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The Commoner.
8
VpLTTME 9, NUMBER 30
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Tho Awakening
now llttlo do wo know or caro
Of Poverty atid Want
Until abroad thoso creatures faro
To pause, rod-eyed and gaunt,
Upon tho threshold of that way
Where Plenty guarded yestorday;
And then to cast their venomed dartu
All stained with blood of men,
To hidden cornors-of our hearts
Again and yot again.
How little do wo ever feel
Of sympathy for Woo,
Till Sorrow as a thief doth steal
Our joy and tread it low,
Or send to us sofne bitter shame
To tarnish an unblomished name,
Or yet DeBpair on vulture wings
Doth fall upon the heart,
And fiercely tear the tensionod
strings
Till blood of life doth start.
. v And so it is wo better learn,
Tho height of joy when wo
Through cjur own sorrows may dis
cern, Tho 'depth of misery. t
Amarita B. Campbell.
are given any instruction along tho
lines of family nursing. Many of
these mothers whoso little ones die
from mistakon treatment or ignorant
neglect are graduates of colleges, or
otherwise well educated (so far as
book knowledge is concerned) young
women. Yet, try as they may to
fight tho battle for the life of their
idolized baby, tho grim Reaper gath
ers them because of the, wretched
ignorance of the parents of even the
first principles necessary to the suc
cessful warfare.
-i. '!
The Swastika
The swastika is a religious em
blem which has been handed down
from ;.prehistoric times. It was In
use in India fifteen centuries be
fore tho. Christian era, and appeared
inEuropo about the iniUdle of tho
bronze age, and was in. use among
, the earliest inhabitants of North
America. Five perfect swastika
crosses o hammered brass were
fourid in a .mound In Ohio. The
swastika is emblematic of the Deity,
and is used as a talisman or charm,
being the symbol for benediction,
blessing, good health, long life, good
fortune and prosperity.
Mistreatment of Babies
The hot, humid weather of the
iast summer has been particularly
hard on the babies in arms, but hard
on any under five years old. Not
alone has the "little wliite hearse"
-frequented the poorly ventilated
homes of "povorty row," but from
the homes whore better sanitation
and sensible care should bo evident,
tho little darlings have passed out
to the silent city. "Careless feed
ing, poor attention, neglect of clean
liness, unsuitable clothing" say the
physicians, but one and all will tell
you that a great share of the mor
tality among tiny little ones is due to
the ignorance ofc tho parents prin
cipally that of the mother, who is
often but an ill-taught girl who has
been allowed to assume the respon
sibility of motherhood without the
slightest idea of what it means, but
In grent measure that of the father
who is never supposed to need any
knowledge of nursing, or the Me
mands of tho sick room. It is a
pitiful fact that, while many of our
-.supposedly wisest people are clamor
ing for a greater number of births,
there aro so few voices raised to
demand a bettor caro for those al
ready sent to us. Until very re
cently, it was looked upon with hor
ror to suggest that young people
of both sexes rhould be taught tho
lessons of parenthood, and im
pressed with the fact that they
Biiouia nave ai least a rudimentary
knowledge of what the responsibility
consisted in. Even now very few
people demand that their boys should
be taught to caro for the babies
that must be left to the mother! Yet
.it is a rare thing that even the girls
Food for tho Babies
In the second volume of Dr.
Foote's "Plain Home Talks" are
given the following formulas for
foods suitable to the hand-fed. or bot
tle-raised baby. No special directions
for their use can be given, as every
baby is "a law unto himself" so far
as the suitableness of food is con
cerned. Much of it must depend un
on tho intelligent observation and
study of, results, by the mother. Bar
ley water, made by foiling the bar
ley in water and straining, is used
to dilute cow's milk instead of un
boiled or ,plain water. As the 'wa
ter does, not keep long, it must be
made dally. About one tablespoon
ful of ordinary pearl barley is
washed, and boiled .for 'an hour in
one quart of water, then strained
and, allowed' to cool,wHen"it is ready
for mixing with the - milk. The
amount of dilution depends much
upon the age of the child and its
digestion. Half the amoiint would
bo better made, so it will not be
come stale. The white of a' perfect
ly fresh egg, beaten up in a tea
cupful of boiled and cooled water,
is excellent for the bottle-fed baby
when suffering from looseness of the
bowels.
As cow's milk may be acid, and
as infajtfs require an alkaline food
solution, uso lime water to correct
the acidity one teaspoonful of lime
water to sixteen of milk ,is about
right. Lime is so little soluble in
water that enough can not be dis
solved to make an overdose.
Oatmeal jelly, for the child of six
months or more, is made by soaking
four ounces of oatmeal (not rolled
oats) in a quart of cold water for
twelve hours, then boiling this down
to a pint, being careful not to scorch,
then strain through a' oloth while
hot. A jelly forms as it cools, and
equal parts of jelly and cow's milk
are the proportions.
Sometimes condensed milk of- a
first-class brand agrees with the baby
better than cow's milk fresh, and in
other cases, some one of the pre
pared baby foods will give the best
results where the milk can not be
taken. The effect of any of these
must bo carefully noted by the moth
er or nurse. It is a pity that every
child can not. depend for substenance
on tho natural fountain.
words, grammatical errors or nu
merals. The date must be written
out in full, thus: "The third of
August," or "August third." Words
must, not be run together,' and a
margin should be left at the" begin
ning of each line. Thd observing of
paragraphing is important, and no
sheet' should be written over twice
one writing extending from side to
side, while this is written over from
end to end. Except among dear
friends, such a letter will be apt to
be slightingly read. The- "lined"
sheet of paper is not used, but if
one can, not write a straight line,
there are sheets of paper, heavily
lined, that may be slipped under the
writing paper. Such., a sheet usu
ally comes in the box with 'corre
spondence paper. However, we are
all too glad to get messages from
our friends to be hypercritical. Give
us tho letters the best you can write,
and do cut out redundancies and
useless phrases. Make the lines say
something.
melon is boiled, and cook the fruit
until it is transparent and the syrup
very thick. Leave in the syrup for
four days, then boil up again, add
ing a little water if tho syrup is too
heavy. Repeat the process again,
and then take the fruit out of tho
syrup, lay on plates to drain, sprinkle
with sugar and dry in the hot sun
shine or in- a slow oven until like
the imported article. Pack between
layers of parafllne paper, and
sprinkle well with sugar.
Tho New House 'Dress
One 6f the most sensible fashions
for 'the housewife is the revivalof
the one-piece dress to be Worn about
'the ' work of the home. ,The skirts
of these .dresses are connortably
harrow, trim, short, and without
superfluous trimming to rumple and
sdii;4or' '"o catch on "things'' when
going 'about the work.' They, fasten
down the front, from the ""shoulder
to the bottom of the skirt, fastened
with buttons. They are easy to put
ori and off, easy to launder, and not
amicuit to matte.
i
Correspondence
A. M." wishes to know Rnmp.
thing about tho rules regulating cor
respondence in regard to the me
chanical part of it. First, tho writ
ing should bo legible, and without
undue flourishes, using black ink.
The stub pen is in good style, with
its broad lines, while the thin lines
of the pointed nib are out of date
However, In this, one may suit one's
self, as not every ono can write with
both the stub or tho pointed pen.
The letter should contain no abbre
viations, erasures, blots, -misspelled
For tho Laundry
Napkins, doilies, tray-cloths and
center-pieces should be ironed
single; embroidered pieces only on
the wrong side, but napkins should
be ironed on both , sides, and each
piece must be ironed over and over
again, until perfectly dry, smooth,
and glossy. Doilies and center
pieces ironed the same, but only the
napkins folded.
Linen, especially that which is
even slightly starched, should be
thoroughly dried before sprinkling,
and should be sprinkled and folded
down the night before, and set in a
cool place where it will not mildew.
The sprinkling must be thoroughly
done not slightly, as wo sprinkle
cotton, but every thread of the linen
must be almost wet, and herein lies
the secret of Bmooth, glossy linen,
To iron this wet linen, will require
a very hot iron and care that it is
not scorched. The linen must be
gone over and over until thoroughly
dry under the Iron. No portion of
it must be left even slightly damp.
This applies to ironing garments, as
well as table linen as, if not care
fully ironed, it will appear rough
and wrinkled, and will not stay clean
long.
"Tho Magic Stick"
Have you tried the new method
of preventing the contents of the pot
from boiling oyer? A writer in tho
Woman's Home Companion says:
"When you want to boil anything
quickly, like elder for apple-butter,
or other liquids for reducing tho
amount, place a stick" across the top
of tho vessel in the center, and ,it
simply can not bqil over. Try it
and see. For, a large "kettle, it is
better to use two 'sticks, crossing
them. For the wash boiler, in the
laundry, this is good, too. Use a
stick kept for the purpose, if you
can; but if not," substitute a piece
of kindling; a ftick two1 'inches wide
and half an' inch thiik, of suitablo
length, will answer."' Try it, and
report. It is a demonstrated fact
that a very little bit of butter added
to the contents of cooking vessels,
like the coffee "pot, etc. will prevent
its boiling over. '
Home-Made Citron
A fair substitute for. the commer
cial tfitron may be made from the
common citron melon. Take a
sound, ripe melon, cut into pieces of
convenient size and let stand in alum
water over night a piece of alum
the size of a walnut to a gallon of
water. In the morning drain
through a. colander, and rinse with
clear .water poured over it. ' Put over
tho fire in clear water and boil until
tender. Allow a pound 6f sugar to
a - pint, ofv tht. water in, jyhlch the
Some' Catsup 'Ways'
In .making catsup' of jtomatoes, uso
as little spices, as possible, especially
those that darken the color,, such as
cloves and 'allspice. A writer in
Farm and Fireside gives the follow
ing way 'to 'make red catsup: Get
a CQmmon soap-shaker, to be had for
ten cents at the department stores,
and ,put, your whple spices,, in this,
and drop it into' the bojHng patsup.
Th.e perforations are' small -enough
to retain the spices, but allow their
strength to pass to the catsup. It
is said the red color will be pre
served. Another way to make the catsup
is to boij the tomatoes until soft,
with slices of onions and salt, to
taste, then, rub through a sieve to
remove the, skins and seeds, and boil
down until fyick, Boil up the vin
egar once, fwith sugar and ground
cinnamon , to taste, mix with tho
thickened tomato' pujp. and seal up
in small bottles fwhile boiling hot.
In making catsup, ' or any other
relish, only the porc.elain-lin.ed, or
enameled ware vessels should bo
used never tin, .nor. iron, nor
chipped or cracjked agate, enameled
or porcelaln-ljned, as the contents
coming in contact with the inner
metal of the vessel,' will be injured.
Pickles and Relishes
(Wohave a handful of recipes for
pickles, relishes and sauces which
the senders assure us are first class,
but proportions of ingredients are
not given; neither is the amount or
kinds of spices used in them desig
nated. Such recInGR would hn use
less in inexperienced hands, hence
we can not use them. Always give
proportions and ingredients.)
Mustard Pickles One quart of
sliced onions, one quart of sliced
green tomatoes, one quart of largo
cucumbers, seeded, peeled and cut
in pieces, one medium head of solid
cabbage, four sweet green peppers,
sliced. Chop all the vegetables fine
(with a food chopper preferably).
Make a brine of one pint of coarso
salt to one gallon of water, and
cover the vegetables with this brine,
let stand twenty-four hours, then
scald the whole batch, turn in a col
ander and drain well. Mix one cup
ful of flour, three tablespoonfuls of
ground' mustard one tablespoonful
of tumeric powder, with enough cold
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