234 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
changes in shapes. In an obscure village where sum¬ 
mer boarders were taken, and no one gave the town 
credit for keeping up with the times in any respect, 
so that everything the old housekeepers possessed 
was supposed to date back to some remote period, 
an old lady, telling us of some experiences, remarked: 
“It was so strange that the rich city ladies were 
so crazy for her blue dishes, that every summer they 
offered her twice what she paid for them, and she just 
had to go to the store and buy more, and the next 
summer somebody >vould want them too, so slip was 
always buying new dishes.” 
With the revival of colored dishes \come some new 
designs and colors that are very pretty. The colors are 
mostly blues, browns, and a shade of gray approaching 
lavender. Some are merely bordered an inch deep, 
others are completely covered with decorations and 
there are some designs so perfect that you might 
imagine a delicate sprig of wild flowers or grasses had 
just dropped upon the plates, not the bright gorgeous 
flowers that were in style years ago, but soft tints with 
the faintest suggestion of pink in the blossoms, or 
touched here and there with a bit of gilding; these are 
called illuminated designs. Bands of gilt on the edges 
are seen with some of the prettiest designs. Porcelain 
is as much used as china, and possesses the merit of 
enduring hard usage better than china. There seems 
to be a diversity of opinion regarding the quality of 
English and American ware, some dealers claiming the 
superiority of one, and some the other. There is cer¬ 
tainly an advantage in selecting a “stock-pattern,” if 
one does not desire a full set, aud even then it is very 
convenient to be able to replace a broken dish, for 
dealers assure us that even covers can be duplicated. 
We shall attempt no description of the exquisite hand- 
painted china; to be appreciated it must be seen, and 
those who have the means to indulge themselves in 
such luxuries have also the time and means to go about 
and inform themselves in regard to it. Those already 
mentioned are such as can be bought in full sets of 
about 128 pieces for almost any price between $35 and 
$125. As regards shapes, low square styles are the first 
choice for vegetable-dishes; plates are even seen square 
with the corners cut off or turned up, but such fashions 
are not lasting, and the comers present too great a risk 
at the hands of careless servants. A full set of medium- 
priced china or porcelain consists of six dozen plates, 
i. e., one dozen each of breakfast, dinner, soup and tea- 
plates, sauce-plates and little butter-plates, two large and 
two small covered vegetable-dishes; two without covers, 
five platters, gravy and sauce-boats, two fruit-dishes, 
with standards; one dozen medium-sized cups to be 
used for either tea or coffee, and the dainty little after- 
dinner cups, that are so much used at present. There is 
also a salad-bowl, soup-turreen and butter-dish. Glass 
is much used at present, and there are very good 
imitations of the fine-cut glass at exceedingly low 
prices. 
It is not in good taste to use two kinds of colored 
dishes at once, but the dishes for separate courses can 
be different, especially the dessert-dishes. If one has 
white china a few odd pieces of colored-china brighten 
the table wonderfully, but glass and silver are more 
appropriate with decorated ware. Flowers are arranged 
in low dishes for the table. Castors are quite out of use. 
There are beautiful little cut-glass vinegar jugs, and 
majolica and glass-pepper boxes that make quite as fine 
a display as the discarded castor did. 
Corn-Meal Muffins. 
One cup of corn-meal, one cup of wheat flour, tw© 
tablespoons of sugar, two heaping teaspoons of baking- 
powder, one-half teaspoon of salt, one egg. and a cup 
and a quarter of sweet milk. Mix the dry ingredients 
thoroughly in a sieve and then sift. Have your oven 
hot and your gem pans buttered before you begin, for 
it takes but a few minutes to prepare the muffins. Beat 
the egg, add it to the milk and stir quickly into the in¬ 
gredients already mixed, and beat for a minute. Then 
dip out in the pans. This recipe is sufficient for one 
dozen muffins, and they will require from twenty-five 
to thirty minutes to bake. 
Raised Biscuits, Rolls and Muffins. 
Two quarts sifted flour, two tablespoons of butter, 
two teaspoons of sugar, one scant teaspoon of salt, one 
pint of sweet milk, one-half cup of home-made yeast 
or a half cake of compressed yeast dissolved in a quar¬ 
ter of a cup of tepid water. Mix the flour, sugar and 
salt, and rub the butter through it. Scald the milk and 
when partially cool add the yeast. Make a hole in the 
flour and pour the milk into it, stirring enough of the flour 
in to make a thin batter. Then cover and set in a warm 
place. It should be light in two hours, and the rest of 
the flour can then be kneaded in, without taking it from 
the bowl. Set it again in a warm place giving it about 
the same length of time to rise as before. When it is 
thoroughly light take it out on the moulding board and 
mould. Flatten the lump with a rolling-pin until it is 
the desired thickness, and then cut out. It will make 
forty biscuits cut with a quarter-pound baking powder 
can, if small ones are desired. It will take about half 
an hour for them to rise. They should be very light 
and be baked twenty minutes in a hot oven. 
If rolls are desired for breakfast they must be made 
the night before, kneading them up stiff, at once, 
without allowing the thin sponge to rise. In the morn¬ 
ing they can be moulded and cut with a large biscuit 
cutter, buttered lightly over the top and folded together 
after the manner of rolls. They must be thoroughly 
light before they are put in the oven to bake. Two 
dozen muffins can be made by taking half the ingredi¬ 
ents for rolls with the addition of two eggs and the 
same amount of milk as the' rolls. Scald a pint 
of milk; when partially cool add two well-beaten eggs, 
a teaspoon of sugar, a half teaspoon of salt, and a 
quarter of a cup of yeast or a quarter of a cake of com¬ 
pressed yeast dissolved in two tablespoons of water. 
Stir this in a quart of flour, then add one tablespoon of 
melted butter, and beat thoroughly. The bowl must 
be covered and kept warm. In the morning pour the 
batter in the muffin-pans, and let them stand for an 
hour to rise again. Then bake in a hot oven half an 
hour. Mrs. C. G. Herbert. 
Gare of the Home. 
A friend who has several small and careless children 
who continually scatter articles about her sitting-room, 
keeps her house in order by “ picking up all the time.” 
After several days spent in her home we saw that she 
realiy did this, but so deftly aud easily that we did not 
at first observe it. The table-cover was straightened as 
