The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-01-21
The Sewing-Machine.


The Sewing-Machine.
The sewing-machine made it possible
to cheaper enormously the construction
of clothing and to set free from that
work vast quantity of labor for other
fields of production, tributary to the
convenience of living, or to the sense
of beauty, or to the desire for knowl-
edge. Has it realized such result in
any degree commensurate at all with
what it added to the efficiency of labor
in the employment of sewing? No.
And why? Because despicable, sense
less and most vulgar vanity in that
minor fraction of mankind which has the
power, more or less, to command labor
at will, refuses to let clothing be cheap
ened, and persists in the contemplate
display of an ability to possess and to
wear clothes which cost much labor.
So the " world of fashion," as we call
it, exerts a perverted ingenuity in con-
irving forms of construction and frivol-
Gus changes in dress which shall con-
stantly use up, and more than use up,
if possible, all the gain to labor that is
derived from mechanical invention.
With what object? To improve our
dress in durability or comfort? No. To
add any quality of beauty, or grace, or
picturesqueness? No. To satisfy any
demand from any taste, whether pure
and artistic, or false? No. If these OBJ
jects are thought of at all, they are the
last and the least things considered in
the edicts of fashion, to which a sur
viving barbarism in society is servile.
1t is a case of consumption, for the most
part, with no object; of consumption for
the sake of consuming, of consumption
grossly to parade the power to con-
sumo.
Communication from 81. A. p"
Mr.. Editor Il am glad you have
added "Woman's Department to
that excellent paper, THE WATERMAN.
1 send some recipes which know to
be good:
APPLE SAUCE.-Take pleasant sour
apples, and, with sharp-pointed knife,
make a hole in one end and dig out the
core. Fill the space with sugar, put
them into tin plate with little water
and bake until soft. Serve with sweet
cream poured over them. They are
very nice.
RIBBON CAKE.-Two cups sugar,
three eggs, two-thirds cup butter, one
cup milk, three cups flour, tea-spoonful
soda in milk, two tea-spoonfuls cream
tarter, fiavoring. Mix this as any cake
and divide it, baking it in an oblong
pan. To the remainder add one table
spoonful molasses, cup of raisins, spices
and trife more flour. Bake in same
shaped pan as the light cake, and while
warm, put them together with jelly.
WILL some one tell me how to make
my Laurestinus blossom? The Floral
Guide says the 6 Laurestinus produces
a profusion of white flowers all winter"
Mine does not. 1t is thrifty, but no
blossoms. How can l keep the green
lice off my geraniums?
REPLY.-The Laurestinus may not
yet be old enough to blossom, or it may
be growing too rankly to farm blossom
buds, or it may not be kept at the right
temperature. Lice (aphids) are easily
killed on house plants by smoking with
tobacco, or Swinging with tobacco tea
mixed with little soapsuds. Where
there are many tall plants, a half
barrel filed with the mixture of to-
bacco tea and soapsuds may be used.
Place the extended hand over the the
earth in the pot, and then reverse it,
dipping the whole plant and moving it
about, until the leaves are well wetted.
Do this in the afternoon, and the next
morning syringe or wash the leaves
well with clean warm water. Make the
tobacco tea of rich amber color, using
uncolored tobacco (natural leaf, or to-
bacco stems.