The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-25

Table decorations for the warm
months are, of course, as light and as
cool in appearance as possible. The cloth
may be adorned with trailing flowers or
wines; hops are lovely for this purpose.
or any other pale green foliage. For the
table-center a block of ice is effectively
used, set upon fiat stand of silver. 1t
is high, narrow cake surrounded by a
light wire frame from which floral
decorations of any desired character
may be arranged. Even delicate wild
flowers and creeDers will keep" for a
long time if thus cooled.
A new fan-bag is very dainty. It is
of the usual long and narrow shape, but
pointed at the bottom, and is made of
the softest green silk, upon which light
spraying pattern is embroidered in old
blue.
Jelly a la Russo is made by soaking a
box of gelatine in a half pint of water
an hour. Mix two cups of orange juice,
one cup of lemon juice, one cup of
sherry, with three cups of graduated
Add the gelatine dissolved over hot
water. Color a mandarin orange yell
low, and turn part of it into a border
mould. Put the rest in a dish, and,
when it begins to solidify, whip till it is
frothy. Put this away also, to harden,
and before serving place the beaten jelly
in the center of that in the border
mould.
A very delicious salad dressing for
those who do not like the taste of oil is:
One beaten egg and one teaspoonfuI each
OF sugar, salt, and mustard rubbed
smooth. Add eight teaspoonfuls of vim
egar, and cook in a double boiler to
thick custard. After taking from the
fire thin to the proper consistency with
cream.
One of the old, old stories is the tale
that the frugal housewife tells about
her troubles with help. 1T is almost
impossible to keep a girl is the set
phrase. and it is heard often repeated
IN the market place, and in the fashion
able store: in the cable car, on the ele-
waited road, and more frequently still in
the intelligence office.
Girls won't go out to do general
Homework nowadays" said the mana
ger of the employment bureau in a big
Sixth avenue department store, to an
applicant for help. I'VE have a room
ful of girls here. but each one is
specialist. That is, each girl wants to
hire out to do one particular line of work
we have cooks, laundresses. chamber
dc
mattresses, but no General homework
girls. The old-fashioned domestic SER
want is almost extinct in New York
imagine that the extravaganza of we'll
TODD New York families and the rapid
multiplication of big family hotels in
this city are, in the main, responsible for
her disappearance. The big hotels, taken
collectively, afford a broad field for the
specialists in domestic service. There
cocks, chambermaids and laundresses
are separate and distinctive classes, and
when once a girl has become accustomed
to doing only one kind of work she is
loath to return to general homework"
To the New York matron who can af-
ford to keep only one servant the out
look just now is gloomy. She labors
under manifold disadvantages. In addi-
ton to the natural reluctance of the
average domestic to do general house
work is the insistence of the aforesaid
average domestic to work only in small
families, and to be permitted to Ego
home nights" Then the amount of
wages is an important consideration.
From SIS to S25 per month is now de-
1nanded for the same quality of labor
that used to consider itself amply COM
pensated at S14 and SO per month
a philanthropic woman connected
with a church in lower Fifth avenue has
devoted many years of her life to help
ing working girls. With 10 other de-
sire than to be of assistance to worthy
persons she has for a long time con-
Quoted an amateur intelligence office
The recent strike" against general
Homework has developed under her eye
uatil she has lost patience with it. She
has seen strong and needy servant girls
deliberately refuse offers of good places
because they would not do general
housework. She has seen idleness and
debt, perhaps distress, courted by some
obstinate girls who would not yield their
claim to be Specialists
To a would-be employer this philan-
thropic woman said only a few DAYS
ago: Yes. know of several girls who
need work, but they will not do general
housework. If you want a cook, or a
chambermaid, or a girl to wait on the
table, I can get you one. but not one girl
in twenty will do general Homework. I
am sure 1 don't know what has come
over the servant girls this spring and
summer. They do not seem to have
the sense to see that the number of
special places is limited. Every en-
ployment bureau in New York is over
flowing with applicants for work, yet
it is almost impossible for a woman
who wants a girl to do general house
work to get one at a reasonable price. ."
A plain wallpaper is far from a
long-enduring thing of beauty, lovely
as Ii often is at first. There is nothing
much more hopeless IN the list of
housekeeping endeavors than the eff
fort to remove from it the marks that
are left by fingers or by a broom. Even
dry applications usually make things
worse rather than better.
An old cook book, printed in the
year 1885, and bearing the title ''The
American Frugal Housewife" with a
dedication ito those who are not
ashamed of economy" is full of in
teresting reading as a comparative
study in household economy. Many
things We're necessary to the house
keeper of fifty years ago that are un-