by Lina Beard
Stand the sticks up so as to meet at the top, and spread out like a tent at the bottom. Each player then takes the hook in turn and tries to remove a jackstraw, without shaking or throwing down any of the others. The one scoring the highest, wins the game and is entitled to the prize.
Fig. 64
Progressive games seem to be very popular, and deservedly so, as they possess an interest peculiarly their own.
Here is a new and novel one, called
Progressive Mining.
It is played with flower-pots filled with sand or loose earth, called mines. A small flag on a slender staff is placed upright in the centre of each flower-pot (Fig. 64). The staff should be stuck down in the sand only just far enough to keep it steady in its position. Each player in turn removes a little sand from the mine with a stick called a wand, taking great care not to upset the flag; for the one causing the flag to fall loses the game. The number of mines needed will depend upon the number of persons playing, as one flower-pot is required for every two players.
Fig. 65
Each one taking part in the game, is provided with a wand. Slender bamboo canes make excellent wands, and may be decorated with red, white and blue ribbons, tied on the handles. Should the canes be difficult to procure, then any kind of light slender stick will serve the purpose.
The hostess should prepare blank envelopes, each containing a ribbon badge, or score sheet, of different colors, two of each; these are all numbered, the figures being painted or pasted on the ribbons to designate the place to be taken, thus two reds are marked 1, meaning that they are to occupy the first or prize mine. The blues are marked 2, showing that they take the second mine, and so on. The last or lowest place is called the booby mine. Each badge should have a small pocket attached (Fig. 65), for holding stamps; these are cut in any desired form from gold and silver paper, which has previously been covered with mucilage on the under side, like a common postage-stamp.
The hostess passes around the envelopes, each guest takes one, and upon opening it discovers where and with whom she is to play.
The preliminaries being settled, and all having taken their places, the hostess starts the game by ringing a little bell.
When one of the players at the prize mine upsets the flag, the other calls out prize, and if the flags have not already fallen in the other mines, the couples play as quickly as possible until all the flags are down.
The winner at the prize mine fastens a gold stamp on her ribbon badge, while the loser at the booby mine, ornaments hers with silver seal.
The game is now rearranged, the winner at the prize mine remains at her station, and the loser goes down to the booby mine, while all those winning at the other mines move up, each one respectively to the next higher mine, for it is only at the prize mine where the loser moves her place and the victor remains stationary.
When these details are settled, the flag-staffs are again planted in the flower-pots and the signal given for a new game.
The player with the largest number of gold stamps on her score-sheet, receives the victor’s prize, and the one having the most silver stamps is entitled to the booby prize.
The prizes are given when the game is ended. They should consist of some pretty little article made by the hostess herself, and, if practicable, appropriate to the day, such as a delicate satin sachet in the form of a Liberty bell, with the lettering painted on it.
A pretty pin-cushion, with a cover made of a miniature silken flag, or a dainty pen-wiper in the shape of Liberty’s cap. Other more expensive gifts are not in good taste.
The booby prize should be something grotesque or comical.
As the mothers and sisters of 1776 took a full share in the hardships and trials of the Revolution, and actively assisted in gaining our independence, it is eminently fit and proper that American girls should show their appreciation of such bravery and heroism by assisting in the annual celebration of our famous Independence Day.
Fourth of July seems heretofore to have been considered altogether too exclusively a boy’s holiday, and it is with a hope of stimulating a renewed activity, and awakening in the heart of every girl in the United States a sense of proprietary interest in the day, that we suggest new methods of celebrating our national holiday.
CHAPTER X.
PRINTING FROM NATURE’S TYPES.
LAST summer we made some lovely impressions of flowers, leaves, and sprays; then we tried landscapes and all sorts of beautiful designs.
It is really delightful and fascinating work. You are led on and on, always with a fancy to try something else to see how it will come out, and seldom, if ever, is it a disappointment or failure, a new interest being felt with every fresh print made. Moreover, you are sure of having your picture original and the only one of its kind, for as no two flowers or leaves are precisely alike, so no print can be an exact copy of another. And then it takes only a few moments for the work which could not be accomplished in thrice the time should a drawing be made of the same design.
Let me tell you how to make an “Impression Album” a book of printed flowers and leaves. You who have house-plants will find it a delightful winter recreation, a novel pleasure, and you can enjoy the pretty work even more during your summer vacation, with wild flowers at your command.
The “prints” are taken from the natural flowers or leaves themselves. Girls who have no knowledge at all of drawing or of printing can with little trouble make these Impression Albums, and students of botany will find the work supplies valuable memoranda of leaves and plants, as the print preserves details of the form, fibre and veining of foliage and petal such as no drawing or photograph can. The printing can be made wholly accurate, giving all the minutiæ of construction.
Making Prints.
Smilax.
Pink Oxalis.
The tools required to make these print-pictures are simple, and consist of a piece of glass, a palette-knife or table-knife and some printers’ ink which comes in small tin boxes and can be procured at any stationery store, and a pad made of a ball of cotton tied in a piece of soft silk or satin.
Evergreen Moss.
The printers’ pad used by the writer for spreading the ink, was manufactured of the satin lining taken from a gentleman’s old hat, and answered the purpose admirably, being a good size, measuring nearly four inches in diameter. The album itself may be a common blank-book, with every other leaf cut out, in order to make room for the prints, which are on pieces of blank unruled paper of uniform size, and small enough to fit in the album and leave a margin all around the piece inserted, so that the book when opened may be neat and attractive. Having all your tools at hand, select the leaves you wish to print. These must be free from dust or dew and perfectly fresh.
First, with your knife, place a small quantity of printers’ ink on the piece of glass and smooth it as evenly as possible over the surface. Then press the printers’ pad down lightly, lifting, and again pressing, until the ink is evenly distributed on the pad; next, select a leaf and place it face, or right side, downward on a piece of folded newspaper; press the inked pad down on the under side of the leaf, which is now, of course, lying upward, repeating the operation until the leaf is sufficiently covered with ink. Carefully place the leaf, inked side down, on the centre of the piece of paper you have previously cut for the album; over this lay a piece of common yellow wrapping-paper, or any paper that is not too thick or stiff, and rub the finger gently all over the covered leaf. Remove the outside paper and very carefully take up the leaf. You will find an exact impress of the natural green leaf showing every one of the delicate fibres.
Skeleton Geranium Leaves.
The picture is now ready to be pasted in the album, with a thin, delicate paste, touching only the corners. It is a good plan to write under each leaf the name of the plant or tree from which it was taken, with the date, and such facts as you would like to recall. Very valuable botanical collections can thus be made. Flowers are more difficult to print than leaves, owing
to less “relief” in the films; still they make charming pictures when successfully treated, sometimes having the appearance of photographs of flowers with all the lights and shadows.
A Winter Landscape.
Printed from Nature’s Type.
When printing flowers, proceed in the same manner as with the leaves. Sweet peas, roses, daisies, wild carrot, clover, and verbenas, all make beautiful impressions which look like photographs. Grasses of various kinds also print well.
In making a spray, it is best to have a definite idea of the form you desire it to take. If possible secure as a copy a natural spray of the kind you wish to print. Then first print all the leaves in the positions they are to occupy, and connect them by drawing in the branch with pen and India-ink.
Maple Leaves.
Printed from Nature’ Type.
The Winter Landscape is printed from dried twigs, grasses, and little leafless plants, so arranged as to resemble trees and shrubbery.
Only have a little confidence and you can make etchings from nature. Should you not understand drawing or composition, do not be discouraged; obtain a picture to copy, and then hunt up little plants and soft twigs as nearly as possible corresponding in shape and character to the trees in the copy; in this way you can produce very creditable landscapes.
Botanical impressions may be used for “fancy work” by being printed on satin, and the decorated satin made up as though it were painted or embroidered; patches for silk quilts have been prettily decorated by this process. The printings also make beautiful patterns for outline work, much truer to nature than those made in any other manner and afford infinite variety for “borders” and “corners” Even satin dresses can be beautifully ornamented with impressions of leaves instead of the “hand painting” so long in use. You can, of course, see that should several colors of printers’ ink be used, beautiful combinations and pleasing variety would be obtained, and that probably some unique and novel decorations would be secured.
Letter-paper ornamented with a delicate design printed from nature’s types is very dainty and pretty, and in many other forms can these simple and beautiful decorations be used.
Then bring leaves and blossoms from the woods or door-yard, and half an hour may be delightfully spent in printing “impressions” which will teach a lesson in botany, while the great variety of leaf forms, difference in texture, fibre, veining and finish cannot fail to attract your attention and call forth your admiration.
Corn Roast.
CHAPTER XI.
PICNICS, BURGOOS AND CORN-ROASTS.
TRACES of foreign ancestors are apparent occasionally in most of us, true Americans though we be. It is perhaps a spice of gypsy blood in our veins that sets our pulses throbbing with pleasant excitement when, seated in an old hay-wagon, we go bumping and thumping down the road prepared for a delightful holiday.
With camp-kettle swinging beneath, and coffee-pot stowed safely away within the wagon, do we not feel able to provide as savory dishes for our picnic dinner as any concocted by the gypsies themselves? Surely no coffee is ever so delicious as that cooked over the camp-fire, albeit it tastes somewhat smoky when prepared by hands inexperienced in the art of out-door cooking; but if the fish we broil is a little burned, and the baked potatoes rather hard in the middle, who cares? Hearty, healthy appetites, which the early morning drive through the fresh, exhilarating air has developed, laugh at such trifles and dinner is voted a success in spite of sundry mistakes and mishaps in its preparation.
There are picnics and picnics. When one drives out in a fine carriage to meet a fine company, and partake of a fine lunch prepared by fine servants, is one kind.
When one goes with a large party, on a boat, and takes a lunch of sandwiches, cake, pickles, hard-boiled eggs, etc., which is spread on the grass at the landing and eaten as quickly as possible, is another kind; but the picnic most enjoyed by young people who are not afraid of a little work, which is only play to them, is the one where the raw materials for the dinner are taken and the cooking, or most of it, is done, gypsy fashion, by the picnickers themselves.
A pleasant innovation in the ordinary routine of a picnic is
A Burgoo.
Thirty or forty years ago the men of Kentucky, in celebration of a holiday, would get up what they called a burgoo. In character it was very much like the clam-bake of to-day, but instead of chowder, or baked clams, the company prepared and partook of a soup or stew made of almost everything edible. Early in the morning the party would meet at the appointed place and decide what each should contribute toward the making of this most delectable stew.
Those who were fond of hunting would go forth in search of birds, squirrels, rabbits, and game of all kinds, with which the woods were filled. Some caught fish, and others provided fowl, pork, vegetables, and condiments.
As the ingredients were brought in, those who had charge of the cooking prepared and dropped them into an immense pot which, half full of water, was suspended over a roaring fire.
When everything of which the stew was composed was cooked to shreds, the burgoo was pronounced done, and was served in tin cups, and eaten with shell spoons, made by splitting a stick and wedging a mussel-shell in the opening.
That this was a most appetizing feast I know from an old gentleman who has frequently attended the burgoos and partaken of the stew. Of course at a picnic composed of girls and boys, it would not do to depend upon the game which might be shot and the fish which might be caught, for the dinner, but the burgoo should be adapted to the ways and means of the party, and each member should provide something for the stew. The following recipe will make enough for fifteen or twenty persons.
Burgoo Stew.
Two pounds of salt pork, the same of lean beef; two good-sized chickens, or fowls of any kind; two quarts of oysters, the same of clams; twelve potatoes, four turnips, one onion, two quarts of tomatoes, and any other vegetables which may be obtainable. Make a bouquet of parsley, celery, and a very little bay-leaf, thyme and hyssop, tied together with thread.
Fig. 66
Put the beef, fowl, pork, oysters, clams and a handful of salt in a large iron kettle, three-quarters full of water; skim it before it begins to boil hard, and add the other ingredients; keep the kettle covered and boil until the bones fall from the meat. Serve hot with crackers. Wild game and fish may also be added to the recipe. When a burgoo is decided upon, it is best to prepare a light lunch to be eaten about eleven o’clock, and have the heartier meal at four or five in the afternoon, as it requires some time for the stew to cook.
Our illustration shows four ways of suspending the kettle over the fire. While the girls are preparing the ingredients for the stew, the boys will build a fire in some such fashion as is shown upon page 135, and put the kettle on. The best way to boil coffee is to make or build a kind of little stove of stones and mud, and set the coffee-pot on top, as shown in Fig. 66; this will prevent the smoky taste it is apt to have when placed directly on the fire.
A Corn-roast.
During the season when green corn is plentiful, there is no better way of having a real jolly time than by getting up a corn-roast. It is not as elaborate an affair as the burgoo. Some green corn, a long pole sharpened at one end, for each member of the party and a large fire built in some open space where there will be no danger of causing conflagration makes us ready for the corn-roast.
Several summers ago a gay party of friends from New York and vicinity took possession of and occupied for a few months a little cottage at a place on the coast of Maine called Ocean Point.
Toward the end of August, when all places of interest had been explored, when the stock of shells, star-fish, and such like treasures had grown beyond the accommodation of an ordinary trunk, and the minds of the sojourners were beginning to be filled with thoughts of a speedy return home, green corn, for the first time that summer, made its appearance. This was hailed with delight, and a farewell lark, in the form of a cornroast, was promptly proposed and almost as p
romptly carried into execution.
The place selected on which to build the fire was a large rock jutting out into a little cove called “Grimes Cove.” Here the party met about three o’clock in the afternoon, each member bringing only such dishes as were considered necessary for his or her own use. It is needless to say that the supply was not very plentiful, many limiting themselves to a cup and spoon; still as the supper was to consist merely of roasted corn, bread and coffee, these answered every purpose.
Fig. 67
Not only was the corn roasted on the ends of the long poles, but bread was toasted, and in true American fashion it was eaten piping hot. One of the gentlemen, much to the amusement of the rest of the party, produced a piece of breakfast bacon, which he fastened on to the end of his pole and toasted over the glowing embers, declaring that it was better cooked in that way than in any other.
Yes, corn-roasts are great fun, and they can be held almost any place where a large fire can be safely built. It is best to allow the fire to burn down until it is a glowing pile of coals; then sticking the sharp end of a pole into an ear of corn (Fig. 67), and standing as far from the fire as the length of the pole will permit, it can be held close to the hot embers until thoroughly cooked; then with butter and salt this roasted corn is excellent eating.
Enough corn should be provided to allow several ears to each member of the party, as mishaps are liable to occur, and the tempting ear of corn may be devoured by the flames, instead of the person for whom it was intended.
The poles, about six feet in length, should be as light as possible, for if too heavy they will tire the hands and arms of those holding them.