Earlier text: Singing by the WayMedical Missionary Work Among the Colored People in the South
By Ellen G. White
WHEN connected with other lines of gospel effort, medical missionary work is a most effective instrument by which the ground is prepared for the sowing of the seeds of truth, and the instrument also by which the harvest is reaped. Medical missionary work is the helping hand of the gospel ministry. So far as possible, it would be well for evangelical workers to learn how to minister to the necessities of the body as well as the soul; for in doing this, they are following the example of Christ. Intemperance has well-nigh filled the world with disease, and the ministers of the gospel can not spend their time and strength in relieving all in need of help. The Lord has ordained that Christian physicians and nurses shall labor in connection with those who preach the Word. The medical missionary work is to be bound up with the gospel ministry. In no place is there greater need of genuine gospel medical missionary work than among the colored people in the South. Had such a work been done for them immediately after the proclamation of freedom, their condition to-day would have been very different. Medical missionary work must be carried forward for the colored people. Sanitariums and treatment-rooms should be established in many places. These will open doors for the entrance of Bible truth. This work will require devoted men and means, and much wise planning. Years ago we should have been training colored men and women to care for the sick. Plans should now be made to do a quick work. Let promising colored youth—young men and young women of good Christian character—be given a thorough training for this line of service. Let them be imbued with the thought that in all their work they are to proclaim the third angel's message. Strong, intelligent, consecrated colored nurses will find a wide field of usefulness opening before them. The Lord Jesus is our example. He came to the world as the servant of mankind. He went from city to city, from village to village, teaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing the sick. Christ spent more time in healing than in teaching. As our example, Christ linked closely together the work of healing and teaching, and in this our day they should not be separated. In our schools and sanitariums, nurses should be trained to go out as medical missionary evangelists. They should unite the teaching of the gospel of Christ with the work of healing. The Lord has instructed us that with our training-schools there should be connected small sanitariums, that the students may have opportunity to gain a knowledge of medical missionary work. This line of work is to be brought into our schools as part of the regular instruction. Huntsville has been especially pointed out as a school in connection with which there should be facilities for thoroughly training consecrated colored youth who desire to become competent nurses and hygienic cooks. Let us rejoice that the managers of our Huntsville school are now planning to carry out this instruction without further delay. Let us help them make Huntsville a strong training center for medical missionary workers. The colored medical missionary worker stands on vantage ground. In the providence of God, a wide field of usefulness is open to him. He is permitted to enter where others are refused admission. In his consistent daily life of self-denial and self-sacrifice, he may exert a quiet yet far-reaching influence in behalf of the truth for this time. And he will not lack opportunity for testifying of the saving grace by which his life is being constantly transformed into the likeness of the great Medical Missionary. To many of the colored people, the difficulties against which they have to contend seem almost insurmountable. But there are those who will not give up. All who are conscientiously and in the fear of God trying to acquire an education are to be helped and encouraged. There is talent among the colored race, and this talent will be developed where least expected. Every advantage possible is to be given to the colored youth who are capable of becoming useful workers in the Lord's vineyard. There are those who with proper training can be prepared to conduct sanitariums for colored people. In all cases they will need, at times, the assistance of white workers, but their talents will tell greatly for the success of the work. O, that we might catch a glimpse of the work God desires us to accomplish for the colored people in the South! Could the veil be removed, could we but realize the distressing condition of thousands suffering from physical and spiritual maladies, how earnestly would we plan to train suitable colored workers to go forth to minister to the needs of their own race! How gladly would we come up to the help of the Lord, by giving freely of our means for the establishment and maintenance of training centers, where colored youth could be fitted for helpful service as true medical missionary evangelists! May God enable us to discern the opportunities now afforded us to lay broad plans for carrying forward this line of work in a manner befitting its importance. Those who are able to relieve the sick of their temporal infirmities, will often find ready access to hearts. Grateful for the loving ministry performed in their behalf, many will gladly listen to words of spiritual comfort and consolation. Their hearts will be susceptible to the influence of the Holy Spirit, as the consecrated medical missionary opens the Scriptures of truth, and brings to their attention the special warning message for this time. Many will decide to yield their all to the Lord. Such a work as this is sadly needed in the cities of the South. Thousands of colored people have drifted into these congested centers. In many, many families, want and misery and deep spiritual poverty prevail. For such classes as these, the medical missionary evangelist is peculiarly fitted. But work of this character can not be undertaken unless the workers are first trained, and then supplied with needed facilities. Means is needed for the prosecution of such work. And in the privilege of contributing to the support of his cause in the earth, God has graciously given us opportunity to participate in the rewards of those who engage in this line of service. Soon the work of God in the earth will close triumphantly. Soon those who have remained steadfast unto the end will be granted an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord. As the opportunities for service are now presented, shall we not quickly respond, giving freely of our means for the support of the closing work? It is now our privilege to return unto the Lord his own, in free-will gifts and offerings; soon we shall receive the reward of the faithful. Of all the joys that await the redeemed in the earth made new, one of the highest will be the privilege of mingling our voices with the voices of those whom we have helped to save, in praise and adoration to the One who put into our hearts a desire to give. As God hath prospered us, let us now do all in our power to further the interests of his kingdom.8 Soon “the ransomed of the Lord they shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” In Louisiana
By E. L. MAXWELL
In this conference we have two churches of colored people, one ordained and one licensed minister, and one Bible worker. Our field consists of six hundred thousand colored people, only about thirty-five per cent of whom can read or write. These people have to be taught the truth just as if they were children. Hence our greatest need is carefully trained teachers, who can and will go right among them, and instruct them in the truth in detail. I find that the colored people are easily interested in the truth, and while many of them lack the moral courage to make the sacrifice required to live it, there are many others who develop into good Sabbath-keepers, and are willing to bear reproach and persecution for the truth's sake. While they are easily interested, they learn the truth slowly, and this fact makes labor among them more expensive than it would otherwise be. Yet when they are fully enlightened, they are just as faithful in paying their tithes and their offerings as any of the white people. Sensationalism can have no part in work among the lowly in the South. Long, patient effort is necessary to develop workers from the raw material. These people being nearly all tenants, or unskilled day laborers, make only a bare living, and are therefore utterly unable to support their own work. Our conference is not yet able to support even our work for the whites, therefore a constant stream of means must be kept coming this way to support the work for the colored people. The call of the world-wide field stirs a heaven-attuned chord in the heart of every loyal Seventh-day Adventist; and while we rejoice to give for those far away, let us also remember these at our own doors in the African mission field of America. E. L. MAXWELL. “The Riches of the Gentiles”
By J. E. WHITE
IN THE REVIEW AND HERALD for August 20, we were glad to read the article from Elder I. H. Evans answering the question, “Shall we solicit donations from those who do not believe this message?” The article quotes from the Testimonies as follows:— “Several years ago it was presented to me that the Gentile world should be called upon to make donations to our work in the Southern field. Let discreet, God-fearing men go to worldly men that have means, and lay before them a plan of what they desire to do for the colored people. . . . Many of these men, if approached in the right way, will make gifts to the work.” This is a subject that has been on my mind and heart for years. We have been instructed to approach men of wealth, but how shall we reach them? Such men are usually practical, hard-headed business men, who know the value of the dollars they have accumulated. They seldom respond to appeals of enthusiasts as to some great work they “want to do.” They are busy men, and have little time to devote to the study of new philanthropic enterprises. “What have you done?” and, “What tangible showing of work being done can you present?” These are about the first questions the solicitor will be called upon to answer. Booker T. Washington points to the great showing of buildings and facilities at Tuskegee. He tells of the many hundreds who assemble in these buildings, and employ the facilities of that institution to train head and hands for the battle of life before them. He tells of the great uplift to his people which results from sending out among them each year this small army of trained men and women. His appeal is practical, and philanthropists are glad to endow his school with hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The Fisk University, the Walden, the Meharry, and other large schools for the colored people in Nashville and other places, all appeal to the material side of men of wealth. They have something definite and tangible to present, they can point to what they have done and are doing; and they have received millions for their work. But what can we present to clear-headed, practical men of wealth? This has been the puzzle for years, and has heretofore barred any real, practical work along these lines. Yet all the time, for more than twelve years, there has been quietly growing and developing a practical line of work which now places us upon vantage-ground with any and all of the great colored educational institutions of the South. I refer to the development of the mission school work among the colored people in their homes, right where they live. The beginning of this work was small, but each effort was successful. It meets the needs of this people where they are. Slowly and steadily through the years has the work broadened, until from the first small school in Vicksburg, Miss., it has increased to thirty, which is the number reported for the present year, distributed among the several States in the South, conducted under the auspices of the Southern Missionary Society. But how can such a simple work be compared with, and placed by the side of, the great and successful colleges?—Not by outward show, but by real, practical achievement. It will be well to remember that more than one thousand students will this year be enrolled on the registers of the thirty mission schools mentioned. Yet the expense of this wide-reaching work is only a fraction of that of one of the large colleges with a much smaller attendance. The Southern Missionary Society9 works among the people where they live, and where the problem of their lives must be wrought out. Its elevating influence is felt in the home. The grown people, and many times those who have passed the meridian of life, are taught in the home and the night schools to read and understand the simple business problems of every-day life. In the day-school the children are given a thorough training in the fundamental branches of a common education. Gatherings for worship are held in the school building, where the principles of good morals and a clean Christianity are taught. The net result is an uplifting of the whole neighborhood and the surrounding community. Can we stand for such a work? Can we present it with confidence and assurance to men of means,—men who have been themselves successful in the battle of life, and are looking around for practical opportunities to help their fellow men? I verily believe that a careful preparation for this work, so that it can be presented quickly, practically, and comprehensively, will result in reaching these men as successfully as can the representatives of these great schools and colleges who collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from the North each year. But our efforts do not end with the mission school. We are prepared to care for the interests of the student who desires to go further than the scope of the mission school permits. The writer has recently visited the Huntsville Academy, and is prepared to testify as to the efficiency of that school in carrying the student as far as he desires to go in fitting himself for a wider sphere of usefulness. The mission school-teachers scattered through the South are watching the progress of the brighter and more enterprising minds in their schools, and open the way for their going to Huntsville to finish their education. At a camp-meeting in Alabama, not long ago, the one then principal of the Huntsville Academy, in speaking of the advantages of the mission school, said that he was surprised, when examining the Huntsville School roll, to find that the best element of the school was composed of those who had come from the different mission schools. In presenting our school work to men and women of wealth, we can direct their attention primarily to the uplifting tendency in the home and the neighborhood, and also the fact that from these schools we have sent and are sending to higher fields of usefulness those who have the ability and perseverance to make the necessary preparation. As a direct result of this feature we can point to ministers of the gospel, one graduate physician, nurses, teachers, Bible workers, etc. These useful members of society received their impulse to greater attainments in the mission school, and from there went to an advanced course at Huntsville, Meharry, etc. An illustrated catalogue of our school work, bringing out properly the leading features of the work as here outlined, will appeal to the liberality of men of wealth, and my faith in God and his promises assures me that they will respond and join the liberality of our own people in providing the necessary funds to send forward this work by leaps and bounds. The opinions of others will have great weight with worldly men whom we desire to approach. Prof. F. R. Rogers, superintendent of the mission schools of the South, is well and favorably acquainted with the State superintendent of instruction of Mississippi, and can secure from him the best kind of recommendation, as well as from prominent lawyers, bankers, and other influential men. The solicitor should go provided with all the best possible aids when approaching men who are naturally wary of fraud. To our own people the October offering provides a legitimate channel through which our people can liberally contribute to the support of the work already in progress. It costs money to finance thirty schools where, because of the poverty of the patrons, only a small portion of the expense can be met by the pupils. The cost of one mission school is not large, but where there are thirty, the expense assumes goodly proportions. With confidence we look forward to a larger offering this year than ever before. Let us not slacken our hands because there is a prospect of reaching outside for help. Let us do our part, and then pray the Lord of the suffering, the afflicted, the down-trodden, to teach us how to present our work to others in such a light as to secure their co-operation. The Work Among the Colored People
By R. W. PARMELE
FLORIDA has four organized churches, and five companies of colored believers. One of these companies will be organized into a church soon. We expect that six schools will be conducted for the colored people in our conference during the coming year. There are three church buildings, and one residence property is owned and used by one church. In one place there is a church composed of only one brother and six sisters; but they own a nice building and lot, very well furnished and free from debt, except a little that is still owing on the organ. Another company, two years old, composed of two brethren and six sisters, has erected a very good church building this year. A sister began a school in a tent. It had but one pupil. When I visited the school last winter, I found a good-sized building had been erected for this sister, and there was quite a full school. But on account of lack of means with which to build a chimney, the schoolroom was heated with a kettle of charcoal. Last spring I visited another school that was held on the porch of a private house. We appreciate very much the help that has come from our brethren in the North, but there is such a great field to cover that we try to stretch out our means as far as possible. At present we have but one colored preacher, a licentiate. Success attends his labors, as it does that of the teachers. And when this truth gets hold of the heart, no matter what the nationality or color, it purifies the life. The Duty to Help
By A. O. Burrill
Ten million colored people in the South are waiting for the third angel’s message. They must have the closing word of warning to this generation. For a number of years we have had an educational institution for them at Huntsville, Ala. This institution should be filled with the colored youth, and every effort made to give them a quick preparation to go out into the fields. These students are in the rough; but the school, the farm work, the canvassing for our books and periodicals, nursing the sick, and many other lines of work will enable them to carry the message to hundreds of thousands who are now in darkness. Besides the financial help for this school, there is help needed to carry on the tent efforts and general evangelistic work among the colored people. “With the long pull, and the strong pull, and the pull altogether,” we may see a great work done among this people. To those who have correct views of the importance of giving to advance this message, the call to help this people who have been enslaved and have had little opportunity to know God, will be esteemed a glorious privilege.
A. O. BURRILL. How to Solicit Donations
By CLAUDE E. HOLMES
IN a short time thousands of Seventh-day Adventists will be engaged in a systematic effort to secure funds from those not of our faith. The means thus secured will be used to advance the cause of God in the earth. As this method of obtaining money is practically new to this denomination, it might seem advisable to consult the tried experience of one who has been successful in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. Booker T. Washington says, in his autobiography: “As far as the science of what is called begging can be reduced to rules, I would say that I have had but two rules: First, always to do my whole duty regarding making our work known to individuals and organizations; and, second, not to worry about the results.” “I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest results are those who ‘keep under the body;’ those who never grow excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed, patient, and polite.” “Persons who possess sense enough to earn money have sense enough to know how to give it away. I think that the presentation of facts, on a high dignified plane, is all the begging that most people care for.” No better way can be devised for presenting the facts concerning our work to the world “on a high, dignified plane,” than by distributing the special issue of the REVIEW, which will be filled with the needed information. This, combined with patience and politeness, ought to secure many dollars to God’s cause. Advance!
By F. I. RICHARDSON
At the close of the first day's battle of the Wilderness, the Union army was much discouraged, for the battle had gone hard with them. When the officers met that evening for consultation in General Grant's tent, they expected to receive orders to retreat. After talking discouragement and planning retreat for an hour or more, imagine their surprise to receive the command for a general advance all along the line at daylight. The result was a decisive victory for the Union arms. Thus it has ever been with the Lord's work. The command has always been, “Go forward.” And it has nearly always been under such conditions that the ordinary mind would say that the difficulties in the way rendered advance impossible. But to those who have advanced in harmony with God's Word, the result has always been a glorious victory. Note a few illustrations:— “Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” Few realize the magnitude of that work. The ark was nearly as large as the wonderful “Mauretania,” the largest vessel in the world. Then to build such a monster boat with the avowed object of saving certain people and animals from a flood of waters that was to come on all the earth, when such a thing as falling rain had never been seen,—I imagine I hear the people scoffing, mocking, and saying, “Preposterous!” “Ridiculous!” Yet the flood came; and those who had obeyed the command of God were saved. To Abraham the Lord said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great.” How many objections Abraham might have raised to taking such a step,—leaving his home, his friends, his native land, to go he knew not whither, among strangers and heathen who might rob him of all he possessed, and even take his life. Nevertheless he went; and how truly God fulfilled his promise to make his name great. He was called the friend of God, and his name will continue great through the endless ages. When the Israelites were encamped, with the Red Sea in front, the mountains shutting them in on each side, and Pharaoh with his mighty army coming up in the rear, the Lord said, “Go forward.” How ridiculous seemed the command. But the people rose up and went. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel10 this song unto the Lord, . . . He hath finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” When Christ said to his disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned,” he revealed God's purpose to man. That message has always been unpopular, and has been attended with difficulties. Serious obstacles have been placed in the way of its advancement. As we near the end, we are told that opposition to the blessed work will increase, so much so “that the love of many shall wax cold.” Deceptions will be practised to such an extent “that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” The reason for all this is that an enemy is seeking to rob each one of the grand victory. “The Lord has given to every man his work. It is his business to do it, and it is the devil's business to hinder him if he can. So sure as God has given you a work to do, Satan will try to hinder you. He may throw obstacles in the way of the work, or he may try to divert you from it; he may present other things more promising; he may allure you by worldly prospects; he may assault you with slanders, torment you with false accusations, set you at work defending your character, employ pious people to lie about you, editors to assail you, officials to accuse you, and excellent men to slander you. You may have Pilate and Herod, Annas and Caiaphas, all combined against you, and Judas standing ready to sell you for thirty pieces of silver; and you may wonder why all these things come upon you. Are you so simple? Can not you see that the whole thing is brought about through the craft of the devil, to draw you off from your work, and hinder your obedience to God? “Keep about your own work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil's dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil's rabbits. Do your own work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let corporations resolve, let editors publish, let the devil do his worst; but see to it that nothing hinders you from fulfilling the work that God has given you. “He has not sent you to make money. He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict every falsehood which Satan and his servants may start and peddle. If you do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself, and not for the Lord. “Keep about your own work. Let your aim be as steady as a star. Let the world brawl and babble. You may be assailed, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded, and rejected; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and rejected of men; but see to it that with steady determination, with unfaltering zeal, you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being, until at last you can say, ‘I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.’ “The dust will blow away by and by, the darkness will be past; the true light will shine; and on the hill-tops of eternal gladness you shall stand with the redeemed, the crown-wearing, harp-bearing multitude. You will need no certificate then. Nobody will trouble himself there about the assaults you may have endured, the false accusations which may have been brought against you, the newspaper lies which wicked men have told, the censures which mistaken men have imposed, or the slanders which mischief-makers may have peddled. All these things will be in the past, forgotten, and never remembered any more; but the truth which you have told will remain; the work which you have done will abide; and the souls which have been saved through your instrumentality will shine like the sun; and throughout all the glad ages that are to come, when lying lips are put to silence, and when liars and lovers of falsehood are gone down in the lake of fire, the man who has done his Master's will, and finished his Master's work, will stand accepted, redeemed, glorified, crowned in the kingdom of our God.” Danger of Dabbling in Higher Criticism
By B. G. WILKINSON
It was late at night. We sat together upon the band-stand in the park where our camp was pitched. The day had been filled with earnest labors in behalf of the people, yet I felt that I could not leave early in the morning without spending a little time with him. He had been a former student of mine, and I longed to say something to help him. “It is this way, Professor,” he said, as he looked out on the bright, shining stars above, “that great university is saturated from ceiling to cellar with the theories of evolution and Higher Criticism. I was there only one year, but I studied hard. When I went there, I determined to resist their attacks upon the Bible, and for the first two or three months I thought that I was succeeding. But gradually I found new ideas entering my head. As I listened to Professor — lay down his points and sneer at the Old Testament; as I listened to the lectures by Dr. —, in which he cut to pieces the New Testament, and held up to ridicule its divine inspiration, O, the struggles I underwent! I saw my faith slipping, I began to lose the comfort I used to find in prayer; and to-day, terrible as it is to say so, I don’t know where I stand. I have no settled faith in God, in prayer, or in the Bible. Yet a few weeks before I left for the university, I had hundreds of people coming out every night to my tent-meetings. O the mental agony I have suffered the last three months!” He then presented to me some of the Bible-destroying theories he had received in the great university. They were not new; I had met them before, only under the leadership of great scholars who believed in God and his inspired Word. Point after point we discussed them upon the ground of philosophy, ethics, and revealed religion. And after all arguments had been fully covered, I finally asked him: “Now leaving aside the ground of argument, with all the work of Higher Criticism before you, tell me how much hope beyond the grave it gives you.” Rising from his seat, and lifting his hand toward the stars, he said, “Before God, not any. It destroys the last ray of light which shines beyond the tomb, and leaves me wretched, hopelessly wandering in the dark. But how can I give it up?” he added; “how can I get rid of these doubts? Shall I ever be happy in God again?” “Well,” I replied, “there is one hope for you, and only one. You are still a young man. You are still impressionable. Begin again to sow the seed of faith and good works. Sow in earnest; sow all the time. Sow until there springs up in your heart and life a new crop, so thick and so strong that it will choke down the evil growth which has begun to poison your experience. But it means a race for life. Are you willing to try it?” He was. As a drowning man grasps at a straw, he was thankful for even this ray of hope. We knelt, and both lifted our voices in prayer to God. I left him, feeling in my soul more deeply instructed than ever concerning the terrible experience which awaits those who seek to know the meaning of Higher Criticism. Let us beware; let the world beware. “He certainly is a most generous man. He has just given twenty-five thousand dollars to the work of foreign missions. It's one of the most munificent gifts we have ever received.” “Not quite so,” was the answer. “I know of at least one more generous giver.” “Really? Well, I was looking through the reports of the last few years, and I saw nothing like that sum on the list.” “No; the gift to which I allude has not appeared in print, and will be known by very few except the Lord. The other day I was calling on a friend of mine, a very aged man, who told me, with tears running down his cheeks, that his only son was about to leave home for missionary work in a far-away land. The father had discovered that the young man felt called of God to such service, but was tarrying at home for his sake. ‘How could I keep him back?’ said the old man. ‘I had prayed nearly all my life, “Thy kingdom come;” “Send forth laborers into thy harvest;” and with all the pain of parting with my boy, in the certainty I should never see him again on earth, there is a deep joy in giving him up for Christ’s sake.’”—Selected. The Shrine
By Digby Mackworth-Dolben
There is a shrine whose golden gate
Was opened by the hand of God;
It stands serene, inviolate,
Though millions have its pavement trod,
As fresh as when the first sunrise
Awoke the lark in Paradise. 'Tis compassed with the dust and toil
Of common days, yet should there fall
A single speck, a single soil,
Upon the whiteness of its wall,
The angels' tears in tender rain
Would make the temple theirs again. Without, the world is tired and old,
But once within the enchanted door,
The mists of time are backward rolled,
And creeds and ages are no more,
But all the human-hearted meet
In one communion vast and sweet. I enter; all is simply fair,
Nor incense clouds, nor carven throne,
But in the fragrant morning air
A gentle lady sits alone;
My mother— ah! whom should I see
Within, save ever only thee?
— Digby Mackworth-Dolben. Aunt Mary's Model Breakfast
By Mrs. Edith E. Bruce
Twelve happy, cheerful women met in Aunt Mary's cozy home the following Thursday, ready to take up the lesson assigned the previous week. The fame of Aunt Mary's cooking club was spreading, and two new members were added this week. Aunt Mary had been a teacher in her younger days, and she always prefaced her class hour by a brief review, so she took up a review of the combination of foods and their value, and was gratified to find that the members of the club had been studying these principles thoroughly. “I believe,” said Aunt Mary, “that we were to take up the subject of a hygienic breakfast. Breakfast should be one of the most appetizing meals, yet often it is the meal that receives the least attention. How many times I have known women to go to bed at night without knowing what they would have for breakfast, or even washing the dishes, and sometimes without even clearing the table. An old cheese-cloth spread often covers a multitude of mussy, soiled dishes, and the housewife gets up in the morning in a hurry, not knowing what she will have, perhaps even having to send to the store before anything can be had at all. She hustles things on to the table, and at the same time is washing a few dishes absolutely needed. The confusion and hurry make her cross and irritable,—a condition which is always contagious. As a result, things go wrong all day.” “This should never be. It is a dangerous habit. The old adage, ‘A stitch in time saves nine,’ is true in every department of housekeeping. The supper dishes should be washed, and the table left clean and neat. The dining-room should be one of the cleanest and most attractive rooms in the house. The breakfast menu should be planned the night before, and everything that can be prepared should be made ready. If you are to have corn-meal mush, oatmeal, or some other cereal, it should be cooked in a double boiler the day before, and then put on the stove and thoroughly heated to assure a thorough cooking. It is not enough to cook oatmeal fifteen or twenty minutes as I have known many to do; it should be cooked from one to two hours, otherwise we have a mass of raw starch which is very hard to digest. Dry cereals should be heated before serving, to make them crisp. “One object of this cooking club,” continued Aunt Mary, “is to get in the way of preparing our food without the use of meats and other injurious foods, such as griddle-cakes, hot biscuits, etc. I wonder how many here are in the habit of cooking one or all of these articles for breakfast.” Almost every hand went up. “Well, now let us see what we can suggest instead. I will place on the board a sample breakfast menu that I think very suitable for those who are engaged in office work. Next week we will have something for the farmer's table,” she added, as she wrote the following menu on the board:— | BERRIES |
OATMEAL |
|---|
| WHOLE-WHEAT BREAD |
BUTTER |
| CREAM TOAST |
STICKS |
| CEREAL COFFEE |
CREAM |
“This is a very simple menu,” said Aunt Mary, “but we should have simplicity in cooking as well as in everything else. If possible, give your family plenty of fresh fruit in season. Now, if you will take your note-books, I will give recipes for the cooked articles of this menu. First on the list is the cereal.” All were ready, and in a few minutes had the following recipes neatly written under the breakfast menu in their note-books:— “OATMEAL MUSH: To one quart of boiling water add a cup of oatmeal; stir till it begins to cook, then put in a double boiler and cook without disturbing for two hours. “CREAM TOAST: The toast or zwieback should be prepared the day before, but it is improved by placing in the oven and reheating in the morning. Heat milk to which has been added a little salt, and when everything else is ready to serve, pour it over the toast, which has been placed in a hot dish. I want to emphasize the necessity of serving all hot foods in hot dishes. “STICKS: To three slightly heaping cups of sifted flour add a little salt and one cup of milk or thin cream, mixing well as fast as poured in. Knead well twenty or thirty minutes, or until the dough snaps when kneaded. Divide the dough, cut into narrow strips, roll into small rolls the size of the little finger, and cut in three-inch lengths. Bake in an oiled pan until of a light-brown color. These sticks are delicious, especially when made with cream.” “We have not the time,” said Aunt Mary, “to take up the subject of bread-making, or the advantage of using the harder breads and crackers, but we will consider this subject at our next meeting, in addition to the ‘Breakfast Menu for the Farmer's Table.’” After a few minutes spent in asking questions and in pleasant visiting the club adjourned. Notes for the Sewing-Room
By The Commoner
A TINY cushion with a loop of tape sewed to one end, and the loop slipped over the spindle where the spool stands is a convenience for needles and pins. Run the table linen edge through the hemmer of the unthreaded sewing-machine, and hand-hem afterward. The hem will be turned neatly and evenly. Cut basting threads at short intervals in order to draw out without pulling the threads of the fabric. Two shir-rings are better than one on a gathered edge.—The Commoner. Carbon Monoxid in Tobacco Smoke
THE latest scientific word upon tobacco comes from the London Lancet. It is that tobacco smoke has been found to contain in large proportions the poisonous gas, carbon monoxid. The Lancet says that the fumes of an ounce of tobacco in cigarettes contains from one to four pints of this gas, while the same weight of tobacco smoked in a pipe gives forth two and a quarter to five pints. Of the toxicity of carbon monoxid no doubt exists. It is the chief constituent of illuminating gas, and is very harmful even in small quantities, and in large quantities it leads to death by asphyxiation. The presence of this gas in tobacco smoke no doubt accounts for the dizziness, shortness of breath, and heart weakness experienced by heavy smokers. It shows, too, the great danger of inhaling the smoke, which is a common habit among the users of cigarettes. The reported presence of this dangerous gas should be a warning to husbands and fathers not to poison the air of their households with tobacco smoke, and so injure the health of their wives and innocent children.—The Union Signal.