OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES. THE good housekeeper must have everything at her finger-ends, not only her knowledge of what is in pantry, closets and bureau-drawers, so that she can lay hands on whatever is wanted, in the dark if need be, or when the house is on fire, but her other knowledge for emergencies also. When a child swallows poison, something must be done at once before the doctor gets there. For all alkaline poisoning, such as by concentrated lye, ammonia, etc., pour down sweet oil to cover up the irritating substance, and take lemon-juice, vinegar, or white of egg, while getting an emetic ready. For acids use magnesia, washing-soda, chalk or soap. Then take mustard in warm water, or other emetic, to clear out the contents of the stomach. After the use of an emetic in any case it is well to give a small amount of milk, or white of egg, flaxseed tea, or other bland substance, to protect and heal the lining membrane of the stomach. For arsenic, the household remedy is magnesia and milk; the same when a child has swallowed " pearl powder." For verdigris, milk or white of egg: for corrosive sublimate, the same, or even flour beaten up in water. For indelible ink, common table salt and water. For roach poisons, such as contain phosphorus, and also when a child has eaten the heads off friction matches, an emetic as soon as possible, followed by a large dose of magnesia in water. a laudanum-stupefied person go to sleep while Never let there is strong coffee in the house to pour down, or strength to walk the victim about, torment, shake and urge him to wakefulness.

When a bad burn occurred, the old-fashioned housekeeper had her bottle of lime-water standing always ready-cheap and home-made remedy -to "draw out" the fire. She did not know that burns were acid, but experience taught that this was a soothing remedy. She did not know that the air was a deadly enemy to burned surfaces, planting, out of no one knows what storehouse of germs, poisonous and living things; but she wrapped the foot or finger up in cotton-batting, as the doctors do now with larger burns, with a backing of oil-"red"-oil in those days, sweet oil, glycerine or cosmoline now, so that the oil is pure. Cooks sometimes use flour for a burn, but there is a better remedy than that in the pantry closet-the ordinary baking soda. extensive blisters, immediately wet and kept wet Even with soda, are readily reduced.

It was not propounded in the old times that fatigue was acid, or rather that the tired body had not strength enough to work off the burntout results of all its muscular exertion. old remedy of bathing tired feet and limbs in But the warm water into which the experienced hand emptied all the salæratus she could spare from the kitchen closet means just that, and nothing else. It makes the tired walker "rise" up quite refreshed the next morning, and is a good thing for mountain-climbers and other pilgrims to carry, not in their shoes, but in their luggage.

It was not for nothing that the people of a still older time "anointed themselves with oil," and that Hebrew and Greek custom makes the supple and clean-limbed human animals rub themselves down with the same attention that all fine horses get. There is a great deal to be said for the rubbing, and something too for the oil. The old housekeeper rubbed the child's neck

i

55

with goose-grease and its nose with mutton talthroat. low, or bound a slice of salt fat pork around its The cosmoline bottle answers the same stuffy cold, congested chest or rheumatic shoulpurpose nowadays, and many a der can be rubbed free again, and the patient sore throat, It is astonishing how much of this is taken up put into a good sleep by the rubbing and the oil. by the hot dry skin, and how it disappears when when the soothing rubbing is over. well rubbed in, leaving a different sort of tone applications and compresses are also soothing and refreshing, but these must be most carefully Cold-water protected by flannel and an outer covering of oilcloth or rubber, or the patient takes worse cold oil in another home-made remedy for a congested and more of it. Something is perhaps due to the of cold water, to be sipped constantly until six chest and throat-the yolk of an egg in a tumbler yolks were swallowed. Most people got better before they came to the sixth, or even the fourth egg, but the constant moistening and lubricating of the throat had its uses doubtless. For the dry peppermint will give some relief in breathing, throat of a consumptive, glycerine and whisky or while whisky and lemon-juice is a noted remedy for hoarseness. Feed a cold on grapes and fruit.

Doctors often stimulate the system to throw keeper dropped two or three drops of camphor on off a cold by a quinine piil. When the old housethe same thing, but it must be taken at the very a lump of sugar, at the outset of a cold, she did first sniff of suspicion that you had "caught' cold. Camphor and ammonia are diffusive stimof aromatic spirits of hartshorn in a wineglass ulants, the latter of great use, and fifteen drops of warm water will often recover from faintness caused by indigestion, "heartburn," or relieve the sufferer from acute oppression weak action of the real heart itself. or even the monia that is used to clean hair-brushes and be the aromatic spirits, and not that strong amBut it must combs.

other bad feeling caused by too heavy Christmas As for the indigestoin, "biliousness" and dinners or too much rich food, there is nothing so useful as to give the stomach a rest. icine, but it was not the sort he gave his patients. once a noted doctor who did take his own medThere was They would not have been satisfied if he had simply ordered them to do without eating anything for twelve or twenty-four hours. But fastbreakfast- or dinner-table, for there is often a ing has its virtues. Keep out of sight of the morbid appetite at these times. Resist the blandishment of a little tea or toast or some tempting preparation, and either take a walk or go to bed on the resolution-at least, that was what the doctor did. For a violent attack of bilious colic for oat tea, just as for a violent bilious headache the old ladies put oats (not oatmeal) on to boil they made you swallow as much hot water, and near the boiling-point, as you could contrive to get it down. With hot water flannels, constantthe pain. A sprinkling of turpentine, as the ly renewed, it certainly was effectual in routing makes the turpentine "stupe," which is good to flannels are wrung out in the boiling hot water, drive away acute pain anywhere. But wring out the hot flannels in a crash towel by the two ends, so as not to scald the hands, and do not put too much turpentine, or you will blister the patient.

Tansy and John's wort leaves and blossoms in

whisky were two famous remedies for pain or weakness. The former survives in other than home circles.

not.

The virtues of hard cider, too, were proved. For this sets the liver to its work almost as well as a ride on horseback. The onion and the hop for sleeplessness-this generation knows them But a hop pillow, made up on the moment, sprinkled with vinegar and heated in the stove, was an institution to be remembered when the toothache or the earache went to sleep on it. A spoonful of " Hoffman's Anodyne" does the same thing, perhaps, but the hop anodyne was always the first thing brought out. The sleepiness that there is in the onion was perhaps one reason why a "roasted onion" in the ear was the great remedy for earache, and a supper of raw onions and bread was the remedy for wakefulness. So, too, the onion poultice would often put the croupy child into a refreshing sleep.

MAXIMS.

WITHOUT Constancy there is neither love, friendship nor virtue in the world.

No man can be provident of his time who is not prudent in the choice of his company. The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little. Every one must see daily instances of people who complain from a mere habit of complaining. It is the part of a prudent man to conciliate the minds of others, and to turn them to his own advantage.

It is better to keep children to their duty by a sense of honor and by kindness than by fear and punishment.

Compassion is an emotion of which we ought never to be ashamed. Graceful, particularly in youth, is the tear of sympathy and the heart that melts at the tale of woe.

True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal, bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene and free.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love or interest might impair your judgment.

With the civilized man contentment is a myth. From the cradle to the grave he is for ever longand striving after something better, an inde finable something, some new object yet unat tained.

A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions that can possibly befall us.

The virtues of rubbing, so well understood by kind old hands, are come up again in the "massage," and experts are trained to follow all the muscle lines to work them up to a good tone. There is one hearty old gentleman in Philadelphia to-day (perhaps others) who is regularly rubbed down on going to bed and on rising. How much of the sluggishness that makes congestion, the rush of blood to the head, the stiffness of creaking joints, and the dull or exhausting ed nerves that bring about paralysis are wakened up refreshed by this sensible "grooming." There is no reason that the valuable animals should have all this sort of luxurious care and human beings none. For the sleeplessness of longtime invalids or fever patients a gentle and regular rubbing of the feet after they are ready to go to sleep is one of the best of anodynes. First taking one foot and then the other, following gently all the lines of the tendons, the monotonous and somewhat magnetic motion of the hand is very soothing. It is a sort of shampoo that draws the blood away from the head and seems to distract the attention of the irritated nerves, while it brings a new tone and action to the hot and dry skin. All nurses should study to have the soothing presence. Even to sit by the side of a restless and fever-scorched patient, holding the wrist with firm and gentle hand, will compose to sleep.

These are all relief remedies, but prevention is a better one. Plenty of covering for the arms and legs of children out of doors, and plenty of out-of-doors air in the house, no matter whether the house is large or small or the child's outer dress cheap or costly-these are rules that no one can afford to slight. "Hardening" children by cold plunge-baths and insufficient clothing is as great a mistake as over-coddling; but everybody can pass a sponge of cold water, rapidly and quickly dried, to every square inch of skin once a day, either night or morning, whichever is found most comfortable and convenient. There are grown people who rub throats and necks with a bit of ice every morning, and these say that they never have sore throats. But the air and the water, especially for people who live in furnacebaked houses, are the best of doctors; and when the insides of houses are full of fresh air, there is less danger of the sudden chills, croups and pneumonias that come of the change from a forcing-house temperature to the damp-sharp winds of our wintry streets.

In the commission of evil fear no man so much as thyself. Another is but one witness against thee thou art a thousand; another thou mayst avoid: thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment.

Better it is toward the right conduct of life to consider what will be the end of a thing than what is the beginning of it; for what promises fair at first may prove ill, and what seems at first a disadvantage may prove very advantageous.

Beauty depends more upon the movement of the face than upon the form of the features when at rest. Thus a countenance habitually under the influence of amiable feelings acquires a beauty of the highest order, from the frequency with which such feelings are the originating causes of the movement or expressions which stamp their character upon it.

There is a something in the pleasures of the country that reaches much beyond the gratification of the eye-a something that invigorates the mind, that erects its hopes, that allays its perturbations, that mellows its affections; and it will generally be found that our happiest schemes and wisest resolutions are formed under the mild influence of a country scene and the soft obscurities of rural retirement.

Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny: Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Domitian said that nothing was more grateful; Aristotle affirmed that beauty was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that 'twas a glorious gift of nature; and Ovid, alluding to him, calls it a favor bestowed by the gods.

DIPLOMATIC INTERCOURSE, 1879-80.

United States Ministers abroad. App. Foreign Ministers to the United States.

1878 SEÑOR DON JUAN B. DALLA COSTA.... 1874

Plenipotentiary in SMALL CAPS; Ministers Resident in