122 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day 
The Prophet and the Travelers 
Gone is the city, gone the day 
Yet still the story and the meaning stay ; 
Once, where a prophet in the iialm shade 
hasked, 
A traveler chanced at noon to rest his 
mules. 
“What sort of people may they be? he 
asked. . , 
“In this proud city on the plain o er- 
spread ?“ . , 
“Well, friend, what sort of people 
whence you came?” 
“What sort,” the packman scowled, 
“w’hy knaves and fools.” 
“You’ll find the people here the same. 
The wise man said. 
Another stranger in the dusk drew near, 
And pausing cried, “What sort of peo¬ 
ple here 
In your bright city w'here yon towers 
arise ?” 
“Well, friend, what ^ sort of people 
whence you came?” . , ,, , 
“What sort?” the pilgrim smiled, good, 
true and wi.se.” 
“You’ll find the people here the same,^ 
The w'ise man said. , 
—IDdward Markham, in Jsautilus. 
* 
f)XE of our friends tells us that it is 
quite easy to make over a man’s madras 
shirt into a shirt waist of the tailored 
variety. Some good 'shirts^ of handsome 
material were discarded by their mascu¬ 
line wearer as being too small. An in¬ 
genious sister removed the collar and 
sleeves, lifted the shoulder seams to 
make a nice fit, shortened the sleeves, 
and used the excess length for a new 
collar. With a little taking in of the 
under-arm seams a good fit was secured, 
and with little work the feminine wear¬ 
er had some nice tailored waists, of bet¬ 
ter material than ordinarly used in in¬ 
expensive women’s blouses. 
* 
When preparing eggs for children, in¬ 
valids, or anyone whose digestion must 
be considered, they are preferable “cod¬ 
dled” rather than boiled, and thi.s is the 
way the hospital cook prepares them: 
Have the water boiling hard in the 
saubepan, put the eggs in it carefully, 
put the lid on, remove from the fire, and 
allow them to stand for seven minutes. 
The eggs will be fully cooked, the w'hite 
soft and jelly-like, and more digestible 
than when boiled as usual. Coddled 
eggs are especially desirable for the 
small child just promoted from infan¬ 
tile diet. 
* 
We have been asked, several times, 
how the “dustless dusters” or oiled clean¬ 
ing cloths are made. The simplest form 
is merely to saturate a cloth with kero¬ 
sene, and then lay it aside until the ex¬ 
cess of oil has evaporated. It is then 
rubbed on a wooden surface until it no 
longer loaves a streak, after which it is 
ready for use. It should be well shaken 
after use, and re-oiled once a month. A 
preferable method, no doubt used for 
some of the commercial dust-cloths, is 
to mix 30 parts of paraffin with 10 parts 
double-refined rape-seed oil, heat care¬ 
fully, and stir into it one part of melted 
benzoin (also called gum benjamin). 
Immerse cloths in this until fully sat- 
rirated. then wring out, and dry in a 
shady place. A cloth prepared in this 
way is said to be especially good for 
rubbing fine furnitui-e. Do not shut 
these oil dusters away in a close closet 
or Avooden box. While we know com¬ 
paratively little about spontaneous com¬ 
bustion, we know' that oily rags, in a 
close warm place, may be regarded with 
suspicion, and it is w’iser to err on the 
side of carefulness. 
* 
According to recent newspaper items, 
J. .T. Stanahan. former superintendent of 
the United States fish hatchery at Put-in 
Bay, Ohio, says that the lizard common¬ 
ly known as “mud puppy” is a delicate 
article of food. It is said that many 
of these lizards are caught in Ivsike Erie, 
especially through the ice in Winter. 
These strange lizards, classed as sala¬ 
manders, and known A'ariously as mud 
puppies and hellbenders, ax'e familiar to 
those living along the Mississippi and 
its tributaries, though their repulsive ap¬ 
pearance would make most people he.s- 
itate to consider them as food. There 
are tropical lizards, however, that are 
highly esteemed as food, even by peo¬ 
ple of civilized taste, the fierce-looking 
but harmless iguana being as delicate as 
Spring chicken, according to tho.se who 
have eaten it. We wonder w'hethor any 
of our readers have investigated the mud 
puppy? Prof. Massey has told us about 
the luxury of roast muskrat, and w'e 
like to hear about unusual sources of 
food supply. 
G-Ac RURAL NEW-YORKER 
rates. The great advantage of the dim- 
Seen in New York Shops 
An occa.sional straw hat, worn by some 
courageous woman, was to be seen on 
New York streets the first week in .Jan¬ 
uary, but the new moaels for Northern 
Avear Avere chiefly satin alone or com¬ 
bined Avith straw' braid. We have seen 
some pretty small shapes co.sting from 
$2.9.0 to $5. Some are little toques, some 
modified tricornes, and some small 
shapes with rolled or drooping brim. 
Among the trimmings seen in the whole¬ 
sale houses are quantities of artificial 
grapes of every possible color. One pret¬ 
ty little hat of shiny brown straw was 
trimmed with tAVO small bunches of yel¬ 
lowish pink grapes, near the front. 
Bedspreads of white dimity, w'oven in 
stripes suggestive of crinkled seersucker, 
were seen at $1.49 for full size, and 
$1.29 for three-quarter size. These Avere 
Av'hite-sale prices, a trifle under regular 
ity bedspreads is that they are washed 
as easily as a sheet, and avoid the heavy 
Avork of handling extra weight in the 
tub.s. They w'ear well, and we consider 
that they are a decided advantage over 
the so-called crocheted bedspreads Very 
handsome, but more expensive, are the 
Marseilles bedspreads; we recently saw 
some excellent styles for $2.44 up. 
Some attractive styles are shown in 
damask patterns, and also with open- 
Avork designs. 
Among inexpensive floor coverings are 
gra.ss mattings with a cotton warp, mak¬ 
ing a smooth flexible fabric with good 
wearing qualities, very suitable for halls 
or anywhere a “runner” is desired. 
With printed designs and borders, two 
tones of brown, blue, green, etc., these 
mattings were seen for 39 cents a yard. 
There is not a very large stock of the 
cheaper floor coverings, such as city peo¬ 
ple buy for their country homes, at this 
season; the new stock comes in about 
March, and the reduction Sales are usu¬ 
ally in .Tune and July. A great many 
woA'en rag rugs are now made in .Tapan; 
they are very firm and neatly woven in 
solid or shaded colors with contrasting 
borders; size 4x2 feet are $L19, The 
January 27, 1917. 
sizes differ a little from the American 
makes, and the salesmen say the Japan¬ 
ese do not wash quite as well. 
Washing gloves of heavy kid, Biarritz 
shape, with a strap across the Avrists, 
are $2, and especially nice in white and 
putty or champagne shades. 
Potted Pigeons.—Truss the pigeons, 
put them into a baking pan and put them 
into a hot oven to brown. While they 
are browning make a sauce of butter and 
flour rubbed together and thinned with 
stock. Stir this until boiling, and add a 
little onion, chopped par.sley and a dash 
of kitchen bouquet. Put the pigeons in 
a saucepan, cover with the sauce and 
cook slowly for an hour and a half. 
Lamb Curry.—Put two pounds of lamb 
in a stewpan with sufficient water to 
cool it, having previously Avashed it 
Let it stew slowly till the meat cornea 
easily from the bones. When cool, cut 
it into small pieces. Fry a small onion 
in two ounces of butter to a light brown, 
add a tablespoonful of curry powder and 
half a spoonful of curry paste; mix all 
together with half a pint of good gravy 
or stock, put in the meat and let it stew 
gently half an hour. Serve boiled rice 
separately. 
IGIX 
IGI J 
I Oil 
lOlO 
While Your Goal-Hod has 
been shrinking KEROSENE 
has stayed the same 
Coal has been going up—and upl 
The papers say it may jump still higher before the winter 
is over. 
Go light on coal—burn 
SOCONY KEROSENE 
A gallon of Socony Kerosene costs from 10 to 15 cents. 
Burned in a Perfection Oil Heater itwill warm any ordin¬ 
ary room for 10 full hours. 
10 or 15 cents worth of coal is about half a scuttle-full—and there’s 
small comfort in a scuttle of coal these 
days. 
A Perfection is on when you need it 
and off when the weather turns mild. 
^ ou carry it upstairs and downstairs, 
wherever you want it. 
But the furnace stays in the cellar, 
steadily burning up the dollars. 
Get out your old oil heater, or order 
a new one today. See that the grocer 
delivers Socony Kerosene and noother. 
because Socony is the St'andard Oil 
Company’s best grade of refined 
oil. Look for the Socony Sign in 
his window. 
STANDARD OIL GO. of NEW YORK 
(Principal Offices) 
New York Aibar^ Buffalo Boston 
