AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN’S EYES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue IV, 25 January 1902, Page 185

AS SEEN THROUGH WOMAN’S EYES.

Toilet Secrets. HOW TO BEAUTIFY THE TEETH. An excellent camphorated toothpowder which will not destroy the enamel of the teeth and yet will render them white is made of seven drachms of precipitated chalk, half a drachm of powdered camphor, and one drachm of powdered orris root. It is not sufficient to use only a toothpowder; a liquid dentifrice is pleasant and has a beneficial influence upon the gums. To make one, take two ounces of borax, a quart of hot water, and one teaspoonful each of tincture of myrrh and, spirits of camphor. Dissolve the borax in the hiot water, and when the water is cool add the other Ingredients and bottle them for use. A few drops used in a little water form a delightful wash. It is a mistake to suppose that the teeth of every person should be of the same whiteness. The variation of colour is largely a constitutional result. Certain medicines will change the colour of the teeth, a condition that may be altered by a little treatment to be recommended by a dentist. Yellow teeth, it is said, are usually indicative of bodily vigour, and very pearly white ones of a more fragile constitution. There is only one grand rule to offer respecting the care of the teeth, and that is that they be kept immaculately clean and in perfect health. Their colour then matters nothing, for their condition will prove that they are well attended

Should the gums be tender and spongy, the general health, upon which* the condition of the teeth so much depends, should be made the subject of inquiry. A healing and soothing tooth-powder is made of precipitated chalk one ounce, of powdered borax half an ounce, of powdered myrrh a quarter of an ounce, and the same quantity of powdered orris root. A visit every three months to a dentist should be one of the rules of life faithfully followed. In the end it will be found an inexpensive one too, for a little work done here and there at regular intervals saves many and costly operations. These visits should begin before a child sheds its first teeth, so that irregularities of the second teeth may be combated should they be present, and decay and other troubles arrested. o o o o o Oysters and Mushrooms. Scrape and cut in several pieces the caps of the coprinus eomatus, or shaggy-mane mushroom, reserving the stems for another dish. For one pint of mushrooms, after cutting, allow one pint of oysters. Pick over, rinse, and parboil the oysters slightly, and draw on the liquor. Add enough cream to fill one cup. Put into the blazer one rounded tablespoon of butter; when melted add one heaped tablespoon of flour, and when blended stir in the cup of liquid. When smooth and thick add the mushrooms, a sprinkling of salt, and one small green pepper freed from seeds and finely minced. Cover the pan and let it cook slowly, until the mushrooms are tender. Then add the drained oysters, and when hot serve at once as wafers. This variety of mushrooms is one of the most delicately flavoured, and is found in abundance during this month in fields near stables or coal yards, under the old lumber, beside railroad tracks, and in places that have been filled with coal refuse. They are pink underneath when young, turning to inky black as they mature. The stem is white and slender, and extends to the extreme top of the shaggy cap which folds down over it like an umbrella. Mushrooms with Chicken.—Chop fine the stems left from the mush-

rooms as prepared in the above recipe. If tough, scrape them first. Allow about twice the amount of fine chopped cooked chicken. Put them in the blazer with butter enough to cover the bottom, toss about until they begin to cook, then add cream to cover, one small green pepper chopped fine, for one pint of the mixture, and salt to taste. Cover the pan, reduce the flame, or put it over the boiling water, and let the mixture simmer until the mushrooms are tender and the moisture reduced. Let it stand over the hot water while you fry some thick slices of ripe tomato in hot butter in another pan, and when done serve the tomatoes with a portion of the chicken mixture on each. Stuffed Tomatoes. —Chop very fine one-half cup of cold raw steak or roast beef, and chop, also, one small onion. Put one tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, add the onion, and cook till yellow, add one teaspoon of curry powder and one-half teaspoon of ground allspice. Mix it well, then turn in the meat and toss it about until well seasoned, adding another tablespoon of butter if too dry. Wipe six large ripe tomatoes, remove a slice from the stem end, and scoop out the seeds in a strainer and put the juice with the meat. Add salt to taste, and fill the tomatoes with the meat. Arrange them in a buttered granite pan and bake them half an hour. Have readysome rounds of bread cut larger than the tomato, spread them with butter, and brown them in the oven. Lay the toast on a platter and cover each slice with the sifted yolk of hard-boiled egg. Take up the tomatoes, lay one on each slice, and sprinkle fine minced parsley over the top. Lobster a la Tartare. —Have readyone pint of fresh lobster meat cut in small pieces. Put into the blazer two rounding tablespoons of butter, and when melted and hot add the lobster and toss about until well heated and the butter absorbed. Add more if it seems dry, as it should be quite rich with butter, but in no sense fried or browned. Shake over it a generous dusting of paprika, and when very- hot stir in two tablespoons of lemon juice, and serve at once with crisp rolls. The butter usually salts it sufficiently.

Don’t Goad the Children.

The evil effects of worrying children are shown by Dr. N. S. Davis, an eminent physician of Chicago, in a series of papers entitled “The Art of Living a Hundred Years.” He says: ••'l'he most active causes of worry

during school days are the arranging of children of different temperaments and capacities in the same classes, assigning them studies, and then constantly stimulating their ambition to exeel and intensifying their mortification at every failure. By such processes the younger and more timid ones are kept in a constant state of apprehension and worry until they lose appetite, become restless at night, and not a few of them victims of St. Vitus' dance. The ambition of older pupils to stand high in too manyclasses leads them to study late at night and to omit daily- exercise out of doors. In consequence the blood receives less oxygen from fresh air in the lungs, the functions of both brain and stomach In-come impaired. the mind depressed and worried, and when the period allotted to school education is completed they- have become permanent invalids from dyspepsia. neurasthenia, or tuberculosis, thus shortening the duration of life.” What is the remedy for this? The learned and famous physician goes on to say: “Cease goading the children into the utmost haste in their education. Repress in our youth the inordinate desire for wealth and vain show. Remind them that he who hasteth to be rich more frequently cometh to poverty, and that ‘pride goeth before a fall.’ Teach them that

they are most happy who contribute most to the happiness of others and thereby diminish the dominance of human selfishness. Seek to impart confidence and hope to triose who worry. Hope is not only an anchor to the soul, but when united with confident expectation it is a most efficient tonic for invigorating the functions of the body." The authority quoted cannot be gainsaid. and the truths given should serve as seedthoughts to check undue ambition for the precious children given to our keeping and guidance. Knowing the effects of worry, shall our pride continue to cultivate it or shall we become a law unto ourselves to “cease goading the children" to the destruction of health and the shortening of life. Conscience must answer the question for parents. None are exempt from responsibility in the all-impor-tant decision. o o o o o

Hints on House Cleaning

The fall houseeleaning is almost as much trouble as that in the spring. Sundry hints that will be helpful at this time are thus summed up by the home editor of an exchange: Windows and soiled or fly-specked mirrors should be first washed with a cloth wrung nearly dry from a pail of warm water containing a little ammonia or washing soda. Dry with a soft cloth or crumpled newspaper, and if an extra polish is wanted, use a rag moistened with kerosene. Be sure that the sash frame itself is thoroughly cleaned before touching the glass or window. One way to clean window blinds—not the most thorough way, but a simple and fairly effective one—is to open them and let them stand at right angles to the house during a quiet, steady shower. It will be all the better if they are first brushed off with a wing. Germs of mildew in a cellar or basement can be destroyed by fumigating with sulphur. The doors and windows should remain tightly closed for at least twelve hours. All but the finest furniture may be treated to an application of crude petroleum, rubbed in with a woollen rag. This is almost equal in effect to a coat of varnish. A soft sponge wrung out of soapy water is the best anti easiest thing with which to “dust” the iron openwork of a sewing-machine, flowerstand. and the like. A doth moistened in kerosene is the best thing for wiping up oilcloth —it cleans and brightens it without removing the varnish. To bind oilcloth, stitch a strip of silesia to the right side, and then turn it over and paste smoothly to the under side. using flour paste. Rye flour, by the way. makes better paste than wheat, and only amateur paper hangers apply it while warm. A safe for meat and cooked food will be a joy to the housekeeper, and soon pay for itself in conveniences and security from the depredations of ants and flies. It can be made at trifling cost by any one handy with tools, the materials being a packing box. a board for shelves, a yard or two of wire cloth, a pair of hinges, a few nails, and a latch for the door. A strip of board should be removed from the bottom of the box (the back of the safe) and replaced by wirecloth. This permits a current of air. the door also being of wire. Have the safe suspended from the rafters near the foot of the cellar stairs. The best sweeping cap I know of and I have experimented with several —is in the shape of an apron about twenty-four inches long ami twelve inches wide, put into the binding or band without gathers. ft protect’ the head thoroughly, docs not disarrange the hair, and can be washed and ironed as easily as a napkin. The band, which ends in short strings, is passed around the forehead, and is tisd at the back of the neck.

Big'Fees for a Royal Nurse.

It evidently pays to be a nurse in a Royal family. The wet-nurse engaged by Queen Elena of Italy to attend her baby in the Quiriual I’alace. Rome, conies from San Vito, on the l.utiau Hills. Her name is Maddalena t'inti. ami she receives £6 a month during her stay in the Royal palace, and l't a month during her lifetime after her discharge. When the Royal baby has its first tooth she gets £400; when it is able to speak, another £400; and a similar sum when the Royal baby can toddle unsupported. When the nurse’s services will no longer be required at the Quirinal, she is to have £BOO.

Some Old-fashioned Recipes.

During my summer vacation 1 heard of several old-time dishes which are great favourites in certain localities, and which may be new to many of our readers. One of them, called a Connecticut apple pie, is a sort of combination of apple and pastry which is very delicious, and solves the difficult problem of how to keep in the juice in an apple pie. Make a crust after any favourite method that will insure a tender mixture, and if you have no special recipe. try- this one. it is not necessary that it be flaky, and therefore you need not spend any time in frequent rolling of the paste: For one pie take one heaped cup of pastryflour and one-fourth teaspoon of salt, cut or scoop into it one rounded tablespoon of lard and the same of blitter. Mix with cold water into a stiff dough, toss out on to a wellfloured board, and divide into two parts. Make each into a ball and pat it down till quite thin, then roll to fit the place. Lay one crust over a floured plate, fill quite full with thinly sliced apple, then cover with the other crust, but do not press it to the under crust on the edge. Let it bake in a hot oven.

Fortunes in Feathers.

Everyone knows how expensive a good eiderdown quilt is. Even the down in the rough is worth a sovereign a pound. So an eider-duck farm, of which there are several in Iceland, is by no means a bad speculation. They arc generally on lit th' islands off the coast because of foxes, which are very destructive to tl.e sitting birds. l’he ducks are very tame during the breeding season, sitting very close on their nests amongst the rough hammocks of grass. V 300 a year is easily made by the proprietor.

The Costume Club.

A SMART AMERICAN GIRL’S HAPPY IDEA. HI’XDKEDS OF TROI'SSEACX ARE PROVIDED EVERY YEAR BY •(OSTL’ME CLUBS.” What is a costume club? it rather suggests an association like the Christmas goose and turkey club, where you may pay so much a week ami receive a smart new costume. after so many contributions. But it isn’t. It is merely a delightful and friendly custom of American girl chums to ’•club together” ami help one another with dressmaking, hat trimming, and turning old garments into new. When an American young lady, as they are so fond of calling themselves. sees her wardrobe getting shabby, she says to her circle of friends: •‘Girls. 1 must summon the Costume Club.” And her friends at once volunteer for seaming and sewing service, and in a very few days their friend is rigged out with a charming trousIt is a capital plan at all times. But when a girl is going to be married. and has not a fortune to spend, it is truly delightful to belong to a costume club. Perhaps one girl has a talent for trying on. Her special skill is placed at the disposal of her friends. The successful titter, perhaps, can’t trim hats. In return for her services as titter she gets her millinery made by another girl who is a perfect genius at headgear, but could not fit a blouse or drape a skirt to save her life. There is safety as well as talent in numbers. A party of girl members of a ciostunie club, meeting together for dress purposes, evolve most charming novelties. They put their heads together, discuss dress and colour schemes, and devise very attractive gowns. The club subscribes for one or two good fashion papers, which all have the benefit of. It is a club rule that the members must avoid dressing alike. Their ambition is to find the style best suited to each ‘‘girl costumer.” as the members are usually called. Such clubs are a boon and a blessing to those who live in villages and small country towns. The local dressmaker is not always a very skilful person, and a girl with a small dress allowance cannot afford to go to a more ambitious outfitter. If she can produce her own gowns and millinery so much is saved, and consequently she can afford to wear prettier things. By combining the tailoring talent and sewing skill possessed by a dozen girls, most charming costumes may be achieved. Each girl learns some valuable “wrinkle” from all the oth-

er girls. And it is surprising what capital dressmakers and milliners

the members of a costume club become after a few months of working together. Each vies with the other to “cut out” a costume without an inch of waste, and half a dozen clever young brains combined can renovate a worn gown, and put a wonderful amount of style into a hopelessly old-fashioned skirt or blouse.

Girl readers of the “Graphic” cannot do lietter than form some costume clubs. It is a splendid way to ••pass time” in the country and to achieve pretty clothes without extra \ a ga nee.

Neglect of Home Making.

We are wont to think, pei haps, that women in England are still hopelessly old-fashioned, and that the problems brought into home life l.y the changed attitude of women thereto have no existence. However, fre in a series of letters on the subject ui •'The Decay of Domesticity.” lately published in a London daily paper, we are led to believe that the vexed questions of ••modernity” are as disquieting there as here. It is noteworthy, too. that the most of the letters which have been written both by men and women have either taken the extremely masculine. conservative view, rating the non-domestic woman as selfish, idle, etc., or have argued from the radical, “new woman” standpoint, scorning the small duties of home as unworthy the consideration of intellectual and gifted members of the gentler sex. One woman, however, brings a contribution which is so carefully considered that we think it quite worth while to quote part of it. This writer contends that if the domestic instinct among women is indeed dying out. the present superior opportunities for the cultivation of the mind are not to blame for it. “It is not owing.” she says, “to the fact of woman’s wider ambition and greater activity, but to the fact that these have not included ‘home training’— that is. the training of every girl for her duties firstly as a mother, secondly as a house orderer, which will be hers until St. Paul’s cathedral stands on its spire and waves its foundations. At present she ‘flukes’ the whole business of child-rearing and training, with the help, perhaps, of an anxious mother, an ignorant nurse, and the local practitioner. The lessons of higher morality, sound logic and hygiene fall necessary to her own as well as to child education) are quietly left out. “Likewise does she fluke her housekeeping. here with the help, frequently. of her ‘best friend’ and the cookery book. If she has not ‘picked up’ housekeeping at home there is nowhere else for her to go and learn it. so she starts without it. “What we don’t learn to do we do

badly; wbat we do badly we do unwillingly; what we do unwillingly we are glad to exchange for the •pleasuies’ and the 'sport-s' that are now deplored as usurping the place of home happiness. And certainly this happiness would be obtainable if, through home training, the perfecting of our homes became an easy possibility instead of a hopeless

struggle. ’’The woman who is born with domestic faculties, and who takes to keys and larders as a duck takes to water, is almost invariably a happy woman, not to speak of the happiness which she confers on those about her. And she is not necessarily the ‘mere drudge’ that we hear so much about. The methodical woman has time for everything, as well as place for everything, and will never rattle her keys in the drawingroom, so to speak, as the distracted, incompetent housekeeper will. ••‘Then (1 hear the adversary's voice), ‘would you have every woman trained as a child educator and housekeeper to the exclusion of all else?” “Certainly not.” ■‘Women may be : oughly divided n‘o four (lasses: •‘l. The average woman who hopes to marry and does marry. “2. The average woman who hopes to marry and doesn’t marry. “3. The exceprional woman who possesses some spec'al gift or ’inclination and who marries. •‘4. The exceptional, gifted woman who does not marry. “To whichever of these four classes home training is not a necessity it is

at worst no disadvantage. It will not unfit any woman for any other calling whatsoever. It must assist the most determinedly undomestic of women in those details of life which there is nd avoiding. To the first of the four (the average married woman) it would be of inestimable value. To the second it would also be of value in adding to the list of profitable professions alteady open to the average spinster, enabling her, as it would, to undertake the home duties of the third elass, the gifted but married woman, who would be only too thankful for trained and competent help. "And on the fourth class, the gifted single woman, it is hardly necessary’ to say that home training will have left few marks, but that she will find her own happiness in her own gifts. At present woman is verybusy ploughing man's field, regardless of the neglected condition of her own field—as fine and profitable a one. any day. Let her look at it.”

Names and Their Meanings.

(From "Girls' Christian Names.” byHelena Swann.)

Ethel —Signifying “noble." Before the Norman Ccnquest it was a Royal name in England. Helen—Giver of light. Helena. Elaine. Eleanore. Eleanor. Ellen. Elinor, Lena. Nelly, Nell. Lenora. Leonora, Annore, and Anora are a fewEnglish versions of the name, whilst in Ireland they have the pretty forms of Eileen and Aileen. Katharine—Spotless purity. Gatherine. Kate. Kitty, Katie. Katty. Kathleen. Catherina. Katreu, and Kina

are some of the forms of the name, which in Denmark is rendered Karina. In France the name is sometimes given to men. Lucy—Light, “one born at daylight.” For long a most popular name with the Romans, until abandoned by them on account of crimes committed by two bearers of the name. After the advent of Christianity, however, it came again into fashion, owing chiefly to the popularity of a virgin martyr of the name —the patron saint of the Italian fishermen, who called their daughters after her. Margaret: From a Persian word, meaning “pearl,” or "child of light.” The forms and diminutives of Margaret seems almost endless. Here are a few used in this country: Margerv, Marjorie. Madge. Meg. Mysie, Maisie, Daisy. Maidie. Maggie. Peggy. Grith, Meta, and May. Phoebe—The light of life. The introduction of this name among us was probably due to St. Paul, who commended his “Sister Phoebe” to the Romans. This was enough to make the name rank as a “Bible name" amongst people who knew nothing of the beautiful meaning of the word. Ruth is. of course, a name of Hebrew origin. Some authorities interpret it to mean “a vision.” others “beauty.” others "vision of brightness.” It is. of course, the most touching of Bible stories, with the gentle, faithful, loving Ruth as its leading character that has made the name of Ruth so beloved in England.

A Summer Room.

A society girl of the city arranged an unusually attractive room for her personal use this summer. The rug she made herself from strips of blue and white cotton, knitting them like yarn on large wooden needles. The

window curtains had been a pair of rather coarse but snow-white sheets of old homespun linen. These she cut in two and hem-stitched all around to make two curtains for each window. Then she embroidered them in blue and white, a sprig here and there inside the hems. The bed cover was all white. It had been made from a wide piece of some thick cotton material, and was edged with an embroidered cambric ruffle. The covers for washstand and dresser were made in the same way. Precious Stone Superstition?. Emeralds ensure friendship and constancy. Garnets are the preservation of health and joy. Opals are fatal to love and bring discord to both giver and receiver Sapphires impel the wearer to all good works. Coral is a talisman against thunder and |>erils by food and field. The Onyx brings ugly dreams with it, and is apt to cause terror to the wearer. Diamonds seal a bond and promote spiritual ecstacy. The ruby brings peace and life long happiness. Rare and Curious Gems. The rarest and the costliest of gems, though not always esteemed the most beautiful, are pigeon’s blood rubies, fine opals, and diamonds that are pure but shed a distinct glow of blue or pink. A veryperfect pearl of generous size and lustrous skin, tinted a rarely beautiful goldengreen, was valued, unset, at over three hundred pounds. A faultless gr en pearl is very rare. A curious stone is the alexandrite. It is a dark green stone that is polished, cut. and set, very like a fine topaz or amethyst, in large showy rings, surrounded by diamonds. By the light of day the alexandrite has no special beauty save its fine lustre, but directly a shaft of artificial light strikes the dull stone deep gleams of red flash out of the green, and under the gas or in the firelight one ignorant of this vagary would instantly pronounce it a ruby.

Amusing Incident at a Royal Banquet The following incident afforded much amusement to the late Kaiserin Augusta, and for long afterwards used to be told amidst considerable merriment at the Prussian Court. It was in the days before 1870, when Iler Majesty was Queen of Pi ussia only, and when less pomp and ceremony were displayed on the Spree. A deputation of country folk came up to Berlin to lay a petition of some importance before the King. After the business part of the day was over His Majesty graciously asked all the gentlemen to dine with him. During dessert packets and dishes of bonbons and other sweetmeats were handed round, and one of the guests, after looking round the room to see if he was being observed, nut a couple of packets of bonbons into his pocket, to take home to his children as a souvenir of the Royal table. The eagle eye of the Chief Master of Ceremonies, Count Stillfried-Alcan-tara. observed him. “Ahl” said he to himself, “the old fellow has some children; I will give him something for them!” He had a warm heart, and was bent on doing him a kindness. So. after dinner, he walked up (to the deputy and gave him two rackets of bonbons, with the words. ‘ Pray give these to your children.” The deputy, however, felt a bit ashamed, for he comprehended that he had been discovered “pilfering,” as he thought; still, it should be noted that it used to be a common thing at dinner or supper parties in Berlin to send the married guests home laden with good things for

their children. The Queen, who was standing hard by, overheard the word "children.” and. glad of a subject of conversation with her guests, who were not well versed in Court topics, turned to the deputy and said, "How many have you?” The latter, already upset by Count Stillfried’s attentive kindness, felt completely exposed and unmasked by the Queen's question. Even his Royal hostess, he thought, had seen him pocket the goodies! He fancied the oi estion referred to the packet of bonbons, so he replied in a stuttering and hesitating tone. “Four, your Majesty: but only two are mine; the other two are from Count Stillfried!” The Queen looked horrified, not knowing they were all playing at cross purposes, and Count Stillfried had to explain to her. As long as the Count lived the story was told about. "Four, your Majesty: but only two are mine. The other two are from Count Stillfried.” o o o c o Another Shattered Idol. She was a kindly faced woman and it was easy to see that she was bubbling over with love for the little folk. She walked modestly over into the office of the city editor and inquired: “Will yon please tell me which one of the staff it is that writes all those pretty little stories about children? 1 know he must love the little folks, because be writes such nice stories about them. I want to tell him a precious little story about my darling boy. who is only—” "That’s the man over there." interrupted the city editor. “Which one. pray?” "That one with the pipe in his mouth, swearing at the office boy.”