Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1891 — THE HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE HOUSEHOLD.

Home Ont or ■ Household. The keeping of a house in such a manner as to result in a genuine home is largely in considering honsekeeping in its true relation as subservient to the household life; to consider that the household is made for the family, and

not the family for tho ’ houseaold. Tho housekeeping that is so immaculate that comfort is sacrificed to appearance, is by no means Ideal, however fair may be its outward aspect Order, punctuality, cleanliness, economy arc virtues iu the relative sense, and only as they are held adjustable are they strictly virtues. The life is more than meat and thoro may be considerations of enjoyment or of social duties that quite supercede a regulation that rivals that of the Medes and Persians in its unvarying character. In many households the family Ufa would gain largely in considering breakfast as a moveable feast, to be partaken of at the individual convenience of each member of the family, rather than to be appointed at a fixed hour, when all must perforce appear. Coflee and rclls served in one’s room often enables one to write letters, or perform some needed task, impossible if a regular breakfast hour down stairs must be observed. The French custom is gaining moro and more in American households, and it is one to be welcomed. Adaptability and adjustability are the most desirable of factors in housekeeping economy. The morning is usually tho best time for any individual work. Then the hours are, as a rule, free from social demands, and tho individual is in his best condition for writing, or for whatever employment ho may be engaged in, if of a nature requiring solitude and thought A margin of easygoing latitude in housekeeping life need interfere with no essential arrangement, and may add a world of comfort to individual living. How to Ums a Towel Roller. Take an inch planed board, five inches wide and fifteen inches long, and saw slanting in shelf jjrm with a circular saw. About an inch from the top saw a slot two inches long for roller pins to fit in, saw it quite slanting. Make

the other side just the same. Now make a roller the right width for the towel, aoout two inches thick. Drive an eightpenny wire nail in the center of each end, for pins. Now nail it where you want the towel to haug, and lit the roller. Take a half-inch planed board and nail on top for shelf; paint it. All you have to do when you wish

to remove the towel is just slip out tho roller. I have one just like this that I have used for four years. Clemcnvt Qrover, in Practical Farmer. Hints. An oyster shell in tho teakettle will prevent the formation of crust on the inside. A simple cement for broken china or earthenware is made of powdered quicklime sifted through a coarse muslin bag over the white of an egg. To clean a teakettle tako it away from the fire and wash off with a rag dipped in kerosene, followed by a rubbing with a dry flannel cloth. A remedy for creaking hinges is mutton tallow rubbed on the joint. A great many locks that refuse to do their work are simply rusted and will be all right if carefully oiled. There are a number of meat-dishes that may be made for one day and cut cold for several days, and these dishes aro especially adapted to such warm weather as the present. A veal loaf, for instance, served in nice thin slices, garnished with a pretty, eatable green, is most appetizing. A small piece of lettuce, cress or crisp parsley served with cold sliced meats greatly adds to their appearance. Children should not be bathed immediately after rising in the morning, and they should not be allowed to rush from tho breakfast-table to the beach and get into tho water as soon as they can. Very few children should be given a full bath in tho morning. They may be sponged over quickly and then rubbed fairly dry, but as for plunging a child into cold water, even lukewarm, and soaking, the practice must soon prove injurious to tho little one’s health.

More amusing are the strange fancies that some persons have as to what overworked men may be asked to do for them. In the very thick of the American war, there came to President Lincoln an Illinois farmei in a great state of excitement about a pair of horses that one of Lincoln’s Generals had requisitioned for the war. The owner was of course entitled to compensation, but somehow it had not come. Going to the President he told him his story, and was rather chagrined to be told that it did not lie with him to pay the money. Then, says the farmer, will you undertake to write V 5 the General and see that the matter is settled properly? Poor Lincoln, who never wanted a story to help him in an emergency, was ready for his visitor. “When I was a rail-splitter,” he said, “there lived near ns a smart young fellow, the Captain of a Mississippi boat, who could steer a vessel over the rapids with wonderful skill, as hardly any one else could. One day, when he was grasping the wheel with his utmost strength, at the most critical point of the rapids, a little boy came running up to him in great excitement and said, ‘Cap’n, stop your ship, my apple has fallen overboard!’ ” In the “Life of Sir James Simpson, - there are sqme curious notices of the extraordinary things that patients in the country would sometimes ask him to do. Once a gentleman wrote to him a-king him to send a copy of the prescription which he had given him some vears before, when the doctor could nardly recall the man, much less the prescription. Others would ask him to go to Duncan & Floekhart's and get them some particular medicine. A very busy clergyman of our acquaintance, when over head and ears with many things, once got a letter from a stranger in the United States, explaining that more than a century ago, some one of the name of G . owned a property near Edinburgh which was believed to have been destined by will in a particular way, so that the relatives in America thought they had some claim to it. He was requested to inquire into the matter, find ont about the will, communicate with the present owners of the property, and put everything in train for a just settlement of the claim. It would have been reasonable for the writer to inclose a bill for SSOO, but that, unfortunately, he omitted to <Lo.—Macmillan’Magazine.