1054 
‘Ikt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 2, 1924 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day 
The Ladder of Prayer 
There is a ladder which I climb 
When worn with toil and care, 
It scales the maesive walls of Time 
To a region beautiful, sublime, 
This invisible Ladder of Prayer. 
And I ascend to rest and peace 
In that calm atmosphere above, 
To stress and strife there cornes surcease, 
From pain I find a kind release 
In thoughts of truth and love. 
And lo ! the crooked ways seem straight, 
And the rough stones beneath my feet 
Are smoothed away the while I wait, 
For prayer leads up to heaven’s gate 
And makes life full and sweet. 
—Elizabeth Scollard, in 
New York llerald-Tribune. 
* 
A well-known piano manufacturer 
warns us not to leave the piano closed 
and untouched, with the idea that it is 
preserved thereby. It should be opened 
daily and regularly used. He also warns 
against the use of an oilcloth cover, 
which we sometimes see placed over the 
piano, with the mistaken idea that it will 
protect the instrument from dampness. 
* 
We are told that an excellent jelly may 
be made from mulberries, used before they 
are fully ripe. Equal parts are used of 
the hard red or barely colored berries and 
those fully ripe. To three quarts of ber¬ 
ries add one pint of water, to avoid 
scorching, cook until soft, and then drain 
the juice. Proceed as with any other 
jellies, measuring one pint of sugar to 
each pint of juice. Heat the sugar, and 
have the juice at the boiling point when 
sugar is added. Stir and skim, and boil 
about five minutes, testing to see if it will 
jelly then. We think a fine jelly could 
he made by adding juice of tart apples, or 
commercial pectin, to the juice of ripe 
mulberries. Without some such aid.ripe 
mulberries are not likely to make a firm 
jelly. 
* 
A SAVORY dish that will take the place 
of meat is poached eggs on fried tomatoes. 
Cut solid tomatoes into slices a quarter of 
an inch thick, dust with salt and pepper, 
dif) in beaten egg. then in bread crumbs, 
and fry in hot fat, browning both sides. 
Poach one egg for each elice. Dish the to¬ 
matoes. place each egg on a slice of to¬ 
mato, dust with salt and pepper, and 
serve at once. 
Farmer’s Wife and Her 
Extra Work 
It takes all kinds of people to make a 
world. Life would be very monotonous 
if everyone did the same thing, year after 
year, or we were all alike in looks and 
actions. Why does everyone seem to ex¬ 
pect a farmer’s wife to raise chickens, 
and make a success of it, year after year? 
They don’t expect every town woman to 
be a club president or a school teacher, 
but every woman on the farm, no matter 
what her other duties, must be a success¬ 
ful poultry raiser, good butter-maker, and 
have a fine garden. 
All country women have so many, 
many duties that I, for one, don’t expect 
her to raise 400 or 500 chickens every 
year. It i s n ' ce f° r h er to have a big 
flock of chickens, if she has time for it. 
and can make a go of it, but I don't class 
her as a failure if she doesn’t raise poul¬ 
try. No one expects a city woman to 
make her own pin money, yet they, as a 
rule, dress better and spend more money 
for foods partially cooked or ready for 
the table, than the average farmer’s wife. 
How many farmers’ wives buy their 
bread already Inked, their cakes and 
pies? Not many of them, unless it be¬ 
comes a necessity, like at harvest time or 
thrashing. I am strong for the country 
woman. She helps her husband outside 
when it is necessary, but should never be 
compelled to chop her wood or carry wa¬ 
ter unless it is absolutely impossible for 
her husband to do so. There might he 
some occasion for it sometimes, and I 
don’t believe any woman would hesitate 
then, but generally speaking it is the 
husband’s place to do the heavy manual 
labor around the house. 
KANSAS HOUSEKEEPER. 
Currant Pie 
Beet-ever Currant Pie.—One cup cur¬ 
rants (mashed), one cup sugar, one table¬ 
spoon flour, two egg yolks, butter size of 
hickorynut, three tablespoons water. Mix 
thoroughly and bake in one crust. I se 
whites of eggs for meringue. L. c. M. 
Rack for Jars in Canning 
I note many housekeepers use cloths 
wrapped around their jars to keep them 
from touching and breaking wdiile proces¬ 
sing and suppose they do this with all 
“cold pack" canning. This is an incon¬ 
venience that can be easily avoided by 
use of a contrivance that I have, and 
which is easily made by a handy man. or 
she could make them herself. I bought 
mine but have made some more, as I 
could not find any more on the market. 
I do not think it is patented. Old baling 
wire and, a strong pair of pliers are all 
Rack for Jars in Canning 
that is necessary, and then one is saved 
the trouble of handling a hot jar with 
towels, and all boards and laths and 
cloths are unnecessary. I will give the 
drawing of this device. There are six 
loops of the wire at the bottom, and 
every other one is bent in half wmy to 
form a support for jar. They are made 
large enough for quart jars, and can be 
bent in smaller for use on pint or half¬ 
pint jars. It will require about. 48 in. of 
wire for one and can be in three pieces. 
MRS. F. A. S. 
From the “Covered Wagon” 
Country 
To people of the older settled countries 
it will aeem hard to realize that a large 
part of newer-settled portions lack several 
kinds of fruits, nuts, etc., and some parts 
lack even water and fuel, but such is the 
case, and many and varied are the sub¬ 
stitutes and managings. When my father 
moved his family from Western Iowa to 
what was then Keith Co., Neb., in 1886, 
we found only the bare prairie; not a 
tree, bush nor stick, nor creek. The de¬ 
pressions called lagoons had water in 
them from the previous Winter’s snows, 
and all water for stock or domestic use 
was hauled from those lagoons until wells 
could be dug or driven. 
Wells varied from 90 to 200 or more 
feet in depth, and it cost at least a dollar 
per foot to get one driven. Then a pump 
and windmill had to be put in. bringing 
the total cost to several hundred dollars, 
and money was scarce. If the well was 
dry, it was cased with lumber wherever 
the walls seemed in danger of caving, but 
only where it was deemed absolutely nec¬ 
essary. A derrick was erected above the 
well, and a big pulley fastened in the top, 
over which ran a heavy rope. To one 
end of the rope a big keg was fastened. 
A singletree was fastened to the other end 
and a horse hitched on. Someone, usually 
some of the small fry, led the horse, anu 
the water was poured from the keg into 
barrels, to be hauled, sometimes as far as 
13 miles, by “neighbors*' who had not yet 
“arrived” at a well of their own. 
For fuel we depended almost entirely 
on “chips,” as Ogalalla. our nearest town, 
was 30 miles away, and besides coal cost 
too much for much of it to be bought. 
That country had been the grazing ground 
of buffalo, cattle and horses for years, 
and owing to the .dry air and scanty rain¬ 
fall. the droppings had dried and were 
without any disagreeable odor. The set¬ 
tlers—men, women and children—took 
teams and wagons and gathered great 
piles of the chips, but there were several 
drawbacks to their use. They would not 
burn if at all damp, did not make a very 
good heat, and you had to pacK out as 
many ashes as you had packed chips in, 
but our houses were of sod: not many had 
board floors—just the earth—so we could 
not keep house as we would have like to 
do anyway. 
Soon some woman discovered that gun- 
nysacks sewed together made a good car¬ 
pet. Lacking straw, we took our scissors 1 
and cut a lot of the “bluestem” grass. ( 
spread that on the floor, then stretched i 
our gunnysack carpet down and fastened 
it by driving big nails through into the 
earth. 
Our houses were plastered with a mor- I 
tar of sand and magnesia, and the walls 
were whitewashed with magnesia, for it 
cropped out of the soil in various places. 
We were 20 miles south of the Platte 
River, a long distance to go by wagon, 
but some few settlers made the trip there 
sometimes, and got a few wild grapes, 
but most of us used the other things “in 
place of.” As substitutes for jelliee or 
preserves we made “egg butter” or “vine¬ 
gar sauce.” The egg butter was made by 
allowing a cup of sorghum, or preferably 
brown syrup, to come to a good boil, then 
adding a thickening of one egg. one round¬ 
ed tablespoon flour, two tablespoons sugar 
and one-fourth cup sweet milk, stirred to¬ 
gether till smooth, stirred into the boiling 
syrup and stirred till thick, then flavored 
Does your kitchen stove 
take the starch out of you? 
If 7 ou hare the right kind of range you 'will not 
dread the summer cooking 
W HAT can wilt you more 
completely—your gown, 
your hair, your spirits—than a 
roaring fire in the cook stove? 
For, even in winter, getting a 
big dinner usually means an 
overheated kitchen. 
The moment you put a Flor¬ 
ence Oil Range in your kitchen, 
you will realize that it is quite 
possible to cook with the great¬ 
est amount of comfort. The 
clear, blue flame 
of the Florence is 
close up under 
the cooking and 
remains there — 
its heat does not 
spread out over 
the room. This 
flame is of great 
intensity, but by 
simply turning a 
lever it can be re¬ 
duced to a sim¬ 
mering heat. You can bake, 
roast, fry, boil with this mod¬ 
ern range. 
You light the stove and have 
a good clean heat; when dinner 
is ready to serve, you put out 
the fire and forget it until you 
are ready to get the next meal. 
Easy to start 
There is no smoke, no soot, no 
shaking of the stove, no ashes. 
All you have to do to start the 
Florence is to turn a lever and 
touch a match to the Asbestos 
Kindler. In a few minutes a 
gas-like flame rises to the top of 
the burner. This flame is not a 
zvick flame. It is produced from 
kerosene vapor. 
Kerosene is cheap and always 
obtainable. The oil tank, made 
of metal, is easy to keep clean 
and will not break. 
And so good-looking 
The modern housewife tries to 
make her kitchen just as attractive 
as any room in the house. And the 
Florence is so good-looking, with 
its lustrous enamel and nickel trim¬ 
ming, that it is an ornament to the 
most carefully equipped kitchen. It 
is made of the very finest material. 
If you will examine the Florence 
at a hardware or furniture dealer’s, 
you will be surprised at its many 
conveniences and refinements. 
Send for free booklet 
You should know 
the facts about oil 
stoves. We have told 
the story in a way 
that interests you 
in our booklet “Get 
Rid of the ‘Cook 
Look’.” Drop us a 
line and we shall be 
glad to send it to 
you without charge. 
The Big 
Burners 
keep the flame 
close up under 
the cooking. This 
means economy 
of fuel. 
Portable Oven 
“Baker’s arch,” 
and the special 
heat-spreader as¬ 
sure best results 
in any kind of 
baking. 
Florence Stove Company, Dept. 627, Gardner, Mass. 
Makers of Florence Oil Ranges, Florence Ovens, Florence Water Heaters and Florence Oil Heaters 
Made and Sold in Canada by McClary’s, London, Canada 
FLORENCE 
OIL RJ^NIGE 
