The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
55 
slow  oven.  Shredded  dates  instead  of  the 
caraway  seeds  are  particularly  good. 
Dr.  Wiley’s  Health  Bread.  —  Two 
quarts  whole-wheat  flour,  one  quart  of 
thick  loppered  milk  (or  buttermilk),  one 
cup  molasses,  two  teaspoons  soda,  one 
teaspoon  salt.  Mix  the  soda  with  the 
molasses  and  stir  till  it  foams.  Add  milk 
and  flour  alternately,  put  in  greased  pans 
and  set  in  a  warm  place  for  45  minutes, 
then  bake  one  hour  in  a  very  moderate 
oven. 
Graham  Drop  Biscuit. — One  cup  sour 
milk,  one-half  cup  molasses,  two  table¬ 
spoons  melted  fat,  one  teaspoon  soda  dis¬ 
solved  in  one-half  cup  water,  one-half  tea¬ 
spoonful  salt,  two  cups  graham  flour,  one 
cup  wheat  flour,  one-half  cup  seedless 
raisins ,  two  teaspoons  baking  powder. 
Drop  by  large  spoonfuls,  or  bake  in  muf¬ 
fin  tins. 
Rye  Biscuit. — One  cup  rye  flour,  one 
cup  wheat  flour,  two  teaspoons  baking 
powder,  one-half  teaspoon  salt,  one  table¬ 
spoon  sugar,  one  teaspoon  melted  butter, 
one  cup  sweet  milk.  Bake  in  hot  gem 
pans  20  to  30  minutes. 
Hickorynut  Bread. — One  and  one-half 
cups  graham  flour,  one  and  one-half  cups 
white  flour,  one  teaspoon  baking  powder, 
one-half  teaspoon  salt,  one-half  teaspoon 
soda  dissolved  in  a  little  warm  water  and 
stirred  into  one-half  cup  of  molasses,  one- 
half  cup  chopped  or  crushed  hickorynut 
meats,  one  and  one-half  cups  milk  or 
enough  for  a  very  soft  dough.  Place  in 
a  greased  breadpan,  let  it  stand  in  a 
warm  place  for  45  minutes  and  bake  in  a 
moderate  oven.  * 
Bran  Gems. — Two  cups  of  bran,  one 
cup  white  flour,  six  tablespoons  of  molas¬ 
ses,  one  tablespoon  butter  or  fat,  one  cup 
sweet  milk,  one  teaspoon  soda,  one-halt' 
teaspoon  salt,  one-fourth  cup  chopped 
raisins.  Bake  in  muffin  pans.  These  are 
very  good  for  the  children’s  lunch  box, 
and  so  are 
Half  Sweets. — One-half  cup  of  dark 
honey,  one-half  cup  boiling  water.  Mix, 
and  when  cold,  add  five  tablespoons  melt¬ 
ed  fat,  two  and  one-fourth  cups  fine 
whole-wheat  flour,  two  teaspoons  baking 
powder,  one-fourth  teaspoon  soda,  one- 
fourth  teaspoon  cinnamon,  one  teaspoon 
salt,  one-half  cup  currants  or  seedless 
raisins.  Bake  in  small  muffin  pans. 
They  need  no  butter,  and  melt  in  your 
mouth.  RACIIEL  F.  DAIILGREN. 
Letters  of  an  Indiana  Farmer 
This  community  seemed  to  be  in  a  con¬ 
stant  whirl  of  activity  just  before  Christ¬ 
mas.  Some  of  the  activities  had  no  con¬ 
nection  with  Christmas,  but  happened 
along  in  a  time  already  almost  over  full. 
The  little  Friends’  Meeting  House  on 
the  corner  of  the  farm  has  taken  unto 
itself  an  addition,  called  a  Community 
Room.  It  was  much  needed,  both  for 
regular  Sunday  school  use,  and  for  sup¬ 
pers  and  socials.  The  first  of  these  was 
held  last  night — a  “Sock  Social,”  for  the 
financial  benefit  of  the  Missionary  So¬ 
ciety,  and  also  in  the  interest  of  neigh¬ 
borhood  spirit.  The  idea  is  not  new,  but 
had  not  been  overworked  around  here, 
and  caused  much  amusement.  The  ad¬ 
mission  fee  was  twice  as  many  cents  as 
each  comer’s  stocking  size.  Little  socks 
had  been  sent  out  beforehand,  to  contain 
the  coins,  but  I  believe  there  were  more 
people  in  the  audience  than  those  who 
had  been  thus  notified.  There  was  quite 
a  program,  and  sandwiches  and  coffee 
were  served  without  extra  charge. 
Our  household  contributed  some  music 
to  the  program,  piano  and  voice.  Lula, 
my  Russian  housemate,  has  a  remarkable 
soprano  voice,  not  technically  trained,  but 
with  considerable  experience  in  church 
singing.  '  It  must  be  a  strange  experience 
to  change  firom  the  elaborate  ceremonial, 
the  color  and  richness,  of  the  Orthodox 
Russian  Church,  to  the  democracy  and 
simplicity  of  Quakers.  It  is  hard  to 
know  just  what  she  thinks  of  this  manner 
of  worship,  but  she  loves  the  association 
with  friendly  people.  'We  worked  very 
hard  over  her  song,  “In  Old  Judea,”  on 
both  music  and  English  ;  but  we  had  n»t 
time  enough  to  make  her  feel  quite  easy 
and  at  home  in  it,  and  she  was  very  ner¬ 
vous.  It  was  well  received,  however, 
and  for  encore  she  sang  a  Russian  song, 
without  the  piano,  as  we  had  no  music 
for  it.  Opera  audiences  often  sit  en¬ 
tranced  by  a  performance  in  a  strange 
language,  but  the  action  tells  much  of  the 
story.  Here  was  a  country  audience, 
with  many  youngsters  of  the  irreverent 
age,  sitting  silent,  held  by  the  voice  alone, 
with  no  ghost  of  an  idea  what  it  was  all 
about.  It  was  quite  a  triumph. 
Part  of  our  practice  was  occomplished 
with  Johnnio  sitting  on  the  piano  bench, 
singing  a  song  of  his  own.  His  new  coat 
was  finished  two  days  before  Thanksgiv¬ 
ing,  and  was  as  successful  as  we  had 
hoped.  His  father  was  properly  aston¬ 
ished,  and  Johnnie,  the  owner,  his  moth¬ 
er,  the  seamstress,  and  I,  her  teacher, 
were  all  puffed  with  pride  over  it.  Mere 
clothes  were  side-tracked  later  for  Christ¬ 
mas  work.  Five  aprons,  in  two  styles, 
were  on  my  list.  Lula  tells  us  that  in 
Russia  they  have  feasting  and  great  cele¬ 
brations  at  Christmas,  but  not  gifts. 
However,  she  adopts  the  American  way, 
and  has  been  busily  embroidering  and 
shopping.  The  Community  Club  had  a 
tree.  It  is  about  as  free  from  mercenary 
taint  as  any  club  I  know,  since  the  dues 
are  only  25  cents,  with  a  10-eent  limit 
for  the  gifts  on  the  tree.  Some  other 
clubs  have  25  and  50-cent  limits.  It  may 
be  materialistic  to  have  gifts  at  all ;  per¬ 
haps  the  program  and  the  beauty  of  the 
tree  should  be  enough.  But  the  gift  sat¬ 
isfies  a  lurking  childish  longing  for 
“something  from  the  tree,”  and  “a  sur¬ 
prise” — even  if  we  have  contributed  its 
equivalent ! 
Plenty  of  us  need  more  money — in  fact, 
in  the  present  days  of  high  taxes  and  low 
crop  prices,  it  is  the  fashionable  condition. 
But  there  is  so  little  actual  poverty  here¬ 
abouts  that  the  established  agencies  for 
relief  rather  tend  to  overlap.  This  year 
the  Missionary  Society  has  a  different 
plan  ;  instead  of  donations  by  commit¬ 
tee,  each  member  “adopts”  some  person 
or  persons  for  remembrance,  in  the  name 
of  the  society.  Many  of  those  chosen  are 
not  poor  at  all ;  some  are  old,  some  sick, 
some  shut-in,  caring  for  others ;  some  are 
children,  who  are  not  hungry  or  cold,  but 
lack  a  little  extra  touch  of  joy.  It  looks 
like  a  more  human  way  of  doing  things, 
and  if  carried  out  as  planned  should  give 
much  happiness. 
Another  unusual  “doings”  in  the  little 
church  takes  place  tomorrow.  A  Sunday 
school  class  of  young  men  will  present 
the  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  drama¬ 
tized  by  their  teacher,  who  has  been  com¬ 
pelled  to  give  up  school  work  after  years 
of  experience,  and  raises  fruit  and  chick¬ 
ens.  As  critic  (by  request)  and  provider 
of  a  small  amount  of  incidental  music,  I 
have  already  seen  this  play,  and  can  tes¬ 
tify  that  it  is  amazingly  dramatic  and  ef¬ 
fective. 
Rehearsals  have  taken  two  evenings 
this  week,  and.  shopping  trips  to  the  near¬ 
est  city,  16  miles  away,  two  days.  Inci¬ 
dentally,  speaking  of  radiators  and  “Hen- 
rys,”  let  me  warn  anybody  it  may  con¬ 
cern  against  the  use  of  alcohol  solution 
in  mild  weather.  Luck,  a  good  nose,  and 
plenty  of  oil,  saved  me  from  ruining  a  per¬ 
fectly  good  engine,  but  the  12  quarts  had 
boiled  down  to  one,  and  a  few  more  miles 
would  have  been  the  finish.  After  this  I 
shall  depend  on  draining  and  blanketing 
till  the  mercury  drops  a  bit  lower.  It 
has  been  such  a  wonderful  Fall.  The 
ground  freezes  a  little  on  the  surface,  but 
soon  thaws.  The  last  rose  bloomed  about 
December  1,  though  there  are  still  buds 
that  might  develop  if  brought  into  the 
house.  We  have  had  two  small  transient 
snows. 
An  old  teacher  used  to  say  that  every 
Christmas  he  re-read  Dickens’  “Christ¬ 
mas  Carol,”  and  every  New  Year,  Pren¬ 
tice’s  “Closing  Year.”  Without  being  so 
systematic  about  it,  I  do  like,  now  that 
I  have  a  fireplace  again,  to  renew  my  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  “Snowbound,”  and  com¬ 
pare  notes  with  the  author  on  fire  build- 
in?.  The  ceremony  of  piling  the  “nightly 
stack”  sounds  very  agreeable,  but  he  can- 
nily  passes  over  the  pleasures  of  building 
the  fire  in  the  morning !  Probably  the 
“prompt,  decisive  man”  did  that  before 
his  boys  were  up.  I  have  talked  to  some 
old  people  of  this  region,  and  find  nobody 
who  knows  of  a  distinction  between  the 
back-log  and  back-stick.  They  were  two 
names  for  the  same  thing,  in  our  neigh¬ 
borhood.  Besides  ancient  management  of 
fireplaces,  I  wonder  about  something  else : 
what  did  New  Englanders  do  with  their 
pumpkins,  and  the  famous  Hubbard 
squashes?  They  tell  us  now  to  keep 
them  in  a  dry,  warm  place ;  but  “there 
ain’t  no  such  animile”  in  a  house  like 
mine,  where  the  fires,  like  the  prima- 
donna’s  cat,  stay  out  all  night !  We 
must  not  put  them  in  the  attic,  where 
they  would  freeze,  nor  in  the  cellar,  be¬ 
cause  of  dampness,  unless  in  the  (non- 
existant)  furnace  room.  Mine — I  have 
only  about  a  dozen  this  year — are  in  one 
of  the  living-room  cupboards,  next  to  the 
chimney.  It  is  a  place  of  certain  incon¬ 
venience  and  uncertain  safety.  But  sure¬ 
ly  the  old-time  houses  were  not  frost-free ; 
ichere  did  they  keep  their  squashes? 
E.  M.  c. 
Date  Pudding 
One  cup  dates  (cut  fine),  one  cup  nuts, 
one  cup  sugar,  1%  cups  flour,  two  eggs, 
one  level  spoon  of  soda  and  one-fourth 
cup  milk.  Beat  well  and  bake  in  a  slow 
oven.  Serve  with  sauce  or  whipped 
cream.  This  will  keep  for  weeks. 
M.  T.  f. 
Dry  Hop  Yeast 
Will  you  give  a  standard  recipe  for 
making  dry  hop  yeast?  If  there  are  dif¬ 
ferent  methods,  give  recipe  for  yeast  suit¬ 
able  for  eating.  s.  E.  c. 
The  following  is  a  standard  recipe  for 
Virginia  dry  hop  yeast.  It  is  pure  and 
wholesome,  and  would  surely  be  as  de¬ 
sirable  to  eat  as  any  other  yeast,  perhaps 
not  as  disagreeable  to  take  as  compressed 
yeast. 
Take  as  many  dry  hops  as  you  can 
grasp  in  your  hand  (a  few  more  will  not 
hurt),  put  in  a  porcelain  or  granite  pan, 
and  add  two  quarts  cold  water.  Bring 
to  a  boil,  and  boil  briskly  half  an  hour ; 
have  boiling  water  ready  to  fill  up  pan  to 
replace  any  boiled  away.  Have  ready  a 
gallon  jar  with  1%  cup  wheat  flour,  one 
tablespoon  sugar,  one  teaspoon  salt. 
Mix  all  together,  and  strain  the  hop  tea 
over  it ;  stir  out  all  lumps,  and  set  away 
to  cool.  When  lukewarm  add  one  yeast 
cake  ;  then  let  it  stand  one  day  and  night ; 
stir  down  once  or  twice  while  standing. 
Then  pour  in  pan,  and  stir  in  one  part 
wheat  flour,  two  parts  cornmeal,  until 
you  have  a  stiff  dough  like  bread.  Make 
into  small  cakes  like  those  you  buy,  and 
put  on  a  floured  cloth  on  a  board  to  dry. 
Keep  turning  until  thorougblq  dry,  then 
store  where  it  will  not  freeze. 
“WASH”- 
Don’t  Scour  Teeth! 
You  Wouldn’t  Scour  the  Piano  Keys 
You  would  not  use  a  grit  cleaner  on  your  ivory 
piano  keys.  You  know  what  it  would  do  to  them. 
Ivory  and'  teeth  are  first  cousins  —  made  of  the 
same  basic  substance. 
Every  time  you  scratch  your  teeth,  you  remove  part 
of  the  surface.  You  can  use  Colgate’s  Ribbon 
Dental  Cream  during  a  long  lifetime  without  in 
the  slightest  degree  injuring  the  delicate  enamel 
of  your  teeth. 
COLGATE’S  CLEANS  TEETH  THE  RIGHT  WAY 
"Washes”  and  Polishes — Doesn’t  Scratch  or  Scour 
Gritty,  soapless  tooth  pastes  may  show  “quick  results.”  If  you  scoured 
away  your  skin  Nature  could  replace  that.  Silverware  scoured  with 
grit  can  also  be  restored  if  damaged.  But  Nature  will  not  replace 
tooth  enamel  once  it  is  worn  away.  It  is  better  to  use  a  safe  dental 
cream  now  than  suffer  years  of  regret  later  on. 
The  most  trustworthy  tooth  cleanser  for  habitual  use  is  one  that 
offers  the  combined  action  of  fine,  non-gritty  precipitated  chalk  and 
pure  soap.  Thus,  in  Colgate’s  you  get  what  modern  science  finds 
best.  Its  non-gritty  precipitated  chalk  loosens  clinging  particles  from 
the  enamel.  Pure  and  mild,  its  vegetable  oil  soap  washes  them  away. 
i£b. 
Colgate’s  cleans  teeth  thoroughly  — 
no  safe  dentifrice  does  more  A  Large 
costs  25  cents  — why  pay  more  ? 
,  CLEANS 
TEETH  THE  \ 
RIGHT  WAY 
Washes"  and  Polishes 
Doesn't  Scratch/ 
V  or  Scour 
Truth  in  Advertising  Implies  Honesty  in  Manufacture 
It  Builds  Strength 
You  have  often  wondered  j 
j  why  a  very  little  emulsified  ■ 
I  cod-liver  oil,  taken  regularly, 
I  works  almost  like  magic  in 
|  building  up  the  body. 
Scott’s  Emulsion 
|  enables  you  to  enjoy  the  | 
I/lJ&  fullest  benefits  of  the  * 
purest  vitamine-bear- 
|l'Or  ing  cod  -  liver  oil.  It 
\\I  l\  helps  keep  the  vital 
1  forces  of  the  body 
I, strong .  Be  sure  it’s  Scott’s! 
Scott  &  Bowne,  Bloomfield,  N.  J  22-48 
K  II  I  l  ’1 
Good  Coffee  is  Appreciated 
A.  VAIL  SMITH,  of 
Hazardville,  Conn., 
writes : 
“I  have  been  a  user 
of  coffee  for  forty 
years  and  have  never 
had  a  coffee  that  suits 
my  palate  like  the 
coffee  I  yet  from  Mr*. 
MacDougall.” 
Send  me  $1.00 
for  3  lbs.  post¬ 
paid.  Money 
back  if  it  does 
not  please  you. 
ALICE  FOOTE  MACDOUGALL 
73  Front  Street  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Everything  About 
Cuticura  Soap 
Suggests  Efficiency 
Soap,Ointment,Talcum,25c.  everywhere.  For  samples 
address:  Cuticura  Laboratories, Dept.  U,  Malden,  Man. 
When  you  write  advertisers  mention  The  R.  N.  -  Y.  and  you  ’ll  get  a 
quick  reply  and  a  “square  deal.”  See  guarantee  editorial  page. 
