The Commoner.
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 3fc
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The 5onjr of The Camp
"Give us a song!" tho soldiers cried,
Tho outer trenches guarding,
Whon the heated guns of tho camps
allied
Grew weary of bombarding.
Tho dark Redan, in silent scoff,
Lay, grim and threatening, under;
And tho tawny mound of tho Malakoff
No longer belched its thunder.
Thoro was a pause. A guardman said,
"Wo storm tho forts tomorrow;
Sing while wo may, another day
Will bring enough of sorrow."
They lay along tho battery's side,
Below the smoking cannon;
Bravo hearts, from Severn and from
Clyde,
And from tho banks of Shannon.
They sang of lovo and not of fame;
Forgot was Britain's glory;
Each heart recalled a different name,
But all sang "Annie Laurie."
Voice after voice caught up tho song,
untu its tender passion
Rose like an anthem, rich anJ strong
Their battlo-Gve confession.
Dear girl, her name ho dared not
speak,
But as tho song grow louder,
Something upon the soldier's cheek,
Washed off tho stains of powder.
Beyond tho darkening ocean burned
Tho bloody sunset's embers,
While tho Crimean valleys learned
How English lovo remembera
And once again a fire of hell
Rained on the Russian quarters,
With scream of shot and burst of shell
And bellowing of tho mortars!
And Irish Nora's eyes are dim
For a singer dumb and gory;
And English Mary mourns for him
Who sang of "Annie Laurie."
Sleep soldiers! still in honored rest
Your truth and valor wearing;
Tho bravest aro tho tenderest
The loving are the daring.
Bayard Taylor.
beaton to a stiff froth, four table
spoonfuls of water, one and one-half
cupfuls of Hour and a little salt. Mix
and roll very thin. Cut into narrow
strips and bake In pie tins.
Contributed Recfpes
Preserved Tomatoes. Peel seven
pounds of moderate sized, round to
matoes and let them stand in ono
quart of whito wine vinegar three
days. Lift them out of thj vinegar,
put them in a preserving kettle and
pour the vinegar back over them.
Then add five pounds of sugar, and
one-half teaspoonful each of ground
cloves and cinnamon. Add a bag of
whole cloves and cinnamon to the ket
tle and let it simmer all day. Keep
in a crock.
Mock Duck. Use two and a half
pounds best cut of round steak. Make
& dressing as follows: Put some dry
bread in a colander and poui cold
water over it. Mash with a spoon and
season with butter (or drippings), pep
per, salt, onion juice and a little sage.
Put tho dressing on tho steak, roll
and tie it. Put a piece of butter in a
frying pan and fry tho steak brown on
both sides. Then add some water and
cook it several hours, keeping it well
covered. A part of the gravy may be
thickened if desired.
Cheese Straws. Mix well together
one-half cupful of butter and one
fourth of a pound of old cheeso,
grated. Add tho whito of on egg
Fall Sewing
There is an old poem in which wo
aro told that wo "scarce break our
fast ere wo plan how to dine," and
it may be added, in plain prose, and
with equal truth, that we scarce
break our thread from the finished
last garment of the Bummer wardrobe,
before we begin threading our neeuie
ror an attack on tho woolens for the
winter. Especially must this be so
whero tho homo seamstress Is also
the home-mother and the housekeeper,
with only one pair of hands to satis
fy tho unnumbered demands hourly
made upon her. Very little continuous
sowing can bo accomplished, and, fill
in tho moments as closely as she
may, tho cold weather is very apt to
find her with a distressingly full work
basket.
"About this time," tho children who
might bo helpful in the matter of
chores aro in school, especially in the
country districts, and those left at
home aro usually too small to do any
thing but get into mischief. The
home seamstress thus labors under
great odds; but tho constant care of
the children, the interruption of visi
tors, the irregular calls for house
wifely oversight, and the many un
forseen demands to be met aro not the
only thorns, nor the greatest
00
Among tho greatest trials which be
set the home seamstress, and the most
difficult to overcome, are the lack of
conveniences, and the having to do
without real necessities. Very few of
them have the sewing table, tape, lap
board, button-hole scissors, plaiting
machine, tracer, a variety of needles,
satisfactory pins, sharp scissors, good
shears, thimbles, etc. Nearly every
body, now-a-days, owns, or can hiro
a sewing machine; but very often it
if one's own is out of repair, or there
is a lack of needles, or the oil can is
empty or lost, the attachments scat
tered or broken, the belt stretched, or
the balance wheel, loosened by little,
meddlesome fingers, "wabbles" pain
fully. In some homes, it is a novel
sensation to know just where the
"machine" things are; to lay ready
nanus on tho needle-book or the
thread-box, and to be able to sit down,
off-hand, and sew a half-hour at a
time without having to be up mint
ing things," is hardly conceivable. 0,
I know all about it: . I've had experi
ence of my own.
Now, sisters, if you put in a few
minutes, hero and there, before the
rush comes, straightening out these
tangles and getting your scattered
sewing things together, marshal your
button box, your needle-book, your
pin-cushion, see that these are well
stocked, got your scissors and have
them and your cutting shears well
sharpened, lay in a supply of suitable
threads of the various kinds, and have
your machine and its belongings put
in thorough repair; with bearings well
cleaned and well oiled, and all attach
ments in order, you will find that,
when you do get an hour or so to give
to your sewing, it will be anything but
burdensome, and you will "make
time" rapidly.
00
DO not USO UnCArhlln nnftorae n4-
from old newspapers from something
somebody else had mado up; that cer
tainly is a very poor method of econ-
fomlzing. Paper patterns, with your
own measurement, which will need
but little, if any altering, are very
cheap, and patterns of anything can
be had, accompanied with explicit di
rections for cutting and making, guar
anteeing the hnlsned garment to be
of the latest stylo and neat-fitting, for
10 cents.
Don't use old linings, or cheap rot
ten ones, and do aim to tret eood ma
terialsacrificing quantity to quality.
You will doubtless havo many things
to "do over," but make tho most of
all you have, and don't "hand down"
tne dresses and cloaks, or oven the
petticoats, without Individualizing
them for the next in line. A child
that does not care how it looks or
what it wears, should have attention.
Something is wrong with it It is not
always best to foster pride, but self
respect sometimes needs nursing.
Why not havo the clothes pretty, and
suitable in style?
A Protest
A sister journal has this to say:
"The tendency of some who write for
domestic departments of newspapers
Is to decry the thriftlessness and ex
travagance of the poor, especially in
their cooking." This touches many in
a tender spot; there are extravagant
womenplenty of them, and wasteful
ones; but I am certain such will not
read, much less profit by, the experi
ence of those whose writings are
proof-positive that they know not
whereof they speak. There aro wo
men who know the real saving of buy
ing certain cuts, but, having but 15
cents to spend for meat, with noth
ing to spend for vegetables for mak
ing a soup for next day's dinner feel
justified in buvinc: that which ' will
satisfy tho hunger of today. A great
many are bravely bearing the enforced
burden of makeshifts and petty econ
omies, too poor to really do the best
they know how literally, too poor to
economize. It is not always poor man
agement or extravagance when a poor
woman buys a pound and a half of
beefsteak instead of five or six pounds
of good boiling beef; she would,
aoubtless, rather have the larger
quantity. So, too, it is seldom one
finds in a very poor family the things
which go to make an appetizing side
dish from the remnants; too often,
there is not enough of the food to
really satisfy tho present hunger.
00
Such articles dn extravagance and
lectures on economy wound a great
many by their injustice, and unthink
ing men often feel, on reading them
that they have good cause to complain
of thoir present poverty as the result
of the wife's mismanagement Life
is hard enough to these burdened sis
ters, even with tho kindest sympathy
and appreciation of their many worthy
make-shifts, and it is- not right that
the printed page, to which they turn
in their rare moments of leisure for
the word of cheer and the morsel of
comfort, shall confront them with
harangues, upon their reckless short
comings, wasteful extravagances, and
lack of economical methods. "Thev
jest at scars who never felt a wound "
and tho majority of our "advisory"
boards of writers upon domestic econ
omy T7ho plan so wisely and so well
upon paper, aro of this irresponsible
class. They simply "do not know,"
ana not knowing, should hn fi,AiM
juuv. uo me experienced eyo, these
writings carry their absurdity on their
face.- Housekeeper.
Short Items
Teach tho children to breatho
through tho nose, rather than through
the mouth. The fine hairs growing in
.the nostrils serve to sift out more or
less impurities from the air before it
is allowed to enter the delicate air
jassages leadinc to tho inj?s nr.,i ,
is also given a certain warmth, pass
ing through the longer route, which is
of considerable significance in cold or
damp weather, when the various
throat and lung troubles are so easily
contracted. Breathing through tho
mouth is coarse and noisy, and gives
to the face a foolish, idiotic expres
sion, besides in time disfiguring tho
face and narrowing the nostrils.
Wo have all heard of people who
are variously "handed." Some aro
ngiu-nanuea; some are left-handed-others
aro fore-handed, while a still
larger class are not only right-handed
and left-handed, but are also a "littlo
behind-handed," and this latter class
Is an unmitigated nuisance to who
ever is so unfortunate as to have any
dealings .with them. This little "behind-hand"
should be cultivated out
of existence, and in order to complete
ly eliminate it, we must begin wita
the very little children. Some of us
must begin with ourselves. The work
of "weeding it out" should be vigor
ously prosecuted.
Just why one employs the right arm
in so many things in preference to tho
left is a question that has never been
intelligently answered. Much of tho
labor now performed by the right
hand could be done as skillfully with
the left, if that, member was tminprf
to tho work; the division of labor
thus made possible would result in an
increased capacity, and, in case of
emergency, would be a very valuable
addition to one's usefulness. The art
of writing equally well with both
hands should tie acquired by every
one, as even a slight accident to tho
right hand often works great hardship
to tho one dependent upon the ono
skilled member, when the unskilled
hand must bo idle. Ono should en
courage "left-handedness" in children,
while seeing that the right hnnd is
used equally with the left
Dread Poods
White flour, impoverished as it is in
the bolting process, constitutes a very
weak "staff of life" for the working
man to lean on; rye flour is consider
ably cheaper than wheaten fldur, all
things considered, and much more
nutritious, unless the wheat flour is
made of the whole grain. The graham
flour of commerce is of littlo value,
being simply a common brand of flour
mixed with bran, which retails at tho
same price as the best white flour;
one accustomed to handling the gen
uine graham, will readily detect tho
"bogus" article. There is, in tho
markets, what is known as the family
grist mill, which grinds wheat, oats,
iye and corn, and srIIh a ipa thnn
five dollars. In largo families, whero
close economy is necessary, one of
these mills would be a great saving,
especially if several families would
unite and own ono in common; or 1c
might even prove a profitable invest
ment for one family to own a mill
and grind for others, either for a
money payment, or, as millers usually
do, taking a "toll" for pay for grind
ing. Tho work of grinding cereals is
not very great when we consider their
expansive qualities when used, and
therefore but a small quantity is re-
quired at a time; even for gems,
crackers, leavened breadR and pastries,
it is necessary to add two parts of
whito flour, as wheat ground thus is
really "meal," and very heavy. Thero
are few cereals nicer than crushed or
coarsely ground wheat, cooked slow
ly for sevoral hours until it is a ge-f
tinoUS maSS. to ho Anton wltTi nronm
jand sugar, sugar syrups, or fruit
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