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HOUSEKEEPING IN ARKANSAS. 
My sister Belle lives in Arkansas and I in Michi¬ 
gan, so the distance being great and travelling ex¬ 
penses high, when she and her husband invited me 
to visit them I went for a long stay. I found them 
living in a pleasant white cottage surrounded by 
trees, but disfigured, like many other Southern 
houses, by chimneys built up on the outside —one for 
each of the four rooms. Southern style, a wide hall 
extends through the centre, two rooms on each side 
opening into it, to allow a free circulation of air—in 
summer very important in that climate. In winter, 
too, would sister Belle have it, if she followed the 
example of her neighbors, for they seldom close the 
doors of either house or store in the day-time, never 
except for unusual cold or a driving storm, but sit, 
wrapped up and shivering, before huge blazing fires ; 
she has been, however, too much accustomed to the 
warmth of a cosey Northern house to like this hospita¬ 
ble but very uncomfortable fashion, so she closes the 
doors and carpets every floor in that season; and 
has a stove in living-room and parlor, and, burning 
less wood, is more comfortable than most of her 
neighbors; but she cannot persuade them to the 
belief that stove-heat is more agreeable, for they say, 
“ It is so gloomy not to see the fire, and, besides, 
how do you manage to warm your feel V 
Sister Belle had not unlimited means at her com¬ 
mand in furnishing her house, but she did have al¬ 
most unlimited ingenuity. She already had a bed¬ 
room set of black-walnut for one room, and bought 
parlor furniture, but still had another bedroom and 
the dining-room (also sewing-room) to supply; she 
bought a bedstead and mirror for the one, and a safe 
and some chairs for the other ; then supplied herself 
with boards, a box, and a barrel, saw, hammer, and 
nails, and went to work. She first made a top for a 
toilet-table, in lieu of a bureau, about two feet by 
four ; this she laid over the top of the barrel, then she 
tacked pink paper cambric around the edge, front, 
and sides lengthwise, so that it touched the floor. 
Above this she plaited a skirt (straight) of book- 
muslin (don't tell) which she had “worn out ” her¬ 
self, and covered the top with a spread of white 
pique edged with a gay chintz bordering. A wooden 
box for comb, brush, etc., she then lined with pic 
tures and covered with pink cambric and a white 
embroidered ruffle, surmounting the lid with a pin¬ 
cushion to match, and put it on the toilet below the 
mirror, hung upon the wall. The barrel was a re¬ 
ceptacle for clothing packed away when out of sea¬ 
son, and the toilet-top could be easily lifted off. 
The wash stand she made from the box, similar to 
some lately described in the Cabinet, and curtained 
to match the toilet. Embroidered curtains, too much 
worn for further use in the parlor, she hung cross¬ 
wise, d la lambrequin, over shades of chintz to cover 
and adorn the high windows, and as there was no 
wardrobe in the room she improvised one thus : she 
had a high shelf, some seven feet long, put up on 
cleats behind the door, and to its edge tacked white 
curtains which hung nearly to the floor and protect¬ 
ed the garments hung on hooks screwed in below 
the shelf. A few brackets and pictures relieved the 
bareness of high white walls. Now I hope I have 
made my room appear as pleasant to you as it did to 
me, dear reader, when 1 first saw it. Sister Belle 
said it was “ real pretty,” and some of her Southern 
friends thought it “ mighty pretty.” 1 thought the 
adjectives equally out of place. Now to the dining¬ 
room, across the wide hall which also serves as libra¬ 
ry, containing a bookcase and hour-glass (home¬ 
made), a light stand, and at each entrance a huge 
stag’s horns, mounted, for a hat-rack. In lieu of an 
extension-table, sister Belle ordered a common pine 
one made, with turned legs, oval at the ends and 
long enough to seat six persons (there were three of 
us in the family); this she stained to imitate oak, and 
when not in use it made quite a respectable appear¬ 
ance covered with a large red spread. A lounge in 
this room deserves special notice. It is a box, seven 
feet long, two wide, and eighteen inches deep, cover¬ 
ed by a light frame to which is nailed heavy canvas ; 
a mattress on this covered with a green material 
formed the bed, while the box, concealed by a flounce 
of the same, made an excellent wardrobe, for it 
would hold many dresses, laid in full length, with 
very few folds; silk below and muslin ones above 
would keep as fresh as if “just from the iron,” for 
months. In one corner we put up an arrangement 
for the “ goodman’s ” smoking materials; it was a 
corner-bracket, sawed out in a pattern on the outer 
edges, and painted in arabesque to resemble a 
darker wood inlaid; the front of the shelf, however, 
had an ornamented edging, some three inches high 
in the middle and sloping to each side, making the 
box it formed one inch high next the wall. 
Now, to the kitchen, we will go through the back 
doors of the hall, across a porch seven feet wide and 
twelve long. It is enclosed by green blinds and is a 
delightful dining-room in summer. The kitchen is 
really an addition to the house, but in Southern par¬ 
lance the two are always separate. The kitchen 
proper “ on this lot ” was about twenty feet from the 
house; one of the two rooms forming a house, the 
other being intended for the home of the cook and 
her family. I can assure you a kitchen apart is a 
necessary arrangement where negroes preside ; for 
left to themselves they have none of the nice, deft 
ways desirable to all who would like to have a neat 
house. Only persons who are colored go out to ser¬ 
vice in Arkansas, and many of those who might do 
so, like their white sisters elsewhere, are too delicate 
in health or too sensitive in temperament to endure 
the wear and tear, physical and mental, of a servant’s 
life; so if they do anything for their own support, they 
prefer to take home laundry work, and good servants 
are hard to find; when found, they ask very high 
wages and bring their families “ on the lot ” to be 
supplied gratis from the household stores. One per¬ 
haps is a good cook; but besides the cooking she 
does only the washing, and others must be hired to 
wait upon her, for it is a notorious fact that one ca¬ 
pable white person will do the work of two average 
colored ones. 
Well, those Southerners who cannot afford this 
drain on their purses, enjoy the fleeting services of 
the young and inexperienced class which tries the 
patience of housekeepers elsewhere. Sister Belle is 
one of those independent women who have been able 
to take matters into their own hands, discharge the 
clumsy servant and take the lead in housework, and 
she has assisted by example and advice many who 
were willing to help themselves but knew not how. 
They had but few modern conveniences, because 
negroes are averse to any but “ ole time ” ways; and 
competent theoretically though a Southern house¬ 
keeper may be to do her own cooking, mountains 
are in the way of her doing it practically. I found 
sister Belle had overcome some of them ; she bought 
a new cooking-stove (her sister-in-law, used to ne¬ 
groes, wondered how she could keep it so clean and 
so long; her best servant would burn one out in 
three years) and she turned the former dining-room 
into a kitchen. There was a large store-closet back 
of it; and across one corner she built a cupboard for 
dishes, spices, etc., etc., near the stove ; a large box 
served for pot-closet and sink; she put a shelf into it 
and nails to accommodate the iron-ware; above it 
was a shelf for tinware, and behind the door she nail¬ 
ed up a small box for a cupboard for the kerosene 
can, knife-scouring materials, and other things. The 
laundry work she put out usually, so she had no care 
of that; and she rented the old kitchen, if she could 
find good tenants, to a small family, premising that 
some one of the occupants should bring wood and 
water, do errands, and help in the house when want¬ 
ed. When the house was not rented she hired a young 
girl to wait on her and do a scullion’s work, etc., but 
when I was there to assist, we grew very independ¬ 
ent and would have no help indoors, unless we were 
well suited, except occasionally by the day. Our 
cooking was part Northern, part Southern in style. 
We always had light bread (raised wheat bread), but 
for breakfast toast or some other hot bread, and we 
used Irish potatoes a great deal, but every new ser¬ 
vant we had to teach to cook them properly; while 
we ourselves had many failures before we learned to 
cook rice and hominy to suit the Southern palate of 
the goodman. Only experience taught us to stir the 
latter very frequentR till it was thoroughly swelled, 
to prevent it from sticking and burning to the bottom 
of the saucepan, then to set it back to take care of it¬ 
self for half an hour, cooking slowly. For the former 
we learned to use nearly two quarts of water for a 
teacupful, salted to taste, and let it boil till tender, 
then pour off the water and set it back on the stove 
to dry off; then we would serve up a dish of snowy 
rice, each kernel whole and standing alone—as much 
a desideratum to a Southerner as mealy potatoes to a 
Northerner. A simple desert we made was a “ Pot 
Ball.” On baking-days lay aside a little bread- 
dough and let it rise till very light, putting it into a 
basin ready to go into a steamer, and steam thirty 
minutes. Serve hot and fresh, with a sauce made by 
boiling a pint of syrup with a tablespoonful of butter 
till thick. 
Thus I could go on and fill pages with our experi¬ 
ences and recipes; but I forbear, and will stop at 
once abruptly, lest you, reader, be weary. 
Moths. —To keep them out of carpets wash floor 
with turpentine or benzine before laying them. 
