The Republican journal., 1870-03-31
NEW BOOKS.

PRINCIPLES OF DOMESTIC SCIENCES; as applied
to the Duties and Pleasures of Home; by Cath
crime f. Beecher and Harriet Beccher Stowe
Ii. A. Brown e. Co., Boston.
This book, although ostensibly a ''Text
book for the use of young ladies in schools
scminaries, and colleges" is one that SHOULD
find place in every home in the land: no
on the book on the centre-table, but il
the hand of every member of the household
1t is brim-full and running over with facts
of which every man and woman old ano
young, housc-keeper or denizen of a board
ing house even, for the sake of health, com
fort and happiness should be well informed
1t is an attempt, and very successful one,
to embody within small compass a large
amount of exceedingly valuable information
that the object is we'll accomplished the
we'll established reputation of the authors is
sufficient guarantee.
Among the topics treated we note particu-
larry, "a Healthful Home" 'IIeathful Food
and Drinks" "Health of Mind" Cleanli-
ness" "Care of the Aged-thc Sick-of Ser
wants." &C., &C.
We are tempted to make copious extracts
for the instruction of our readers, as well as
to invite their careful attention to the entire
work. We must content ourselves, at pres
ent, with the following, from the chapter on
''Home Decoration" involving us it does
matters of special interest to our lady read
| crs.
| If you live in the country, or can get into the
country, and have your eyes opened and your wits
about you, your house need not be condemned TO
an absolute baroness. Not so long as the woods
full of beautiful ferns and MOSES. while every
| swamp shakes and mods with tremulous grasses,
need you feel yourself an utterly disinterested
child Of nature, and deprived of its artistic use.
| For example: Take old tin pan condemned
to the retired list by of holes in the bottom,
get twenty-five cents worth of green paint for this
| and other purposes, and paint it. The holes i'll the
If there are no holes, you must drill two three
as drainage Is essential. Now put layer one inch
deep q broken charcoal and potsherds over the
bottom, and then soil, in the following proportions
Two fOurthS WOOu-sO such YOU find in for
ests, under trees.
One fourth clean sand
| One fourth meadow-sol taken from under fresh
| turf. Mix with this some charcoal dust.
In this soil plant all sorts of ferns, together with
some few swamp-grasses; and around the edge put
Il border of money-plant or periwinkle to hang
over. This will need to be Watered once or twice
| a week, and it will grow and thrive all summer
| you can suspend it by wires and make hanging
basket. Ferns and Wood-grasScs need not have
sunshine-they grow well in shadowy places.
| On this same principle you can convert Sat-box
or an old drum of figs into hanging basket. Tack
| bark and pine-cOncs and moss upon the outside of
Ii, drill holes and pass wires through it, and YOU
have woodland hangng-baSkct. which will hang
| and grow i'll any corner of your house.
We have been into rooms which. by the simple
disposition of articles of this kind. have been made
to have an air so poetical and attractive that they
| seemed more like nvmph's cave than any thing in
| the real world.
The following from the chapter on Good
Cooking is of special interest to rs, because
| it indicates the mode in which an old and
early friend of ours may be rescued from the
disreputc into which it has fallen in some
quarters.
| Our stallnch old friend, the potato is to other
vegetables what bread is on the table. Like bread
it is held as sort of sineluonon, like that, it
may be made invariably paatablc by little care
in few plain particulars. through neglect of which
it often becomes intolcrabe. The sOggv, waXy in
digestibe Wand that often appears in the potato
dish is DOWNRIGHT sacrifice Of the better nature
| of this vegetable.
The potato, nutritive and harmless as it appears.
belongs to family suspected of very dangerous
traits. 1t is family connection of the deadly
| nightshade and other -reputcd gentry, and some
| times shows strange procivities to cvil-now
breaking out uproafously, as IN the noted potato
rot, and now more covertly. in various evil atfec
tons. For this reason scientific directors bid us
beware of the water in which potatoes are boiled
into which, it appears, the evil principle is drawn
off; and they caution not to shred them into stews
without previously suffering the slices to lie for an
hour or so III salt and water. These cautions are
worthy attention.
The most usual mode, of preparing the potato
| for the table are by roasting or boiling. These pro-
| cesses are so simple that it is commonly supposed
every cook understands them without special direc-
tons; and yet there is scarcely an uninstructcd
cook who can boil or roast potato
| A good roasted potato is delicacy worth dozen
compositions of the cookbook; yet when we ask
for it, what burnt, shriveled abortons present
ed to us! Biddy PUSHES to her potato-basket and
pours two dozen Of different sizes, some having in
them three times the amount of matter of others.
These being washed, she tumbes them into her
oven at leisure interval and there lets them lie
till it is time to serve breakfast, whenever that may
be. AS result, if the largest are cooked, the
smallest are presented in cinders, and the inter-
mediate sizes are withered and watery. Nothing
is so utterly ruined by afew moments of OVERRIDING.
That which at the right moment was plump with
mealy richness a quarter of an hour latter shriyes
and becomes watery-and it is in this state that
roast potatoes are most frequently served.
In the same manner we have seen boiled potatoes
from an untaught cook coming upon the table like
Jumps of yellow waX-and the same article, under
the directions of skillfu mistress. appearing in
snowy balls ofpowdery whiteness In the one case.
they were thrown in their skins into the water and
suffered to soak or boil, as the might be, at
the cooks leisure, and after they were boiled to
stand in the water till she ready to peel them.
In the other case, the potatoes being first peeled
were boiled as quickly as possible in sailed water,
which the moment they were done drained OFT,
and then they were gently shaken for moment Or
two over the fire to dry them still thoroughly
We have never yet seen the potato dcpraved and
given over to evil that it could not be reclaimed by
this mode of treatment.
| AS to fried potatoes, who that remembers the
crisp, golden slices of the French restaurant thin
as waters ami light as snow flakes, does not speak
respectfully of them? What cousinshp with these
have those coarse, greasy mass of sliced pota to
wholly sOggy and partly burnt, to which we are
treated under the name Of fried potatoes in Anne III
lea: In cities the restaurants are introducing
the French article to great acceptance, and to the
ylndication of the fair fame of this queen of veget
bles.
The chapter on ''Accidents and Antidotcs, 3
or that on ''Iabits of System and Order
either one of them is richly worth the cost OF
the book to any household. We may have
occasion to refer to it again.
ii THE SEAMsTREss TRAGEDY. A. L. Robin
son, the paramount of Mrs Lunsford, the
) seamstress who was found murdered in hel
, bed, a few mornings ago at Mansfield, o.
has been charged with the murder by a coro
! ner's jury. He has a wife who seems to have
known little about his habits, but whose ties
timony as to the late hour in which her hrs
1 Il