WOMAN'S WORLD.

Evening Star, Issue 12008, 3 October 1903, Page 4

WOMAN'S WORLD.

[Br Vm..] "Viva" will in this column answer all reasonable questions relating to the home, cookery, domestic economy, and any topic of interest to her sex. But each letter must bear the writer's bona fide name and address. No notice whatever will be taken of anonymous correspondents. Questions should be concisely put, and the writer's nom de plume be clearly written. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. " Hair."—Go to a good barber, and he will advise you accordingly. " Unpleasant."—Eat a tomato with spring onions. It is valuable as neutralising the disagreeable odor which is associated with these so-called vulgar but valuable vegetables. RECI?ES. .Scalloped Potatoes.—Slice cold boiled potatoes very thin and small; put one quart of them in a baking tin in layers with two even teaspoonftils of salt, two-thirds of a teaspoonful of peper. and 2ioz butter; pour half a pint of milk over the whole; cover the potatoes with ground bread, a little pepper and salt, and small bits of butter; bake until thoroughly heated and browned. Lemon Cornflour Shape.—Mix two heaped feblespoonfnis of cornflour in a basin with file juice of four lemons; boil a quart of water with the rinds of the latter and four tablespoonfuls of sugar; strain it into the cornflour, stirring it carefully. Return it to the saucepan till clear and well thickened, then pour into a mould rinsed out in cold water. Serve with a jug of cream. Feather Cake.—Take half a cup of butter beaten to a cream, two cups sugar, one cup milk with one teaspoonful baking powder dissolved in it, three eggs (the yolks and whites beaten separately), one cup Sour with two teaspoons cream of tartar mixed in it, and, lastly, two enps flour. Mix in the above order. After the first cup of flour add the other two cups of flour gradually, a little at a time. Beat the mixture well between each, addition. Bake three-quarters of an hour. An Excellent Irish Stew.—Take 21b of mutton and cut into chops, ten large potatoes (peeled, washed, and cut in halves), six good-sized onions (cut across, each into four rings). Take a pint and a-half of water, half a small teaspoonful of pepper, the same of salt, and two tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, and mix. Fry the mutton and onions lightly on both sides, place in a smell saucepan a layer of potatoes, of mutton, and of onions. Pour a little of the mixture over, then another layer as before, then the mixture till all the meat, vegetable, and mixture are used. Cover close, stew over a slow fire for three hoars.

Hotch Potch.—Take 21b of the marrow half of a round of beef, cut it into pieces about 2in square, and put them into a stewpan with a few scraps of fat beef or veal and five pints of water. Let this boil up, then add two largo carrots (sliced), two onions, two sticks of celery, two turnips, and some pieces of cauliflower. Cover the r.7.ueepan closely, and simmer gentlv for three hours. Melt 2oz butter in a kneepan, mix a tablespoonful of flour smoothly with it, let it brown, dilute it with a little of the broth, season with ketchup, and add it to the rest of the stew. Let the broth boil up once more, and add pepper and salt to taste. Serve in a large dish, put the meat in the middle and the vegetables round, the gravy all over, and send to table as hot as possible. Hotchpotch may be made of beef, mutton, lamb, fowl", or pickled pork, and with vegetables according to tho season.

Trout a la Meuniere.—Required : The required number of fcout, for each trout alJow +,wo teaspoonfuls of flour, half a teaspoonful of salt, a quarter of a. teaspoonful of pepper, one ounce of butter or dripping, the juice of ons lemon, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley. See the fish are nice and fresh. Clean, trim, wash, and dry them. Then with a sharp knife score them two or three times across on each side. Mix together the flour, salt, and pepper, and toss, them about in this, shaking off all the'flour, etc., that will not stick. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then put in the fish, sprinkle over the top the chopped parsley and lemon juice. Allow this to cook gently. When one side is nicely browned, turn the fish over. Place on a hot dish, pour over the butter in which it is cooked, and serve at once.

Roast Duckling.—Required : A couple of ducklings, butter or good dripping. Dress and truss the ducklings, rub them well over ■with a little warmed butter. Roast before a clear fire for about twenty-five minutes. Keep them well basted, or they will shrink a good deal and become dry. Serve on a hot dish with good gravy. New Potatoes a !a Maitre d'Hotel.—Required : Two pounds of new potatoes, a spris of mint, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a squeeze of lemon juice, one ounce of butter. Wash and scrape the potatoes. With a round vegetable s-coop out from the potatoes a number of little hall-like marbles. Boil these till tender in boiling salted water with a sprig of mint in it. Then drain off the water, add to the potatoes in the pan the butter, parsley, and lemon juice. Toss them about gently in the pan over the fire for a few minutes. Serve at once in hot dish.

Peas a la Franchise.—Required : Half a peck of peas, a lump of sugar, a pinch of vnlt, a tinv piece of soda, two tablespoonfnls of white sauce for each half-pint of peas. Shell the peas, then boil them carefully in boiling water, with the soda, sugar, and salt. When cooked, drain off the water, and add to them two tablespoonfuls of good white sauce (or, if you have none, use cream) to each half-pint of peas; also a pinch of pepper, salt, and castor sugar. Serve very hot in a hot dish. Chiffonade Soup.—2lb gravy beef, one onion, one carrot, seasoning, a little mixed sweet herbs, three pints water, one lettuce, one French roll. Gut the carrots and turnips in slices, and put in a stewpan with the meat cut in slices, seasoning, and a little herbs; put on the fire and simmer slowly in their juices for one hour; add the water, let boil, remove the scum, and simmer two hours; strain through a sieve ; cut the lettuce in small strips, put them in a stewpan with a little chevril, three small onions chopped finely, a pinch of sugar, and seasoning; pour the soup over, simmer ten minutes, and serve with the French roll cat in dice and fried.

Raspberry Pudding.—Line a basin with tuces of bread rather less than half an inch thick, cut off the crust; pick the stalks from one pint raspberries and onehalf pint red currants, stew them in an enamelled saucepan with three tablespoonfuls of sugar and four of water until tender; stir in two sheets of gelatine until melted, pour whilst quite hot into the bread-imed mould; cover the top with bread and set away all night in a cold place; when required for table turn ont of the mould, sprinkle sugar on the top, put whipped cream round, and one little hear, of cream m the centre of top. HINTS. An excellent furniture cream is made tl.us: I'mely shred one ounce of ordinary beeswax, half an ounce of white wax, and half an ounce of Castile soap. Mix gradually with half a pint of turpentine and half a pint of boiling rain watsr. A simple expedient for softening the water one washes in, as well as giving it a pleasant and most refreshing scent, is to drop the rind of an orange or lemon (the latter is best) into the bedroom jug overK ?o fc - I fc acts as a splendid sldn tonic. The legs of old woollen stockings, cut vp answer the purpose of house flannels. New linen may be embroidered more Basily if it is rubbed over lightly with fine white soap. Fruit stains, if they are fresh, wffl, as a rule, come out by soaking the spots in boiling water. The water must be bublimg. The next time you have a bunch rf flowers, and a very little camphor to the water in which you put them, and they will retain thir freshness much longer. > To remove grease from wall paper, put a fold of clean blotting-paper on the spots and hold a hob iron quite near, but not touching, till the grease is z\\ absorbed. To Clean Glass Flower Vases.—Where the cloth or hand cannot be inserted, put 5n very small lumps of soda with a 'little cold water; then thoroughly rinse with clean cold water, and the glass will be found perfectly clean. . ffear .ceojjle know that rice and, vim&iK

are excellent for cleaning water-bottles, decanters, etc Pat some rice into the bottle and pour in a little vinegar. Shake' well, and the glass will quickly become clear. Kettles may become thoroughly cleaned by boiling a few potato peelings in them. Render your curtains fireproof by rinsing them in alum water—two ounces of alum to one gallon of water.

Plates heated in the oven sometimes become smoked and burnt. If the stains do not come off with washing a little common salt rubbed in is excellent, and will entirely remove all marks.

Save all the empty matchboxes, and when laying a fire break them open and use instead of paper, or. at least,' use very little paper. The fire will light very quickly with these, and they leave no ashes like paper. To clean dish-covers, slightly damp a bit of rag in paraffin oil, dtp into dry whiting, rub on in a thin paste, and leave to dry for a few minutes; then polish off with a clean cloth. This gives a most brilliant and lasting polish and removes oil stains.

It is a great improvement where fireplaces are nob tiled, or have very inartistic tiles, to fit carefully a piece of linoleum, in pretty hall pattern representing rile squares or diamond shapes, over the hearth. If neatly fitted it is very difficult to distinguish the difference from the real thing. Doora should always be shut by the handles., as the wood not only gets soiled if constantly touched, but the paint eventually wears off.

Simple Preservation of Eggs.—A simple plan is to bury the eggs in salt, standing them upright instead of laying them on their sides. They may thus be preserved for a whole year. Relighting a Candle.—Should a candle be accidentally blown out when there are no matches at hand the flame may be rekindled by blowing the wick at once while it is smouldering, giving the candle ab the same time a brisk jerk upwards To keep butter firm in hot weather, place the butter on a plate, put over it an inverted flower pot of the common red order, and bind round the edges three or four folds of muslin. Keqi this soaked with cold water, and however hot the weather the butter will remain firm.

The hair may be kept in curl on a hot or damp day by using tho following :—Take one tablespoonful of quince seeds (obtained at any chemist's), bruise them, and drop them into a pint of water. Boil gently until the fluid is reduced one-half. Then strain through muslin, and add two tablespoonfuls of alcohol and two of eau de Cologne. Bottle and keep well corked. Damp the hair with this fluid after arranging the hair for the da v. It may not be generally known that the addition of a teaspoonful of chopped suet to every pint of milk in a rice pudding not culy makes it creamy but improves the flavor Oxalic acid or salts of lemon will remove rron rust.

Kitchen floors painted with boiled linseed oil are very easily cleaned. A watch should be wound regularly every morning and evening. Never cook tomatoes in iron, nor stir them with a metal ppoon. Painted 1 furniture wiped over with a little milk and water will look as bright as new.

A sliced onion put on a plate in a room where anyone is ill is a perfect disinfectant.

Do not. crowd many flowers into one vase when arranging them. You will quite spoil the effect if you do. Sieves should never be washed with soap, but cleansed with a brush and clean water with a litle soap in it.

If the floor and shelves of a aie rinsed with clean lime-water after they have been washed, they will be delightfully clean and pure. If a finger has been crushed in any way plunge it into water as hot as can be bome. This will relieve the pain more quickly than anything else. Never clear soup unlil the day it is wanted. The stock should be made previously, but soup should be freshly clarified or it will be cloudy. Too ranch wilt in the gravy may he remedied by putinsr a pinch of brown FUjrar in it. This does not hurt the. gravy in the least. CHINESE PROVERBS ABOUT WOMEN. Respect always a silent women ; trreafc is the wisdom of the woman that holdeth her tongue. A vain woman is to be feared, for she will sacrifice all for her pride. A haughty woman stumbles, for she cannot see what may be in her way. Trust not the woman that thinketh more of herself than another; mercy will not dwell in her heart. The gods honor her who thinketh long before opening her lips. A woman that is not loved is a kite from which the string has been taken; she driveth with the wind, and cometh to a long fall. A woman that respects herself is more beautiful than a siugle star; more beautiful than many stars at night. Woman is the ease for that which pains the father; she is. balm for his troubles. A woman who mistakes her place can never return to where she first was; the path has been covered up from her eyeß. A woman desirous of being seen by men is not trustworthy; fear her glance. Give heed to her to whom children have come; she walks in the sacred ways, and lacks not love. A mother not spoken well of by her children is an enemy of the State; she shonui not live within the kingdom's wall. A woman without children has not } it the most precious of her jewels. Give heed to the voice of an old woman; sorrow has given her wisdom. A beautiful woman knows not her charms, therefore is she beautiful, mora so than the colors of the sea. Like sheep that be leaderless, aTe many women come together for much talk. The happiest mother of daughters is she who has only sons. The minds of women are of quicksilver, and their hearts of wax. TALEBEARING. It is extraordinary that women professing high principles should so often have no scruple in repeating conversations to persons for whose ear they were not intended. This is so treacherous, so disloyal, go mischief making, that it should be unnecessary to warn people against it. Were it general it would put an' end to all freedom of social intercourse, for many a harmless word spoken idly or by inadvertence if repeated gives offence and makes enmity. For example Mrs Brown remarks casually to MrsGreen that Mrs White is crowing very stout. This is an opinion that has been privately expressed by even' friend and acquaintance of Mrs? White. " It happens, however, that Mrs White is particularly sensitive to remarks about her size, so when Mrs Green repeats to her what poor Mr* Brown has said—* view, by the way, in which she herself concurred—Mrs Wh'it'e is mortally offended. Mrs Grc-Qn, if blamed would probably cry : " Oh, but Mrs Brown did say it," as if that made her own conduct any better; or she would perhaps say =. "But she did not tell me not to lepeat it," as if such warning should be necessary. If we are to have private detectives around U3 noting and retailing every word we utter they should not come in tie guise of friends. When people tell you anything unpleasant that has been said of you, you can treat them as secret enemies, whatever devotion they may profess. No true friend repeats anything unkind, unless in the rare case when it is something which it is to the vital interest of the person concerned to hear. It is generally an indirect way of showing spite or jealousy. If ve want to defend our friends let us stand up for them at the time; but let us never wound them by telling them of every little slighting or unkind remark made about them and perhaps forgotten as soon as made. MIBS KRUPP. Second only to Mr Morgan in position in the iron world is a beautiful girl just out of school—Miss Antoinette Bertha' Krupp, •who inherited all her father's great iron and steel works, worth over £15,000,000, and has now absolute control of them. Possessed of the characteristic spirit of the Erupp family, no on© would imagine at first sight that this girl's pretty head, o»-wii£d. -Kith. 4- wealth- of. dark x&&

stored with an immense and intimate knowledge of the great works at Essen. As soon aa the will making Miss Krupp an heiress was published thousands of begging letters were received from needy people. In great contrast with these, yet with some points of similarity, is Mr Pierpont Morgan, who asks for the inclusion of the Krupp works in the gigantic Steel Trust. The beggars received liberal rewards; indeed, the young heiress is too good-hearted, and her "mother, who is also her guardian, has to keep her from too easily listening to calls on her charity. What will the millionaire receive, since, not content with a crust, he asks for the whole loaf. Miss Krupp is self-pos-sessed, and has promise of great beauty; she lias robust health, and takes delight in riding and bicycling, and is indefatigable en the finks. Herself a clever painter, this millionaire girl takes a great interest in ail artistic works. It has been reported that she is engaged to Felix Klemperer, the eminent German financier. THE TRAIL OF THE SKIRT. Now that sanitation is becoming an exact science, and the principles of hygiene are proclaimed from tho housetops, how long will it be-before ladies cease conveying infection into their households by means of the trailing skirt! A contemporary publishes the following appeal on the subject: Skirt, skirt, skirt, Mode of woman's attire. In it she walks with footsteps trite, Picking up dust and mire, Thrmgh filth and flood and dirt. Sweep, sweep, sweep,' It needs must be—'tis fashion's decree! So she trails the trail of the skirt. O England's sisters dear! 0 England's mothers and wives! It is not your dresses you're wearing out, But humin creatures' lives. Germ, germ, germ, Lurks in that murky dirt; You're working to-day with a double tread A shroud as well as a skirt. Trail, trail, trail, The labor you never shirk, Through filthy flood and slush and mud, Doing the scavengers' work. Trail, trail, trail, Gather microbes, as doctors assert; Pit style with stealth 'gainst comfort and health— This is the song of the skirt. THE CZARINA. For a great person the Empress of Russia i 3 very shy and retiring, with a gentle disposition not easily ruffled. Her marriage was a genuine love match on both sides, and the only real trouble that cast a shadow over her birthday celebration was the lack of an heir to the throne. There is a prophecy current in Russia that the Czarina will have six girls before she has a boy; but the Royal couple apparently do not credit the prophet, for there is serious talk in St. Petersburg of a project to alter the law of succession so as to secure the crown to one of their daughters. Though the Czarina, for prudential reasons, confines her attention to domestic affairs and leaves the politics to the politicians, she is really a woman of great intellectual powers ; and, quiet as she is, she is always ready to appreciate a bit of harmless fun. A few years ago, for example, she had rather an amusing experience in Kiel, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She was shopping with her sister, and was recognised. Of course, a crowd collected in a moment outside the door. "Oh, dear," said the Czarina, "can't I escape by the back, somehow?" The obsequious proprietor of the shop explained that there was some building going on at the back, and the way was quite blocked; but that there was a ladder, if —— " Where is it?" said the Czarina, and in two seconds she was up the ladder, and over the wall into the next garden, whence she mad« her way unobserved by side streets to the Koyal residence. At the meeting of the British Women'* Temperance Association an illuminated address was presented to and received bv Mrs Peamll Smith, the sunniest of old Grandmothers over seventy, "one of the best gifts that have come from America " t-he wors a lace cap instead of bonnet, " for whats the use of being old," she told the audience, "unless you can dress as von like. Now, Mary, cut it short." she s'aid to ono lady beginning an appreciative address. " I know you all love ,ne, and I luve you, and there's an end of it." , " WiU y° u take a little refreshmentV" Thank you, I have just had a sniff of ozone.' Question and answer at a ball given in aid of the Oxvgcn Hospital, Fitzroy square, at the Empress Rooms, South Kensington, recently. For besides champagne and the other recognised restoratives of the ball room ozone was laid on. After every dance Dr Stoker, head of the hospital, wheeled about the hall an appliance in which by electrical action pure oxygen was converted into the invigorating element of mountain or seaside air, greatly to the purifying and enlivening of the atmosphere of the ball room. The method was akin to that employed at the Oxygen Hospital for the cure of various diseases, among them consumption.