THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES HOW TO LIVE: SAVING AND WASTING, attustu ( con 01115 BY THE LIFE OF Two FAMILIES OF OPPOSITE CHARACTER, HABITS, AND PBAG- TICES, IN A PLEASANT TALE OF REAL LIFE, FULL OF USEFUL LES- SONS IN HOUSEKEEPING, AND HINTS How TO LIVE, How TO HAVK. How TO GAIN, AND How TO BE HAPPY ; IN- CLUDING THE STORY A DIME A DAY. BY SOLON KOBINSON. orft: FOWLER AND A^ELLS, -PUBLISHERS, No. 308 BROADWAY. IStJO. ADVERTISEMENT. No man, woman or child, can read this book with- out being interested in its pleasant narrative and exposition of human character, and instructed in its lessons of economy, in things that pertain to every day life, in every family. It is written by one of much experience, with the sole design to do good. It is a good book, written for a good purpose, and peculiarly Avell adapted to the use of all new-beginners in house- keeping. It may be read with profit by all classes, and we are confident that no one can read it without Jjein li> that very difficult piece of cooking, boil a potatoe." MOSQUITO NETS. 91 " In buying your mosquito not," said Mrs. Savery, as they were going out, '' recollect that of all colors, green is the best for the eye to rest upon as it wakes in the morning, and red or pink the worst. A light blue is very good, and a rather more durable color. White soils too easily. For the curtain, a drab ground, with a small sprig or vine would be pretty. I always select calicoes or carpets, with figures that have some meaning something that re- presents something in nature. Everything of that kind ought to be made useful rather than, fanciful. For instance, a carpet might be made a complete study of tropical plants, in natural colours, the names and uses of which could readily be learned by children." Thank you, for these useful hints, particu- larly as to colors, not only now but for the future." "Lillie," said Salinda as they were going down the street, " what color is your mosquito bar?" ' " It. was a light blue, but I believe it is amon< the things that were. I suppose mo- ther will get a new one, as she says it is bet- VZ ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. ter to pay the expense of a net, than to be tor- mented a single night with one mosquito. And then, in case of a little indisposition, they are so good to keep off the flies. My father says it would be good economy for any farmer to pay for mosquito nets to enable his hired men to sleep well; they would do so much more work." Salinda had obtained the information she wanted. She merely wanted to know that Lillie's bed was unprovided, so that she might buy two nets just alike, as well as two cur- tains to shield the dresses ; for she already felt that she could not do enough to pay for all the useful information she was daily obtain- ing from every member of this family. She said nothing of her intentions, but managed to give them all a pleasant little sur- prise one day, to find a net up at each bed exactly alike. She chose for the curtain, a piece of calico, with a drab ground like ground color, she said with a delicate sprig of the hop in full bearing. "The very sight," said she, "may have a sort of magnetic influence, and induce sleep, as well as a hop pillow." FIRST LESSON IN THE KITCHEN. 93 It was a sensible idea, for the mind certainly has a powerful influence upon the body. It would have been no hard matter to read what was passing in the mind of Susan, when Salinda came down to the kitchen ; for it was printed upon her face. " Now," she thought, " I shall have an opportunity to pay a part of the debt of grati- tude I owe this sweet girl's mother. But for her, I might have been a beggar, thief, or at best a rag picker in the street; for I was a helpless orphan, without a hand to guide, or tongue to give me a kind word. She took me from the street to a school room, and taught, and fed, and clothed me ; and when she saw that I was not all viciousness, she took me home. Oh ! how many poor children might be saved in the same way. But it always appeared to me that such children in the streets of a city, only held an equal rank and value with the rats. Both are looked upon as vermin that are eating into the big cheese of society, and still those whose substance they devour, only seek to punish them for having an appetite, instead of training that appetite 94 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. to relish other than stolen food. Talk of eco- nomy ! The worst economy on earth is this waste of human beings. Worse than waste, for these poor children are not only permitted but compelled to grow up as worthless as rats, to prey upon all that come within their reach when their teeth are grown. "Is human labor so worthless that it should thus be wasted? What if every woman who has the means should do as Mrs. Love well did by me, where should we find any vagabond children in the next generation?" It is curious to observe what magnetic power there is in a smile one that comes from the heart. Salinda was won by the kind look and words of Susan, to feel that she was not looked upon as an intruder in the kitchen, and that she might ask questions that would tire the patience of one less willing than her present instructor, and still receive pleasant an- swers. "I have come," said Salinda, "to see you make bread, and I suppose I shall ask what will seem to you a great many foolish ques- tions." LEARNING TO MAKE BKKAD. 95 "Which I shall answer strictly according to Scripture." "What? answer a fool according to his folly." " Yes, but God never intended that thos; answers should be such as would make him laore foolish. No ; if you, compared to me, are not wise in bread-making, it will give me as great pleasure to teach you as ever it did your mother to teach me. "This is what we call a sponge. I set it this morning, and you see it is now ready to knead into loaves. This is by far the most important part of breadmaking." " Please tell me about setting the sponge, as you call it." " Oh, yes ! Well, I use about ten quarts of flour, which I put into this large wooden tray, and make a hole in the centre and pour in about half a pint of brewer's yeast, mixed with a pint of water, milk warm. As I pour it in gradually, I stir some of the flour in with it, till it forms a batter. Then I take a hand- ful of dry flour and sprinkle over the top. Then I spread over this a thick tow cloth, 96 KCOXOMY ILLUSTRATED. which I call my sponge cloth, and never use it for anything else but covering the bread tray. Now I set my sponge by the tire, or in the sun, and go aboiTt my work till it is ready to knead." " How do you know when it is read}' ?" " I frequently look at it, and when it seems to be working, that is, sponging up, so as to crack the covering of flour, it is then ready to form into dough." "That is what you are going to do now. 5 ' " Yes ; and therein lies the secret of good bread. Not one in ten ever kneads the dough enough. It is hard work, and requires strong hands, and can only be done by hand. I begin thus ; by pouring in warm water with one hand and mixing it with the other. It will take about two quarts, so that altogether I shall use of yeast and water, about half as many pounds as I have flour. Clear soft water is the best. I use cistern water, filtered. Milk-warm or blood-warm is about right. I add a table-spoonful of fine salt. This I scat- ter over the sponge before I begin to knead. Mixing flour and water together will make KNEADING DOUGH. 97 dough, but if you want good bread, you must take both hands in this way, and work the mass into a stiff, tough dough. "There, now, you see how it adheres together, so that I could draw it out in strands and braid a rope. Now I form it into a compact ball, and cover it up, and set it here in this warm spot of sunshine that is pouring through the window upon the kitchen table. I shall let it stand there about an hour, and then take a knife and cut it evenly into four parts, each of which I shall take separately upon my pie board, and form it into a loaf to suit one of these pans. By timing my work in this way, I cook my dinner, and bake my bread by one heat in the stove." "What is that for?" said Salinda, as she saw her cut off a lump of dough as large as her fist and lay it aside. " That is to leaven another baking. Do you see those pieces of stale bread which I am soaking in milk. I never waste a morsel of bread. Either in pudding, gravy, or in rusk, I use up all. These pieces I soak till so soft that I can add a little flour and knead the whole 98 ECONOMY ILLU&IKATEI;. together. I also add a little shortening. This lump of dough I shall knead into the mass, and that will make the whole light. Then I mould it out like biscuit, and bake them after the bread is done, and have them warm for tea. Oh. I forgot the sweetening. I always sweeten rusk." " How often do you bake bread I" u Twice A week ; but if I had a large brick oven I would only bake once a week ; because stale bread, or more properly speaking, ripe bread, is for the most, healthy and economical, and as I never waste any old bread, it is no- matter how much I have on hand." "Do you ever mix potatoes with your flour ?' r " 1 used to- when potatoes were cheap. At a dollar or more a bushel, it is not good eco- nomy. I often add a little corn meal, but I always cook it partly first, in a thin mush. If added raw to the flour, it will not cook enough in the baking process. For a change,. I make bread with an addition of a little sugar, or butter, ir > \veet lard, I forgot to say I always add butter to my rusk. Some- times I divide my dough, and sweeten one loaf KEEPING BEES IN TOWN. Q9 for the children. They are fond of it, and it is much more healthy than rich cake. When the writer of that text which says 'bread is the staff of life,' wrote it, he certainly referred to good bread; not such miserable bread as we find in most houses. If you have good bread, you never will be at any loss to set a very good meal, upon emergency, without meat. You may have fresh bread and butter, dry toast and butter, soft toast with water or milk, bread and milk, or, and what can be nicer, some bread and butter and honey." " Speaking of honey, I am quite surprised to find that Mr. Savery keeps bees, here in town. I thought they must always be kept in the country." " That is quite a mistake. Here is our gar- den and half a dozen others right around here, and a good many trees, and then it "is only half a mile out into the orchards and fields. We have half a dozen hives now, all from one that cost six dollars, I believe, in the fiist place, and they have cost nothing since, except a lit- tle feeding, to save honey, and for two years we have had honey plenty in the house, and have 100 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. given a good deal to friends, and sold fifty dollars' worth. " Mrs. Savery says it is worth while to keep bees, just to learn children the value of indus- try, and how property can be accumulated little by little, and how we may all learn the value of improving our time while in health, to lay up a store for the winter of old age. The economy of space, too, as exhibited in the formation of their cells, and the discipline of the family to the government of one head, are all worth studying. "Would you like to go and see them at work, you will just have time before dinner. I am going to set the table now." " Oh, I am afraid to go near them, they eting so." " Only their enemies or persons they don't like. Ours are domesticated. Yon may go and sit down by the hour, near the hive, and they will not touch you. Frank often goes out to play with them. They seem to know him." " Pray let me set the table, and I will go afterwards and walk in the garden and look at the bees, and Frank's hen's nests. BOUILLI. 101 " Now, don't tell me a thing, and I will see if I cannot arrange the whole quite to your satisfaction." "Let me assure you," said Mrs. Savery, when told by Susan how she had been learn- ing to make bread, and set the table, " let me assure you, Salinda, that while you go to work with such a cheerful disposition and such an earnest desire to learn these little arts of housekeeping, you will never find the least difficulty. It is the first great step to go at everything with a cheerful heart, and determi- nation to do right, towards making everything right. Ah, there come the children, punctual as the clock; now, Susan, we will have our little plain dinner. What have you got ? Oh ! a nice piece of fresh beef, not exactly like the French bouilli, but after a way of our own. It is a piece of the rump, from 7 to 10 pounds, which was boiled in soup yesterday, of which we made our dinner without cutting the meat. It was slightly flavored with onion, parsley and thyme. Susan always adds a dry pepper pod, one of our own raising, and just 102 LroXoMV ILLUSTRATED. salt enough to flavor it, and while it is warm she sticks in these cloves. Yon will find it tender and good. " We are all fond of it cold, but if it should be preferred hot, lay it in a dish and clap it in the oven a few minutes. In the season of them, we always add tomatoes. Now we substitute tomato catsup. This asparagus you will find fresh and tender. It is a healthy vegetable at this season. How will you eat your lettuce. With sugar, as Frank is fixing his?" " I never tasted it that way. When I have been at school, the old housekeeper was always scolding about our using so much sugar, and I don't know what she would have said, if any one had used it upon lettuce." " She knew nothing of economy. I should have allowed you to sweeten your water, bread, milk, vegetables and meat if yon liked it ; so you did not eat raw sugar, you might have all you wished, that is, in place of the same cost of other food." " I declare the lettuce is much better this GREENS. 103 way than as it is usually fixed at the hotel, with mustard, oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, cat- sup, etc., and I dare say, more healthy." "If you like vinegar, you will find the sweet and sour very pleasant mixed together. How do you like the beef?" "It is excellent, and so is the asparagus; and these greens, what are they?" " It is a compound, I think. Frank knows best, he gathered them. How is it, Frank ?" " Two dandelions ; three turnip tops; a few sprigs of spinage, a little pig-weed, or lamb's quarter, and the balance -cabbage sprouts. All good, and as I could not get a mess of either, I thought I would go in for an assort- ment. This part is hen fruit," said he, laugh- ing, and pointing to the halves of hard-boiled eggs that Susan bad added to the dish of greens. "Shall 1 help you to a little more 2" " If you please. I am fond of such food, and believe it is healthy, and I suppose, Frank, not very expensive," " I can tell you in the fall, or rather sister Lillie can; for she sets down every day debt 104 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. t and credit to the garden. I wonder how much she will credit my two dandelions." " I don't know, Frank ; how much do you think they were worth ?" "Well, they were good big ones, but I guess on the whole, you may set down the whole mess of greens at two cents." "That is a very fair estimate, my son ; and I am glad to see you inclined to be just, even in your dealings with the garden. You will find it saves a great many cents in the course of the year." " Yes, ma'am ; I am going to charge you eight cents for the asparagus, two cents for the lettuce, and one cent for the radishes I shall give you for tea." " There is thirteen cents to-day ; and cer- tainly you give us things at very low rates, and much more fresh than those we get in market. Your hen-house, too, Frank, has been very profitable to us the past year.'' " And that reminds me that I must go and give the biddies some water, and cut a little grass for them, before I go to school." "Oh, let me do that," said Salinda, "I am TO-MOKROW. 105 i going out with Susan, after dinner, to look at them." " Will you ? well, I thank you ; I will do as much for you, or somebody else, it is all the same, so that we help one another, and try to do all the good we can in the world, so my mother says, and I never knew her to say anything wrong." " And I hope I never shall know my son to say or do anything wrong." " I hope not, mother ; and therefore, if sis- ter Lillie is ready, we will hurry off to school > and to-morrow ' "Well, well,' as our minister says, 'ye know not what a day may bring forth,' but to-morrow is Saturday." " What do you expect to-morrow will bring forth for you, Frank, a play-day ?" " Not exactly, thougli-I think I shall make it one of amusement. In the first place, let me see well, in the tirst place, I shall get up and take a wash. Then I shall go down and help father in the garden till breakfast-time. Then I shall wash again. Cold water don't hurt me any. At breakfast I expect to eat two fresh eo-^g. Give the biddies credit for a 106 J'COXOMY ir.LUSTHATKI). dozen, Lillie ; that is fifteen cents. After breakfast, I shall cut my grass for the first time. Can't tell how much that will be till old Cap'en Peabody comes with his wheelbar- row, to take it home. It will bring us milk, though, for onr Sunday pudding. Then I am going to clean out my hen-house, and put every scrap of dirt in the cistern, where father mixes all sorts of stuff' which makes onr melons, and lima beans, and tomatoes, and celery, and other rank feeders upon manure, as father calls them; and after that I am going over to the new house where father is at work, to nail five pieces of waste boards together into a box. for a nest for my old blue hen, for she told me yesterday that she should want to commence setting about Sunday. After that, I have nothing particular on hand, and shall be at the service of my mother, or either of these my sisters, for a walk, or ride, or to work, or read, or play. Xow, are you ready, Lillie? Good-bye, mother, good-bye, sister," kissing his hand to Salinda, and run- ning oft' in a glee of laughter. "Thank you, brother Frank. Remember, DEVELOPING FACULTIES OF CHILDREN. 107 then, to-morrow afternoon, you are at the ser- vice of the ladies. Good-bye. What a remark- able boy," said Salinda, to his mother, "for one of his years. I do not understand why one child should be so manly, or womanly, and another so childish," "It is because they are kept so childishly by their parents. The mind, the natural facul- ties have no chance to develop their power. Infants have the organs of voice, but do not use them because the reasoning faculties have not yet taught them the meaning of words. As soon as that faculty is developed, children become great talkers, mere chatterers, many of them. Those who hear correct language, acquire and use it. Without giving a child ideas, how is it to express them ? Without giv- ing a child to understand what its ears, eyes, and hands are for, how is that child to exercise anything but the natural faculties of a child. " To improve a child's organ of language, you must converse with that child, not in namby pamby baby talk, but as though you were con- versing with a man or woman. If my children talk manly, it is because they never hear any 108 IVONOMY lUA'STKATKI). other language from their parents. Frank may seem a little forward, sometimes, but k is because he has a natural vein of humor, and vivacity of disposition. My cliildren are not petulant, because they never see anything of the kind at home, and the little they see abroad, only serves to make them love home quiet all the better." "' But you do not think that all children are born alike?" "Oh, no, by no means. Some of the per- ceptive faculties are much stronger than others in different individuals. I have heard of a person so deficient in the organ of color, that he could riot tell green from blue, or yellow from white. Yon seem surprised, yet reflect a moment. By candle light, you cannot do it. yourself. To such a person, in daylight, the same inability to distinguish the difference in shades continues. Now it is hardly possible, if those having charge of that person in child- hood, had taken constant pains to develop this organ, that it would not have been improved. Many children have the organ of Causality constantly blunted, and the intellect made dull, by that universal check ' don't ask so TALK.IXG WITH (JlllU)KKN. 109 many foolish questions ',' put upon their in- quiring minds. Is it foolish for a child to inquire the cause of, what is to him, a pheno- menon? I remember when a child, I went with my father, who was one of those men who never could bear to hear a child ask ques- tions, to see a fountain play. The beautiful jets of water spouted into the air, sixty feet, and fell in silver and diamond sparkling drops, all around. My first inquiry was, 'who makes it play?' I was answered quite short, 'nobody, you silly child.' 'Then,' said I, earnestly, 'what makes it play?' I was not kindly answered with a short description of the laws that govern water, but told not to ask so many foolish questions. Do yon know what I thought then? If I ever grow to be a woman, I never will tell a child not to ask so many foolish questions. Acting upon that impres- sion, so graven upon my heart,as it was burn- ing with desire to know the cause of that water spouting into the air, I have ever en- couraged my children to ask questions. I have told them there is a cau*e for everything. Study to find out that cause. Never say I 110 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. don't know, I never thought about that. I teach them to think. I make companions of them. I ask questions for them to answer. For instance: one day I saw Frank bringing some old lime into the hen yard, and I asked him what that was for. 'Because,' said he, 'the shells of eggs are principally composed of lime,' ' Who told you so ?' ' ~No one ; I read it in a book, and I said to myself, then hens must eat lime ; how else could the shells be formed. I did just what you have always told me, mother. I argued from effect to cause.' This was but a trifle in itself, but it taught me what was the effect of early train- ing upon a young mind. We have always tried to impress upon him the good effect of manly actions. We have developed his natu- ral faculties, without crowding his education in school. I have been encouraged in this course by an elder brother, the uncle Ephraim you hear Lillie talk about. He was here some years ago, and before he started home, he wrote for his son Charles to meet him in Chi- cago, on a certain day, with his carriage and horses. 'Why, Ephraim,' said I, 'how old is EARLY TRAINING, 111 Charley ?' ' Well, let me see,' said lie, ' this is September, and he was eight in March.' ' And do yon expect him to drive forty miles alone, and then, what if he should not meet yon. Something might detain yon.' He replied, 'The road is plain, he knows the way, and he will go to the hotel. Mr. Brown knows him, for he has been there with me. And if he didn't, the boy has a tongue, and can tell him who he is, and what he is after. He will do well enough, depend upon it, sister. That is the way I train my boys.' The result proved his theory correct. Charley went in, and drove to the hotel, ordered his horses put up, and saw that they were well taken care of, too, and he took good care of himself. My brother did not arrive for three days ; the boat he went around the lakes on, having got aground, and met with several detentions." " I should have thought Charley would have been alarmed at his father's absence, or got tired of waiting." "Not he. He knew that his father would come when the boat did, and in the meantime he improved every minute. He studied the 112 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. science of ship-building, fouiid out how the workmen bent those great planks by the aid of steam ; looked into the steam-engine shops, and found somebody that was willing to answer his questions, and teach him how the power was obtained and controlled. Then he looked into the founderies, and saw how cast-iron was formed, how machines were made, by boring, drilling, filing, polishing, and fitting the various parts together, and, in short, my brother wrote me 'it was the best three days' schooling the boy ever had. I was not at all sorry, after I had learned the result, that I was detained. In fact, I did not fret any, at the time ; I knew it was all for the best, as every such thing always is, though we are not always able to see it.' "This also taught me a lesson. It taught me that children have anatural desire to learn, and that they cannot learn unless they have a teacher. It taught me that the faculties of a child may be developed much younger than is generally supposed. We have infant schools, and all sorts of ' institutions,' to force the facul- ties applicable to the ordinary branches of M IX 1 )-EN. 117 Salinda could not help thinking how much land in and around all cities is wasted left barren and worthless, that might be made to bear rich products of human food, like this little plat. She noticed that even the earth in the cucumber tub was not alloAved to remain idle while waiting for the proper time to re- ceive the seed, and while they were vegetating, but it was made to produce a crop of early radishes. She did not know, but Mr. Savery did, that this productiveness was owing to his liquid manure, and other frequent waterings which he gave the whole ground, with a cheap hand force-pump and hose, with a rose nozzle, which Frank guided while his father worked the pump. " I should really like to know where your cistern is. There is but one pump, and that is at the well." "And yet jt draws well or cistern water at your option. Yon have only to turn this cock this way, and that one this way, and now it will pump well water. Change them back again, and you draw water from the cistern, which is under the grass-plat. Last summer . ECONOMY IUA. it got so low after being cleaned out in the spring, that we had to use ley from the ash leach, to make the well water soft enough to wash with. But after all, there is nothing like good filtered rain water for every purpose. It is great economy to build a cistern, and adds greatly to the comfort of those who have to do the housework. Speaking of the cistern re- minds me that I have got some dishes to wash." " And I am to help you that is, I should like to learn what there is for me to learn in that branch of domestic economy, if you are willing, Susan." " Certainly. Well, here is one thing for you to learn. Never put ivory knife-handles into warm water. I use this double tin can. This for the knives, that for the forks." It was like two quart measures* soldered to- gether. One had an extra bottom, that left the water just deep enough for the dinner knives, and the other for the forks, when filled * There are cans made on purpose with bars like a gridiron, so closs that the handles cannot go through, while the blades remain in the water. Susan's was more primitive anJ less expensive. WASHING DISHES. near the top. For the tea knives it was not so full the can being connected, made the water always of the same relative height. " If the handles get soiled so that I cannot wipe them clean,'' said Susan, " I use a piece of fine sand- paper/' " Do yon use soap in your dish water ?" " Seldom. That stone pot is full of ley. If I have a very greasy dish, that hot water will not clean, I dip it in that ley, and thus make the grease into soap. It is a small matter, but it saves many a sixpence in a year. When -the ley gets greasy, I empty it in a tub where I keep ley, to eat up all the grease and bones that would otherwise be wasted, or get mouldy or fly -blown, if kept long enough to boil up for soap. Sometimes it makes itself into ex- cellent soap, without one bit of trouble." " Now, shall I wipe the plates as you wash them?" " Not yet. I wash them in this pan, and set them in that to drain. Then I rinse them off with boiling water so now yon may wipe them, while I wipe the knives. Now pour that water in this pan, and I will wash those 120 ECONOMY II.LUSTBATKD. larger dishes. It is not an unpleasant job, nor is it hard work to wash dishes, if rightly done ; and I have not broken anything for years." " What are yon boiling the teakettle for, Susan ?" "For tea. It is so warm that I shall not want any tire in the range this afternoon with what heat there is, that water will keep almost as hot as boiling till night. Then I take a handful of charcoal, and kindle it in this little portable furnace, and that saves a peck of coal; as the furnace will boil my water, and boil my tea, and make a bit of toast if I wish." " Do you boil tea?" " Black tea is very much improved by being boiled at least fifteen minutes. It changes the flavor entirely." " I never heard of that before. And is it more economical that is, does it take less tea to serve the family ?" "At least twenty-five per cent. That you may be convinced of the difference in flavor, strength, economy, everything, I will divide my usual measure I always make by a uni- MAKING TEA. 121 form measure and give one-half made in the usual way of pouring boiling water on the leaves in the pot, and the other I will boil half an hour." The result will be known by listening to the following tea-table talk in the next chapter. 122 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER IY. Something the matter with the Tea. What is it? The properties of Tea. The difference proved. Lillie'a Mar- ims of Life. " NY HAT is the matter with your tea, Susan?" said Mr. Savery, at the first sip. " I am very fond of a good cup of black tea, and if not taken very warm, and only moderately strong, with sugar and milk, I think it not only plea- santly invigorating, but quite healthy. Liebig, I think it is, says that tea contains nutritious qualities. It is certainly strengthening and invigorating. It possesses stimulating and narcotic principles that do not agree with per- sons of hypochondriacal habits, or weak nervee. From 30 to 40 per cent, of tea is soluble in water. And a trifle larger proportion is solu- ble in alcohol. Tea contains considerable tannin ; a trace of volatile oil ; and the pecu- liar flavor is contained in a resinous substance. This is much easier dissolved in some varieties than others." WHAT IS IT ? !i>.'} "And hence the necessity," said Mrs. Save- ry, " in making" black tea that the infusion should stand and boil some minutes ; which I perceive Susan has somehow neglected to- night," "No, not neglected," said Salinda, "it has been purposely done, .to teach me the differ- ence. Come in, Susan, with the other. You need not stand there laughing a f, mv ignorance, O O *' O or how easy you have convinced me of my error." " To remove old prejudices," said Susan, as she changed the ,tea-pot, "particularly any- thing relating to our accustomed food, requires strong evidence that the proposed innovation upon old customs is really an improvement Mr. Savery, let me change your cup. And you, Salinda, will, as readily as he does, see the difference in flavor." " And economy, too," said Mrs. Savery. " You make that quite a yearly item. This we are indebted for to Uncle Ephraim ; and I remember that we all thought it was one of his odd notions, but he took the same course to convince us that Susan has you, Salinda. 12i ECOJSOMY ILLLTKATK1>. We are not aware ourselves, brow wedded we are to habit in our eating and drinking." " That is true, wife. Just look at the ridi- cule that has been heaped upon those who ad- vocate a vegetable diet. They have been called bran-bread philosophers advocates of feeding workinginen upon sawdust; and a thousand other slanders ; when, in fact, all they recommend is that men should act ration- ally in adapting the proper food to the various conditions of men. They simply say, that it is not necessary for the health of \vomen and children, and persons of sedentary habits, to eat the same fat pork diet of a hard-working farmer. "We are, as you perceive, no vegeta- rians, yot we must allow that the advocates of that system have a great deal of reason and common sense in their arguments. It is a pretty well settled fact in philosophy, that the consumers of swine's flesh, generation after generation, will at length come to partake in some degree of the nature of the animal whose flesh they have fed upon. Many physicians are of opinion that pork is the cause of scrof- ula. We cannot dispute the fact, that none THE USE OF TOBACCO. 125 but hard laborers, who are much in the open air, can consume large quantities of gross food, and maintain good health. But it is very hard to break people of long indulged in gross habits of any kind. There is not a rum-drink- er, rum-maker, or rumseller, in the world, that does not know the evil effects of taking alco- hol into the stomach ; yet one persists in the manufacture and sale, because it affords him an easy profit, and the other continues its use, because it produces exhilaration or stupefac- tion ; or else gives strength, or courage to do some act of desperation, of folly, or wicked- ness." " You are severe on gross eaters and hard drinkers, sir ; pray, what is your opinion of the use of tobacco ?" " That, waving all argument about its poison- ous effects and unhealthiness, the use of it is so positively filthy, whether chewed, snuffed, or smoked, that no well-bred gentleman or lady can use it, or sanction its use, or what is still more, encourage friends to get accustomed to a practice that enslaves them through life. But c Dine, let us adjourn to the sitting-room. 126 ECONOMY ILLUSTKATKD. and see what Lillie has to read to us this is the end of her school week, when she furnishes us a composition, or some collation of facts gathered during the week. What have yon to-night, my daughter?" " At my mother's suggestion, I have made an excerpta of passages and sentiments from several authors upon the subject of domestic economy.' " That probably is intended for your benefit,, Salinda." "Then I shall give my careful attention to its teachings-. Will you read, Lillie. I hope your father and mother will give us running comments." " Catharine E. Beecher says : " In regard to the subject of health, mothers and teachers [she might have added children] never had the facilities afforded for gaining the knowledge they needed. It is painful, after years of toil and anxiety, to discover, that in some important respects, mistakes hare been made which have entailed suffering and sorrow on ourselves and the ob- jects of our care. " No American woman has any occasion for feeling that hers is an humble or insignificant lot. " Persons in poverty to-day, may rise to affluence to- CAUSES OF ' ILL HEALTH. 127 morrow Children of common laborers may rise to wealth and station, while their wealthy neighbors' children, through long enervating indulgence, sink down to the lowest station in life. " Were it not for the supply of poverty-stricken foreign- ers, there would be a dearth of domestics in every family."" " That," said Mr. Savery, " is because we rear our own children to look upon all labor with contempt that the garb of an honest workman is a disgrace. But go on." " There is nothing that so demands system and regularity as the affairs of a housekeeper, and the want of success, through ill health and inability to attend to the duties, are causes of great anxiety and perplexity. "Women in this country are unusually subject to disease, through delicacy of constitution. "Curvature of the spine is a prevalent complaint with the daughters of the rich." " Much of which is owing to their enervat- ing habits lounging on sofas and cushioned chairs never going out in the air, except in a cushioned carriage never in fact taking any exercise that stirs the blood, except perhaps a health-destroying midnight dance ; and avoid- ing cold water as they would the plague. It 128 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. is such a life that makes feeble, puny girls, and sickly mothers, who prematurely blossom, bear early, sickly fruit, wither and die. 'Tis a sad picture, but it is truly American." "Why, Mr. Savery, your chairs are all cushioned, even those in the dining-room, .which is quite unusual." " Only cushioned in the seat. That is eco- -nomy. It is not like a chair with a stuffed back, that shuts out all circulation of air from the body. These plain, hard seat cushions save much wear of clothing, and should be used at the table, of all other places, where all should sit at their ease. Go on, Lillie." " Medical men all tell us that this constitutional debility results from mismanagement in early life. " Mental excitement, without exercise, tends to weaken the system." " Don't imagine," said Lillie, as she saw Salinda pick up Miss Beecher's Domestic Eco- nomy, " that I make literal quotations. I am rather sifting out facts, which I express, or try to, in short hand." " You are very successful, and I am deeply interested." PREMATURE DECAY. 129 "American women, from various causes, are exposed to a far greater amount of intellectual excitement than those of any other land, with far less walking, riding, gardening, or exposure to the open air, than falls to the lot of European women. " American girls go from school to visiting, dressing, evening parties, balls, or amusements, in close hot rooms ; morning calls and midday shopping, in ridiculously un- healthy modes of dress, and then eat gormandizing dinners, till they have to lay down exhausted, to read the last novel. ' : At fifteen they marry at thirty they are faded, worn, haggard, and discontented with all the world, to think they have lost their beauty/' " Is it any wonder," said Mr. Savery, " that aucli girls become mothers of puny children, or that such a large proportion of all the deaths that occur in cities are among those under ten years of age ! We listen, Lillie." " Many, in fact most, wealthy ladies would think a walk of a mile, three or four times a week, would be a killing amount of exercise. " Girls should never be sent to school till six years old, and then the physical rather than the intellectual cultiva- tion should be attended to. Children should frequently be sent out to play. The air in a school room should never be overheated, or suffered to get impure. Crowded rooms and salamander stoves, are the curse of American school-rooms. " A girl from six to tf : n years eld should be taught to do G* l.>0 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. many things about a house, so as to acquire active habits, and learn that labor in any household duty is not degrading. " Where there are several daughters in the house, they should go by turns to the kitchen, while all the light work should be done by the others, " Every branch of domestic economy should be taught in all female seminaries. " Healthful exercise gives rosy cheeks, rounded form and delicate skin. ' There is no period in life when a young lady will not find a knowledge of domestic economy useful to herself and others. The mere knowledge of how to remove a grease spot, may confer happiness for the moment upon herself and some friend. <; Every girl should be trained to have some knowledge of the laws of health, and how to take care of the sick." " She should also know how to prevent, in a great measure, her children from getting sick, by indulgence in unwholesome food. However, I won't interrupt you," said Mrs. Savery. " Those persons who keep their bodies in a state of health by sufficient exercise, have a sure guide of what they should eat. " Many women are so inactive, they never feel hungry ; and only eat at stated times, through habit, or for pastime. " Hence the necessity of inducing appetite by tempting viands, and a variety of high seasoned dishes. By tasting GLUTTONY. 131 of this and that, she loads her stomach with more than a hodman could well digest. " Health depends on quality as well as quantity of food. Some things are naturally pernicious, and some are made so by cooking and combination with others. " Condiments, such as pepper, spice, mustard, vinegar, salt. c., are never needed in a healthy stomach. In case of stimulants being needed, such things may be used." " Don't you think," said Salinda, " that salt is necessary ?" " ~No more," said Mr. Savery, " than any of the other stimulants. If we eat less salt, we should drink less, and the world would be saved from the disgrace of drunkenness. We are so accustomed to the use of salt, that we never stop to inquire whether it is really use- ful or necessary, or beneficial or otherwise. But we won't stop to discuss this question now. It is enough for the present purpose that it shall induce you to think and inquire for your- self. We listen, Lillie." " There are more gluttons than drunkards in America that is, perrons who injure themselves by eating." "That is very true," said Mrs. Savery. " Only last month a young lady-friend of ours 132 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. that had suffered for a long time with ill health, and loss of appetite, took a notion that she must have some hard clams, and in the course of the day she ate several dozen ; some raw and some cooked, as people generally cook them that is, nothing but warmed not cooked at all and in the evening she was taken with spasms, and came near losing her life. The stomach was paralyzed, as bad as though she had swallowed so many leaden bullets. Many a life is destroyed by impru- dence in eating. " I have a sentence that I have extracted from one of my books, just in point to your remark, mother. This is it : ' A perfectly healthy stomach can digest almost any healthful food'; but when the digestive powers are weak, what is food for one, would be poison to another." " You know Virginia had been suffering a long time with dyspepsia. Perhaps, too, she did not chew her food sufficiently, for my books tell me that 'it is indispensable that food be taken slowly and well chewed, or it will not digest. Kice, potatoes, when dry and PROPER FOOD FOR EACH MEAL. 13u well cooked, flour, Indian corn, tender meats, or meats minced fine, are easiest of digestion. Tough beef, fat bacon, unripe fruit, wilted vegetables, rancid butter, short pie-crust, hot short cakes, and many articles of mixed food, will in time destroy the powers of an ostrich- like stomach, in any human being that does not take violent exercise in the open air. After every meal, a person should rest a little while, to allow the gastric juice time to incor- porate itself with the contents of the stomach.' ' : " That is the very reason," said Mr. Savery, " why we practice sitting at the table in con- versation after we have done eating. It is not time lost." " The food of our meals should be properly apportioned to the wants of the body. At breakfast we need drinks, and should eat fruit, and light vegetable food, with but little meat. That good old-fashioned dish of hash a little meat and potatoes, with a flour gravy, is an excellent breakfast dish. But we do not eat fruit enough, and the eating of hearty meats, often too, cooked by frying, is a national sin of this country. " Dinner should be taken near the middle of the day, and may be a hearty one, if the proper amount of exercise has been had in the forenoon, and labor is to be performed in 134 ECONOMY the afternoon. After dinner, spend an hour in conversa- tion, reading, or light work, before you resume the regular employment of the day, and you will accomplish more be- fore night, with less exhaustion. " Look for an example lo the sous of toil in the harvest field. Their ' nooning ' is true economy. " The true temperature for all kinds of food and drink, is blood warm. Sipping hot tea is dissipation. Drinking ice water, except in little sips, to act as a tonic, is folly. The health of many a stomach has been ruined by eating au excessive quantity of ice cream. One table spoonful should be a full allowance. " When the body is hot and exhausted, bathe the hands and feet and face in cold water, and drink something hot. A little sweetened water, gingered, is excellent. After re- storing the tone of the body to its natural condition,*you may have a pleasant, healthful tonic, in a glass of ice watyr. " The temptation to use stimulating drinks, is their present agreeable stimulating effect. But with every indulgence, the power to produce that sensation diminishes, until at length the stomach becomes so accustomed to their use. it would take a whole Niagara of rum to produce the sensation caused by the first glass." " Why, Lillie," said Mrs. Savery, " are those extracts from books yon have been reading?" " Not altogether. You and father have always told rne to read books to get ideas. I extract sentiments, and add reflections. ' "What STIMULANTS AM) OONUIMKNTS. fiX) I read, sometimes serves as a text for a sermon I preach to myself. Is there anything wrong in what I have read, or in giving the ideas of others in my own words ?" " Not exactly. I thought that expression about a Niagara of rum, sounded a little ex- travagant ; and I understood you that you had been selecting passages from Miss Beecher's work, and I did not recollect anything like it. It sounds a good deal more like one of .Henry "Ward Beecher's strong similes. Bead on." "Those who use stimulating drinks, argue that the taste is a natural one, and call savages and even animals for wit- nesses, and therefore claim that it is right to indulge the taste ; else, they say, why did God implant it in our nature. The murderer might just as well argue that to kill was no sin. because he has a natural propensity for blood. " Stimulants were created for medicine, to cure diseases, not create them. There is not a doubt that coffee, and in some measure tea, taken in extravagant quantities as they are in this country, cause much of the nervous diseases that affect females, and all persons of natural delicate constitu- tions. " Water is the only safe drink. Sugar and juice of fruits, slightly acid, may be safely added. We all drink too much. It is only a habit ; it is not necessary. Children in school should not be allowed the idle habit of continually running 136 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. out for a drink. If they are dry, they should be told the cause of it, and a slight punishment of thirst for eating salt to excess, will not hurt them. It may teach them to eat less. Some persons are constantly eating cloves, cinnamon, mace, orange peel, or some other spicy thing, which only serves to create thirst. No condiment with food can possi- bly do any good. If it stimulates the appetite to eat more, that is not beneficial. A person will soon get so he cannot eat without some stimulant. " In this country the bulk of our food is of a stimulating nature. AVe consume a vast amount of meat. It is neither economical or healthy. Dyspepsia prevails here to a greater extent than in any other civilized country. Savages, owing to their nature and modes of life, and exposure of the whole body to the atmosphere, can eat meat, even whale blubber, with impunity. We must mix crude vegetables with our meat and fine flour. Of the latter we eat too much. If two-thirds of our wheat was eaten unbolted, we should enjoy better health. At one time the army bread of Eng- land was all made of unbolted wheat, and the soldiers never were so robust and healthy before or since. Those who use wheat grits, that is cracked wheat, are never constipated in the bowels. Oat meal is equally beneficial. It makes very pleasant, healthy bread. It is mostly eaten in gruel, or oat meal porridge. "There is a great lack of economy in most families in clothing ; and it is not at all uncommon that health and life are sacrificed to Moloch by fond mothers, through the folly of pride to follow the fashion of dress. " The rule should be to cover the body, particularly of FOLLY IN FOOD AND DRESS. 13 T children, so as to keep it just warm without inducing per- spiration. Children often throw off their night covering, because too warm, and then suffer from exposure. This may be guarded against by using night gowns, and never covering them too warm at first. " One person requires more clothes than another, yet all dress nearly alike. Women need thicker clothing than men, as a general thing, yet they almost always dress much thinner. Unless they wear rubbers over their shoes, their feet are as unprotected from damp or cold, as though en- tirely bare. They go out bare-footed, bare-headed, bare- necked, bare-armed, carrying a dragging weight of sweat cloths suspended from the hips. " Such is woman's winter fashion. " Men, not only in winter, but in broiling August, encase themselves in thick, solid patent-leather boots, impervious to air more than water, and black coat, vest and pantaloons, with a dozen folds of cloth around the neck, the whole topped off with a black hat, as stiff as a stove-pipe, imper- vious to air, and spoiled by the first dash of rain. " Such is the economy of fashion. " One of the most healthy practices is to wear flannel next the skin. It is a bad conductor of heat, and keeps the body warm. Black should never be worn in the sun in hot weather, because it conducts the heat to the body. " Whatever is worn next the skin should be often changed. Cleanliness promotes health. All dresses for men, or women, or children, should be worn loose. Clothing should always ', be adapted to the occupation of the wearer, and colors always plain and suited to age. sex or complexion. How 138 ECONOMY ILLUSTKATKD. would the minister look with a yellow coat, or his wife with n red gown. " One of the domestic virtues of rural life is early rising. In cities there is a certain degree of snobbishness that af- fects late hours at everything. These persons are late at church, late at meals, late to bed, and very late in getting out of it. It is impossible for such a late family to be healthy, and if engaged in business they are rarely prosper- ous. Laying in bed till the sun is two or three hours high, is very poor economy. It is poor economy to sleep by day- light and work or read by lamplight. No living thing flourishes healthily in darkness or artificial light, except sleeping. " The fashion of dining after dark, and supping at mid- night, and going to bed in the morning, is one that demo- cratic Americans, who pretend to despise everything for- eign and aristocratic, should utterly repudiate. * " Without a good reason, it should be held as a mark of a want of respectability in any woman to be out of bed at midnight. " The unhealthiness of the night air in malarious regions, is such that it cannot be breathed with impunity in the night time. This fact is so well understood in the neighbor- hood of Charleston, Sonth Carolina, that night trains upon the railroad are avoided. I have known a whole ar load of passengers all sick while coming over the fifty miles of miasmatic country north of that city, in summer. " All persons require six to eight hours sleep, and there is no better time the year through to take that, than between nine in the evening and four or five in the morning. LATE HOU14S. "All long-lived people arc habitual early riseiv. We can, if accustomed to it, perform more labor early in the morning, than at any other period. No mother, or mistress of a family, should ask her children or hired help to get up hours before she does herself. Let her own example be a good one. " There is no economy in late hours in bed. " The health of many a person women in particular has been ruined for want of judicious exercise. Half the cases of dyspepsia, crooked spine, and nervous debility, come from want of exercise. But exercise should always have an interest for the mind. Walking merely for the exercise of walking, is fatiguing in many cases, where, if the mind was exercised also, no fatigue would be felt. Take children out in the field to hunt flowers or fruit never to hunt bird's nests that is all wrong and they rarely grow tired. An invalid, who is fatigued in going up and down stairs, will climb a mountain for the view of the beautiful landscape spread out before him. All females should accustom them- selves to take long walks walks that have an object and interest for the mind. I knew one person restored to health who thought herself in a decline, just through an interest she took in a little girl, and by following her home to see her sick mother, became so interested that she walked a mile every day upon her mission of mercy and thus saved her own life. " It was not only the exercise and fresh air, but the sooth- ing influence of doing an angelic act to one of her own sex, who was in deep distress. " All well trained minds feel happy when thus employed. 140 fcCOflOMY ILLUSTRATED. "The fashions ot society which condemn young girls to confinement to books and a sedentary life, are destructive of beauty, grace, health and happiness. " One of the great defects in family education is the ill- breeding of children ; that is, a want of proper training of their manners towards superiors, and touching their conduct in all the little proprieties of life. " Be courteous, should be a daily maxim, impressed upon every child's mind. A child that is not courteous to a parent, is not one that meets with love from all. A child never should address a parent like an equal. Every one should behave at home and abroad exactly alike. If chil- dren are allowed to be rude at home, they will be so abroad. The natural disposition of children, is to assume airs of equality with those who are their seniors, and entitled to their respect and deference. If that disposition is not checked, they grow pert, overbearing, umuniablc, ill-man- nered. Children should be taught gratitude. ' Thank you, ma'am.' costs nothing, but it often sounds as though it was worth something. " Never make rude remarks of another, or laugh at a de- fect of speech, or person, or mock an unfortunate. ' ; Rudeness at table is never forgiven. Nothing is more disagreeable to a well bred person. Study to imitate such persons, and you may soon be like them. Their company is always appreciated and courted, while that of a rude person is dreaded and avoided. " A mild tempered, well bred child, no matter how homely the countenance, will always be loved and welcomed among a lults or children, while one of rude manners will be ex- dud >d perhaps hated. bOOLUIJSG WIVES. 141 ' A good temper, particularly in a housekeeper, who has charge of a family, is one of the greatest blessings. It makes of itself an atmosphere of love, that glows and shines upon all the household. " There is no purgatory more irritating to a husband than, a scolding wife, or more heart -burning to a wife than a fret- ful husband. In such a house, how can children grow up with happy, cheerful dispositions. They feel a dread, a sort of shock, at the very step of such a parent approaching. I have seen men who never were satisfied with a meal some- thing was always wrong, i have seen women who appa- rently never spoke a good-natured word. Their wqrds were like oil of vitriol burning every ear they fell upon. Under their influence the husband grows discontented and unhap- py, and avoids home. The children grow up ungovernable, petulant, uuamiable ; a dread to others, and misery to them- selves. At table, they eat more like pigs than well-behaved children, and if there are strangers in the house, the child- ren, and the thought how they may conduct themselves, are a source of constant anxiety and dread. They are under no control, because thc.>y are the victims of a scold/' " Ah, Lillie," said Salinda, "I see you Lave been getting acquainted with the family of Koyden's, in Father Bright Hopes. In that case both father and mother were scolds ; it is therefore no wonder the children were uncon- trollable." " And I see," said Mr. Savery, " that Lillie ECONOMY" ILLUSTRATED. has had a very good assistant in making up her composition. I am quite interested. Have you any more, my daughter?" "Yes, sir; but I was just going to ask you if I should go on. I am afraid I shall tire you all out, with my crudities." " I will answer for them, sister," said Frank ; " when they are tired they will begin to yawn or go to sleep while you are reading. I am thinking, father, that mother had about as much to do with this composition as sister. I wish we could have it printed ; for I think it would do good to a great many other families." " No doubt, my boy ; but let us listen what more she has for us, as it is not late yet." Lillie proceeded with cheerfulness, being thus encouraged. She even felt proud that a part of it was attributed to her mother, though she had never seen it it was only her ideas, often instilled into a susceptible mind. She read on. " One of the best rules of household economy is order, system, regularity. Have fixed hours for meals, and if you have servants, make them understand that every meal must HOW TO CUBE WANT OF PUNCTUALITY. 143 be as regularly on the table, as though the starting of a railroad train depended upon it. Otherwise you will have collisions all day. Make punctuality the household law. If a child is not punctual at meal-time, fasting will soon cure the fault. Some girls in the kitchen are never punctual with meals. Don't scold. Tell them mildly what will be the consequence, at the first failure ; and the second, re- mind them that the offence cannot be repeated with impu- nity ; and give a prompt dismissal for the third failure. " A gentleman who had been the torment of his first wife in never coming to his meals when ready, married a second one who was made up of clock-work. She found remon- strance was useless ; but she ascertained that he was a very close calculator of dollars and cents, and she adopted this plan. She opened an account, and charged him with the time of every member of the family, every minute they were delayed by his neglect. She also charged the deterioration of dishes and loss of food by standing till they got cold and sodden ; for she had everything put upon the table at the exact moment. " At the end of a month she laid the bill upon his plate one morning. The man was astounded. His face flashed fire, but his eye^rested upon a smile on the face of his wife. ' Don't you think,' said she, ' that that is a sum worth sav- ing ?' ' Wife,' said he, ' if you will allow me a credit for every day I am punctual hereafter, equal to the daily charge here, I will try to balance this account.' One month from that day she gave him a receipt in full. ' In fact,' said she, ' I think there is still a small balance in your favor. Here it is.' And she threw her arms around his neck and kissed ECONOMY ILLTTSTKATKD. him fondly. ' So much,' said he, ' for learning me the value of punctuality.' " It is very bad economy to neglect the opportunity of leisure moments in every household, to cultivate the intel- lect. If possible, there should be an allotment of a portion of every day, where there are children, to make them know one thing more than they knew the day before. " The father as he comes from the field may pick up three stones, by which he can teach them the names and charac- ter of three kinds of rock. Here is the hard granite, called a primitive rock ; and here is still harder quartz ; and here is the limestone that was perhaps trickling as a liquid over the others, centuries after they were formed. The mother as she picks the cowslip the tender dock the young shoots of cokeberry plant the pig-weed or lamb's quarter the purslain the star plant for greens, in the spring season, could give her children useful lessons in botany. So of every flower and fruit through summer ; teach them their formation, properties and use. "Almost overy country housekeeper knows that the bark of the common elder is medicinal ; but there are two who believe it mi-st be scraped up or down, I forget which, or it loses all its \ U'tue, to one that knows why, or what healing power it possesses. Stew the bark in laid, no matter which- way it ivas scraped, and it will make a healing oint- ment for all sores. " Carrots prepared in the same way, make an ointment, perhaps, that excels all others for old sores. What house- keeper who thinks carrots indispensable in soup, ever thinks to inquir* why they arc so? Much more, if she knows, to BOTA.NY, AMD ITS UKKKFITS. 145 teach her children that it is because they coutain an excess over other vegetables of pectic acid, which assists to gelatin, ize that property of the meat in the liquid, and render the soup richer. How mauy know when they read of the okra plant, what it is, or that its pods furnish one of the richest vegetable substances that grow, for soup ? Botany ; household botany 5 botany of food-bearing plants, if taught children, would enable many persons to live far more comfortably and healthily than they do in their ignorance. " A better knowledge of botany would promote the cul- tivation of flowers, and offer an endless source of amuse- ment and enjoyment to children ; besides promoting their health. It would be a true source of economy. It would use up little waste portions of time. The use and value of money should be early taught to children. One of the most effectual ways to do this is to learn them, as far as may be, to make their own purchases, and to keep an account of the cost of everything purchased for them. This should be footed up every year, and thus a young lady who never earned a dollar, might see how many she had cost. Such an account. too,would serve her as a guide to know how much many useless articles had cost, and how soon a little income could be absorbed in flimsy dresses. " It is poor economy for a woman to spend days and weeks upon a piece of ornamental needlework, and at the eame time hire her plain sewing done. It is generally poor economy to hire work done that you could just as well do yourself. ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " Cheap articles are not always economical ones I knew a family who furnished a house with cheap furniture. In three years the carpets had all to be replaced. A set of parlor chairs and sofa had cost twenty-five per cent, of the original price in repairs. A cheap piano had been gent back, and a new one bought. And so on of all the articles in the house. An addition of fifty per cent, to the first cost, would have been fifty per cent, saved. No one, whether rich or poor, whether owner or not. has a right to destroy anything that would be useful to another. ' ' I can do as I please with my own,' is false philosophy. Property is a loan of Providence that we must account for strictly. If you have an old garment that you do not want, some one else of God's creatures does ; and you have no right wantonly to destroy it because you are the acknow- ledged owner. " The gift of an old coat may sow the seed that will ripen you a valuable field. An old bed-quilt that you have cast asido. may gave a poor woman from a fit of rheumatism ; or that pair of old boots, if given to some poor boy instead of being thrown into the fire, might enable him to go to school, and afterwards perhaps to Congress, or what would be still better, become a useful mechanic. t; Economy in all expenditures is not parsimony. A man f>r woman may be saving, without being niggardly. A per- son may be generous without being lavish. Carelessness of expanse is no mark of wealth or respectability. And cer- tainly a mean disposition to cheapen, and beat down the price of good?, or hire cheap labor, is not a mark of a gen- erous mind. ECONOMY IS NOT PARSIMONY. 147 " Some persons are afraid to say, ' I cannot afford it.' They forget that is the highest recommendation of credit. It is no mark of want of money it is an evidence of pru- dence in expenditures. ' Many a family have been ruined because the husband could not say to some extravagant demand of his young wife, who had never learned the value of money, or the ruin of following a foolish fashion, ' I can't afford it.' V To a demand of some poor suffering widow, however, for a trifling assistance, a great many of those most guilty of extravagance, are ready to say, ' I can't afford it.' " No person can afford to be sick, and therefore the art of preserving health should be constantly taught in all families and schools. It is not generally taught in churches, for of all other places they are the worst ventilated. Many of our school-rooms too. are the hot-beds where the seeds of disease are planted. Few nurseries are nurseries of health. Bed-rooms are places where the living are en- tombed. Neither body nor mind can enjoy health without a constant contact with pure air. " The best advice in regard to the management of ser- vants and children, is to avoid fault-finding. It never curts the fault. If pleasant words and good advice will not do if. you may as well give up. Don't fret whenever you find that those you have directed to do certain work, have not the judgment of yourself, or have lacked energy, or failed to execute your orders. Inexperienced minds lack fore- thought. They do not lack sensitiveness when chided for a fault. If the chiding is oft repeated perhaps when least deserved the ear grows dull and mind hardened, and instead of reform, a fixed carelessness ensues. 14:8 ECONOMY ILLU.ai:.Vn;L>. " There is economy as well as humanity, in the care of the sick ; for with a proper care the patient may recover, instead of lingering through a long confinement. The dis- ease of the mind is often equal to that of the body, and re- quires constant watchfulness and cheerfulness on the part of those in charge. It is well said that recovery depends more upon the nurse than the physician. A good nurse will always keep a room well ventilated, and in neat order. To some minds, it is a cause of deep distress when sick to see everything in confusion. "Never ask a sick person what he or she would like to have to eat ; but provide some little delicacy that is suita- ble, and bring it on a waiter covered with a clean napkin, and only such a minute quantity as will be sufficient, and not sicken the weak stomach at the sight of so much that cannot be eaten. " There is nothing more valuable in a sick-room than chloride of lime. It keeps the atmosphere healthy, even in such horrid diseases as the small-pox. ;< For a convenient cheap disinfector, coffee is the most readily used and quick in its action, and rarely offensive to any one. I'ut a few grains upon any hot iron, and roast it in the room from which you wish to remove the effluvia. In a moment you will smell nothing but the coffee. Cop- peras, dissolved and sprinkled about is a good disinfector. Care must be taken not to let it fall upon white cloth, as it makes a permanent stain. Acids are used for disinfectors, but the smell to some persons is disagreeable. We know one who would rather smell a skunk than vinegar fumes while heated. Burnt sugar makes an agreeable smell, and SPECIFICS PRKVKNTIV KS AMUSEMENTS. 14:9 so does the smell of burning rosin ; but delicate lungs may be offended with the smoke. " I^shall only mention two or three specifics, and that only because but little known. il In small-pox, the pits can be entirely prevented, by cov- ering the pustules as fast as they break, with a coating of collodian, a liquid cuticle, sold at all the drag shops. In malignant erysipelas, a poultice of cranberries will effect a cure when all other remedies fail. " In all bowel complaints, the only certain remedy, that is worthy the name of specific, is a tea made of the bark of the sweet gum tree (Liquid Jlmber), that grows all over the United States, south of latitude 41. It is en invaluable medicine for children. " But the best medicine, and the best nurse in the world, is the one that prevents rather than cures sickness. 'Under the head of preventives, for they are promoters of health, I would rank family amusements. These, where well conducted, prepare the body and mind for the actual duties of life. Some children need amusement as much as they need food. If every father would play cards with his son, and at the same time teach him the evils of gambling, and the contempt of all respectable people for such an oc- cupation, the gambling trade would soon cease to exist. " But I do not by any means recommend card-playing. It is an idle game, from which nothing of practical utility is to be learned.- Many other games belong to the same category. Some, however, that appear childish to a man, may be very properly indulged in by children. Rolling ten-pins ; pitching quoits ; skating ; playing ball ; are all 150 ECONOMY LLLUSTKATED. manly exercise?, but all may be indulged in by girls with advantage to the development of their physical strength, and without detriment to their morality. " Dancing for amusement, and not for dissipation, should not be placed under the ban of the strictest moralist. " Singing for amusement should be encouraged, and ex- tensively practiced by all families. So should practice upon musical instruments. "In-door amusements for children home plays induce- ments to spend the evenings at home should be constantly studied by every parent. The most feasible, and the one which should be kept the most prominent, is family read- ing, and family lectures, where all are made to feel an in- terest in the reader, or speaker, or his subject. ' A great deal of useful labor may be done in every family, not as labor, but as a source of amusement, by which the mind is employed. Such is the cultivation of a garden. Few children, who have become accustomed to tending a garden, would be willing to dispense with it, be- cause it is their amusement. It is their happiness to see the flowers and fruit grow ; and they show them to their com- panions with as much satisfaction as the builder of a ship would show his work to a company of merchants. " In all things encourage your children to amuse them- selves with something useful ; but if they strike upon a vein of mirth, or something ridiculous, do not restrain their laughter. Laugh and grow fat, is a meaning proverb. Laughter expands the lungs and promotes health. Do not tell a child that it is wicked to laugh. Learn them not to laugh at wicked stories, or stale, vulgar jokes, and never to THINGS To LKAK-V. 151 fee boisterous. Let them be merry. Let the little girl laugh with her doll, aud not tell her it is ' so childish,' and that ' she ought to be asliamed of herself ' aud to ' try and , see if she can't be a lady.' Depend upon it, she will ape the lady soon enough without any hot-house cultivation of Uic (acuity of imitation. " One of the early habits that should be taught children, is to take care of their own clothes ; and boy or girl, as soon as big enough, should learn to mend, and the value of that old adage, ' a stitch in time saves nine.' " " There is another thing that children should learn," said Lillie, closing her book, and rising, "and that is the habit which I have acquired from the good example of my parents, not to continue my reading till I tire out my audi- ence, or until it is past our usual hour of re- tirement. It is bed-time. You must forgive 3iie one and all if I have trespassed upon good breeding, in my anxiety to finish in one even- ing, what has occupied me a month in prepar- ing." Mr. Savery expressed his high satisfaction at her successful production, and Salinda de- clared that she had learned more than she ever did before from any lecturer of the many she lia'd listened to. Mrs. Savery, owing to the 152 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. suspicion that she was partly entitled to the authorship, said nothing. Not so with Frank. " Xow, sister Lillie, that is all very good, so far as it goes ; but only think how much bet- ter it would be if it was printed in a nice book, which might be read by thousands in all coming years." That idea embodied a thought. " It is worth thinking about," said Mrs. Savery. It is worth thinking about, whether the readers of this book-are satisfied ; and, if like Salincla, they think they have learned more than from the discourse of a lecturer of much higher pretensions than this school-girl, they should also think to whom they are indebted for it. Primarily, to be sure, to the writer, but certainly to Frank Savery ; for it is owing to his suggestion of " how much better it would be," that it is here printed in this nice book, to be read by whole generations of such good children as Salinda, Lillie and Frank. CHAPTER Y. Saturday Salinda in the Kitchen Preparation for Sunday Visit to the Country. SATURDAY in the Savery family, Salinda found to be what it should be in the family of all Christendom preparation for a day set apart for cessation from labor devotion rest throughout all the nations that worship God through Christ. By special invitation she spent the forenoon in the kitchen. Susan was preparing food for Sunday, so as to avoid cooking as far as possi- ble. "With that view she made a large, plain rice-pudding. It was a common-sized milk- pan full. "I do this," said she, "because a rice-pud- ding is really better cold than hot, and this will serve to-morrow and Monday also ; for then I shall be busy washing, and Mrs. Savery will get the dinner." 7* 154: ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " No ; that I intend to do myself, if you and sue are willing." " Certainly, with all my heart ; and I can tell you everything while I am at work just as well. I always put raisins in rice-puddings, because they add a nice flavor. I generally cut them, and put them in soak over night, or a few hours before using ; but you must be careful to use the water as well as fruit. I put my cinnamon in soak with the raisins, as I always use whole sticks, and if it is put in the rice dry it does not always give up all the strength. I soak my rice soft, before I mix it with the milk. It should bake slowly about two hours." " What are you soaking this meat for '?" " That is the edge bone of the round the most economical piece of meat in the whole beef. I shall boil that directly, till it is nice and tender, and in the liquor I shall put all that pan of roast meat bones, which I have been saving all the week, and add my vege- . tables, and make such a nice pot of soup and, as you see, all for nothing. That soup is for to-morrow. You must be careful never to let PKLPAKJNG FOlt SUNDAY. 155 aoup cool iii the iron pot in which it is cooked. I take it out and pour it through the cullender into the soup tureen. It sometimes, particu- larly if I use a good many carrots, gelatinizes so as to be like a jelly. This I heat up to- morrow iu a clean tin kettle. " The meat I shall take out, and while it is wet, I sprinkle it all over with pulverized cracker or rusk bread, with whatever season- ing is agreeable to the family. Some use gar- lic or onions, and various herbs. We prefer everything plain. I use a little salt, pepper, thyme, arid afterwards garnish with parsley. This meat I put in a dish in a hot oven, just long enough to brown the outside. You will say to-morrow that it is very nice, and quite as good as though it was hot. This also serves for Monday, dinner and tea, and very like for breakfast Tuesday. My potatoes I prepare to- day, by boiling and mashing, and putting in this tin pan. If I have a fire in the range, I clap the pan in the oven, first glazing the top with the white of an egg. It browns and heats through directly. If I use nothing but this little charcoal furnace, I put the pan in 156 ECONOMY ILLt'STRATDir. this little bake-ovcn, lirst heating the lid, and set the whole over the coals. This and the soup is all that I have to cook. When pota- toes are better fresh boiled, I can boil a mess and heat my soup with a quart of coal. " To-morrow we shall have for dinner, cold meat and cold rice-pudding, and hot soup and potatoes, with lettuce and radishes. Perhaps Mr. Savery will bring a lobster this evening." " And what about breakfast ? Do you coqk for breakfast ?" " Very little. I make a cup of tea, or cocoa. If I have cold potatoes 1 fry them. Then, with a little cold boiled ham, or corn beef, or tongue, or leg of mutton, with fruits in their season, we make a nice Sunday breakfast, without roasting the cook's face for it. To- morrow morning we shall have strawberries, and bread and butter, and cottage-cheese ; all but the bread, fresh from Mr. Savery's mo- ther's farm, a few miles out of town. The old lady has written that she would send them, but all hands are going out this evening for a ride, and to get these luxuries. I don't know as I ought to have mentioned it, as I believe ICED TEA. 157 they wanted to give you a little surprise, but I forgot that. But yon see I shall have no cooking to-morrow morning, and very little all day." " How admirably you have everything ar- ranged so as not to interfere with the Sabbath, mid yet you will have a better and far more wholesome breakfast and dinner, than many that are obtained by toil and privations of all the privileges and enjoyments of that day. But how about tea? What do you provide for that ?" " For to-morrow I shail make a nice custard, This, with the cottage- cheese or, as some call it, smear-case and radishes, with bread and butter, and a bit of the cold beef, if any one wants it, will make a nice hearty meal. Some- times, in warm weather, I make the tea when I have h're, in the fore part of the day, and cork it tight in a bottle, a, i d then I put it. in the tea-pot over a spirit-lamp, and heat it in five minutes, so that I have no h,*e at all in the afternoon. Last summer we got in the habit of taking the tea iced, and really thought it better than when hot." 15S KCONOMY ILLUSTRATED. While these arrangements were going on in the kitchen, preparatory to Sunday, Frank was us busy as a bee in the garden, and Lillie, with her long coarse apron, and snug cap, was all over the house, sweeping and dusting, and " setting things to rights." Mrs. Savery Avas industriously engaged upon a summer coat for her husband, for it was his boast that he had never worn one made by any other hands since he was married, and that no man went neater dressed than himself. After dinner, Mr. Savery said to his wife, " What time shall we start? I told Henry to bring the wagon round at two o'clock. Will you all be ready ?" Mrs. Savery thought he had better take the girls and Frank, and leave her, she had =o much to do. ;< That is the very reason why you should go. There is nothing that enables us to do -so much as an occasional day of rest a little recreation, or relaxation from labor." Mrs. Savery said, " It would not be a day of rest to her, for she should come home much more tired than though she remained." MISTRESS AND SERVANTS. . 159 " Even so ; and still it will be beneficial to you. No doubt you will feel fatigued, but you will sleep all the sounder, and feel refreshed in the morning, much more than though you had not taken the ride in the fresh air. Your work here will be more fatiguing than the ride." " Suppose you let me stay, and take Susan. I am sure she needs it more than me. Poor girl, she has little chance of recreation. Her task is work, work, day after day." "And pray, what is yours different from mine, except that you work and have the care, while I have none. I am able and willing to work, and very contented. I don't feel as though I should be willing to change places with you or any other mistress of a family. And I don't think that any sensible girl would, if every mistress would treat their ser- vants as you do." " Susan," said Mr. Savery, " if all girls were like you, with sense enough to know when they are well off, there would be fewer unhappy, discontented, fretful mistresses of families. Many who marry are no more fit for the station they assume, than rny horse that 100 J-.CONOMY ILLUSTRATED. Henry has just driven up to the door. So now to end the difficulty as to which shall go, I will take you all. Come, hurrah, get ready." However, Susan concluded, with her cook- ing on hand, that she could not leave, and would not consent that either of the others should stay in her place, though both of the girls urged her to accept their services. It was a plain open wagon with two seats. Salinda begged the privilege of sitting with Mr. Savery on the forward one, that she might learn to drive. This he was pleased to give her an opportunity to do, because, said he, " I look upon it as a part of the education of a girl that never should be overlooked, though it generally is, that she should learn horse- manship. Every one should be taught how, so that upon emergency, if not for pleasure, she could take charge of a horse, or a pair." " My sister Clara, then, suits your ideas ex- actly," said Mrs. Savery. u She can, if neces- sary, go to the stable and hitch up her horse sometimes she does a pair and take the children or a companion into the wagon, and drive off a dozen miles ; and she takes pride KEQUFSITKS FOR A GOuI> DRIVFli. 161 in driving by everybody on the road. She is perfectly fearless and independent with a horse, either in a wagon or when she is on his back." "It truly is an accomplishment," said Sa- linda, "that I should feel prond of; and one that I will acquire, if Charley keeps a horse. There is something excitingly pleasant, in guiding a noble animal like this along a good road. Do you think I could make myself a good driver ?" "There is not the least doubt of it. You have the very first requisite for it." " What is that ?" " A calm temper, and freedom from that nervous impatience which runs out to the very finger ends of some people, and keeps them constantly twitching at the reins, or using the whip, or speaking sharply to urge the horse forward. Such driving will spoil any horse. The temper of the driver always seems to me to affect the horse. If one is gentle, the other is. A horse soon learns to know his driver, and frequently there is a warm affection grows up between them. Scolding and twitching a lt!l! KCONOMY II.I.VSTKATLO. horse will spoil him as sure as the same treat- ment will spoil a child. This horse is gentle and playful, yet spirited. I never knew him play a trick with a woman or child. A man or boy whom lie does not know had better keep his eyes open. He would soon learn to know you. He would distinguish the very touch of your hand on the rein, it is so steady and firm, without pulling. Your voice, too, is soft ; a horse is as easily charmed by such a voice, as a man. There is great magnetic power in the human voice." " What makes him prick up his ears now and start forward ?" " It is because his ear is quicker than yours or mine. There is another horse on the road, and he hears him coming round the bend, and is not disposed to be passed. Now you hear what he heard at first." " Oh, will he want to run to keep ahead ?" said Salinda, with a slight suspicion that her horsemanship might be insufficient in a race. " Not unless you wish him. He is ready for a word of command. Speak to him as you give a gentle, though sudden, pull on the bit. NKW TURN-OUT. 163 Ned, steady, sir. You see how easily he sub- sides. Ah, there they come ; a dashing pair of pampered greys, and open barouche, with driver in livery." " Oh, father," said Lillie, looking back, " it is the Doolittles, with their new turn-out. Mrs. I)., Kitty, and Triphenia, with her bearded beau." " Has Doolittle bought that establishment?" said Mr. Savery. " The man is crazy. I understand now how it is that Tom Whip was hawking Doolittle's notes for fifteen hundred dollars, through the streets, at twenty-five per cent, discount. A man doing a business cer- tainly not worth over two thousand dollars a year a mere mechanic and a hard-working, honest mechanic, too for that is Doolittle's character, if it is not his name to buy a fifteen hundred dollar carriage and horses, just to gratify his weak-minded, vain wife, and badly- educated, proud daughters the thought is sickening. Poor Doolittle ! the best wish that I can give him, in all honesty of heart, for I do feel that I am an old friend, is that he may never live to see the ruin that is rapidly coming 164 HCONOMY II.LUSTKATED. upon his family. No mortal hand can avert it. If the Maine law had been in force ten years ago, his reasoning faculties might have been saved. Without being thought a drinking man, he has taken enough to ruin his intellect, and leave him an easy prey to the folly of his gad-about, do-nothing, instead of Doolittle. wife. The man is mined." It is not likely that the load of jewel-bediz- zened pride that swept by in their velvet-cush- ioned, easy carriage, as they looked out from the cloud of silks and laces, upon the occu- pants of that humble wagon, had an idea that the time would ever come to them again, when they would be obliged to travel in so mean a conveyance, as a plain one-horse buggy. " Oh, Kitty ! for mercy sake give me my smelling-bottle, or I shall faint ;" said Triphe- nia, as their carriage swept by, bringing her as she sat forward, almost face to face with Saliuda. "Dear me!" said her mother and sister, "what is the matter? You look pale. "We had better drive back to town at once the THE DOOLITTLES' REFLECTIONS. 165 country air never agreed with Triphenia she is so delicate." She was eighteen, and weighed a hundred and thirty-five, and if she looked pale, it was the pale of fuller's earth or pearl white. She was too much affected to answer her mother's anxious inquiries after her health, and so Mr. George Alexander Waltringham, the " gentle- man from the South," ventured to suggest that " those vulgar people in that wagon that one- horse wagon had pretended to try to recog- nize her as an acquaintance, which had shocked her very susceptible nervous system. There was a very bold, forward, pert young miss, some country gawky, I suppose, sitting on the forward seat with a common-looking sort of man, driving the horse, while he took it easy. We never see such things in Georgia. I think it was the vulgar look of the thing that made her feel faint." " Yes, mother ; and I think you would have fainted too, if you had seen what I did. That girl that George Alexander describes so cor- rectly, was Salinda Love well," driving that old lumber wagon of the Saverys, with the whole 166 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. family packed up together. Don't you think the merchant's daughter is coming down in the world? I hope you don't blame U8 now for cutting her acquaintance. I really don't know what the world is coming to. I could not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes. It is enough to make any one feel faint, who knows what good society is." Good society!! Heaven bless us! Five years ago, the Doolittle family would have been very glad to ride in as good a wagon with a borrowed horse. JS^ow they rolled away in a very atmosphere of their own, that shut out all reminiscences of scenes of early life and old acquaintances. Doolittle himself, was an honest, hard-work- ing mechanic, but lacking that stability of mind which would have enabled him to resist the outside pressure of a weak-minded, proud woman, who was bringing up her children in idleness and frivolity, he had been forced to abandon a comfortable country home, for a fashionable city residence and an expensive mode of living, that, notwithstanding his large increase of business would lead him to one TALK ON THE EOAD. 107 inevitable result one that sooner or later overtakes every one who lives beyond his income. For a man, situated as Doolittle was, to buy a pair of horses and carriage, Savery looked upon as only one remove from insanity. " I do not envy them," said Salinda, as they sailed away past the humble, yet very- com- fortable wagon in which she was fTcling. " You need not," replied Mr. Savery, " but they will you, if all of you live five years. Have you ever visited the family ?" " I have not, though frequently urged to do so by Mrs. Doolittle and the girls, who often call upon my mother. I don't know that I should be welcome now, as I was told they intended to cut my acquaintance, after, as they said, I had turned kitchen girl" " For the Saverys. Put it all in ; we heard of it, but did not feel offended," added Mrs. Savery. " Depend upon it, if we should call there, we should be in danger of being eaten up if we were sugar, they would be so sweet upon us." " I wish, wife, that you would try it ; as 168 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. everything is judged by contrast, it would be well for Salinda to learn how others live, as well as those she is associated with." "Oh, there is grandmother," exclaimed Frank, a good deal more interested in looking ahead for the first sight of that much honored old lady, than anything his father and mother were saying about the Doolittles, or anybody else. Mrs. Whitlock was a lady in the true mean- ing of that tenn. She was of the old Puritan stock. For a dozen years she had been a widow, but in all that appertained to the man- agement of the farm, a scrutinizing neighbor said he could see no change since her husband's death. Mr. Whitlock was a man of rare good sense. Years before his death, he made his will. It was short and pertinent. " My wife," he said. " has been thirty years my partner in business, and in company we have accumulated some property. If she dies first, the law gives me the entire management, without noticing her death any more than it would the death of my horse. If I die first, she is accounted by law A SENSIBLE WILL. 169 as nobody, and barely permitted to have a little portion of what I leave. All the property must be sold, whether anybody wishes it or not. The sanctuary of the house is invaded by strangers, to make an inventory of all I may leave behind. The law does not permit my old partner to carry on my old business, for the benefit of our children, or creditors. The con- cern must be broken up. Such is the law. Therefore, I make a will. This the law must execute. I constitute my aforesaid partner, my sole heir, executor, and guardian of my child- ren and property. I trust she will continue the partnership business, if she deems it advisa- ble, just so long as she considers it profitable, and that she will pay all my debts, and dispose of my property, which will then be solely hers, in just such a manner as she sees proper." Every man that has such a wife, should make such a will. Mrs. "VVhitlock was in the front porch when the wagon drove up. It was such an unu- sual thing for her to come out to see a car- riage pass, that she felt as though she must apologize for such an idle curiosity. 170 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED, The children could hardly wait for the wagon to stop, before they were out, and through the gate, and up the steps, to give grandmother the first kiss. Mr. and Mrs. Savory both greeted the old lady in the same way. The children came naturally by their affectionate dispositions. " And this," said the old lady, " is Nat Lovewell's daughter. I knew her mother be- fore she was her age. I am really happy on her account, to welcome you to my house. Come in. I need not ask if you are all well your countenances tell that." " Oh, grandma, were you out looking for us?" " No indeed, for I did wot know you were-' coming. I was going to send the things down by Sam this evening. But I am very glad you have come, for now you can pick the ber- ries yourselves ; I know you will like that. " I was out looking at that splendid carriage no, not at the carriage, either, exactly ; but Sam had been telling me about it, and just 'then Debby saw it coming, and insisted that I should come out and look ; at the same time THE WELCOME TO THE FARM-HOUSE. 171 quoting the old proverb repeated by Sam, of ' put a beggar on horseback and he will ride to the devil.' You know Sam feels a little bitter towards the Doolittles since Triphenia jilted him for her ' Southern planter,' as she calls him, though Sam insists upon it that he is nothing but a blackleg, horse-racer, and I don't know what all. Well, well, never mind the Doolittles I am heartily glad that my son is clear of his engagement to marry one of them, for I think they will all go to ruin. " Now, children, you go and pick the ber- ries, and I will get the smear-case ready, and your mother, and what is your name ? for I never can call you Miss Lovewell may take a walk round, or sit here until I get through my work. I want you Salinda, is it? to feel at home, and never mind me. You are just as welcome as though I made a fuss about it." " Can't we help you, mother, about your work?" " Oh, la ! no. I don't want any help. Deb- by will get the Butter ready. She is working it over now. I can hear her patting with the butter ladle." 172 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " Can t we," said Salinda, " go out among the chickens, and in the orchard, and look through the garden ?" " Oh, yes, do. Yon will find the calves in that lot. I do think our old yellow cow's calf this year, excels any former one. The butcher offered me twelve dollars, a week ago, but I told him that I should make it better worth fifteen. He laughed, and said he didn't doubt it. Then we have such a lot of pigs real butter-milk pigs. Sam says they will sell in a month from now at a better profit than after they have eaten ten bushels of corn apiece. I reckon there is something in it. The true economy of farming is to sell things when they bring the most profit, not when they bring the most money. Oh, do go and look at my lambs, Jotham, you used to be so fond of lambs whea you lived at home." Finally, all the others concluded that they wanted to see the lambs and calves, and pigs, and chickens, and so they would all go togeth- er ; but Mrs. Whitlock said, " You forget, chil- dren, one of my precepts. Always do your work first and play afterwards. You have THE OLD FAKM-HOU8E DESCRIBED. 173 your berries to pick, and you are to have just as many as you choose to gather. Better do that first." " So we had, mother," said Mrs. Savery, " and therefore we will all go and do that, and then do our running about." " That is very well. Many hands make light work, is another of my maxims. You know where to find the baskets, and while you are about it, you may pick enough for our tea." She said truly, that they knew where to find the baskets. Everybody that ever knew once might know in all future time ; for everything had a place, and everything when used must be returned to its place. It was no wonder that order was the law of Mrs. Savery's house. She inherited it from her mother. Every tree, shrub, vine, plant, all partook of the same appearance of order, neat arrange- ment, taste, and adaptation to their several situations. The house was one of those old-fashioned ones, still common in New England, which, for a farm-house it is difficult to improve. The 4 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. objection to them now is that since wood has grown scarce, it costs too much to keep up the fire in the great chimney in the centre of the house ; upon each side of which in front, there is a " square room," one of which is the " spare room," and the other the " common room." Behind the chimney is a great kitchen, with its enormous fire-place and oven. At one end of the kitchen is the stairway, and passage to the " end door," and a buttery ; and at the other end is a bed-room. There is a " settle " on one side of the fire-place, and a blue dye-tub in one corner. A long, heavy oak table stands by the windows, with a back seat, a bench fixed to the wall. There is a " lean to " behind for a milk-room and sink room, just outside of which is the great stone- walled well, where " The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket," Jangles from the long pole and great crotch and sweep. Then comes the " clothes-yard," a broad piece of turf, as smootli as a carpet. Even here, order and economy are exhibited in saving the clothes line from the weather, or A NEW ENGLAND HOME. 175 necessity of taking it down by hand and carry- ing it into the house. Upon the post near the well there is a little box, enclosing a wheel with a crank, with which the hundred feet of line can be wound in one minute. When it is wanted it is run out in as little time over the forks in the top of the posts, and a loop hitch- ed over a pin at the farther end. Then a turn of the wheel and a catch tightens and holds it so. Beyond the clothes yard and on a lower level lies the garden. A drain from the house carries all the waste water to a tank in the garden, and every rain that falls washes any little fertilizing matter on or about the house, down to the garden, where it will do good. The house, as all country houses should do, when it is feasible, fronts the north. This gives the genial sun to the kitchen side, where it is most needed to evaporate moisture, and look into the broad kitchen windows on mid- winter day. To the west of the garden was " the little orchard," and across the road north of the house, spread out the big orchard. In front 176 ECOXUMV IIXUSTliATED. of the house, and along both sides of the road the full length of the farm, there were two rows of trees, alternating with elms, maples, mulberry, butternut, black-walnut, and several great cherry-trees, and one very large pear- tree, and three excellent, autumn apples. These were all planted by Mr. Whit-lock, as he said, for the- public. 1 His children, or grand-children u uiild see the benefit of them, and how much they would be valued. ]!sot only his children, but himself lived to see many a panting horse reined up in the pleas- ant shade of some of those trees, to recuperate strength for a drive over a long sunny road. Many a tired traveller, no doubt, sent up his thank-offering for the refreshing luxury of that way-side fruit. Planting shade-trees and fruit-trees by the wayside, ought to be inculcated as a Christian duty. On the east side of the house commenced the farm buildings. The first was a neat wagon-house next the road, two-stories high, the upper loft a seed-room, and place to store wool and various other things. From the FARM-BUILDINGS. 177 wagon-house extended a long shed, where dry wood was always stored. In one end was a room called the shop, containing a carpenter's bench and tools, a portable forge, and a set of tools for mending harness, or saving a shilling by a stitch in time in a pair of shoes. At the other end was a room with a kettle set in an arch, which was used for making soap, trying out fat, and cooking food for the pigs, which occupied a pen on the other side of the build- ing, communicating with the barn-yard beyond, or with the little orchard, where they were allowed to run, except when the fruit was ripe and falling from the trees. Con- nect^d with the pig-pen was the hen-house, and beyond that a large yard in which they could be shut whenever it was desirable to keep them out of the garden. One side of the poultry -yard was formed by the corn-crib, with an opening for them under the building, so that every grain that fell was not wasted, but was picked up by some sharp-eyed biddy, always watching fur a chance grain. ''If you keep liens," said Mr. Whitlock, " under the crib, you will not keep rats or S* 178 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. mice. It is only a question of which is most profitable." The bam was a pattern of convenience. The milking-yard was between the wood-shed and barn. The stable-yard on the south side, the stables occupying a basement. A rise of ground on the north side, gave a roadway, by a slight inclined plane, to the second story of the barn. When a load of hay was driven in, the driver without any assistance, could hitch a tackle-block to the wagon-bed, and detach his team and hitch them to the fall, and start them forward, lifting the whole load, which then swung round by a crane over the great bay, when by a simple contrivance the ropes on one side unhooked, and down dropped the whole load. In this way, in fifteen minutes, he could unload and start out for another. Thus a hundred tons could be put under shel- ter without any of the hard work and heavy expense of pitching and stowing away. One of the things that most grieved Mr. Whitlock about his barn and stable arrange- ments was that he had no hill-side spring that he could lead through pipes to every animal THE WINDMILL. 179 as it stood in the stall. If he had had a spring a hundred feet lower down than his stable, he could have still got a supply by means of that curious and very valuable little hydraulic machine, the " Water-ram." But his situation afforded neither one nor the other ; but he did the next best thing that he could do ; he made extensive cisterns near the barn, but the water had to be pumped up by hand. His spirit perhaps now looks down to see how Sam and his mother, by the aid of scientific dis- coveries, have obviated this difficulty. On the top of the barn is one of " Halliday's Wind Engines," a newly invented windmill, that regulates its own sails to any wind, high or low, and pumps a constant stream of water up to a reservoir in the barn, so situated that it is covered with hay in winter and never freezes, and from which water can be drawn to every stall, pig-pen, poultry-yard, and for the cows in the milking lot. It is a cheap, valuable, labor-saving machine. Its use is true economy. " Mother," said Mrs. Savery, as they came in with their baskets full of the ripe fruit. "I 180 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. have never known your strawberries so plenty and fine-flavored as this year; how do you account for it?" " We read in the newspaper, that the straw- berry bed should never be manured in any way except with decayed wood or leaves, and that spent bark from the tanner's yard was first-rate. This is the second year that we have tried it, and in addition to that, this sum- mer, Samuel waters them with a decoction of fresh oak bark, because he read that tannic acid was necessary to give strawberries that rich flavor. The experiment has cost nothing, and the profit is incalculable. It, with the frequent waterings he gives them, will more than double the yield of the bed. By the by, that last improvement was your suggestion, Jotham ; so that we can well aiford to give you all that you want. Now remember, if your little bed does not give you all that you can cat, you must send out here and get a supply. It is a great deal more pleasure to me to give them to you than to sell them. Why what started Frank and Lillie off on the run ? Oh, I see now, they got a glimpse of UNCLE SAM AND THM CHILDREN. 181 their uncle Samuel, coming through the orchard. There he is like a playful boy, down on the grass, with both of them on his lap. He will dirty Lillie's frock, I'll warrant, or sme mischief. I do wish Sam was married, and had some children of his own, if he would love them as well as he does your's, Mary." " If it warn't for one thing, mother, I could find a match that would please you." " Oh yes, I understand, but Charley Good- man is just as good a man as Sam Whitlock, and here Salinda began to get uneasy. Oh you need not blush to own such a young man as your lover. I do wish it was the fashion, as soon as a couple are betrothed, to own it to their friends, and treat each other, and be treated accordingly. It would be a very happy pleasant state of society, and often lead to better results than the present fashion. Besides it would avoid lying." Samuel now came in, as his mother said, as rough as a bear, with his long beard, and dirty as a pig from a week's toil on the farm, yet when introduced to Salinda, in her eyes, he dropped all the roughness of the farm, for 182 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. she only saw and heard, a most polite well- bred gentleman, well read, and full of intelli- gence upon every subject. " Is 'it possible," she thought, " that this is the man that I have heard so ridiculed by the Doolittles, as Triphenia's country beau. Why he is as much superior to that fop of her's, as man is superior to a monkey." It is well, Charley Goodman, that you are firmly seated in her heart, for there is one beneath that rough exterior that beats in uni- son with hers. If it was free, it might be won, for she likes the man, and is fairly in love with his country home. What a table they sat down to about six o'clock. Strawberries and sugar, strawberries and cream, strawberries and such nice cool milk, for I forgot to mention the ice-house, one of the luxuries and. economies of every farm. Then such sweet butter and fresh-baked rye and Indian bread, and old style light biscuit. When the butter was commended, the old lady told how she made it. " I have tried churning sweet milk, and I have churned my cream sweet, and I have BUTTEK AND SMEAR CASE. 183 kept it till it soured. I have washed my but ter, and I have made it without washing, and after all I could not lay down any fixed rule for everybody to follow. If I get every drop of buttermilk out, either by washing and working, or working alone, my butter will keep sweet a year. This was made of sweet cream, and worked once with a paddle, and salted with an ounce of fine rock salt to a pound, and a spoonful of fine white sugar, that is Debby's notion I don't think it hurts it any." " And this, that you call smear case, how is it made ?" "You saw Debby, when you were in the milk-room, emptying the bonny-klauber in the brass kettle. That is brought to a scald, and the curd settles down and the whey rises. We pour off all we can, and then turn the whole out in a strainer over the whey-tub and let it drain an hour or two." " Is that all, grandma ?" " Oh no ; it is then tied up and hung away to drain all night. It is then in quite a hard cake. This we crumble up by hand, and add 184: ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. about a gill of cream to a quart, with a little salt, and that is smear case; it is the Dutch of soft cheese. If we want to send it to market, we make it up in little round balls and lay them between two clothes, and put a board and weight on top to press them down into little cakes, like small biscuit, and these are called cottage cheese, or Dutch cheese. Sometimes the cream is entirely omitted. It is a good wholesome food for those that like it." " Of which I am one, said Salinda ; though I never tasted any so good as this before." "The enjoyment of eating is greatly owing to surrounding circumstances ; I don't think I could relish my food as well, where I knew that neatness never had an abiding-_place. This is economical food, for we only value milk after we have got the cream, for pig feed. Do you prefer that brown bread to the biscuit ? That is what I call my half and half equal parts of corn meal and rye, the bran of each only sifted out. Scald the meal and mix it thoroughly into a mush, and then add the rye, and knead it well. You can't make bread without hard work. I used to do that, but I am TIME TO GO. 185 not strong enough now, but Debby is. She is a right good girl for strong work." " I guess, mother, we must be going, to get home before dark." " Well, I'spose you must. I am really 'bliged to you for this visit. I shall not urge you to stay longer, because I know its time you were going." " Indeed Mrs. Whitlock, I think the obliga- tion is all on our side." " Oh no, Salinda, remember it is more blessed to give than receive. And besides, you don't know how much it does an old woman's heart good, to have her children come back to the old homestead, and sit around the same table once more. And as for you, I really wish you would come every week, or for the matter of that, every day. You have done a sight of good." " "Why how? I don't understand a word." " I will leave it for Lillie, the young rogue, to tell you. She says : grandma, do see how uncle Sam is fixed up, all out of compliment to Salinda." It was not that altogether, it was the natu- 186 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. ral homage and respect of a noble heart to beauty, intelligence and worth. It was the evidence of good breeding, often found under the roughest exteriors upon American farms. Sam "Whitlock the farmer, would be, always will be, Samuel Whitlock the gentleman born, gentleman bred, gentleman i n all that makes the character. He had in his young days fixed his heart upon a girl who as she grew up, could not understand that character, and luckily for him, concluded to break her troth, since which he had fallen into habits of indo- lence, as regards the exterior appearance of a gentleman. Salinda had unconsciously awak- ened that feeling which prompts a man to look to personal appearance, and the quick eye of his mother, as well as Lillie, saw it, and felt grateful to the object. She thought and said, " You have done a sight of good." Just as they were going out to the wagon, the Doolittle carriage was coming down the road. Sam fairly outdid his nature, in the little courtesies of the occasion. Was there a little natural feeling, to let Miss Triphenia see that he was not utterlv disconsolate? Was THE DOOLITTLES AT THE FARM. 187 there on the part of Salinda, a little desire to assist him, even at the risk of being called, as she was called, " the shameless flirt." The girls would have preferred to dash by with a simple nod of recognition, but their mother either felt guilty of such rudeness, and order- ed the driver to rein up, or else she saw the baskets of tempting strawberries, and was prompted to the act by a spirit of greediness. Let us hope it was not the latter. A stranger might 1 have thought the new-comers were the wannest friends of the family, so enthusiastic was their greeting. They were so delighted to have the opportunity of meeting their old friends and neighbors all together. The girls complimented Salinda upon her skill in driv- ing, it was " such an accomplishment." " If we had such a lovely little snug carry- all, and only one horse but pa would have two we should certainly learn to drive." How quick the wicked remarks made as they drove past, had passed into the ocean of forgetf ulness. Those remarks were to the backs, and these to the faces of those they talked about. What 188 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. a happy thing our thoughts are hidden, and half our words unheard. Samuel, as the old lady remarked, was all himself again. He was full of life, and "just as polite as ever." He was sending a pang to every heart in the Doolittle carriage. George Alexander Waltingham in his heart felt that Triphenia was a fool to throw away such a man, and such a prospect of being the mistress of a house and farm like this for a gam- bler. He almost spoke the word, so strongly he thought of it. But he covered up his thoughts with his supercilious actions, which he thought would pass well in the present company, as evidence of high breeding. Ex- cept with a fraction of the company, he was very much mistaken. The others thought him just what he was an adventurer, a fop, a libertine. He was one of a numerous class, that pluck flowers only for their fragrance, while fresh with morning dew, and then cast them away as worthless trash. Mrs. Whitlock and her son, both insisted upon the Doolittles stopping for some- straw- berries. She had already spoken a word to THE CONTRAST. 189 Debby, and she had already reset the table, while they were making excuses for doing just what they were most anxious to do, so that by the the time they got in the house, every thing was ready for them to sit right down to such a repast as they most ardently desire'd, notwithstanding the repeated protestations that they " had not the least occasion in the world." And notwithstanding the girls had " cut the acquaintance" of Salinda, she was most pressingly urged to call upon them, " before they left town on their summer tour." Of course Mrs. Savery and Lillie were includ- ed in the invitation, though Kitty said she hoped " that stuck-up school-girl would have sense enough not to come." The truth was, that she felt herself the foil that added lustre to Lillie's diamonds of a cultivated mind, whenever they were brought into contrast. " Speaking of contrast," said Mr. Savery, " I am going to show you the contrast of Mother's farm." The man was thinking. Nobody said a word about contrast ; they all thought of it though. "It is Doolittle's father's old Captain 190 ECONOMY ILLUSTKATKD. Doolittle it is only half a mile out of the way, and except the half mile, the best road, and then you will see a greater diversity of sce- nery too, and have more food for thought. This way. Ned knows the road." " Do you think that Mrs. Doolittle will come this way, father," said Lillie. " Not a bit more than she would drive through fire. I doubt whether that Mr. What- do-you-call him, will ever hear that the family ever had any American ancestors. You know they have a coat of arms, and trace back on his side to some remote baronetcy. There is not an old castle in Sir Walter Scott's novels, that some of the Doolittle family were not connected with in their opinion. But here is the last baronial hall of the family." The house stood " back side to the road," and a very unsightly show its old wood-colored walls, and mossy roof, and broken windows made. The well was in line with the road- fence^ with a horse-trough outside, and a hog- wallow beyond, that looked like the slough of despond, to any one that would approach the well from that side. This puddle extended THE DOOLITTLLE FARMHOUSE. 191 beyond the gate, and had to be crossed on rails thrown in the mud. The gate had to be lifted around upon one hinge. It was always fastened with a pin, provided the pin was not lost, or the gate had not been rooted open by the hogs ; to prevent which, three dogs stood, or rather slept guard on the portico, which contained a great assortment of old saddles, harness, hoes, rakes, wheels, loom, old coats, hats and boots, in a sort of public free exhibi- tion. Beyond the well, on one side, was the hog- pen, with an opening to the road ; for the owner believed in the largest liberty for his stock. On the other side was an open wagon- shed, where the hens roosted, and did the ornamental work of the go-to-meeting car- riage. Eight in front of the gate was the wood-pile, frequently furnished with whole trees, snaked up, because the cart was broken, or the wagon had gone to mill. The barn was right opposite the house, and the cow-yard in the road between, which, in audition to the wood-pile, was encumbered with all the broken down carts, wagons, sleds, 192 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. harrows, plows, hay-racks, fence-posts, and sticks of timber, that had been or might be in use during the century. In the summer, A good part of this chevaux-de-frise was hidden from view by a rank growth of stramonium. From the house and barn, boards had fallen, or were dangling by one nail ; and the orchard looked as though nothing but the scythe of Time had ever been there as a pruning-hook. The garden palings had been broken, and the holes stopped with brush from the snaked up trees at the wood-pile. A hole in the orchard wall was patched with an old cart-bed. One of the big doors of the barn, which Mr. Savery said had hung for a year by one hinge, had gone down at last, and was propped up sideways with a rail. An old harrow stood guard in place of a stable door, and some scraggy poles at the barn-yard did service where bars and bar-posts were both gone. A swarm of bees were at work in the old chaise- box, not having been able to get any other hive. That had deprived the old lady of the privilege of going to meeting for the balance of the summer. The garden had been made, FOOD FOK THOUGHT. 193 and unmade by the hens, three times, and then given up, because " they couldn't afford to be always making garden." It was a contrast it was food for thought. Salinda went home a wiser as well as happier girl than she went forth. She had seen much and learned much much that is never learned in schools. Schools that turn out mindless machines expensive experiments to cramp reason out of its natural purpose. Schools that teach music that gives just as much accomplishment as the hand-organ possesses. Schools of design, that teach children to badly copy a bad picture. History and geography is taught just as much as the parrot is taught sense by repeating words. Schools of indus- try, that teach needle-work that is utterly impracticable and useless all through life. Such is fashionable education. They found company waiting for them when they got home. Mr. and Mrs. Lovewell, and Charley Goodman, were there. The meeting was as joyful as though they had been sepa- rated for a year. Salinda's mother met her witli a warm embrace. Her father with a 9 194 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED, dignified smile and formal shake of the hand. How she did wish he would press her to his breast as Mr. Savery did. She would have put her arms around Charley's neck and given him a kiss a warm token of love fear of being called forward held her back, and made her restrain nature. But she looked what she felt, as they shook hands. Lillie felt no such restraint, and she ran up to him and put her arms fondly around his neck, and gave him such a kiss ; laughing heartily as she said to Salinda, " that is the way to do it, isn't it r Charley." Charley expressed his very high satisfaction at that mode of salutation, and returned it with a hearty, " God bless you, Lillie, my dear good girl. You are as fragrant as a bed of strawberries." " No wonder, and that reminds me." She cast a look at her mother, as much as to say r Shall I ? Her mother looked, Yes, and away she bounded, returning in a few minutes with a fine dish of sugared strawberries, followed by Susan with plates and spoons. It was a very grak't'ul trejtf t the berries and cream WAIT AND WATCH. 195 both so fresh and sweet. Salinda said, " I think, father, that I can give you something that yon will like, if possible, better than the strawberries." " Oh, I know what 'tis," said Lillie, and away she ran for the smearcase. Instead of one, she brought three dishes. Mrs. Lovewell declined, but Mr. Lovewell said it was deli- cious. Of course, Susan had added bread and butter. Charley told Lillie that he had not tasted but one thing better since he came in the house, and tjiat preceded the strawber- ries. " You shall taste something better still be- fore you leave. Wait and watch." He had not to wait long. Lillie proposed that he should go and see how neat Salinda had got everything arranged up stairs. " Oh, she is getting, to be a famous housekeeper. Susan and her are on great terms in the kitchen." He did admire the neat arrangement. His heart was full. Salinda stood before him, more lovely than ever. It was an impulse of the moment that led him to do what he had so often ardently desired to do, yet dared not 196 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. venture. He took her in bis arms, pressed her fondly to his heart, and kissed her passion- ately. It was the happiest moment of her life. It was the first, as she fondly hoped, of a long series. " My dear, dear little wife. How you do win upon my heart every day. How much I should love you." Her head sunk upon his breast. She was in an ecstasy of delight. Tears of joy streamed down the good Lillie's cheeks, and the affec- tion of her heart gushed out. She too felt the impulse, and she threw her arms around both, and as she kissed Salinda, said : " Let me too be happy." The tears of the trio mingled. There were other moist eyes, looking at this scene. Mrs. Savery and Mrs. Lovewell, had followed them up stairs, and had, unnoticed, witnessed the whole of this outgushing of nature. "What mother could refrain from sympathizing with such children. Mrs. Lovewell did not chide, she only cautioned prudence. " She had no objection to this show of what their hearts felt, if only indulged in presence of some one who would be a little restraint, so that they SATISFACTION. 197 would not act foolishly, as lovers are some- times inclined to do. Even in affection, there should be a degree of dignity and respect. There is some truth in the old adage, that ' familiarity breeds contempt.' It is not safe for human nature to trust to good resolutions. 1 do not counsel coldness and reserve between an affianced couple, but such reserve as pro- duces respect." Mrs. Lovewell expressed a high degree of satisfaction at all of Salinda's arrangements, and what she heard of her disposition and pro- gress in the study of the art of housekeeping : and Charley felt that she had never appeared so lovely before. He knew very well what a good teacher she had, and that she was acquir- ing accomplishments of the highest order for an American woman, such as no public semi- nary ever gives. Of all the members of that little party that night at Mr. Savery's, it would be difficult to tell which went to bed most happy. Even Mr. Lovewell, with all his apparent coldness, had a warm heart, and was most proud of his daughter, and happy to see her happy. 198 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. CHAPTER VI. The Visit to the Doolittles. Nor long after the above events, Mrs. bavery, Salinda, and Lillie, went to make their visit to the Doolittles. Of course they were received with demonstrations of great delight. The door was opened by the coachman, gardener, man of all work, and good at none a useless appendage and foolish expense to such a family. He was attending to this duty, as Mrs, Doolittle apologized, because both of their chamber girls had suddenly left. ''They were very impertinent, asking me for their wages, time after time, instead of waiting for me to give it them when it was convenient; and, finally, this morning they told Doolittle about it, and he, the fool, gave them the money, and no quicker than they got it, they both packed up and cleared out. I do wish men would attend to their own business, and THE DOOLITTLKS AT HOME. 19 not undertake to manage our household affairs. However, I am glad they are gone, for they had got to be quite worthless. You can see that by the looks of the house." Indeed it was easy to see that somebody was quite worthless about the house. The parlors were elegantly furnished, so far as costly frail furniture could make elegance, and that was all. There was scarcely a chair or sofa that was not broken or scratched, or torn, and every crevice showed the worthlessness of those whose business it had been to keep the furniture free of dust Salinda counted five holes in the lace curtains, punched by dirty fingers. Perhaps they had been made by marble fingers, for several had been broken from the statuettes which ornamented the mantels. There were several grease spots upon the carpet, one of which bore unmistakable evidence of a recent fall of bread and butter. The piano was out of tune, because the " children will keep thump- ing at it" In short, the whole house was out of tune. About an hour after the arrival of their guests, " the young ladies " sailed down stairs, with a profusion of fancy gauze, silk, 200 ECONOMY ILL LSI Jt ATI-JO. lace, ribbons, and jewelry, and their hair in such a friz as might astonish, if not frighten, one of the aborigines of the American forest. There was no need of half the lying excuses for their late appearance ; such as having so much work to do, in consequence of the departure of those ungrateful girls, and quite forgetting how late it was, and how punctual Mi's. Savery always is, and how they had to dress each other's hair. Salinda might have believed the latter, as it was impossible for either to make such a fright of herself alone, if she had not caught a glimpse of a well-known French hair- dresser, as he went down stairs. Of course the girls could not show their pro- ficiency in music, because the piano was out of tune. Lillie said slyly, that she never knew it otherwise. It was a standing excuse. If it ever happened to be in order, the girls always had " horrid colds." Salinda proposed to look at the garden. They could not refuse, though it was in a " shocking condition." In that they spoke the truth. But the most shocking part of it was, that it was filled with expensive shrubs and THE GAEDEN. v 201 flowers, to such a degree that there was no room for fruit, or anything beyond a few roses, of any practical use. Tender plants were choked with grass and weeds, or trampled on by careless feet, and those of larger growth bore marks of having officiated in place of a clothes-line, and the paths were whitened with dried soap-suds. Grease, dirt, old rags, broken crockery, scraps of meat, and cooking utensils made up a slut's museum around the back basement door and windows. The full view was hidden from the garden by an untrimmed, and of course un- productive, grape-vine, that shut out the sun from the very place where it was most needed to dry up the moisture and prevent miasma. Just as the party returned to the house, there was a tearing ring at the door-bell, and a thundering knock at the basement door at o the same time. As it was doubtful which to go to first, the man took a middle course and went to neither. Directly those outside grew impatient, and began kicking the doors as though they would knock them down or force them open. ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. "Why don't that lazy fellow go to the door?" said one of the girls x "It is really provoking." Why did she not herself open it when she was within three steps when the bell rang. It would have compromised her dignity. At length the lower door was opened, and by the noise, a mad bull came in, stamping with fury. " I'll tear your eyes out, you old black nigger, if you don't open the door next time when I am starved. Where is Ned ? If he's got in first, I'll lick him." Up stairs he went to ascertain that, fact. No one else being likely to let in master Neddy, Mrs. Doolittle suggested to Kitty that she might attend to it. just this once. She went off muttering about having to do ser- vant's work. Master Ned came in uproari- ous, but better-natured than his lighting brother Welt the short name of Wellington. Perhaps his fighting character was partly owing to his name. Character is often influ- enced by a slighter circumstance. " Oh, you're so dressed up you couldn't, come to the door, eh ? I'll pay you for it some THK BOYS AT HOMK. 203 time, Miss Kitty. I won't open the door, nor let any of the rest of 'em, for your beau, and mother won't be here to make me, for you always have him come when mother is out. See if I donV " Do hush, Ned, you don't know who is in the parlor." " I don't want to know. Old Whiskerandos, I s'pose ; he's here all the time. I wish Phene would have him and done with it." Mrs. Doolittle closed her ears to this inter- esting conversation, under the impression pro- bably that by so doing she would close those of her visitors. Either of his sisters could have wrung Ned's neck, without any compunctions of conscience. ISTow another actor, in the person of the mad bull, came tearing up the basement stairs, and "pitched in" to give -Ned a licking because he got in first, and to servo Kitty in the same way for letting him in. " He bet me his cap that he would get home first, and get in and up to the parlor door; and he cheated ; he had no business to come in this way when I thought he was going to 204 ECONOMY ILLUSTKATliD. t'other door, and then we could have a fail- race up stairs. But I'll have the cap any- how." At that he went at him to get the cap, and down they both went in the hall in a regular bull-dog, rough-and-tumble fight. Mrs. Doo- little still oblivious. Kitty had returned with a face that needed no rose pink. It was burning red, and she bit her lip to keep in the angry words that would have poured out if they had not been restrained by the company of strangers. "Oh dear, what is that?" exclaimed Mrs. Doolittle, as a crash that jarred the house, came from the field of combat in the hall. Instinctively all rushed out to see. A niche had been constructed in the wall at the foot of the stairs for a piece of statuary. Unfortu- nately it was too shallow to hold a plaster cast of some mythological goddess that the young ladies had purchased, because ' the place looked so naked without something." Somehow in the scuffle, this had been jarred so that it toppled over, and down it came upon a table, made more for ornament than use, INTEKLSTLNU SCENE. 205 upon which stood a Chinese vase of flowers. The whole was a wreck together. At least fifty dollars had gone into the maelstrom that was swallowing up poor Doolittle's property. The boys perfectly understood that "discre- tion was the better part of valor," a,nd made a hasty retreat. The girls raged they lost their discretion. Their mother was angry enough to have torn the boys like a tiger, but finally consoled herself for all the loss, with the thought that that nude figure had been got rid of, because "she never thought it looked ' O decent." Mrs. Doolittle was one of those admirers of statuary, who think it should be dressed in calico frocks, or at least wear aprons. In the midst of the confusion, and just as Tri- phenia had accused her mother of moving the statue forward on purpose to have it fall, and she was giving some angry retort, the door- bell rung, and before orders of " not at home" could be given, the man, who with the cook, had both come upon the scene of action, open- ed the door, and in walked Mi 1 . George Alex- ander Waltringham. There is an old saying, that oil poured upon 206 ECONOMY ILI.USTHATEn. a raging sea, will calm the turbulent waters. Perhaps it was owing to the oily nature of the gentleman, that he produced the same effect upon the turbulence of the waves that were raging but a moment before in this family. The new comer was not at all disconcerted ; in fact he was rather inclined to joke at the accident, which he did not look upon as very serious, in fact he had rather expected it ; as he had noticed the insecurity of the thing, which a slight jar might bring down. He forgot to add that he had purposely moved it forward with that view, looking upon it as he did, as such an abortion that it was no harm to work its destruction. It is but right to do him the justice to say, that he did not anticipate the other damage the table had been placed under the niche sub- sequently, by somebody, or rather "nobody," that omnipresent genius of mischief, who was constantly putting things out of place in this house. The party left the servants to clear away the debris, and retired to the parlor in such a pleasant mood of lively conversation, that BEHIND THE SCENES. 207 Salinda could only compare it to the sudden outburst of the sun from dark clouds that a moment before had shot forth forked light- ning. In handling some of the things, Salinda dis- covered that she had soiled her hands, and whispered Kitty to go up to her room with her, where she could wash them. It was an unadvised admission behind the scenes of out- side appearances. " Such a room," she said to Lillie that night in their own neat apartment, "I never saw before I hope never to see again'. The bed looked like a pig's nest; I am sure it had not been made for a week, and the sheets and pillow-cases were fairly black. Every vessel was full of dirty slops, and the only way that I could wash my hands was by Kitty pouring water out of a broken pitcher, while I held them over a flower-pot that seemed grateful for the accidental watering. The whole room looked like the drift of an inundation of some muddy river. Shoes and shifts ; books and bonnets ; parasols and petticoats ; stockings and staylaee ; tape and towels; slippers and 208 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. slops ; lay about in one grand mixture. The furniture had been costly, if not rich; now there was not a whole chair among half a dozen, and all were loaded with dresses, or some of the paraphernalia of a lady's dressing chamber. The rosewood dressing table stood upon three legs ; the sofa seat was broken down in the springs, and the feet had lost the cas- tors, and torn the Turkey carpet. The lace window-curtains were yellow, and covered with dust and cobwebs. But that was no worse than the parlor. Did you notice the festoons the spiders had made all along the cornice over the window ?" " Yes, and the dust among the untouched books on the centre table. It would make my mother crazy/' As Salinda returned to the parlor, there was a commotion in the tea-room. Ned was ordering the cook, with a few of his young gentleman oaths, to give him something from the table to eat, before the company came in. She heard him say : " I will have some they'll eat it all up I'm hungry I won't wait I'll steal it all, and tell my mother that CKAsll. 200 you eat it, and make her discharge you, if you don't give me some, you blasted old "- The balance of the sentence was interrupted by a scream from the cook. It was a custard in an elegant cut-glass dish that the boys cov- eted. Bread, and butter, and cake would not satisfy them. Cook had set the dish on -the top shelf of the china closet, to keep it out of their way. While Ned was trying to coax or scold the cook into gratifying his appetite, his brother, the mad bull, like his prototype in a crockery store, had got into the china closet, and climbed up the shelves, and got his hand on the coveted article. It is almost needless to say, that just as he sang out, " Hurrah, Ned, I've got it," lie did get it. His foot slipped, and down he came, dish and all, with the contents in his face and all over his clothes, and the dish in fragments on the floor, " I do wonder," said Mrs. Doolittle, " what that careless wench has broken now. I shall take it out of her wages, she may rest assured of that." To prevent any one else going to see, she said, " sit still, don't mind it ; you know one 210 KCOXOMV ILLUSTRATED. broken dish always has another just behind it, till fate gets the three." Kitty lacked the discreetness of her mother and sister. She had turned off as she came down stairs, " to see what the muss was ;" and now came in and told the whole story. Her mother was sure it was all the cook's fault. " She is always having a difficulty with them boys. I dare say if she had given them anything in the world to eat, they would have gone away as quiet as lambs to their play. I declare I must get a new woman I can't stand it." What good would it do to get a new one ? She had done the same thing a dozen times, with the same results. If she could have got a new system of family government, and brought her children under a wholesome dis- cipline, and taught them subordination, she would have saved herself from constant scenes of vexation and loss, and then the Doolittle boys would not have been the terror of their schoolmates, and the hated pests of the whole neighborhood. In spite of all the mishaps, tea was at TKA IS KT.Ain. length ready. How unlike the quiet tea-table of the Saverys ; how different from that plea- sant, simple meal at the farm. The table was loaded with cut-glass and china, costly and fragile. But the sweet home-made bread and plain cakes were not there. Their place was occupied by costly knick-knackeries from the French baker's real health-destroyers. The tea was the only home-made thing, and that was weak and smoky, and when it was too late to remedy the defect, it was found that " nobody " had drank up all the milk. Mrs. Doolittle said, " she would warrant it was John, the great hog." Lillie did not say she would warrant it was not ; but from where she sat, she could see the face of a boy peeping into the window through the grape-vine, upon whose lips the stolen milk had left its mark. It was a costly, but an unsatisfactory meal. The cakes looked as though they were made for ornament and not use, and so they were generally refused. It was not the first time they had done service in the same way. The rich sweetmeats were not half as good or as healthy as Mrs. Whitlock's strawberries. The 212 ECONOMY li.LL bTKATED . stiff attempts at geutility were not half as pleasing as the plain conversation and hearty manifest welcome of that meal, which con- stantly intruded itself in contrast with this. There each lingered, loth to part. Here visit- ors and visited felt relieved from a tiresome V restraint when the good-bye, and hollow- hearted " do come again," had been said. At least one party was wiser, if not happier. "I have learned," said Salinda, "a lesson for life. I trust I shall never forget to profit by it, if I should ever be a mother." " I do not think," said Mrs. Savery, " that it is necessary for you or Lillie to wait that event, to apply the lesson of the day to a good purpose. You see the effect of insubordina- tion, and the cost of not training up a child in the way he should go." " It is certainly very bad economy ; besides being extremely vexatious ; but Mrs. Doo- little appears to be used to it; don't you think, Mrs. Savery, that she stands it remark- ably well ? How calm she remained through all the storm." " Only to storm herself as soon as our backs are turned, and she is free from restraint." HOME iNFi.rrxn.?:. :.K3 CHAPTER VII. Family Scenes, and Home You that are strong in good purposes, shall not censure the want of strength in Doolittle, to enter upon such a scene as was enacting when he came home one oft enacted, yet, like all evil acts, growing stronger, growing worse and worse every day. He hesitated with his hand upon the latch ; he heard his wife say that she would " make their father tie them up, and she would whip them to death." He supposed it was the girls that she meant, for she was talking with them, and he thought ; " What, has it come to this r ( must I tic up my daughters, for their mother to wreak her ven- geance upon, for some trifling dispute or dis- agreement? Never!" Yet lie knew full well that her will was law, and if she willed it, he must obey, or have a fight himself. 214 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. What should he do? What did he do? Just what a thousand others have before, whose home held no magnet, like that of the Saverys, to draw them within its portals, and shield them from the corrupting association of evil companions. Poor Doolittle! He had come home late and tired, because it had been hinted to him that his presence with company would not be agreeable. Such a man trembles as he lays his hand upon his own door-latch, after a hard day's work, and shrinks back from what he hears within. He hesitated, and mentally said, " Oh, God, is this home ?" then turned away and walked back around the corner, and entered one of those ever invitingly open doors, where a man whose face is one constant winning smile, stood before his customers, tempting them to buy some of his colored fluids, which they knew by experience would give them oblivion of the discomforts of their home, or make them forgetful of their own folly, or reckless of some indiscretion commit- ted or contemplated, or careless of the want DRINKING, AND ITS EFFECT. 215 of money to provide home comforts, which in such places as this are foolishly wasted. Doolittle needed no coaxing. He took the draught eagerly, and it was a large one, and then went and sat down in a dark corner and laid his head upon a table and enjoyed yes, that is the word, enjoyed the oblivion produced by a drunken sleep. He had long been a hard drinking man, but this was the first time that he had ever been drunk, drunk in a public bar-room. . He slept on unoticed, as had a hundred others before him in the same corner. It is the effect, the least injurious effect, of drink- ing, upon some men. Some are loquacious ; some are argumentative and religious; some are lascivious; some are excessively foolish; some are brutal, beastly, ugly, quarrelsome, wicked, combatative, murderous. Others are simply stupid. That was the effect produced upon Doolittle. He waked at length, as many pei-sons have awaked from a state of insensi- bility, by the sound of their own name. Close by where he sat, was a thin board partition. Somebody on the other side had 216 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. forgotten that walls have cars. If they had not, Doolittle had, and when he heard his own name he opened them. His stupor had passed off, and his hearing faculties were quick. He distinguished one of the voices as that of Wal- tringham. The other he did not know, but the person was pressing him for a debt, which in the fashionable parlance of perverted lan- guage, is called "a debt of honor." If it is, it is honor among thieves, for gambling and steal ing are both in one category, in the opinion of those who practice neither. " Now, see here," said Waltringham to his companion, "you just keep easy a little while, and I shall make a raise. See if I don't. I understand the ropes. I am just now stock- ing the cards. I shall be sure to hold a hand that will win." " Well, old fellow, I Should like to know how. Show me your hand. Is it all honors?" " Yes, trumps at that. The bullet, king, queen and knave." There could be no mistake about the latter. Every inch a knave. "Well, how are you going to play them? PLOTTING VILLAINS. 21 T If it is a winning game, I'll take a hand, hold stakes, or cdunt my fingers for you , and come in for a share. What say?" " Just the thing. I'll tell you. But let us see that we are all alone. Shut that door will you. Is the coast clear ?" 'There is nobody in the bar-room except one poor drunken ass, hard and fast in sleepy corner. Go ahead." Doolittle ventured to look up. He had out- slept all the company. It was after eleven o'clock. The bar-keeper was dozing outside the door, waiting for twelve o'clock, when he would shut up. Doolittle drew up still closer to the partition. There was a large knot hole, covered by a piece of paper, just by his ear. He cut this away with his pocket knife arid every low spoken word came through dis- tinctly. " You know old Doolittle, said Waltringham very well, his daughter is just one of the finest animals you ever saw trotted out. She is a real 2. 40 nag. She will win anywhere. She will carry me in where the gate would be shut and locked without her. I. tell you, she 10 218 ECONOMY ILLfSTK.ViKI; can let down the bars that lead to pleasant pas- ture. She will last good for years, and then bring cost. Well, that nag is mine. The old woman says that ; and the grey mare is the best horse there, I tell you." "But that don't bring the money. Besides, it will cost a pile to keep such a blooded animal." " Oh, never fear that. The old man has got plenty of fodder, if he has not plenty of money. I mean to live off of him/' "Very fine for you r but I don r t see how that is to get me my money." " Hold easy. Yon haven't heard half of it yet. This is game that can't all be bagged at once. The old woman is a fool. I can wind her round my finger. I persuaded her and the girls to make the old man buy a carriage and pair, just to cut a figure. He loves his toddy, and is always good-natured when he is drinking, and as soon a& we are married, I will make a raise out of him, through the old woman and girls ; you had better believe I will." " How are you going to do that ?" DOOLITTLE SITS FOB HIS PORTRAIT. 219 " Now, I am coming to your share. I must have a partner. I will propose to go into business ; that will tickle the old woman to have her son-in-law a merchant. I will offer to take Doolittle in as third partner. His credit is good, and notes signed by you and me, endft'sed by him will buy goods. We will ship them and then ship ourselves. But first, you must buy that carriage and horses, which I can persuade them to sell, when I take the daughter off. That will pay your debt, and I will take the goods and the girl for my share. How do you like it ?" "Why, it looks fair. When will you bring it round? I'm in a hurry. To tell you the truth, I am confounded hard up, and must make a raise soon, or I shall have to cut stick." " I'll settle the matter to-morrow, if I find the old man in the right tune. He must have just so much rum aboard to make things go easy. If he gets too much he goes to sleep, and will snooze away all the evening like a fat pig. 1 meant to have arranged matters to-day, but the cards had a bad run. The boys, who are as ungoverned as grizzly bears, 220 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. got into a fig] it and broke about fifty dollars worth of stuff, and put the old woman in a bad humor. Then they had some stiff, vine- gar-faced puritans there to tea, that cut off all conversation. I had to measure my words." " I tell you what it is, Alleck, this looks like a scurvy trick ; but necessity fcnows no law ; and if it wa'n't for fear my wife would turn up and get me in limbo, I would marry the other girl. You say she is fresh ?'' " Smooth as a three-year old. Come, go in to win. I will introduce you as a Southern merchant here buying goods, and then you in your generosity shall offer me a partner- ship, and I will agree to go in, if Doolittle will take a hand. He will say he cannot raise the money, and then I will bring about the horse-trade. Depend upon it, we can skin that drunken fool before he knows it." " Skin a drunken fool, and that fool is me," said Doolittle to himself. " I have heard enough ; I have sat for my portrait, and it has been drawn by an artist. It is a fallacy that listeners never hear any good of themselves. I have heard that which will do me good. I THE PORTRAIT FINISHED. 221 have heard what is rarely spoken of a man to his face the truth and I mean to profit by it." By the time he had finished his colloquy, he once more had his hand upon his own door- latch. He entered with a different feeling from that of the early evening, but it was not a happy one. All was silent, as before all had been stormy. The storm had spent itself. There was a desolateness in the house, but a greater one in his heart. He was sober now, but he felt the guilt of drunkenness as he had never felt it before, and as he then felt, never would feel it again. Mrs. Doolittle was in bed, asleep or pretending to be. She had retired completely worn down in body and mind. She had scolded and fumed at the girls ; quarrelled with John and the cook, till both had told her they would leave in the morning, which she had averted by promising an increase of wages. With the boys she had had a regular pitched battle it was not doubt- ful which had won the field. It was a scene that always has the same termination the parent yields to the child, 222 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. and that is the end of parental control, and the wretched rule of insubordination. The young tyrant locked his mother in the garden, and then required all sorts of promises before he would open the door, and finally would only agree to throw the key down, and that Ned alone should come in the chamber that night. He plainly told his mother that he did not believe her, and would not trust her word " you have broken it so often." Mothers, let this be a lesson. Never give a child reason to say, " you have broken your word." Establish family discipline, and steadily maintain it. Train up a child in the way he should go, from the cradle, and you never will have to chase him down like a wild animal when he merits punishment, nor sue to him to unlock the door and let you into your own house. Mrs. Doolittle went to her bed, if not a wiser and a better woman, a very dissatisfied and tired one. It is no wonder, if she was not asleep, that she had no further disposition to quarrel, and that she was willing to let her husband lay down in quiet, without making A LKSSOIS 1 FUU MOTliLKS. 223 him give an account of himself, and where he had been, and what he had been about till twelve o'clock at night Her rage and disap- pointment had overcome her, and worn her down worse than a week of such " slavish labor," as she was in the habit of saying Mrs. Savery inflicted upon herself. If she did, she did not inflict upon herself such a bitter, wretched, sleepless night, as this one that now tormented, instead of refreshed Mrs. Doolittle. Had she known all that her hus- band knew, she would have been still more wretched ; for the marriage of Triphenia with a Southern planter was to be to her a crown- ing glory. The girls had gone off to their room ; that room so graphically described by Salinda ; and there they were having a pretty quarrel be- tween themselves. Triphenia was mad because Kitty had brought Salinda up there to see all the dirt and confusion, ami waste, and discomfort of such an apartment. It ended in both criminating each other for what they were both guilty of sloth and indo- ECONOMY ILLUSTRATKD. lence. It finally grew so warm, that Triphe- nia declared that she would not sleep there she would not sleep in the house never would sleep there again. In this she kept her word * though she did not probably intend it. She left the house in anger five minutes before her father came in. The " scene" that Doolittle took a part in the next morning, was not " first exhibited in that theatre for the only time." It was a family scene, but such as never occurs in " well regu- lated families." We will not try to peep behind the curtain, for fear, : ' Some power the gift would gie us To see ourselves as others see us." He was miserable, wretched beyond concep- tion. Yesterday, he would have applied a panacea. To day, he would die sooner than touch a drop. He was a stubborn man, and having once made up his mind to a thing would not back out for trifles. He could even withstand the urging of his wife, when she had got over her first blast, " to take a little something; do now, dear, you will feel better." - MORE FAMILY SCENIC. 225 Strange is it not, that a wife should urge a husband to be a " drunken fool." Triphenia almost boiled with rage when she heard her father's story ; not that she had thrown her love away upon such a worthless fellow, but that his true character had been found out, and that he stood like a convicted felon, to be despised by all honest men. She was still more angry to think she was detected in such a web of falsehoods as she had been weaving. But she concluded, instead of repenting and asking forgiveness, to play the heroic. She declared it was all a conspiracy to prevent her marriage, but it came too late. She did not ask any favors of her father par- ticularly of such a father." " Then you can take your 'gentleman' and leave your father and his house as soon as yon please. You are no longer a daughter of mine." Mr.- Doolittle hurried away, and shortly afterwards Triphenia left in a rage, declaring she never would again cross the threshold of her father's house. 10* ECONOMY ILLUSTKA1 ED. It was only another lesson in the evils of insubordination. " I am really glad to hear how much more amiable of the two Kitty has proved herself," said Mrs. Savery, when she heard the story. " Yes, mother," said Lillie, " for instead of opposing her, she did all she could to help her sister. Her mother got down on her knees and begged Triphenia to stay ; declaring that her father should acknowledge his fault and beg her pardon for his brutal treatment, and receive Mr. Waltringham into the family, and then they would all live there so happy together. But she would not listen, but order- ed John to bring out the carriage, and took her trunks, and bandboxes, and drove off, leaving her mother without a parting word, and returning Kitty's good wishes with an angry toss of her head. Of coui-se the family are in distress this evening ; nobody knows where Triphenia or Mr. Doolittle are, but folks guess that he is "Drunk. I will give you the word, since you hesitate to speak it. But you may rest easy about that. Look here." OK T1IK PLEDGE. 227 Mr. Savery took from his pocket a very neatly engraved card with Mr. Doolittle's name written in bold characters at the bottom. " I am going to put this in a handsome frame, and then he will hang it up in his bed room. This is a temperance pledge ; and it will be kept too, for it is made by a sober man, in good faith, with his eyes fully opened to the folly of his past career. I. know where the lost man has been all day. He came directly from his house to my shop. He was so agitated at first that he could not speak ; he took me by the hand and led me into my little office-room, and sat down and wiped away the great drops of sweat, and with them some other drops that came from the eyes, and then said : '"To convince you that I am in earnest, first give me one of those temperance pledges that I have so often rejected.' He wrote his name as you see it there, and put his hand upon his heart, and repeated every word, and said, 'With God's help this will I faithfully keep.' ' Amen,' said I. " ' And now, 7 said he, ' I want to sign L K 28 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. cthing else. Jotham Savery. 1 am ruined. I don't own a dollar's worth of property in the world. It all belongs to my creditors, and I want to make an assignment for their mutual benefit, so that all may get a fair share. If not sacrificed, there may be enough to pay all. My workmen must be paid first in full. It is their due, for they have families dependent upon their wages. My stock must be paid for next. Then the grocer, and butcher, and pro- vision man, and lastly the furniture dealers, unless they will take back so much of their costly gingerbread work as remains uninjured. If so, let them have it at twenty per cent, dis- count. That is just, and that is what I desire to be in all thie transaction. The debt for that foolish purchase of carriage and horses must take its chance it is not worthy of preference unless the man chooses to take back the property at exactly what I was to pay for it. My family I shall move back to the country to-morrow, and I want you to give them such furniture as they need nothing more and the remainder must be sold. " ' If my creditors will let me go on with my THE LAWYER'S OFFICE. 229 business, I can soon pay all, with my expenses lessened so much. I can go back and forth on the railroad, so that it will be of no conse- quence to my work that I live out ojf town, but it will be of a great deal of consequence to my family.' " ' We went to a lawyer to get the documents put into a legal form. The lawyer knew me very well, but he did not know Doolittle, and so went on with his story of a client who was in limbo on a double charge : one for a sus- picion of debt one of those debts of honor and the other a.. charge of forgery. "It seems," said he, " that both my client and his antagonist are a couple of precious scoundrels, and that no longer ago than last night they entered into a conspiracy to marry the two daughters of a good-natured sort of a good-for- nothing, drinking fellow, by the name of Doolittle, who has some property, which the villains were to cheat him out of, as well as his daughters. My client had some time ago given his notes to his ' friend ' for a gambling debt, which the chap wanted. Well, the agreement was that they were to go snacks in 230 ECONOMY ILUJSTKATKD. cheating this Doolittle, and so make the money for that debt, as well as enough to flash awhile with their new wives. The debtor was to call on the creditor this morning, to concoct further measures. This he did, and at once began talking about the aifair ; my man try- ing all the time, by gesticulation and t-i^ne, and so forth, to keep him still, and to make him understand that there was somebody in the other room ; but he was too dull to take the hint, but began making his terms about the new arrangement. " ' I say, Walt,' said he, I shall insist upon one thing, before I agree to let you off from this debt, and that is, if I like the oldest of these two fillies best, I shall take my choice. Now, mind, that if the oldest Doolittle girl what did you call her Tri Tri something, pleases my fancy best, I shall take her, and ' "'Will you?' said a lady, walking out of the next room, and taking the gentleman a slap side of the head ; ' will you? Then learn what sort of a one you will take.' "It seems she had called just in time to hear this exposition. How the fellows paci- A CONTRETEMPS. 231 fied her, I don't know, but these chaps are always fall of \vords, and know how to use soft soap as well as a washerwoman. It was quite a contretemps, wasn't it?" " ' It was,' I replied ; ' we are all apt to commit just such by our unguarded tongues. For instance, supposing you had been so un- guarded as to tell this story in the presence of that very Doolittle.' " ' Oh, you wouldn't catch me at that. I am ' " ' Caught,' said I, laughing ; ' caught, as keen as you are/ " ' My dear sir, what apology, what amends can I offer ? What shall I do ' " ' Sit right down,' said Doolittle, accepting his hand so good-naturedly ; ' sit right down and attend to our business, and never mind what is past. It isn't the first good thing that I have lately heard of myself; that is, it will be good for me, I hope.' " It was, after all, a very amusing affair, and I have no doubt will be the means of giving Doolittle a valuable legal friend, because he now takes an interest in him that he would fiot have felt under ordinary circumstances. ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " We soon had the papers ready, and I have already seen a portion of the creditors, all of whom are disposed to let me do just what I think best. 'Torn Whip has agreed to take the horses and carriage back, and is to send up to-night. He has a customer for them on better terms than the discount he offered or. the note. " I don't expect to be able to do anything with the fnrniture-men ; as they say the articles have been so badly kept, they are not really worth half price. The hardest part will be to get the family to move back to the old place in the country ; but they must do it, for a rock is not more firm than Doolittle. He is already a new man. " Now that is my budget of news. Have we any more ?" " I think," said Charley Goodman, who had been standing some time back of Mr. Savery's chair, holding his finger on his lip as a signal to the others not to notice him, so as not to break the story ; " I think," said he, " that I can make a slight addition to your budget." " Triphenia called in the course of the day, and Waltringharn's landlady told her that ho A BUDGET OF NEWS. 2433 had gone to jail, and added a great many expletives about his character, not at all com- plimentary to him or Tryphenia, for being deceived by such a villain." u Poor Triphenia," said Salinda, " how humiliating." " Not half as humiliating as what followed, for she had to return home to that home which a few hours before she had left in such a contemptuous manner, there to beg upon her knees to be forgiven, before she could gain admittance, or shelter even for the night. It was a new era in her life to submit to her father, and treat him with becoming respect. It is a new era with him, to command respect or to exercise parental authority. But he has been taking lessons to-day ; I heard who his teacher was ; I only hope that the good work of reform will continue as it has begun ; for truly, Doolittle is not a bad man, and his children are smart enough ; they only lack control, and the instillation of a little common sense in the place of frivolity in the girls, and stubbornness and mischief in the boys, who, with proper training would make smart men." 234 I:O:NUMV ILLLSTKATED. " There is still another humiliation in store for them," said Mr. Savery ; " to-morrow the family move to the country, and next day the red flag will wave from their late residence, while the auctioneer cries ' going, going, gone,' over the piano, sofas, carpets, and rose-wood bedsteads. If I can close up his business and experiment of city life, with a loss of not more than two thousand dollars, I think I shall leave him with his hands unencumbered to go to work and retrieve the great mistakes of his life. As for the girls, I have no fear ; Tri- phenia was the most foolish, and I hope her severe lesson will be one of good for life ; I have known folly cured by such a shock : it will either produce that effect, or send her headlong down the broad road of destruction. Let us hope for the best, and be charitable. " Kitty never was so deeply imbued with folly, and I am in hopes that when she gets back to the country, and finds that she must, she will take hold of the domestic duties, and make herself a housekeeper. The boys are both to be sent away to a school that I have recommended, where discipline is the first law, THE EXPERIMENT OF CITY LIFE ENDED. 235 and order the second, and where every boy is taught to clean his own room, make his bed, saw his own wood, kindle his fires, black his boots, and keep himself neat and respectable, besides attending to his studies. That will dispose of them ; my great fear is about their mother. Doolittle says he expects to have to carry her by force, if he gets her back to the country ; ' but,' says he, ' I will do it, if I have to carry her on a hearse.' ' " Oh, Mr. Savery, you should have rebuked him for that." " I knew it was a strong expression, and so was the provocation. Come, let us adjourn this tea-table talk, and see if we cannot change the subject to one more profitable than the misfortunes, or errors in life, of our neighbors." ECONOMY ILLLSTKATED. CHAPTEK Reverse of Fortune with the Doolittles Going back to the Country Death and its Consequences Scenes of Terror and Sorrow Repentance and Reconciliation Leaving Home for evor. THE threat of Boolittle simply meant to imply that he had determined that it was for his interest, and the salvation of his family from ruin, that he should go back to the coun- try, and go he would, and his wife must sub- mit. He never before was a stern man, but a revolution had occurred in his character, such as we sometimes see depicted upon the stage ; so sudden, so complete, that the actor seems to be playing another part. Doolittle was not acting a part his was an original character, which might be acted to advantage, for others to study. The scene that was " got up " for his benefit, when he went home from the busi- ness of the day with Savery, can better be A FAULT-FINDING WIFE. 237 imagined than described. Mrs. Doolittle, not being able to find him at the shop after send- ing there repeatedly, had made up her mind that he was away somewhere drunk, and hav- ing thus determined, she was not to be con- vinced by the palpable evidence of her senses, when he returned in the evening, that he was strictly sober. He suffered her to go on with her invectives, and charges of bringing ruin upon the family by his improvidence and laziness, thinking perhaps that the best way was, when the flood-gates w r ere opened, to allow the current to flow until the pond should run- out. This may be good policy where the stream comes from a small head, but quite the contrary where it flows from such an exhaust- less source as that which supplies fhe cataract of Niagara. " A pretty piece of work your drinking and ill temper have made your drunkenness and your violence have undoubtedly broken off a very desirable match for your daughter for I don't believe a word of the story you trumped up this morning it was only a drunken dream, or else sheer spite against that lovely ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. young man you never liked him, you know you didn't, and you need not deny it." " I am not at all disposed to : I own it : and am proud to think that my intellect was not so obfusticated that I could not properly judge his character." " Do hear the man was anything- ever like it one to hear you talk would think he was an imposter, or perhaps some escaped con- vict." " He may have been, but he will not escape now he is in limbo for forgery, and I don't know how many other crimes, and will not be likely to get clear unless he breaks jail." "Breaks jail! Is he in jail? He is! and you stand there talking about it so coolly. If he is in jail, where is your daughter where is Triphenia what is to become of her Oh you monster, thus to break up your family. I should not wonder if you were the death of poor Triphenia. In the frame of mind she was in when she left home this morn- ing, I should not be surprised if she commit- ted suicide : and all through the conduct of her father. There," as she heard the door bell THK KF-TfliX HoMK. 239 ring, "do run, Kitty, and see if it is not some- messenger from the poor girl, or else to tell us that she has gone where no message will ever come from her to her poor distracted mother." Kitty was absent so long that it was evident that the messenger was not, one that brought uews of death or any other terrible calamity, though it was one that told of ruined hopes and blasted ambition that the wild day- dreams of a romantic girl had all been crush- ed, and herself humbled at a single blow. It was not a messenger from Triphenia, it was Triphenia herself; humbled, broken down, subdued, and weeping like a child. In one hour the whole of her life had been re- viewed, and her errors had rushed back upon her heart, and, like her father, for in many cases she was like him, she had seen what were her errors, and had determined to begin a new course of life. She fell upon KHty's neck as she opened the door, and then for the first time during all the agony of the twenty- four hours, since the commencement of the quarrel, her fountains of tears were unlocked, and poured forth their streams, greatly to the 240 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. relief of a heart that until then seemed on fire. As soon as she could speak, she begged Kitty to hide her from her angry father her mother she knew would storm awhile, but for that she cared nothing; her father "if sober," she said, she could never meet him she had injured him too deeply to hope for forgiveness. Oh 1 sister, since you forgive me, hide me, at least for to-night, and don't let any one know that I am here." To this Kitty acceded, and while Triphenia went quietly up to their room, she went back ,to tell her mother that she had heard from her sister, and that she was in a friend's house safe and well, and that her mother should see her in the morning. She then drew her father away, as she said, to give him some supper, but in reality to pave the way for a reconcili- ation with Triphenia. Doolittle was a man of a kind disposition, and loved his children, and loved their cares- ewe, and therefore said yes, without an effort, when Kitty put her arms around his neck and said," father, you will forgive her ? " Her heart leapt with joy to hoar that little word, " yes." A FATHER'S FORGIVENESS 241 " Oh come then, now, for she is so miserable" and she took him by the arm, without regarding his question " where ?" and led him up to her chamber. That " there is a time for all things," was partly proved by the fact that there is a time for penitence. Then was the time for Tri- phenia. She fell upon her father's neck, a subdued, penitent child. All the errors of her former conduct seemed to have concen- trated upon her mind, and to be brought by the one great error of her stubborn temper to a culminating point, and from that she had resolved that change, improvement, and some- thing better should arise. In this she was greatly assisted by her father's ready forgive- ness of her fault, but still more from the fact that he had determined never to touch another drop of intoxicating liquor. " In this," said he, " my girls, I need all my own strength, and all that you can lend me. I have another severe trial for you, and to accomplish it in peace I shall also need your aid. I am utterly ruined in business, and have made an assignment, for the benefit of 11 242 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. my creditors, of all my property, this house and furniture included, except the few plain things that we shall need in the country, where we are to go to-morrow ; and I want your assistance to reconcile your mother, who has so often declared that she never will go back alive ; and, I am sorry to say, she has been sustained by her daughters, against the convictions of their father." " But shall not be any more. If you have been unfortunate, and find it best to return to the old place, you never shall say again that we were stubborn and prevented it, and I hope mother will be reasonable. Have you told her?" " Not yet ; but I will, now that I have got somebody to help me. Shall I do it to-night ?'' " Yes, now ; the sooner the better ; let's have it over with. Don't you say so, sister ?" " Certainly ; and then we shall be better prepared for our task to-morrow." Poor girls, they little knew what that task was to be. Although now is generally the best time, it was not so in this case. Mrs. DoolittJe, with all her scolding of her husband TALK ABOUT MOVIJNG. 243 for drinking, was not herself entirely free from that foolish vice. Besides, she had been all day in a state of intense nervous excitement, winch was aggravated by several potations, taken as certain antidotes for her disease. " It would have been better to have waited until morning, before breaking the news to her ;" that is, so said they all, after the result was known. Who knows ? Better say, all is for the best, however inscrutable. " I want," said Doolittle, " to have a little talk with you about moving to the country." " "Well, I don't want to hear anything about it. I have told you often enough never to" speak to me again on the subject. "When I am dead you may carry, me, not before ; I tell you that, once for all, and let that be the end of it." " But it can't be the end of it ; we have got to move from here ; this house and furniture has got to be sold to pay my debts. . I have failed." " I know you have ; you have been failing ever since I knew you. If you have drank up this house, it is no more than I expected ; but 244 ECONOMY T' r.t STKATED. I can tell you, nobody is going to get me out alive. I am not going to take my girls back to the country, after I have spent so much to give them a genteel city education, and have got a fashionably furnished house for them to live in : depend upon that. If you choose to go, you may go, and the girls and I " " The girls have already agreed to go, so it will be you who will have to stay alone." " It is a lie ; it is no such thing ; my girls " " Have both agreed to go with father, and have come to urge you to consent to go with us freely." " Freely ! freely ! ha ! go freely ! then I am to be coerced if I don't go freely, am I ? Hold your tongue you are a pretty baggage how that word grated upon Triphenia's ear to join your father in a conspiracy against me. No, I won't go, I tell you all, to save you from falling dead at my feet. I I I Oh, God forgive me ! husband ! Kitty ! Tri- e e Oh !" Mrs. Doolittle was ready to go ; the period had arrived when she would make no further opposition. As she was uttering the words', THE TIME COKE. 245 " falling dead at my feet," she had risen from her chair, and stretched out her hands in a menacing manner towards the girls, upon whom her anger seemed to fall most bitter, for having, as she thought, deserted her, and gone over to her husband's side. For a ^moment she looked wildly terrible ; so much so that they were afraid to approach her. Mr. Doolittle had seen so many of her hysteric fits that he was not alarmed, until her voice changed to that of prayer, and then he hardly knew whether it was penitence or anger, until she called him and the girls by name, and in trying to finish Triphenia's name, turned black in the face with suffocation, and before he could spring across the room to catch her, she pitched forward toward his outstretched arms, and fell heavily upon the carpet, a corpse. The time had come, Oh, how soon ! " When I am dead you may carry me." He carried her first to a sofa, and others rushed out for a surgeon. First one, then two, three, for not- withstanding it was midnight, the news'spread, and each one that heard it ran for another 246 ECONOMY JIJ/USTRATKI). doctor. It was of no use. The first one pro- nounced her dead dead from suffocation a very common effect upon obese persons of violent temper, resulting from sudden anger. SIX MONTHS ON TIME'S RAILROAD. 247 CHAPTER IX. Six Months on Time's Railroad Talk of MarriageSensi- ble Conclusion to get ready first Preparation for House- keeping The New House A Pleasant Surprise. How rapidly six months went down the inclined plane of Time's railroad, carrying along the daily trains of cars freighted with hopes, anticipations, prospects .of things t;> happen before the train reaches the final ter- mination ; and how anxiously had those wait- ing at the roadside stations, watched each day for the one that would bring the culmination of the hope nearest the heart. Charley Goodman was among those watch- ing and waiting. Yet he was not impatient, for reason told him that in no six months of Salinda's life, had she travelled so fast upon the road of improvement that lifts the civil- ized, cultivated, educated woman, above one bred in savage life, or reared in health-destroy- ing indolence of families who suppose them- selves the very acme of Christian civilization. 248 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " Six months," said he to her one evening, u of my probation have passed. It is the first period that you set * six months or a year T those were the words ; do you intend to keep me waiting for the longest period ?'' ' ; Why, Charley T the time has gone so rap- idly, that I can hardly realize that so many months of my life have been sped away never to return. But there is a lesson in that, well worthy of thought careful, serious thought it should teach us the economy of time. To look back, I cannot see where I have wasted mine, but to look forward it seems as though I should be able to accomplish a great deal more in the next six months than I have in the past. I do hope they will be as happy ones to me as the past have been. And one of the most happy of all the circumstances connected with them, is, that I am so much better fitted to be your wife than I was before." " Then when will yon be that coveted object F " You remember the promise ' six months or a year ' I shall leave it to you to decide, after 1 state a few circumstances. Neither of TALKING OF MARRIAGE. us having previously determined upon our marriage at this time, neither are prepared ; and I have not been six months studying economy, without learning what a waste of time it would be to get married before we are prepared. Some romance reading young girls, seem to think that it would be the very per- fection of cunning mystery, to get married so suddenly or so slyly, that none of their friends would know of the courtship, until they were introduced as Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Smith. But that is not the case with us it is well known that we are affianced we make no mystery, of our intention to get married when we get ready and that is what I propose now to do; and that will be carrying out the principles of economy that I have learned in this house. It is now the beginning of winter: the year will end in May, that sweetest of all the montlis of the year for a bright honey-moon ; and during the winter I will devote my leisure time to looking up, buying, making, and getting together all the little et ceteras of house-keep- ing; in doing which I shall find the advice of Mrs. Savery and the assistance of Lillie 11* 250 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. almost invaluable. In the meantime yon shall determine where we are to live, and get our house ready, and next May-day we will move into it in the morning, and at dinner time yon shall have your first meal provided by the hands of your own dear wife. Now, is not that a lesson of economy, worth all the roman- tic marriages of Gretna Green ?" " You are a blessed angel, and you shall be my guide, I hope, through a long life of happiness." " Rather, we will go hand-in-hand, my voice cheering you, and your strength sustaining me. It is thus a man and wife should live, and then they will be happy." It was very true, as Salinda said, that the advice of Mrs. Savery would prove invalua- ble in providing for house-keeping. Her father was willing to purchase almost any amount of costly furniture, but Salinda stead- ily refused. She wanted first to see where it was to be put, and then she would determine what she would have. " That you shall see to-morrow morning," said Charley. It was now winter, but one of AN OIJ) HOME. '2i>! those clear, mild days that make an American winter so delightful, when Salincla went to see the spot selected for her future home. She \va,s aware that something had been going on for some time between Mr. Savery and Char- ley, which they were not disposed to let her into the secret of; bnt whether it was a house or some article of furniture, she was not cer- tain. However, this clear, beautiful morning was to determine the extent of their secrets. Just on the outskirts of the town lived old Captain Peabody, whose wife kept the cow that eat the grass saved by Frank from the garden borders and grass plot. Salinda had often admired the place, it was so neat, with its large garden and fruit trees, and little white stable, and old well, and green grass, and shady yard ; but the old house, like its old occupants, had .been in its prime fifty years ago. Both had seen their day, and the old lady had gone to her last home, leaving her old partner the sole occupant of their late one now home no more ; and he had been persuaded to part with it, and go and spend the remainder of his days with a daughter in the country. It was a sad thing to go and ^52 ECONOMY 1LLUSTKATED. leave a house where he had lived over fifty years, and all the choice trees and shrubs that bore fruit and flowers ; but it was a consola- tion to the old man to know into whose hands all his treasured things were going to fall, and that the place would be occupied by those who would not only permit, but welcome his occasional visits. "Jf it warn't for the poor old house looking so shabby," said Capt. Peabody to Charley Goodman, " I would offer to sell you my place, because your Salinda would so appreciate the garden and fruit, and all the little conve- niences that make life comfortable ; and I would sell it to you cheaper than to any other person I know of, because I know that I should always meet with such a kind welcome and sweet smile from her, when 1 came to look after my pet trees, and, perhaps, use my pru- ning knife here and there as it was needed. I really must stipulate for the privilege of trimming the grape vines every season, as I could not bear to see them grow worthless for want of care. Ah ! it is not many years that I shall care for them at best." " No matter for the shabbiness of the house; UUYINU A HOUSK. 253 you know I am a carpenter, and can soon fix that ; if you have a mind to sell me the place, you shall retain your old bed room, and always find it in order whenever you will come down and spend a night or a week or month in your old home. I shall think it good economy to make such an arrangement, for the many things that you can teach me, not only in pruning the vines, but in everything else, by which you have kept the place in such order that it attracts the attention of all passing by; and as for Salinda, you know how much she loves a garden and shrubbery." " And shall have it. I don't want the money, but I suppose it is worth a thousand dollars, perhaps it would sell for more, but no matter ; I want that sum secured to my four grandchildren, when they come of age, and the place is yours ; is it a bargain ? " " It is ; I will have the papers prepared to- morrow, and go to work at once, and you shall soon see how quick I can cure the house of its shabby appearance. If you please, do not tell Salinda ; I want to give her a pleasant little surprise/' 254 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. He did so upon the morning mentioned. The place was about a mile from Mr. Savory's, and the day clear, dry and bracing. He offered to get a carriage, but she simply said, " would that be good economy ? " It would not, because the, walk was not only pleasant, but in such aii-, particularly healthy. It would be good economy for ladies to take many such walks. The plan arranged was, that Mrs. Savory and the girls should start whenever they got ready, and Mr. Savery and Charley would meet them at the Capt. Peabody place, where, it was understood, they were at work fixing up the house for sale, and go from there to the house he talked of occitpying, which was close by, in that pleasant neighborhood. " Dear me, Mrs. Savery," said Salinda, " do look what a pretty cottage they have made where the old house used to stand. I declare I wish Charley could have bought that, it would have been perfectly lovely. Who did he say was going to live there? I am afraid that I shall break the tenth commandment." " I hope not; I do not recollect that he ever THE OLD HOtTfJK UEIUUT/!'. 255 told me who was going to live here, but who- ever it is will have a very pleasant home ; the old man has a valuable collection of fruit." " Whoever has it, I hope will give him a share while he lives; I am sure he is entitled to it over and above all the money price." " That is a good sentiment, Salinda ; let us step in and inquire who the new owner is, and whether he will be likely to carry out your wishes." They found, upon examination, that the old house had not been taken away entirely ; it was only remodeled. The frame was one of the old sort of solid oak, calculated to endure for ever, upon its firm stone-wall foundation, that extended to the bottom of a dry cellar, and there rested upon a rock. Upon such a foundation a more modern form had been wrought out of the old fabric. The large stone chimney had been removed from the center, and two brick tops added to the roof, which had been changed into a gothic form, and tops are only. needed where s'oves take the place of hearth -stones. In tho place of the chimney was now a stair-way to four good iT'li KCONOMY ILLUSTRATED. bed-rooms ab v ove, and to cellar, milk-rooru, and coal-room below. The space formerly occupied by the stair- way was now included in a hall ; so that, in- stead of a cramped, narrow entry, there was a fine, roomy space, which would often be used for a sitting-room in summer. The par- lor was the same old square room, the white ash floor of which had never known a carpet ; but how r changed its appearance ; for in place of the great stone fire-place stood a bright coal stove, and the little windows of small panes of glass had given way to a large pro- jecting window upon each the north and east side, reaching from floor to ceiling, which, with the walls, had been papered upon the half century old plastering. The " common room " had undergone ano- ther metamorphosis; for the back windows were hidden by a new building for a kitchen, store-room and pantries, the latter of which formerly occupied the east end of this room, but had been removed, and the room carried out six feet, with long windows opening on the north, south and east sides, making a plea- Till-: OLD BED-KOOM. 257 sant alcove both summer and winter, looking out upon the grass-plot and flower-garden, and within reach of two plum trees and a nectarine. At the, other end of this room was a bed- room it was the one that this good couple had slept in for fifty years, and it looked as though it might have been occupied up to tliis moment by the same persons without change. It was the only thing unchanged about the house. Salinda expressed her sur- prise. She was delighted with every thing she saw, and admired the taste of the new purchaser in all his alterations ; but this room was a phenomenon, and she exclaimed, " What does it mean ?" "It is the intention of the old captain to pay the new occupant an occasional visit, to look after his favorite fruit trees, and prune and keep them in bearing " And to eat the fruit, I hope.'' " Yes, I hope so, for many years ; and the purchaser has thought how pleasant it would be for the old man at such times to occupy his old room, just as he did when the place 258 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATF.n. was all his own. It will be pleasant, too, I hope to the new owners." " Yes, and grateful in the sight of Heaven, to see snch kind consideration for the aged, the poor bereaved old man. How it must ease the pang with which he parted with his home. Oh ! I could hug the purchaser to my heart for this," said Salinda, with enthusiasm. "Then do it," said Charley, bursting into ;i joyous laugh, in which he was joined by the others, while he folded the astonished, but thrice happy girl, in his arms. Happy to think this lovely home was hers happy to think the praise of this noble act which she had so applauded, was due to the man she had chosen for a husband happy to think with what care and pleasure she, with her own hands, would keep that room always in order, while the old man would teach her the names, and how to tend and cultivate the various trees and plants of the garden. As the children sometimes say, she was " happy all over." "You told me," said Charley, "that I should have all winter to get a house ready, and when HOUSE FURNISH INCJ. 259 I had got it, you could tell what you wanted to furnish it with ; I am now ready for your part ; I only stipulate that you shall not order any furniture, except carpets and crockery and small articles, until you see me again upon that subject." " Another surprise, I suppose ; but you have nothing in store that can make me any more happy than I am now lam full my excess of pleasure is almost childish. Oh! this is such a home; such a lovely pleasant place, that I feel as though I could not be thankful enough. But I will not let my pleasure in- terfere with my business, if I am to buy the furniture, the first thing is to get the measure- ment of the rooms for the carpets. Will you give me that, while I make a memorandum, as we go from room to room, with Mrs. Savery's assistance, of the various articles necessary mind the word, necessary for I intend to get no others, that we shall require. Lillie, will you act as clerk, you are so quick with a pencil? Here is my memorandum book. Where shall we begin ? " " In the kitchen, certainly," said Mrs. 260 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. Savery, " for there, of all other parts of the house, is where things are necessary, yet there is where they are most neglected. In the first "place, Lillie, you may make a memorandum of the tin ware from your recollection ol what we have at home; and always bear in mind, Salinda, that baying cheap tin ware is throw- ing money away ; none, but the very best double plate, should ever be used, and such will last a life time the poorest kind will wear out in a year. Upon the same principle, never buy low priced earthen ware, particu- larly that which looks like the substance of a common brick, when broken. The solid strong stone ware costs, perhaps, a quarter more, and is worth ten times as much as the other. " The same remark will apply to iron and wooden ware ; it is much more economical to buy the best at first. Put down a looking glass, Lillie ; every kitchen should have a looking glass, so that whoever has occasion to go from there to the parlor may not be morti- fied, when she catches a glance in the great mirror, to see that her hair or dress is all awry. A little glass here, that will only cost OABPET8. 261 half a dollar, will save many a dollar's worth of time spent in running up stairs, ' jnst to fix my hair.' " You want a good strong oil cloth on the floor ; it will save twice its cost in labor before it is worn out. You must have plenty of kitchen towels ; if you don't, it is ten chances to one but the first hired girl you have will take a damask table cloth to wipe the dishes, and a fine wiping towel for a pot cloth. The best material in the world, for kitchen cloths, is our country tow linen ; it is worth five times as much as the imported crash trash would be a better name that almost every body uses." " "What do you advise about carpets ?" "That you buy a substantial three-ply carpet of some only medium dark pattern and cheerful colors, which will in a measure cor- respond with the furniture, for this room, where you will spend nearly all your time. For the parlor, you may as well get a good Brussels, that will last you a life time, but mind that the pattern is one that has some resemblance to something in the world, and 202 ECONOMY ILLU8TKATED. that in both figure and color, it is cheerful. As your stairs are not in a position for show, when the front door is open, I should put down a strip of soft matting, just to break the sounds of the step. You know stair carpeting is going out of fashion and paint is substituted. For your bed-rooms, I would buy a good piece of ingrain, or three-ply, enough to carpet all the rooms alike. Get a pattern of soft colors, a prominent one of which should be green, and the figures, flowers and foliage. As to your bedding, you will find it good economy to get that of good quality throughout. You should have both cotton and linen sheets and pillow cases. " There, I think that memorandum will last you till next week, and then we will come out again and see how things look, and what Charley has to say about the other furniture." Next week they did come out again, and sure enough, there was another surprise. Mrs. Lovewell had, unbeknown to Salinda, em- ployed a man to put down the carpets, and Charley had been busy with his part of the plot. He had learned from the Saverys how THE BED ROOMS. 263 much of the furniture of a house he could make with his own hands, and while the ordi- nary work of his trade was slack during the winter, he had thus employed himself, and with the assistance of a painter had succeeded most admirably. Salinda found the four bed- rooms occupied with bedsteads, bureaus, wash- stands, tables and chairs, the cost of which would bear no comparison to the mahogany and rose-wood ones that she was tempted to buy at the Doolittles' sale, because, as the auctioneer said, they went at such a great sacrifice upon first cost. " Shall I bid 2" said Charley to Mr. Savery, when they were selling " so very low." " No, no ; you don't want them you can make better ones in your own shop with a few boards, a saw, plane, and hammer, and nails, and a little paint." So he did ; and now, here they were. " This," said Mrs. Savery, " is the oak-room this the maple-room this the black-walnut room and this you have so hidden the kind of wood, that we shall have to distinguish it by the color." 264 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. " No, we will distinguish it by the orna- ment . ; we will call it the tulip-room. The articles are made of the wood of the American tulip-tree, and the painter has very appropri- ately chosen the flower and leaf for an orna- ment ; just as you see in the oak-room, the handles of the bureau are carved acorns, and oak-leaves, and on the walnut and maple, there is the representation of a leaf in gilt. " I will add, as they are wanted, more frames for lounges, such as I have in tin's room and the sitting-room below, where you will find all the necessary tables, benches, etc. ; and I would have tried my hand at the parlor furniture, but your mother would not consent. Your father wanted to buy everything, but I said No, and now he is as much delighted as nis daughter appears to be ; and he declares that he intends to quit business and come and live with us he has already chosen the oak- room, and says it pleases him better than any imported furniture. You know he is a great tariff man, and goes for home manufactures, and this kind of furnishing just suits his THE OLD HOME. 265 notions. He insisted that all the carpeting should be American." While Salinda was enjoying her raptures, to see how nice everything looked, and won- dering how all these changes would affect the good old man, to whom they owed so much for the embellishments of the ground, which no amount of industry could have given them in the short time it had taken to metamor- phose the house, she was startled with the feeling of a hand upon her shoulder some one had approached unseen, and she turned suddenly, and met the smiling face, glowing beneath the snowy locks of the man she was just talking about in words of such heart- feeling. ' In another moment it was impulse without premeditation a sort of magnetic attraction he was pressing her in his arms, while she gave him a child- like, affectionate kiss. " I will tell you what he thinks how he feels that in giving up his old home to strangers, he never shall feel like a stranger among them. You will be to rne more like a deai % child of my own, than a stranger, and 12 266 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. all this change does not grieve me hall' as much as it would to come back to the same old house I left, and find an old hat here, a pillow or old rags there, filling the broken windows, and the whole house occupied with dirt and squalid wretchedness. It is the first time I have seen my old home since I left it the change is very great, to be sure, but, all for the best.'' Salinda then took the old man through the house, and skowed him the new arrangements and conveniences, with all of which he ex- pressed as much delight as though he had made them himself for a favorite child. At last she opened the door of his old bed-room ; and when he saw that amid all the altera- tions, this had been preserved without change,, his heart was too full for utterance. He knew the object, and felt the full force of the kind act; and tears trickled down his cheeks, as he stood offering up a mental prayer for those who showed such feeling for others, that they should never lack ministering angels to their own declining years. It is strange how little is required to move GETTING- RKADT FOB THE WEDDING. 207 the human heart, and since such trifling acts of kindly feeling of one to another produce so much happiness to giver as well as receiver, that we are not more anxious to be kind to one another. Time now sped on rapidly with the prepara- tions for housekeeping. Few seem to under- stand the economy, however, of all these preparations before marriage, instead of after ; for then the time of the young wife is more or less absorbed by calls of friends, many of which must be returned, or friends and ac- quaintances will feel that the laws which govern the courtesies of life have been vio- lated. March, that month of storm, cold and blus- tering winds, snows and rains, with alternate freezing and thawing, which makes it one of the most uncomfortable months of all the year, had come and gone almost unnoticed by Salinda and the Saverys, so busy were they in this work of preparation. April, too, with its sunshine and showers, its summer hot days, and chilling cold, was rapidly going down the smooth ways that launch the gliding 268 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. months mto eternity, deep-freighted as they are with whatever serves to make up the cargo of joys or sorrows of human life. May-day was now rapidly approaching, and May-day had been set apart by Saliuda for that to a young woman most important of all days of her life her wedding-day. During the winter there had been one sub- ject frequently, talked over among those who occupied the sitting-room, and made up that pleasant family circle at the Saverys. That subject was the Doolittle family. The change was indeed a wonderful one. Triphenia had kept her promise to her father to the letter ; for she had done all a child could do to make his home a pleasant one, and in this she had been ably assisted by Kitty. Mrs. Savery had been out several times to visit and advise with them, and her instructions were well fol- lowed. Triphenia said she was determined to win her approbation as a housekeeper, to as great a degree as she had lost her respect, while absorbed in the folly of trying to ape a class that all her antecedents had unfitted her for. Being naturally of a strong mind, full of EFFECTS OF EEFOKM. 269 the raw material out of whicli proper educa- tion makes a smart, sensible woman, she was quick to learn, and six months' practical education had produced almost as great a change in her, as the same period had in Cap- tain Peabody's old bouse. Salinda and Lillie had often visited the girls in their humble home in the country, and always came away as much delighted with their visit, as they had been formerly disgusted. The girls had been persuaded, too, into a new course of reading, and Salinda and Lillie had both undertaken to furnish them books with their own notes and comments, and re- ferences to particular chapters, pages or sen- tences. Charley G-oodman, too, had entered into the spirit of the thing, and used to come every spare evening, and while Mrs. Savery and the girls plied their busy needles, he whiled the time away reading aloud ; and Mr. Savery, whenever the occasion offered, added some comments, and Frank acted as note-taker, which Lillie afterwards wrote out and sent to the Doolittle girls. It is perfectly surprising, the amount of in- 270 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. formation that may be thns treasured up in a family, by this economical use of time in the long winter months. It should encourage all of us in the prosecu- tion of a good work, when we read what a beneficial influence was wrought upon those wayward girls. Triphenia and Kitty, by these friendly epistles of good advice and en- couragement, and the notices of good books, with extracts from their pages, by which a new taste for reading was acquired, and a very vicious habit of reading none but the most ex- citing novels got rid of, by which both mind and morals were improved. The last day of April at length arrived. The wedding dress was all ready ; it was a simple, plain white muslin ; no more expensive than would be appropriate for the daughter of a very humble mechanic. Salinda had steadily rejected all the offers of her parents to provide costly apparel, or jewelry ornaments. "I already have enough," she said, " and I will not grieve a woman who has devoted so much attention to teaching me economy, as Mrs. Savery has, by incurring a useless expendi- THE BANK CEKTIFICATK. 271 tnre." She only asked just enough besides her own simple dress, to apparel her bridesmaid, the dear Lillie, just like herself, and give a new suit to " brother Frank." Mr. Lovewell had made it " a matter of business" to pay Mrs. Savery punctually every month the sum stipulated forSalinda's " board and tuition." He was always careful to insert these terms in every receipt ; and he was just about as careful to send the money on the last day of the month, as he was to pay his notes in bank ; and it was always sent in gold. In the excitement of this busy evening, this wonted punctuality had been forgotten by the recipients, but not by the payer of the money, and while they were sitting as usual after tea, in their family chit-chat, a ring was heard upon the door-bell, and while Salinda was wondering if that could be father and mother, the regular monthly messenger was ushered into the room with his " little matter of busi- ness." " I wish," thought Lillie, " that Mr. Pre- cision had for once forgotten that this is the last day of the month, in the evening, and 272 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. that to-morrow we are going to have a wed- ding here," for Salinda had stipulated that she might be married in a house that had been to her a home for the happiest year of her life. Mrs. Savery thought as she took the pack- age and signed the receipt, " I wonder if this punctual man of business formality will let the year pass without ever expressing a single word of approbation, except this regular pay- ment for ' board and tuition ' ?" There was nothing to indicate that the man felt that he had any other obligation to dis- charge, and Mi's. Savery bowed her head upon her hand, it must be owned, slightly sad. She was not a vain woman, but she had that good trait in human nature which prompts many a noble action a love of ap- probation. She was so absorbed in thought, that she did not notice that the man, before he left the room, had crossed over and handed a package to Lillie, who was just then wishing the man had not come there. He simply said : "This is for yon, Miss Lillie Savery,-' and bowed himself out of the room. LJLLIB'S SURPRISE. 273 sat in a maze of wonder, eyeing the formidable seal which had been affixed by the old clerk with as much scrupulous exact- ness as though he was going to send it by mail, instead of being his own postman. " You might as well break it," said her father. "Break what?" said her mother, for the first time looking up and seeing the astonish- ment depicted in Lillie's face, as she looked at the package in her hand. Mrs. Savery now wondered. Lillie soon solved the won- der, by clipping the envelope and displaying the contents, the most noticeable of which was a bank stock certificate, made out in the name of Jotham Savery in trust for his daugh- ter Lillie, for one thousand dollars. There was a short letter addressed to Miss Lillie Savery, begging her to accept the enclosed " as a marriage portion, whenever that event may occur, as a very slight and perfectly inadequate expression of the deep sense of gratitude due you and your family, from your truly sincere friends, Mr. and Mrs. William Lovewell." 74 ECONOMY I.LUSTRATKD. Tears trickled down the cheeks of Mrs. Savery, as Lillie read the note, which though very short, was very expressive. Her love of approbation was fully gratified . It was, perhaps, very well that all minds were just now diverted from this subject by another. Susan said a gentleman was waiting in the passage to speak with Mr. Savery, who went out and said a few words in so low a tone that the voices could not be distinguished, except as he said to the stranger, " Wait till I speak with the girls." "What could he be waiting for? What was to be said to the girls ? That was soon known v for Mr. Savery came back with an unusually serious face, and as he entered, said, "Poor Doolittle!" " Poor Doolittle !" replied Mrs. Savery ; " why, you alarm me ; what has happened ?" " Nothing has happened yet ; but he is likely to lose his housekeeper that is, his oldest one. Triphenia is going to be mar- ried, and like Salinda, she has chosen May- day for her wedding day." ANOTHER SURPKISK. 275 "Then she won't be here nor Kitty, I suppose. Then who will stand up with Lillie ? What a misfortune !" " I don't know about that ; that all depends upon circumstances. She will come, if you will agree to have a double wedding here, and then all go together out to her husband's home in the country." "Well, now, in the first place, we should like to know who we are going to entertain, and where we are going to be entertained. Who is the happy man ?" " Really, I never thought to ask his name ; but he is in the hall; I will call him in to speak for himself." He threw open the door, and the gentleman came forward. LiWie was the first to probe the mystery, which he endeavored to keep up by holding his hat before his face. She sprang forward, and had her arms around his neck before he had fairly emerged into the light, uttering a wild exclamation of joy, as she repeated, " Uncle Samuel uncle Samuel I thought so : I knew it must be him, for I am sure Triphenia never loved any body else; 276 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. and now what a good wife she will make him ! But how sly they have been, though !" If my readers can imagine a more happy wedding party than the one that lunched at the Saverys, and dined at the old Whitloek farm, on the first of May, 185-, or better or more happy wives than those that preside now, at this moment, over Whitlock House and Peabody Cottage, I shall leave them to their imagination. ONE DIMK. 277 CHAPTER X. THE STORY OP A DIME A DAY. \0riginally printed in The, Tribune, Dec. 7, 1855.] What shall wo Buy ? What one Dime Purchased A Les- son Learned What Good can be Done with a Dime Dying to Live Starving without Dying Dimes Wasted Economy in Fuel Wasted Fuel Chips worth Saving Heat Wasted Fire Kindlers. ONE DIME. 'Tis a little sum 'tis often given for a drink or a cigar 'tis sou n burned out and wasted. It takes ten dimes to make a dollar, and a dollar is a common price for a single meal. It is soon eaten its effects are not lasting, except when it produces dyspepsia, and then it often costs a hundred dimes to purchase medicine that does not cure the disease. To those who never dine for less than a dollar, how unsatisfactory would be a dinner for a Dime ! Reader, have you ever reflected how many entire families in this city, where food is so dear, dine, every day, for less than 278 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. one Dime ? Did you ever think of bestowing one Dime for charitable purposes, and how much good that would do? "What if every subscriber to the Weekly Tribune should give one Dime, with his subscription, to be ap- plied to the necessities of the needy, and deserving poor, in this city did you ever consider what a sum it would be ? Look at it 175,000 subscribers, at one Dime each, is $17,500 ! What if it were applied to pur- chase bread, say at five cents a loaf! It would buy 3,500,000 loaves of bread. What if we should announce that such a quantity of bread was about to be given to the poor, in this city ! The whole land would rejoice. How much can be done with one Dime ! Let us see what we would do with it if we had but one only one Dime in the world and yet with that must provide for a family consisting of a mother and four children for a whole day. "We would not buy bakers' bread at sixpence a loaf very small loaves, too, never weighing over a pound, however moist or however adulterated with corn, po- tatoes, or buckwheat, which are harmless WHAT SHALL WE BUY? 279 or with plaster of Paris, lime, alum, sulphate of zinc, ground bones, and we do not know how many other deleterious substances. No, we would not buy bakers' bread with our Dime, nor would we buy fine flour at six or seven cents a pound, else some of the chil- dren would go hungry. We might buy corn meal and make a cheap cake, or a pot of mush, or a larger pot of porridge, or we might buy two pounds of hominy, and then our Dime would feed the family one full meal ; but to this latter article there is one objection. Where is the fuel to come from, to cook this mess? for corn, more than any other grain, requires cooking to make it palatable and wholesome. Two, three, or even four hours of slow boiling is not too much. Our Dime will not cook as well as buy the corn meal or hominy. What then ? Potatoes ! Let us see. They require least cooking ; but they cost, with all their water and they are more than half water two cents and a half a pound at retail. Then they are not cheap food after all. It will not do to spend our Dime for potatoes. 280 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. What then ? It is no easy study to learn how to procure the most human food for a Dime; to ascertain how many hungry mouths may be fed how many empty stomachs sat- isfied, for one Dime. It is a study too much neglected. It should be taught in all Public Schools. Certainly in all Charity, Industrial, and Ragged Schools, where children are fed as well as taught. What better wisdom could you teach them than how to procure the most food for a Dime? It is a little coin, but can be made to expand. It would be real -charity genuine charity practical charity to teach such scholars economy in food ; not how to eat less, to live upon less^ for Heaven knows some of them live upon little enough now but to teach them what to buy, in case of emergency, with a little coin only one Dime. We have lately learned that lesson, and we will teach it to you. We learned it of a woman that is, the practical operation of it though she says she learned it of us, from something she read about economizing food, in the Tribune. "I had," said she, "one day last week, WHAT ONE DIME rUKCHABED. 281 only one Dime in the world, and that was to feed me and my four children all day; for I would not ask for credit, and I would not borrow, and I never did beg. I did live through the day, and I did not go hungry. I fed myself and family with one Dime." "How?" " Oh, that was not all. I bought fuel, too." " What, with one Dime'?" " Yes, with one Dime ! I bought two cents' worth of coke, because that is cheaper than coal, and because I could kindle it with a piece of paper in my little furnace, with two or three little bits of charcoal that some careless boy had dropped in the street just in my path. With three cents I bought a scraggy piece of salt pork, half fat and half lean. There might have been half a pound of it the man did not weigh it. Now half my money was gone, and the show for breakfast, dinner, and supper was certainly a very poor one. With the rest of my Dime I bought four cents' worth of white beans. By- the-by, I got these at night, and soaked them in tepid water on a neighbor's stove till 282 ECONOMY JLJ.USTKATED. morning. I had one cent left. I bought one cent's worth of corn meal, and the grocery man gave me a red-pepper pod." " What was that for P "Wait a little you shall know. Of all things, peppers and onions are appreciated by the poor in winter, because they help to keep them warm. With my meal I made three dumplings, and these, with the pork and the pepper-pod, I put into the pot with the beans and plenty of water (for the pork was salt), and boiled the whole two hours ; and then we had breakfast, for it was time for the children to go to school. We ate one of the dumplings, and each had a plate of the soup for breakfast, and a very good breakfast it was. " I kept the pot boiling as long as my coke lasted, and at dinner we ate half the meat, half the soup, and one of the dumplings. We had the same allowance for supper ; and the children were better satisfied than I have sometimes seen them when our food has cost five times as much. The next day -we had another Dime it was all I could earn for all A LESSON LEARNED. 283 I could get to do two pairs of men's draw- ers each day, at five cents a pair and on that we lived lived well. We had a change, too, for instead of the corn meal and beans I got four cents' worth of oat-meal and one cent's worth of potatoes email potatoes, be- cause I could get more of them. I washed them clean, so as not to waste anything by paring, and cut them np and boiled them all to pieces with the meat and meal." "Which went furthest?" " I can't say. "We ate it all each day, and did'nt feel the want of more, though the children said : ' Ma, don't you wish we had a piece of bread-and-butter, to finish off with ?' It would have been good, to be sure ; but, bless me ! what would a Dime's worth of bread and butter be for my family ? But I had another change next day." " AVhat, for another Dime ?" " Yes ; that was all we had, day after day. We had to live on it. It was very hard, to be sure ; but it has taught me something." "What is that?" "That poor folks could live a great deal 284: ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. cheaper and better than they do, if they only knew how to economize their food. You have told them how, but they are slow to learn, or loth to change from foolish old practices." "What was your next change?" " Oh, yes, I was about to tell you that. Well, I went to the butcher's the night be- fore, and bought five cents' worth of little scrap pieces of lean beef, and I declare I think I got as much as a pound, and this I cut up into bits, and soaked over night an all-important process for soup or a stew cooking it in the same water. Then I bought two cents' worth of potatoes and one cent's worth of meal that made the eight cents ; two had to go for fuel every clay, and the paper I got my purchases in served for kind- ling. The meal I wet up into stiff dough, and worked out into little round balls, about as big as grapes, and the potatoes I cut up into slices, and all together made a stew, or chowder, seasoned with a small onion and part of a pepper-pod that I got with the po- tatoes. It was very good, but it did not go WHAT GOOD CAN BE DONE WITH A DIME? 285 quite so far as the soup either day, or else the fresh meat tasted so good that we wanted to eat more. But I can tell you, small as it may seem to } r ou, there is a great deal of good eating in one Dime." So there is what a pity everybody don't know it ! "What a world of good might be done with a Dime! Reader, have you got a Dime that is, to spare only one Dime ? Give it to that poor widow. Give it! No; you owe it. She has given you twice its value, whether you are one that will feast to-day on a dollar, or be stinted with a Dime. She has taught you what you never knew before the value of one Dime. What a pity so many should be thrown away ! What a pity we could not teach this lesson of economy in food to the thousands who will suffer before spring for the Dimes wasted, through ignorance, when Dimes were plenty ! Knowing how to use a Dime might often save a family from suffering from beggary from degradation. 'Tis a small coin. What if vou invest it here, and wive this "286 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. article to those who would profit by learning how they can live, and satisfy the hunger of five persons, all day for one Dime. Yes, it is a small coin ten will buy this book. What if you invest it, and give the book to some one who will profit by its lessons. Some have already. So hope we all will, and that it will be to them dimes saved ; so that all who give will feel that it is only paying a debt ; as a correspondent does, who says : "I feel that I owe that poor widow ten dimes for what she has taught me about economy in living. As far as the matter of providing daily food for herself and family is concerned, she is probably independent ; but she wants to properly clothe and educate those four dear little ones. Please hand her the inclosed. I have never yet been driven to the alternative of limiting myself and family to one solitary Dime a day ; but do not know how soon such may be the case, when our legislators are doing so much to strangle the energies of our indus- trial population." Now this is one of the pleasant evidences TO U.VK. 287 that this article upon economy in food is do- ing its mission. But I must tell the writer that I did not do with his dollar as he bid me. I did not give it to that poor woman. Before I could see her, another came one I knew one who did live neat and respectable, and respected by all who knew her, as wife or widow of an honest, hard-working city carpenter ; who dying, as we all must, left her, at thirty-eight years old, with five children under fifteen. What a task a living death ! Dying that they might live. With feeble health a toil- worn and torn constitution her children sickly sick for want of accustomed food and comforts that came with the father's daily wages, and were daily spent, so that when deatli came, and custom fashion, with its inexorable law demanded a costly coffin and an expensive "last home" in con- secrated ground for the dead, there was no living left for the living no home and food and fire for a family of whom it had been said,, " How well they live !" Yes, they lived well, as the word goes they did not 288 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED, live by the laws of economy. It was a les- son never taught in their school. It was a need they had never needed. They need it now. Now, when a Dime is more than a dollar then. Now, when for one whole week, for that feeble, tender- reared American woman and for four hungry children, who never, till their father's death, knew the want of a full meal ; they have known it often since for a whole week, the only food that entered the widow's desolate home, was two dimes' worth of dear bakers' bread. The only fire was made of two pecks of coal. For food and fuel for five persons, not five, but seven days, three dimes and a half was .all they had, and that was not economi- cally expended, as was the Dime of which you read, because the woman did not under- stand the art ; and it was no time to learn it, and her children starving the while. Just as well might you tell the drowning man to hold on, and you would read him a disserta- tion upon the art of swimming. Just as well might you tell the hungry dog that the bone he stole to him was useless, because he knew 8TAUVING WITHOUT DYING. 289 not the art of making soup. Three dimes and a half a week for a whole family ! That is not the art of economy it is the art of starving to death without dying. It might sustain a family in the woods of Kentucky, where fuel is worthless, and corn but a Dime a bushel, as I have often seen it sold. It is dearer now very much dearer here and no teaching of economy can tell a woman how to live upon so little. It was to this woman that I gave the man's ten dimes. I gave her, too, what another " friend of the poor" had sent me some clothes and shoes for her children ; for of the latter they had none, and of the former, only the garb that makes them feel they are but beggars. Yet they are not they are true- born American children. Perhaps, children of parents that did not practice economy, and did not lay up a store out of dimes wasted. Yet these should not be left to waste. It is poor economy to waste good flesh and blood hands, heads, hearts, souls of our fellow-creatures. Yet, without the economy of saving such 13 290 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. from waste, to worse than waste they must go- Economy in food would save all from want. Economy in clothes would clothe all the destitute. Economy in drink would make all rich, for that is all waste. There are six thousand drinking places in New York city. At many of these, every drink is a Dime. One hundred dimes a day for the average sales is within the limits of truth. SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLAKS ! The amount drank at private tables is as much more. The loss of time and property,, counting all the lives that rum lias slain, is sixty thousand more, among our six hundred thousand people, every day. Work out the sum ; see how much it is per week per month per year and then tell me if economy in drink would not make all rich, or, at least, leave none in want of breads it would make a fund to feed the poor. A Dime for a cigar 1 What of it \ Simply that it is not economy. Whether DIMES WASTED. 291 a dime or a mill, it is, in a year, ten millions of dimes wasted. Go count the stores on Broadway that sell cigars only, and see how many that pay a thousand dollars ten thousand dimes a year for rent alone ! Then count in one walk from the Battery to Union Square, how many men men ! boys bipeds things with hair and legs, that are burning out life and cigars at the same time, and you will readily believe that there is in this city one hundred thousand men if men they be who burn up a Dime a day in tobacco. How much is that a year ? Three hundred and sixty-five thousand dimes thirty-six thousand five hundred dollars ! How many poor women and children that would feed and clothe, and send to school, to church, and into the ways of life, and hope, and hap- piness, to be men and women, and not pining slaves of want, living upon a Dime a day ! How many lessons of economy would all these wasted dimes tench ! They teach us one great lesson now. It is this : it is not 292 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. economy to smoke. And perchance some of those who will puff the fetid odor of their bad breath and tobacco in your face while you read of this great waste of dimes, will laugh at your study and practice of economy in living, and die and leave their families to live, as best they may, upon a Dime a day. ECONOMY IN FUEL. So here let us give them another lesson in economy the economy in making ajvre not at the end of a cigar, for in that there is no economy, however made; yet in that economy might be prac- ticed but in making a fire in the family stove, range, or grate, where anthracite coal is used. Coal will not ignite without being first heated to a red heat with wood. Wood is costly. A load a city load of pine wood costs about two and three-fourth dollars. It is called a third of a cord. It is hardly an honest fourth. It is two cents a pound. It is usually cut by the sawyer three times. It should be cut six. It never should be cut by hand. That is not economv. It is cut six ECONOMY IN FUEL. 293 times by machine for the same price of three by hand, and it is split finer and better, without additional cost, by an ax driven, like the saw, by steam. It is no longer economy to buy wood by the load, and have it cut and split upon the pavement before your door, for two reasons : it costs more, and burns more. It never will be split fine enough. The finer the better, if part of it be mere splinters. Then a small piece of paper and a match will serve to kindle. Put the wood all in a close bunch in the middle of the grate, with a small quantity of small pieces of coal over it. When these are heated, add more, a little at a time, until all is hot, and you will have a good fire. . Economy in kindling a fire will save one half the cost of wood. Enough may be saved in every family in kindling wood alone to give a peck of coal to some needy one every day. 'Tis a small bunch of wood that costs a Dime. I have sometimes seen it used to kindle one fire ; and often seen the grate filled heaping full of coal that had to be all 294 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. removed after the paper and wood had burned out, because the builder had never studied the art and economy of kindling a fire. Never, whether rich or poor, suffer your cinders or unburned bits of coal to be wasted in the ash-barrel. Measure for measure, they are worth more than coal. Save them, soak them, try them. Water renovates the coke, and wet cinders upon a hot coal fire will make it hotter, and keep it so longer than fresh coal. Saving cinders is not meanness, it is econ- omy. To learn how to kindle a tire, is learning a useful lesson for life. It is a useful study of economy. Remember its teachings, for the time may come when it will be worth to you more than a Dime. Let me repeat, while you listen : in short, have your kindling wood short, and all in a close pile over your crumpled paper. If it is set up like a stack, all the better to ignite. Put on small coal in small quantities till your tire burns bright ; then add wet cinders, and then you will save a Dime a day. WASTED FUEL. 295 No young gent or lady should ever be al- lowed a servant to kindle a fire in their own room. It is bad economy. General Wash- ington always kindled his own fire. Are you better than him ? Besides the economy and advantage of learning the art of making a fire in your room, there is in the practice a positive economy of health. WASTED FUEL. The want of economy in fuel does not all belong to the city. We have a lesson for the country as well. It is the economy of chips. CHIPS. This is a small word, but it has a big meaning. What should we do without chips chips of wood not " chips and por- ridge," for that is poor diet not " chips of the old block," for the old block is often an old blockhead not, however, a greater one than he that has chips and does not save them carefully in a dry place to kindle his fire. Chips are equally valuable in town or country, yet they are the most wasted in the latter, for there they are left in the woods or at the wood-pile to rot, and by many farmers they are not even used for manure. Herein 296 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. the city, those who make chips rarely save them, but there are hosts of men and women and little boys and girls constantly engaged in picking np every chip that is thrown in the street, or that the workman hews from his timber wherever they are permitted to come. So important are chips in the city, where nearly all onr fuel is anthracite coal, that ingenious mechanics have built ma- chines to make chips to saw and split whole shiploads of wood into chips, which are sold by the barrel to families or retailed by the grocer in bundles. We have often noticed the eagerness with which the little folks, who are always looking out for a waif, seize upon a small strip that has been swept into the street. " "Waste not a chip," should be a standing motto in every family in town and country. Country reader, have you a wood-house ? And if you have, have you a storeroom for chips? If you have neither, you may be an honest man, and may not be a sloven, and may not have a scolding wife ; but we want an indorser for your word upon all these points. No country house was ever CHIPS WORTH SAVING. 297 complete in its arrangements that had not a chip-room where all the chips may be saved, and where dry kindling-wood can always be found. None of the many wastes about a farm are worse than the waste of chips. None of the conveniences of life are more convenient than chips. What a glorious fire is that in the great kitchen fireplace, made of a green log, a seasoned fir-stick and middle-wood, topped off with the two- bushel basket full of chips! But their great value is to kindle the fire, either in the old fireplace, or modern grate, or fashionable stove. Now is the season of making chips ; now is the time to save chips nqt by throwing them down at the bottom of the wood-house to mold and always be damp, but carefully laid up in a dry loft. Even with those who saw their wood, there are splinters and dry bits to save, and we have no doubt, when the economy of fuel is well understood, that all saw-dust will be saved and compounded with pitch, so as to make good kindling. But there is so much comfort in chips that we do not understand how anybody can waste them. Only think 1,3* 298 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. of the convenience of a handful of dry chips from the chip-room, next summer, to boil the teakettle. If you have no wood-house nor chip-room and we believe a few farmers have neither we conjure you to cut your summer fire-wood in winter cut it up ready to burn, and pile it up in the form of a hay-stack, with the chips on top. So, you save your chips. Now a word about the economizing of fuel in city and country. Open fireplaces and grates are the most wasteful of heat, though they are, probably, the most saving of health. Red-hot stoves in close rooms are among the abominations of the age. They save heat and waste health. The best plan to warm a house for a family is to place a large stove in the hall, and then you can have the room-doors open, and in moderate weather thus warm the rooms ; and in colder days a small fire in a stove or grate in the room will make it comfortable, and give you a free circulation of air at the same time. Houses with " modern improve- ments," of course, are heated with hot-air HKAT WASTED. 299 furnaces ; some of them are hot-air abomina- tions. The perfection of heating our dwellings has not vet been reached, nor will it be, until we build them with hollow walls and floors, and double windows, and introduce heated air into all the cavities. As houses are now constructed and warmed, we not only waste the chips, but we waste one half the heat generated by our fuel. It is high time that, in more senses than one, we should save the chips. We should like to know the percentage or waste of coal upon all that is burned in pri- vate houses in this city, where grates seem to have been constructed with, apparently, little or no object in view, except waste, both of heat sent up the chimney, and unburned coal sent to the ash- barrel. The latter is so great as to afford constant employment to some thousand persons, who are constantly going about gathering the fragments of coal from the ashes ; and still thousands of tons every year are carried off in the ash-carts to fill up and build out some wharf whereon to land more coal. The 300 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. waste of heat in our consumption of fuel is, to say the least, fail one half. In fact, if all the wasted heat of all our coal-burning fires in the city were saved and properly distrib- uted, it is likely that the consumption would be reduced to one fourth the present quantity ; because it has been demonstrated in the heating of large buildings, that heat could be carried any required distance in pipes, as well as gas or water, and by surrounding the pipes in the ground with suitable non-conduct- ing substances, very little heat would be lost. FIRE KINDLERS. Melt three pounds of resin in a quart of tar, and stir in as much saw- dust and pulverized charcoal as you can, and then spread the mass upon a board till cool, and then break it into lumps as big as your thumb. You can light it with a match, and it will light a fire, for it burns with a strong blaze. It is economical of time and money. It may cost three shillings, and save ten shillings' worth of wood. ECONOMY IN FOOD. 301 CHAPTER XL ECONOMY IN FOOD WHAT SHALL WE BAT ? [Published in The Tribune, Nov. 14, 1855.] Economy in Food Remedy for Hunger Abuses of our Market System Economy in Buying Fashionable Beef Nutrition in Food What shall we Buy ? Cheap Food Incontrovertible Facts How to Cook Hominy Hominy Recipes A Corn Meal Loaf What shall we Eat 1 etc. WITH the present prices of rent, fuel, meat bread, flour, meal, sugar, potatoes, and other staple articles of supply for a family in New York, it only requires but a slight insight into the condition of all the laboring class to see that the cry frequently raised for an increase of wages is only the disguised cry of the hungry for food. Daily wages are daily consumed ; and often the only means of support for a week is the weekly credit of the butcher, b'aker, and grocer. This is never given except at an increased profit, and a little too often at a profit obtained by palpa- ble swindling in lightweights and measures, of which the victims dare not complain, tor 302 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. fear of losing the " accommodation," as the credit is called. While work lasts the labor- er can live ; when it fails, he has nothing in store to fall hack upon. Whoever, then, will make known to this class how to economize in their food, so as to increase the supply without an increase of expenditure, will be doing them a greater benefit than he would in a life-long harangue on politics, either Hard Shell, Soft Shell, or no shell. We need not repeat here how hard it is for those dependent upon daily employment to furnish their families with suitable food, at a time when, from sickness or other cause, they are not in receipt of wages. Too often, at such times, there is deep suf- fering; "and sometimes actual starvation. Will it be any better next winter, now so rapidly approaching, that it sends a shudder through many a family circle who remember what scenes they have passed through in January, February, and March ? There has been, there is now, there will be much suffering for food in this city, notwith- standing our receipts of tens of thousands, REMEDY FOE HUNGEK. 30?> weekly, of butchers' animals, and our mil- lions of bushels of corn, and wheat, and rye, and oats, and barley, arid buckwheat, and beans, and peas, and rice, for breadstuffs, and daily ship-loads of potatoes of both kinds, and untold piles of other edible roots and vegeta- bles, and great storehouses full of flour, butter, cheese, fish, fruit, eggs, poultry, and salted meats, and a thousand unnamed articles of food ; yet the mass are not full fed, and why ? Because they do not know how to eat. Not that they lack the animal function of con- suming ; but in providing, both in the pur- chase of kind and quality, and in the prepa- ration, there is a lamentable want of judg- ment, and utter want of economy. The want of food among the poor is a great evil. It breeds discontent, dissipation, crime, and ruin to any civilized society. There is a remedy. It would be greater charity to teach that remedy than to establish soup-houses. The first step would be to change our fashion of food ; to abandon such articles as are excessively dear in the raw state, for 304 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. others equally good and more nutritions, and to adopt a different and more rational plan of cooking. This would not only promote economy, but health ; both of which would add vastly to our stock of enjoyment. Without exception, both rich and poor in America eat extravagantly of animal food, cooked in the most extravagant and waste- ful manner ; by frying, baking, roasting, or boiling, and throwing away half of the nutri- tious matter in burned gravy, or gelatine dis- solved in the pot liquor. Again, we consume vast quantities of the meanest and most innutritions vegetables, costly at first, and cooked in the most fool- ishly wasteful manner. The fashion of ex- travagance in living is set by the rich, and they are aped in their folly by the poor. The consequence is, that there are want and suffering whenever work and wages fail. There is a remedy. The only question is. how it shall be applied ? Better than charity would be organizations, not to provide food ABUSES OF OUR MARKET SYSTEM. 305 for the poor, but to teach them what to buy, and how to use it ; how to economize their money. The very first step toward this blessed state of things should be taken by our city government, if indeed we have such a thing left to ns, by removing all restrictions upon the producer, by which he is kept away from the consumer. We pay now an average of thirty-three per cent, advance upon every thing that is eaten in New York, over and above what we should pay if these restric- tions were removed. Let every one who has bought a head of cabbage this fall, think what he paid. Six, ten, or twelve cents each, while the produ- cer has not received an average of two cents each. The turnip-eaters are paying every day at the rate of one to two dollars a bushel. The producer is receiving an average of less than twenty cents. We pay for many things in the same proportion, owing to our absurd and wicked market regulations. The producer is kept away from the con- sumer. He is not permitted to come into the 306 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. city and enjoy tho advantages of " free trade" in his'own produce. Why ? The city fathers say we have no room nowhere for him to stand his wagon, where the poor man or the poor woman may come with her market basket upon her arm, and get it filled at first prices. Under the present market regulations, all the country wagons are huddled into the cramped space around Washington Market, where none but stout men, or a class of mar- ket bullies can get to them ; for, in addition to the crowding, the wagons are driven out at seven o'clock in the morning. The city fathers say they can not amend this error, because they have nowhere else to pnt the wagons. Give producers a chance to sell to consumers, and it will cheapen family mar- keting in this city to a very large class of consumers, full twenty-five per cent. Make a market-place for country wagons, and there let them stand and sell their stuff from sun- rise till ten o'clock, at retail, with no privi- lege, until after that hour, of selling at whole- sale, or leaving the stand, unless their load is all sold out. ECONOMY IN BUYING. 30T This is a measure of relief to the poor, easily brought about ; one that would pro- duce real economy in food. Our city makes paupers, first by thwart- ing the laborer in his facilities to get cheap food, and then by the soup-house system of feeding those who are unable, through mis- fortune, to obtain a supply. But this is foreign to our main subject economy in kind and quality of food for the industrious poor. They do not study economy in their pur- chases. All kinds of fresh meat cost from ten to twenty cents a pound, and very few Americans are willing to take low price meats ; and generally those who can least afford it, call for a rib roast, or a loin steak of beef, or a leg of lamb or mutton, or a loin of veal or pork ; and rarely for the most eco- nomical pieces. A rib roast of six pounds for a dollar, in a poor man's family, is slightly extravagant ; the cooking more so. The Jews' religion in eating meat is founded on true economy. They eat only the fore quarters, and sell the more expensive, and 308 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. less valuable hind quarters, to the Gentiles. The fore quarter will not cut steaks and roasts equal to the hind quarter, but it is more economical for soups, stews, pot-pies, or cooking in any form with vegetables and gravy. The following exhibit will show those who \vill have nothing but choice cuts of beef why they have to pay so high for them it is because nobody will buy any thing but choice cuts. It is the universal complaint of all the first-class butchers that they can not sell their coarse meat, and " plates and navels" are a drug upon the packer's hands at six cents a pound. JSTow a good bullock, whose quarters will weigh 800 pounds, will cut up and sell at about the following figures : Weight Ribs 130 Price per Ib. Amount. 13c. $16 90 13 16 90 6 8 40 9 11 70 6 5 40 6 6 00 9 3 60 3 1 05 Hips and loins 130 140 130 90 100 40 46 800 Chucks Buttocks, rump, and socket . . Plates and navel Shoulders, clods, and brisket. . Tops of sirloin and fat Legs and shins . Total . $69 95 FASHIONABLE BEEF. 309 Weight Price per Ib. Amount. Hide .. 85 5 84 25 Fat .. 90 8 7 20 Tongue, 50c. ; feet, 25c 75 The bullock, at lOc. per Ib., costs $80 sells for. . . $83 15 Now it is a fact that a great portion of the above, rated at six, eight, and nine cents, is equally good, and would be more eco- nomical, at the same price per pound, than that rated at thirteen cents ; but fashion dic- tates, and folly buys ribs and loins, and for this the butcher must charge high, because he can not get any body to buy the other parts at cost. And so fashion and folly keep up the price of beef. The man or woman with scanty means, to fill the market basket, not only buys dear meats, but crude, innu- tritions vegetables, such as cabbage, turnips, and potatoes ; for, notwithstanding so many persons think potatoes a necessary article of food, they are not an economical one ; and all the cruder substances of vegetable food, though necessary and healthful, should not be sought after because cheap, to save money. The most economical mode of preparing 310 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. food is a due mixture of meat and vegetable substance in the form of soups ; but no man should live upon soup alone, any more than he should upon meat or fine flour bread. Health, as well as appetite, requires variety. It happens, now that breadstuffs, notwith- standing the high price of bread and flour, are the cheapest of all human food ; and it also happens that by onr slavery of fashion we do not use the cheapest kinds of this kind of cheap food. The following are the retail prices of some of the principal articles of food in New York, Oct., 1855: Flour, per bbl $12 00 per lb., 6^c. Sago " " 8 to 9c. Farina " " 12 to 15c. Bread " " 64c. Corn meal, per cwt 2 75 to $3 00 " " 3^c. Buckwheat meal, per cwt. 3 00 to $3 50 " " 3i to 4c. Barley meal, per cwt 300 " " 3i to 4c. Oatmeal, per cwt 4 00 to $4 50 " " 5 to 64c. Rye flour, per bbl 7 00 " " 4 to 4Jc. Hominy, per cwt 4 00 " " 5c. Cracked wheat, per cwt. . 5 50 " " 6c. Split psas, per bushel. ... 2 25 " " 4Jc. Whole peas, per bushel. . . 2 50 " " 5c. White beans, per bushel.. 200 " " 4 to'Sc. Dried sweet corn, per bus. 4 50 " " 10 to 12. Rice, per cwt 6 00 " " 6 to 7c. NUTRITION IN FOOD. 311 Potatoes, per bbl., SI 50 to SI 75 ; per bushel, 75 cents; per lb., l^c. Macaroni and vermicelli, 11 to 12 cents per Ib. Sugar, 8 to 11 cents per lb. Butter, per lb , averages 28 cents. Cheese, 12 to 14 cents. Apples, per bbl., $2 to $3 50; per bushel, $1 average. All kinds of meat, salt and fresh, and all sorts of fish, will average 12 cents a pound to the buyer of small quantities. Eggs are worth 25 cents per dozen, which is about 18 cents per lb. A dozen eggs, average size, will weigh one pound six ounces. Turnips, per bushel, 25 cents ; carrots, 50 cents ; beets, 50 cents ; onions, 75 cents ; cabbage, about 2 cents a pound. Dried fruits, per lb. Apples, 7 to 8 cents ; pears, 15 to 20 cents; plums, 8 to 14 cents; cherries, 15 to 20 cents; peaches, 15 to 18 cents; raisins, 8 to 12 cents. The following is the proportion of nutri- tious matter and water in* each of the follow- ing substances : Lbs. Substances. Lbs. nut mat. Lbs. water. 100 Wheat flour 90 10 100 Corn meal 91 9 100 Rice 86 14 100 Barley meal 88 12 100 Eye flour 79 21 100 Oatmeal 75 25 100 Potatoes 22 77| 100 White beans 95 5 100 Carrots 10 90 100 Turnips 4 95J 100 Cabbage 7 92 100 Beets 16 85 100 Strawberries.. . 10 . , ,.90 312 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. Lbs. Substances. Lbs. nut. mat Lbs. water. 100 Pears 16 84 100 Apples.... 16 84 100 Cherries 25 75 100 Plums 29 71 100 Apricots . .' 26 74 100 Peaches 20 80 100 Grapes 27 73 100 Melons 3 97 100 Cucumbers 2 97$ Meats, generally, are about three fourths water, and milk, as it comes from the cow, over ninety per cent. How is it as it comes from the milkmen? It is true that this chemical analysis does not give us the exact comparative value of food, but with that, and the prices of the various articles, it can not be a hard matter to determine what is the cheapest or most economical kind of food for us to use. Perhaps of all the articles named, taking into account the price and nutritious quali- ties, oatmeal will give the greatest amount of nutriment for the least money. But where will you find it in use? Not one family in a thousand ever saw the article ; not one in a hundred ever heard of it, and many who have heard of it have a vague WHAT SHALL WE BUY? 313 impression that none but starving Scotch or Irish ever used it; and, in short, that oats, in America, are only fit food for pigs and horses. It is a great mistake. Oatmeal is excel- lent in porridge, and all sorts of cooking of that sort, and oatmeal cakes are sweet, nutri- tious, and an antidote for dyspepsia. Just now, we believe oats are the cheapest of any grain in market, and it is a settled fact that oats give the greatest amount of power of any grain consumed by man or beast. This cheap food only needs to be fashion- able, to be extremely popular among all laborers, all of whom, to say nothing of other classes, eat too much fine flour bread. Cracked wheat and loaf bread cost the same price, or perhaps a less price for the wheat by the pound. A pound of the wheat, properly cooked, is worth more than four pounds of bread. Hominy, samp, hulled corn, we have so often recommended and urged upon the at- tention of all, both rich and poor, as cheap, wholesome, nutritious food, that we have 14 314 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. induced many to try it, who would not give it up now under any consideration. We re- iterate all that we have ever said in its favor. Thirty years' experience in its use only serves to confirm us in the opinion that it is such excellent and economical food, that too much can not be said in its favor. The only thing necessary in its cooking, is to cook it enough it can not be cooked too much. Every family should eat beans and peas y because of all articles they afford the most nutriment for the least money. One pound of cheap meat, say at ten cents, and one pound of split peas, say five cents, will give a fuller dinner to a family than a dollar expended for beefsteak and white bread. This is a kind of economy that should be known, and rigidly practiced. One bushel of white beans will feed more laboring men than eight bushels of potatoes. The beans will cost two dollars, potatoes six. A single quart of beans costs nine cents ; a half pound of salt pork, six cents ; a pound of hominy, five cents \ and that will give a meal to a larger family than a dollar's worth CHEAP FOOD. 315 of roast beef, white bread, potatoes, and other vegetables. We would not contine the laborer or the poorest family to this cheap food ; but we do insist that it is their duty to substitute such food, occasionally, in place of that which is more expensive, and thus, by saving, lay up a few dollars in the savings bank to save themselves from the mere life-saving con- trivance, the soup-house. We hope never to see another of these pauper-making establishments in operation again in this city. Let men think twice be- fore they open another one. But let every one think of the economy of making a soup-house at home. We spoke of pea-soup. Is there any living witness of that good old Yankee dish of cheap food, called bean porridge? Let it be revived in every family among the rich as a luxury, and among the poor as an article of economy. There is another Yankee dish besides bean soup and baked beans that we should like to see revived, and that is the baked Indian-meal pudding ; and this brings us to Indian bread, 316 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. a mixture of two thirds corn meal and one third rye meal, not rye flour, which makes most delicious bread at less than one half the cost of wheat flour. "We could go on a long time pointing out the errors of living, in which economy is lost sight of, if we thought the wished-for effect would be produced. We urge all to think of what we have said, and that one of the best things that can be done for the poor is to teach them practical economy in every- day life. No charitable societies have ever done so much good to the poor by the distribution of food as they could do by printing and put- ting into the hands of every family a little tract containing practical lessons of economy in the art of living well and living cheap an art that would prevent the waste of food, and lessen the expense of first purchases, and increase the nutritious qualities, while it added immensely to the table enjoyment of every family. In a great majority of cases it may be set down as an incontrovertible fact that want INCONT.KOVEKTIBLE FACTS. 31 7 comes of waste, and waste comes of want of knowledge of the properties of different arti- cles of food, and how to combine them so as to produce the most beneficial effect. It may be set down as another incontro- vertible fact, that no class of people can want food and remain virtuous. Their de- generacy, both physically and morally, is certain. It is our religious duty, then, to study and teach economy in food, and the art of living better and cheaper; more in ac- cordance with the principles that promote health, vigor, intellectual capacity, comfort, happiness, and morality of the human family. How much good would come of it if we should practice upon the text that forms the title of this article ! Let those who read and think first set the example ; the unthinking will follow, and their children will rise up and call them blessed. I think that I can afford to devote one chapter to a dissertation upon HOMINY. Hominy we have before given our opinion 318 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. upon. It is an article that no family, desir- ous of practicing economy, can do without. It is a very cheap, healthy, nutritious food. It usually costs only half the price per pound of flour, and contains no moisture, while the best of flour holds from twelve to sixteen pounds of water in a barrel. I have known potatoes, hominy, and white beans to be all sold at the same price, $2 50 a bushel, and rice but a little dearer. If a man can afford to eat fried gold for break- fast, boiled bank-notes for dinner, and roast- ed dollars for supper, he can afford to eat potatoes cooked in the same way, and not otherwise, at such high prices. In point of economy as human food, one bushel of beans or hominy is equal to ten of potatoes. It is surprising how little is known of this nutritious, healthy food ; and what an excel- lent substitute it is for potatoes during the continuance of the disease among them, which renders some that are fair to the eye unfit for food, and all exceedingly dear, even at the present rate of about one dollar and a half a bushel as an average cost to the HOW TO COOK HOMINY. 319 consumer in New York, in December, 1855. Hominy, too, is a dish almost as univer- sally liked as potatoes, and at the South it is more freely eaten ; while at the North it is seldom seen. In fact, it is an unknown food except to a few persons in cities. By hom- iny, we do not mean a sort of coarse meal, but grains of white corn from which the hull and chit, or eye, has been removed by moist- ening and pounding in a wooden mortar, or patent hulling machine, leaving the grains almost whole, and composed of little else but starch. It has often been said, not one cook in ten knows how to boil a potato. We may add another cipher when speaking of the very simple process of cooking hominy. We give the formula from our own experi- ence, and from instructions received in a land where "hog and hominy" are well understood. Wash slightly in cold water, and soak twelve hours in tepid, soft water, then boil slowly from three to six hours in same water, with plenty more added from time to time with great care to prevent burn- 320 ECONOMY ILLUSTKATEU. ing. Don't salt while cooking, as that or hard water will harden the corn ; so it will peas or beans, green or dry, and rice also. When done, add butter and salt ; or a better way is to let each one season to suit the taste. It may be eaten with meat in lieu of vegetables, or with milk, sugar, or syrup. It is good, hot or cold, and the more frequently it is warmed over, it is like the old-fashioned pot of " Bean porridge hot, or bean porridge cold, Bean porridge best at nine days old." So is hominy ; it is good always, and very wholesome, and, like tomatoes, only requires to be eaten once or twice to fix the taste in its favor. In this city the article is called samp, and the name hominy is given to corn cracked in a mill, and winnowed and sifted, and num- bered according to its fineness. It is cheap, healthy food. I have thought proper to add a few of the ways in which hominy may be used. HOMINY BREAKFAST CAKES. Mash the cold hominy with a rolling-pin, and add a little flour-and-milk batter, so as to make the HOMINY RECIPES. 321 whole thick enough to form into little cakes in the hand, or it may be put upon the grid- dle with a spoon. Bake brown, eat hot, and declare you never ate any thing better of the batter-cake kind. HOMINY AND MILK, hot or cold, is as much better than mush and milk as that is better than rye-meal porridge. HOMINY PUDDING. Prepare as for batter cakes, add one egg to each pint, some whole cinnamon, sugar to suit the taste, and a few raisins, and bake like rice pudding. A little butter or chopped suet may be added. Serve hot or cold, with or without sauce. HOMINY SALAD. To a pint of cold hominy add a small onion, a quarter of a boiled chicken, or about the same quantity of lob- ster, choppe'd tine, to M r hich some add a small pickle. To be dressed with sweet oil, mustard, pepper, and vinegar. It is a very good substitute for green salads at seasons when the latter can not be obtained. HOMINY AND BEANS. Mix equal parts of cold baked beans and hominy together, and heat up, and you will have an excellent dish. 14* 322 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. HOMINY BEATING. We presume we have heard of a still evening, while floating in our skiff down the Ohio River, in days " Long, long ago," a hundred hominy mortars in operation, as this is or was a common occupation of the negroes' evenings, beating their favorite food. Of late years, throughout the South, the ground hominy, or cracked corn, has in a great measure driven the old hominy mortar out of use. This is cooked in the same way, by soaking and boiling, until it becomes gelatinous, and then, when cold, if cut in slices and fried in a little fat, will often be eaten in preference to any other bread. At the South, negroes prefer corn meal to wheat flour, pound for pound. It is ground very coarse, and frequently eaten, hulls and all, in preference to sifting. The full allowance for a laboring man or woman one that toils all the hours of day- light in the field is a peck and a half of corn meal and three and a half pounds of fat bacon. In the cotton States the average price of the corn is about seventy-five cents A CORN MEAL LOAF. 323 a bushel, and the price of the bacon eight cents a pound. This would make the week's rations cost fifty-six cents a week. At still higher rates, it would not be a dime a day; in many places, not half that. In many places, though, the negroes do not get half the above rations. In this city a peck and a half of meal and three and a half pounds of bacon would average a cost of ninety cents. Few would be willing to live upon that alone. It would not be good economy to do so. It would be good economy for us all to use more Indian corn meal. I offer to those who will try the economy as well as palata- bleness of a loaf of wheat and Indian bread, the following good receipt : To two quarts of Indian meal add boiling water enough to wet the same ; when suffi- ciently cooled, add one teaspoonful of salt, half a pint of yeast, one teaspoonful of sale- ratus, one half teacupful of molasses, and flour enough to form it into a loaf (it should not be kneaded hard) ; when light, bake two hours in a well-heated oven. (It should be baked until brown.) 324 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. All corn bread should be cooked a long time. The negroes often bury the dough in the hot embers all night. Economy in choking is as much required as economy in purchasing the food. Domestic happiness is greatly dependent upon the manner in which the cooking de- partment of the household is managed, whe- ther by the mistress or a hireling. A cook who can make a good loaf of bread, boil a potato aright, or broil a mut- ton chop properly, is one of a thousand, and perhaps she would not know how to make a pot of mush, because it is so seldom made, where its use would promote both health and economy. Despising household duties is one of the sins of American women. A woman need not be a drudge, or slave to care, but still be the' director of all the household affairs. The woman, whatever her position and wealth, who attends to her own housekeep- ing affairs, reaps her reward in improved health and freedom from lassitude, which she suffers through neglect of exercise. WHAT SHALL WE EAT? 325 Many a mother lias unwittingly pampered her children's appetites till she has created disease, and inbred into their natures profli- gacy and selfishness. If the economy of food was understood, it would save many errors. Nothing that is unwholesome for children should be ever set before them. How many doctors' bills are made by in- attention to diet ! This is poor economy. So it is to despise any of the little matters about household ex- penses, that would save the expenditure of money. Look how much you could save in a year, or decade of years, by this simple text WHAT SHALL WE EAT? It is one of the most frequent and most unanswerable questions in the human family. With a hard winter every winter is hard for the poor before us with the cold winds of the dreary month of December peering into every crack of our houses with labor scarce and wages low, particularly to every woman who depends upon the work of her fingers for food with a large population out 326 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. of employment with suffering staring all in the face who depend upon daily wages, and make no daily provision for a day of trouble with the price of food, and fuel, and rent as high as it is in this city, it behooves every one to inquire : What shall we eat? When wages are two dollars a day, the laboring man may eat roast beef and plum pudding ; but if lie does so often, he knows little of economy. We can not cheapen food, but we can eat cheaper food ; and whatever will tend to teach those" who look long at a Dime before they spend it, what to bny, will be to them a blessing. Whatever I can show them what to eat, less expensive than their accus- tomed diet, should be at once adopted. Although I may repeat something said be- fore in these pages, I shall make the follow- ing suggestions upon this page : Fresh meat of all kinds, at the prices at which butchers retail it, is not economical food. Meats will average over a shilling a pound. Salted meats are cheaper than fresh. In economizing food, meat should never be COOKING MKAT. 327 fried or boiled. If you would get the most substance out of fresh meat, make it into soup, or stew, or pot-pie. In making soup, soak your meat some hours in cold water, and boil it in the same. Thicken with beans, peas, rice, barley, hominy, or broken bread. The best meat is the most economical for soup. Do not buy bones. If you boil meat to eat, never put it in cold water. Let it be boiling when you put the meat in the pot. Do not buy fresh meat a pound or two at a time. Buy a quarter or half a sheep. You get . it at half price. Beef or pork by the quarter is a quarter cheaper. True, the woman with the Dime can not partake of this advantage. Many families can that do not. Many could unite, one with another, and buy at wholesale rates. It is a kind of economy, worth more than a Dime. Look at the " flour leagues" that have been formed in the Eastern States, by which families have obtained their flour one or two dollars cheaper in a barrel. So the man who studies economy may save a dime 328 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. here, a dollar there, which at last will amount to an eagle. A dollar saved upon a barrel of flour is equal to a gift of sixteen loaves of bakers' bread. But, I repeat, do not buy your bread ready baked. It is sixpence a pound. Dry flour is the same price. Home-made bread is far more nutritious. RYE AND INDIAN BEE AD. Here is a good receipt for making this cheap, wholesome bread : Stir and mix most thoroughly two quarts of Indian corn meal with a tablespoonful of salt and a quart of boiling water, or enough to wet every grain of meal. When the mush cools to milk-warm, stir in one quart of rye meal, and a teacupt'ul of good yeast, which you will first mix with half a pint of warm water, so that the yeast will be more evenly diffused. With the rye meal add water enough to make the mass a stiff dough, but not as liard or tough as flour. It must be kneaded with the hands. [Remember rye meal is not rye flour. It is the product of the whole grain.] Put the dough in a pan. GOOD BKEAD. and pat it smooth with a wet hand. It will rise in an hour, in a warm place, enough to bake, and should be put in a hot oven, and remain three hours ; or, if all night, all the better. We should make greater use of home-made bread, and then we should escape the dele- terious adulterations of the baker, not half of which have I mentioned. Every family, whether rich or poor, or in town or country, should make it a religious duty to make use of more corn meal, oatmeal, Graham flour, hominy, and cracked wheat for bread, in preference to fine wheat flour, both for health and economy. Look at the relative retail prices per pound of these articles on page 310, and see which will give the most nutriment for the least money ; not which will afford you the most fashionable bread. If white fine flour was not fashion- able, or if people did not think that brown bread has a look of poverty, we should have the brown bread upon every table, for it is not only more economical, it is more nutritious and more healthy, particularly for children. 330 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. We do not eat oatmeal in this country to any extent, and yet it is the most nutritious breadstuff ever used by man. Look at the Scotch with their oatmeal porridge as ro- bust a set of men as ever lived. A Highlander will scale mountains all day upon a diet of oatmeal stirred with his fin- ger in water, fresh from a gurgling spring, in a leather cup. Another excellent, though Httle used breadstuff, particularly for the sedentary, or persons of costive habits, is cracked wheat, or wheaten grits, as the arti- cle is called. That and Graham flour should be used in preference, at the same price per pound, to white flour, because more healthy and more nutritious. One hundred pounds of Graham flour is worth full as much in a family as one hundred and thirty-three pounds of superfine white flour. Corn meal usually costs less than half the price of flour. It is worth twice as much. It is not so economi- cal in summer, because it takes so much fire to cook it. The first great error in preparing corn meal is in grinding it too much, and next in not cooking it enough. Corn meal PORK AND BEANS. 381 mush should boil two hours ; it is better if boiled four, and not fit to eat if boiled less than one hour. Buckwheat flour should never be purchased by a family who are obliged to economize food. It is dear at any price, because it must be floated in dear butter to be eaten, and then it is not healthy. Oatmeal makes as good cakes as buckwheat, and far more nutritious. But it is more nu- tritious, and is particularly healthy for chil- dren, in the form of porridge. PORK AND BEANS. Perhaps I run the risk of ridicule by reiterating here, what I have so often asserted, that white beans, at the ordinary prices, in most places, if not all, are the cheapest, because the most nutritious of all vegetables. Beans enter very largely into the diet of the inhabitants of some countries. This is particularly the, case in Mexico. Baked beans, with salt pork, used to be one of the most common dishes in New England. I have read somewhere that Pro- fessor Liebig has stated that pork and beans form a compound of substances peculiarly adapted to furnish all that is necessary to 382 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. support life, and give bone, muscle, and fat, in proper proportions, to a man. This food will enable one to perform more labor, at less cost, than any other substance. A quart of beans, eight cents, half a pound of pork, six cents, will feed a large family for a day, with good strengthening food. BEAN PORRIDGE is another of the old- fashioned dishes of New England. We should call it bean soup now. Four quarts of beans and two pounds of corned beef, "boiled to rags" in fifty quarts of water, would give a good meal to fifty men one cent a meal. POTATOES NOT CHEAP FOOD. Potatoes should be utterly abandoned by the poor, when a dollar a bushel is the selling price. They can not afford to eat them. Potatoes sell, at wholesale, for an average of two dol- lars a barrel, which is eighty-seven and a half cents a bnsjiel. At retail, the poor pay two dollars a bushel, or about four cents a pound, which is about as much as corn meal; more than half as much as fine flour ; nearly as much a bushel as beans, while one bushel DKAB VEGETABLES. of the latter are worth, for food, as much as a cart-load of potatoes. All other vegetables are still more uneconomical than potatoes. Carrots are the cheapest of all roots. But they are but little used as human food, though very nutritious. They are good, simple boiled, and eaten with a little butter or meat gravy. They should always form an ingredient of soup. They are sold by the quantity, at fifty cents a bushel. Turnips are dear at any price. There is more nutriment in a quart of carrots than in a bushel of turnips. They are eighty-two per cent, water. Cab- bage is nutritious, but very expensive. Buy very little of it if your money is short. Dried sweet corn is an article that all per- sons are fond of. It sells for four dollars to live dollars a bushel, which weighs forty-two pounds, and would retail at about ten cents a pound. We don't know about the econ- omy of eating it, as compared with other breadstuffs, but as compared with coarse vegetables it is immeasurably cheaper. A pound of sweet corn cooked to be eaten with meat, is worth more than three pounds of ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. extra meat. It is also very excellent and nutritious mixed in the bean soup. Another very excellent, nutritious, econo- mical article of food is dried peas. They are generally a little more costly than beans, but some think they will go further. At any rate they are good for a change. It would be good for a change for those who are put to their wits' end to know how to get food enough to feed their families, if any thing that we have said shall put them in a way of changing some of their old habits, so as to buy such articles as will satisfy hunger, while giving them health and strength, for less than half the money they are now expending, though living only half comfort- ably. That the laboring man must eat meat is a fallacy. I have seen thousands of laboring men, in South Carolina, who never eat meat. Thousands of others do not eat meat, or food made of meat, oftener than once a week. Half a bushel of sweet potatoes is a common allowance for rice-field hands a week. Sometimes it is a peck of rice, or VITIATED APPETITES. 335 meal, with soup, one day in the week, made by boiling fifteen pounds of meat, with crude vegetables, in eighty quarts of water. Upon such diet men are healthy, if not strong. Dyspeptic persons may enjoy a full meal without meat vastly to their benefit. Bread and potatoes ; or bread, potatoes, and apples ; or bread y potatoes, apples, and squash ; or a hundred other combinations. A full diet does not consist in any given number or kind of articles ; but on the proper quantity and quality of some or all kinds of food. Because the appetite craves meat, does not prove it necessary, any more than the crav- ings of vitiated appetites after rum and to- bacco. Still, I do not recommend all to dis- card meat. I only ask them to exercise more economy in its purchase and prepara- tion. TKA AND COFFEE. As I do not discard meat from the poor man's diet, the poor woman will of course console herself with the hope that I shall not discard tea and coffee. I will compromise the matter by allowing 336 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. her to retain Hack tea, if properly made, though it certainly is not a necessary article upon any table. If black tea is steeped a few minutes in the usual way of making green tea, the de- coction is acrid and unpalatable. If boiled steadily for fifteen to thirty minutes, the resinous substance is dissolved and the flavor entirely changed. I never use green tea, and never recom- mend it to be used, because it is a manufac- tured article, frequently colored with delete- rious drugs. COFFKE I never use, because experience taught me, by a long trial of daily use, and subsequent well-managed ex- periments upon myself, that it was the cause of all my severe suffering from nervous and sick headaches. Because I know this, I have discarded its use. Coffee is not food. And certainly for all those who buy stuff called "ground coffee," I would recommend as equally nutritious, and far more healthy, a decoction of burned crusts, burned bran, burned rye, burned peas, burned carrots, and many other cheap substances ; and if HEALTHY DRINKS. 387 not aromatic enough, buy the "essence' of coffee," and add a few drops. If not bitter enough, add quassia chips. If not astringent enough, you can get that quality from oak bark, cheaper than the coffee berry. Asparagus seeds, treated just like coffee, make a decoction undistinguishable from the real Mocha or Java. But as long as pure water pours down Niagara Falls, the same element may be poured down all our throats far more eco- nomically, and far more healthily, than any decoction of berries, roots, beans, grain, or any brewing or distillation of the same. Of the economy of water used freely upon the exterior also, as well as for drink, I could not say too much, and yet have not room to eay but these few words. If you wash all over every morning with cold water as a regular habit, and use noth- ing but cold water for drink, you can work all day in a cold room without feeling the want of iire, and your health will be such that you will relish plain, coarse food, and 15 338 ECONOMY ILLrisTHATED. thus will enjoy the benefit of economy in a three-fold sense. VENTILATION. Next to the neglect of water and, in fact, it should rank first is the neglect of air. The very worst economy is that which poisons people with dwellings that have no VENTILATION. "Wherever we go, we** find a lamentable ignorance of the laws which govern the hu- man system. Among the laws of health, no one, perhaps, merits our serious attention more than that of fresh air. It may be said with truth, that not one building in a thou- sand, in this country, is properly ventilated. This is especially the case with regard to our school-houses, churches, halls, and other pub- lic buildings, where large bodies of peonle frequently congregate. In our churches it is almost impossible for any one not to be struck with the deficiency in means of ven- tilation ; and even the slight means which are at hand are generally disregarded : the doors are closed, and windows kept down in stifling hot weather, as though fresh air were poison, and by no means to be inhaled e*- VENTILATION. 339 cept at long and painful intervals. A few moments' sitting convinces any one accus- tomed to breathing real and substantial air, that he is killing himself by degrees a feel- ing of drowsiness overcomes him, and it re- quires an effort on his part to prevent him- self from falling asleep, and nodding perhaps unwilling coincidence with the doctrines held forth in the pulpit. It is no extraordinary thing for us to see men and women asleep in church, and it is very common to hear people declaim against it as a sin of the first magni- tude. In our opinion the sin consists in going where fresh air is a rarity, and thus inhaling poisonous and baleful air, to the great detriment of health and happiness. Let churches, school-houses, and all other public and private establishments, be venti- lated properly, and there will be no difficulty in keeping people awake with a very ordi- nary sermon or lecture." In all our tenant houses the same thing pre- vails in an aggravated form, and will continue until we have a Board of Health possessed of power to guard the health of the people. 840 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. WASTK. What a little word this is; but what a big meaning it has ! It seems to be in some way inseparably connected with every transaction and every act of our lives. Even life itself is one continual waste ani- mals and plants, from maturity to death ; but that is natural waste nature obeying nature's laws. The waste that we commit is unnatural and contrary to the laws of pro- priety and common sense. Look into every kitchen ; not only at the fat in the fire, but at the wasteful manner iii which all of our cooking is done ; besides the waste of food at the table. See how that delicate appetite made delicate by waste picks out a few choice morsels and carelessly casts the rest aside to go to waste. It is safe to say that more food is wasted every day in this city than is eaten ; not alone in the kitchen or at the table, but in our markets and store-houses, where whole cargoes of grain, meal, flour, meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables are continually being wasted through bad packing or bad manage- ment. WASTK. 341 What a waste, too, are all of our retail purchases ; and, because it is fashionable, buying food that wastes the most. Is it any wonder that the poor suffer for food after committing such extravagant waste? Look at that man paying a dollar and a half the price of a whole day's work for a rib-roast of beef, to be cooked in the most wasteful way, when one half the money expended in a cheaper piece of meat, cooked in a different manner, with vegetables, bread, and gravy, would serve his family twice as long. But not so fashionable and genteel. No, and not so wasteful. Almost the whole system of American cookery is based upon a state of things that existed when we had such a surplus of food that the idea of waste was not taken into account. There was a time, within but a few years past, at the West, when wheat could be pur- chased for twenty-live to forty cents a bushel, corn for ten or fifteen cents, pork for one to two cents a pound, and other things in pro- portion. It would be idle to talk to people about saving every iota of such cheap food. 342 ECONOMY ILLUSTRATED. To some extent the same cheapness haa prevailed all over America, until the people have fallen into wasteful habits, both in keeping, cooking, and eating their food, that need reform. It is probable that one half of the cooking in the kitchens of private families, in this city, is done by Irish servants, who possessed no higher art when they landed upon our shores than is required to boil and roast potatoes, or make an oatmeal cake or mess of porridge. The only art of saving they have any knowledge of is not to have any thing to save. All that should be saved is hurried out of sight in the basket of some of their own countrymen at the basement door, thereby encouraging another great waste the waste of time of these lazy beggars. 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FOWI.KK. AND WEMiS, Plireiiologlsts, 308 Broadway, IVew Vorli. Books sent prepaid by First Mail to any Post Office in the United States. WORKS ON WATER CURE, PUBLISHED BY FOWLER AND WELLS, 308 Broadway, New York. IF the people can be thoroughly indoctrinated in the general principles of HYDBO- PATHY, and make themselves acquainted with the LAWS OF LITE AND HEALTH, they will well-nigh emancipate themselves from all need of doctors of any sort. DB. TBAIX. HYDROPATHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: ASys- TEM OF HYDROPATHY AND HYGIENE. Containing Outlines of Anato- my ; Physiology of the Human Body ; Hygienic Agencies, and the Preservation of Health ; Dietetics, and Hydropathic Cookery ; Theory and Practice of Water Treatment ; Special Pathology, and Hydro-Therapeutics, including the Nature, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of all known Diseases ; Application of Hydro- pathy to Midwifery and the Nursery. Designed as a Guide to Families and Stu- dents, and a Text-Book for Physicians. By E. T. Trail, M. D. 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