Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-08-21
HOMEMAKERS COLUMN
Correspondence ON topics Of interest to the adie.
Il sotcited. Address: Editor H0nMAK11e'
COLUMN. oxford Democrat. South Paris. Ne
conoueriux Predicaments.


swell! this IL Q predicament-more
guests than marketing for over Sunday
And Monday holidayl What shal! We
do?" How often something like this 10
said behind the scenes. As o California
literary woman says OF an emergency
"It was q predicament. We welcomed
lie joyously. Living from predicament
to predicament, we have learned that,
like oysters, they often conceal pearls.
Therefore, we attack each one hopefully.
It il the proper way to treat predica-
ments; they expect 1t. That Is the rea-
son that to q timid person, who does not
attack them, they scornfully become
frightful obstacles"
Some hosts and hostesses have way
of surmounting difficulties whether they
occur in simple apartment or In q
mansion. Here is . supper evolved by
Q man called upon to feed two hearty
brothers who arrived one Sunday even.
ing, after tramp, with very good appe-
titles. His wife was Ill, and there was
no cook nor housemaid on duty.
He put his wife on q lounge to hear
the Jolly accounts Of the day told
simultaneously by the young men, then
he donned kitchen apron and made q
chefs cap from white paper, for prank.
The main hot dish was this, which
the young men loosely called Chowder
q Ia Printaniere and Olive Stew en-
variete, and other psuedo- French names,
meanwhile pronouncing it very great
success.
He took can of peas, q can Of clam
chowder, q cup of stoned ripe olives,
and mixed them, adding plenty of milk,
and seeing small dish of spaghetti
cooked with cheese, he added this also,
then thickened the milk with q piece
of butter, rolled in -four, and seasoned
the stew to taste with pepper and salt.
| Oyster crackers we're passed with 1t.
Canned fruit, cookies and tea completed
the meal; and when he, mine host,
enquired, "Where Is the sop to Ger
berus?" of course they said, "Cigars for
you and here is box of candy for our
pretty sister,"
| Some of the firms selling canned fruits
and vegetables provide pleasing book.
let's, telling how whole meals In the
mountains or camp can be prepared
entirely from canned vegetables and
meats, shell fish, and fruits, for even
potatoes, spinach, and macaroni are
canned now, as we'll as baked apples
and fish balls. And since the best ex-
perts in food have been engaged to
compile these booklets, no one need feel
afraid to follow the recipes, or treat
them as "only Advertising"
Guard against any predicament by
having your emergency rations ready in
your store closet, and meet the same
with the serene courage OF the Cal
ifornia lady already quoted. went to
her house once and her bungalow might
we'll be called Predicament Bungalow,
for it takes courage to get there
above the foreign part OF perfectly.
above the street light limit, over goat
paths worn and eroded by wind and
winter rains, down rickety steps set In
the hillside, and across deep gullies on
a single plank, then by q curve around
the brink of steep cliffs until the bunga-
low is reached on q barren hilltop
where 1t seems just changing on by Its
eyelids." No mother would think of
rearing family there. But artists,
who pen words, or use brush, love
these novel environments and, 'from
predicament to predicament," live re-
signedly so long as they can look out
upon an azure bay and the broad Pacific,
and see sunrise and moonrise and the
city's jeweled lights far below. They
climb above the whirling city life and
its daily struggle, and so gaily face
existence, which the stole of long ago,
Marcus Aurelius, said was "a warfare
and strangers journey, and after
fame-oblivion." But these women
stoics of today call it only series of
predicaments, and did not Charles
Frohman call the end of life "a beau
tiful adventure?