The National tribune., 1884-12-25
LOYAL WOMBN'S WORK
Proper Dict Conversation Club New
Year Greetings.
A HAPPY NEW YEAR.


Thank Cod for the years! Thank Him for
the division Of time into seasons! For the
Summer and the Winter; the seed time and
the harvest; the day and the night; the rest
and the toll. Like a book that is divided into
chapters and the chapters into verses has God
opened for us the Bible of the Years. ! fear
should we open the Sacred Book and find 10
chapter there we should close it all too quickly,
or read more than we could make our own and
so read 10 no purpose. ] fear ii we had no New
Years Day the months would run together into
a hopeless confusion; nobody stopping to take
an inventory of his goods or his stocks, his
deeds of good o. OF bad.
New Years Day is no artificial halt in the
race of time. Our days 60 On in a circle, and
once every year we pass the stage from which
we set out. We may grow gray in the race
and come in halt and crippled TO the goal or
we may never come at all. But the grand
circle is the same and ever has been since the
Father of the Race, in the year /, in the Garden
Beautiful, set out on his first journey with the
sun. He trirped and fell on the way, and was
driven by flaming swords and beset by brambles
and stung with thistles. In one short year he
was an angel, a coward, a penitent and hero.
lie had tasted of Heaven and supped with
Hell. His companions had been angels and
demons. He had held converse with the Creator
and with the Destroyer OF Men. he had heard
the voice of God and listened to the counsels of
the Evil 0ne. He had enjoyed and suffered,
exchanged heavenly sweetness for worldly wis
dom, and holy calm for anxious care.
The world which the Lord had placed at his
feet defied him; the beasts he had named sprang
out upon him; the birds Knocked him, and even
the spiders laid their web across his path. Yet
he made the circle of the years, as his sons and
daughters have been making it ever since. And
In proportion as ne was brave and patient and
believing he received his reward, as his sons
and daughters who are brave and patient and
believing now are receiving theirs. The VIM
ter and Summer the Springtime and the har-
vest repeat themselves; and joys and sorrows,
struggles and rewards repeat themselves. New
ventures, new resolves, new sinnings new
triumphs-these fill up the years for us all.
Yes, thank God for the years and may He
put into this heart of mine and of yours better
hope for ourselves and for the day and age we
serve! Let His arm be around us when we
are ready TO fall and His voice in our ear when
we would fail. And So
Let the New Year bring what il WILL o Friend,
Nothing have we 10 fear
The past ii was good; let the good past lend
The future Its glow and cheer
WHAT WE SHOULD EAT.
The object of all food should be nutrition.
1t is folly to eat simply what tastes good, TO
the exclusion of what the body requires. Next
to a child crying for candy when il should be
given milk, IS a woman mincing fiUmmery at
the table when she should be eating piece of
steak. Our food should be varied, or the fats
viii get the better of the muscles, feyerish heat
viii lord it over strength, and dissolving tissues
undermine both brain and win. 1t should
contain salts to renew the mineral parts and
repair the tissues; carbon, to furnish fuel and
warmth: nitrogen, to build up the whole
structure, and sufficient water TO help diges-
ton, assimilate the food and wash away the
refuse of the body. Look, then, to your food,
and see that you have plenty of vegetables,
abundance of bread, good water and milk, and
meat in reason and i'll season. To eat an undue
proportion of meat, TO the exclusion of vege-
tables and bread, is to afford too much fuel and
set the body on fire. To eat no meat is to be-
come chilly and bloodleSs. To deny yourself
vegetables is TO lose in nitrogen and the salts.
See 10 it that your food be well proportioned
and palatably prepared.
very important vegetable is the potato,
and yet it is often cooked in a way that impairs
Its virtues greatly, and were it not that in this
country we make up in our variety of foods
what we lose in this way, weshould suffer more
from our greasy treatment of it than we do.
In Ireland, where the potato is the chief article
of diet of hardy people, they excel in cook
ing it, just as the Scotch do in the preparation
of their national dish, oatmeal For those who
subslst largely on potatoes we can cordially
recommend the Irish method which we have
tested. Cooking them in that way you secure
the lime properties that are chiefly in the
skins.
BOILED POTATOES.
Wash the potatoes clean and leave the skins
on; then bring the water to boil and throw
them in. As soon as boiled soft enough for
fork to be easily thrust through them, dash
some cold water into the pot let the potatoes
remain two minutes, and then pour off the
water. This done, half remove the pot lid. and
let the potatoes remain over a slow FIRE till the
steam is eyaporated; then peel and set them
on the table in an open dish. Potatoes of
good kind. thus cooked, viii always be sweet,
dry. and mealy. A covered dish is bad for
potatoes, as it keeps the steam in and makes
them soft and watery. To keep them warm,
lay folded napkin over the potatoes and
bring to the table. After each one has been
helped, replace the napkin, thus keeping the
vegetable warm.
Conversation CIGb.