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The Commoner.
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 33
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What Really Matters
It matters little where I was born,
Or if my parents wore rich or poor,
Whether they shrank from tho cold
world's scorn,
Or walked in the pride of wealtn
secure;
But whether I live an honest life,
And hold my integrity firm in my
clutch,
I toll you, my brother, as plain as I
'can,
. it matters much!
It matters little how long I stay
In a world of sorrow, sin and care;
"Whether in youth I am called away,
Or live till my bones and pate are
bare !
But whether I do the best I can
To soften the weight of adversity's
touch
On the faded cheek of my fellow man,
It matters much!
It matters little where'be my grave,
Or on the land or on the sea,
By pouring brook, 'neath stormy
wave,
It matters little or naught to me;
But whether the Angel of Death
comes down
And marks my brow with His lov
.irig 'touch,
As one that shall wear the victor's
'J crown,-
. .' 4 It' matters .ranch! ,-..
The, Autumn's Bounty
September brings us so bountiful
a harvest that we scarcely know how
to care for it all. While the city and
village woman is starving for the
fruits and vegetables which her lim
ited income will not allow her to
reach, tho country sister has but to
put forth her hand and gather of
matter" how carefully you , cook it.
Try drying a portion, and report
your success or failure. Will you?
Making Money at Homo,
The girls who live on a fruit farm
can make quite a bit of pin money,
and, in time, work up a good trade,
with dried fruits. Remember, there
is no excellence without labor, and
in these days of fierce competition,
there is no longer to be had some
thing for nothing. The world de
mands the best, and it is only the
best that pays. The dried fruits one
finds at the grocery stores are either
tasteless and clean, or rank in taste
and dirty, and thus the very name
of dried fruits is enough to disgust
the average buyer. Factory-dried
fruits are made from "any old
thing," usually, without any ques
tion as to its cooking qualities, and
they are too often a disappointment
in more ways than one. But if a
careful selection be made, using only
well-flavored cooking apples, peeling
with as little handling as possible,
drying carefully in halves or quar
ters, and exercising care and judg
ment from start to finish, the pro
duct will grow in demand as its
merits are recognized. While ordi
nary dried fruits sell for three or
four cents a pound (less, to the pro-'
I ducer) , fruits put up with care will
reauuy sen lor r, wveiye 10 iuien
cents per pound, .and .the demand for
,it will soon outstrip the supply.
Peaches, peeled and dried carefully;
will also find a large cale at good
prices. But insects must not be al
lowed to crawl over the fruit in dry
ing, as tho filth once dried on can
not be removed. Begin with a' few
trays over the cooking range, learn
how to handle them, and each year
do a little more, being always careful
in every particular. Of one thing be
assured, you must work for success,
should be hot enough to raise tho
temperature of the inside of the loaf
to 2112 degrees. There is much more
to the making of good bread than
unadulterated flour or lively yeasts,
and only experience can get the best
results, even where one, has the best
of materials. Everything can not be
learned from the printed page -ono
has to be "shown" many things and
happy is the woman who has had
good home training before she takes
upon herself the duties of a home
of her own, whether she must be sim
ply the mistress, or must herself per
form the work of the cook.
The point at which water boils de
pends upon where the water is. At
sea-level, it is 212 degrees Fahren
heit; at the City of Mexico, 200; at
Quito, 194; on some of the high
mountains, it is 180 degrees. The
higher the tltitude, the lower the
boiling point.
Table Talk
tho best. The canning, preserving,
pickling, jellying and jamming are and you may have to wait a little for
all fascinating works for the thrifty it, but if you are "faithful in little
housewife, but in many families,
there are more fruits than jars or
cans, or, the gude wife longs for
variety, after she has filled her
shelves with more than enough for
her family needs. There are still
wagon loads of fruits that must be
sold, fed to the stock, or left rotting
on the ground. What may she do?
In olden times, before canning was
so much a thing of course, our moth
ers used tho best of such fruits and
vegetables for drying, using the
beautiful autumn sunshine instead of
the cooking range for the purpose.
If you have eaten only the dirty,
fly-specked juiceless "dried fruits" of
the "corner groceries," you will turn
aside with a shudder at the thought.
But fruits, properly dried, are deli
cious. A home-made evaporator will
hnswer, but a' small one for family
use will not cost so very much. If
Iho house-man is skilled in the use
Df ordinary tools, he can make a
better one for less money, and if
care is taken of tho screens, or
shelves, it should last for years. I
think I have given you directions for
making two different evaporators,
but our friends are kind enough to
send us another, and I hope you will
try some one of them, and report.
Remember, you can not get some
thing for nothing. Tho fruit you
put on the tray is tho fruit you must
take off; it, of itself, may bo fine;
but if it is neglected, allowed to
scorch, or to dry too long, or to be
polluted by the feet of insects, it
will always show your neglect, no
things," as time passes, you will
"get your name in the papers." The
one greatest trouble with women and
girls is that they allow a little fail
ure to discourage them, and they do
not stick to their work. It is but
for the moment, with most of them.
They lack patience and dogged perse
verance. Few of them look forward
to another year they want it now.
Tho Yeast Plant
One of the bacteria best known to
the housewife is the plant used as
a leavener of our bread. The yeast
plant acts on the sugar in the flour
to form alcohol and carbon dioxide;
tho gassy bubbles of the carbon diox
ide try to break through the tough
gluten of the dough, but can not,
and so raise the whole mass, and
this makes the dough light and por
ous. The yeast plant works best in
a' temperature of seventy-five to
ninety degrees Fahrenheit. The
housewife soon learns that too high
or too low a temperature will kill it.
The beginner often scalds her yeast
and then wonders why her bread is
so solid. Baking, kills the ferment,
and the gas is dissipated, the alco
hol driven out, and the gluten stif
fened. The carmelizing of the sur
face by heat gives the nutty flavor
to good ureau. The reason for much
of the sour bread is that the heat
of the inside of the loaf is not high
enough during baking to kill the
bacteria, which go on working, and
the result is sour bread. The oven
The spoon should be held under
hand, that is; the hand under the
spoon; you will get at your mouth
better and your elbows will be held,
more gracefully.
The fork should be held in the
same position as the spoon if it is
to be used in the same way that is
for carrying food to the mouth. For
carving the meat, the fork must be
held in the left hand, arid both: knife,
and fork should be held "overhand"
the back of the hand up, and the
fore finger on the back of the fork,
the prongs turned down.
Knife and fork and spoon are all
held by the end, of the handle, and
not half way up. The teaspoon,
when not in use, should lie on the
saucer, not standing up in the cup.
When the knife is not in use, it
may lie across the edge of the plate
on the right; or, if little round butter-plates
are used, it is permissible
to rest the tip of the knife on the
butter-plate, the handle on the cloth.
The knife and fork should not rest
on the table at angles to the dinner
plate, with their tips on its rim,
either during or after meals are fin
ished. If butter-knives are furnish
ed, when not in use they rest on the
bread and butter plates at the left,
which hold also the individual piece
of bread and any little relish, like
olives and celery.
The fork is used instead of the
spoon for all vegetables, including
peas, for berries, for frozen desserts,
and is used instead of the knife for
cutting croquettes, soft crusts any
thing that does not actually need
carving. The knife must be used
for cutting meats, fowl, fish. The
fork is so important for lifting foods
that its shape is something of a cross
between a fork and a spoon.
Tea and coffee should be taken
only from the cup, not from the
spoon at all. Many of us very sen
sibly taste from the spoon first, to
gauge the temperature, but it is not
quite correct. The beverage (tea or
coffee) should never be poured out
into the saucer to cool. Now-a-days,
such an action is classed with the
sin of eating with the knife.
peacnes and apples. For your own
use, or for extra priced fruits for
the market, take of the best. If you
have tho old Maiden's Blush, apple,
ydu will find that is one of the most
delicious of dried fruits. Halve tho
apple before peeling, and with a
sharp pointed knife, take out tho
core from each half, then peel, hand
ling as little as possible. You will
soon find it can be done dextrously
and skillfully. Prepare only enough
at one time to fill the evaporator,
as 'you ' do not want the apples dis
colored. Place the halves core-side
up, on the tray, which should be a
light wooden frame covered with
suitable wire, aB this lets the air. get
to the whole surface of the fruit at
once, drying uniformly. Fill all the
trays in the evaporator, and set over
the fire, or even on the back of the
range. The neat should be only like
good, hot sunshine. Under the frame
of trays drop a pinch of flour of sul
phur, which will bleach the fruit and
keep it from turning brown. Every
half hour, change the trays, putting
the top tray on the bottom cleats,
each time lifting the tray one step
higher, thus giving all an equal
chance, stirring occasionally or turn
ing each piece separately; as the
fruit shrinks in drying, fill each tray
with pieces from another tray, thus
saving room, but do not crowd.
Peaches, halved, pitted and then
peeled; dried this way arc delicious;
but you must have good fruit to be
gin with, if tlie trays are used out
of doors, in the sunshine, cover them
with mosquito netting to protect
from insect filth, and take' inside be
fore the dew begins to fall, and do
not put out until the morning is well
aired. On damp or rainy days, tho
indoor drying can go on uninterrupt
edly It pays to dry fruit thus for the
family; and '.is little' troubles
A Valuable Recipo
Frqm the Scientific American: To
render wall paper adaptable for
wasliing with soap and water without
destroying the colors, make a solu
tion of two parts of borax and two
parts of stick lack, shellac, or other
lac, in twenty-four parts of hot wa
ter. Strain the solution through a
fine cloth filter and coat the paper
with it several times, rubbing the
latter with a soft brush after every
application till a' brilliant polish is
obtained. It is immaterial whether
the paper is already pasted on the
walls, or still in rolls.
Drying Fruits
Select large, nice, juicy peaches,
apples or pears, if you wish nice
cooking fruit by this method. Plums,
cherries, grapes, and nearly all other
fruits may be dried in tho same way,
but just now we ate "doing up" the
Apple Jelly
Sour fruit not quite ripe is best
for jelly. Remove the stems, wash,
wipe, cut out blemishes, then without
peeling or coring, cut the apples in
suitable pieces for cooking, and cover
with water, and set on the fire. Sim
mer until quite soft, then drain
through a' jelly bag, leaving to drip
over night. To each quart of tho
juice thus obtained, add the juice of
one lemon, and cook down, skim
ming well before adding the sugar,
which must be heated before adding
to the juice, allowing a pint of juice
to a pound of sugar. Let simmer
until the sugar is dissolved, stirring,
then bring to a brisk boll; after
twenty minutes of boiling, the jelly
should be ready , to form, when it
should be put into glasses, or re
ceptacles, and when it gets cold, pour
paraffin wax over the top to seal.
Some Pickle Recipes
m
Mixed Pickles First, having de
cided on what you wish to use, lay
the vegetables In brine; the gherkins
or small cucumbers must be packed
in a crock, alternating layers of cu
cumbers and salt, and left in this,
covered with water, for a full week,
stirring them up from the bottom,
every day or two. A weighted plate
should be kept on top. When read
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