Year: 1869

has to be careful about his diet.


Mrs. Lester.-There is no better food for
literary men than this; and as change
from oysters, steak, and fish, it cannot be
too highly recommended. In making the
toast: in the first place, cut the bread
about three-quarters of an inch thick,
warm it through on each side, and then
brown it. have a plate of melted butter
ready, which put upon each slice with
spoon; place the toast in a covered dish
and set it into the oven to keep warm
Then into shallow pan, containing half
pint of boiling water, break my eggs,
and when the whites are stiff, take up each
carefully with spoon and deposit it on
each halfslice of toast. Put the toast thus
crowned on platter, and eat it while hot.
1t is delightful breakfast dish, and as
good for invalids as for well folks. Eggs
most delicate stomach.


Mrs. Bland.-Why is toast so much more
easily digested than either fresh or stale
bread?


Mrs.. Lsstsr.-Because the heat changes
the surface of the slice from starch into
dextrine or gum, thus anticipating the ac-
tion of the stomach; it also evaporates tho
moisture from the inside of the slice, leav-
ing it light, soft, and porous making it in
effect fresh bread without the evil attending
the newly baked loaf.


Mrs. Bland Cn a whisper to Mrs. Jami-
son).-I shall have egg on toast tomorrow
morning shan't you?


The President read letter from Mrs.
Cox, of Iowa, asking about the elder
She says they have any quantity growing
near them, and wants to know what use
she can make of it.


Aunt Betsey.-There's nothing in the
world better for erysipelas cuts, chilblains,
sores of all kinds, and specially for burns,
than elder 'intment. I've used it for years.
The leaves make an excel ent poultice
for any inflammation on the flesh of man
or beast; and elder-fower tea is as good as
sarsaparilly for purifying the blood, and
it's an excellellent remedy for constipation.
| think deal of the elder. The root is
one of the best things you can find to put
into spring beer.


Mrs.. Lee.-Can you give us your recipe
for making the ointment, Aunt Betsey?


Aunt Betsey.-Oh! yes if somebody'n
write it down. l amt much used to wri-
tin.


The Secretary writes at Aunt Betsey's
dictation:


"Take the inside bark of sweet elder
and boil it down strong, strain it, and to
half a pint of the liquor add piece of
mutton tallow and beeswax, each the size
of hens egg; simmer until all the water
is out; fresh butter may be used instead of
mutton-ta -tallow, and will make softer oint.
ment.'


Mrs. Lee.-It is time to take up the regu.
lar subject of the day, The Cleansing of
Clothes. AS Mrs. Field has an enviable
reputation for skill in this department of
housekeeping, think the Club would be
edited if she will give us her mode of pro-
cedure.


Mrs. FSeld.-As to the routine of con-
Quoting the weekly washing of clothes, I
learned the most of what know from my
mother, and, as her family was quite large,
while mine is small, give her way in pre-
ference to mine. Her day for washing was
Monday. On Saturday the bedding was
changed, the children bathed and put on
fresh clothes, and every soiled garment Or
piece was gathered together and placed in
the large, square, covered clothes-basket
that stood in the laundry. By this means
the laundry maid, who was cook and cham.
ber-maid as well, could rise as early as she
pleased on Monday morning, sure to find
all the clothes ready for her. On that
morning, mother and We girls were always
responsible for breakfast and the housework,
so that Bridget could help at the washing
without interruption save to eat, until it
was done. This she always accomplished
| in time to get dinner. Mother had no
washing machine, for they were not then
| invented, but she used a washing-fuid
which lightened the labor of the day very
given in No. 10 of HEARTH AND HOME, as
this contains bora1 and that does not. She
took five pounds of sal-soda, one of borax,
one Of unslacked lime. The soda and borax
were dissolved in gallon of boiling water,
the lime Stacked in gallon of the same,
the two poured together and allowed to
stand till the fluid was perfectly clear, when
it was poured into jars, and was ready for
use. The clothes were put to soak over
night with soap rubbed on the soiled parts.
In the morning they were wrung out and
put into the boiler in which the fluid had
been poured, in the proportion of pint to
four pailfuls of water. Soap also was ad-
ded. When they had boiled ten minutes
or SO, they were taken out and rubbed
through one water and rinsed through two
others. The dirt came right off without
any trouble. go through the same pro.
cess, only from the boiler take mine into
the machine, and wiring them through the
wringer.


Mrs. Hunmi6ee.-My way of doing is a
little different from Mrs. Fields, and it
gets the clothes clean and white, which is
the point to be made, without putting them
to soak overnight. / have my boiler filled
with WATER and when it has reached the
boiling point am ready to begin. fill
the washer with boiling hot suds, into
which put my tiannels and fine clothes
first When they are washed, scald the
tiannels in boiler, wiring them dry through
tho wringer, and hang them on the line to
| dry Then add SOAP and washinp-fluid
to the water in the boiler, and put in my
clothes to boil When all the white clothes
are washed out of the first water and
boiled, I suds them in the same order as
they first passed through the washer; then
draw this water off into a tub, and let the
colored clothes soak while put the others
through the rinse of blue water. The drier
l wiring them from the several waters, the
clearer they look.