The Newtown bee., 1879-06-25
HOUSEKEEPING IN SUMMER.
The Good vife's Perplexities Diet for the Dog Days-FIies and Fresh Air.

~ io EOPlilIlIy SuppoSSo IhttC biIG CStI ly spring is the season which most tries the souls of housekeepers. Perhaps it was so in our grandmothers' days, when canned fruits and vegetables were un known, and the prudent housewife was forced in summer, like the ant and the bee, to lay up stores of sweetness for use in winter hours;' stores which, if not large, were likely to run low before the kitchen garden came again into our backs ready flor compensationn to supply us with every known fruit and vegetable all the year round, she who has money or credit may spread her table bountifully in all seasons, with small forethought of her own, and the dog days are those in which she is most prone to exclaim wearily: ''l wish peo- pie did not have to eat!n Appetites are capricious dinner eaten hearily one day will be scarcely touched the next, and though every one has D feeling of emptiness, few persons are actually hungry. Provisions cooked one day are kept to the next only by the free use ot ice, and even then are apt to taste of the ice chest. Thus the economy practiced at King Arthur's court, where what they could not eat that day the queen next morning fried" becomes an inn possible virtue. and the anxious house. W llt SldllIS pCIpICACt DtbW tVlI UItS hpSJ Il'e of niggardliness and the Charybdls Of waste. Nature, however, Is always law unto herself, and he who in warm weather eats much meat is apt to pay for it by dulled brain and a general feeling of uncomfortable heaviness. In all warm countries the labOring classes eat but sparingly of animal food. The East Indian coolie subsists almost wholly on rice; the West Indian grows fat upon han3naC and and the hardy Arab of the desert conquered world on diet of dates and barley. Milk and fruits, bread and vegetables, are cooling and healthy diet for the dog days, and may be freely indulged in. And since in hot weather the kitchen is a modified purgatory, and preparing deserts becomes 8 penance, we have cause to congratulate ourselves on the delicious deserts which nature brings to us for the gathering. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and peaches all these come to the table without the smell of fire having passed upon them, and eaten with cream arc dish to set before king" So also in the country, where fruit and milk abound, ice-cream, that most delicious of deserts, costs almost nothing. Given pailful of ice and tive-minute freezer, the rich milk, or still better, cream, has but to be mixed with the crushed fruit, sweetened and let to freeze itself. Covered with an old blanket or piece of carpeting the pro- cess of congealing will go on slowly but surely, with small aid from you, even if your freezer be but a tin bucket-only in this case you must stir the cream with knife two or three times while freezing to prevent the formation of crystals of ice in the freezer.
 Breakfast, especially, should never, in hot weather. be D heavy meal. A cup of - tea or glass of milk, a dish of oatmeal. a soft boiled egg, with fresh fruit and cold bread, which need not, however, be stale, are far better preparations for the labors of the day than hapjacks and fried bacon washed down with abun- dance of hot coffee When the Greek athletes were in training for the Olym- plan games they were forP2iidtalfFTr P2iidtlf faces c-c on fn6fett ttl6t%o l6i BfSfead and fruit. In later days Newton was the most abstemious of men, and the architect of the Crystal Palace. Sir Charles Fox, ascribed his ability to undergo the severe strain of his almost incessant labor for days on his drawing, to his temperate habits might be multiplied indefinitely, but it is scarcely worth while.
 Every housekeeper knows what q nuisance flies are in summer. Two weapons are powerful against them, cleanliness and darkness. Therefore the dining-room should be kept dark be- tween meals, and care should be taken to sweep every crum from table and floor. But it will not do simply to shut up the room, shutting up the flies in it.. Close every window and door but one, anG through that drive the flies out. This is not so hard as it may seem upon paper, and practice makes perfect here as in all else. We have known a house. keeper who was so expert that she had only to wave her broom and the flies dutifully swarned out as they saw the = standard raised in air. Fly-nets for the windows are comfortable appendages for living and sleeping-r Bought ready-made they are somewhat eX- pensive; made at home they cost only q trife Have the carpenter-or if some one in thetamily knows how to handle tools, letlhim-make frame of inch wide lath, fitting the window frame. On this stretch mosquito netting-dark green is best-and fasten with tacks to the latls. The same netting over a frame ofteeds, of osiers, or wires from an old bDpskirt make serviceable cake and butte covers. Bend one hoop into round q the size wanted, then on this fasten tw' semi-circular hoops, crossing each othe at right angles in the center above thbottom hoop. This forms the frame, which, if of wire, should be wrappedvith worsted; on this the net ting is swed, and button on the top serves asl handle.
 Air eyry sleeping-room- thoroughly every mdning, and, if possible, let in the sun to slne on the beds and bed-clothes. Often atnight, when the heat is we'll nigh untarable, wet cloth hung in the windowbver the blind will cool the room as ashower had fallen, and every one knoTs how water poured on the pavemen in front of the door will freshen te hot, dry air. This principle
 of the reuction of temperature by evap-
 oration capable of much practical ap-
 plication In India and other tropical
 countrie where ice is almost unknown,
 the nativs cool their drinking water ty saspendig earthen jars filled with it in a brisk clfrent of air which nrncess is