THE FAMILY AT HOME.
A Good Table—Bread, etc.—Meats—Vegetables—Household Management—Beverages—Useful Receipts, etc.—Maxims, Dietetic and Moral—Tool-Chests—Dressmaking, etc.—Pets—Swimming—Riding—Amusements—Children—Letter-Writing—Debt—Flowers—Time—Air—Laws—Phrenology—Historical—Words of Washington.
3535. A good table is necessary to health and domestic comfort.
3536. Nearly every family in our Republic has, or might have, the means of living very comfortably; if nothing was wasted, and all food was properly cooked, good tables would abound.
3537. In my "New Cook Book" these subjects are so fully treated that little can be added.
3538. Still a few "Choice Receipts" on Cookery will be found in this volume, at page [319] and on. I shall add such other directions in this chapter as seem necessary to complete the system: and first of the staff of life—bread.
3539. Bread.—To make good bread, or to understand the process of making it, is the duty of every woman; indeed, an art that should never be neglected in the education of a lady.
3540. The Lady derives her title from "dividing or distributing bread:" the more perfect the bread the more noble the lady.
3541. In "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book," and in the following directions, the art is made plain; and the process may, by practice, be easily acquired.
3542. Proportions of Nutriment in articles of Food.—See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book—Introductory," etc.
3543. Bread contains eighty nutritious parts in one hundred; meal thirty-four in one hundred; French beans, ninety-two in one hundred; common beans, eighty-nine in one hundred; peas, ninety-three in one hundred; lentils, ninety-four in one hundred; cabbages and turnips, the most aqueous of all the vegetables compared, produce only eight pounds of solid matter in one hundred pounds; carrots and spinach produce fourteen in the same quantity; while one hundred pounds of potatoes contain twenty-five pounds of dry substance.
3544. From a general estimate it results, that one pound of good bread is equal to two pounds and a half or three pounds of potatoes; that seventy-five pounds of bread and thirty of meat may be substituted for three hundred pounds of potatoes.
3545. The other substances bear the following proportions: four parts of cabbage to one of potatoes; three parts of turnips to one of potatoes; two parts of carrots and spinach to one of potatoes; and about three parts and a half of potatoes to one of rice, lentils, beans, French beans, and dry peas.
3546. To test flour, people in the trade generally knead a small quantity by way of experiment; if good, the flour immediately forms an adhesive elastic paste, which will readily assume any form that may be given to it, without danger of breaking.
3547. Pure and unadulterated flour may likewise be easily distinguished by other methods: seize a handful briskly, and squeeze it half a minute; it preserves the form of the cavity of the hand in one piece, although it may be rudely placed on the table; not so that which contains foreign substances, it breaks in pieces more or less; that mixed with whiting being the most adhesive, but still dividing and falling down in a little time.
3548. Indian Bread.—One quart of buttermilk, one quart of Indian-meal, one quart of coarse flour, one cup of molasses; add a little soda and salt.
3549. Bread making is an art, the importance of which is too frequently overlooked or underrated. Heavy, sour, hard bread should never be tolerated, because good bread is more palatable, more healthy, and it should be borne in mind, is really much less expensive. There is great saving in baking bread at home, and this saving is greatest when flour is cheapest.
3550. Good flour and good yeast are requisites, but the goodness of the bread depends much on the kneading: the more the dough is turned and pressed and worked, the lighter and better the bread will be.
3551. Proportions.—Two gallons flour, half pint strong fresh yeast; if home-made, add more.
3552. The Process.—Make a hole in the flour, in which pour the yeast mixed with half a pint warm water. Stir in the flour round the edge of this liquid with a spoon to form a thin batter. After stirring it well for two minutes, sprinkle a handful of flour over the top of this batter, lay a warm cloth over it, and set it to rise in a warm place. When it rises so as to crack on the top add four spoonsful fine salt, and begin to form the mass into dough, pouring as much soft, lukewarm water as is necessary to make the flour mix with the batter. When the flour and batter are thoroughly mixed, knead and work the whole till it is light and stiff. Roll into a lump, sprinkle dry flour over it, cover and put into a warm place, when in half an hour it will rise enough for baking. See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book," page 375. The quality depends much on the time of putting the dough in the oven. Dough readily runs into three stages of fermentation. It should be put in the oven during the first or saccharine, when if sufficiently baked it will be sweet and wholesome. It afterward becomes sour and heavy. If put in too soon, it will be light and as tasteless as saw-dust.
3553. Good bread is marked by fine pores and a sort of network of uniform appearance.
3554. Keep bread wrapped in a coarse towel, and where it will not dry up, or in a tight box.
3555. If sour, from being mixed over night, melt a teaspoon of pearlash in a little milk-warm water, sprinkle it over the dough, and in half an hour knead it again.
3556. Frozen dough is spoiled.
3557. Indian is a good addition to wheat, and requires more water, or make mush of it and then mix in.
3558. The bitterness of yeast may be remedied by putting in a little charcoal and then straining it.
3559. Rye and Indian Bread.—Mix two quarts of each with three pints boiling milk, table-spoon salt, and stir well. Let it stand till lukewarm, then stir in half pint good yeast. Knead to a stiff dough and put to rise near the fire. When the top is cracked over, make into two loaves and bake moderate two and a half hours.
3560. Common Yeast.—Boil a large handful hops in two quarts of water twenty minutes. Strain and pour the liquid into three pints flour. Stir in half a pint strong yeast. Its strength is increased by five tea-spoons brown sugar or five large spoons molasses. Cork the bottles loose till next day, and then tight.
3561. If turning sour put tea-spoon pearlash in each bottle.
3562. Another.—Boil, peel and mash mealy potatoes, which reduce with water or ale as thin as common yeast. To every pound add two ounces coarse sugar, and when just warm stir in two spoons of yeast. Keep warm till fermentation is over and in twenty-four hours fit for use. Let sponge eight hours before baking.
3563. Yeast.—Boil one pound of good flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it close; it will be fit to use in twenty-four hours. One pint of this will make eighteen pounds of bread.
3564. Pulled Bread.—Take from the oven an ordinary loaf when it is about half baked, and with the fingers, while the bread is yet hot, dexterously pull the half-set dough into pieces of irregular shape, about the size of an egg. Don't attempt to smooth or flatten them—the rougher their shapes the better.
3565. Set upon tins, place in a very slow oven, and bake to a rich brown. This forms a deliciously crisp crust for cheese. If you do not bake at home, your baker will prepare it for you, if ordered. Pulled bread may be made in the revolving ovens.
3566. It is very nice with wine instead of biscuits.
3567. A great increase on home-made bread, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, the bran to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair-sieve.
3568. Indian cake made with buttermilk, or sour milk with a little cream or butter rubbed into the meal, and a tea-spoonful of pearlash in the milk, is very light and nutritious.
3569. Use of Lime-water in making Bread.—It has lately been found that water saturated with lime produces in bread the same whiteness, softness and capacity of retaining moisture, as results from the use of alum; while the former removes all acidity from the dough, and supplies an ingredient needed in the structure of the bones, but which is deficient in the cerealia.
3570. The best proportion to use is, five pounds of water saturated with lime, to every nineteen pounds of flour. No change is required in the process of baking.
3571. The lime most effectually coagulates the gluten, and the bread weighs well; bakers must therefore approve of its introduction, which is not injurious to the system, like alum, &c.
3572. Cheap Bread.—Indian meal is the cheapest, and a bushel furnishes more nutriment than the same quantity of wheat. It is also a generally healthy diet, and those who wish to practice close economy should use much of this meal in their families.
3573. It makes excellent puddings and warm cakes, which are much less apt to oppress the stomach than hot wheat bread or short cakes of any kind. And good, light, nourishing bread may be made by using five parts of Indian and one of rye or wheat flour, (see receipts for "Rye and Indian Bread;") which is better than to cook it hot at every meal.
3574. Remember that four loaves of cold bread will go as far in a family as five loaves of hot bread.
3575. Excellent paste for fruit or meat pies may be made with two-thirds of wheat flour, one-third of the flour of boiled potatoes, and some butter or dripping; the whole being brought to a proper consistence with warm water, and a small quantity of yeast added when lightness is desired. This will also make very pleasant cakes for breakfast, and may be made with or without spices, fruit, &c.
3576. Picnic Biscuits.—Take two ounces of fresh butter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a salt-spoonful of pure carbonate of soda; two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour; make up the paste with spoonfuls of milk—it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint.
3577. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wine-glass; roll these out thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp. When cold put into dry canisters.
3578. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the paste, will enrich the biscuits. Caraway seeds or ginger can be added, to vary these at pleasure.
3579. Rye and wheat flour, half and half, makes excellent household bread.
3580. Common Black Cake.—Beat separately the whites and yolks of three eggs. Mix half a pound of butter with one pound of flour; one tumbler of milk; one tumbler of molasses; one pound of sugar. Then put in the eggs and one and one-half teaspoonful of soda. Wine, currants, raisins and citron to your taste.
3581. Maize Cake.—Take six eggs, a paper of Oswego corn starch, one pound of loaf sugar, half pound of butter, half teacup of milk, half a teaspoon of soda, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, the grated rind of the lemon; dissolve the soda in half the milk, and add it the last thing. Bake in an oven as quick as you can make it, without burning.
3582. It is a very delicate cake to bake well. Use flat pans, a little deeper than Spanish bun pans, and put paper over the top.
3583. Composition Cake.—Take three pounds of flour, half pound of butter, one and three-quarter pounds of sugar, three eggs—beat the eggs—add half a pint of yeast to them, half a pint of new milk, three spoonsful of rose-water, and a little cinnamon and cloves; put the butter in the flour and half the sugar, the other half mix with the eggs; make a hole in the flour, pour the ingredients into it; set it to lighten in the morning by the fire; after it is made out into rolls, you may put it into tins, and set it before the fire for an hour or two; when sufficiently risen, bake it in rather a slow oven.
3584. Ginger Biscuits and Cakes.—Work into small crumbs three ounces of butter, two pounds of flour; add three ounces of powdered sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder; knead into a stiff paste, with new milk, roll thin, cut out with a cutter; bake in a slow oven until crisp through; keep of a pale color.
3585. Additional sugar may be used when sweeter biscuit is desired. For good ginger-cakes, butter six ounces, sugar eight, for each pound of flour; wet the ingredients into a paste with eggs; a little lemon-grate will give an agreeable flavor.
3586. Loaf-cake.—Six pounds of flour, three and one-half pounds of butter, three and one-half pounds of sugar, three pints of milk, six eggs, four pounds of fruit, one-half pint of yeast, three gills of wine, four nutmegs, and one and one-quarter ounce of mace citron. Stir butter and sugar to a froth; boil the milk, and turn in the wine; put the curds and whey warm, but not hot, into the flour; then add the eggs and yeast, and only one-third of the beaten butter and sugar; let it rise until very light, and then add the remainder of the butter and sugar, and let it rise again; when light, put in the spices, fruit, &c., bake it in a not very hot oven.
Another receipt leaves out one-half pound of butter and also one-half pound of sugar to the same quantity of flour, fruit, eggs, &c.
3587. Sponge-Cake.—Take three-quarters of a pound of white sugar, and pour one-half tumbler of cold water into it, and set it over the fire until it boils clear; beat up seven eggs, the whites and yolks separately, and, after the sugar and water has cooled, add the yolks, stirring them well; flavor it with the peel of a lemon, and half the juice of the same; add the whites of the eggs, and then sift in one half pound of flour. This cake has the advantage of remaining moist and spirited, longer than other sponge-cake.
3588. A Cheap and Quick Pudding.—Beat up four eggs, add a pint of milk and a little salt, and stir in four large spoonsful of flour, a little nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Beat it well, and pour it into buttered teacups, filling them rather more than half full. They will bake in a stove or Dutch oven in fifteen minutes; and if you have company to dinner, and wish to add a little dish, this is a good and cheap one.
3589. Sago and Apple Pudding (very nice).—Let half a pound of sago steep in water enough to cover it until dissolved. This will take about half an hour. Pare and core eight nice apples without cutting them apart. Fill the middle with sugar, putting in each a little cinnamon. Arrange the apples in a pudding-dish, and pour over them the sago. Let it bake from one to two hours. This is equally as nice, although it does not look so well, if the apples are cut in quarters instead of being left whole, and the sugar and cinnamon sprinkled over them. It is good either cold or hot.
3590. Pea Pudding.—Dry a pint or quart of split peas thoroughly before the fire; then tie them up loosely in a cloth, put them into warm water, boil them a couple of hours, or more, until quite tender; take them up, beat them well in a dish with a little salt (some add the yolk of an egg) and a bit of butter. Make it quite smooth, tie it up again in a cloth, and boil it an hour longer. This is highly nourishing.
3591. Calves' Feet Jelly.—Boil four feet in four gallons of water till it comes to half a gallon; strain it, let it stand till cold, and skim off all the fat clean. Take the jelly up, leaving the settlings at the bottom. Put your jelly into a clean saucepan or skillet, and to every quart of jelly add one pint of wine, half pound of loaf-sugar beaten, the juice of a large lemon; beat up the whites of three eggs to a froth—put all in together—stir well till it boils, let it boil a few minutes, have ready a double flannel bag, pour it in again till it runs clear; have a china bowl with lemon-peel cut as thin as possible, let the jelly drip on the peel and it will give it a flavor, and a fine amber color; with a clean silver spoon fill your glasses.—(See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book," p. 324.)
3592. Calves' Feet Jelly made with Gelatine.—Take three quarts of water, one pint of white wine, six table-spoonsful of brandy; six lemons, peel and all; six eggs, the whites slightly beaten, the shells crushed, and the yolks not used; three pounds of white sugar, four ounces of gelatine. Soak for half an hour the gelatine in one quart of the water. Mix the other ingredients in the other two quarts. Put all together, and let them boil twenty minutes without stirring. Strain it through a flannel bag without squeezing. Wet the mould in cold water. Pour the jelly in, and leave it to cool. Three hours is generally sufficient.
3593. Meats.—A few hints, or general rules will be given here. (See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book" for Receipts, &c.)
3594. Animal food.—The quantity of animal food required to sustain the constitution, in its most perfect state, is greatest in the coldest countries, and, decreasing according to the warmth of the climate, when we reach the torrid zone, but a small quantity is needed.
3595. In temperate climates, like our own, the largest quantity is required during the winter.
3596. None should use it freely during the hottest weather, except it be those who labor hard in the open air; it rarely appears to injure such, yet probably it would be best for them to eat less meat and more bread and vegetables during summer. They would not then suffer so much from thirst, which often induces the desire for stimulating liquids.
3597. As a general rule, animal food is more easily and speedily digested than vegetable food of any kind—and this it is which makes meats more heating and stimulating.
3598. The great essentials for the easy digestion of animal food are that the fibres be tender and fine grained.
3599. Of the different sorts of butcher meat, Pork is that of which the least quantity should be taken at a time. It requires longer to digest roasted pork than any other kind of meat.
3600. Beef agrees well with most constitutions; it is cheapest in the autumn, but best in the winter season. Many have a distaste to mutton; but for those who relish it, it is a nutritious food, and easy of digestion.
3601. Lamb, veal, and fowls are delicate and healthy diet for the young and sedentary; and for all who find fat meats and those of coarse fibre do not agree with them.
3602. The most economical way of cooking meat is to boil it, if the liquid be used for soup or broth, as it always ought to be.
3603. Baking is one of the cheapest ways of dressing a dinner in small families, and several kinds of meat are excellent done in this way.
3604. Legs and loins of pork, legs of mutton, and fillets of veal will bake to much advantage; especially if they be fat.
3605. Never bake a lean, thin piece, it will all shrivel away. Such pieces should always be boiled or made into soup.
3606. Pigs, geese, and the buttock of beef are all excellent baked.
3607. Meat always loses in weight by being cooked.—In roasting, the loss is the greatest. It also costs more in fuel to roast than to boil—still there are many pieces of meat which seem made for roasting; and it would be almost wrong to cook them in any other way.
3608. The other pieces of the animal are best salted and boiled; or if used fresh, stewed or in soups. Beef should rarely be fried.
3609. Roasting beef.—Ten pounds of beef require from two hours to two hours and a-half roasting, eighteen inches from a good clear fire.
3610. Six pounds require one hour and a-quarter to one hour and a-half, fourteen inches from a good clear fire.
3611. Three ribs of beef, boned and rolled, tied round with paper, will require two hours and a-half, eighteen inches from the fire; baste once only.
3612. The first three ribs of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours or three and a-half; the fourth and fifth ribs will take as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat and the thin part, or it will be done too much before the thick part is done enough.
3613. When beef is very fat, it does not require basting; if very lean tie it up in buttered paper, and baste frequently and well.
3614. Common cooks are generally fond of too fierce a fire, and of putting things too near to it.
3615. Slow roasting is as advantageous to the tenderness and flavor of meat as slow boiling.
3616. The warmer the weather, and the staler killed the meat is, the less time it will require to roast it.
3617. Meat that is very fat requires more time than other meat.
3618. Cooking meats.—The proper manner of preparation is, to cook it till it is entirely separated from the blood, and the fibres are rendered soft and easy of digestion.
3619. Lamb is a delicate and tender meat; but it requires to be kept a few days, when the weather will permit—and should be thoroughly cooked to be healthful. Never take lamb or veal from the spit till the gravy that drops is white.
3620. Preserving meats.—Salt is the grand preservative of meats; but in using these, care should be taken to soak them if too salt. It is not healthy to eat our food very salt.
3621. In the summer season, particular attention must be observed, lest fresh meat be injured. In the country this care is very necessary.
3622. Be sure to take the kernels out of a round of beef; one in the udder, in the fat, and those about the thick end of the flank.
3623. To salt the meat thoroughly, rub in the salt evenly into every part, and fill the holes where the kernels were taken out.
3624. A pound and a-half of salt will be sufficient for twenty-five pounds of beef, if you only want to corn it to be eaten in a few days.
3625. In the summer, the sooner meat is salted, after it is cool, the better. In winter, it is better to be kept a few days before salting.
3626. Pork ought not to be allowed to freeze before it is salted for family use.
3627. If you wish beef to look red, rub it first with saltpetre and sugar; half an ounce of each mixed together, is sufficient for twenty pounds of meat.
3628. Poultry.—No kind of animal food is so delicate and delicious as the flesh of fowls and birds, and no kind is so generally healthful. Rarely does it disagree with those who are well; even the feeble in constitution, or those debilitated by sickness, find this a most agreeable and nutritious diet.
3629. The white meat of a young turkey, when well boiled, is easier of digestion than that of any other fowl.
3630. In a young turkey, the toes and bill are soft.
3631. A young goose (a very old one is not fit to be eaten) is plump in the breast, and the fat white and soft—the feet yellow, the web of the foot thin and tender.
3632. Ducks, if young, feel very tender under the wing, and the web of the foot is transparent.
3633. The best fowls have yellow legs—if very old, the feet look stiff and worn.
3634. Pigeons should be quite fresh, the breast plump and fat.
3635. Poultry should lie one night after being killed in warm weather to make it tender; in cold weather it may be kept a much longer time to advantage.
3636. Take care of the liquor you have boiled poultry or meat in; in five minutes you may make it into soup.
3637. The good housewife never boils a joint without converting the broth into some sort of soup.
3638. If the liquor be too salt, only use half the quantity, and the rest water; wash salted meat well with cold water before you put it into the boiler.
3639. Fish is much less nutritious than flesh. The white kinds of fish, cod, haddock, flounders, white fish, &c., are the least nutritious; the oily kinds, salmon, eels, herrings, &c., are more difficult to digest.
3640. Shell-fish have long held a high rank as restorative food; but a well-dressed chop or steak is much better to recruit the strength and spirits.
3641. Hashes.—All the pieces and bits of cold meat should be minced and warmed; if this is rightly done, the dish is generally a favorite one.
3642. It is best to chop the meat very fine, (gristles and gelatinous matter from the bones may be included;) then make a gravy by putting a lump of butter (what you judge necessary) into a stewpan; when it is hot, add a little flour, and stir it into the butter; then add a teacupful of the broth the meat was boiled in, and a little catsup. Let this boil up, then put in the mince meat, with a little chopped parsley, pepper and salt.
3643. Let it stand and simmer a few minutes covered, but do not let it boil—it hardens the meat to boil it. Lay slices of toasted bread in the dish, and pour the meat and gravy over.
3644. Meat may be kept several days in the height of summer, sweet and good, by lightly covering it with bran, and hanging it in some high or windy room, or in a passage where there is a current of air.
VEGETABLES.
3645. The importance of using a portion of vegetable food can hardly be overrated, though to make this our only diet does and must prove injurious, because contrary to man's nature and the arrangements of the Creator.
3646. The farinaceous (or mealy) are far more nutritious than other vegetables; but none are sufficiently so to sustain the constitution under the cares and labors necessary to the full development of the energies of body and mind.
3647. And unless these can be developed and sustained, the rational and moral character of the human race will never be perfected.
3648. Still, though animal food is never, except in peculiar cases of disease, to be wholly abandoned, we must be quite as scrupulous not to neglect the vegetable part of our diet. This is necessary in order to prevent the concentrated diet of flesh from too sudden and stimulating action.
3649. Besides, our nature demands a portion of vegetables to keep the system in proper and healthy order. A mixed diet is the only right regimen—the proportions of the different kinds of food vary, with different ages and constitutions, in different climates and seasons; still, in some degree, this rule should never be abandoned.
3650. The very young require a large portion of mild farinaceous vegetables, such as rice, sago, tapioca, and potatoes; the two first are very easy of digestion.
3651. There are three things to be attended to in cooking vegetables; make them sufficiently soft, develop their best flavor, and correct any rank or disagreeable taste they may have.
3652. These things are very easily accomplished—boil them sufficiently; change the water if they are rank or unpleasant, and add a little salt, sugar or spice, as the case may require.
3653. Vegetables are always best when newly gathered, except the potato; that is better in winter, if well kept.
3654. They are in greatest perfection when in greatest plenty; that is, in their proper season.
3655. Except spinach, all vegetables should be boiled quickly (soft water is much the best) in an open vessel, and carefully skimmed.
3656. To Clear Vegetables of Insects.—Make a strong brine of one pound and a half of salt to one gallon of water, into this place the vegetables with the stalk ends uppermost, for two or three hours; this will destroy all the insects which cluster in the leaves, and they will fall out and sink to the bottom of the water.
3657. Potatoes.—There are few articles in families more subject to waste, both in paring, boiling, and being actually thrown away, than potatoes; and there are few cooks but what boil twice as many potatoes every day as are wanted; and fewer still that do not throw the residue away as totally unfit in any shape for the next day's meal.
3658. Yet if they would take the trouble to beat up the despised cold potatoes with an equal quantity of flour, they would find them produce a much lighter dumpling or pudding than they can make with flour alone; and by the aid of a few spoonfuls of good gravy, they will provide a cheap and agreeable appendage to the dinner table.
3659. Bad Butter may be improved greatly by dissolving it thoroughly in hot water; let it cool, then skim it off, and churn again, adding a little good salt and sugar. A small quantity can be tried and approved before doing a larger one. The water should be merely hot enough to melt the butter or it will become oily.—(See "Mrs. Hale's Cook Book.")
3660. Dinners.—The appearance a dinner-table presents does not depend so much upon a profuseness of viands, as upon the neatness, cleanliness, and well-studied arrangement of the whole. Taste, if well directed, may produce a handsome dinner; whereas three times the amount of money may be expended upon another, and yet not make even a respectable appearance.
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.
3661. Have you ever observed what a dislike servants have to any thing cheap. They hate saving their master's money. I tried this experiment with great success the other day.
3662. Finding we consumed a vast deal of soap, I sat down in my thinking chair, and took the soap question into consideration, and found reason to suspect we were using a very expensive article, where a much cheaper one would serve the purpose better.
3663. I ordered half a dozen pounds of both sorts, but took the precaution of changing the papers on which the prices were marked before giving them into the hands of Betty.
3664. "Well, Betty, which soap do you find washes best?"
3665. "Oh, please sir, the dearest, in the blue paper; it makes a lather as well again as the other."
3666. "Well, Betty, you shall always have it then." And thus the unsuspecting Betty saved me some pounds a-year, and washed the clothes better.—Rev. Sidney Smith.
3667. Receipt for Obtaining Good Servants.—Let them observe in your conduct to others just the qualities and virtues that you would desire they should possess and practice as respects you. Be uniformly kind and gentle.
3668. If you reprove, do so with reason and with temper.
3669. Be respectable, and you will be respected by them. Be kind, and you will meet kindness from them.
3670. Consider their interests, and they will consider yours. A friend in a servant is no contemptible thing.
3671. Be to every servant a friend; and heartless, indeed, will be the servant who does not warm in love to you.
3672. Four important rules:
3673. 1. A suitable place for everything, and every thing in its place.
3674. 2. A proper time for every thing, and every thing done in its time.
3675. 3. A distinct name for every thing, and every thing called by its name.
3676. 4. A certain use for every thing, and every thing put to its use.
3677. Oil-cloth should never be scrubbed with a brush, but after being first swept, it should be cleansed by washing with a large soft cloth and lukewarm or cold water. On no account use soap or hot water, as either will bring off the paint.
3678. Straw Matting may be cleaned with a large coarse cloth dipped in salt and water, and then wiped dry: the salt prevents the matting from turning yellow.
3679. Oil Paintings hung over the mantle-piece are liable to wrinkle with the heat.
3680. Ottomans and Sofas, whether covered with cloth, damask, or chintz, will look much the better for being cleaned occasionally with bran and flannel.
3681. Furniture made in the winter, and brought from a cold warehouse into a warm apartment, is very liable to crack.
3682. Rosewood furniture should be rubbed gently every day with a clean soft cloth, to keep it in order.
BEVERAGES.
3683. Water, pure, sweet, cool water is, undoubtedly, the most healthful drink for thirst.
3684. Bad water should be filtered.—(See pages [42], [43].)
3685. Tea and coffee are the best and least hurtful stimulants.
3686. Liebig, with his chemical discoveries, demonstrates that they have become necessaries of life to all nations; that they were both originally met with amongst nations whose diet is chiefly vegetable; and by contributing to the formation of bile, their peculiar functions have become a substitute for animal food to a large class of the population whose consumption of meat is very limited, and to another large class who are unable to take regular exercise.
3687. In making coffee, observe that the broader the bottom and the smaller the top of the vessel, the better it will be.
3688. Substitute for Cream in Tea or Coffee.—Beat the white of an egg to a froth, put to it a very small lump of butter, and mix well. Then turn into it gradually, so that it may not curdle. If perfectly done, it will be an excellent substitute for cream.—(See page [352].)
3689. Iceland Moss Chocolate—For the Sick Room.—Iceland moss has been in the highest repute on the continent as a most efficacious remedy in incipient pulmonary complaints; combined with chocolate it will be found a nutritious article of diet, and may be taken as a morning and evening beverage. Directions—Mix a teaspoonful of the chocolate with a tea-spoonful of boiling water or milk, stirring constantly until it is completely dissolved.
3690. It is not easy to persuade laboring men that water is the best beverage. Where the water is bad, some corrective or palliative will be had. Then home-brewed beer is to be commended.
3691. Beer and Beverages.—(See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book," page 397.)
3692. To restore a Barrel of Stale or Sour Beer.—Put a quarter of a pound of good hops, and two pounds of sound chalk into the bung-hole, stop it close, and in a few days it will be fit for use.
3693. Or, a small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda may be mixed with each quart as it is used.
3694. To give New Beer the flavor of Old.—Take out the bung, and put into the cask a handful of pickled cucumbers, or a sliced Seville orange. Either mode will add an apparent six months to the age of the beer.
3695. Common Beer.—Two gallons of water, a large handful of hops, fresh gathered spruce or sweet fern, and one quart of wheat bran; boil two or three hours, strain and stir in, while hot, two cups of molasses. When lukewarm, pour into a clean barrel, and add a pint of yeast. Shake it well together, and use next day.
3696. To give Beer a rich Flavor.—Put six sea-biscuits into a bag of hops, and put them in the cask.
3697. Table Beer, cheap and wholesome.—Eight bottles of water, one quart of molasses, one pint of yeast, one tablespoon of cream of tartar, mixed and bottled in twenty-four hours.
3698. Table Beer from Sugar.—To four pounds of coarse brown sugar add ten gallons of water and three ounces of hops. Let the whole boil three-quarters of an hour, and then work it as usual. It should stand a week or ten days before being drawn, and will improve daily afterward for a moderate time.
3699. Treacle Beer.—Take a pound and a half of hops, and boil in thirty-six gallons of water for an hour, then add fourteen pounds of treacle, and a little yeast to work it; ferment, and bottle.
3700. Summer Drinks.—Ice may be used in all these beverages.
3701. Tamarind Drink.—Boil three pints of water with an ounce and a half of tamarinds, three ounces of currants, and two ounces of stoned raisins, till about a third has evaporated. Strain, add a bit of lemon-peel, which is to be removed in half an hour, then cool.
3702. Sangaree.—Mix a bottle of Marsala wine with a bottle and a half of iced water, sweeten with loaf sugar, and flavor with lemon-juice and grated nutmeg.
3703. Curds and Whey (cheap method).—Add six grains of citric acid to a wine-glassful of milk, and the result will be a pleasant acidulous whey, and a fine curd.
3704. Currant Water.—Take a pound of currants, and squeeze into a quart of water; put in four or five ounces of pounded sugar. Mix well, strain, and ice, or allow to get cold.
3705. Eau Sucré.—Dissolve sugar in boiling water, and drink cold.
3706. Lait Sucré.—Boil a pint of milk, sweeten with white sugar, and flavor with lemon.
3707. Effervescing Lemonade.—Boil two pounds of white sugar with a pint of lemon-juice, bottle and cork. Put a tablespoonful of the syrup into a tumbler about three parts full of cold water, add twenty grains of carbonate of soda and drink quickly.
3708. Quince Syrup.—Grate quinces, pass the pulp through a sieve, then set before the fire for the juice to settle and clarify; strain, and add a pound of sugar (boiled down) to every four ounces of juice; remove from the fire, and when cold, bottle for use. A tablespoonful of this syrup will flavor a pint of water.
3709. Effervescing Saline Draughts.—White sugar powdered eight ounces, tartaric acid two ounces, sesquicarbonate of soda two ounces, essence of lemon a few drops. Mix well and keep in a corked bottle.
3710. Summer Champagne.—To four parts of selter water add one of Moselle wine (or hock), and put a teaspoonful of powdered sugar into a wine-glassful of this mixture; an ebullition takes place, and you have a sort of champagne which is more wholesome in hot weather than the genuine wine known by that name.
3711. An excellent Spring Beverage.—The yolk of eggs beaten up, lump sugar (quantum sufficit), Rhenish wine or not, citric acid, powdered, or tartaric acid (small quantity, exact quantity soon found); one or two drops of essence of lemon on a lump of sugar, to make it mix readily with the water; one quart of water. This is really an excellent, agreeable, and, without the wine, an inexpensive beverage. Good for bilious complaints.
USEFUL RECEIPTS FOR FAMILY PRACTICE.
3712. Prevention of Baldness.—Eau de Cologne two ounces, tincture of cantharides two drachms, oil of rosemary, oil of nutmeg, and oil of lavender, each ten drops. To be rubbed on the bald part of the head every night.
3713. Cramp in Bathing.—For the cure of the cramp when swimming, Dr. Franklin recommends a vigorous and violent shock to the part affected, by suddenly and forcibly stretching out the leg, which should be darted out of the water into the air if possible.
3714. Biting the Nails.—This is a habit that should be immediately corrected in children, as, if persisted in for any length of time, it permanently deforms the nails.
3715. Dipping the finger-ends in some bitter tincture will generally prevent children from putting them to the mouth; but if this fails, as it sometimes will, each finger-end ought to be encased in a finger-stall until the propensity is eradicated.
3716. Flour of Brimstone is a mild aperient in doses of about a quarter of an ounce; it is best taken in milk.
3717. To Fill a Decayed Tooth.—Procure a small piece of gutta percha, drop it into boiling water, then, with the thumb and finger, take off as much as you suppose will fill up the tooth nearly level, and while in this soft state press it into the tooth; then hold on that side of the mouth cold water two or three times, which will harden it.
3718. Cod-liver oil.—Cod-liver oil is neither more nor less than cod-oil clarified; and consequently two-thirds of its medicinal qualities are abstracted thereby.
3719. Cod oil can be purchased pure at any wholesale oil warehouse, at about one-thirtieth part of the price charged for the so-called cod-liver oil. Many persons who have used cod-oil pure as imported, have found it to answer much better than the cod-liver oil purchased of a druggist.
3720. The best vehicle for taking cod-liver oil in, is new milk; and the disagreeable flavor of the drug can easily be covered by the addition of one drachm of orange peel to every eight ounces of the oil.
3721. To prevent Lockjaw, from a Nail run into the Foot, or any other injury.—Pour some turpentine into a tin cup and hold it over a lighted candle or the fire until it boils. It boils at so low a temperature that it will not burn when applied to the skin. Make a swab by wrapping soft muslin or linen round a stick. Dip this in the turpentine and apply it to the wound, rubbing it in carefully for some time. Apply it as warm as can be borne.—(See page [375].)
3722. Squinting.—Squinting frequently arises from the unequal strength of the eyes, the weaker eye being turned away from the object, to avoid the fatigue of exertion. Cases of squinting of long standing have often been cured by covering the stronger eye, and thereby compelling the weaker one to exertion.
3723. It is often a question amongst people who are unacquainted with the anatomy and physiology of man, whether lying with his head exalted, or even with the body, is most wholesome. Most, consulting their own ease on this point, argue in favor of that which they prefer.
3724. Now, although many delight in bolstering up their heads at night and sleep soundly without injury, yet we declare it to be a dangerous habit. The vessels through which blood passes from the heart to the head, are always lessened in the cavities when the head is resting in bed higher than the body, therefore, in all diseases attended with fever, the head should be pretty near on a level with the body; and people ought to accustom themselves to sleep thus to avoid danger.
3725. Dyeing the Hair.—It may be stated once for all that this practice is decidedly injurious. It may fail altogether in producing the desired result; it is never unattended by a certain amount of unpleasant circumstances, and frequently with evil results.
3726. In the first place, the alteration of the abnormal color, so far as the general aspect of the face is concerned, has an effect the very reverse of that which was intended. Every constituent part of man tends to make the human machine one harmonious whole. The figure, the stature, the skin, the hair, the gait, &c.
3727. Fair hair is associated with a sanguineous and lymphatic temperament, a fine and white skin, blue eyes, and a soft and mild expression.
3728. Black hair, on the contrary, is generally connected with a bilious habit of body, a muscular and nervous temperament, a dark and yellowish skin, lively black eyes, and a bold, proud air.
3729. Red hair is associated with a peculiar constitution, although closely approaching to the fair type. In this variety the skin is transparent, fresh, and presents a peculiar limpidity, which belongs exclusively to the color of hair mentioned.
3730. The Contrast.—If, then, from the impression that red hair is a disfigurement, it is dyed black, what relation can exist between this new color and the soft blue eye, and a skin so fine and so susceptible, that the sun's rays seem to penetrate it, in the form of those lentiginous spots commonly called freckles.
3731. Be at much pains to keep your children's feet dry and warm. Don't bury their bodies in heavy flannels and wools, and leave their knees and legs naked.
3732. For Nausea.—Three drops of hartshorn in a wine-glass of water.
3733. For Sick Headache.—One teaspoonful of pulverized charcoal and one-third of a teaspoonful of soda mixed in very warm water.
3734. Decoction of Sarsaparilla.—Take four ounces of the root, slice it down, put the slices into four pints of water, and simmer for four hours. Take out the sarsaparilla, and beat it into a mash; put it into the liquor again, and boil down to two pints, then strain and cool the liquor. Dose—a wine-glassful three times a day.
3735. Use—to purify the blood after a course of mercury; or indeed whenever any taint is given to the constitution, vitiating the blood, and producing eruptive affections.
3736. Cough Syrup.—Steep for twelve hours or more a teacupful of wild-cherry bark in a quart of water. Add sugar enough to make it quite sweet and let it boil to a syrup.
3737. Cough Syrup—Very Good.—Take a large handful of the herb hoarhound, and the same quantity of boneset. Steep them in a quart of water till it is reduced to a pint. Then strain the tea and mix with it a pint of syrup and a pint of sugar. Let it simmer for three or four hours, skimming it.
3738. Cure for Pain in the Ear.—Take a teaspoonful of brown sugar, put it on a shovel or any thing that you can place over hot coals of fire until it gets thick, dissolve it in camphor, and drop it in the ear.
3739. Gingerbread Aperients.—Gingerbread, made with oatmeal or with barley flour, is a very agreeable aperient for children. Beware of giving children medicines too frequently.
3740. For Bowel Complaints.—One tablespoonful of flour, one ditto of brandy, one ditto of loaf sugar, mixed together.
3741. Jaundice.—One pennyworth of allspice, ditto of flour of brimstone, ditto of turmeric; these to be well pounded together, and afterward to be mixed with half-a-pound of molasses. Two table-spoonsful to be taken every day.
3742. Night Sweats.—Drink freely of cold sage tea; said to be a certain remedy; or, take elixir of vitriol in a little sweetened water. Dose from twenty to thirty drops.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS, RULES, ETC.
3743. To Cure a Soft Corn when between the Toes.—A small piece of cotton wool applied fresh every morning—gives no inconvenience, is cleanly and efficacious. Castile Soap placed between the toes is both cure and preventive of soft corns.
3744. Excellent Remedy for Lumbago.—Dip a piece of flannel in scalding water; wring it out, and sprinkle some turpentine immediately over it, and apply it quickly to the part affected by the pain. Repeat this process a few times, and it will afford certain relief.
3745. Burns and Scalds.—Cold water is the readiest, surest, most plentiful, and, for these reasons, the best remedy for burns and scalds. Use it instantly, it will remove pain and smarting; keep a cloth wet and cold upon the affected part for five or six hours after the injury has occurred; a blister will never rise, and the skin will be quite free from pain afterward.—(See [109], [110].)
3746. Scratches.—Trifling as scratches often seem, they ought never to be neglected, but should be covered and protected, and kept clean and dry, until they have completely healed.
3747. If there is the least appearance of inflammation, no time should be lost in applying a large bread and water poultice, or hot flannels repeatedly applied.
3748. Ringworm.—The head to be washed twice a day with soft soap and warm soft water; when dried, the places to be rubbed with a piece of linen rag dipped in ammonia from gas tar; the patient should take a little sulphur and molasses, or some other general aperient, every morning; brushes and combs should be washed every day, and the ammonia kept tightly corked.—(See page [99].)
3749. Another Cure for Ringworms.—Common sulphur mixed with butter and pepper till it is a salve: apply twice a day.
3750. Invaluable Ointment.—Obtain a pint of real cream, let it simmer over the fire, or on the side, till it resembles butter, and forms a thick oily substance, which maybe used as ointment for fresh or old wounds, cracked lips or hands.
3751. To avoid catching Cold.—Accustom yourself to the use of sponging with cold water every morning on first getting out of bed. It should be followed with a good deal of rubbing with a wet towel. It has considerable effect in giving tone to the skin, and maintaining a proper action in it, and thus proves a safeguard to the injurious influence of cold and sudden changes of temperature.
3752. Friction of the body is one of the most gentle and salutary kinds of exercise, cleaning the skin, dispersing stagnating humors, promoting perspiration, strengthening the fibres, and increasing the warmth and energy of the whole body.
3753. Depilatory.—Take of sulphate of sodium, or hydro-sulphate of soda, crystallized, three parts; quick-lime in powder, ten ditto; starch, ten; mix. This powder, mixed with a little water, and applied over the skin, acts so rapidly as a depilatory, that if it be removed in a minute or two after its application by means of a wooden knife, the surface of the skin will be entirely deprived of hair.
3754. By this process, the removal of hair becomes so simple, rapid, and safe in operation, that it will possibly supercede the use of the razor in many cases; it is only after several days that the hair begins again to appear.
3755. Brandy and Salt as a Medicine.—It is useful in the reduction of inflammation of fractured limbs or bruises, the alleviation of incurable sores, cure of ringworms, headache, toothache, inflammation in the eyes, ague, colic, pains in the side, chilblains, burns and scalds, cancers, sprains, open sores, asthmas, and complaints of the lungs.
3756. Fill a bottle three-quarters full with good brandy, after which add as much salt as will fill the bottle for corking; shake it together twenty minutes; let the salt settle to the bottom, and do not shake it up before using. The clearer it is used the better.
3757. A bottle of this preparation should be constantly kept ready for use, as its virtues have been fully tested. When taken inwardly, for asthma, bowel complaints, &c., mix two spoonfuls with equal quantity of warm water.
3758. Cancer.—Five out of six cases have been cured by brandy and salt, described above. The pain is very severe, but temporary.
3759. Poison, from vines, may be cured by bathing in whiskey and cream, and cooling with rye flour; if obstinate, use a strong solution of copperas.
3760. Simple Remedy for a Pain in the Side.—At bed-time take a fresh cabbage-leaf, hold it near the fire till quite warm, and then apply it to the part affected, binding it tight with a cloth round the body; let it remain for twelve hours or more, when it will generally be found to have removed the pain.
3761. If not entirely removed, it will be well to repeat the application of a fresh leaf, allowing it to remain on the same time as the first.
3762. Boils.—See page [109].
3763. Carbuncles.—These should be brought to a head by warm poultices, by fermentation with hot water, or by stimulating plasters. When ripe, they should be discharged by a needle, or the lancet. But this should not be attempted until they are fully proved.
3764. Constitutional Treatment.—Stimulating food and drinks, such as ale, porter, champagne and other wines. Strong beef tea should be taken freely—it is very nourishing.
3765. Carbuncles reduce the strength greatly.—To recover this, Peruvian bark and sea-bathing are recommended.
3766. An inflamed bunion should be poulticed, and larger shoes be worn. Iodine, twelve grains; lard or spermaceti ointment, half an ounce, makes a capital ointment for bunions. It should be rubbed on gently twice or thrice a-day.—See page [97].
3767. Frost-Bitten Feet.—Dissolve half pound alum in one gallon warm water, and soak fifteen minutes.
3768. Valuable Aperient Pills.—Four drachms Castile soap, four drachms soccotrine aloes; make into the pills with a sufficient quantity of syrup. Two or three may be taken when costive.
3769. Good Eye-Water.—Ten teaspoonsful of water, one ditto of brandy, and one ditto of vinegar.
3770. Lip Salve.—Spermaceti ointment, half an ounce; balsam of Peru, one quarter of a drachm. Mix. It is not couleur de rose, but it will cure—often with but a single application. Apply a thin coating with the forefinger, just before getting into bed.
3771. An Excellent Tooth Powder.—Cuttle-fish, prepared chalk, and orris-root, commingled together in equal quantities, which any one may procure separately from any respectable chemist, and mix himself.
3772. To remove Tartar from the Teeth.—Strawberries, ripe, or dried and powdered, are excellent to clean the teeth.
3773. To drive away Rats.—Potash strewn around rat holes, will drive the vermin away.
3774. To kill Flies.—Cobalt in powder, moistened with hot water, and covered with a little sugar.
3775. Gum Water.—It is a fact not generally known that gum should be dissolved in vinegar instead of water, especially when it is wanted for immediate use.
3776. To remove Water-stains from Black Crape.—When a drop of water falls on a black crape vail or collar, it leaves a conspicuous white mark. To obliterate this, spread the crape on a table (laying on it a large book or a paper weight to keep it steady), and place underneath the stain a piece of old black silk. With a large camel's hair brush dipped in common ink, go over the stain; and then wipe off the ink with a little bit of old soft silk. It will dry immediately, and the white mark will be seen no more.
3777. Copper in liquids maybe detected by spirits of hartshorn, which turns them blue.
3778. Arsenic may be detected by a solution of blue vitriol dropped into the suspected liquid, which will turn green, if arsenic be present.
3779. To remove Ink Stains from Silver.—The tops and other portions of silver inkstands frequently become discolored with ink, which is difficult to remove by ordinary means. It may, however, be completely eradicated by making a little chlorid of lime into a paste with water, and rubbing it upon the stains.
3780. To remove Ink Stains from Wood, &c.—As much oxalic acid as will lay on a sixpence, dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water; lay some on the wood, and rub hard with a cork until the stain disappears; then wash and repolish. The above will remove the stain, without injury to the color of the wood, mahogany or any other kind. It also cleans the brass-work.
3781. To Clean Plate.—Take of cream of tartar, alum, and common salt, each an ounce, and boil in a gallon of water, throw the plate in and boil; when taken out and rubbed dry it will look beautiful. Plate, when laid aside, will generally tarnish, but if cleaned by this method, at stated periods, it will always look well.
3782. Washing Paint.—The best method to wash paint is to rub some Bath-brick fine, and when you have rubbed some soap on the flannel, dip it in the brick. This will remove the grease and dirt speedily, without injury.
3783. Glue Paste.—Instead of pure water for mixing the flour, use glue-water, to which add some alum and resin to keep it from turning. It must be made very thick.
3784. Whenever oil is used for the purpose of artificial light, it should be kept free from all exposure to atmospheric air; as it is apt to absorb considerable quantities of oxygen. If oil is very coarse or tenacious, a very small quantity of oil of turpentine may be added.
3785. Bugs.—Spirits of naphtha rubbed with a small painter's brush into every part of a bedstead is a certain way of getting rid of bugs.—(See [p. 87].)
3786. Calcareous Deposits in Boilers.—In a common tea-kettle, potatoes boiled a few times, will remove the calcareous deposits, and a few oyster-shells, kept constantly in the kettle, will prevent future accumulations.
3787. To remove the Stoppers of Glass Bottles.—Dip a piece of linen or cloth in hot water, and wrap it tightly round the neck of the bottle. In a few minutes the stopper will probably be loosened; if not, repeat the application. I have never found this method to fail.
3788. How to get a Tight Ring off a Finger.—Thread a needle, flat in the eye, with a strong thread, pass the head of the needle with care under the ring, and pull the thread through a few inches toward the hand; wrap the long end of the thread tightly round the finger, regularly all down to the nail, to reduce its size. Then lay hold of the short end, and unwind it.
3789. The thread repassing against the ring, will gradually remove it from the finger. This never-failing method will remove the tightest ring without difficulty, however much swollen the finger may be.
3790. Cleaning Knives.—Mutton fat made hot, and put on a leather or buff-board, with emery-dust—not powder, as that is too sharp—well rubbed in with an old brush, is the best way of giving a knife as good a polish and edge as any razor.
3791. To restore the Color to Mahogany.—Wash well with soap and water, and then polish daily with the following oil: Take half an ounce of alkanet root, cut small, and add to a pint of linseed oil; when this has stood for a week, add half an ounce of powdered gum-arabic, and an ounce of shellac varnish; let them stand in a bottle by the fire for a week, then strain. Rub well in.
3792. Rice Flour Cement.—An excellent cement may be made from rice flour, which is at present used for that purpose in China and Japan. It is only necessary to mix the rice flour intimately with cold water, and gently simmer it over a fire, when it readily forms a delicate and durable cement, not only answering all the purposes of common paste, but admirably adapted for joining together paper, cards, &c., in forming the various beautiful and tasteful ornaments which affords much employment and amusement to the ladies.
3793. When made of the consistence of plaster-clay, models, busts, bas-relievos, &c. may be formed of it, and the articles, when dry, are susceptible of high polish, and very durable.—(See [p. 70].)
3794. Oil of Lavender.—A few drops in a library will keep the books from moulding. A single drop of the same will prevent a pint of ink from mouldiness for any length of time. Paste may be kept from mould entirely by this addition; and leather is also effectually secured from injury by the same agency.
3795. Ink.—To make five gallons of good ink, costing but twelve-and-a-half cents, take half a pound of extract of logwood, and dissolve it in five gallons of hot water, and add half an ounce of bichromate potash. Strain and bottle it.
3796. Blue Tracing Ink.—Indigo tied in a flannel bag, moistened with water. Put a lump of white sugar into an egg-cup, and squeeze out the blue on it; the sugar stiffens it, so as to prevent its running, and the color depends on the quantity of water used. Use a quill pen.
3797. Marking Linen, preparation.—The preparation used for wetting linen, previous to marking it with ink, is a drachm of salt of tartar in one and a half ounces of water.
3798. Economy in Candles.—If you would burn a candle all night, unless you use the following precaution, it is ten to one an ordinary candle will gutter away in an hour or two, sometimes to the endangering the safety of a house. This may be avoided by placing as much common salt, finely powdered, as will reach from the tallow to the bottom of the black part of the wick of a partly-burnt candle, when, if the same be lit, it will burn very slowly, yielding sufficient light for a bed-chamber; the salt will gradually sink as the tallow is consumed, the melted tallow being drawn through the salt, and consumed in the wick.
3799. Deafness.—Take three drops of a sheep's gall, warm, and drop it into the ear on going to bed. The ear must be thoroughly syringed with warm soap and water in the morning.
3800. Times of Application.—The gall must be applied for three successive nights. It is only efficacious when the deafness is produced by cold. The most convenient way of warming the gall is by holding it in a silver spoon over the flame of a candle.—(See [p. 95].)
3801. For Heartburn, &c.—Orange juice (of one orange), water and lump sugar to flavor, and in proportion to acidity of orange, bicarbonate of soda, about half a teaspoonful. Mix orange juice, water and sugar together in a tumbler, then put in the soda, stir, and the effervescence ensues.
3802. Remedy for Rheumatism, Lumbago, Sprains, Chilblains, (before they are broken) Bruises, and Bites of Insects.—One raw egg well beaten, half a pint of vinegar, one ounce of spirits of turpentine, a quarter of an ounce of spirits of wine, a quarter of an ounce of camphor. These ingredients to be beaten well together, then put in a bottle and shaken for ten minutes, after which, to be corked down tightly to exclude the air. In half an hour it is fit for use.
3803. How to use it.—To be well rubbed in, two, three, or four times a day.—For rheumatism in the head, to be rubbed at the back of the neck and behind the ears.—(See page [101].)
3804. Asthma.—The following is recommended as a relief.—Two ounces of the best honey, and one ounce of castor oil mixed. A teaspoonful to be taken night and morning.—(See page [103].)
3805. For Scurf in the Heads of Infants.—Lard, two ounces; sulphuric acid, diluted, two drachms; rub them together, and anoint the head once a day.
3806. For Moth on the Skin.—These unpleasant discolorations may be entirely removed by a wash made of borax and vinegar.
3807. Sunburn.—A little scraped horseradish mixed in warm milk and rubbed on the face and hands will whiten the skin.
3808. Cold Cream.—A piece of sperm candle two inches long, a small cake of white wax, three table-spoonsful of fresh sweet oil; just melt it on the fire, stirring it, and take it off stirring it till it is cold. Before it is quite cold stir in any perfume you prefer.—(See page [136].)
3809. A New Method for the Hair.—Carefully avoid all lotions and pomades.
3810. Keep the hair and scalp clean by the use of the brush and comb.
3811. Twice a day, at least, comb it out in such a manner that the air may pass through it freely; then, with the fingers, moisten the roots with soft water, at the same time gently rubbing the scalp.
3812. This will not only fasten and renovate the old hair, but actually bring out a fine new suit; the length of time for this purpose varying with the health and constitution of the patient.
3813. Should the hair become too dry, lessen the quantity of water employed, and use a very little cocoanut or perfumed castor oil.
This receipt is also invaluable as a remedy for headache or neuralgia.
3814. Headache—A Sure Remedy.—Wet paper, white or brown, bound tightly on the forehead with a bandage or kerchief, the part pressing over the forehead to be also made wet with cold water, though not dripping. This process, if followed nightly, will entirely prevent headaches, and also keep the forehead free from wrinkles. Try it.
3815. To Promote the Growth of Whiskers, Mustaches, &c.—The best method to force the growth of whiskers and mustaches, is to shave the parts frequently. Use as a stimulant the ashes of burned tobacco, and bay-water.
3816. Cosmetics generally.—(See page [152] and on.)
3817. The Complexion can only be preserved in freshness, softness and beauty, by cleanliness, regular exercise, temperance, a plain diet and pure air, and a cheerful temper.
3818. Offensive Breath.—Use the concentrated solution of chlorid of soda. From two to five drops of it in a wine-glass full of pure spring water, taken immediately after the operations of the morning are completed.
3819. In some cases the odor arising from carious teeth is combined with that of the stomach. If the mouth be well rinsed with a teaspoonful of the solution of the chlorid in a tumbler of water, the bad odor of the teeth will be removed.
3820. Breath tainted by Onions.—Leaves of parsley, eaten with vinegar, will prevent the disagreeable consequences of eating onions.
3821. Toothache.—Put a small piece of the inside of a nut-gall into the hollow tooth, and replace by another bit every half-hour, as long as white matter comes away with the piece taken out.
3822. Black eyes may be cured by a lotion made of equal parts of gin, vinegar, and cold water mixed. Bathe the eye for ten or fifteen minutes, and repeat in an hour if the pain continues.
3823. Bilious Disorders.—If a person is bilious, it is generally owing to errors in regimen. Let these be reformed, and the complaints will cease. But if a person would be always bilious, let him be often taking calomel, or blue pill, or active purges. Lee's antibilious, &c., and he will certainly succeed: the soundest liver will not be proof against such remedies for bile.
3824. Remedy for Bile.—The yolks of eggs taken fasting. If required, beat up the egg with a little sugar and lemon-juice.
3825. Household Hints, etc.—(See page [210].)
3826. Hard Water.—When water is hard, and will not readily unite with soap, it will always be proper to boil it before use.—(See pages [42], [43]; also "General Washing," pages [46], [47].)
3827. Materials for Washing.—The meal of many kinds of seed may be used for washing, as well as various kinds of bran. That of almonds, which, on account of its oil, is remarkably soft, is employed at present for washing the hands, by those who are desirous of having a white delicate skin. Cloth, the colors of which easily fade, and which will neither endure soap nor hard rubbing, may be washed extremely well with bran. Our fullers, therefore, and stocking-manufacturers, use oats, barley, and bran meal, especially when they wish the cloth to be slowly milled.
3828. To Wash White Lace.—Cover a glass bottle with calico or linen, and then tack the lace or collar smoothly upon it, rub it with soap, and cover it with calico. Boil it for twenty minutes in soft water; let all dry together, and the lace will be found to be ready for use.
3829. A long piece of lace must be wound round and round the bottle, the edge of each round a little above the last, and a few stitches to keep it firm at the beginning and end will be found sufficient, but a collar will require more tacking to keep it in its place.—(See page [53].)
3830. Bleaching Liquid.—Take one pound of chlorid of lime, empty it into a stone jar, and pour on it one gallon of water; stir it well with a stick for fifteen minutes; then let it settle, and pour off the clear liquor into clean bottles, and cork them up. A tumblerful of this preparation, added to a tubful of water, in which the clothes are rinsed, will add very much to their whiteness.
3831. Washing Windows.—The nicest article for washing windows is deer skin, as no particles come off to adhere to the glass and make it look as if washed with feathers.
3832. Wash-leather and a bowl of suds are all that are necessary. Wipe the glass first with the wet cloth or leather, and after it has become dry, with the clean cloth; and it will look clear, and far more so than if rinsed in a dozen pails of water.
3833. Cleaning Kid Gloves.—Lay the gloves flat on a towel, and wash them with a piece of clean flannel and the best yellow soap, being careful to squeeze the flannel as dry as it is possible to use it. When the dirt is removed, with another piece of flannel wash them lightly with plain milk.—(See page [53].)
3834. Stains may be removed from the hands by washing them in a small quantity of oil of vitriol and cold water without soap.
3835. Cleaning Velvets.—A very simple method of cleaning velvets is to procure a small square of pipe-clay (such as the soldiers use to clean their uniforms with) and scrape a little off upon the velvet; then take a brush, made of the same material as the carpet-whisk, and lightly brush it off. This raises the pile, and restores the bloom.
3836. Silk articles should not be kept folded in white papers, as the chlorid of lime used in bleaching the paper will impair the color of the silk.
3837. Papier-Mache articles should be washed with a sponge and cold water without soap, dredged with flour while damp, and polished with a flannel.
3838. Worsted and Lambs'-Wool Stockings should never be mended with worsted or lambs'-wool, because the latter being new it shrinks more than the stockings, and draws them up till the toes become short and narrow, and the heels have no shape left.
3839. In choosing Paper for a room, avoid that which has a variety of colors, or a large, showy figure, as no furniture can appear to advantage with such. Large figured papering makes a small room look smaller.
3840. Bright green colors are dangerous when first put on, because poisons are used in the coloring matter.
3841. Gilt frames may be protected from flies and dust by oiled tarlatan pinned over them. Tarlatan already prepared, may be purchased at the upholsterers'. If it cannot be procured, it is easily made by brushing boiled oil over cheap tarlatan. It is an excellent material for keeping dust from books, vases, woodwork, and every description of household ornament.—(See page [18].)
3842. To Pack Glass or China.—Procure some soft straw or hay to pack them in, and if they are to be sent a long way, and are heavy, the hay or straw should be a little damp, which will prevent them slipping about. Let the largest and heaviest things be always put undermost, in the box or hamper.
3843. Let there be plenty of straw, and pack the articles tight; but never attempt to pack up glass or china which is of much consequence, till it has been seen done by some one used to the job. The expense will be but trifling to have a person to do it who understands it, and the loss may be great if articles of such value are packed up in an improper manner.
3844. To Polish Enameled Leather.—Two pints of the best cream, one pint of linseed oil; make them each lukewarm, and then mix them well together.
DIETETIC MAXIMS.
3845. A healthy appetite is to be acquired by early rising, regular exercise in the open air, a cheerful mind, and abstinence from intoxicating liquors.
3846. The food should be eaten slowly, so that it be well masticated and mixed with the saliva.
3847. Animal food is sooner digested in the stomach than vegetable; but it is more stimulating or heating to the system. Flesh that has been long salted, dried hams, beef, &c., are less easily digested and less nutritive than fresh meat.
3848. Farinaceous and vegetable food, generally, is slower of digestion than animal, but it is less heating; many kinds of vegetable food are very nutritive.
3849. Solid food, or food of a certain fibrous or pulpy consistence, is more fitted for digestion in the stomach than rich soups, jellies, and all highly concentrated sauces. The latter are rendered more digestible by the addition of bread.
3850. Fish are not so nourishing as the flesh of land animals, and with many stomachs entirely disagree. The white fish, when in season, are generally lighter, and less apt to disagree with the stomach than the red.
3851. In summer the food should consist principally of vegetables; in winter, a larger amount of animal matter may be taken, especially by the laborer.
3852. Boiling renders food more tender and digestible, but it deprives it of a considerable portion of its nutritive principle.
3853. Animal food should not be over boiled; vegetables should be boiled until perfectly tender.
3854. Roasting dissipates less of the nutritive parts of the meat. Roasted meat is, therefore, more nourishing than boiled, but much more stimulating.
3855. Bread constitutes a wholesome addition to all our meals. It should be perfectly raised, fully baked, and one day old.
3856. All excess in eating should be avoided, but the quantity of food proper to be taken at one time depends entirely on the constitution, age, habits, degree of health, season of the year, climate, &c. The best guide is to be found in the calls of a healthy appetite.
3857. Health, and strength of body, depend upon the health of the stomach, and consequent perfection of the digestive powers, much more than upon the quantity or even quality of the food taken.
3858. Water is the most wholesome drink. Toast and water, sweetened water, or water with a slight addition of a vegetable acid, are useful diluents during the summer.
3859. Distilled and fermented liquors impede digestion; and, when drank to any great extent, invariably destroy the tone of the stomach, and of the system generally.
3860. The stomach ought not to be over distended with fluids during, immediately preceding, nor after a meal.
3861. When the stomach is very weak, very little fluid should be taken during or after eating. Dry solid food requires more dilution than that which is juicy or fluid.
3862. Exercise should be used in the intervals between meals, but not immediately before or after them.
HINTS TO MECHANICS AND WORKMEN.
3863. If you would avoid the diseases which your particular trades and work are liable to produce, attend to the following hints:
3864. Keep, if possible, regular hours. Never suppose that you have done extra work, when you sit up till midnight, and do not rise till eight or nine in the morning.
3865. Abstain from ardent spirits, cordials, and malt liquors. Let your drink be, like that of Franklin, when he was a printer—pure water.
3866. Never use tobacco in any form. By chewing, smoking, or snuffing, you spend money which would help to clothe you, or would enable you, if single, to make a useful present to an aged mother or dependent sister; or, if married, to buy your wife a frock, or get books for your children. You also, by any of these filthy practices, injure your health—bringing on headache, gnawing at the stomach, low spirits, trembling of the limbs, and, at times, sleeplessness.
3867. Be particular in preserving your skin clean, by regular washing of your hands, and face, and mouth, before each meal, and of your whole body at least once a week, and by combing and brushing the hair daily.
3868. Always have fresh air in the room in which you work, but so that you shall not be in a draft.
3869. Take a short time in the morning, if possible, and always in the evening, or toward sundown, for placing your body in a natural posture, by standing erect, and exercising your chest and limbs by a walk where the air is the purest.
3870. The Fireside.—Admit no rival here. Let your chief joys be shared by her who has forsaken all other hearts and hopes for you; by those who must inherit honor or disgrace from your course of life. Shun the bar-room and the purlieus of intoxication. They are, to thousands, the avenues to infamy.
3871. The rivals of our Home are many and fearful. Among the direst is the drinking-place, whether known as porter-house, grog-shop, or tavern. The man who spends his evenings in these Stygian fumes, soon grovels and wallows away half his civilization.
3872. The tavern-haunter drinks till he feels himself half-ruined; he is wretched; he drinks to drown his wretchedness; he does drown it, and his soul along with it!
3873. Home!—It marks the sacred spot to which the cares and tumult of the world do not reach; and where, except in cases of extreme depravity, its vices do not intrude.
MAXIMS AND MORALS FOR ALL MEN.
3874. The world estimates men by their success in life; and, by general consent, success is evidence of superiority.
3875. Never, under any circumstances, assume a responsibility you can avoid consistently with your duty to yourselves and others.
3876. Base all your actions upon a principle of right; preserve your integrity of character in doing this; never reckon the cost.
3877. Remember that self-interest is more likely to warp your judgment than all other circumstances combined; therefore look well to your duty when your duty is concerned.
3878. Never make money at the expense of your reputation.
3879. Be neither lavish nor niggardly; of the two avoid the latter. A mean man is universally despised; but public favor is a stepping-stone to preferment—therefore generous feelings should be cultivated.
3880. Let your expenses be such as to leave a balance in your pocket. Ready money is a friend in need.
3881. Keep clear of the law; for when you gain your case, you are generally a loser of money.
3882. Never relate your misfortunes, and never grieve over what you cannot prevent.
3883. No man who owes as much as he can pay, has any moral right to endorse for another.
3884. No moneyed man has the moral right to enter on engagements or speculations, hazarding his estate, without the consent of his wife.
3885. Knowing that the end of life is death, every right-minded man ought to pursue that which is connected with happiness and ultimate bliss.
3886. Family Tool Chests, Papers, etc.—Much inconvenience and considerable expense might be saved, if it was the general custom to keep in every house certain tools for the purpose of performing at home what are called small jobs, instead of being always obliged to send for a mechanic, and pay him for executing little things that, in most cases, could be sufficiently well done by a man or boy belonging to the family, provided that the proper instruments were at hand.
3887. The cost of these articles is very trifling, and the advantages of having them always in the house are far beyond the expense.
3888. For instance there should be an axe, a hatchet, a saw (a large wood saw, also, with a buck or stand, if wood is burned), a claw-hammer, a mallet, two gimlets of different sizes, two screw-drivers, a chisel, a small plane, one or two jack-knives, a pair of large scissors or shears, and a carpet-fork or stretcher.
3389. Also an assortment of nails of various sizes from large spikes down to small tacks, not forgetting brass-headed nails, some larger and some smaller.
3890. Screws and likewise, will be found to be very convenient, and hooks on which to hang things.
3891. The nails and screws should be kept in a wooden box, made with division to separate the various sorts, for it is very troublesome to have them mixed.
3892. And let care be taken to keep up the supply, lest it should ran out unexpectedly, and the deficiency cause delay and inconvenience at a time when their use is wanted.
3893. It is well to have somewhere, in the lower part of the house, a deep, light closet, appropriated entirely to tools and things of equal utility, for executing promptly such little repairs as convenience may require, without the delay or expense of procuring an artisan. This closet should have at least one large shelf, and that about three feet from the floor.
3894. Beneath this shelf may be a deep drawer, divided into two compartments. This drawer may contain cakes of glue, pieces of chalk, and balls of twine of different size and quality.
3895. There may be shelves at the sides of the closet for glue-pots, paste-pots, and brushes, pots for black, white, green, and red paints, cans of painting oil, paint-brushes, &c.
3896. Against the wall, above the large shelf, let the tools be suspended, or laid across nails or hooks of proper size to support them.
3897. This is much better than keeping them in a box, where they may be injured by rubbing against each other, and the hand may be hurt in feeling among them to find the thing that is wanted.
3898. But when hung up against the back wall of the closet, of course each tool can be seen at a glance.
3899. Wrapping paper may be piled on the floor under the large shelf. It can be bought very low by the ream, at the large paper warehouses; and every house should keep a supply of it in several varieties.
3900. For instance, coarse brown paper for common purposes, that denominated ironmonger's paper, which is strong, thick, and in large sheets, is useful for packing heavy articles; and equally so for keeping silks, ribbons, blondes, &c., as it preserves their colors.
3901. Printed papers are unfit for wrapping any thing, as the printing ink rubs off on the articles enclosed in them and also soils the gloves of the person who carries the parcel.
3902. When shopping, if the person at the counter proceeds to wrap up your purchase in a newspaper (a thing rarely attempted in a genteel shop), refuse to take it in such a cover.
3903. It is the business of every respectable shopkeeper to provide proper paper for this purpose; and printed paper is not proper.
3904. Waste newspapers had best be used for lighting fires and singing poultry.
3905. Waste paper that has been written on, cut into slips, and creased and folded, makes very good alumettes or lamp-lighters. These matters may appear of trifling importance, but order and regularity are necessary to happiness.
3906. A Miniature Tool Box for little boys is one of the best playthings which can be given them. These can be found at the toy-shops.
HOME INDUSTRY FOR YOUNG LADIES.
3907. Dress-making.—When you are about to commence a dress, have the following things in a basket or box at your hand, viz: sewing silk the color of the dress, one or two reels of cotton, fine and coarse, a pair of scissors, not small, a penny inch measure—you can procure one at a trimming shop.
3908. Do not cut without a measure, and always measure all that you have bought or have given you for a dress, before you begin to cut.
3909. The number of yards required depend on the width of the material. Ten yards of any material, eighteen inches wide, will make a dress for a moderate-sized person, with full body, but no trimming on the skirt.
3910. Cut your plain skirt off the piece first, body and sleeves after; leave your trimmings to the last; large turnings are bad and waste the stuff; measure carefully and cut exact.
3911. Six yards of French merino, or any other material of that width, will be found sufficient.
3912. In cutting off the skirt, if the length, we will suppose, should be forty-two or forty-six inches long, leave four inches more for the hem and turnings at the top.
3913. Cut the lining for the skirt exact to the material, and mind it fits when finished.
3914. Supposing you to have run the seams of the skirt and the seams of your lining, lay the lining on the table, placing the skirt on top, and then tack the seams of your skirt to the lining.
3915. Begin at the first seam, and gradually go on to the last seam; stitch up three pieces together, and fell over the fourth; having done this, hem the bottom. Unless your hem is tacked or pinned, it will be sure to be on the twist and set badly.
3916. Having done this, run on your braid, which must be put on easy or rather full. Attend to this, or you will spoil the set of the skirt. If the skirt is to have flounces, they must be put on before you gauge the top; and while the skirt is on the table, put a white tacking thread round the skirt where each flounce is to be fixed.
3917. Waist or Body.—All thin figures ought to wear full bodies; with stout persons it is a matter of taste. Plain bodies require more care in making than full ones. Every small imperfection is seen in plain bodies.
3918. Care and judgment are necessary in fitting the back of the dress over the shoulders; or you will look round-shouldered.
3919. The fault is, usually, in cutting the back of the dress too long; in fitting, pull the fore-body over the shoulder, and shorten the back at the top, till it fits neatly.
3920. If you have no paper pattern that fits, unpick half an old body that suits you; lay your new lining on your cutting board (the top of a candle-box, or any smooth board of sufficient width, will answer to hold in your lap, and is more convenient than standing over a bed or table), put the old body on top of it, and, with the sharp point of a pair of scissors, prick through both, in the old seams of the pattern.
3921. Prick them well, as the marks are apt to rub out. Tack all the body well in the holes round it, before you begin, and be very careful to stitch your body to the tacking thread.
3922. Plain bodies require more care in making than full ones; any small imperfection is seen in plain bodies.
3923. Five out of six persons have their dresses made too tight across the chest; it is a sad fault. Any lady once wearing an easy dress, would never go back to a tight one; to say nothing of its being healthy and beautiful.
3924. Do not select a very stout body lining; it is a common mistake. A stout lining prevents the dress giving or setting to the figure, and is no stronger than one of moderate quality. French dressmakers exclaim at the bad shapes so commonly seen in this country, and charge them to this cause in a great measure. For a white dress, lawn, cambric, chintz, or silk—bleached muslin, at twelve and a half cents a yard, is good enough. For dark merinos, or cashmeres, some prefer dark twilled stuffs.
3925. A yard of lining is the proper quantity for a close dress, a yard and a half for a basque or jacket. Sleeve linings should always be of a thin material.
3926. Great care must be taken with the armholes; do not make them too large or too small; thirteen inches is a nice size for a person not more than twenty-four inches in the waist; fourteen inches is a large size, only required for stout persons.
3927. If you have to alter the armhole, never do it under the arm; in nine cases out of ten it will spoil the dress, and it takes away the free use of the arm; a very small piece cut off round the armhole, excepting underneath, will be all that is necessary.
3928. Do not forget your sleeves must be larger than the armhole an inch and a half; when put in, it never looks the least full, and sets better. The seam of your sleeve must not be even with the seam of your body, but half an inch in front of it.
3929. In cording the neck, do not stretch it; hold the cord tight. The waist must, on the contrary, be pulled well when the cord is put on, or it will never fit; it requires much stretching. The fit of the body often depends on the finishing.
3930. All full bodies are made with quite a straight piece of material, twenty inches long, and eighteen wide; this is half the front; gather it straight at the bottom, and then place it on your tight lining; fix it firmly, and then gather it at the shoulder; but mind and do the bottom gauging first.
3931. To make a body with folds, still have your material twenty inches long, and nineteen wide; the selvage must reach from waist to shoulder.
3932. In putting folds on a body, let it be on the straight, or a good cross; don't let it be neither one nor the other, which is too frequently the case, and always will, as a matter of course, set badly. It makes the folds set better to cover over half the body lining with a plain piece of the dress, as you would wear a stomacher, and then place your folds to meet it, so that a folded body will be in two pieces, the plain part put on first, and the folds after.
3933. A French dressmaker uses little or no bone—that is, the splints are so thin as to bend and give to the outline, and to every motion of the figure. The fit should not be made to depend on a stiff fencing of whalebone, the thickness of an old-fashioned busk. If it does not fit nicely without any bone, it never will fit with. This is true of low-bodied evening dresses in particular, the only dresses which at present have long points to the bodice.
3934. The basque, properly speaking, is the short skirt or flap, of the body. They require a paper pattern, which can be furnished to any distance by those establishments who make patterns a business. There are several such in New York and Philadelphia.
3935. It is a good plan to fit the jacket lining to the figure first, before you cut into the material. They should always be left loose to the figure; the whole effect being destroyed if any seams are drawn tight.
3936. Flounces.—It will take the same quantity of material if cut either on the straight or the cross. It is a common error to suppose they take more on the cross.
3937. For the fullness of a flounce allow one width on the cross to one width on the straight of your skirt; so that if you have six widths in your skirts, you will have six widths in your flounces on the cross.
3938. If there are three flounces of different widths, let the bottom and widest one have the most fullness; three inches more fullness will be sufficient. If the flounces are on the straight, allow eight widths in the flounce to six widths in the skirt.
3939. A small cord run in at the top of the flounce makes it look neat. Before running the cord in your flounce, join it round the exact size of the skirt; join round likewise your flounces, and full them on the cord as you go on.
3940. Halve and quarter your flounces and also the skirt, and you will find them no trouble to put on.
3941. Sleeves.—In making sleeves, with one good pattern, strange as it may seem, you can very easily make six different fashions by cutting your sleeve a little longer or a little shorter, and putting on different trimmings, by making some in a band at the wrist, or leaving them loose, by trimming the loose sleeves on the back or fore part of the arm.
3942. The same shape is, by a dressmaker, altered in the manner I describe, and with a little observation, I think, can be done.
3943. Try and procure a good pattern at first. With taste, one pattern can be made to look like six.
3944. A trimming on the top of the sleeve is a great improvement to thin persons. It should match the bottom part of the sleeve and body-trimming.
3945. Two out of every three American women have one shoulder larger than the other, from stooping in the school-room, or the early care of children.
3946. A light layer of cotton on the lining of the opposite shoulder, and covered with the same material, will often conceal, or at least soften this unpleasant defect.
3947. Trimmings down the front of a dress when on the cross, should be cut the same as flounces. In trimming the front of a skirt, it is a good plan to cut a paper the length of the skirt, and pin it on the way you intend to trim, and then tack a tacking thread by it.
3948. Put tackings wherever you mean to trim, before you begin trimming, and lay your skirt on a table to do it; put on all trimmings with a light hand; do not sew them as you would a shirt, it gives them a puckered look. Now mind, a good cross; no attempts at making pieces do, unless they are good corner pieces, that will join well; you are more sure of making a trimming well if cut all from one piece.
3949. Before cutting a skirt off that you wish to put tucks in, have a piece of lining or calico at hand, pin the tucks in it as you wish to put them in your skirt.
As a general rule, a tucked skirt takes more than a flounced one, and makes less show for the quantity of material used.
PETS.
Canaries, (see [p. 175]) and other Birds.
3950. Canaries become delicate and feeble from improper treatment. Their docility, beautiful plumage, and sweetness of notes render them general favorites. When young, feed on a paste made by bruising rape-seed, blowing the chaff away, mixed with pieces of bread powdered. Give a teaspoonful with a little hard egg and a few drops of water, when turning sour, mix fresh. Add, as they grow older, scalded rape-seed without bruising, chopped almond and chickweed, in hot weather, twice a day.
3951. If sick, give milk of hemp-seed, made by bruising clean seed and straining it through linen into water, taking the water-glass away from the sick. As they advance in age, give rape and canary, and occasionally bruised hemp-seed, taking the soft food away by degrees. Cuttle-fish bone is preferable to loaf-sugar. Cakes, apples, berries, bread soaked, the water squeezed out and milk added, are good, and cabbage occasionally, when in season, is excellent.
3952. Perches should be round and strong without crevices or shoulders for insects to breed or harbor, and every corner of the cage should be brushed out and kept thoroughly clean.
3953. The claws are sometimes so long as to occasion accidents by catching in the wires; in which case trim them.
Mortar placed in the cage facilitates the production of eggs.
3954. Teach singing by separating the bird from the others, so that he may hear no singing, cover his cage for a few days with a thin cloth, then play your flageolet or bird organ several times each day, without harshness. At the end of fifteen days, change the thin cloth for a thick green or red serge, and keep covered till perfect in the air you wish to teach. Feed once a day and night. It is better to teach one good tune well than several imperfectly. The bird will copy all imperfections. Bad or dull singers are improved by hearing the more spirited and perfect.
3955. Surfeit indicated by swelling of lower part of body, and occasioned by too much chickweed, salad, or soft food. Put alum in the water for three or four days, or put a rusty nail in the water, or common salt. Put the bird, if bad, in lukewarm milk a few minutes, then wash with water, wipe and dry gently.
3956. Sick birds may have boiled bread and milk with canary seed boiled in it; lettuce seed; and when moulting, or renewing its feathers, indicated by drooping, putting its head under its wing, dropping small feathers, give nourishing food, as hemp-seed, sponge, biscuit, &c., keep warm and quiet, and keep much in the sun. A cold air or draft is injurious. Put in the water a little refined liquorice.
3957. American Yellow Bird.—Beautiful plumage and fine song. They are hardy, and the cage should be often hung out. Give plenty of water, gravel, rich oily seeds, with occasional sunflower and lettuce seeds; leaves of beet, salad, apples, and other fruits.
Gold Finch.—Treat similar to American yellow bird.
3958. Bullfinches.—Old birds should be fed with German Paste, No. 2, and occasionally rape-seed. The Germans occasionally give them a little poppy-seed, and a grain or two of rice, steeped in canary wine, when teaching them to pipe, as a reward for the progress they make. Bird organs or flageolets, are used to teach them.
3959. Cardinal Grosbeak.—Of splendid plumage and exquisite song. They are hardy and may be kept without fire in a room most of the winter, except in the northern States. Allow frequent air and sun. Feed on rough unhulled rice and hemp, wheat, brown gravel, cracked corn, and millet occasionally, with plenty of water for bathing. These birds are long lived; the Philadelphia Museum having one which died when twenty-one years old.
3960. Java Sparrow.—Very delicate, with pretty plumage, but little music. Feed on unhulled rice and canary seed, with plenty of brown gravel.
3961. Purple Finch or Linnet.—A delightful songster. Give canary, hemp, millet, and sunflower seeds, with juniper and cedar-berries through the winter, salad and beet-tops in summer. Any other of the Finch tribe may be fed on seeds generally, as the preceding. Perfect cleanliness of the cage, and a constant supply of fresh water and gravel are essential.
3962. Baltimore Oriole.—A bird of delightful plumage, and rich brilliant music, well repaying the utmost care. They eat fruit of all kinds, seeds, insects, &c. Give them a large cage, protection from frost, and an abundance of insects. Rear same as mocking bird.
East India Oriole.—Possesses greater musical powers, and is to be treated same as the Baltimore.
3963. American Mocking Bird.—The sweet "bird of many voices," imitating almost every variety of notes and sounds imaginable. Feed regularly every morning with Indian meal mixed with milk, not very stiff. Give wild cherries, cedar, elder, poke, and whortleberries. An occasional egg, boiled hard and grated; a little raw minced beef; water for washing as well as drink, with plenty of insects, grasshoppers, spiders, particularly during moulting, when they should be kept quiet and away from cold drafts of air.
3964. Regular feeding is important. Adopt a regular hour, say eight o'clock in the morning for feeding and watering, and strictly adhere to it.
If sickly, treat kindly, give spiders daily, and meal-worms; gravel the bottom of the cage and keep very quiet.
The male has a regular line of white feathers in the wing, forming almost a regular curve from tip to shoulder.
3965. American Robin.—Sprightly, beautiful, and musical. Treat similar to mocking bird.
3966. Reed Bird or Bob-o-link.—Is apt to die in November, if too well fed. Give oats, buckwheat, and canary seed, and abundant water for bathing. At other seasons feed same indiscriminately, as the Finch tribe.
3967. Chickweed or salad, which in proper season is excellent, are absolutely poison if given too early, before the bitterness is off, and the cold acrid juices are dissipated by the sun.
Insects from Bird-cages, Drawers, &c.—To keep away insects from birds' eyes, suspend a little bag of sulphur in the cage. This is said to be healthful for birds generally, as well as serving to keep away insects by which they become infested.
3968. Aviaries.—The aviary must face the south or west; the ground within may be covered with fine turf, and divided by gravel walks. The evergreens planted inside are, phyllerca, holly, laurel, Portugal laurel, lauristinus, yew, box, and furze. The building should be principally wire, and open to the air, but there should be wings on either side, protected by a roof of wood or glass. In putting goldfinches, linnets, and canaries in an aviary for the purpose of breeding, the males of the two former should be put in with hen canaries as the male birds of the wild species will mate only with canaries. Two or three male canaries may be put amongst them, as the young male birds will learn some of the canaries' notes.
3969. Gold-fish.—Great care must be taken of gold-fish, as they are very susceptible; and hence a loud noise, strong smell, violent or even slight shaking of the vessel, will ofttimes destroy them.
3970. Food for Gold-fish.—Foreign vermicelli, in minute portions, given at intervals of two or three days, is the very best aliment for gold-fish. A frequent cause of their death is injudicious food, and too much of it; bread kills them, and biscuit is scarcely to be trusted, because the materials of which it is composed are not always pure. Water contains so much nourishment, that if it be changed every day, little food need be given in addition. The most proper situation for a globe of fish is near a window, but not in the direct rays of the sun.
3971. Squirrels.—In a domestic state these little animals are fed with hazel nuts, or indeed any kind of nuts; and occasionally bread and milk. They should be kept very clean.
3972. Birdlime.—Take any quantity of linseed oil, say half a pint; put it into an old pot, or any vessel that will stand the fire without breaking; the vessel must not be more than one-third full, put it on a slow fire, stir it occasionally until it thickens as much as required; this will be known by cooling the stick in water, and trying it with the fingers. It is best to make it rather harder than for use. Then pour it into cold water. It can be brought back to the consistency required with a little Archangel tar.
3973. Pet Dogs should never be washed with soap. They should be washed with beaten eggs, and afterward washed with warm water. The best way to keep a dog healthy is to let him have plenty of exercise, and not to over-feed him.
3974. Drink.—Let them at all times have a plentiful supply of clean water, and encourage them to take to swimming, as it assists their cleanliness.
Washing.—When you wash them do not use a particle of soap, or you will prevent their licking themselves, and they may become habitually dirty.
3975. Feeding.—Properly-treated dogs, should be fed only once a day. Meat boiled for dogs and the liquor in which it is boiled, thickened with barley-meal, or oatmeal, forms capital food.
3976. Sickness.—The distemper is liable to attack dogs from four months to four years old. It prevails most in spring and autumn. The disease is known by dulness of the eye, husky cough, shivering, loss of appetite and spirits, and fits. When fits occur, the dog will most likely die, unless a veterinary surgeon is called in.
3977. Remedies.—During the distemper, dogs should be allowed to run on the grass; their diet should be spare; and a little sulphur be placed in their water. Chemists who dispense cattle medicines can generally advise with sufficient safety upon the diseases of dogs, and it is best for unskillful persons to abstain from physicking them.
3978. Hydrophobia.—Hydrophobia is the most dreadful of all diseases. The first symptoms are attended by thirst, fever, and languor. The dog starts convulsively in his sleep, and when awake, though restless, is languid.
3979. Treatment.—When a dog is suspected, he should be firmly chained in a place where neither children nor dogs nor cats can get near him. Any one going to attend him should wear thick leather gloves, and proceed with great caution. When a dog snaps savagely at an imaginary object, it is almost a certain indication of madness; and when it exhibits a terror of fluids, it is confirmed hydrophobia.
3980. Music.—Some dogs exhibit a great dislike of musical sounds, and when this is the case they are too frequently made sport of. But it is dangerous sport, as dogs have sometimes been driven mad by it. In many diseases dogs will be benefitted by warm baths.
3981. Mange.—The mange is a contagious disease, which is difficult to get rid of when once contracted. The best way is to apply to a veterinary chemist for an ointment, and to keep applying it for some time after the disease has disappeared, or it will break out again.
3982. Cats.—It is generally supposed that cats are more attached to places than to individuals, but this is an error. They obstinately cling to certain places, because it is there they expect to see the persons to whom they are attached. A cat will return to an empty house, and remain in it many weeks. But, when at last she finds that the family does not return, she strays away, and if she chances then to find the family, she will abide with them.
3983. Rules, &c.—The same rules of feeding which apply to dogs apply also to cats. They should not be over-fed, nor too frequently. Cats are liable to the same diseases as dogs; though they do not become ill so frequently. A little brimstone in their milk occasionally, is a good preventive. The veterinary chemist will also prescribe for the serious diseases of cats.
SWIMMING.
3984. The art of swimming is, in fact, very easy, and those persons who take the few brief hints we are about to offer, will soon find themselves rewarded by complete success.
3985. The first consideration is not to attempt to learn to swim too soon. That is, you must not expect to succeed in your efforts to swim until you have become accustomed to the water, and have overcome your repugnance to the coldness and novelty of bathing. Every attempt will fail until you have acquired a certain confidence in the water, and then the difficulty will soon vanish.
3986. Dr. Franklin's Advice to Swimmers.—"The only obstacle to improvement in this necessary and life-preserving art, is fear; and it is only by overcoming this timidity that you can expect to become a master of the following acquirements."
3987. It is very common for novices in the art of swimming to make use of corks or bladders to assist in keeping the body above water; some have utterly condemned the use of them; however, they may be of service for supporting the body, while one is learning what is called the stroke, or that manner of drawing in and striking out the hands and feet, that is necessary to produce progressive motion.
3988. The practice I mean is this: choosing a place where the water deepens gradually, walk coolly into it till it is up to your breast; then turn round your face to the shore, and throw an egg into the water between you and the shore; it will sink to the bottom, and be easily seen there if the water is clean.
3989. It must lie in the water so deep that you cannot reach to take it up but by diving for it.
3990. To encourage yourself, in order to do this, reflect that your progress will be from deep to shallow water, and that at any time you may, by bringing your legs under you, and standing on the bottom, raise your head far above the water; then, plunge under with your eyes open, which must be kept open before going under, as you cannot open the eyelids for the weight of water above you; throwing yourself toward the egg, and endeavoring, by the action of your hands and feet against the water, to get forward till within reach of it. In this attempt you will find that the water buoys you up against your inclination; that it is not so easy to sink as you imagine; and that you cannot, but by active force get down to the egg.
3991. Thus you feel the power of water to support you, and learn to confide in that power while your endeavors to overcome it and reach the egg, teach you the manner of acting on the water with your feet and hands, which action is afterward used in swimming to support your head higher above the water, or to go forward through it.
3992. The exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable in the world.
3993. Let every boy and girl, if possible, be taught this healthful and life-preserving art.
3994. Life-Belts.—An excellent and cheap life-belt, for persons proceeding to sea, bathing in dangerous places, or learning to swim, may be thus made:—
3995. Take a yard and three-quarters of strong jean, double and divide it into nine compartments. Let there be a space of two inches after each third compartment.
3996. Fill the compartments with very fine cuttings of cork, which may be made by cutting up old corks, or (still better) purchased at the cork-cutters.
3997. Work eyelet-holes at the bottom of each compartment to let the water drain out.
3998. Attach a neck-band and waist strings of stout boot-web, and sew them on strongly.
3999. Another.—Cut open an old boa, or victorine, and line it with fine cork-cuttings instead of wool.
4000. For ladies going to sea these are excellent, as they may be worn in stormy weather, without giving appearance of alarm in danger. They may be fastened to the body by ribands or tapes, of the color of the fur. Gentlemen's waistcoats may be lined the same way.
4001. Rules to Govern Persons who have Fallen into Deep Water.—1. As soon as you find yourself at the surface, whither you are raised by your buoyancy, let your body quickly take its level, when the water will reach a little above your chin.
4002. 2. Place one leg a little forward, the other a little backward, and stretch out your arms on either side under the water. By a slight paddling motion you may regulate the position of your head, and keep the mouth and nose above the surface of the surrounding fluid. Make no efforts, but wait tranquilly until succor arrives. You cannot sink.
4003. 3. Do not lay hold of your companion or assistant, or you will infallibly sink him without benefiting yourself. The best swimmer has no more natural buoyancy than you, and would be sunk by the exertion of very little force.
4004. 4. Remain perfectly passive till your helper seizes you by the hair. Upon this endeavor to second his efforts by throwing yourself on your back. Hold your neck stiff, and let the back of your head sink into the water. Try to propel yourself at this stage by regularly and slowly kicking against the water.
4005. 5. Be careful to keep every part of your body except your face under the water. 6. If two or more persons are immersed together, let them keep near to each other. By this means one boat may save the whole party at once; but if they are dispersed, one at a time only can be picked up.
4006. Rules to Govern Persons who Attempt to Rescue the Drowning.—1. In removing a body from the water, whether into a boat or drawing it along by your own efforts, always keep the face upward.
4007. 2. Recollect that you have no more buoyancy than the person you are attempting to rescue. Therefore do not attempt to raise him out of the water, or you will sink. By a gentle traction, you may draw him toward the boat or landing-place without fatigue or danger.
4008. 3. Always aim at seizing the hind hair of the head, and keep the nape of the neck and your own arm under the water. Thus you will insure his face and your own being above the surface.
4009. 4. Keep your most powerful arm disengaged for swimming, and maintain the other projected forward, having hold, as directed, by the hind hair of the head. In this way you may advance side by side, he floating on his back, and you on your breast.
4010. 5. As you approach the person distressed, let him know by your voice; the prospect of his speedy succor will add to his confidence and strength.
4011. 6. Let all your movements be deliberate, firm, and gentle.
4012. 7. Hold the hat reversed in both hands, the arms and hands of course under water. If a person has presence of mind to accomplish this, the hat will by its buoyancy afford him great assistance, until it becomes saturated and admits the water.
4013. Riding.—To ride well on horseback is a healthful and very graceful accomplishment for a lady or gentleman.
4014. Dress.—The lady's riding dress should be of a material that rain will not spoil, made to fit easily, and by no means tight.
4015. The length should not exceed an ordinary dress more than from fourteen to eighteen inches.
4016. To keep the front of the dress down, sew small quantities of shot in bits of muslin, tack these around the inside of the front breadth of the skirt, at equal distances.
4017. The Hat or cap should be as light as possible. Tie on securely.
4018. Have no loose ribbons or strings flying about your cap or dress to frighten the horses.
4019. Fasten your hair up securely, and do not blind your eyes with curls.
4020. Gloves should be of a kind that will permit you to handle the reins easily.
4021. Ride slowly.—The true secret of learning to ride well is to ride slowly.
4022. Always ride slowly when you start, and when returning, you are near home.
4023. Ride slowly up hill and down hill. Let the reins be slack when ascending; tighten them as you descend.
4024. Speak gently to your horse; pat his neck, and show kindness to him; it is the surest and safest mode of management.
4025. In crossing a river, if the horse should have to swim, be sure to let the rains fall loose. Do not attempt to hold up his head, he cannot swim if you do.
4026. On which side of a lady should a gentleman ride?—is often asked.
4027. On the left.—He can then protect and assist the lady much more advantageously than he would if riding on the right side of her horse.
4028. A lady's horse should be fifteen or fifteen and a half hands high. A hand is four inches.
4029. How to judge a Horse.—If the color be light sorrel, or chestnut, his feet, legs, and face white, these are marks of kindness.
4030. If he is broad and full between the eyes, he may be depended on as a horse of good sense, and capable of being trained to any thing.
4031. As respects such horses, the more kindly you treat them the better you will be treated in return. Nor will a horse of this description stand a whip, if well fed.
4032. If you want a safe horse, avoid one that is dish-faced. He may be so far gentle as not to scare; but he will have too much go-ahead in him to be safe with everybody.
4033. If you want one that will never give out, never buy a large, overgrown one.—(See pages [198], [199].)
HOME COUNSELS.
4034. Prudence.—The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.
4035. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition; the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
4036. It is indeed, at home that every man and woman must be known, by those who would make a just estimate of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike, occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor and fictitious benevolence.—Dr. Johnson.
4037. Reading aloud, speaking, and particularly singing, affords a healthful exercise; while wind-instruments are injurious.
4038. To young ladies the habit of reading aloud has much to recommend it.
4039. As mere exercise, it is highly beneficial on account of the strength and vigor which it confers on the chest and lungs; while the mental pleasure derived therefrom is one of the most delightful that can adorn the family circle.
4040. Gathered around the winter's fire, or evening lamp, what could be more cheerful for the aged and infirm, what more instructive to the younger branches, or more exemplary to the careless, than the reading aloud of some entertaining author.
4041. Were females of all ranks to adopt the practice more than they do at present, they would bind to their homes many who are disposed to go in search of unworthy enjoyments, and would add another chain of delightful associations, wherewith to attach the young to the family hearth.
4042. Fatuity from old age cannot be cured; but may be prevented by employing the mind constantly in reading and in conversation in the evening of life.
4043. A Word to the Young.—-Never be cast down by trifles. If a spider breaks his thread twenty times, twenty times will he mend it again.
4044. Make up your minds to do a thing and you will do it. Fear not if a trouble comes upon you; keep up your spirits, though the day be a dark one.
4045. If the sun is going down, look up to the stars. If the earth is dark, keep your eye on Heaven! With God's promises, a man or child may be cheerful.
4046. Mind what you run after! Never be content with a bubble that will burst, firewood that will end in smoke and darkness.
4047. Get that which you can keep, and which is worth keeping. Fight hard against a hasty temper. Anger will come, but resist it strongly. A fit of passion may give you cause to mourn all the days of your life.
4048. Never revenge an injury. If you have an enemy, act kindly to him and make him your friend. You may not win him over at once, but try again. Let one kindness be followed by another, till you have compassed your end. By little and little, great things are completed; and repeated kindness will soften a heart of stone.
4049. Whatever you do, do it willingly. A boy that is whipped to school never learns his lessons well. A man who is compelled to work cares not how badly it is performed.
4050. He that pulls off his coat cheerfully, strips up his sleeves in earnest, and sings while he works, is the man of action.
4051. The Voice.—In ordinary conversation, the modulation and proper management of the voice is a point worthy of the attention of young ladies; for a fine and melodious voice, "sweet as music on the waters," makes the heart-strings vibrate to the very core.
4052. The thin, small voice is the most difficult to manage, as it is liable to degenerate into shrillness; and ladies who have this kind of voice must keep strict guard over their temper, when within hearing of any one on whom they may wish to make a favorable impression; for the very idea of a shrill-voiced scold makes us place our hands to our ears.
4053. But with a sweet temper, a pretty little harmonious voice is pleasing enough. Always recollect, however, that affectation, constraint, or striving for effect, is the certain ruin of the prettiest voice in the world.
4054. Utility of Singing.—It is asserted, and we believe with some truth, that singing is a corrective of the too common tendency to pulmonic complaints.
4055. Dr. Rush, an eminent physician, observes on this subject:—The Germans are seldom afflicted with consumption; and this, I believe, is in part occasioned by the strength which their lungs acquire by exercising them in vocal music, for this constitutes an essential branch of their education.
4056. The music master of an academy has furnished a remark still more in favor of this opinion. He had known several instances of persons who were strongly disposed to consumption, who were restored to health by the exercise of their lungs in singing.
4057. Music.—Had I children, my utmost endeavor should be to teach them music. Considering I have no ear, nor ever thought of music, the preference seems odd, and yet it is embraced on frequent reflection. In short, my aim would be to make them happy. I think it the most probable method.
4058. Music is a resource which will last them their lives unless they grow deaf; it depends upon themselves, not on others; always amuses and soothes, if not consoles; and of all fashionable pleasures, it is the cheapest. It is capable of fame, without the danger of criticism; is susceptible of enthusiasm, and is sure of being gratified in Heaven.—Horace Walpole.
4059. Spectacles—Use of.—The following rules will enable any one to judge whether his eye-sight may be assisted or preserved by the use of glasses.
4060. When we are obliged to remove small objects to a distance from the eye to see them distinctly.
4061. If we need more light than formerly, as, for instance, if we place the candle between the eye and the object.
4062. If, on attentively considering a neat object, it fatigues the eye, and becomes confused, or has a kind of mist before it.
4063. When small printed letters seem to run into each other, and, by looking steadfastly on them, appear double or treble.
4064. If the eyes are so fatigued by a little exercise, that we are obliged to shut them from time to time.
4065. When these circumstances occur, either separately or together, glasses should be immediately resorted to; otherwise the sight will be liable to be injured by the constant effort required.
PARLOR AMUSEMENTS.
4066. Riddles.—It may be asked, What is a riddle? Ah! what is it? That's just the rub! Well, then, it is a queer affair, without shape, size, humanity, compassion, breath, or sex. It is caressed, abused, courted, slighted, jostled, hustled, and, notwithstanding all that is said against it, universally looked upon as a welcome guest when it is not in a dull mood.
4067. The oldest riddle on record is that put forth by Samson (Judges xiv.)—"Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." His solution is well known, as it is explained in the same chapter.
4068. M. Voltaire's Riddle.—What is the longest, and yet the shortest thing in the world; the swiftest and the most slow; the most divisible and the most extended; the least valued, and the most regretted; without which nothing can be done; which devours every thing, however small, and yet gives life and spirit to all things however great? Answer—Time.
4069. Enigmas may be founded upon simple catches, like conundrums, in which form they are usually called Riddles, such as—
"Though you set me on foot,
I shall be on my head."
4070. The answer is, A nail in a shoe.
4071. Ancient Enigma.—The ancients fabled a monster whom they named the Sphinx, and whom they described as having the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of a lion, and a human voice.
4072. This monster, it was said, was sent into the neighborhood of Thebes by Juno, who wished to punish the family of Cadmus. It was further stated, that he laid this part of Bœotia under continual alarms, by proposing enigmas, and devouring the inhabitants if unable to explain them.
4073. Also, that as the calamity of this monster was become an object of public concern, and as the successful explanation of an enigma would end in the death of the Sphinx, Creon promised his crown and Jocasta to him who succeeded in the attempt.
4074. The enigma proposed was this:—
"What animal in the morning walks on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening on three?"
4075. Œdipus solved the enigma—on which the monster dashed his head against a rock, and perished.
4076. Answer—Man; in the morning, or days of infancy, he crawls, or walks on all-fours; at noon, or in the days of youth and middle age, he uses two feet only; in the evening, or in his old age, he requires the support of a staff, so that he may be said to walk upon three feet.
4077. Puzzles vary very much. One of the simplest that we know is this:—Take away half of thirteen, and let eight remain.
4078. Write XIII on a slate, or on a piece of paper—rub out the lower half of the figures, and VIII will remain.
4079. What are termed "practical puzzles" are cut out of wood, cardboard, ivory, &c., and may be purchased at the toyshops.
4080. The three Jealous Husbands.—This is a very ingenious puzzle, and should be performed with small counters of two different colors.
4081. Three jealous husbands, with their wives, having to cross a small stream, find a boat without an owner, which is only sufficiently large to carry two persons at a time.
4082. Wanted to know,—how the six persons can transport themselves over the river in pairs, so that no woman shall be left in company with any of the men unless her husband is present.
4083. Answer.—At first two wives cross the river, then one returns and takes over the remaining wife; after which she recrosses, and stays with her husband, and the two husbands cross over. Then a husband and wife come back, and the two husbands cross. Then the wife returns and takes over one of the others, and lastly the husband of the remaining one comes back for his wife.
4084. Arithmetical Puzzle.—Arrange the figures 1 to 9 in such order that, by adding them together, they amount to 100.
15
36
47
It is done thus:— –—
98
2
–—
100
4085. The Charade is a poetical or other composition founded upon a word, each syllable of which constitutes a noun, and the whole of which word constitutes another noun, of somewhat a different meaning from those supplied, by its separate syllables.
4086. Words which fully answer these conditions are the best for the purposes of charades; though many other words are employed.
4087. In writing, the first syllable is termed "My first," the second syllable, "My second," and the complete word, "My whole."
4088. Charade.—
My first a mineral, England can produce,
Much prized for ornament as well as use;
It adds new beauty to our "cottage homes,"
And to the fireside of the wealthy comes.
My second is a rough and boisterous thing,
And much calamity and woe may bring;
My whole is but a little fluttering bird,
Which near to men's abode is often heard.
4089. Answer.—Sparrow.
4090. Ventriloquism.—The main secret of ventriloquism simply consists in first making a strong and deep inspiration, by which a considerable quantity of air is introduced into the lungs, to be afterward acted upon by the flexible powers of the larynx, or cavity situated behind the tongue and the windpipe; thus prepared, the expiration should be slow and gradual. Any person, by practice can, therefore, obtain more or less expertness in this exercise, in which, though not apparently, the voice is still modified by the mouth and tongue; and it is in the concealment of this aid that much of the perfection of ventriloquism lies.
4091. Curious Facts.—If a tallow candle be placed in a gun and be shot at a door, it will go through without sustaining any injury; and if a musket-ball be fired into water, it will rebound and be flattened as if fired against any hard substance.
4092. A musket-ball may be fired through a pane of glass, and if the glass be suspended by a thread it will make no difference, and the thread not even vibrate.
4093. The Author.—If you would write to any purpose, you must be perfectly free from without, in the first place, and yet more free from within.
4094. Give yourself the natural rein; think on no pattern, no patron, no paper, no press, no public; think on nothing, but follow your own impulses.
4095. Give yourself as you are, what you are, and how you see it. Every man sees with his own eyes, or does not see at all. This is incontrovertibly true.
4096. Bring out what you have. If you have nothing, be an honest beggar rather than a respectable thief.
4097. Letter-writing.—Great care and attention should be devoted to epistolary correspondence, as nothing exhibits want of taste and judgment so much as a slovenly letter.
4098. Postage.—Since the establishment of the cheap postage it is recognized as a rule that all letters should be prepaid; indeed, many persons make it a point of never taking in an unpaid letter.
4099. Always put a stamp on your envelope at the top of the right-hand corner.
4100. Let the direction be written very plain; this will save the postman trouble, and facilitate business by preventing mistakes.
4101. At the head of your letter, in the right-hand corner, put your address in full, with the day of the month underneath; do not omit this, though you may be writing to your most intimate friend three or four times a day.
4102. What you have to say in your letter, say as plainly as possible, as if you were speaking; this is the best rule; do not revert three or four times to one circumstance, but finish up as you go on.
4103. Let your signature be written as plainly as possible (many mistakes will be avoided, especially in writing to strangers) and without any flourishes, as they tend not to add in any way to the harmony of your letter.
4104. A letter of introduction is to be enclosed in an unsealed envelope.
4105. In writing notes of invitation, adhere to the old forms, never use any unusual phrase or flourish about it.
4106. In letters of ceremony employ the third person, thus, "Mr. B. requests the honor of Mr. A.," &c.
4107. Romantic ladies are sentimental in their letters; the warm-toned are passionate: both styles are bad; avoid them.
4108. Never be guilty of falsehood by the pen; it is premeditated sin, and seems worse than falsehood of speech.
4109. Use no preamble in your letters, come at once to the point, state what you have to state, and conclude.
4110. Neither sex should enter into long details, or give vent to their feelings in letters. They are always a standing memorial for, or against—we must say generally against, for it requires a peculiar talent to write a good letter.
4111. If you write to a stranger for information, or on your own business, fail not to send a stamped envelope with your address, plainly written; this will not fail to procure you an answer.
4112. If you are not a good writer, it is advisable to use the best ink, the best paper, and the best pens, as, though they may not alter the character of your handwriting, yet they will assist to make your writing look better.
4113. The paper on which you write should be clean, and neatly folded.
4114. There should not be stains on the envelope; if otherwise, it is only an indication of your own slovenliness.
4115. Care should be taken in giving titled persons to whom you write, their proper directions.
4116. For a love letter, good paper is indispensable. When it can be procured, that of a costly quality, gold-edged, perfumed, or ornamented in the French style, may be properly used.
4117. The letter should be carefully enveloped, and nicely sealed with a fancy wafer—not a common one, of course, where any other can be had; or, what is better, plain or fancy sealing-wax. As all persons are more or less governed by first impressions and externals, the whole affair should be as neat and elegant as possible.
4118. Young ladies should never engage in correspondence with young gentlemen who are not near relations, unless with the knowledge and consent of parents and guardians.
4119. A young lady should on no account correspond with a married man.
4120. Letters of business or inquiry may be sometimes properly addressed by a young lady to a married man—but when a correspondence becomes necessary, then write to the wife, not the husband.
4121. Dress of Children, etc.—At home nothing can be more foolish or more hurtful than to load a child with finery which confines it, and which its every movement may destroy and spoil. When at home or in the play-ground, the simplest covering only is necessary, so that it be strong and warm.
4122. It is a vulgar error to suppose that children should be left bare as to their legs, their chest, and arms, and that men and women, who are so much stronger, should be covered.
4123. The truth is, that more children die through the stupidity of their parents in this respect, than from any single disease which can be mentioned.
4124. "I am certain," says a great medical authority, "that half the deaths of children in the middle and upper classes of society is to be attributed to the vanity and ignorance of their parents.
4125. "I never see a poor child dressed as a young Highlander, or in any fancy dress, with its uncomfortable look and naked appearance, its poor bare knees and open neck, but I prophecy for that child, whilst I pity, a future of colds, coughs, and throat disease, and a probable death of consumption."
4126. Another important thing in the dress of children, besides keeping them warmly clad, is to keep them well, though loosely shod. The evils of a tight shoe or boot in a grown-up person is ten times multiplied in a child.
4127. Splay-feet, knock-knees, or bandy-legs, are the consequence, all of which the ignorant would certainly lay to nature, though they are nothing but the production of an art as cruel as it is ignorant, and which is entirely contrary to beauty of Form, or to Good Taste.
4128. High Shoulders.—A medical correspondent of an English paper attributes the high shoulder and the lateral curvature of the spine, which so frequently disfigures young girls, to the shoulder straps of their dresses resting below the shoulder and on the muscles of the arm, instead of being on the shoulder, which compels the wearer to be constantly hitching her shoulders to keep up her dress, an action that results in forcing up the shoulder, a distortion of the chest, and a lateral curvature of the spine.
4129. He also states that from the dangerous practice, and the consequent exposure of the chest to the cold, that inward tubercles are formed, and not unfrequently consumption is engendered.
4130. Sudden alterations of heat and cold are dangerous especially to the young and the aged.
4131. Therefore, clothing, in quantity and quality, should be adapted to the alternations of night and day, and of the seasons.
4132. And therefore, also, drinking cold water when the body is hot, and hot tea and soups when cold, are productive of many evils.
4133. A bed-room, or nursery, ought to be spacious and lofty, dry, airy, and not inhabited during the day.
4134. No servants, if possible, should be suffered to sleep in the same room; and no linen or washed clothes should ever be hung there to dry, as they contaminate the air in which so considerable a portion of infantine life must be spent.
4135. The consequences attending a vitiated atmosphere in such rooms are various, and often fatal.
4136. Change of apparel greatly promotes the secretion from the skin, so necessary to health.
4137. But no damp clothing should be worn, nor damp linen put on the beds. Every thing should be well aired.
4138. Feather-beds should be banished from nurseries, as they are an unnatural and debilitating contrivance.
4139. The windows should seldom be opened at night, but left open the whole day, in fine, clear weather. A door into the sleeping room may be left open.
4140. Lastly, the bedstead must not be placed too low on the floor; nor is it proper to let children sleep on a couch which is made without any elevation from the ground; because the most mephitic and pernicious stratum of air in an apartment, is that within one or two feet from the floor, while the most wholesome, or atmospheric air, is in the middle of the room, and the inflammable gas ascends to the top.
4141. The power of Kindness.—Soft words soften the soul.—Angry words are fuel to the flame of wrath, and make it blaze more freely.
4142. Kind words make other people good-natured—cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful.
4143. There is such a rush of all other kinds of words in our days, that it seems desirable to give kind words a chance among them.
4144. There are vain words, and idle words, and hasty words, and spiteful words, and silly words, and empty words, and profane words, and boisterous words, and warlike words.
4145. Kind words also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. They sooth, and quiet, and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, and morose, and unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.
4146. Gossiping.—If you wish to cultivate a gossiping, meddling, censorious spirit in your children, be sure when they come home from church, a visit, or any other place where you do not accompany them, to ply them with questions concerning what everybody wore, how everybody looked, and what everybody said and did; and if you find any thing in this to censure, always do it in their hearing.
4147. Amusements for Children.—These should be provided. Children must play; a large portion of their waking hours must be passed in action if we would make them healthy and happy.
4148. School and study should not occupy more than three hours of the day, till the child is over ten years of age.
4149. Out door play is best for children when the season and weather will permit.
4150. In door, one of the best exercises for children and youth is dancing.
4151. Let your children learn to dance.
4152. The abuse of the art can be avoided, and its benefits are great.
4153. Terms used to describe the movements of dances—
4154. Balancez—Set to partners.
4155. Chaine Anglaise—The top and bottom couples right and left.
4156. Chaine Anglaise double—The right and left double.
4157. Chaine des dames—The ladies' chain.
4158. Chaine des dames double—The ladies' chain double, which is performed by all the ladies commencing at the same time.
4159. Chassez—Move to the right and left.
4160. Chassez croisez—Gentlemen change places with partners, and back again.
4161. Demie Chaine Anglaise—The four opposite persons half right and left.
4162. Demie Promenade—All eight half promenade.
4163. Dos-à-dos—The two opposite persons pass round each other.
4164. Demie Moulinet—The ladies all advance to the centre, giving hands and return to places.
4165. La grand chaine—All eight chassez quite round, giving alternately right and left hands to partners, beginning with the right.
4166. Le grand rond—All join hands and advance and retire twice.
4167. Pas d'Allemande—The gentlemen turn the partners under their arms.
4168. Traversez—The two opposite persons change places.
4169. Vis-à-vis—The opposite partner.
4170. La Galopade—Is an extremely graceful and spirited dance in a continual chassez. An unlimited number may join; it is danced in couples as waltzing. This is a pretty dance for children.
THE TRAINING OF DAUGHTERS, ETC.
4171. Make them religious; the foundation of all excellence is in true piety of the heart.
Mothers, who wish not only to discharge well their own duties in the domestic circle, but to train up their daughters at a later day to make happy and comfortable firesides for their families, should watch well, and guard well, the notions which they imbibe, and with which they grow up.
4172. One main falsity abroad in this age is the notion, that women, unless compelled to it by absolute poverty, are out of place when engaged in domestic affairs.
4173. Let mothers avoid such danger. If they would do so, they must bring up their daughters from the first with the idea that in this world it is required to give as well as to receive, to minister as well as to enjoy; that every person is bound to be useful, practically, literally useful, in his or her sphere.
4174. Woman's sphere is the house—her home; its concerns and demands: these are her first duties.
4175. Once really imbued with this belief, and taught to see how much the happiness of woman herself, as well as her family, depends on this part of her discharge of duty, a young girl will usually be anxious to learn all that her mother is disposed to teach.
4176. She will be proud and happy to aid in any domestic occupations assigned to her, which need never be made so heavy as to interfere with the peculiar duties of her age, or its peculiar delights.
4177. If a mother wishes to see her daughter become a good, happy, and rational woman, never let her admit of contempt for domestic occupations, or even suffer them to be deemed secondary. They may be varied in character by station, but they can never be secondary to a woman.
4178. Therefore teach your daughters to keep accounts, so that they may learn the value of money.
4179. Teach them to work, that they may not waste their time if rich, nor be helpless if poor.
4180. Teach them cooking, that they may guard against the waste of servants, and be able to help themselves and others, if necessary.
4181. Educate the mind, refine the taste, and exalt the character, by keeping the love of excellence, in all they do, before them.
4182. Then they will be fitted to shine in domestic and social life, and to understand Literature, Art, and Science, as these conduce to goodness and happiness.
4183. The Mother at Home.—By the quiet fireside at home, the true mother, in the midst of her children, is sowing as in the vases of the earth, the seeds of plants that shall some time give to Heaven the fragrance of their blossoms, and whose fruit shall be to us a rosary of angelic deeds, the noblest offering that she can make through the ever ascending and expanding souls of her children to her Maker.
4184. Every word that she utters goes from heart to heart with a power of which she little dreams. Philosophers tell us in their speculations that we cannot lift a finger without moving distant spheres.
4185. Solemn is the thought that every word that falls from a mother's lip, every expression of her countenance, may leave an indelible impress upon the young souls about her, and form the underlaying strain of that education which peoples Heaven with celestial beings, and gives to the white brow of the angel, next to the grace of God, its crown of glory.
4186. Teach your Children Obedience.
It is unspeakable what a blessing it is to a child, what a saving of unhappiness and wickedness in after life, to be early taught absolute obedience; there must be no hesitating or asking why, but what a mother says must at once be done.
4187. The young twig bends easily, but remember, that in after years it grows hard, and will break before you bend it. A little steadiness at first will save you many years' sorrow.
4188. While you insist upon obedience, however, you must take care that you do not provoke a child, and tempt it to disobedience by unreasonable and foolish commands.
4189. "Provoke not your children to wrath;" and when it is necessary to punish them, see that it never be done violently and in a passion, but as a duty.
4190. Going in Debt.—A lady should never go in debt, unless she is sure of having the means of payment.
4191. Shopping.—Never go shopping for amusement—you rob the shopkeeper of his time and waste your own.
4192. A young lady at home can find or make pleasant amusements; one of the most healthful is the study of botany or flowers.
4193. A garden, or rather the fields and woods, will be filled with new interest if you love the flowers, and can read their history.
4194. The language of flowers has been studied and arranged by the people of the East. A few specimens of this may be admitted here, as an amusement for those who are idle or curious.
SENTIMENTS OF FLOWERS.
4195. What each flower enumerated signifies when sent to a friend or lover.
4196. Almond, flowering—Concealed love.
4197. Althea, Frutex—I am deeply in love.
4198. Amaranth—Immortality, or piety.
4199. Anemone—Fading hope.
4200. Arbor-Vitæ—Unchanging friendship.
4201. Auricula, Scarlet—Pride. You are proud.
4202. Bachelor's Button—Hope in love.
4203. Balm—I long for your society.
4204. Balsamine—Impatience; or, pray come.
4205. Bay Leaf—I change but in dying.
4206. Box—I believe in your constancy.
4207. Buttercup—Riches. You are rich.
4208. Calla Ethiopica—Magnificent beauty.
4209. Carnation—Pride and beauty.
4210. Camelia Japonica—Surpassing excellence.
4211. Cedar—Think of me.
4212. China Astar—Caprice.
4213. Cypress—Despair, and without hope.
4214. Dahlia—Dignity—I will sustain it.
4215. Daisy—Youthful beauty.
4216. Dandelion—Coquetry, I accuse you of.
4217. Eglantine—I wound to heal.
4218. Forget-me-not—True love forever.
4219. Fox-glove—Insincerity. You are false.
4220. Geranium—Gentility and elegance.
4221. Gilly-Flower—Thou art fair.
4222. Golden Rod—Encouragement. You will succeed.
4223. Grass—Submission.
4224. Heart's Ease—Love in idleness.
4225. Heliotrope—Devotion. Let us pray for each other.
4226. Hellebore—Calumny. You have listened.
4227. Hollyhock—Ambition. I seek glory.
4228. Honeysuckle—Dost thou love me?
4229. Houstonia—Content ever with thee.
4230. Hyacinth, Purple—Sorrow. I am sad.
4231. Hydrangea—Heartlessness.
4232. Ivy—Wedded love. We are happy.
4233. Jasmine, White—I desire a return of my affection.
4234. Larkspur—Haughtiness.
4235. Laurel—Ambition. I will win.
4236. Laurustinus—A token. Pray remember.
4237. Lavender—Acknowledgment.
4238. Lilac—Fastidiousness.
4239. Lily, White—Purity and beauty.
4240. Magnolia—You are beautiful.
4241. Marigold—Jealousy—I have cause.
4242. Mignionette—I live for thee.
4243. Moss—Patience, or pray wait.
4244. Oak-Leaf—Courage. I will endure.
4245. Passion-Flower—Piety. Trust in God.
4246. Periwinkle—Memory. Never forget.
4247. Pink—Household love. I am at home.
4248. Poppy—Forgetfulness.
4249. Primrose—Neglected merit.
4250. Rose—Love, or I love you.
4251. Rue—Disdain. Go: never return.
4252. Saffron—Marriage—when?
4253. Snow-Drop—Faithful in adversity.
4254. Thyme—Thriftiness. I am diligent.
4255. Tulip—Beautiful eyes. Look on me.
4256. Violet—I dream of thee.
4257. Willow—Forsaken—never more.
4258. Wheat—Prosperity—I wish thee.
4259. Yew—Penitence. I am sorry.
4260. Poisonous Plants.—Plants with five stamens and one pistil, with a dull-colored lurid carolla, and a nauseous sickly smell, are always poisonous. As tobacco, henbane, nightshade, thorn-apple.
Umbelliferous plants of the aquatic kind, and with a nauseous scent, are always poisonous. As water-hemlock, cow-parsley.
4261. Plants with labiate corollas and seeds in capsules, are frequently poisonous. As snap-dragon, fox-glove.
4262. Plants from which issue a milky juice on being broken, are poisonous, unless they bear compound flowers. As milk-weed, dogbane.
4263. Plants having any appendage to the calyx or corolla, and eight or more stamens, are generally poisonous. As columbine, nasturtium.
4264. Plants having twelve or more stamens, and a nauseous sickly smell, are generally poisonous.
4265. To ascertain the Length of the Day and Night.—At any time of the years add twelve hours to the time of the sun's setting, and from the sum subtract the time of rising, for the length of the day. Subtract the time of setting from twelve hours, and to the remainder add the time of rising next morning, for the length of the night. These rules are equally true for apparent time.
4266. Leap Year.—Leap years are those that are exactly divisible by four, and also by 400, and not by 100. The year 1900, therefore, will not be a leap year.
4267. True Time.—Two kinds of time are used in Almanacs; clock or mean time in some, and apparent or sun time in others. Clock time is always right, while sun time varies every day. People generally suppose it is twelve o'clock when the sun is due south, or at a properly made noon-mark. But this is a mistake. The sun is seldom on the meridian at twelve o'clock; indeed this is the case only on four days of the year: namely, April 15, June 15, September 1, and December 24.
4268. The time when the sun is on the meridian or at the noon-mark is also given to the nearest second, for every day in the year. This affords a ready means of obtaining correct time and for setting a clock by using a noon-mark, adding or subtracting as the sun is slow or fast.
4269. Old-fashioned Almanacs, which use apparent time, give the rising and setting of the sun's centre, and make no allowance for the effect of refraction of the sun's rays by the atmosphere. The more modern and improved Almanacs, which use clock time, give the rising and the setting of the sun's upper limb, and duly allow for refraction.
4270. Velocity of Sound and Light.—Sound moves about thirteen miles in a minute. So that if we hear a clap of thunder half a minute after the flash, we may calculate that the discharge of electricity is six and a half miles off.
4271. In one second of time—in one beat of the pendulum of a clock—light travels over 192,000 miles. Were a cannon ball shot toward the sun, and it were to maintain full speed, it would be twenty years in reaching it—and yet light travels through this space in seven or eight minutes.
SIGNS OF THE WEATHER.
4272. Dew.—If the dew lies plentifully on the grass after a fair day, it is a sign of another. If not, and there is no wind, rain must follow.
4273. A red evening portends fine weather; but if it spreads too far upward from the horizon in the evening, and especially in the morning, it foretells wind or rain, or both.
4274. When the sky, in rainy weather, is tinged with sea-green, the rain will increase; if with deep blue, it will be showery.
4275. Clouds.—Against much rain, the clouds grow bigger, and increase very fast, especially before thunder.
4276. When the clouds are formed like fleeces, but dense in the middle and bright toward the edges, with the sky bright, they are signs of a frost, with hail, snow, or rain.
4277. If clouds form high in the air, in thin white trains like locks of wool, they portend wind, and probably rain.
4278. When a general cloudiness covers the sky, and small black fragments of clouds fly underneath, they are a sure sign of rain, and probably it will be lasting. Two currents of clouds always portend rain, and, in summer, thunder.
4279. Heavenly Bodies.—A haziness in the air, which fades the sun's light, and makes the orb appear whitish, or ill-defined—or at night, if the moon and stars grow dim, and a ring encircles the former, rain will follow.
4280. If the sun's rays appear like Moses' horns—if white at setting, or shorn of his rays, or goes down into a bank of clouds in the horizon, bad weather is to be expected.
4281. If the moon looks pale and dim we expect rain; if red, wind; and if of her natural color, with a clear sky, fair weather. If the moon is rainy throughout, it will be clear at the change, and perhaps the rain return a few days after. If fair throughout, and rain at the change, the fair weather will probably return on the fourth or fifth day.
4282. The Weather and the Blood.—In dry, sultry weather the heat ought to be counteracted by means of a cooling diet. To this purpose, cucumbers, melons, and juicy fruit are subservient.
4283. We ought to give the preference to such alimentary substances as lead to contract the juices which are too much expanded by the heat, and the property is possessed by all acid food and drink.
4284. To this class belong all sorts of salad, lemons, oranges, pomegranates sliced and sprinkled with sugar, for the acid of this fruit is not so apt to derange the stomach as that of lemons; also cherries and strawberries, curds turned with lemon acid or cream of tartar; cream of tartar dissolved in water—lemonade and Rhenish or Moselle wine mixed with water.
AIR—ITS EFFECTS ON LIFE.
4285. What is carbonic acid gas?
4286. A gas formed by the union of carbon and oxygen. It used to be called "fixed air."
4287. Under what circumstances does carbon most readily unite with oxygen?
4288. 1. When its temperature is raised: thus, if carbon be red-hot, oxygen will most readily unite with it; and 2. When it forms part of the fluid blood.
4289. Why do oxygen and carbon so readily unite in the blood?
4290. Because the atoms of carbon are so loosely attracted by the other materials of the blood, that they unite very readily with the oxygen of the air inhaled.
4291. Is carbonic acid wholesome?
4292. No: it is fatal to animal life: and (whenever it is inhaled) acts like a narcotic poison—producing drowsiness, which sometimes ends in death.
4293. How can any one know if a place be infested with carbonic acid gas?
4294. If a pit or well contain carbonic acid, a candle (let down into it) will be instantly extinguished. The rule, therefore, is this—Where a candle will burn, a man can live; but what will extinguish a candle, will also destroy life.
4295. Why does a miner lower a candle into a mine before he descends?
4296. Because the candle will be extinguished, if the mine contains carbonic acid gas; but if the candle is not extinguished, the mine is safe, and the man may fearlessly descend.
4297. Why does a crowded room produce headache?
4298. Because we breathe the air vitiated by the crowd.
4299. Why is the air of a room vitiated by a crowd?
4300. Because it is deprived of its due proportion of oxygen, and laden with carbonic acid.
4301. How is the air of a room affected thus by a crowd?
4302. The elements of the air (inhaled by the breath) are separated in the lungs;—the oxygen is converted in the blood into carbonic acid; and the carbonic acid (together with the nitrogen) is then thrown off by the breath into the room.
4303. Why is country air more pure than the air in cities?
4304. 1. Because there are fewer inhabitants to vitiate the air: 2. There are more trees to restore the equilibrium of the vitiated air: and 3. The free circulation of air keeps it pure and wholesome; in the same way as running streams are pure and wholesome, while stagnant waters are the contrary.
4305. Why does the scantiness of a country population render the country air more pure?
4306. Because the fewer the inhabitants the less carbonic acid will be exhaled; and thus country people inhale pure oxygen, instead of air impregnated with the narcotic poison, called carbonic acid gas.
4307. Why do trees and flowers help to make country air wholesome?
4308. 1. Because trees and flowers absorb the carbonic acid generated by the lungs of animals, putrid substances, and other noxious exhalations: and 2. Trees and flowers restore to the air the oxygen which has been inhaled by man and other animals.
4309. Why is the air of cities less wholesome than the country air?
4310. 1. Because there are more inhabitants to vitiate the air: 2. The sewers, drains, bins, and filth of a city, very greatly vitiate the air: 3. The streets and alleys prevent a free circulation: and 4. Besides all this, there are fewer trees to absorb the excess of carbonic acid gas, and restore the equilibrium.
4311. Why are persons who live in close rooms and crowded cities generally sickly?
4312. Because the air they breathe is not pure, but is (in the first place) defective in oxygen: and (in the second) impregnated with carbonic acid gas.
4313. Where does the carbonic acid of close rooms and cities come from?
4314. From the lungs of the inhabitants, the sewers, drains, and other like places, in which organic substances are undergoing decomposition.
4315. What becomes of the carbonic acid of crowded cities?
4316. Some of it is absorbed by vegetables; and the rest is blown away by the wind, and diffused through the whole volume of the air.
4317. Does not this constant diffusion of carbonic acid affect the purity of the whole air?
4318. No; because it is wafted by the wind from place to place, and absorbed in its passage by the vegetable world.
4319. What is choke damp?
4320. Carbonic acid gas accumulated at the bottom of wells and pits, which renders them noxious, and often fatal to life.
4321. Offensive Cesspools.—Sulphate of zinc can be purchased of any druggist, in the form of a salt, and a pound of it dissolved in two pails of warm water and thrown into an offensive cesspool, will soon deodorize it.
4322. Directions for Pruning Vines.—In pruning always cut upward, and in a sloping direction.
4323. Always leave an inch of blank wood beyond a terminal bud, and let the cut be on the opposite side of the bud.
4324. Prune so as to leave as few wounds as possible, and let the surface of every cut be perfectly smooth.
4325. In cutting out an old branch, prune it even with the parent limb, that the wound may heal quickly.
4326. Prune so as to obtain the quantity of fruit desired on the smallest number of shoots possible.
4327. Never prune in frosty weather, nor when a frost is expected.
4328. Never prune in the months of March, April, or May; pruning in either of these months causes bleeding, and occasions thereby a wasteful and injurious expenditure of sap.
4329. Let the general autumnal pruning take place as soon after the 1st of October as the gathering of the fruit will permit. Lastly. Use a prying-knife of the best description; and let it be, if possible, as sharp as a razor.
4330. Curious Properties of some Figures.—To multiply by 2 is the same as to multiply by 10 and divide by 5.
4331. Any number of figures you may wish to multiply by 5, will give the same result if divided by 2—a much quicker operation than the former; but you must remember to annex a cipher to the answer where there is no remainder, and where there is a remainder annex a 5 to the answer.
4332. Thus, multiply 464 by 5, the answer will be 2320; divide the same number by 2, and you have 232, and as there is no remainder you add a cipher. Now, take 357, and multiply by 5—the answer is 1785. On dividing 357 by 2, there is 178, and a remainder; you therefore place 5 at the right of the line, and the result is again 1785.
4333. There is something more curious in the properties of the number 9. Any number multiplied by 9 produces a sum of figures which, added together, continually makes 9. For example, all the first multiples of 9, as 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, sum up 9 each. Each of them multiplied by any number whatever produces a similar result; as 8 times 81 are 648, these added together make 18, 1 and 8 are 9. Multiply 648 by itself, the product is 419,904—the sum of these digits is 27, 2 and 7 are 9. The rule is invariable.
4334. Take any number whatever and multiply it by 9; or any multiple of 9, and the sum will consist of figures which, added together, continually number 9. As 17 × 19 = 306, 6 and 3 are 9; 117 × 27 = 3159, the figures sum up 18, 8 and 1 are 9; 4591 × 72 = 330,552, the figures sum up 18, 8 and 1 are 9. Again, 87,363 × 54 = 4,717,422; added together, the product is 27, or 2 and 7 are 9, and so always.
4335. Technical terms relative to Books, Engravings, etc:
4336. Books are distinguished according to the number of pages in a sheet of the paper on which they are printed; as, two leaves, four pages, folio; four leaves, eight pages, quarto, or 4to.; eight leaves, sixteen pages, octavo, or 8vo.; twelve leaves, twenty-four pages, twelves, duodecimo, or 12mo.; sixteen leaves, thirty-two pages, sixteens, or 16mo.; eighteen leaves, thirty-six pages, octodecimo, eighteens, or 18mo.
4337. The size of a book is determined by the size or designation of a sheet of the paper on which it is printed; as foolscap 4to., or 8vo.; post 8vo.; demy 8vo; royal 8vo. &c.
4338. The letters A, B, C, D, &c., and the letters and figures, A 2, A 3, A 4, &c., at the bottoms of the first, third, fifth, seventh, &c., pages of printed sheets, are marks for directing the printer, bookseller, and bookbinder in collecting, collating, folding and placing the sheets in proper order. These marks are usually termed signatures.
4339. When the page of a book is divided into two or more parts by a line or lines, or blank spaces, running from the top to the bottom, each division is called a column. This work is printed in columns.
4340. Vignette is a French term, designating the ornamental engraving, without a border, which is sometimes placed in the title-page of a book, at the head or termination of a chapter, &c.
4341. Xylography is the art of engraving upon wood; etching, mezzotinto, aquatinta, are varieties of the art of engraving upon copper. Until within these few years, copper and wood were the substances employed by engravers for book illustrations. For certain purposes, wood (box-wood) continues in the highest repute: but copper has been in a great measure superseded by steel, where a large number of impressions is required.
4342. Electrography is a newly-discovered electrical process, by which one copper plate may be expeditiously produced, in fac simile from another.
4343. Glyphography is a somewhat similar process, by which, through the action of the voltaic battery, plates may be obtained from drawings, affording impressions ad libitum.
4344. Lithography is the art of taking impressions from drawings or writings made on prepared and highly-polished calcareous stone.
4345. Zincography is an adaptation of the same principle to plates of zinc. All these processes are now extensively employed in the illustrations of books for various purposes.
LAWS—IMPORTANCE OF LAWS.
4346. Every citizen should earnestly and constantly bear in mind the important fact, that his only safety for person, property, liberty and life, is in the absolute supremacy of the constitution and the laws.
4347. Betting on Elections.—This is an extensive and pernicious evil, alike injurious to the citizen and to the purity of elections. All are interested in its suppression; let all then unite in getting up and presenting petitions to the several State legislatures for the passage of a law similar to that introduced into the Legislature of Missouri against betters and stakeholders, and fining both to the amount of money or property bet. Also punishing by fine any person who may publish a bet, or assist in any way in making it.
4348. A decision in Ohio makes proprietors of stages responsible for passengers' baggage, notwithstanding their caution of "All baggage at the risk of the owners."
4349. A Non-resident.—A person having a place of business in a city or town, and boarding and lodging in another, is a non-resident in his place of business.
4350. Titles of land derived under sales for taxes are declared good by Supreme Court of Illinois.
4351. A salesman receiving a per centage is not thereby constituted a partner.
4352. Breach of trust is where valuables are received in the course of employment, for or in the name of the employer, and embezzled; but if the valuables have come to the possession of the employer, the offense is larceny.
4353. A husband is liable for goods furnished his wife, if, from ill-treatment or other sufficient cause, she does not live with him; but if she leave him from unjustifiable causes, he is not liable even for necessaries, whether the tradesman knows of such separation or not.
4354. Erasing or altering an endorsement on a note is forgery.
4355. A town is liable for damages occasioned by any obstruction placed on the road by human agency, and is bound to make roads safe and convenient for travelers.
4356. Common Carriers.—The owners of a steamboat are responsible to shippers of goods as common carriers. Common carriers, if they make a wrong delivery, are responsible for any loss.
4357. The owners of goods must have them properly marked, and entered in carriers' books; and if he neglects to do it, he must bear the loss.
4358. An account current rendered, and accepted without objection being made in a reasonable time, precludes objection afterward, and makes it a stated account.
4359. A will dictated and taken down in pencil only, and signed by two witnesses, is valid, if deceased was in sound mind when he gave the instructions.
4360. Wills.—A will is an instrument in writing, executed in form of law, by which a person makes a disposition of his property, to take effect after his death.
4361. A codicil is a supplement or addition to a will, and by which the will is altered, explained or added to, but in no case wholly revoked.
4362. A bequest to a subscribing of a will is void.
4363. Let every man about to make a will endeavor to make it as concise as possible; and if he employs a lawyer, agree to pay him, not by the length, but by the transaction. Let him keep in his mind that every trust or use he creates, also creates the danger of a lawsuit. Every will should be dated on the day it is executed.
4364. It is also of the first importance that it should be prepared without blot or alteration, or erasure, for it is an instrument that may not come into operation for many years—of a surety not until the party best capable of explaining it, the testator himself, is removed from the scene of evidence, and possibly not until both the writer of it, and the witnesses, have either ceased to exist, or whose locality is not to be traced.
4365. Homestead Exemption.—It has been truly, as well as eloquently said, that "Women are the Corinthian pillars that adorn and support society; the institutions that protect women throw a shield also around children; and where women and children are provided for, man must be secure in his rights."
4366. From this radical law of society, which makes the best interests of humanity dependent on the integrity and comfort of the Homes of the People, arises the necessity that legislation should protect the sacredness, and insure the safety of the places where women and children dwell. We hope that every State in our broad land will take heed of this paramount duty.
The following extracts exhibit the various qualifications of the Homestead Exemption Laws now in force in the several States named:—
4367. Maine.—A lot of land, a dwelling-house, and out-buildings thereon, or so much thereof as shall not exceed $5000 in value.
4368. Vermont.—The homestead of every housekeeper, or head of a family, to the value of $500, and the yearly products thereof.
4369. Massachusetts.—The lot and buildings thereon occupied as a residence, to the value of $5000.
4370. New York.—The lot and buildings thereon occupied as a residence, to the value of $5000.
4371. Maryland.—All real estate acquired by marriage during the life of a wife, from execution for debt of husband.
4372. Georgia.—Twenty acres of land, including dwelling and improvements, not to exceed $200; and the additional amount of five acres for each child under fifteen years of age.
4373. Florida.—Forty acres of land, when not in any town or city, and provided such does not exceed in value $400.
4374. Alabama.—Forty acres of land to every farmer; and to every housekeeper, residing in a town or city, a house and lot not to exceed $3000 in value.
4375. Texas.—Two hundred acres of land (when not in any town lots), not to exceed $2000 in value.
4376. Ohio.—Every family a homestead not to exceed $500 in value.
4377. Michigan.—Forty acres, with dwelling-house and appurtenance, when not in town or city; if in town or city, a lot or dwelling-house not to exceed in value $1500.
4378. Illinois.—Lot of ground and building occupied as a residence, not exceeding in value $1000.
4379. Iowa.—Forty acres of land, not in town or city, or a town or city lot not exceeding in amount one-fourth of an acre.
4380. California.—The homestead, consisting of a quantity of land, together with the dwelling-house thereon and its appurtenances, and not exceeding in value the sum of $5000.
4381. New Jersey.—A homestead to each head of a family, being the family residence, to the value of $500; not to be assets in the hands of an administrator, but to remain for the benefit of the widow, and until the maturity of the minor child.
4382. South Carolina.—A homestead of fifty acres of land, including the dwelling-house and appurtenances, not to exceed $500 in value, and to extend to any property situated within the limits of any city or town corporate.
4383. Arkansas has an homestead exemption.
4384. Pennsylvania.—The amount of $300, in real or personal property.
4385. Other States may have exemption laws, but I have not found any record.
4386. Naturalization Laws.—Congress alone has power to make or regulate the laws of naturalization.
4387. An alien must renounce, in court, allegiance, &c., to any foreign power, and declare his intention of becoming a citizen at least two years before admission. Must swear to support the Constitution, renounce any hereditary title or order of nobility, and must have resided five years in the country, and satisfy the court that he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same.
4388. Children of naturalized citizens, if under twenty-one years of age at the time of their parents' naturalization, shall, if dwelling in the United States, be considered as citizens. An alien, having declared his intention, and dying before he was naturalized, his widow and children, on taking the oaths prescribed, shall be entitled to all the rights of citizenship.
4389. Receipts.—A receipt is not conclusive evidence of payment, but it throws the burden of proof upon him who attempts to impeach it.
4390. Receipts may be either in full of all demands, for a special account, in part payment of an account, or for a special purpose.
4391. The arrangement of the wording of a receipt is not important, if the object and time be distinctly stated in it.
4392. A general receipt "in full of all demands" is a discharge of all debts except special debts under seal.
4393. The legality of signatures in pencil has ever been questioned.
4394. Account books, notes or receipts, written in pencil, would not be respected in any law court.
4395. In those States in which exemption laws are enforced, the drawer of a promissory note may expressly waive all right of benefit from those laws. Conditions which the subscriber may add to a "note of promise," if accepted by the receiver, holds good in every State, unless they directly contravene local laws.
PHRENOLOGY.
4396. The word is derived from two Greek words, signifying mind and doctrine or discourse.
4397. Phrenology designates that system of mental philosophy which treats of the special manifestation of minds.
4398. Phrenology teaches that the faculties of the mind have, each one, its special organ or place in the brain; and that these organs, in their aggregate, constitute the brain. Therefore the brain is the organ of the mind.
4399. Powers of Mind.—These are manifested by the size and developments of the brain—when temperament, health, and opportunities are equal.
4400. The size of each organ measures the power of the faculty which is exercised by means of it.
4401. Each organ desires its own active gratification in proportion to its development, the larger controlling the smaller.
4402. This is a brief outline of the science or study. The general principles are, more or less, interwoven into our literature, and influence our systems of education; therefore the following may be found interesting and curious, if not useful.
4403. Heads:—
4404. Faculties of the Mind.
4405. Of the Feelings or Affective Faculties, usually styled propensities.
4406. Alimentativeness—Gives appetite for food. It has been a question whether this organ was in the brain or the stomach, therefore it is not numbered on the head.
4407. 1. Amativeness—Produces sexual love, desire, physical love.
4408. 2. Philoprogenitiveness—Love of children and young beings.
4409. 3. Concentrativeness—Continues the mind on emotion or ideas.
4410. 4. Adhesiveness—Friendship, sociability, attachment generally.
4411. 5. Combativeness—Courage, opposition, intrepidity, quarrelsomeness.
4412. 6. Destructiveness—Desire to destroy, torment; harshness, cruelty.
4413. 7. Secretiveness—Concealment, prudence, cunning, hypocrisy.
4414. 8. Acquisitiveness—Desire to acquire property; avarice, selfishness.
4415. 9. Constructiveness—Mechanical genius, desire to build.
SENTIMENTS—INFERIOR AND SUPERIOR.
4416. 10. Self-Esteem—Self-respect, personal dignity, pride, haughtiness.
4417. 11. Approbativeness—Thirst for praise, fame, or glory; ambition, vanity.
4418. 12. Cautiousness—Circumspection, timidity, fear, despondency.
4419. 13. Benevolence—Universal charity, mildness of disposition.
4420. 14. Veneration—Reverence, superstitious adoration, bigotry.
4421. 15. Firmness—Determination, perseverance, obstinacy, resolution.
4422. 16. Conscientiousness—Love of truth, sense of justice, duty.
4423. 17. Hope—Expects future good; cherishes faith, love of scheming.
4424. 18. Wonder—Desire of novelty, belief in the supernatural.
4425. 19. Ideality—Love of the beautiful, or excellent, poetic feeling.
4426. 20. Mirthfulness—Wit, humor, glee, love of the ludicrous.
4427. 21. Imitation—Expression in arts, or action; mimicry.
INTELLECT, OR KNOWING AND REFLECTING FACULTIES.
4428. 22. Individuality—Observes existences, simple facts.
4429. 23. Form—Observes configuration and the shape of bodies generally.
4430. 24. Size—Gives the idea of space, distance, dimension.
4431. 25. Weight—Perceives momentum, resistance, equilibrium.
4432. 26. Coloring—Gives perception of colors, and their harmonies.
4433. 27. Locality—Gives the idea of relative position, place.
4434. 28. Number—Talent for calculation, quickness in figures.
4435. 29. Order—Communicates the love of physical arrangement.
4436. 30. Eventuality—Observes and remembers occurrences and events.
4437. 31. Time—Perceives duration in nature, time in music.
4438. 32. Tune—Sense of musical harmony, melody.
4439. 33. Language—Verbal memory, fluency in speech or writing.
4440. 34. Comparison—Discovers analogies and differences.
4441. 35. Causality—Traces the relation of cause and effect.
4442. Memory is merely a degree of activity of the knowing and reflecting organs, each organ enabling the mind to recall the impressions which it served at first to receive.
4443. Judgment is the decision of 34 and 35 upon feelings and ideas furnished by the other faculties.
4444. The faculties, in themselves, are instructive; the moral sentiments and intellect being higher than the animal propensities.
4445. Temperaments.—These are four in number, viz:—The Nervous, the Bilious, the Sanguine, and the Lymphatic.
4446. The Nervous temperament is known by the person having fine, thin hair, usually brown; thin, pale or fair skin; gray or dark blue eyes; small muscles. Very active.
4447. The Bilious temperament has black hair and eyes, dark or swarthy skin, firm muscles, strong features, and great energy of will.
4448. The Sanguine temperament is fair and florid; happy, healthy countenance; handsome in youth, and hopeful in spirit always.
4449. The Lymphatic temperament has soft fat muscles; pale or bloodless complexion; slow and languid in action, and usually dull or very easy in mind.
SYNOPSIS OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
4450. Showing the year in which each State was settled, by what people, the number of square miles, and the capital of each State, etc.
4451. Maine.—Settled 1630, by English; 36,000 square miles; capital, Augusta; admitted into the Union 1820.
4452. New Hampshire.—Settled 1623, by English; 9,500 square miles; capital, Concord; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4453. Massachusetts.—Settled 1620, by English; 7,500 square miles; capital, Boston; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4454. Vermont.—Settled 1749, by English; square miles, 10,200; capital, Montpelier; admitted into the Union 1791.
4455. Rhode Island.—Settled 1636, by English; 1350 square miles; capital, Providence and Newport; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4456. Connecticut.—Settled 1633, by English; 4,760 square miles; capital, Hartford and New Haven; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4457. New York.—Settled 1614, by Dutch; square miles, 46,000; capital, Albany; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4458. New Jersey.—Settled 1624, by Dutch and Danes; square miles, 8,300; capital, Trenton; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4459. Pennsylvania.—Settled 1682, by English; square miles, 44,000; capital, Harrisburg; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4460. Delaware.—Settled 1627, by Swedes and Finns; square miles, 2100; capital, Dover; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4461. Maryland.—Settled 1634, by English; square miles, 14,000; capital, Annapolis; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4462. Virginia.—Settled 1607, by English; square miles, 64,000; capital, Richmond; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4463. North Carolina.—Settled 1650, by English; square miles, 48,000; capital, Raleigh; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4464. South Carolina.—Settled 1689, by English; square miles, 24,000; capital, Columbus; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4465. Georgia.—Settled 1733, by English; square miles, 60,000; capital, Milledgeville; one of the "Old Thirteen."
4466. Florida.—For near two hundred years under Spain, was ceded to the United States in 1819, and the East and West formed one territory in 1822; St. Augustine is the oldest town in the United States; Tallahasse is the capital; Pensacola, U. S. naval station. Admitted into the Union 1845.
4467. Ohio.—Settled 1788, by English; square miles, 39,000; capital, Columbus; admitted into the Union 1802.
4468. Indiana.—Settled 1730, by French; square miles, 36,000; capital, Indianapolis; admitted into the Union 1816.
4469. Illinois.—Settled 1749, by French; square miles, 52,000; capital, Springfield; admitted into the Union 1818.
4470. Missouri.—Settled 1763, by French; square miles, 60,000; capital, Jefferson city; admitted into the Union 1821.
4471. Michigan.—Settled 1670, by French; square miles, 65,000; capital, Lansing; admitted into the Union 1836.
4472. Iowa.—Settled by emigrants from other of the United States and Germans; square miles, 150,000; capital, Iowa city; admitted into the Union 1846.
4473. Wisconsin.—Settled by emigrants chiefly from New England and Europe; square miles, 80,000; capital, Madison; admitted into the Union 1848.
4474. Alabama.—Settled 1713, by French; square miles, 44,000; capital, Montgomery; admitted into the Union 1819.
4475. Mississippi.—Settled 1716, by French; square miles, 45,000; capital, Jackson; admitted into the Union 1817.
4476. Louisiana.—Settled 1699, by French; square miles, 48,000; capital, Baton Rouge; admitted into the Union 1811.
4478. Texas.—Settled 1692, by Spanish; square miles, 240,000; settled by Americans 1821; capital, Austin; admitted into the Union 1845.
4479. Arkansas.—Settled by French from Louisiana, and formed part of Missouri in 1819; square miles, 57,000; capital, Little Rock; admitted into the Union 1836.
4480. Tennessee.—Settled 1765, by English; square miles, 40,000; capital, Nashville; admitted into the Union 1796.
4481. Kentucky.—Settled by Virginians; square miles, 42,000; capital, Frankfort; admitted into the Union 1792.
4482. California.—Settled 1769, by Spaniards; ceded to the United States by Mexico, 1848; square miles, 188,000; capital, Sacramento; admitted into the Union 1850.
4483. Territories of the United States.
4484. Oregon Territory.—Beyond the Rocky Mountains; settled by emigrants from the States; will soon be admitted into the Union; capital, Oregon city; square miles over 300,000.
4485. Minnesota Territory.—Settled by emigrants from the older States; capital, St. Paul; will soon be admitted into the Union.
4486. Utah Territory.—Settled by Mormons; capital, Salt Lake city; not to be admitted into the Union with its present institutions.
4487. New Mexico Territory.—Settled by Spaniards; ceded to the United States 1849; capital, Santa Fe; will probably soon be admitted into the Union.
4488. Washington Territory.—Settled by English; square miles, 257,000; capital, Puget's Sound; very few American settlers.
4489. Kansas Territory.—Settled by emigrants chiefly from Missouri and the New England States; capital, Lecompton; will soon be admitted into the Union.
4490. Nebraska Territory.—Settled by emigrants from the older States; capital, Omaha city.
WORDS OF WASHINGTON.
4491. The following rules were found among the early papers of this great hero, patriot and statesman. He wrote them when, probably, about fourteen or fifteen years of age.
4492. As these rules were a guide to him, evidently shown in his life and character, so may they influence the conduct of Young America.
4493. Rules of civility and decent behavior in company and conversation, written by George Washington.
4494. Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.
4495. Be no flatterer; neither play with any one that delights not to be played with.
4496. Read no letters, books, or papers in company; but when there is a necessity for doing it, you must ask leave. Come not near the books or writings of any one so as to read them, unless desired, nor give your opinion of them unasked; also look not nigh when another is writing a letter.
4497. Let your countenance be pleasant, but in serious matters somewhat grave.
4498. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though he were your enemy.
4499. When you meet with one of greater quality than yourself, stop and retire, especially if it be at a door or any strait place, to give way for him to pass.
4500. They that are in dignity, or in office, have in all places precedency; but whilst they are young they ought to respect those that are their equals in birth, or other qualities, though they have no public charge.
4501. It is good manners to prefer them to whom we speak before ourselves, especially if they be above us, with whom in no sort we ought to begin.
4502. Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.
4503. In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician, if you be not knowing therein.
4504. In writing, or speaking, give to every person his due title, according to his degree and the custom of the place.
4505. Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always submit your judgment to others with modesty.
4506. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art he himself professes; it savors of arrogance.
4507. When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it.
4508. Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in public or in private; presently or at some other time; in what terms to do it; and in reproving show no signs of choler, but do it with sweetness and mildness.
4509. Take all admonitions thankfully, in what time or place soever given; but afterward, not being culpable, take a time or place convenient to let him know it that gave them.
4510. Mock not, nor jest at any thing of importance; break no jests that are sharp-biting; and if you deliver any thing witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing thereat yourself.
4511. Wherein you reprove another, be unblamable yourself; for example is more prevalent than precepts.
4512. Use no reproachful language against any one, neither curse nor revile.
4513. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.
4514. In your apparel be modest, and endeavor to accommodate nature rather than to procure admiration; keep to the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly with respect to times and places.
4515. Associate yourselves with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
4516. Be not immodest in urging your friend to discover a secret.
4517. Utter not base or frivolous things amongst grave and learned men; nor very difficult questions or subjects among the ignorant; nor things hard to be believed.
4518. Speak not of doleful things in time of mirth, nor at the table; speak not of melancholy things, as death, and wounds; and if others mention them, change, if you can, the discourse. Tell not your dreams but to your intimate friend.
4519. Break not a jest where none takes pleasure in mirth; laugh not aloud, nor at all without occasion. Deride no man's misfortune, though there seem to be some cause.
4520. Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none, although they give occasion.
4521. Be not forward, but friendly and courteous; the first to salute, hear, and answer; and be not pensive when it is a time to converse.
4522. Detract not from others, neither be excessive in commending.
4523. If two contend together, take not the part of either unconstrained, and be not obstinate in your own opinion; in things indifferent, be of the major side.
4524. Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly, nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly and distinctly.
4525. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not, nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not, nor answer him till his speech be ended.
4526. Make no comparisons; and if any of the company be commended for any brave act of virtue, commend not another for the same.
4527. Be not apt to relate news, if you know not the truth thereof. In discoursing of things you have heard, name not your author always. A secret discover not.
4528. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise.
4529. In disputes be not so desirous to overcome as not to give liberty to each one to deliver his opinion, and submit to the judgment of the major part, especially if they are judges of the dispute.
4530. Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.
4531. Be not angry at table, whatever happens; and if you have reason to be so, show it not; put on a cheerful countenance, especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat a feast.
4532. When you speak of God, or his attributes, let it be seriously in reverence. Honor and obey your natural parents, although they be poor.
4533. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.
4534. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
USEFUL FAMILY TABLES.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
4535. A—Measure of Length.
| 12 | Inches | = | 1 Foot, | |
| 3 | Feet | " | 1 Yard, | |
| 5 | ½ | Yards | " | 1 Rod, or Pole, |
| 40 | Poles | " | 1 Furlong, | |
| 8 | Furlongs | " | 1 Mile, | |
| 69 | 1/51 | Miles | " | 1 Degree of Great Circle of Earth. |
4536. An inch is the smallest lineal measure to which a name is given, but subdivisions are used for many purposes. Among mechanics the inch is commonly divided into eighths. By the officers of the revenue, and by scientific persons, it is divided into tenths, hundredths, &c. Formerly it was made to consist of twelve parts called lines.
4537. B.—Particular Measures of Length.
| A Nail | = | 2¼ | inches | } }Used for measuring Cloth }of all kinds. } |
| Quarter | " | 4 | Nails | |
| Yard | " | 4 | Quarters | |
| Ell | " | 5 | Quarters | |
| Hand | " | 4 | Inches, | used for the height of Horses. |
| Fathom | " | 6 | Feet, | used in measuring depths. |
| Link | " | 7 | In. 92 hdths. | }Used in Land Measure to }facilitate computation of } being equal to an acre. |
| Chain | " | 100 | Links |
4538. C.—Measure of Surface.
| 144 | Square Inches | = | 1 Square Foot |
| 9 | Square Feet | " | 1 Square Yard |
| 30¼ | Square Yards | " | 1 Perch, or Rod |
| 40 | Perches | " | 1 Rood |
| 4 | Roods | " | 1 Acre |
| 640 | Acres | " | 1 Square Mile. |
4539. D.—Measures of Solidity and Capacity.
DIVISION I.—SOLIDITY.
| 1728 | Cubic Inches | = | 1 Cubic Foot |
| 27 | Cubic Feet | " | 1 Cubic Yard |
DIVISION II.—CAPACITY.
| 4 Gills | = | 1 Pint | = | 34⅔ | cubic inches nearly. |
| 2 Pints | " | 1 Quart | " | 69½ | " |
| 4 Quarts | " | 1 Gallon | " | 277¼ | " |
| 2 Gallons | " | 1 Peck | " | 554½ | " |
| 8 Gallons | " | 1 Bushel | " | 2218¼ | " |
| 8 Bushels | " | 1 Quarter | " | 10¼ | cubic feet nearly. |
| 5 Quarters | " | 1 Load | " | 51½ | " |
4540. The four last denominations are used for dry goods only. For liquids several denominations have been heretofore adopted, viz.:—for Beer, the Firkin of 9 gallons, the Kilderkin, of 18, the Barrel, of 36, the Hogshead, of 54, and the Butt, of 108 gallons. These will probably continue to be used in practice. For Wine and Spirits, there are the Anker, Runlet, Tierce, Hogshead, Puncheon, Pipe, Butt, and Tun; but these may be considered rather as the names of the casks in which such commodities are imported, than as expressing any definite number of gallons. It is the practice to gauge all such vessels, and to charge them according to their actual content.
4541. Flour is sold nominally by measure, but actually by weight, reckoned at 7 lbs. Avoirdupois to a gallon.
4542. E.—Measure of Avoirdupois Weight.
| 2711/32 | Grains | = | 1 Dram | = | 2711/32 | grains |
| 16 | Drams | " | 1 Ounce | " | 437½ | " |
| 16 | Ounces | " | 1 Pound (lb.) | " | 7000 | " |
| 28 | Pounds | " | 1 Quarter (qr.) | |||
| 4 | Quarters | " | 1 Hundred- weight (cwt.) | |||
| 20 | Cwt. | " | 1 Ton. |
This weight is used in almost all commercial transactions, and in the common dealings of life.
| A Firkin of Butter | 56 lb. | A Barrel of Soap | 256 lb. |
| ------------- Soap | 64 " | ----------- Raisins | 112 " |
| A Barrel of Anchovies | 30 " | A Fother of Lead | 19½ cwt. |
4543. F.—Measures of Pounds.
The following table of the number of pounds of various articles to a bushel, may be of interest to some of our farming friends.
| Wheat | 60 lbs. | is 1 bus. | Clover Seed | 60 lbs. | is 1 bus. |
| Shelled Corn | 46 | " " | Timothy seed | 45 | " " |
| Corn in cob | 70 | " " | Flax Seed | 56 | " " |
| Oats | 35 | " " | Hemp Seed | 44 | " " |
| Barley | 48 | " " | Buckwheat | 42 | " " |
| Potatoes | 60 | " " | Blue grass seed | 14 | " " |
| Beans | 60 | " " | Castor Beans | 46 | " " |
| Bran | 20 | " " |
4544. G.—Measures for Housekeepers.[D]
4545.[E]
LIQUIDS.
| 16 | large table-spoonsful | are | half a pint |
| 8 | large table-spoonsful | are | one gill |
| 4 | large table-spoonsful | are | half a gill |
| 2 | gills | are | half a pint |
| 2 | pints | are | one quart |
| 4 | quarts | are | one gallon |
| A | common-sized tumbler holds | half a pint | |
| A | common-sized wine-glass holds | half a gill | |
| 25 | drops are equal to | one teaspoonful | |