Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1910 — Page 2

The American Home WILLIAM A. RADFORD Editor

Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF COST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide experience as Editor, Author and Manufacturer, he is, without doubt, the highest authority on ainhese suhjeots'. Address all Inquiries to William A. Radford, No. IS Fifth Ave., Chicago, 111., and only enclose two-cent stamp for reply. A good lesson in home building may be learned from the large operators "who make a business of building up whole streets in the suburbs with houses of medium size for the purpose of selling the improved property at a profit, besides increasing the valnation of the remaining vacant property in the neighborhood. These real estate operators have, found that it pays them best to give a great deal of attention to the design of their houses. Of course, every house must be substantially built and arranged for practical conveniences and utility; but this is not enough. Such houses must be attractive also. Each must have a distinctive, individual :appearance. This matter of distinctive appearance la especially important where a large number of new houses are being put up at the same time in the Bame neighborhood; for nothing looks quite so cheap and uninviting as a whole line of new houses all packed in close together and all of the same monotonous appearance. While the average home builder does not have this exact problem to contend with, still he should take warning from such examples and guard against conditions that may If he builds a house of commonplace appearance, one that looks Just like a hundred others which have been built, or may be built in the future, In the neighborhood, he will find that there is nothing to distinguish his house from the rest. It will depreciate In value on that account, for the

prospective customer these days invariably wants a house that he can take pride in. And in addition to the increase value of such a house at times of sale there is also a more important phase of the question. A house of attractive individual appearance makes a better home than one of plain and characterless design. The children take more pleasure in such a home, to take care of it and keep it up; and so the home means more to them and its influence will remain with them. But what is the secret of good design? An experienced architect who

First Floor Plan.

has made a study of home building will produce work with seemingly ▼cry little effort which stands out unique from all other designs and is at the same time in perfect proportion and possessing the essential features of comfort and convenience. Under a master band the everyday materials seem to be given a new meaning, and the common-place elements; or parts of the building, are arranged in proportion in new and striking effects. It is not so much that the skilled architect uses different materials or more expensive materials than the ordinary carpenter architect would select, but he proportions them In a different way so that the building as • whole is a success.

A house should also be economically constructed. It is a mistake to think that just because a building has an artistic outward appearance it must necessarily have cost extra. At the same time the experienced architect is planning for a striking exterior and convenient dqterior arrangements he will also see to it that the design is made to be as economical as possible when it comes tq be built. For instaice, in a two-story house, the story height will be such that 18 foot studding can be used in the outßide walls, and the bearing partitions which sustain the floor joists will be so placed that floor joists In even

Second Floor Plan.

length of feet can be used without waste. With too many builders who may be called on to draw up plans, these items, which mean a substantial saving in the cost, are frequently overlooked. In order to get a ceiling a few inches higher than the standard height when using 18 foot studding, they find it necessary to use 20 foot studding and have to cut off the ends, which means a waste of material as well as a waste of labor which might

have been saved by a. little forethought. It is always economical in the use of materials, and is also good construction, to have the partitions and girders in the basement exactly under the bearing partitions of the first story, and where possible the bearing partitions on the second floor should line up exactly with those of the first story. There is nothing like having a good backbone in a house in the way of bearing partitions by having them lined up straight from foundation to roof. The accompanying design serves as a good illustration of these principles. Although an extremely sensible and convenient house its exterior appearance is distinctive and artistic. It couldn’t be called fussy, yet there is enough of ornamentation to escape monotony. The proportions are good and the material used —cement plaster on metal lath—is the most popular at the present time for high-grade residence work. The interior is arranged very simply, the idea being for the maximum of roomy conveniences. There is a very large living room, of the kind so popular in modem houses. The dining room is of good size and is very conveniently placed with reference to the kitchen, having a butler’s pantry between. An open stairway along the back of the living room leads to the second floor. There are found two very large bedrooms, a liberal supply of clothes closets and a bathroom. This house, having a width of 25 feet and a length of 28 feet, is estimated to cost $3,000, using a good grade of hardwood flooring and finish and with the modem conveniences of plumbing, electric wiring, etc.

The Failure.

Seymour—There are' 60 chicken magazines published in this country. Ashley—l know there are; those publications were the cause of my brother-in-law’s failure in the egg business. Seymour—How was that? Ashley—Why, ■he subscribed for them all and it took him so long to read their contents that he could never find time to feed his hens.

TO MAKE RICH BISCUIT

VARIOUB RECIPES FOR MIXINOI THE DOUGH. “ \ . A Measure of Flour, Add Balt, Baking Powder, Milk and Lard—Handle Mixture as Little as Possible —Mix With Knife. “America seems to be peculiar in its impromptu bakings of Parker house rolls!, biscuits, and ‘johnny ca ke,’ ” sayel.a recent writer, summarlzing the experience of a round-the-world traveler with breads, brod, etc. Just why the biscuit, and particularly the baking powder biscuit, should be considered such a dainty I could never understand. Perhaps it is because it really does require considerable skill to make it. Cream biscuits were my own first proud accomplishment, but their making was forced upon me, albeit my efforts were rewarded with a bouquet ■which I did not deserve, because so much had been done for me that they could not be a failure. It is easy to understand why beaten biscuit should be considered something fine, but as for the other, it is easy to see why the unsophisticated Englishman, accustomed to calling all forms of crackers biscuits, should not be altogether satisfied with some of the things he gets in America called biscuits. Hot Biscuit I.—To one pint of sifted flour add a half teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of baking powder, and sift again. Work in very lightly with the fingers a tablespoon of lard. When thoroughly mixed cut into it with a knife about one cup of ice cold milk. Roll out on a well floured board about three-fourths of an inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter. Bake in hot oven. The secret of good biscuit is to have the dough very soft, to handle it as little as possible, and to bake in a very quick oven.

Hot Biscuits II. —One quart of flour a pinch of salt, two tablespoons of lard, two teaspoons of baking powder. Wet up with cold water, roll out softly an inch thick, and bake in quick oven. Biscuits made with lard and water are much lighterand better than when butter is used. Quick Biscuit. —Two cups of flour, one-half teaspoon of salt, three tablespoons of lard, three teaspoons of baking powder, one cup of water. Sift all the dry Ingredients into a bowl and rub the lard lightly through them. Stir in the water, drop the dough into greased gem pans, and bake in a quick oven. Emergency Biscuit I. —Two cups of flour, four teaspoons of baking powder, one-half teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of snowdrift, one cup of milk. Mix shortening with flour to which salt and baking powder have been added. Add milk. Drop mixture from spoon, allowing about one tablespoon to each biscuit. Bake 20 minutes in moderate oven. This makes from 12 to 14 biscuits. Emergency Biscuit ll.—Two cups of flour, four teaspoons of baking powder, one-half teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of butter, one-half cup of milk, one-half cup of water. Sift dry ingredients, cut in butter, ad£ milk -and -water gradually,—Drop mixture in greased muffin tins and bake in a hot oven 18 minutes.

The home

In preparing eggplant press it under water instead of just salting, as is customary. This prevents the vegetable from turning black and keeps it much crisper. Tomatoes cannot be cooked in a hurry. If you cannot give them at least an hour, preferably two, do without them for that time. They will taste raw and offend the palate of one who knows how they should taste. Never use sand soap on a porcelainlined tub or washstand. There is no surer way to ruin the enajnel. What’* the use of soap? It means only extra work, and here is always the coal oil rag, which is better. Lamp chimneys can be quickly cleaned by holding the hand over one end and putting the other end over the spout of a simmering teakettle. Rub at once with a smooth cloth or tissue paper. Mahogany and other hard woods can be kept in good condition by wiping off with a chamois skin wrung from cold water and immediately polishing with a dry piece of chamois.

Squash Pie.

A pint of steamed, mashed and strained squash, two cups of milk, one cup of sugar, two eggs beaten light, half a teaspoon of ginger, one teaspoon mixed mace and cinnamon. Beat all well together and bake with under crust only.

When Buying Canned Goods .

Before buying canned fruits an meats see if the top is flat or depressed. If the top has bulged out, then air has entered tne tin and fermentation set in.

CLEAN THE CLOSETS REGULAR

Apply White Paint With Btifr Brush —For Light Use Reflection From Mirror. A little time should be taken every cleaning day in inspecting the closets about the house that are" slightly or not at all used; generally there is one under the upper stairs or over the cellar steps. These closets are in most instances so dark that it is almost impossible to tell whether they are dirty or not, but it is not hard to tell if they need a cleaning when you try to remember the last time you gave them a thorough cleaning. These forgotten clorets are breeders of disease, and they are often to be found in the very best managed, households, for few housewives and still fewer maids will think of giving these dark enclosures the cleaning they need as regularly as they do the other rooms of the house. The dust might appear invisible when you are not in search of it, but if you flash a light into the low ceilinged apartment it does not take much imagination to picture how amazed you will be. A remedy for this is a can of white paint and a good stout brush. Apply after a thorough cleaning out of dirt and wall paper, if there is any. « For light while cleaning the place the reflection from a mirror will serve; but there will be no blind attempt to find your overshoes the next rainy day if you give that closet two good coats of white lead.

DOES AWAY WITH SCORCHING

Bimple Culinary Apparatus That Is Guaranteed to Prevent Food From Burning. The most careful of cooks with the many different viands in the course of preparation under her eyes will slip up occasionally and relax her vigilance

for a second when some one of the articles on the stove is touched by the finger of fire. Scorched food is one of the most inexcusable offenses of the cook. A simple piece of apparatus to prevent this mishap has been devised. It consists of a metal affair resembling an inverted pieplate, generously perforated with small holes. This rests on the bottom of the kettle and effectually prevents the contents from coming into contact with the overheated bottom.

Cornmeal and Meat Loaf.

—Get two pounds of soup meat, with the soup bone, and after the soup has been made remove all the meat and ehep-it- fine. Then take about a quart of the soup and reduce it slightly with hot water, then add sufficient cornmeal to make a rather thick mush. Cook the meal thoroughly, and whe* almost done, add the chopped meat, with a little salt, pepper and two teaspoonfuls of grated onion. Stir the mixture frequently to prevent catching or burning. When done, pour in a pan to harden. Cut in slices and serve like a beef loaf.

Little Aids to Housekeeping.

Linseed oil and vinegar, mixed In equal parts, will do wonders in cleaning furniture. Silver inkstands stained with ink may be cleaned by applying a little chloride of lime with water. Pewter articles should be washed In hot water with the fine silver sand and then polished with leather. If a skirt or any other article has been scorched in ironing lay it where the sun will fall directly on it

Corn Fritters.

Slit and cut the corn from four large, firm ears; mix a thin batter of one cup milk, one egg, two-thirds cup sifted flour and one teaspoon of yeast powder and a little salt; stir the corn into this batter, and fry a nice brown in drippings or butter; butter is besL Serve very hot.

Corned Beef.

Heat the meat in cold water. When at the boiling point drain, add fresh boiling water and keep the pot at the side of the fire where the water will barely bubble. One hour for each pound is none too much and d longer time will not be a disadvantage.

The Boston Pot Roast.

Two and one-half pounds steak cut in cubes, one carrot cut thin, one onion, one can of peas, one pint of tomatoes, one quarter of a cup of tapioca, two tCaspdonfuls of salt, one-quarter teaspoonful of pepper, five cloves, dash of nutmeg; put in bean pot, cover and bake eight hours.

Lettuce and Pepper Salad.

For lettuce and pepper salad shred about half of a seeded sweet red pepper and sprinkle it over the dressed lettuce.

A Comer in Ancestors

This is a family which rose to great power and eminence both in England and Scotland. The name is derived from Comines, a town of FTance, near Lille. Robert Comine, a follower of the Conqueror, became earl of Northumberland, when William in 1066, or thereabouts, was dealing out lands, manors and titles, With a lavish hand. From Robert descended William Cumina, lord chancellor of Scotland, 1124, time of David I. The lord chancellor laid the foundation of this powerful house, one of the most powerfu* of Scotland. Before the time of Robert, there was an abbot of Icolmkill in the sixth century, who was called Cummine, and in the following century another

Cumming

named Comlneas Albus. Sir Kenneth Cumming was a knight errant of a later date.

According to one story, the first of note of the faqaily was killed with Malcolm 111. in battle about 1093, and he left two sons, John and William, and “from John all the Cumins of Scotland descend.”

Of this line, Sir John, the "Red Cumin,” or Comyn, was the first lord of Badenoch, and in 1240 ambassador to the court of France. His son, John, called the “Black Lord of Badenoch, was inferior to no subject in Scotland for wealth and power, and

Hamlin, at the time of its birth as "a surname, was perhaps handicapped as Haemhlynna. All along the ages it has taken on a variety of forms, and in records of the Hamlins we find that Hamelinus (the Latin form) was one of its variants. And there were others: Ilammelin, Hamelfti, Hameline, Hamline, Hameln, Haemlyn, Hamlyn, Hamlen, Hamblin, and Hamblen. Hamblen and Hamlin are the more usual forms of the present day. Hammeline is a name found in Domesday Book. One of William the Conqueror’s followers was called Hamelinus, also Hameline and Hamelin. It was a custom, after the Conquest, for persons who had come over with William to be called by the name of the places they had come from, either in France or other countries, and to bestow these names upon the estates William so lavishly dealt out to them Hamelinus may have been a native of France or Germany. Hamm is a town in Prussia, and was thus called in the eleventh century. Hamme is a place in Belgium. Hameln, or Hamelin, in Hanover, is famed as the scene of the myth of the “Pied Piper of Hameln.” Although a myth, for a considerable time the town dated its public documents from that “event.” In the seventeenth century some one writing of this myth, or “fact,” aa he calls it, says: “No music is ever allowed to be played in this particular street” —i. e., the street through which the pied piper piped the children. Hameln or Hamelin is also called Hameola and Hamelowe. Hamburg, founded by Charlemagne in the ninth century, is a name having the same derivation, that is, bam, hama, hamma, or hame, a word sheaning house, or dwelling, or home.\ From the word also comes hamlet, a collection of houses. Lin, linn, linne or llyn means a pool, pond or lake. Hlynna is a similar Saxon word meaning a torrent Hammellyn, and its variations, therefore, meant originally “ a home by the pooh” If Hamelinus, the follower of the Conqueror, was a Frenchman born, his native place was undoubtedly H«nj, a small town and fortress on the river Somme. This town was in existence as early as the ninth century. Among seats of the family, dating from that indefinite period known as time immemorial, may be named Leicester; Exeter; Hamlinßton; Clovelly Court, Devonshire; also Leawopd, Bridestowe, Paschoe and Colebrook of the same county. One name we And in the records is that or Thomas Hamline, alderman of Drogheda.

By ELEANOR LEXINGTON

Gumming Family (Copyright by McClure Syndicate)

was one who vowed to support Margaret, daughter of Alexander 111., in her title to the crown.” At her death he became a competitor for the crown as the son And—heir of John, who was son of Donald, king of Scotland. “The great house of Comines” is the usual style, when speaking of the family, but you can spell the name in -40 r more or less, ways. t Here are a few samples for gratuitous distribution: Beginning Comines, the name of the French town, the variations have been Cunmin, Cummin, Cummins, Cumyn, Comin, Comyn, Comines, Comynges, Comyns, Comings, Cummings, Cumings, Cuinming. Virginia and Maryland were early homes of the Cumming family, and there the name was usually spelled Cummins. The marriage connections of the southern branch include the Polks, Dennys, Hydes, Holts, Jennings, Edmundsons, Herberts/ and Langs. } In New England the more commop. orthgraphy has been Cummings. Lmao of Ipswich, Mass., is the forefather of this line, and a valuable asset as an ancestor for he was a man of mark, holding many offices. In 1641, he was constable, and his son Isaac was the deputy, and he also held many offices and was sergeant in an Indian war. Isaac, the first, was a pillar of the church, and none was more worthy in the town than old Deacon Cummings. The pilgrim had several children; besides Isaac, there was John, who married Sarah Howlet, daughter of Sergt. Thomas and Alice French Howlet of Woburn, Mass. Heitman's “Officers of tne Amerlcan Revolution” records the names of the following members of the Cumming family—all thus spelled, with the exception of Lieut. Alexander “Cummins” of Virginia. The other names! are Lieutenants Thomas of Massachusetts, ’76 to ’7B, and Thomas of the same state, ’75; Lieutenant Jotham of New Hampshire, his name having the addition of “s;”; LieuL Col. John Noble Cumming of New Jersey, ’75 to ’B3. William Cumming, born in Georgia, 1790, was in the war of 1812, and his brother Alfred in the Mexican war.

Hamlin Family

The • coat-of-arms reproduced, is blazoned: Azure; three garbs (or wheat sheaves) within a bordure, or. Crest: A garb, or. Motto: Courage. Another coat-armor, blazoned In Burke’s, is Azure, an oval buckle, between three garbs, within a bordure, or.

In colonial times the more usual orthography of the name was Hamblen, and many of those who now bear this name, as well as many who are called Hamlin, descend from James Hamblen, who was one of the founders of Cape Cod or Barnstable. Mass., where

Hamlin

he settled In 1639. Another immigrant was Capt. Giles Hamlin, also called the Honorable Giles. He settled at Middletown, Conn. The statesman of the family was Hannibal Hamlty, horn In Maine. Leonidas, who spelled the name Hamline, was lawyer, bishop, editor and author. The coat-of-armß illustrated, for t l ** Hamlins of Leicester, Is blazoned by Burke; gules (red), a lien rampant, ermine, crowned with an antique crown, or, (gold). Crest; Seven arrows, points upward, proper (I. e., in proper or natural coloring). —= t———• — The Hamelins bears snas; Argent (silver), three bulls passant, sable. Crest: a hand plucking a rose from a bush, proper. The arms illustrated was granted to John de Hamelins, a knight of Leieester, time of Edward I, of ffOfn 1272 to i3O7 v No date is gfren for the granting of the cfett; ffdf do Unow upon whom it was bestowed. While arms may exist wlfbobf eresls, ail crests have their aeeo&panyteg arms.