ACCUMULATED INFORMATION.
By Kate Bailey
KATE BAILEY. (Brainerd, Minn.) When the REVIEW comes to hand, I always turn to the Home department first, and then the General Articles. I am always grateful to our brethren and sisters who contribute their articles to the REVIEW. I found a few useful things, and also other things that come handy, the knowledge of which I always take a pleasure in bringing to my friends with whom I come in contact. I have been for a long time impressed to write about these things for the REVIEW, but being a deaf-mute, I shrank through the lack of my command of language. I became encouraged to take this step when the REVIEW extended its invitation to us to write something, assuring us that even a line of valuable information would be accepted. What would become of the dear REVIEW if our people would follow their inclinations to keep silent through shyness, as I did? I believe this to be selfishness. I was interested in Sister Priddy's article on “Care of the Hair.” Let me add one thing to it by telling that the tar soap has cured me of the itching scalp, and also my nieces. I had been more or less troubled with this for about fifteen years. I often washed the scalp with Castile and Ivory soap, and rubbed it with some lotions, such as alcohol and castor oil, sulphur and water, glycerine and kerosene oil, etc. Sometimes they gave me but a temporary relief, and often failed. Last fall I asked the druggist in Brainerd for a remedy for that trouble. He showed me a bar of tar soap. After a second wash with it, I was relieved for a long time. Since the third wash I took last winter, I have not had the itching scalp. My niece was relieved not only of the itching scalp, but also of falling hair. Having met some friends who have this trouble, I am led to think there may be others among the readers of our paper who have the same. Don't ask for tar soap of a grocer, but of a druggist. It is fifteen cents a bar. When you are stung by bees, make a good mudball, apply it to the sting, and the pain will cease. I found a way to make blueberries last twice as long by using cornstarch. In one quart of the berries, pour one quart of water. Moisten some cornstarch—about two heaping tablespoonfuls to two quarts—in the same way as for starching clothes, and be careful not to make it too thin. Stir it into the boiling berries, and boil a few minutes. Thin cornstarch does not thicken them very well. Berries of other kinds, when prepared in this way, do not always look as well as blueberries, which are of a dark color. One cup of prunes, two of raisins, half a cup of tapioca, and one of sugar will make two quarts of fruit soup, or sauce. Steam the tapioca till it is dissolved, cook the prunes till nearly done, and cook the raisins half an hour. They may be steamed. Take more than two quarts of water. Dried plums may be substituted. When they were plentiful, I dried them after cooking and sweetening them. This is better than drying them raw. Squashes and pumpkins are excellent when dried after being cooked or baked, and when soaked, are ready for use. Last summer pin-cherries were plentiful. Berries of all kinds were killed by the drought in May and June, but pin-cherries thrive better in dry weather than they do in rainy weather. To preserve the cherries for winter, I boiled them about one hour in water enough to cover them. Then I drained the juice through a colander, and put in sufficient sugar to make it sweet. After the sugar was dissolved, I canned the wine. In winter when butter was scarce, I thickened it with cornstarch in the same way I did the blueberry sauce. It looked like jelly, and did not taste too strong and sweet, as does the genuine jelly in which “one pound of sugar to one pound of fruit” is used. I made wild grape wine in the same way. It is less expensive than jelly. Some people prefer to dilute the wine with a little water. I read in the Farm, Stock, and Home a recipe for canning fruits with cotton batting, and tried it. Apples, grapes, wine, and berries have been canned with good success, but tomatoes failed. The wine in some bottles was perfect, and in others there was mold on the top. In the berries there was mold always, but below the mold the fruit was all right. Can the fruit as hot as for sealing in glass jars, put into any vessel or bottle, and quickly cover the mouth with a piece of stiff paper (never newspaper), and lay on it a piece of cotton batting, such as is used for comforters, cover it with another piece of paper, and wind all together around the neck very tightly a dozen times, so as to exclude microbes. The pieces of these materials should be larger than the mouths of the vessels. I found this method very handy when glass jars were all used, and berries were plentiful, and the bottles and vessels without sealing caps were many. I read Elder Butler's letter to the REVIEW with deep interest and sympathy. I have always believed the Testimonies and read them all. Every time I have slighted or deviated from any of them, I have felt a loss of God's blessing, and failed in more points. Surely, blessed are they that give heed to the Testimonies. Which of the Ten Commandments did King Saul disobey?—None directly, but the testimony of God through Samuel. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.” 1 Sam. 15:23. Are we not in danger of being rejected of God for rejecting the Testimonies for our Church? Lately I have read “Power for Witnessing” with great interest and profit, and recommend it to all the readers of the REVIEW.