Soda Fountains, Phosphates, & Ice Cream in 19C America

What were soda fountains? The simplest answer is that a soda fountain was an apparatus that dispensed carbonated water (known as “soda water” in the United States). But the term eventually expanded to also mean the area inside a business (often a counter) where a person could order a fountain drink.

The soda fountain machine was invented in Europe in the late 1700s, & by the early 1800s soda water had become a trend in the United States, with sellers adding fruits & syrups for flavor. But the late 19C saw increased customer demand for fancier drinks beyond flavored soda water.

Soda fountains were frequently found at pharmacies but were also located inside department stores, bakeries, ice cream parlors, restaurants, & more. The employees who worked behind the counters were known as “soda fountain clerks” or “soda water jerkers” (and later “soda jerks”).

From their 18C origins, soda fountains remained popular in the United States through the 1950s, when drive-ins & car culture led to their decline.

“Phosphates,” also known as “phosphate sodas,” were made by mixing acid phosphate (phosphoric acid & mineral salts) with soda water & flavoring. The acid phosphate gave the drink a tart or sour taste.  

Phosphate sodas came in a wide variety of flavors, but lemon phosphates, cherry phosphates, & egg phosphates were a few of the most common. Fruit flavors make sense given the tartness of phosphates, but egg?

Egg phosphates & other egg-based drinks were actually quite popular at 19C soda fountains. Egg phosphates were made of raw egg, soda water, phosphate, & orange, lemon, or chocolate syrup. Other common egg drinks a person could order included eggnog, egg flip, egg lemonade, & more.

A milkshake’s name was originally much more literal—a beverage made of milk shaken together with crushed or shaved ice, flavoring, & sometimes raw egg. Eventually, ice cream began making its way into the milkshake, creating the dessert we’re familiar with today. But as this ad from 1930 shows, some businesses still saw the need to specify that their milkshakes included ice cream well into the 20th century.

While milkshakes had their moment of popularity, they were overshadowed by what was arguably the most popular offering at a 19C soda fountain: ice cream soda (now often called an ice cream float).

While a version of ice cream soda existed before the Civil War, that older version was made of flavored soda water mixed with cream & ice. The new ice cream soda—likely created in the 1870s—replaced the cream & ice with ice cream. The drink quickly gained popularity & spread around the country, & by the 1890s no soda fountain’s menu was complete without it.

The soda fountain’s beverage options didn’t stop with phosphates, milkshakes, & ice cream sodas.

The plethora of soda fountains in any given city meant businesses competed for customers by offering an ever-growing menu of drinks—with upward of 50 (sometimes 100) options at the larger fountains. Some of the beverages (like the Moxie & Coca-Cola mentioned in a 1896 Nebraska ad) were commercially manufactured name-brand drinks. But many soda fountain offerings were invented & made in-house.

Since many beverages offered at soda fountains were served cold, it’s no surprise that soda fountains typically did their best business in the summer. But they attracted customers in colder months too with offerings like “hot soda water,” & beef tea, plus coffee, & hot chocolate, which were popular drinks in 18C America.

For more information, see Newspapers.com blog.

Courting While Doing Chores in 1835-36 America

William Sidney Mount (American painter, 1807-1868) Courtship while Winding Up 1836

William Sidney Mount (American painter, 1807-1868) The Sportsman's Last Visit 1835

1892 A Change in Women's Dress & Freedoms - Contemporaries both Hostile & Confused

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) The New Woman 1892. Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

In England - The Rational Dress Society & Victorian Dress Reform

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Jenny Ashcraft

In 1881, a group of high society women gathered in London to form a new organization. They named their group the Rational Dress Society, intending to reform Victorian women’s dress. The group came up with criteria for the perfect dress. It included:  

Freedom of Movement

Absence of pressure over any part of the body

No more weight than is necessary for warmth, & both weight & warmth evenly distributed.

Grace & beauty combined with comfort & convenience

Not departing too conspicuously from the ordinary dress of the time

Their ideas were revolutionary & controversial. Typical Victorian dress styles incorporated heavy fabrics, tight corsets, bustles, hoop skirts, & extravagant ornamentation. The women argued that dress reform would allow them to participate in activities like cycling. Bicycles had become a symbol of freedom for many women who found the sport liberating & emancipating.  

A founding member of the society was Viscountess Florence Wallace Pomeroy, also known as Lady Harberton. Lady Harberton, the daughter of wealthy landowners, married James S. Pomeroy. He later became the 6th Viscount Harberton. In 1880, Lady Harberton took up the cause of dress reform. She loved to cycle, but heavy, long skirts prevented her from enjoying the activity. She championed the reformed dress, which consisted of baggy pantaloons worn underneath a knee-length skirt. She also invented the divided skirt, which initially evoked jeers on both sides of the pond. Some feared that trifling with a traditional women’s dress was a step down a path to loosening moral values.

In 1883, the Rational Dress Society sponsored an exhibition held in London. The exhibit included shorter dresses, divided skirts, “costumes for climbing for lady mountaineers, & a costume for walking.” One man reported to The Times that the women in his family discarded their corsets & found new freedom in dancing, walking, tricycling, lawn tennis, & other open-air exercises. They vowed never to return to corsets & heavy skirts. Attitudes for many women (and men) were undergoing a seismic shift. The “woman of the future” wanted freedom in her clothing – & freedom within other aspects of her life.  

The struggle for rational dress came to a head after an incident in 1898. Lady Harberton went cycling in Surrey. She stopped for lunch at the Hautboy Hotel but was turned away for improper dress. Lady Harberton sued the hotel but lost the case because the hotel had offered alternative seating in the bar. Nevertheless, the case brought attention to rational dress & a victory for women who advocated for it. Lady Harberton spent decades promoting clothing that would make life easier for women. Later in her life, she also became an advocate for the women’s suffrage movement. Lady Harberton died in 1911. The Guardian eulogized her as an “enthusiastic & undaunted advocate” for dress reform.

19C Traditional "Woman's Work" - Sewing & Bearing Children (Plus Cleaning & Cooking)

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Woman with a Baby

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

Alone - The Widower

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) The Widower 1873

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

The Inevitable - An Accident

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) The Latest Village Scandal 1885

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

Chatting on Sunday while a very Patient Horse Waits

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Stopping for a Chat

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

New Mechanical Contraptions - The Spinning Jenny

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Spinning Jenny 1874

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age.

Sunday wasn't for Shopping, it was for Visiting

Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Sunday Afternoon 1900

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. .

19C Climate Change - 1868 Earthquakes and Tidal Waves Affect California

1865 woodcut. NOAA Central Library Historical Collections

Later and fuller details are every day increasing the interest with which scientific observers regard the recent earthquakes and tidal disturbances, and confirming our first impression that these convulsions of nature would prove to be among the most remarkable and extensive of which there is any written record. They have been experienced at short intervals during the last three months, and there is no reason to suppose that we have yet felt the last of them, the latest having been reported only a week ago.

The shocks have followed no particular direction, and been confined to no particular quarter of the earth. Beginning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they seem to have affected all its eastern shores and its southern and western islands, and, skipping the whole breadth of the North American Continent and the Atlantic Ocean, to have broken out in Ireland.

We may yet learn that the remoter countries of Asia have likewise been shaken. The first of this great series of convulsions, so far as our intelligence now extends, occurred, in the Sandwich Islands, eleven days before the terrible disaster in Peru. Violent shocks were felt in different parts of the groups from the 2d to the 9th of August, accompanied with heavy storms of thunder and lightning. The western coast of South America was devastated by awful earthquakes from the 13th to the 15th of August, and at the same time the shocks were felt again in the Sandwich Islands, though less severely than before.

On the 17th there were shocks in New Zealand. About the middle of September shocks were felt by vessels in the Eastern Pacific. On or about the 1st of October, they were experienced again in the Sandwich Islands. In California they wee felt from the 21st to the 25th, with considerable severity, and were repeated slightly up to the 6th of November. On the 23d of October we hear of earthquakes in Ireland. On the 4th of November there was one at Vancouver Island.

The tidal waves which have accompanied all the most serious of these convulsions are peculiarly interesting subjects of study. It has been remarked, as an evidence of the rapidity with which they travel, that they reached the California coast as early as the morning of the 14th of August, having moved over a distance of 4,000 miles in a little more than 14 hours; but it now appears that their speed is even greater than this, for they were felt in the Sandwich Islands, nearly an equal distance, on the evening of the 13th, only four hours after the earthquake in Peru, lasting through the night, and obtaining their greatest force the nest morning, almost simultaneously with their appearance on the opposite California coast. This would give them a velocity of about a thousand miles an hour. They seem, however, not to have been driven in more than one direction at a time. The Sandwich Islands lie north west of the place of disturbance in Peru. Toward the west and southwest, we have no record of tidal phenomena earlier than the 15th of August, when the waters of Japan and Australia were simultaneously agitated in the same manner.

These waves may have been either propagated by fresh convulsions on the South American coast, or revulsions from the disturbances at the Sandwich Islands. We have no sufficient data as yet determining in what direction the waves traveled, or what was their size or their velocity. We trust that the attention of competent observers may have been drawn to these points; for by means of them it would be possible to determine the depth of the Pacific Ocean, the size and velocity of waves bearing, as is well known, a fixed ratio to the depth of the water.

A great tidal wave fell upon Hawaii, one of the Sandwich Islands, on the 15th of October, destroying a great many houses and other property. Accepting the generally received theory that these phenomena are caused by earthquakes , we may expect intelligence of another great calamity about that date in some country bordering on the Pacific from which we have yet received no advices. But the disturbance may have arisen in the bed of the ocean, in which case, unless a stray sailing vessel chanced to be within reach of it, no account of the phenomenon may ever come to us.

New York Tribune, November 17, 1868.

19C American Botanist Maria Louisa Tallant Owen (1825-1912)

Maria Louisa Tallant Owen was an American botanist who compiled a detailed record of 19th century flora and algae on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. She was born in 1825, to Nancy Coffin Tallant and Eben Weld Tallant and was from a long line of wealthy New England Lineage including Benjamin Franklin. Maria got her early education at home and then in private schools in Nantucket. She gained her interest in botany early, often educated about plant life by her other female family members. 

Much like many of our other female botanists, her early and in-depth education drew her to the field which resulted in her leaving for Boston to teach. Around 1840, she spent quite a few years teaching at the Perkins Institution for the Blind. This is where she met her husband. However, before marrying him, she moved home to teach in her own private school then continued to teach at Nantucket High School. While in Nantucket she spent a lot of time collecting, noting, and researching local flora.

In 1853, she married Dr. Varillas L. Owen. He had gained his education from Harvard Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. They moved into a large home on Mulberry Street and Union Street. Her life in Springfield is where her intellectual career took off. 

She continued teaching in schools in the area, usually specializing in a variety of science courses and French courses. Varillas and Maria had two children, Walter and Amelia. Walter would grow up to attend MIT and became an architect. He died in 1896. 

Owen was instrumental in the founding of 2 botanical societies, the Connecticut Valley Botanical Society and the Springfield Botanical Society. She helped organize the first in 1873, and served as its secretary. The group remained viable for about 25 years, and held its 1st annual meeting in Amherst, Massachusetts on October 1, 1873. The Springfield Botanical Society was established in 1877, and consisted of weekly meetings with members contributing specimens from near and far for their own herbarium. Owen was president of this group for many years and known as its honorary president until she died.

She also founded a Shakespeare society. She spent a lot of time maintaining contact with botanical societies across the US including the Torrey Botanical Club. She also spent a lot of time traveling to Europe to collect plants and send many of them home to her friends or other botanists. It is reported that she said, "I owe half the happiness of my life directly, and most of the other half indirectly, to the study of botany."

Maria is most remembered for her contribution to the botanical field because of her Catalogue of Plants Growing without Cultivation in the County of Nantucket and Catalogue of Plants Growing without Cultivation in the County of Nantucket, Massachusetts which was published in 1888. The first work was a smaller list of what was later published in the second work. This work, mostly based off of her early collections included 787 species and varieties of plants. She regularly consulted with other botanists and scientists to ensure her work was correct (when needed). She also published several small articles and notes on local flora in Springfield during the 50 years she was in the town.

Ten years after her husband's death, in 1907, Maria left her residence in Springfield to return home to Nantucket. She continued to aid in research and botany until her death. In 1912, she died at her daughters home in Plandome, Long Island.

See:

 

• Nantucket plants. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club (1872) 6:330.
• Catalogue of plants growing without cultivation on the Island of Nantucket, 38–47. In: Edward K. Godfrey, the Island of Nantucket, What it was and what it is. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1882.
• Notes on Corma Conradii, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club (1884) 11:117.
• A catalogue of plants growing without cultivation in the county of Nantucket, Mass. Gazette Printing Company, 1888.
• Tillaea Simplex. Bot. Gazette (1895) 20: 80–81.
• The Connecticut Valley Botanical Society. Rhodora (1899)1:95-96
• Ferns of Mt. Toby, Massachusetts. Rhodora (1901) 3:41-43
• The early work of the Springfield Botanical Society. (1907) 4 p. unnumbered. In: The Thirtieth Annual Report of the Springfield Botanical Society, Springfield, Mass.
• The three adventive heaths of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Rhodora (1908) 10:173-179.
• Frederick William Batchelder. Rhodora (1912) 14: 41–45.
• Tillaea in Nantucket. Rhodora (1912) 14: 201-2014

The Japonisme Effect on 19C American Fashion

Alfred Wordsworth Thompson (1840 – 1896) The Japanese Lady

Japonisme, a French term also used in English, refers to the influence of the arts of Japan on those of the West. The word was first used by Jules Claretie in his book L'Art Francais en 1872. The widespread interest in all things Japanese--art, furnishings, costume, etc.--blossomed after the opening of Japan to Western trade in 1853-54. Western woman began adopting Japanese fashions & portrait painters were excited by the new color & patterns these costumes presented. The color harmonies, simple designs, asymmetrical compositions, & flat forms of Japanese wood block prints strongly influenced the composition of Impressionist & Post-Impressionist art. Parasols, fans, kimonos, and even goldfish were staples of artists adopting some elements of Japonisme.

Arvid Nyholm (1866 – 1927) Young Woman in Kimono

Helen Maria Turner (1858 – 1958) Girl With Lantern

Joseph Rodefer DeCamp (1858 – 1923) The Blue Mandarin Coat

Lee Lufkin Kaula (1865 – 1957 The Green Shade

Lee Lufkin Kaula (1865 – 1957) The Silk Kimono

Lillian Mathilde Genth (1876 – 1953) Woman with a Japanese Lantern

Marguerite Stuber Pearson (1898 – 1978) The Music Room

Susan Ricker Knox (1874 – 1959) Japanese Tea Party

William Chadwick (1879 – 1962) Woman in Kimono

Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862 – 1938) Cutting Origami

Guy Rose (1867-1925) Blue Kimono

Robert Lewis Reid (1862-1939), Blue and Yellow

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Japanese Print 1898

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) The Japanese Book 1900

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) The Kimono 1895

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Blue Kimono 1798

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Girl in a Japanese Kimono

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Peonies 1897

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Study of a Girl in a Japanese Dress

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) The Black Kimono

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Woman in Kimono Holding a Japanese Fan

William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) Study for Making Her Toilet 1892

Richard Edward or Emil Miller (1875-1943) )  Woman with Umbrella.

Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia in 1895

Godey’s Lady’s Book of July, 1895, Reported on Philadelphia's Betsy Ross House

The Stars and Stripes -- Betsy Ross House

On Arch Street, below Third, in Philadelphia, there nestles between the towering walls of two big buildings a quaint two-and-a-half story brick house. Its steep, shingled roof and dormer windows, together with its diminutive size, mark it as belonging to a period long gone by; and a glance at its interior confirms the impression. This house is over two hundred years old. The bricks, of which it is largely built, came over in the ship Welcome; and tradition has it that William Penn himself laid part of the walls. This was the second house of its kind to be put up in Philadelphia, the first being Penn’s own cottage, not many years since removed from a nearby site to a more conspicuous one in Fairmount Park.

But besides its age the Arch Street house has claims to distinction which make it historic in the truest sense of the term. Few buildings are as deserving of the patriotic interest of every loyal American as this; for within its walls was made the first flag of the United States.

The passer-by would, in most cases, remain in ignorance of the history of the place were it not for a gayly-painted board beside the broad, low doorway, which informs all that this was the birthplace of the Stars and Stripes. More than half of the front of the building is occupied with a show-window in which are displayed smokers’ articles. In fact, the house is used as a tobacconist’s shop by its present occupant, yet it is to her credit that, for over half a century, she and her family have kept the building intact, and, with a patriotic instinct worthy of emulation, have scrupulously preserved every fixture and bit of interior furnishing.

When I went there recently and told Mrs. Mund that I wished to look over the house, she seemed to take the request as a personal compliment to herself and immediately led the way into the back room, in which the flag was cut and sewed together. The doorway through which we passed, in its construction gave the key-note to the whole interior. Dark with age, with worn panels of broad boards and with its iron latch still in place, it swung on its right-angled hinges as easily as though it had been put up a year ago instead of two centuries and more past. The sunken heads of the old-fashioned, hand-wrought nails by which the hinges were made fast to door and frame attested to the fact that no change had been made here since that time when the Continental generals passed in to see Betsy Ross , the owner of the house, probably stooping their heads to do so.

The reason for choosing stars and stripes as the distinctive marks of the American flag is somewhat doubtful. The weight of opinion seems in favor of the idea, however, that, in so far as the stars are concerned, they were suggested by the Washington coat of arms, which bore on the upper part of its shield three stars. But as the stars thus shown have but five points an acceptance of that theory would render it very improbable that Washington or anyone else should have made the mistake of drawing six-pointed stars in the pattern presented to Betsy Ross .

The Rev. A.N. Whitmarsh, writing of the origin of the flag, says: “The idea was taken from the constellation Lyra, a northern group of stars, harp-like in shape, suggesting harmony. This group contains the colony number thirteen, and on the flag represents as a constellation unity and similarity. Animals were not considered appropriate, crosses suggestive of popish idolatry, white suns and moons were indicative of Mohammedanism. These were ruled out by the committee [of Congress], and the stars unanimously adopted.” The explanation is, at least, entirely reasonable.

In regard to the stripes, it is not improbable that they were suggested by the banner of the Dutch Republic, which in part was the flag under which the Continental soldiers of New York were marching. Washington’s coat of arms, with its bars, also may have given the idea to the designer. The colors were happily selected for their sharp contrast with each other. Their meaning has been variously explained, but upon this point I cannot see that there is any certainty.

The admission into the Union of Vermont in 1791 and of Kentucky in 1792 led to the passage of an act in 1794 providing for an increase of two stars and two stripes in the original flag; and on May 1, 1795, this act took effect. Under this flag were won the glorious naval victories of the war of 1812.

April 4, 1818, another act relating to the flag was passed, and the admission of Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana was indicated by the addition of a star for each of the new States, the stripes reverting to the first number, thirteen. This act included the further provision “that on the admission of every new State into the Union one star be added to the union of the flag, and that such addition shall take, effect on the fourth of July next succeeding such admission.” The act was approved April 4, 1818.

Since that time the changes in the pattern of the flag have been only minor ones, such as the modification of the shape of the union, it now being rectangular instead of, as formerly, square. Stars have dotted the field more thickly as new States have been created, but Betsy Ross’ s flag remains to all intents and purposes. Whether waving aloft in the sea breezes over one of our speedy cruisers or floating from the flag-staff of a frontier post, it is yet the banner of a nation whose heart throbs at the sight of it and whose life-blood would run in its defence. For one hundred and eighteen years it has been the banner of liberty and of the most enlightened nation of the world.

Betsy Ross House As It Appeared in Late-19C Philadelphia

Caption on this stereo card reads: Birthplace of Old Glory, Betsy Ross House, Philadelphia, Pa. Copyright, 1909, by Stereo-Travel Co.

Cooking Eggs in 19C America

Godey’s Lady’s Book, October, 1889
Household Department: A Chapter on Eggs
Edited By Mrs. I.D. Hope, Teacher of Cookery in the Public Schools of New York.

Eggs are very nutritious and contain about as much flesh-forming and heat-giving substances as an equal weight of beef. They contain all the elements necessary for animal life, the young chick being developed from them—although in this case the shell is also used, the mineral matter, which is chiefly carbonate of lime, being absorbed.

The shell is porous, the air being conveyed in this way to the young bird during the process of hatching. It is this, also, which causes the egg to spoil, and anything which will seal up the pores and so prevent the air from entering, will effectually, preserve the egg—provided, it is applied while the egg is perfectly fresh.

The albumen of the egg is enclosed in layers of thin-walled cells, that break up during the process of beating, and this albumen, owing to its glutinous nature, catches and holds the air and increases very largely in bulk. It is this property of holding the air which causes eggs to make cake and pastry light.

Eggs, to be wholesome, should be fresh. To tell a stale egg from a fresh one, drop them carefully in a basin of cold water, those which lie on the side are good; those which stand on end are stale, or hold them upright between the thumb and finger of the right-hand before a lighted candle, and with the left-hand shade the eye, if the white looks clear, and the yolk is distinct, the egg is good; if stale, it will look clouded, and the outline of the yolk will not be distinct.

The shepherds of Egypt cooked eggs without the aid of fire. They placed them in a sling and turned it so rapidly that the friction of the air heated them sufficiently.

Have ready a sauce-pan of boiling water; put the eggs into it with a spoon, letting the spoon touch the bottom of the sauce-pan before it is withdrawn to prevent breaking; let them stand where the water will keep hot but not boil, from six to ten minutes. The white will be soft and creamy and the yolk soft but not liquid. In boiling eggs do not cook more than six at a time as more will lower the temperature of the water too much. The eggs should be well covered,and the lid of the sauce-pan fit closely.

Hard-Boiled Eggs.
Cook them in water just below the boiling point, one-half hour. Eggs cooked in this way are dry, mealy and easily digested. Cooked, as many cook them, ten minutes in boiling water they are tough, leathery and almost perfectly indigestible.

Poached Eggs.
Have a deep pan half full of boiling salted water. Allow one teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of vinegar to every quart of water.Eggs to poach well should be at least twenty-four hours old. Break each egg separately in a saucer and slip it carefully into the water and keep it gently simmering until the white is set and a white film has formed over the yolk. Take up carefully with a skimmer and serve on toasted bread, or on slices of ham or bacon. When the egg is slipped into the water the white should be gathered together to keep it in a round shape or a cup may be turned over it for half a minute.

Poached Eggs A La Creme.
Poach as above. Prepare a cream sauce with one tablespoonful of butter, one of flour, one cup of milk and seasoning to taste. Pour it over the eggs and toast; sprinkle a little finely chopped parsley over the dish and serve immediately.

Baked Eggs.
Butter an earthen dish and break in as many eggs as will cover the bottom of the dish; put a small piece of butter on each egg, dust lightly with salt and pepper, and bake in the oven until the whites are set.

Omelet.
Four eggs, two tablespoonfuls of milk, on spoonful of salt, a dash of pepper. Beat the yolks until light-colored and thick, add the milk,salt and pepper, mix thoroughly, then stir in lightly the whites which have been beaten stiff and dry. Put a large teaspoonful of butter in a clean frying-pan and when it bubbles all over,pour in the omelet. Slip a broad bladed knife under to keep it from burning in the middle.Lift the pan from the hottest part of the fire, and when lightly browned underneath, put it on the oven grate to dry the top. When a knife put in the center will come out clean, run the knife around the edge, fold carefully and turn out on a hot platter. Serve at once. Add a half-cupful of chopped veal or chicken, stewed tomatoes, or sliced raw tomatoes, oysters which have been parboiled and drained or clams chopped fine,may be spread on the omelet before folding, making a fancy omelet and taking the name of the added ingredient.

Jelly Omelet.
Allow an even tablespoonful of powdered sugar to each egg and omit the pepper. When ready to fold put three tablespoonfuls of any fruit, jam or jelly, fold and sprinkle with sugar.

Orange Omelet.
Three eggs, three even tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the grated rind and half the juice of an orange. Beat the yolks, add the sugar, rind and juice. Stir in lightly the beaten whites and cook as in preceding recipes. Fold,turn out on a hot platter, dredge thickly with powdered sugar and score across both ways—forming squares, with a clean red-hot poker. The burnt sugar gives a fine flavor. For a change,cut the orange in small pieces, removing the tough skin and seeds, sprinkle with sugar, fold,dredge sugar over the top and serve.

Omelet Soufflé.
Beat the yolks of two eggs until smooth and thick, add two rounded tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, and one-half teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat the whites of four eggs until stiff and dry,and stir them lightly into the yolks. Pour lightly into a well-buttered baking-dish, dredge with powdered sugar, and cook in a moderate oven till well puffed-up and a straw comes out clean.It will take ten or twelve minutes. Serve at once or it will fall.

Plain Omelet.
Beat two eggs lightly-enough to break them up. Add one spoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and one tablespoonful of milk. Pour in a hot-buttered pan and cook, as in omelet number one.

Creamy Omelet.
Pour one-half cupful of boiling milk over one cupful of bread crumbs, and let stand until cool.Beat the yolks of three eggs, add the soaked bread, season with salt and pepper. Add the beaten whites, pour into a hot pan, in which a large teaspoonful of butter has been melted,cook slowly until a delicate brown, dry the top in the oven turn out on a hot platter and serve.This omelet will not fall but is delicate and tender when cold.

Pickled Eggs.
Remove the shells from hard boiled eggs and put them carefully in a jar. Pour over them boiling vinegar which has been well seasoned with salt, pepper-corn, cayenne, mustard-seed, allspice and mace. When cold seal up. They will be fit for use in two weeks, but will be better if allowed to stand a month.

Scrambled Eggs.
Beat two eggs slightly, add three tablespoonfuls of milk, salt and pepper to taste. Turn into a hot-buttered pan and cook quickly, stirring all the time until like custard. Serve on toast. If cooked too long or allowed to stand a moment without stirring it will be tough and dry.

Fried Eggs.
Have a small frying pan with enough clear hot fat in it to cover an egg. Drop each egg carefully into the fat, dip the fat with a spoon and pour it over the eggs until a white coating forms. Serve with bacon or ham. The fat in which the bacon or ham has been cooked is best for frying eggs.

Macaroni With Eggs.
Break half a pound of macaroni into small pieces and cook for twenty minutes in salted boiling water; drain, put into an earthen dish and pour over it a cupful of white sauce into which has been stirred three heaping tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, two well-beaten eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Cut one large tablespoonful of butter into small bits and mix with the macaroni. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and brown in a hot oven.

Deviled Eggs.
Six eggs, one slightly rounded teaspoonful of French mustard, two tablespoonfuls of boiled ham or tongue, one-half tablespoonful of olive oil, salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Boil the eggs hard, and throw them in cold water for twenty minutes. Remove the shells and cut them in half lengthwise. Take out the yolks carefully. Rub the yolks to a smooth paste with the mustard and oil, then add the finely chopped ham or tongue and seasoning. Fill the whites with this mixture and serve on a bed of lettuce.

Coddled Eggs.
One cup of scalded milk, four eggs, two tablespoonfuls of butter, salt and pepper to taste.Beat the eggs slightly, add milk, butter, salt and pepper. Set the pan containing the mixture in boiling water and stir constantly until quite thick. Serve on rice or toast.