11 to 
WOMAN AND HOME | 
From Day to Day 
Fair Weather Friends 
I met a friend one Summer day. 
When earth and sky were wondrous 
fair, 
We journeyed on our pleasant way, 
Without a though of future care. 
All nature smiled. The lark’s sweet trill 
Came drifting down the long white 
toad ; 
Our footsteps lagged, we reached a hill. 
The sky o’erhead grew gray and cold. 
A threat of rain was in the air, 
The lark’s sweet song had died away; 
A crash of thunder boomed somewhere, 
And night was mistress of the day ! 
The road lay long and white and still 
Beneath the beat of falling rain. 
And in the shadow of the hill 
For my dear friend I looked in vain! 
Oh. friend, when bitter days are here 
(Thank God they do not always stay), 
Oh, friend, who smiles when skies are 
clear, 
Where do you hide when skies are gray ? 
—CLARA S. M’CULLEN, 
in Kansas City Star. 
We have discovered that the robin is 
not only a robber, but a tippler as well. 
One day recently some friends were sur¬ 
prised by the antics of several birds in 
the driveway encircling the lawn. Thf 
birds would fly short distances, and land 
hurriedly on the drive, where they would 
walk unsteadily, occasionally falling 
backward, and apparently propping them 
selves up with their tail feathers. Their 
heads lolled from side to side, they blinked 
their eyes, shook their tails, and went 
through ridiculous antics. Some of them 
were very quarrelsome, attacking the 
other birds; some seemed merely maudlin. 
The truth was these disreputable robins 
were in a state of disgraceful intoxica¬ 
tion, and the cause of their moral down¬ 
fall was a bird cherry tree, with a quan- 
tity of over-ripe fruit fermenting around 
it. The robins indulged in the cherries 
freely, and whether their percentage of 
alcohol was a violation of the Volstead 
act or not, it was sufficient to intoxicate 
the birds. One of our friends tells us 
that he has seen a tame crow intoxicated 
by the fumes from boiling vinegar when 
pickles were being made. Perhaps sci¬ 
ence may prove that birds cannot be in¬ 
toxicated by fermenting cherries or boil¬ 
ing vinegar, but witnesses will prove that 
at least they show all the common symp¬ 
toms of intoxication. 
* 
When the young people go away to 
school or college it is necessary to mark- 
all garments and accessories that must 
be laundered with the full name. For 
this purpose tape with the name woven 
in color is preferable to marking with 
ink. and indeed is insisted on by many 
boarding schools. Initials alone are not 
sufficient; the whole name must be given. 
These woven names may be ordered from 
one of the big department stores, three 
dozen for $1.50, six dozen, $2, 12 dozen 
$3. It takes about 10 days to fill an 
order. 
One of our correspondents asks how 
braided rugs are made. The process is 
extremely simple; the rags are first cut 
in strips about one inch wide and, in the 
ordinary type, are then made into a three- 
strand braid. Our own plan is to braid 
quite firmly, making a round braid about 
three-fourths inch across. We piece 
strands flat like carpet rags as we con¬ 
tinue the braiding, as it, is not convenient 
to braid very long strands. If the piecing 
is neatly done as one goes along, so that 
one does not have all three strands joined 
at the same place, the effect is neat, and 
the joins do not show. The long braid 
is rolled into a ball, or wound over a 
board. The braid is then coiled flat, 
overhanded together with heavy thread 
on the under side. There is a knack in 
doing this so that it will lie flat. If an 
oval rug is wanted, two strands are sewn 
side by side any length required, to form 
a center, and the sewing then continued 
the same as for a round rug. We have 
found that a round braided rug about 15 
inches across, made of gay-colored fabrics, 
well padded and prettily lined, makes a 
desirable porch cushion to use on the 
steps, as it is comfortable, attractive, and 
costs nothing. 
7ht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
September 10. 1021 
Substitute Buttermilk 
Like many farmers nowadays we ship 
our cream and buy our butter, and the 
men of the family find it hard to get 
through the hot days without buttermilk 
to drink. We have tried making it with 
the buttermilk tablets, but this was not 
satisfactory. Then we discovered we 
Comparatively few women are good 
quilters; it seems one must have a special 
knack for the work, though the majority 
may learn to quilt passably well b'v talc¬ 
ing pains to keep the stitches even and 
the lines straight. Only “born quilters” 
should attempt anything more elaborate 
than squares, crosses, double-diamonds 
and the like, where only straight lines are 
used. In quilting feathers and flowers 
you sometimes have to quilt from you. as 
they term it, instead of toward you, and 
it takes an expert to perform such stunts. 
Sometimes you will see a quilter mak¬ 
ing fine, even stitches, straight lines and 
all the rest, but still her quilting does not 
show up just right. She leaves her 
thread too slack. Pull your thread up 
tightly enough to make the cotton puff 
properly, and always fasten the thread 
securely. 
Very fleecy flannelette has been used 
in place of cotton by some quilters, but 
that does not make a quilt. Nothing but 
cotton will give that beautiful fluffy ef¬ 
fect which is so desirable in a quilt. 
If tlie readers of The It. X.-Y. will get 
to work in earnest and help in this search 
for lost quilt patterns there is no doubt 
but some highly prized, quaint old designs 
will be brought to light. 
IDA M. JACKSON. 
Salt Cucumber Pickles 
“Japanese Vase" Patchwork Quilt 
“though,” she said. “I doubt if she ever 
finishes it. She hasn’t the perseverance.” 
Then she added that she was glad that 
she herself had the gift of perseverance, 
for if ever a person needed that gift it 
was in making a quilt. What hidden 
power there is in that grand old word— 
perseverance—which comes to us from 
the Latin, and means to continue in a 
given course, in spite of discouragements, 
from a desire to obtain our end. 
Doubtless Now England is a real store¬ 
house of the old Colonial quilts, and if 
of chain design. They were especially 
neat and dainty-looking and well adapted 
to the “cottage” beds which were then 
coming into general use. 
It is not everybody’s privilege to see a 
rarely beautiful quilt fresh from the hand 
of the designer. Generally no one remem¬ 
bers, or no one knows where it came 
from, but there is one quilt near here 
that was designed and made by another 
of those delightful old maids (who has 
since passed to her rest) and which for 
beauty of design and excellence of work¬ 
The following methods are from a 
pamphlet issued in the Food Series of the 
Cornell Reading Course, entitled “Pre¬ 
serving Vegetables with Salt”: 
Cucumbers one or two inches long, 
known as gherkins, make excellent sweet 
pickles. Those three to five inches in 
length may be pickled as soon as gathered, 
or they may be put down in brine until 
more time is available. Use a sharp knife 
for harvesting and leave a short stem at¬ 
tached to each fruit. 
To pack cucumbers in brine, place a 
layer of them in the bottom of an earth¬ 
enware jar, and cover them with a layer 
of salt (10 parts cucumbers to one part 
salt by weight). Continue with alternate 
layers of cucumbers and salt until an the 
cucumbers are used. Cover the top with 
well-washed grape or horseradish leaves 
to prevent the upper layer from molding. 
Place a large china plate or earthenware 
.cover on the top, and weight it with a 
clean, heavy stone. After about two days 
add sufficient 10 per cent brine to cover 
the cucumbers completely. Remove the 
plate and the leaves, and add other layers 
of cucumbers and salt as the crop is har¬ 
vested from day to day. 
Another method of preserving cucum¬ 
bers is toi use six parts water, one part 
salt, and one part cider vinegar. Pack 
the cucumbers securely in a jar, cover 
them with the solution, and place horse¬ 
radish or grape leaves on the top. Weight 
the cucumbers with a large stone on an 
inverted plate. 
Fresh Cucumber Pickles.—To make 
pickles from fresh cucumbers, wash and 
pack them in an earthenware jar. Cover 
them with vinegar to which has been 
added one cupful of salt, one cupful of 
sugar, and one-lialf cupful of mustard to 
each gallon. Cover the top with clean 
horseradish leaves and weight the cucum¬ 
bers down sufficiently to keep them under 
the vinegar until they are cured. 
Dill Pickles.—Dill pickles are made 
from firm, well-shaped cucumbers, about 
five inches long. Pack alternate layers of 
cucumbers and thin layers of dill (stalks, 
leaves and seed balls) in a large earthen¬ 
ware jar. Cover them with a 10 per cent 
brine and vinegar solution (two pounds 
salt and one and one-half quarts vinegar 
to three gallons water), place a layer of 
Swiss chard or grape leaves on the top 
and weight tin 1 contents down securely 
under the liquid. Allow the pickles to 
cure for three to four weeks. When the 
pickles are removed they should be finn, 
of good quality and ready for use. 
Salted Cucumber Pickles. — Remove 
salted cucumbers from the brine, rinse 
them in warm water, and soak them in 
cold water for three days, changing the 
water each day. Place flu* cucumbers in 
a porcelain-lined kettle with enough cider 
vinegar to cover them, and heat them to 
the boiling point, stirring them occasion¬ 
ally with a wooden paddle or spoon. Drain 
off the vinegar in which the pickles are 
heated, cover them with fresh cold vine¬ 
gar, add desired spices, and allow the 
pickles to stand for several days or a week 
before using them. 
Quilts Like Grandmother Made 
Several years ago, when one of the 
household journals had just published a 
page of quilt photographs, a woman from 
Kansas wrote in for some patterns. She 
said their home had burned, and they had 
lost many priceless old quilts and hand- 
woven counterpanes, and that she and her 
sister (they were two delightful “old 
maids”) were going to replace the old 
quilts as nearly as modern materials and 
workmanship could do it. She was also 
getting a quilt pattern for her niece, 
“Rose of the Revolution” on the “stage” 
again. 
About 50 years ago a craze for the 
blue-and-white pieced quilt swept over the 
States, and everybody stored away their 
gaudy red, green and orange floral quilts. 
\Ye should regard this as an act of Provi¬ 
dence, otherwise but few would be left to 
commemorate the art and industry of the 
pioneers. Of the blue-and-white quilts 
the most popular patterns were Sawtooth, 
Ocean Wave, Flying Dutchman, Star of 
Bethlehem, Tulip and the various forms 
“ Full-blown Piney ” Quilt—Over 110 Years Old 
any reader of The It. N.-Y. knows of 
these forgotten old patterns let her get 
busy and send in photographs. You 
never can tell what your neighbor has up 
attic in the way of old quilts till you ask 
her. There is one quilt that it is feared 
is forever lost to the public, and that is 
“Rose of the Revolution.” It has one 
large rose bush in the middle of the quilt, 
with fallen petals scattered around, and 
that is all that is known of the design. 
The woman who knew of it seems to have 
dropped out of existence, and no amount 
of inquiry can locate her. There are per¬ 
haps numbers fo this rare old quilt in the 
Eastern States, and it would be the 
grandest “find” ever made to put the 
manship would be difficult to equal. It is 
a rose pattern, with three rose bushes on 
each side, a rose wreath in the center, a 
half wreath at each side center, and a 
quarter wreath at each corner, beside a 
beautiful border. But above and beyond 
all. the loveliness of the design is the 
quilting. Ten spools of thread went to 
the quilting, and there surely are the 
traditional 13-stitches-to-the-ineh which 
set the standard for good quilting in the 
early days. Such patience and persever¬ 
ance, such artistic ability, should be re¬ 
warded. at least, by the compliments of 
the public, and to that end it is hoped 
that photographs may be secured fully 
showing the beauty of her work. 
“OaJv Leaf and Tulip" and “Japanese 
Vase" Hlocks 
could beat sour skim-milk with an egg- 
beater for about five minutes, and we 
would have a product equal to the best 
freshly churned buttermilk. Y. z. 
