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DE'I'ROIT, JAN-UARY 1'7, 1887.

THE HOUSEHOLD-"Supplement.

 

THE BAB Y‘S STOCKINGS.

 

I hung up the baby‘s stockings
0f crimson and dainty white,
With tiniest cord and tassels.
One long ago Phristmas night.
Oh! such wee little stockingS;
Baby hadn‘t worn them long.
For he came, our fairest blossom,
Mid summer flowers and song.

I knew that Santa would find them,
He knows what each season brings,

And is he not always watching
For angels that have no wings?

And when the fair waxen tapers
Burned bright on the Christmas tree,

And the morning stars were joining
The glorious minstrelsy,

I peeped in the wee bright stockings,
Ah! Santa, what tender caresi

There were candies, dollies and rattles,
For baby‘s sweet fingers fair.

We gave them all to our darling,
With thanks in' his azure eyes,

And a smile that seemed to tell us
Of his happy, glad surprise.

But one radiant Sabbath morning
Ere the New Year‘s noon was old,

The angels came for our treasure
To live in the heavenly fold.

And now among things most sacred
I fondly. tearfully keep

The wee crimson stockings and rattle
Of my baby gone to sleep:

They bear, though the years have faded,
The imprint of tiny feet,

And oh! how often are covered ,

With lingering kisses sweet.

‘—..“—'—-'
HOUSEWORK AS A BUSINESS.
There has been a good deal said about

housework in the HOUSEHOLD of late, large-

, 1y provoked by Honor Glint’s letter in the

issue of Oct. 26th, on “Housework for
Girls.” If I understand Honor aright, she
nowhere questions the expediency or neces-
sity of girls preparing themselves to do
housework in homes of their own, as wives
and hence housekeepers. Her position was
that if a girl is about to choose an occupa-
tion with a view to supporting herself,
housework is the least desirable; or as she
phrases it, “not far from degrading,” and
altering “ the fewest opportunities for cul-
ture and refinement.” It is not quite fair
to Honor to assume, as some have done, that
she meant all housework is “not far from
degrading,” because, if we are honest with
ourselves, we will admit that though we
may do our own work in our own kitchens
with pride and pleasure, we would go into
another woman’s kitchen, as the recipient
of wages, with very different feelings and
ambitions.

I. have preached so often, in these
columns, on the text of “Self-Support for

 

Women” that you all know how thor-
oughly I approve even attempts in that
direction. I honor with all my test the
girl who has independence and strength of ‘
character enough to mark out a path for
herself and steadfastly walk in it to the
goal of her ambition. I honor her more
especially if her effort is impelled by the
desire to lighten the burden on her parents'
shoulders, and if, instead of waiting till
she can get some easy work with big pay.
she quietly takes up that nearest her hand,
and performs it to the best of her ability. no
matter if it is only the despised housework.
There are many girls who are ambitions to
earn money, but they all desire an easy and
glorious method.‘ They want to write
stories for Harper or The Century, be-
come renowned as artists, or, if their
vaulting ambition doth not quite o’erleap
itself, they will sell ribbons over the counter ;
as a light and genteel employment, till the
time comes when the world is advanced I
enough-to be dazzled by their genius. [Per-
haps you think I am severe, but if you knew I
how many would—be poets and novelists who ,
can neither Spell correctly nor write gram-
matically, but are anxious to embark in
literature as aprofession, I encounter in the .
course of a year, you would not wonder at
it.] Tnere is a parable in Scripture which
is apropos: “To one he gave five talents,
to another two, and to another one;" and the
girl who received the one talent is so afraid
the othes four are lying around somewhere
where she has not yet discovered them, she
will not stoop to develop the ability she
possesses, but makes herself miserable and
brings reproach and ridicule upon her sex
by trying to do that for which she has no
native talent. How many girls do you
know who are trying to teach, and are dis-
mal failures in the schoolroom, but would .
make excellent housekeepers?

But let us look at this question of houser
work as. other trades in which a girl, with-
out capital and’with no previous training,
can engage. She can sew, work in a fac-
tory or store, or do housework. As woman’s
labor is now paid, it will take every cent of
her wages to supply the barest necessities
of life in the employments named, except
housework. There she is boarded and ,
lodged at the expense of her employer; and .
almost invariably as well or better than the

 

 

. girl who sews or works in store or factory,

whose slender wages demand the most '
economical living. The hire-:1 girl has the ,
most leisure; she has her “afternoons out,”
her evenings, though her mistress may re- '
quire her to spend them at home,——not al— ‘-
ways a bad thing for her; she can find time

to do her own sewing, unless it be dress-
making. and to read if «he is inclined; and

; at theend of the week she has her two or

three dollars, clear of any expense except
for clothing. A saleswoman in one of our
stores told me that when Saturday night
came she was that tired that she tumbled
into bed and slept straight through till Sun-
day noon, then spent the rest of the day in
repairingher clothes for another week. “ I
have to,” she. said, with deprecatory tone
and apologetic Peok. I asked her if she
went out evenings. “Not often,“ she said
“ I am too tired. and am glad to go to bed.”
Girls who work in factories spend long
hours in an atmosphere fetid with grease
and waste, and deafening with the whirl of
machinery. Do you Suppose they go to
their homes with any particular ambition to
improve their minds? What do you think
of their opportunities for “culture and re-
finement?" I often think it is no wonder
girls in such circumstances are so often led
astray. There is no home life for them;
they have no money to Spend for books (r
concert and lecture tickets, they go to cold

. rooms and scanty fare, and what. wonder

they are led to places filled with light and
gayety and music, but where the morals are
below par! I am speaking. please observe,
of the girls who have no homes at all, or
have left the home shelter for employment,
who are dependent°upon themselves, not
of those who take places in stores or offices
to enable them to dress better.

The girl who does housework can save a
large percentage of her earnings, much
more than her compeers in store or sewing-
room. Iknow of two girls, sisters, who
came from a Canadian village to this city,
and took situations as domestics, who
bought a little home and have nearly paid
for it by their earnings. They rented it,
and the sum received, with their savings,
has nearly canceled the mortgage. The one
assistant in a family where there are from
eight to ten boarders, has found time to take
painting lessons, and in making waxwork,
paying for the instruction out of her savings.

I do not wish to be understood as in-
sisting that girls ought to do housework if
they have talents or abilities that will give
them better pay or more honorable work in
other avocations. But I do deprecate this
senseless idea that a girl who chooses house-
work as a business, does not rank as high
in the social scale as she who sells pins and
tape in a store or “’tends a machine”
in a factory. These fine lines in social
rank cause me profound weariuess some-
times. Why, do you know, I have discov-
.ered there is a wide social abyss between

 
  
   


2 THE HOUSEHOLD.-

the womin who takes washing to do at
home and the one who goes out to wash!
It occurs to me that to do housework in-
telligently, including the various processes
of cooking, requires more brain power,
more skill and deftness, more intelligence,
than the other businesses with which it
comes in direct competition. And I con-
fess Icannot see wherein the social posi-
tion of one is so much superior to the other.
Do either go “into society?” Would not
a lady “in society” recognize one exactly
as soon as the other, and either simply upon
'her merits? The law of gravitation holds
good in social matters; we instinctively find
ourlevel; and too, there is more of refinement
andculture to be gained by daily contact
with refined people, in the home circle, even
as domestic, than from the gossip and chat—
ter current in stores and sewing-rooms.
One thing is certain, if we have no house-
work we can have no homes. Women are
censured for breaking up housekeeping and
bringing up their children in boarding-
honses, when the trouble lies not in the dis-
position of the woman to evade her respon-
sibilities, but in the utter impossibility of
obtaining efficient and reliable help.
I am a member of a charitable organiza-
-1iou which recently had under consideration
the application for assistance of a woman
with three children to support on nothing a
year. The mother’s objection to allowing
her daughter, a slight, delicate girl of fifteen,
to go into domestic service, was that she
would lose position by so doing! Instead,

the girl worked in a factory two miles from‘

home, from '7 A. M. till 6 P. 1L, at very low
wages, while half a dozen of the members
of the society would have given her a good
home, plenty of food, light work and good
pay, for her help in their homes. And one
energetic little woman, with decided views,
expressed herself very vigorously on the
matter, and provoked a round of applause by

, declaring that should she ever be compelled
to support herself by the work of her hands,
she would choose housework; and, she
added, “I’d do it with all my heart, and
might, and make myself so necessary to
my employers that they would never allow
me to leave.”

There are many curious things in life;one
is that if a man who Split cordwood or
drove canal horses in his youth, rises to an
«honorable and influential place, as. indeed
men so often do, he points with pride to
its low beginning, and it is counted an
inner to him among his associates that by
He own efforts he has Worked his way to
the top; whereas if a woman is thus eleVated,
by her own work or through her husband,
whose-social position she shares, she guards
theisecret other lowly origin as if it were
d'ngraceful. Why should what is an honor
to one be a disgrace to the other?

' TWecd’s question, “What are you going
“to'do about it?” comes next. Nothing can
be done about it till women are educated
to 'a more noble standard of thought—a
truer “culture and refinement,” which
nukes a woman’s position depend upon her
abilities in her work, whether high or
humble; a Christianity which patterns after
The Master’s and “looks down” upon
none because their station is lowly. A part
of the possible elevation comes through the

workers, too; the girls must dignity their
laborby conscientious performance, and by
improving those opportunities, which I still.
insist they may make their own by exertion.

The good things oflife do not seek us; we
must work for them if we make them ours.
A girl having the disposition and ability to
rise, will do so; and she can start from the
dish-pan quite as well as from the yard-
measure; the kitchen certainly has
its opportunities. Look at the intelli-
gent women in our farm homes, whose
best thoughts come to them when busy in
domestic duties, though to the hired girl’s
work they add the tasks of mother, seam-
stress and nurse; they are what they make
themselves, just as arewomen everywhere.

BEATRIX.

——-‘OOO——
ELEVATION OF WIVES.

The subject of abused wives and unkind
husbands has been agitated so long the bot-
tom is nearly out. So far, the sympathy
seems to be lavishly heaped upon the wife.
Ican not agree with the majority; there
seems to me to be two sides to this question
as well as to all others.

Ifeel like speaking “out loud” some—
times, (I don’t know but I do, only to Mr.
Nipper, though,) when I read such articles
in the HOUSEHOLD or elsewhere, where some
wife gives her or some- other woman’s
husband “particular fits ” for his neglect,
evenings down town, etc, etc. I have
thought there might be some good cause for
all this, if when taking upon themselves
the holy bonds of matrimony, they were
as “two souls with bnta single thought,
two hearts that beat as one.” Yes, the
twain were made one; sonetimes difficulty
has arisen in trying to solve the question,
which one? If the husband really thought

“pink of perfection,” what has caused
sucha change to come o’er the spirit of
his dreams? After reading these many
complaints I can not admire the husband,
and think considerably less of the wife
for making them. It is a good deal like
telling tales out of school. But there
must be acause. He gets out among his
acquaintances, reads the news, as well as
instructive books, attends lectures, con—
certs and the like; if he asks her to go with
him, she refuses on the ground that she
can not spend the time, the baby’s dress
must be finished, and there are so many
things about the house to attend to, for if
neglected, she might be called by the
neighbors a " slack” housekeeper.

‘I heard it said not long since, by a man
who ought to‘ know, in wmparing man’s
intellect with woman’s, that it was in the
proportion of half a bushel to two quarts.
I was quite indignant at the time, but after
thinkingjt over, I do not know but there is
truth in it in more cases than one, and why?
A woman will say she has no time for read-
ing, and I once heard one remark, that she
always felt it time thrown away when she
read.

If at the time of marriage the wife’s in-
tellect was measured by the quart, how sur-
prised she might be ten years after to wake
up and find it two quarts still, while her
husband’s would measure a bushel and a

 

half!

at the time of marriage that she was the

He might as well talk Greek to her as
science and philosophy, or of his favorite
authors. Whose fault is it, that they have
drifted so far apart, in intellect?

There is no woman, however busy, who
cannot find some time for self-culture. I
calculate to “ keep up ” with my husband
and children in this respect, it I sit up
nights to accomplish it. Pearl Diamond
quotes what she calls an old maxim, that a
husband can lift a wife from any station to
his own position, or something to that elfect.
I think if awifc has any ambition or self-
respect, she will decline the offer and help
herself there. One will say, “ My means
of education were so limited, I never had a
chance to study except at a district school.”
Well, I do not care a fig where you have
studied, if when your school days areover,
you keep on studying. We are not to
think that our time for learning is then past;
it has only just begun. Even the graduates
of our universities, when becoming pos-
sessors of their diplomas, will say they have
only caught a glimpse of what lies in the-
great depths of knowledge, and they hope if
their lives are long enough, to fathom them.
Probably there are few husbands, who, if
their wives are content to stand still or
retrograde in these things, will hinder
them; or if they are determined to go
ahead, will not assist them.

Supposing we try to make of ourselves
wives whom our husbands will be proud
of, and see how such a plan will work. All
husbands are not perfect; I presume, but
our influence may help perfect them if we
go to work in the right way; then there will
be less reason for complaint. While we-
are trying to please others, we are helping
ourselves, for the more elevated our intel-
lectual, moral, and religious attainments
are here, the better start we will have when
we enter the great Beyond, where improve-
ment is the order of. the day. I do not ex-
pect we will be all on the same level even
there, for “one star differs from another
star in glory,” unless this is all speculation.

~ SUSAN NIPPER.
——-———...__.—._
A CONUNDRUM ANSWERED.

 

In answering Maybelle’s conundrum I

shall beg to differ with her. Though the

hired girl may perform the same amount of
labor as had been done by the wife, its value
cannot be the same. Are we not looking at
the position of wifehood in too much of a
one-sided view? Is she not the husband’s
equal in any position which does not require
muscular strength? Then let her in 9. WO-
manly way claim her rights, and not brood
over her wrongs. Whose money is it that
pays for the hired girl? As the husband and
wife are partners she is paid out of the
partnership money. The wife would have
reason to be indignant if the husband would
even dare to think that he could pay her in.
dollars and cents out of the partnership
fund, for her part of the labor in helping to
build the pleasant home. If the wife does
not have all the money that their circum-
stances will permit for her personal needs,
then there is something wrong in the run~
ning of their domestic machinery, and not
in the value of the work.

 

MRS. R. D. 1'.
BROOKLYN.

 
    

  

 

 

 

 

  

     


 

      

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

THE HOUSEHOLD. I 3

 

PUT IN A FURNACE.

 

My wife and I think a furnace just the
thing for a farm house. True, there is
nothing more pleasant on a cold day than
to approach a good fireplace or well heated
stove, and receive its direct warmth. But
while I am taking this comfort, some one
else in another part of the room may be
freezing, while with a furnace all parts of
the room are alike and the whole house
warm as summer. '

About building the fires, a furnace tends
to make a man smart, for the longer he lies
abed in the morning the colder it will be to
get up and start the fire, while the earlier
he is up, the warmer he will find the rooms.
But the house never gets as cold as where
stoves are used; no matter if it is zero out-
doors, the temperature in the house will not
be lower than 30° or 40" inside. I guess a
man can stand that. Our fire does not go
out from fall until Spring, unless we let it
go out intentionally. Fill the furnace with
coarse wood, let the fire get well started,
close the drafts, and you are all right. The
brick walls of the furnace will give out heat
long after the fire is out.

Give the dining-room alittle advantage by
making the pipe a little shorter, or if you
cannot do this, make it a little larger; this
will warm the room more quickly. Locate
the furnace in the cellar, so as to get your
pipes running northeast, east, southeast
and south as much as you can; avoid run-
ning opposite as much as you can, and have
the pipes as short as possible.

Be sure to buy a first class furnace. The
difference in cost is little, and the expense
of putting up the same. Don’t get the
furnace too small; if your house is large,
one that burns four foot wood is none too
large; not that you must use that length of
wood, have any length you choose down to
two feet, but in that sized furnace you get

” that much more radiating surface, also you
can use rougher wood.

Here comes in an item in favor of a fur-
nace for the farm house; youcan run it with
wood that you can’t sell in market. Have
the wood dry; it don’t pay to evaporate water
out of wood; it is but little work to control
and keep heat where you want it. A
fiermometer should be kept in every house,
more particularly in one heated by afur-
nice, as the heat is very diflerent than that
1mm stoves; the rooms may be much
warmer than they seem; it takes a little
while to get used to it, but the longer you
use it the more you will like it. Sixty-five
to seventy-two degrees above is warm
enough for any weather. It is not necessary
to heat a great many rooms, unless the

rooms you need, close the registers of the
Others, and open and warmlat will. If you
only use your up—stairs reoms for sleeping,
there is no need of running pipes up stairs;

different manufactures I would recommend
the Boynton, Fuller & Warren, or the
Monroe furnace, made in our own State. I
usea Fuller & Warner. Some of the fin-
naces made at Monroe are in use here and
are liked; I think they come cheaper, as
they will sell one and send a man to oversee
the setting, thus saving a middleman’s
profit. It requires a man well posted on
the principles and Workings of a furnace to
take charge of the setting. Send to the
different manufacturers and get their des-
criptive books and study them, and you
will soon find that you can learn all there
is in it.

The HOUSEHOLD is a great favorite with
my wife, and the FA RMER is the same with

me. Isaac CRAWFORD.

Roxno
———-‘»_———

A CONVENIENT KITCHEN.

My husband has just brought in the
FABMER, and as he believes in woman’s
rights, delivered the Housnnom) to me for
first perusal. I have had great difficulty
in keeping my mouth or rather pen still. I
certainly should not if I had more time.
I would like to thank those contributing to
its columns for the good I have derived
from it. .

L. M. B. says “If any of the ladies have
a kitchen or pantry that is just a ‘dais‘y,’
please let the rest of us have the benefit of
it. Houses are like children; we are apt to
think our own perfect. 1 flatter myself 1
have just such a kitchen, minus pantry.
1 have dispensed with the old-fashioned
pantry and use cupboards instead. My
kitchen is 9x16 feet. Between my dining
room and kitchen I have a china cupboard
with seven shelves six feet eight inches
long, by 16 inches wide. An upright par-
tition divides this cupboard in two equal
parts. The lower shelf is 18 inches from
floor. Underneath this are two tiers of
drawers opening into the dining room; two
long ones at the bottom, one for table linen,
the other for towels. The upper tier 'con-
tains " four drawers; one for napkins, one
for silver, one for old pieces of fine white I
may have to lay over butter for market.
The other I have given my little girl for her
workbox and work. This cupboard oc-
cupies the space between the door leading
from dining to sitting room and door be-
tween diningroom and kitchen. 0n the
other side of this last door comes first my
draining board; underneath this is a cup-
board where 1 keep my kneading board and
baking tins. Then comes dish sink, under
which I keep my iron ware. The cistern
pump is in the corner. Next, at the end of

, V the kitchen, comes hand sink; then the out-
nmuy is such that they require it, use the 3

side door of the kitchen, on the other side
of which is my flour and meal box; this is
even with the wall on the inside, oc-
cupies the wall space and juts out into a
store room about eight inches, which part is

 

a good register in the hall, with the upper

room doors opened, will give all the heat "
required; if you have no hall aregister at
the landing of the stairs will do the work.
Pipes goingabove need not be so large, on
account of the advantage they have in ;
draft. Agreat many furnaces are in use
in these parts, in both town and country. a
good many farmers are using them. Or the -'

covered byalid. This box is filled from
the outside, which avoids dust in the
kitchen when filling. The box tilts on a

bevelled bottom into the kitchen, from
T which side flour is taken.

Then, turning the corner, the first 20

1 inches is occupied by a cupboard of four
i shelves used for lamps, sad irons, tack ham-

mer, tacks, etc., etc; under this hangs

     

' IL"! '» E “-‘ , ‘ ‘_ WI’IW “urn"..-un

broom and dust pan. Next comes my
dumb waiter, without which I consider no
kitchen complete. The remaining space
on this side is occupied by a cupboard
with six shelves, eleven feet four inches
long, by eighteen inches in width. This
cupboard is divided into two equal parts,
with three doors to each, six feet by 19
inches. The doors to the half nearest the
stove are screen doors, for milk in winter.
In summer I keep the milk in a Cooley
creamer in well-house. The lower shelf of
this cupboard is about the height of a table.
One half the Space under these cupboards
is occupied with a series of drawers of four
tiers. The lower one contains two, the
next three and the upper two four drawers,
1 will only tell the use I put a few of these
to, as it would take too much space. In the
first of these I keep salt and pepper for
seasoning when c0oking: in another recipe
books; I have given one to each of my two
children for the things so indispensable to
the happiness of children, and for which
there seems to be no place. The space
under the other half is a cupboard with
two shelves, in whfch I keep butter bowls,
sugar and salt tubs and other coarser
wares. All these cupboards are raised three
inches above the floor.

At the other end of the kitchen the space
underneath stairs leading to the chamber
(we go down cellar from the dining room),
is my wood box, divided by a partition in
the middle, one half of which contains fine
wood for the cook stove, the other half
blocks for sitting room stove; they are
both filled from the kitchen to avoid dirt in
sitting room. Next this Wood box, under
the extreme loner end of the stairs, the
space is occupied by a shoe closet. If I
were to have the planning of another
kitchen. I would not change it from the
present one except to make it a little wider,
that I might add a work table enclosed un-
d erneath for sugar tubs and molasses on
one side, and at the top I would have two
drawers, one for Spices and one with tills
for bottles of extracts.

I have two other little inexpensive con;
veniences I would like to mention, one for
the kitchen and one for the dining room.
The first is a box 6x8 inches, and eight
inches high, for keeping sharp knives.-
Thcre are cleats fitted in the side low'
enough to admit of a false top; in that are
slots out different lengths for difierent
sized knives. It stands on the sink plat-
form near the dish sink. Knives keep
their edge much better in this and I always
know where to find them, it is so handy.
My husband says anybody with a grain of
“gumption ” can make one; he made min.
for me. The other is a drop leaf in the
dining room, hung with hinges, near the
door leading from kitchen to dining-room.
This shelf is held up by two swing
brackets. Probably any furniture dealer
could procure them. I found mine in De-
troit but have forgotten the address of the
firm, but think it is on Jefferson Avenue,

KALAMAZOO. M. E. F.

TH E TOBOGGAN STITCH.

 

We have succeeded in obtaining direc-
tions for the “ genuine and only” tobog—

 

gan stitch, as follows: Make a chain of 84

 


4 . THE HOUSEHOLD.

 

 

stitches, for a medium sized cap; join in a
circle. Put the crochet hook in the first
stitch, or loop of the chain,- draw the thread
through, thread over the hook, and put the
hook in the same stitch; put through the
same stitch again. and you will have four
stitches on the book; then draw the thread
through all four, which will leave one stitch
on the hook, thread over. and draw through
the one stitch left on the needle. This fin-
ishes the stitch. Skip the next stitch or
loop on the chain, take up the‘ second, and
repeat as above.

These- directions are as plain as we can
make them from watching the work and
writing down the process. Crochet the cap
three fingers deep. and finish according to
directions in the Him-“senorn of Nov. 23d.

--————-—¢ov——-—-—
A MODEL: MILK—CELLAR.

 

Somebody who intends to build this
year. asked for a plan for a good cellar.

l have one which is so near perfect that I'g

send it (or the description of it. rather).
Ours is built on or against the north end of
the house, the pantry opening into it, no
step down. Firstatrench was dug lead-
ing off and down through the garden. begin-
ming under the cellar; the tiling is made
of cedar logs with slabs covering them.

Ashes orlihie are. put on the ground under
the floors. which are double. as are also
the walls on all four sides. The space be-

 

tween the walls is filled in a foot wide with .

«sawdust, and over the double floor above is
two feet of sawdust. A long square pipe
is run from the center of the floor above,
which serves as a ventilator. The roof is
pointed, and above the sawdust and shingled
tight. Enough cold air is let in from the
six-inch square pipe to keep the air pure in
the cellar; and the storm door. and also the
inside door need not be opened all winter.
There. is a large door, a foot square, in the
gable end where the sawdust was thrown
in, and may be opened in the summer
when the sun does not shine in. There is
one window, towards the. east-~tvith inside
and outside sash, and awire screen between.
Either window can be. opened, as no flies
can enter. My cellar is rat. mice and’ frost
proof, and the cream rises in the creamery,
and sours same as it did in summer. I do
my churning there. The thermometer
stands at 50°. day and night. this cold
weather, and very little above that in warmer
days.
.I will speak of my churn while on this
subject. It is aFurguson—concussion, and
brings the butter and gathers it in fifteen
or twenty minutes when the cream is
warmed; and I use a glass thermometer to
tell enactly when to churn it. I do not use
an y salt on my butter at all. I wash it well
in the churn, after drawing off the milk,
salt the second water for rinsing, then
work it over in very strong brine, as much
as the water will take of salt, and mold into
small rolls as for the table. No onefinds
any butter milk in it, nor any lumps of salt
either. I use the finest of dairy salt. I
work a small portion at a time, leaving
all but that in the churn, a little brine in
the how], a little butter, and it is an easy
and pleasant task to prepare it for the table.

1 have tried for several weeks the “coal
oil ” method in washing. and am very glad

lwith, we had more yellow and striped

 

to add my testimony as to the cleansing
properties of coal oil. I soaked the clothes
over night in it once; I’ll not do that,
again. They must bewashed in the warm
suds. After rubbing them I put them in a
tub. pour boiling soft water over them, cover
tight with a heavy cloth, and after a while,
rinse through soft and hard water and
they are white, clean and sweet.

Will any one give a good way to make a
cigar case for four or six cigars, to carry in
the pocket?

I like the HcUsEHOLn and take great
satisfaction reading every word in it.

Gmnwrs. MRS. KELLY.

_____....____

A PRODUCER'S VIEVVS ON THE
APPLE QUESTION.

To—day as I was watching my Tallman
Sweets roasting in the oven, I took up the
HOUSEHOLD of Dec. 28th. and the first
article I read was Beatrix on the apple
question. I wondered with her when she
said she nc ver could get any decent eating
apples in market, when to my certain .
knowledge there are ever so many raised
near and sold in almost every small town,
at least in southern Michigan.

New I am a farmer's wife and we own-
an orchard which always produces enough
apples for our own use, and generally con-
siderable more than we and the pigs can
consume. I should like to tellour experience
in apples for the past season. To begin

harvest apples, Sweet Boughs, Red Astra-
chans and pippins than we could use and
give away; even the pigs turned up their

. noses at all but the Boughs. Golden Sweets :

and Strawberry apples. Past experience
had shown that trying to dispose of them at
the nearer-market towns only resulted in
selling a very few bushels at most, and the
mice obtained was such as to make one
wish thev had been more saving of time
and breath, so nothing was done with them.
When the market opened for winter fruit,
buyers offered from seventy to eighty cents
per barrel.
packing apples, consisting mainly of very
choice, hand-picked Baldwins, Greenings
and Tallmans, for the magnificent sum of
eighty cents per barrel—said barrels con-
taining nearly three bushels each. The
buyers sent men to pack them (packers
boarding with us) and rest assured no
w lrmy, gnarly, one—sided, scabby speci-
mens went into those barrels, still buyers
reported loss on those same barrels. After
sixty barrels had been packed in this man-
ner, using the very choicest fruit, another
buysr selected fifty bushels for market
from the so-called culls, at ten cents per
bushel. Another came and picked forty
bushels at five cents per bushel; then, (as
there seemed so little money in what was
left, they were allowed to remain upon the
ground, and are there still.

If I were obliged to depend upon a city
market for apples, and could not obtain
any that I considered fit to eat, I would
seek out some honest farmer and bargain
with him for what I wanted at a remuner-
ative price. The producer and consumer of

apples certainly “have a grievance, we do
not know exactly what it is; they cannot

Finally my husband sold his+

A QUESTION.

 

1 am informed that the Editor-in~Chicf of
the MICHIGAN Fannnn wishes that the
HOUSEHOLD writers were more practical.
Shades of ye frying-pan and dish cloth!
More practicalll Why the man must be
gone mad on the practical idea. Therefore
it is in expectation of meeting an editorial
frown that I proceed to propose the sub-
joined question, which I should like to see
discussed in the Housnuonn, viz.:

Is routine work destructive of, or detri-
mental to, the preper development of
genius? Will Beatrix, Mercy, I. F. N., A.
L. L., A. H. J., S. M. G.. Old School
Teacher, Evangeline, Mrs. Sexton and as
many more whose names I do not readily
recall, but who from habits of observation
and reflection are equally able to draw
philosophical conclusions, also any of
that class of mind denominated misculiue,
that may deem such a qiestion worthy of his
cmsideration, give us an intelligent set-
ting forth of the pros and cons relative to
this question? E. L. NYE.

FLINT.
"aw——

“THE ayes have it," very evidently, in
the abundant evidence offered in the affirm-
ative, in answer to L. M. R's questions
about the expediency of having a furnace
in the. new house which is to be built. We
have several letters at hand which, as they
simply corroborate what has already been
said in favor of furnaces, we do not con-
sider it necessary to print. This will ex-
plain to Mr. Cr twford, of Romeo, also, how
- it happens his letter is so much condensed,
as we give but the points not ton ‘hed upon
in previously published letters. '

--————ooo—

 

Contributed Recipes.

 

Fm CAKE—Silver part: Two cups sugar;
two-thirds cup butter; two-thirds cup sweet
milk; whites of eight eggs: three teaspoonfuls
baking powder: three cups sifted flour. Gold
part: One cup sugar; three-fourths cup but—
er; half cup sweet milk; one and a half tea-
spoonfuls baking powder; one and three-
fourths cups of sifted flour; yolks of seven
eggs and one whole egg; one teaspoouful of
cinnamon and auspice. Bake the white in
two long cake tins; put half the gold in a tin,
and lay on one pound of halved figs—sift
them over with flour—so that they will just
touch each other; put on the rest of the gold
and bake. Put the cakes together with frost-
. 113‘ while warm, the gold in the center, and
frost.

ORANGE Churn—One cup butter: one cup
water; two of sugar; four of flour: three eggs;
three teaspoonfuls baking powder; bake in
layers. Juice and pulpjof two oranges; coffee
cup powdered sugar; one egg. Mix yolk of
stiff and spread between the layers. Frost
the top.

KELLY ISLAND Caner—One cup butter; two
of sugar; three of flour; four eggs; half cup
sweet milk; three teaspoonfuls baking pow-
de:. Bake in jelly tins. For filling, stir to-
gether a grated lemon; a large tart~ apple,
grated; one egg: one cup sugar; boil four
minutes. ,

HARD Turns CAKE—Half cup butter; two
of sugar; one of sour cream; three cups flour;
three eggs: half teaspoonful soda. Bake in
layers and spread with jelly.

 

clearly express it, but it exists.
Sums.

Burma Cunux. EVANGALINI.

egg, juice and sugar together; beat the white .