662 
a'HK FtUFt-A-I* NEW-YORKER 
May 1, 1915. 
WOMAN AND HOME 
FROM DAY TO DAY. 
THE SONG SPARROW. 
He rlocs not wear a Joseph’s coat 
Of many colors smart and gay; 
Ilis suit is Quaker brown and gray, 
With darker patches at the throat. 
And yet of all the well dressed throng 
No one can sing so brave a song. 
It makes the pride of looks appear 
A vain and foolish thing to hear 
Ilis "Sweet—sweet—sweet—very merry 
cheer.” 
A lofty place he does not love. 
Hut sits by choice and well at ease. 
In hedges and in little trees 
That stretch their slender arms above 
The meadow brook, and there he sings 
Till all the world with pleasure rings; 
And so he tells in every ear 
That lowly homes to heaven are near 
In “Sweet—sweet—sweet—very merry 
cheer.” 
—Henry J. Van Dyke. 
♦ 
Grapefruit skins as a help in dish¬ 
washing are recommended by a corres¬ 
pondent of the Monthly Magazine. Our 
usual custom with extra orange and 
grapefruit skins is to dry them thorough¬ 
ly and put away for use on the open 
lire. They blaze up merrily, and throw 
out a pleasant aromatic odor that adds an 
additional charm to the cheerful hearth. 
* 
Try rhubarb shortcake as a variation 
from the familiar pie and pudding, using 
a nice biscuit dough baked in two layers 
in a quick oven. When baked split, but¬ 
ter, and fill with stewed rhubarb, which 
should be thick, spicy and sweet. Put 
the layers together and if the family di¬ 
gestion will stand it, cover the top with 
whipped cream. The combination of 
cream with the acid rhubarb, however, 
does not agree with everyone, and the 
Thubarb may be blamed, when there 
would be no discomfort if the cream was 
omitted. 
* 
Many of the correspondents who have 
given their views to the Department of 
Agriculture in the recent reports on the 
needs of farm women ask especially for 
instruction about the care of children. 
They refer to bulletins about hogs and 
cattle, their care in sickness and health, 
and suggest, sometimes rather bitterly, 
that their children are of as much im¬ 
portance as the beasts of the field. It is 
true that for a long time the children’s 
needs were ignored, but we are now re¬ 
ceiving the very information asked for 
from the Children’s Bureau of the De¬ 
partment of Commerce and Labor. There 
are two practical bulletins issued by this 
Bureau covering exactly the information 
so many farm women ask for—“Prenatal 
Care,” and “Infant Care.” There are 
also requests for information regarding 
the home education of children, where 
isolation or other causes render it dif¬ 
ficult to start them at school. Informa¬ 
tion in this line may now be obtained 
from the Home Education Division, U. 
S. Bureau of Education, Washington. D. 
C. It will be seen that the Government 
is ready to help farm women as well 
as men, and we hope they will avail 
themselves of these privileges to the full¬ 
est extent. 
if 
A pretty set of doilies meant for use 
in a Summer bungalow, was made of cre¬ 
tonne with a crocheted edge. The doilies 
were round, a light-colored cretonne with 
bunches of gay flowers being used. A 
narrow hem is turned and any simple 
crochet pattern worked along the edge in 
white cotton. The set usually consists 
of an 18-inch centerpiece and two sizes 
of doilies—three-inch for tumblers and 
six-inch for plates, these measurements 
applying to the hemmed cretonne without 
the edging; 3%-inch for teacups and 4*4- 
inch for bread-and-butter plates may be 
added if liked. 
Seen in New York Shops. 
Sew ing tables of mahogany are offered 
at a special price of $12. They are the 
regular Colonial model, the center part 
consisting of drawers, while the rounded 
ends form two deep boxes with lids, in 
which large pieces of work may be 
stored. 
Moth bags, in which Winter suits may 
he hung on hangers and stored away, cost 
from 39 cents up, according to size. 
Bridal tulle for veils is three yards 
wide, and costs from $1.25 a yard up. 
The length required depends on the height 
of the wearer, and the way it is put on. 
Veils of princess lace, 3*4 yards long, 
cost from $17 up. A tulle veil is, how¬ 
ever, in better taste than commonplace 
lace and is always in style. Veils of 
“real” lace, the fairylike handicraft of 
patient workers with pillow and bobbins, 
are often costly heirlooms that descend 
from mother to daughter. 
Stockings of vegetable fibre silk are 
seen in varied colors at 50 cents, and are 
said to be very durable. They have a 
luster like real silk. 
Indian splint furniture is a novelty 
offered for the Summer home or porch. 
It is truly American, being modeled on 
The Rural Patterns 
In ordering patterns, always give 
number of pattern and size 
desired. Price of each 
pattern 10 cents. 
8617—Girl’s dress, 
8 to 14 years. 
8605—Girl’s dress, 
U to 12 yours. 
8599 — Three-piece 
flounced skirt, 24 to 
52 waist. 
8596—Long waist- 
ed dress for misses 
and small women; 10 
and 18 years. 
8603—Child’s rom- 
persv 2 to U years. 
8600—Eton jacket, 
34 to 42 bust. 
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the primitive furniture made by the Onei¬ 
da Indians. The frames are of oak, while 
seats and backs or table tops, are of in¬ 
terwoven oak splints, reinforced with 
metal bands. The chairs and sofas are 
comfortable, the shapes quaintly attrac¬ 
tive, and this furniture would undoubted¬ 
ly be very serviceable. Armchairs and 
rockers cost $8.24; large settees $11.24; 
square-topped tables $(5.24. Chinese 
grass furniture, which runs about the 
same in price, has frames of bamboo, 
covered with Chinese sea grass, twisted 
and woven into ropes. It is very pic¬ 
turesque and comfortable and stands 
weather well outside, but is suitable for 
the living room also. 
Hammocks are varied in style, and 
much more luxurious than they used to 
be. There are attractive couch ham¬ 
mocks of green denim and brown khaki 
costing from $5.24 up to about $10. 
Striped hammock awnings, green or 
brown and white, cost from $3.34 up. 
Very strong hammock stands of green 
enameled pipe iron cost $3.34; angle iron 
stands, green enamel, are $2.24. 
Hats showing black and white combin¬ 
ations are very stylish and becoming, and 
are announced as special Paris models. 
White chip bats are trimmed with gar¬ 
lands of black foliage, flowers or fruit, 
or white flowers with black foliage, while 
black chip hats have white trimmings. 
Among attractive white flowers are ane¬ 
mone Chrysanthemums, like daisies with 
quilled white centers, large white roses 
with shiny black foliage, daisies, all white 
or with black centers, little white rose¬ 
buds, heath and hawthorn. Shiny black 
cherries, grapes and gooseberries, black 
daisies and ears of wheat are used alone 
or in combination. There are also white 
grapes and gooseberries with black fol¬ 
iage. This is a revival of an old fashion 
that has become new. 
Some one who was looking for a plain 
black shawl for an old lady complained 
that such an article was no longer pro¬ 
curable. It can be found, however, at a 
few shops which make a specialty of nun’s 
cashmere shawls. Such shawls may be 
had either single or double, costiug from 
$2.98 to $7.98. 
Letters from a Cousin. 
IMAGINE how per- 
f ectly these fine, even 
grains of Worcester 
Salt would dissolve in 
your hutter. 
Then— 
H'orcnttr Salt Cijitah maenified 45 times 
Dear Amelia :—You asked me to write 
you of any hints I picked up in my visit¬ 
ing tour, so I will begin by telling how 
Cousin Anne freshened up a dress last 
week. It was a black broadcloth, a best 
dress that had been hanging in the closet 
because pleated skirts were out of fash¬ 
ion. But there were broad goring 
breadths at the back which suggested 
one of the Spring patterns, so we 
ripped a few of the seams and she 
now has a skirt with pleats back 
and front, and a wide circular side gore 
which gives the new flare and also 
changes and freshens up the skirt. 
But I must tell you how she pressed 
the ripped-apart breadths so that they 
looked almost new. With a cloth wrung 
out of water made soapy with ammonia 
she first wiped the face of the cloth thor¬ 
oughly, rubbing with the nap, of course. 
Then turning it over she ironed the back 
using the damp cloth under the iron. She 
was careful to stop pressing before the 
steam stopped rising as, she said, the 
evaporation raised tbe nap on the cloth a 
little and took off the shiny, ironed look. 
She spread the cloth smoothly where it 
might dry. “Never,” she said, “put an 
iron on even the back of woolen cloth 
without a piece of old cambric or some 
thin cloth between.” She used a piece 
of lining cambric to wipe the cloth with 
and then spread it, still wet, upon the 
back of the cloth to iron over. 
We used the wide silk hercules braid 
for trimming the dress. Ij is back in 
fashion now and not hard to put on if 
you press it first. We were told that 
it came ready folded and pressed, but 
could not tind it that way in the stores 
here. However, as it comes folded in the 
middle you must have as much on the 
back of your cloth as shows on the out¬ 
side, and that seems rather extravagant. 
We folded over but a quarter of an inch, 
basted and pressed it flat under a damp 
cloth. Then pulled out the basting and 
the braid went on very neatly as a bind¬ 
ing, turning corners with little fuss. We 
stitched the braid on tin* top and then 
hemmed down tbe under side using long 
stitches that did not show through. 
Anne’s daughter always has what she 
calls her “catch-up work” somewhere in 
a pretty sewing bag ready for the odd 
moments of time when there would be no 
opportunity to collect materials for un¬ 
prepared work. Just now sin* is scallop¬ 
ing tbe bottom of a white sateen petti¬ 
coat. A good many of us have had our 
fill of wearing filmy, lacy, easily torn and 
quickly soiled garments, and like the dis¬ 
tinction which comes from neat needle¬ 
work instead of over elaboration. Buy a 
good quality of white sateen and you have 
a skirt that launders nicely. Scallop the 
lower edge and your hem is decorative 
whenever it shows. If your skirt is a lit¬ 
tle over two yards around you will need 
three skeins of embroidery cotton. Tbe 
one I write of had scallops marked on by 
a silkateen spool, which made them rath¬ 
er large, you see, and number 16 cotton 
was used. You can use tbe cheap ball 
knitting cotton for padding tbe scallops. 
Run a thread of this along the scallop, 
bottom and top, leaving it loose to allow 
for shrinking, then make a coarse chain- 
Tliink of the ''mois¬ 
ture pockets” and leaky 
butter you get if you 
use coarse grained 
common salt. 
Need we say more ? 
WORCESTER 
SALT 
The Salt with the Savor 
For farm and dairy nee Worcester 
Salt is put up in 11 pound muslin hags and 
in 28 and 56 pound Irish linen bags. 
Smaller sizes for table use. Good grocers 
everywhere sell Worcester Salt. Get a bag. 
Send us your dealer's name and ad¬ 
dress and we will mail you free of charge, 
our booklet,"Butter Making on the Farm.” 
WORCESTER SALT COMPANY 
largest Producers of High-Grade Salt in the World 
NEW YORK 
Be t 
r re© 
Book 
Running water when 
and where you want 
it with FOSTER 
High Duty Ram. 
Power Specialty 
111 Trinity, 
, New York 
You 
Can M“ ve 
Running 
Water 
T Y0UR4DEA9 
$9,000 offered for certain inven¬ 
tions. Book “How to Obtain a Patent'* 
and What to Invent” Kent free. Send 
rough sketch for free report as to pateut- 
abllity. Patents advertised for sale at 
our expense In Manufacturers’ Journals. 
CHANDLEE & CHANDLEE, Patent Atty’s 
Established 1G Years 
057 F. Street, Washington, D. C. 
Special 
Balance 
of the 
Year 
Terms 
Send for Special Terms 
to Agents for Balance 
of the Year Subscrip¬ 
tions. Postal card 
will do. 
Department “M” 
The Rural New-Yorker 
333 W. 30th St., New York 
