cap with the 
strip turned back from the face and end¬ 
ing at the ear; this is becoming to most 
wearers. The material may be plain 
lawn, dimity or cross-bar; one often has 
a little remnant just large enough for 
the cap. The turn-back piece may have 
a band of trimming matching the morn¬ 
ing dress, or of flowered or plain lawn 
in some pretty color. It is not likely 
that we shall ever return to the costly 
and imposing caps old-time matrons 
wore, but the working cap is certainly a 
desirable item of dress. We must own 
a liking, too, for seeing an old lady in 
a dainty white cap, though it is a rare 
sight these days. 
The People’s Kitchen. 
OT very far from this office, across 
the street from the open space of a 
great playground, is the first “People’s 
Kitchen” opened in .this city. It is at 
a corner of "Death Avenue,” as public 
sarcasm describes that section of Tenth 
avenue where long freight trains, drawn 
by dummy engines, pass along the open 
street, unprotected by gates or fences. 
True, a man or boy rides in advance of 
the train, waving a perfunctory red flag 
from the back of his lean skewbald 
pony, but accidents are not uncommon, 
and more than one boy on crutches play¬ 
ing in the big schoolyard is there to re¬ 
mind us of other cities that forbid rail¬ 
way tracks on the < pen street level. 
The “People’s Kitchen” occupies a 
sunny corner, and outside it is cheer¬ 
ful in a coat of fresh apple-green paint. 
Inside everything is very clean and 
though the long table is bare there is 
often a bunch of flowers to remind its 
patrons that there are brighter places 
than “Death Avenue.” The mission of 
the Kitchen is to provide wholesome 
food, hot and well cooked, at just about 
cost price. The enterprise is managed 
by the Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor, and the chief ob¬ 
ject of the A. I. C. P. is not to hand 
out so-called charity, but to help poor 
people to make the best of their own 
resources. The People’s Kitchen sells 
good nourishing food at low prices, 
which may be taken home hot, in pails 
and dishes, for the family meal, or a 
workingman may stop to eat his food 
as in a restauraut. 
The hours are: Breakfast, 4 a. m. to 
H a. m.; dinner, 11.30 a. m. to 1.30 p. 
m.; supper 5.50 p. m. to 7.45 p. m. On 
the day the picture was taken tin* bill of 
fare was as follows: English beef broth 
with barley, three cents; Hamburger 
roast, tomato sauce and potatoes, five 
cents; pork and beans, three cents; ap¬ 
ple tapioca, three cents; stewed prunes, 
three cents; stewed apricots, three cents; 
coffee, two cents: cocoa, two cents. 
Some good housekeepers will say ; “Why 
don’t the women stay home and cook 
good food instead of buying it?” There 
is many a household in this vicinity 
where there would be little enough to 
cook if the women stayed home; they go 
out washing and scrubbing, work in 
laundries and factories, and otherwise 
eke out the insufficient means of hus¬ 
bands and fathers. It is a district near 
the great transatlantic piers, where many 
longshoremen live, and the limited ocean 
traffic this season means terribly hard 
times. Furthermore, where cooking is 
done by gas it does not pay to prepare 
dishes that need long slow cooking and 
there is economy in buying soups, stews, 
etc., ready cooked—when possible. While 
this People's Kitchen is a novelty in New 
York, it is not a new idea; such kitchens 
are a feature of most large European 
cities, where they occupy an important 
place in civic utilities. 
Seen in New York Shops. 
OUR-IN-HAND scarfs of brocade 
woven in the national coat-of-arms 
of France, Russia, Austro-Germany and 
Great Britain are among novelties in 
men’s wear. They are not as startling 
as they sound, being combinations of 
blue, green, crimson, purple or silver, 
with black, woven like any handsome 
two-toned brocade, so -that the coat of 
arms merely looks like a heraldic pat¬ 
tern. The ties cost 05 cents each. Four- 
in-hand ties of fine Irish poplin, in solid 
colors, are 55 cents at a good haber¬ 
dasher’s ; they are fashionable, and in 
good taste. 
There is a great variety in women's 
handbags of black silk; they are usually 
round or melon shape, shirred into a 
metal frame. Most of them are silk- 
lined, with mirror and inside coin com¬ 
partment. Moire is the usual material 
and there is a standard quality at $1, 
though prices go much higher than this. 
Cheap leather handbags, unless bought at 
a special sale, are likely to be quite dis¬ 
appointing, as they soon become shabby. 
Pin seal and pigskin are among the 
leathers that endure hard wear, and are 
always in fashion: pearl morocco and 
long-grain auto leather are favorite ma¬ 
terials now for handbags, purses and 
vanity cases. 
“Ivortus” napkin rings are made of 
imitation ivory, with slight decoration 
of carved lines along the edge, and an 
initial letter in color. They cost 25 or 
40 cents and save the labor expended 
in polishing a silver ring. 
Cream and domino sugar outfits of 
glass are small round trays with an up¬ 
right rim, the sugar being laid around 
the edge, while the cream jug stands 
slightly raised in the center. The tray 
and cream pitcher complete cost 50 cents. 
A pretty little mustard pot that com¬ 
mends itself by its utility consists of a 
silver-plated holder of pierced metal, en¬ 
closing the little cup with lid of brown 
earthenware lined with white, like the 
French cooking vessels. The crockery 
cup is separate, easily removed for wash¬ 
ing, and not as breakable as the usual 
glass cup. They cost 50 cents, and are 
very attractive. Little cruets of pierced 
silver plate, containing three small 
shakers, for salt and pepper, are offered 
for 35 cents each, and are both pretty 
and convenient. 
More than a century ago the village 
of Jouy, near A'ersailles, France, became 
famous for its printed linens, and some 
of the handsomest new cretonnes follow 
the old Jouy designs. Prices for Amer¬ 
ican cretonnes are from about IS to 75 
cents a yard, while imported cretonnes 
cost from 25 ceiPs to $3.50 a yard. Their 
uses are manifold, and such draperies 
do much to render a house attractive, 
especially during Summer, when cush¬ 
ions and table scarfs are needed on the 
porch. Cretonne bands are a desirable 
trimming for scrim or cheesecloth cur¬ 
tains or bureau scarfs, also for Summer 
bed covers. Young people at college, who 
must use their bedrooms as studies or 
sitting rooms, very often cover the small 
single bed with cretonne, slipping the 
pillows into day covers of the same ma¬ 
terial. and adding other cushions, so that 
the bed becomes a couch. It is a desira¬ 
ble arrangement for the boys’ room. 
April 3, 1915. 
A novel dishpan of heavy tin L 
square, to fit a square sink. It has an 
outlet for the water with a strainer at¬ 
tachment. It costs $1.50. Another con¬ 
venience is a large tin flour holder with a 
sifter bottom. Inclosed under the sifter 
is a measuring cup. into which the flour 
is sifted as needed. The bin holds 25 
pounds of flour, and costs $4. painted 
in wood color, $5 in white enamel. 
Riding habits are expensive luxuries 
when made by fashionable tailors, but 
one of -the great department stores makes 
a specialty of them at more moderate 
prices. Separate riding skirts of khaki 
are $3.96; linen, $4.96. Black sateen 
riding breeches are $2.49. AVitli the khaki 
skirt khaki leggings may be worn; the 
high riding boots are always expensive. 
A riding habit, jacket and skirt, of 
khaki cloth is $15.74. The skirt buttons 
up tin* front and closes with clamps 
at the back, and may thus be worn for 
cross-saddle riding or walking. Other 
habits are from $22.74 up, covert, crave- 
notte and Panama cloth; most of them 
are coats with flaring skirts worn over 
breeches. 
A Farmers’ Club That is Seeing; 
Things. 
UR club has been in existence four 
years. AYe have discussed breeding, 
feeding, dairying, cropping. We have read 
and talked of cows, hens, hogs and bees. 
We have given attention to soils, drain 
age and sanitation. Everything that 
comes under the head of agriculture that 
we know or have heard of we eagerly 
grasped and made it as much our own 
as we were capable of doing. There is a 
vast field for us yet to delve in, but as 
a club we have, for a time, turned our 
back to it. Individually, we have farms 
and farm problems confronting us 365 
days each year. We have little oppor¬ 
tunity for travel. The great world out¬ 
side our little hamlet is like a sealed 
book that we catch fleeting glimpses of 
from our newspapers. Other occupa¬ 
tions and the people who follow them 
are unknown quantities. 
Therefore, the club purchased a stere- 
optican. using an acetylene light. We 
began studying the foreign possessions 
of the United States. First, the Ha¬ 
waiian Islands were taken up. Slides 
were obtained from the Visual Instruc¬ 
tion Department at Albany. The geo 
graphical location, ocean and wind cur 
rents, climatic conditions, soil, vegeta¬ 
tion, the natives, the industries and pro 
duetions were studied, and pictures illus 
trating each subject were shown, making 
them seem very real. The Philippines. 
Alaska and the Panama Canal followed 
in turn. 
Then “Whales and Whale Fishery” 
were studied and the subject now being 
considered is “Forestry and Lumbering." 
The work is all done by club members, 
so there is but little expense attached to 
it. Our horizon is widening for each 
individual. The attendance at the club 
was greatly increased. All are inter 
ested, from youngest to oldest. As long 
as our club continues so to thrive, the* 
social problem for this community of 
farms is solved. NETTIE e. boyce. 
Scotch Scones.—Flour, two cups; 
baking powder, two teaspoonfuls; sugar, 
two teaspoonfuls; salt, one-half tea¬ 
spoonful; butter, two rounded teaspoon 
fuls; milk, one-half cup; eggs, two. Sift 
together the flour, baking powder, sugar 
and salt. Rub into this mixture the but¬ 
ter. Then add the milk, to which has 
been added the eggs, well beaten. Roll 
out on board to the thickness of an inch 
and cut with a fancy cutter if you have 
it. (The traditional scone is diamond 
shaped.) Sprinkle with granulated 
sugar and bake for fifteen minutes or un¬ 
til brown. 
Brown Biscuits.—One pint of graham 
flour, nearly a quart of boiling water or 
milk, one teaspoonful of salt. Scald tin* 
flour when you have salted it into as 
soft dough as you can handle. Roll it 
nearly an inch thick, cut in round cakes, 
lay upon a hot buttered tin or pan. and 
bake them in the hottest oven you can 
get ready. Everything depends upon 
heat in the manufacture of these. Some 
cooks spread them upon a hot tin. and 
set this upon a red-hot stove. Properly 
scalded and cooked, they are light as 
puffs and very good, otherwise they are 
flat and tough. Split and butter w!\'<* 
h.*t. 
