Evening Star Newspaper, April 30, 1935, Page 34

- C-6 Discussion and Comment on Subjects Interesting Washington Women Just One More Flower for Mother’s May Basket! WOMEN’S FEATURES., : Vanished Ceremonies Of ‘May Day Have Left Memories of Romance Children of Today Might Well Be Made Ac- quainted With Some of the Old Traditions and Customs. BY BETSY CASWELL. OMORROW is to be celebrated as “child health day” through- out the Nation, in the new and efficien order of things. It is also dedicated inter- nationally to labor, and, as such, is celebrated with songs and mass meet- ings all over the world. All very modern and up to the minute. Very helpful in many T ways — Very: thoughtful and serious. But—where the lovely old custom that made the first of that month “May day” for us, when we were children, and added so much to our pleasure and that of our friends? The sentimental and charming hanging of flower-filled baskets on the doorknobs of the houses where our friends lived was one of Spring’s greatest delights, and days were spent in making the baskets, planning and picking the contents. and arranging the flowers to the best of our artistic abilities. And then—the childish parades through the town streets to the park or common, where the “Queen of the May” was crowned with the king, in impressive ceremonies, and the en- suing dance around the Maypole. We don't see this much, any more. And, as far as I can discover, the practice of hanging May baskets on doors, or leaving them on doorsteps, is completely abandoned. It seems a pity. Our lives are so mechanical, and so crowded with practicalities, that there is no time for the pic- turesque element unless we create it. ok THE present age is a wonderful one, and I would not like to go back to the old, inconvenient times, any is Betsy Caswel restore to our children some of the old traditions and customs, they will, perhaps, be able to keep in their lives the little aura of sentimeni and beauty that makes “the leaven in our lump.” ‘The origin of the May day celebra- tion threatens to become obscured by the mists of modern times. Its real significance lay in being generally re- garded as a time of intense gladness— of joy in the earth’s annual new out- | break into fresh life and beauty. For | this reason it was celebrated, and pagans rendered homage to the first flowers and blossoms of the season. Later the Romans adopted the idea | with their “Floralia” or floral games, | | which took place from April 28 to | May 3, and honored the goddess of | flowers, lovely Flora. o oK | N ENGLAND, in the Middle Ages | even the court and all persons of low and high degree went out at dawn on the 1st of May to gather fresh flowers, which were brought home triumphantly, with music and song. The hawthorn branch, being one of the most reliable to flower at that time | of year, was officially given the name | of “the May.” and thus the ceremony | took the title of “bringing home the | May” and the expedition to the woods was known as “going a-Maying.” __THE EVENING STAR Houses were decorated with the floral | spoils, the fairest maid in the village | | was chosen as “Queen of the May” | (probably a throwback to the ancitnt\‘ Romans' worship of Flora), and after | she was crowned the entire populace spent the rest of the day dancing about her and singing. Later, nearly every English village had its Maypole, gaily wreathed in flowers and ribbons, about which nll} the grown-ups as well as the children | | danced in circles. With the coming | | of the Puritans, and their campaign | to take all the joy out of everything, the Maypoles were ordered uprooted | and destroyed. After the Restoration they again came into favor—but the clder people left the ceremonies more | and more to the children, until grad- ually the day became one primarily This young lady was surprised in the very act of putting the finishing touches on a floral offering to hang on mother's door enr’y May Jay mornfng. Revl'vfng the old custom would do much toward udcl{ng to the in- nocent pleasures of childhood. Frogs’ Legs WASHINGTON, D. ¢, TUESDAY, APRIL 380, 1935.° WOMEN’S FEATURES. Dorothy EAR MISS DIX: Should chil- dren always be criticized about their table manners? Should they not be able to let down at home s0 as to enjoy & meal? I can remember in our home that many & wonderful meal laboriously prepared by mother was spoiled by the constant nagging of dad about our table manners. This seems to me & shame and a disgrace. Home should be a place where you can be yourself and enjoy whatever you wish in any way you may. Even dunk your doughnuts or rolls in your coffee, if you enjoy that. It does seem funny that such a trifiing thing as table manners should mean so much to some- people. It is said that the vice president of one of our biggest utility companies achieved his posi- tion because he had good table man- ners while eating with the board of directors. Such & small matter as making a sandwich at the home din- ner table has all but caused a revolu- tion in our family. The only way I can see to battle this question is to do in Rome as the Romans do, but when at home do as you wish to do. BOB, Jr. I SEE no reason why you cannot do both, Bob, for good manners are just a matter of habif and, if you and you use them at home as well as abroad. If, for instance, you have never in your life been permitted to eat with your knife, you will find no pleasure in conveying food to your mouth in that way. I agree with you that home should be & place for rest and relaxation, | where we are entitled to drop many of | the ceremonial conventions we observe | with strangers, but that does not mean that we can do away with the de- acquire them, they become instinctive | Dix Says Why Should Children Be Forced to Mind Manners at Home? them. It isn't the diamond, but it is the polish on the diamond. In these days when social contacts count for 2o much, and when as much business is done over the dining table as in the counting room, a young man is hopelessly handicapped if he has | not table etiquette literally at his fin- | ger’s ends. ‘OU cannot imagine any young man, no matter what his ability, ‘being selected for an important posi- tion, if he tucked his napkin in his collar and stuck out his elbows and | wolfed his food. As proof of that we have read of some man whose promo- tion was blocked because of his table manners, Of course, you resent being nagged about your table manners by your father. Doubtless he is worn out nag- | ging you and would be only too glad | to quit. It is unfortunate that par- ents have to nag, but it is only by tell- | ing children thousands of times not to |do’ this, and to do the other thing, that enough training soaks in some- how to teach them good manners and make them ladies and gentlemen. | DOROTHY DIX. | * k% % DEAR MISS DIX: We are a young couple who have been married a year and a half. Get along fine to- gether. Everything all right except that I can’t get my husband up in the mornings. He gets plenty of sleep. Is not lazy. But he is just terrible to get up in the mornings. I have let him be late for work several times, but I can’t take a chance of letting him lose his job. He gulps a hurried break- fast and is off. Never a chance to fix the furnace. I am so tired of this and cencies of life, or are free to do the | we scrap over it to the extent that he things that get on other people’s hardly talks to me for several days. nerves. In fact, just because. we are I don't like to have every day begin Star Staff Photo. Courtesy J. H. Small & Sons. and Dressy Looks Gay Poets Have brought into daily contact with the members of our own families, it is the more necessary for us to watch our step and make ourselves attractive to them. ‘ AND this matter of table etiquette cuts a much larger figure in that than you would suppose. You would be amazed at the number of letters I get from women who are on the verge of divorce because they have to watch the sloppy way their husbands eat, What shall I do about A. L B. with a quarrel. it? Answer—Quit making an issue of it Just accept the fact that your husband is a sleepy head and that it is part of your job to wake him up and get him off to work. Make a joke out of it instead of a tragedy. He might have a lot worse fault than that. Suppose he drank. Suppose he were unfaithful to you. If you had to wrestle with a |man who came staggering home at Quite Rare Endowment | coffee of a morning. Returning To Menus and from men who say they are mar- | night, or watch one who was always ried to perfectly good wives, but they | chasing some flapper, you would thi can't stand them because they make | that the wife who didn't have any- 8 hissing sound when they drink their | thing harder to do than to prod her | husband awake of a morning was a lucky woman. more than I would wish to give up the speedy and efficient motor fire engines for the old horse-drawn ones. But the horse-drawn ones were far more fascinating and appealing to the | to amuse the very young. PR JUST where the custom of May baskets originated is difficult to find out. In small towns and villages Summer Frock Features Cape Sleeves and Butterfly Bows. eye and the heart, and their going is typical of all the picturesque and romantic things which we have lost. If we can only take the time to Real Treat In Shampoo JBEFORE the daily bath each day the baby should be treated to a shampoo. Soap & wash cloth well, rub the head thoroughly, and rinse and dry before the baby is popped into the tub. When the hair is very long and demands a good drying, it may be more desirable to wash it only once every other day. As the child grows older shampoos are seldom accepted meekly. Soap— not smoke—gets in his eyes and the hair-washing ritual is fought with struggles and explosive wails, An avoidance of all such mishaps is the shortest road to end such rebellions. To tilt back the chair so that the soap runs backward into the wash basin may make the weekly shampoo & real treat. Barring this, the most convenient way to shampoo is when the child is in the tub: A small portion of liquified soap may be rubbed into the head and the child encouraged to fluff up amusing clouds and enjoy his appearance in & mirror. While the “rain” is pouring over the “clouds” (rinsing to grown-ups) the child’s head should be supported on the mother’s arm so that soapy streams do not course down the face. From the very beginning of the shampoo every effort should be made to make the ceremony short and en- joyable. Then with warmed towels the child may rub his own head to & red glow. The mother's plaintive desire for curls on her straight-haired daughter has been the stimulus for much ridiculous advice. Allowing the hair to dry uncombed or combing it the wrong way may result in some pre- cious end showing a vague tendency to curl, but this practice sacrifices the whole for a part. Straight hair has a differently shaped hair shaft from curly hair and the only way that straight hair can be made curly is to press its round shaft flat by means of pressure and heat, (This is perma- nent waving.) | in this country it was at one time ex- | ceedingly popular and faithfully ob- served. If you remember your Louisa | M. Alcott’s “Jack and Jill” you will | recall the account of the filling of the May baskets by the boys and girls and the amount of sentiment, real affec- tion and childish thought that went into the performiance. I suppose, nowadays, that if the | floral observance of May day should { again come into vogue, the florists would have another field day, because we can't personally go “a-Maying” at dawn, to find our own flowers. for the children, & few inexpensive blooms would suffice, and with a little | basket, and a lot of interest and in- | genuity, a pretty token of friendghip | and affection could be contrived for some particular love. The idea is, | of eourse, to hang the basket on the door handle, ring the bell and run— the gift is usually anonymous. It's a rather silly, simple little thing | to do, but I still maintain that what we need in our lives is a little more | silliness and simplicity to keep us | from turning into mechanical robots! f If you wish advice on any of your individual household problems, write to Betsy Caswell in care of The Star, inclosing stamped self-addressed en- velope for reply. The Old Gardener Says: Shrubs should be put into the ground as soon as possible. It is to be hoped that gardeners will experiment with some of the new- er kinds. There is no lack of material, for example, there is Kolkwitzi amabilis, which has been christened the beauty bush; the Japanese bellflower, called by the botanist Enkianthus cam- panulatus and sometimes red- veined Enkianthus; Malus thie- fera, one of the handsomest of the crabapples; the new mock- orange Philadelphus virginal, and such choice honeysuckles as Lo- nicera korolkowii. All these plants are available from nur- serymen and have distinct merits, ‘They help to prolong the season, and they are entirely hardy. Some nurserymen have gone so far as | | to say that Philadelphus virginal | | is the best new flowering -plant, introduced in recent years. In any event, it is remarkably hand- some, with its large, fragrant, pure white blossoms. (Copyright. 1935.) PATTERN 5328 Here’s Sambo, the chef, ready to make your working hours brighter. He's apparently going about all his tasks with gusto. You'll find him fun to embroider—he’s done in cross stitch with just a bit of running and outline stitch to finish him up. He is, of course, a companion to our Mammy towels, pattern 5250. You could have them hanging side by side on your towel rack. And what a cute gift a set of bo and of the Mammy towels would make at the showerifor that June bride! In pattern 5328 you will find a transfer pattern of seven motifs (one for each day of the week), averaging 6x8 inches; material requirements;. illus- trations of all stitches needed; color suggestions. To obtain this pattern send 10 cents in stamps or coin to the Woman's Bditor of The Evening Star, s 4 Delicate Sauces Help in Preparing Them for the Table. | BY EDITH M. BARBER. { EXT week we welcome the return | of frogs' legs to the menu, one of the few of today's products which still have a season in New York. When oysters go out frogs’ legs come in. We go frogging at the fish mar- ket, although those of us who have lived in the country may have had the fun of hunting for frogs with the help of a spear and' a lantern. Frogs’ legs are delicate and tender with a flavor quite like that of chicken. Out in Kansas and in nearby States I have had what are known as saddle frogs. They are a specialty on one of the Western railroads, which serve such delicious food. The most popu- lar way of cooking frogs’ legs is to bread them and fry them in deep fat. A more delicious way, it seems to me, is to crumb them or not as you like, and then ssaute them in butter. They need to cock only a short time and I do not find it neces- sary to scald them first as is some- times suggested. These sauteed frogs’ legs are some- times known as meuniere or in the West as roadhouse style. Sometimes tartare sauce is used with the French fried frogs’ legs. With the sauteed you may use parsley-lemon butter or even Hollandaise sauce. There is an- other very delicate sauce which is made with cream and egg yolks and which is poured over boiled frogs’ legs. I think that I have only had them once this way in this country, but I have had the same type of sauce in France, where frogs’ legs are used a good deal. Just remember that you must not overcook them Frogs’ Legs. ‘Trim and clean frogs’ legs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in crumbs, egg and crubs again, and then fry three minutes in deep fat (375 de- grees Fahrenheit) and drain. Frogs’ Legs Meuniere. ‘Trim and clean frogs’ legs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip jn flour and saute in butter until brown .and tender. Season butter with lemon julce and serve. Cook’s Corner BY MRS. ALEXANDER GEORGE. DINNER FOR FOUR. (Suitable for Young Children, Too.) Broiled Lamb Chops. Creamed Potatoes. Carrots Julienne. Graham Bread. _ Grape Jelly. Head Lettuce, Russian Dressing. Pineapple Cream Pie. Coffee. (Milk for Children.) CARROTS JULIENNE., 1t Scrape carrots and cut into strings 3 by 13 inches. Add salt to water and, when boiling, add carrots. Boil 10 minutes. Drain well and add rest of ingredients. Heat and serve. RUSSIAN DRESSING. . (Raid the Ice Boz.) 3 eShRopeoneHi 1 Ehopoee pimientos sauce tablespoon vinegar g tablespoons cruun teaspoon salt ;:Ibll:;mfll pickle Mix ingredients, chill and serve on lettuce or vegetable, salad. Keep ice box stored with various relishes, salad dressing and sauces so that different toppings can be made quickly for salads. PINEAPPLE CREAM PIE. 1 baked ple shell cup crushed ineapple tablespoon butter ur tablespoons lemon Juice s Seaspoon salt 1 cup milk Beat yolks, add sugar, flour and salt. Add milk and pineapple. Cook in double boiler until thick and creamy. Stir frequently. Add butter and juice. Pour into pie shell. Reserve part of fillling and serve chilled for small child's-dessert. v MERINGUE. 3 eex whites 5 Beat whites until and beat until creamy. Roughly spread en filling. Bake 12 minutes in mod- erataly slow ouen, 4 /646-8 BY BARBARA BELL. . APE sleeves and butterfly bows offer new themes for making simple Summer frocks look gay and dressy. With the turning of Spring into Sum- mer you will see these typically fem- inine touches used increasingly on sheer materials of the dressy type. The design shown today is prac- tical, as well as smart, for large matrons who have difficulty finding frocks that will be becoming in spite of their simplicity. This model achieves an effect of slenderness and height through the use of a panel treatment in the back and front. Hips are given a trim fit and waist- lines are slenderized by the elimina- fion of bulk through clever seaming. The shoulder line drops slightly and provides a flattering line for the capelet sleeves, which are chosen because they will appear graceful and cool in Midsummer weather. Neckline treatment for sheer cot- tons and prints offer great variety. ‘The one shown here is an untrimmed V featuring a large ribbon bow drawn through slashes just below the point. A matching belt of ribbon is all the trimming needed to give this frock its air of consequence. Summer fabrics are more feminine than ever. Several sheer dresses are looked upon as necessities. The printed chiffons and marquisettes are S8 "Add sugar |is |Teaching Verse Does Not Give Them This Talent. BY ANGELO PATRI. PEOPLE like to say, especially those | who read sentimental poetry with | moist eyes, that all children are poets | |at heart, After a long period of; working with children, I must dis- agree. Children are not all poets. | They are healthy young creatures, | | susceptible of emotional influences, | | to the appeal of rhythm and musical | sound, and to all that is beautiful. They respond quickly to such appeals. But that does not make them poets. | children love to make rhymes. The | English teachers use this charac- | teristic attitude to forward the chil- | dren’s power to speak and write good English. It helps the children to form a taste for poetry. It teaches them to look for beauty in all about them. It helps establish good stand- ards of reading. Writing verse is a valuable English exercise, but chil- | dren who write verse that is ac- | ceptable to the teacher are not all ! poets. Nor does the teacher hope , could if he would. | Lately the schools have been ac- centing the use of this exercise and the children have been writing verse. fOne set of critics applauded loudly. They immediately saw a great ad- vance in the quality and the amount of poetry written and read in this country. Another set turned sour faces toward the teachers and de- nounced this writing of poetry. “Who wants to make children poets? Starve them to death, would you? Ever hear of a poet who could earn his {living or do a single useful thing? Don't talk to me about poets. You're wasting the children’s time.” The schools are not aiming to make poets of children who write verse as | English exercises. We do not expect to make musicians of all who study | music or write it. Nor do we expect |to make carpenters, metal workers | and potters of the children who enjoy | such activities in the schools. What | we are trying to do is to teach the children to search for valuable ex- periences, to look for beauty in every- day things like speech, human as- sociation, daily work. If once in & thousand there is an artist, or a | poet, or a fine craftsman among the group, so much the better. His school experiences will help rather than hinder him. This offering of intellectual adventure is not an at- tempt to mold children, but an ef- fort to bring out their talents and tastes and help them to find their strengths in whatever fields they lie. Poets are rare folk. They have an unusual endowment of mind that allows them to communicate in spirit with the hidden forces of life and to clothe their experiences, which are their thoughts, in beautiful, musical words and phrases. Occasionally there is a hint of such a one in the 46, 48, 50 and 52. Size 36 requires 4 yards of 39-inch material, 21, yards 5-inch ribbon. Every Barbara Bell pattern includes an {llustrated instruction guide which is easy to use. Send for the Barbara Bell Pat- tern Book. Make yourself attractive, |to make them poets. No teacher | | practical and becoming clothes se- lecting designs from the 104 Barbara Bell well planned, easy-to-make pat- terns. Interesting and exclusive fashions for little children and the difficult junior age; slenderizing, well cut patterns for the mature figure, afternoon dresses for the most par- ticular young women and matrons and other patterns for special occasions are all to be found in the Barbara Bell Pattern Book. Send 15 cents for your copy today. Address orders to The Evening Star. BARBARA BELL, ‘Washington Star. Send 25 cents in coins for Pattern No. 1646-B Size. . NaMe..coversrasenssrnenssnnne (Wrap coins securely in paper.) (Copyright, 1935.) Style Trends. is featuring an ensemble class rooms, but very occasionally. The greater number of pupils are not gifted in this way. It would be folly for a teacher to attempt to So you can't afford to relax your table manners at home, because, if you do, you may be alienating your wife's affection by the way you gargle your soup, or you may be sending your husband to the other woman by dunk- | ing your roll, or holding your fork as if it were a spade. IT ISN'T so strange as you think that so much stress is put upon good table manners. It is just the thing by which we judge a person's social experience and knowledge of the world. It is the thing that hits | us in the eye when we first meet a stranger. It doesn't, of course, take | the place of brains, or talent, or char- | acter, but it is a mighty big help to | HOIV I KEEP MY FIGURE BY MARION DAVIES. Being slender is somewhat like genius—some are born with it, others | have to acquire it (through reducing mediums), while still others have it B -n thrust upon them. “i I belong to the - first class, since i it is very easy for me to keep my figure slender. In the first place, I eat very little, and, in the second place, I - love to dance. . Even when I was in the Follies, years ago, where I had so much dancing to do on * the stage, I would delight in going to places to dine ‘where I could dance some more. Naturally, since dancing keeps the figure not only graceful, but lithe and slender, I really never had any diffi- culty in keeping in perfect weight. But, just as the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I believe in taking exercises daily to ward off any oncoming fat that may otherwise come my way. Want to know what my favorite exercise for keeping lithe and grace- fully slender is? Rope skipping. I have so much fun doing this that it is a pleasure rather than a duty and makes me feel like a kid again. Although, as I said before, I don’t have to go in for exercises to keep slender, I am a firm believer in those Marien Davies. as a means of keeping a perennially youthful figure, In addition to the regular daily| and which doesn't seem to give them the quick results they would like, | I firmly advocate rope skipping to| keep the pounds down and the spirits | up. It's quite a simple matter to use the rope-skipping exercjse for three or four minutes each morning in the garden, or in your room if you can- add this gift to a child not endowed with it. All the English teacher hopes to do along this line is to culti- vate a taste for good literature, strengthen and enrich vocabularies, give children a happy experience with words expressive of fine thinking. (Copyright. 1935.) To Chop Nuts. When a recipe calls for finely- chopped nuts, instead of putting the nuts through a chopper or chopping them by knife. place the nuts between several folds of wax paper, then roll or crush them with a rolling pin. The degree of fineness may be varied by the pressure exerted. Ncne of the olls | of the nuts are lost when this method is used. The chopped nuts may be sprinkled chrectly from the wax paper. BROMLEY. SHEPARD JERSEYS Prints, Sheer Wools and Boucle Suits, also SNUG- GLEBAND Underthings. POT. 2971 for Appointment not exercise in the open. You'd be surprised what & world of good this exercise will do in keeping one slender. Besides the reducing benefits de- rived from the rope-skipping habit, it works wonders in making one feel bright and chipper for the day. When- ever you feel blue or out of sorts for no reason at all, take a few deep breaths of fresh air and setting-up| exercise, followed by s few minutes | which are not too strenuous or tiring | dozen that so many women do today | - I'M NOT saying that a man who hasn't enough energy and initia- tive and the get-up-and-get-out about him to wake up of himself isn't ag- gravating. He is. There is nothing more trying on the temper of any up- | and-doing person than to see some one | just calmly sleeping. It fills you with rage and makes you want to do some- thing drastic, but perhaps the offense is not so great as it seems. And, any- way, there is nothing you can da about it. And that is the stone wall you are up against. You can either beat yourself to death against it and destroy all of your married happiness, or else you can just accept it as ene of the minor drawbacks to your mar- ried life and make the best of it. And, believe me, no wife is so wise as the one who makes friends with her husband’s little weaknesses and adjusts herself to them. Nothing you can do or say is going to turn friend husband into an early riser. You ean have a.fight over this fact every morning and send him to work peeved with you and thinking bitter thoughts of you all day. Or you can make a game out of getting him out of bed. | Give him a good breakfast with a | jolly wife across the table from him | and send him away convinced he has | the greatest little girl in the world, for a wife. Which policy do you think will pay better, and do more to keep you out of the divorce court? DOROTHY DIX. (Copyright. 1935.) My N:xg}lbor Sayl: I The bleeding heart is a mois- | | ture loving plant and does well in | | & north or southeast exposure. | | It may be successfully divided and transplanted in the Spring | | while still in bloom. There is a device for cutting vegetables into decorative curls which always look as though a chef had done them. It may be found in the kitchenware de- partments. To make pistachio flavoring mix together equal parts of vanilla and almond flavoring. Try rolling doughnuts after fry- ing in cinnamon and sugar. You may like the flavor. When the lining of your hat becomes soiled take it out, wash with soap and water and iron. Steam hat, if felt, to renew the color, and sew in clean lining. A very fine sandpaper rubbed over soapstone set tubs or sink before applying linseed oil and turpentine will make tubs -as smooth as when new. FEP IN TRIM AT DAY AND EVENING CLASSES $10 PER MONTH Individual instructions by appointment. gister Now Re 1221 Conn. Ave. Dist. 3621 of rope skipping. The Aristocrat of Sugar weeten it with Domino”