The Household

From Harper's Bazar. There is a multiplying series of Latter day Tracts, issued chiefly through the weekly papers, whose doctrine is salvation from the bondage of housekeeping, through the saving grace of the iesthetic sense. A new gospel of culture is to illumine the heathen darkness of the average house-keeping mind. As usual, the ref ormers have their f raction of truth, and the upholders of the ancient landmarks their modicum of justice. ïhe old order of housekeeping was cleanly, thorough, careful, saving. lts defect was that it devoured the housekeeper. ïhat system can never be called econoniical which sacriflces the greater to the less. And if the woman was utterly shrunken and lost in the manager and worker, as too often she was, the condemnation of her ideal is written in that fact. On the ether hand, if the new departure entails only a change of fetiches, if she is to wear herself out in another round of occupations, saerifice the woman to the sesthetic conception, and herself exhale in the struggle after expression, the danger would seem to be doubled, not divided. The real remedy seems to be not a new elaboration, but less elaboration. ïhe house-mistress who has servants to be hands and feet f or her may afford to live all over the house, and have no best and no worst in furnishing and table. Certainly that is the most delightful conduct of life. But the matron who employs but one maid, or none, will be wise, to our thinking, if she keep her parlor for visitors, and her best t3blecloths for their pleasure also, and her prettiest china on a seldom-visited shelf, and a loaf of cake in her stone pot to regale them withal. Then shall her heart not sink within her when the unexpected guest arrivés, nor her welcome be one of the lips only, as her mind reviews the dismantled apartment where the children have run riot. If the mother is not worn out with care and work, her motherly presence makes all the house inviting. The more of herself she can save from the friction of daily labor, the more she has to give to husband and children, and the more remains for the sacred uses of her own soul. Let her not be overwhelmed, then, by the demand of the time that she be aesthetic. Let her draw down her window-shades, and shut up her parlor and f orswear f ancywork ; thus she may have time and heart to grow. Medical. Kemedy for Diphthekia.- Gargle the throat with a mixture of sulphur and water - one teaspoonful of sulphur to one half a teacupful of cold water. Swallow the gargle carefully so as to make it penétrate eyery part of the throat. If the patiënt is unable to gargle, take a small quantity of sulphur on the end of a table-knife or spoon, then reach it back to the back part of the mouth, then blow the sulphur into the throat. Should this not reach the affected part, take a shovelf ui of live coals and cover with sulphur, let the patiënt inhale the fumes, which will give instantaneous relief. We know of many cases where this has been tried, and not a single case has proved fatal. Anti-Fat. - The dietary which Banting, the Englishman, used to reduce his weight from 202 pounds to 150 was this: ííor lM-erHíeofc fUUl OUUCeS 01 beef, mutton, or any kind of broiled fish or cold meat, excepting pork, salTYrn. ööia oud horring. .A. large cup of tea without milk or sugar, a little biscuit or an ounce of dry toast. Por dinner, flve or six ounces of any flsh or meat (except those prohibited, any vegetable except potatoes, parsnips, and beets), one ounce of dry toast, ripe and cooked fruits, and any kind of poultry and game. For tea, two or three ounces of fruit, dry toast, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. And for supper three or four ounces of meat or fish, with a cup or two of weak black tea. Food which contains sugar and starch in large proportions generally creates fat, and should be avoided. Sïomacii Bitters. - Take 1 ounce of cardamon seed, 1 oz. of Virginia snakeroot, 2 lemons cut fine, 1 ounce cinnamon, half ounce allspice, half ounce nutmeg (broken) ; steep in ] gallon of proof whiskey for ten days ; add half a gallon of water, sweetened with half a pound of white sugar. This is a superior medicine for giving an appetite and restoring the system to a healthy state. Dose, one wine-glass three times per day before meals. Neuralgia.- Sometime since we published at the request of a friend, a recipe to cure neuralgia. Half a dram of sal ammonia in an ounce of camphor water, to be taken a teaspoonful at a dose, and the dose repeated several times, at intervals of flve minutes, if the pain be not relieved at once. Half a dozen different persons have since tried the recipe, and in every case an immediate cure was effected. In one the sufferer, a lady had been subjected to acute pains for more than a week, and her physician was unable to alleviate hersufferings, whenasolution of sal ammonia in camphor water relieved her in a few minutes. - Repositorp. Caxtstic Ammonia in Kheumatism - Dr, F. Zeiler states that liquor ammonia has proved a positivo cure in all recent cases of muscular rheumatism which have fallen under his obseryation. He cites numerous cases in which instantaneous relief was experienced, He also observed its effect in several cases of acute articular rheumatism, in two of which six , drops sufflced to subdue the pain and swelling within a period of twenty-four hours. In one case of chronic rheumatism of a tinger-joint which had lasted for over half a year, the simple administration of the ammonia completely dispelled the inflammation and pain in the joint within two days. Dr. Zeiler believes the ef fect to be due to the ammonia acting as a nervine directly upon the nerves. Dometstic Recipes. Raiökd Cake. - 2 cups light dough, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup raisins, %. cup butter, 2 eggs, % cup water, 1 teaspoonful soda dissolved in the water, 2 cups flour, spices to taste, put in the dough the last thiiiR and stir very little after putting it in ; let it get very light before baking. Coffee Cake. - 1 cup sugar, 1 of molasses, 3 eggs, 1 cup butter, 1 of strong coffee, 1 of raisins, 2 teaspoonfuls soda, flour enough to make abatter not too stiff; spice with cloves and cinnamon. Gingek Cookies. - 1 cup molasses, % cup sugar, 1 of butter, nearly one of butter milk or sour milk, 2 teaspoonfuls soda put in the milk, 1 teaspoonful ginger and one of cinnamon. When you roll out the cakes add a little sugar. Puff Cake.- 3 eggs, 2 cups sugar, % of a cup butter, 1 cup sweet milk, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoonful soda, 2 of cream tartar, 1 of lemon. When you get all the ingredients stirred together put in flour and stir lightly. Lkmon Pie. - 1 lemtti, 1 cup sugar, 1 of water, 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful corn starch, a piece ol' butter the size of a walnut. Peel the lemon and slice very thin, then add the water, sugar and butter, put on the stove and let it come to a boil, beat the egg, then stir the corn starch in with it, if too thick add a very little water, stir this in the lemon and justlet it come to a boil. Let this cool before putting in disli to bake. 1'his makes a very nice pie. Plain Cookies. - ïwo cups of sugar, one cup of sweet milk, one teaspoonful of cream of tartar, one-half teaspoonful of saleratus, butter two-thirds the site of a hen's egg. Xo egg. Maize Pudding. - To two cupfuls of cold hominy, add three cupfuls of chopped apple, the juice of two lemons, one-third of a cupf ui of sugar, and twothirds of a cupful of Zante currants. Mix very thoroughly, being sure not to have any lumps of cold hominy. Bake an hour or more in a moderate oven, or until of a light brown ; serve cold. Wedding Cake. - One pound powdered sugar and one pound good butterrubbed to a cream ; next the well-beaten yolks of twelve eggs ; mix well before adding one-half pound sifted flour; Ihen one tablespoonful of cinnamon, two tablespoonfuls nuttneg, one teaspoonful cloves ; then the well-whipped whites of twelve eggs, added little at a time with another one-half pound of sifted flour; next one pound wellwashed and then dried currants, dredged with flour ; one pound of raisins seeded, dredged with flour ; oneliulf pound of citrón CUt into Slips, dredged ; at the last, one wine-glass of good brandy. This recipe maken two large cakes. Bake two hours or longer in a moderately-hot oven in deep tins lined with well-buttered paper. Vinegar Pies. - To one pint of strong vinegar add one quart of water and enough sugar to sweeten to taste put in a stew pan and while boiling stir in flour to thicken. Now place the crust in a pie pan, flll, cover with a top crust, and bake as you would a fruit pie. A Good Way to Cook Chickens. - Take three or four chickens, and, after cleaning and washing them well in cold water, split them down the back, break the breast bone and unjoint the wings to niake thein lie down better ; put them in a large bread-pan and sprinkle pepper, salt and flour over them ; put a large lump of fresh butter on each ehicken ; pour boiling water in the pan and set in the oven. Let them cook till very tender and a rich brown color ; then take out on a large platter, put on more butter, set in the oven to keep warm ; put some sweet cream in the pan, and add as much hot water as you think necessary for the quantity of gravy you desire, the more cream and the less water the better the gravy. Thicken with flour ; put a pint of the gravy on the chickens. They must be put on the table very hot. Ego Toast.- Beat l'our eggs, yolks and whites together thoroughly ; put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a sauce-pan and melt slowly ; then pour in the eggs and heat without boiling over a slow fire, stirring constantly ; add a little salt, and when hot, spread on slices of nicely-browned toast, and serve at once.