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FUTURE HOUSEKEEPERS. 
We sometimes catcli ourselves wondering' liow 
many of the young ladies whom we meet with are to 
perform the part of housekeepers, when the young 
men who now eye them so admiringly have per¬ 
suaded them to become their wives. We listen to 
those young ladies of whom we speak, and hear 
them not only acknowledging, hut boasting, of then- 
ignorance of all household duties, as if nothing would 
so lower them in the estimation of their friends as 
the confession of an ability to make bread and pies, 
or cook a piece of meat, or a disposition to engage in 
any useful employment. Speaking from our own 
youthful recollections, wo are free to say that taper 
fingers and lily hands are very pretty to look at with 
a young man’s eyes, and sometimes we have known 
the artless innocence of practical knowledge display¬ 
ed by a young miss to appear rather interesting than 
otherwise. But we have lived long enough to learn 
that life is full of rugged experiences, and that the 
most loving, romantic, an l delicate people must live 
on well-cooked food, and the house he kept clean 
and tidy by industrious hands. And for all the 
practical purposes of married life it is generally 
found that for a husband to sit and gaze at a wife’s 
taper fingers and lily hands, or for a wife to sit and 
he looked at and admired, does not make the pot 
boil or put the smallest piece of food therein. 
SUMMER DRINKS. 
All know the torment of drinking warm, brack¬ 
ish water. I have used the following plan, which 
came under my notice a year or two since : I bought 
half a dozen tin milk-cans holding four gallons each, 
and covered them with coarse, thick canvas, of a 
kind that absorbs water easily, drawing the cloths 
tightly around the cans and sewing them so that they 
could not get off. At night the cloths are dipped in 
a tub of water until they are thoroughly saturated; 
the cans are then filled with water and set where the 
breeze will blow upon them, and in the morning 
the water is quite cold, and remains so during the 
day if the cloths are wet occasionally and the cans 
placed in the shade where they are exposed to a 
current of air. The men on going out to work take 
as many cans of water as they will need, and so have 
the luxury of cool water to drink during the heat of 
the day. Any kind of coarse cloth will do to cover 
the cans—the thicker the better—as they won’t need 
wetting so often, but the cans must be kept closed 
and the cloths wet to ensure success. 
The above is from an exchange, and is an excel¬ 
lent plan, 
tities and 
it is of no importance, we believe the following will 
be found better, as earthenware is better than tin. 
The water-bottles of Oriental lands are composed of 
p irons clay. 
Water can be kept cool for drinking in warm 
weather by the following method: Get fresh water, 
let it be kept in an unglazed earthenware pitcher 
wrapped around with two or three folds of coarse cot¬ 
ton cloth kept constantly wet. 'I'lie theory of cool¬ 
ing water in this manner is the absorption of heat 
from it by the evaporation of the moisture in the 
cotton cloth. Expansion produces cold, compression 
heat. 
The same idea is applied to keeping butter cool 
without ice. In this case the cloths are not used, 
and perhaps the simpler plan would work quite as 
well. 
Firm Butter without Ieo. — In families where 
the dairy is small, a good plan to have the butter 
cool and firm without ice is by the process of evapo¬ 
ration, as practised in India and other warm coun¬ 
tries. A cheap plan is to get a very large-sized,! 
porous earthen flower-pot, with an extra large saucer. 
Half fill the saucer with water, set in it a trivet or 
light stand—such as is used for holding hot irons 
will do—upon this set your butter ; over the whole 
invert the flower-pot, letting the top rim of it rest in 
and be covered by the water ; then close the hole in 
the bottom of the flower-pot with a cork ; then dash 
water over the flower-pot, and repeat the process 
several times a day, or whenever it looks dry. If 
set in a cool place, or where the wind can blow on 
it, it will readily evaporate the water from the pot, 
and the butter will be as firm and cool as if from an 
ice-house. 
HOW TO CAN FRUIT. 
Glass and stone jars are the only kinds to use 
(for the acids of fruits will not be healthful if preserv¬ 
ed in tin) and they can be purchased very cheaply. 
Nearly all the fruits retain their flavor better if they 
are steamed instead of stewed, as they are not so 
much broken up. To four pounds of the fruit take 
one pound of lump-sugar, as it is less subject to 
adulteration. Fill the jars within two inches of the 
top with the fruit; melt the sugar in very little 
water and turn it boiling hot upon the fruit; place 
the jars in a pan of boiling water and let them steam 
about ten minutes, or until the fruit, by the expul¬ 
sion of the cold air, has been forced to the top of the 
jar ; put the cover on at once, with a cloth, so as not 
to burn your hands, and screw it down tightly while 
in the boiling water; set the jars on the table to 
cool, and if any bubbles appear in them take off the 
covers and boil again until the fruit is again forced. 
COOL CELLARS. 
What is more refreshing, satisfactory, and pleas 
ing than, when the mercury is up among the nine¬ 
ties, to have the privilege of eating butter, berries, 
cream, vegetables, etc., that are cool,'fresh, and in¬ 
viting ? Man}’ do this, but it is at the expense of an 
ice-house or an ice-fed refrigerator But this desira- 
the expense and trouble of either one or the other, 
providing you have a cellar. It is done by keeping 
the sun’s rays and heated air out of the cellar. The 
former you accomplish by shading it, the latter by 
the proper use of hinged windows. So arrange your 
window-sash that they may be either swung up, or 
to the right or left on the cellar side, or so place the 
I hinges that they may be let down, which will be 
quite as convenient. During the days of hot, sultry 
woather, keep them tightly closed ; but on cool, still 
nights open them, and the cool, fresh, outside air will 
rush in and displace the warmer air of the cellar. In 
the morning again close the sash, and should the 
cellar be a common one the window need be opened 
only two or three times a week, and then only (n 
cool, still nights. To prevent cats or other animals 
from taking possession of the cellar during the night, 
nail a fine wire netting over each window on the 
outside. Those who leave their cellar-windows open 
night and day will find the air to conform quite well 
with that outside, as the wind forces the warm air in 
and thus displaces the cooler current that is always 
found nearest the bottom or floor. Let the closing 
and opening of the windows, as stated, be one of the 
duties of servant or milkmaid. L. D. S. 
4 
Barrington, N. Y. 
HINTS ON DRESS. 
Real lace is much worn, though not to the exclu¬ 
sion of other delicate fabrics. Lace is worth buying 
because it is enduring and a thing of real beauty, like 
a gem. Extravagant, or what seem extravagant, 
prices are paid for it, but it must be remembered it 
will last a lifetime. 
Square necks, with fichu above and short sleeves 
with net gloves nearly to the elbow, have become 
general for dress occasions. Breakfast caps trimmed 
in a very tasteful way, with a roll round the crown 
of the same material in a pale shade of color. 
The new material mousseline de soie is used for 
stylish dress; simpler kinds of fine swiss, or any sheer 
fabric, are less expensive, and often quite as pretty. 
Mousseline is made of silk and beautifully woven. 
Bonnets may be said to be of all possible shapes, 
for peop'e are beginning to learn that to look well is 
better than to look like every one else. Some are 
large, some arc small, some are wide flaring and some 
close, but after all there is a general style prevailing 
among the different kinds. For walking costumes 
the colors are rather grave, but pale for full dress; 
lemon, straw color, and bright rose are much worn. 
Cliiii hats come in various delicate tints, and they 
are generally trimmed with plumes of the same hue, 
or in very slight difference of shade. Strong con¬ 
trasts are reserved for flowers, which is excellent 
taste. Wreaths extending nearly round the hat are 
very popular. 
The Wellesley College students have es¬ 
tablished a flower mission, each one contributing 
a penny a week for purchasing flowers, which are 
sent to hospitals and other institutions about Boston, 
two students being chosen weekly to carry the offer¬ 
ings to them. 
The oldest Woman in New Hampshire who 
accepted the privilege of voting at the recent town 
elections was Mrs. Lovey Wentworth, aged ninety 
years, of Rollinsford, who walked to the ballot-box 
in that town with a firm step and deposited the first 
vote of her life. 
but for keeping water cool in small quan- 
wliere the weight of the vessel containing ble acquisition may he obtained and enjoyed without 
