In This Issue

• Editor's Desk
• Waverly Obsession
• Free Antique Sofa
• The Birth of New Year's Day
• Plan a Chinese New Year Party
• 'Tis Snowing

Editor's Desk

A nasty case of the flu hit me right before Christmas, and so I was unable to publish a second Holiday issue.

While down with the flu I did consult "Dr. Chase's Third, Last and Complete Receipt Book and Household Physician," 1887, for a cure to my woes. Seems that Brandy can cure just about anything! The following receipts from that venerable tome are here provided for your amusement.

Eggnog for the Sick

Beat the yolk of 1 egg with 1 table spoonful of pulverized sugar to the consistency of cream; grate in a little nutmeg; add 1 large table-spoonful of brandy and 2 of Madeira wine. Beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth, and mix in with 1 cup of nice sweet milk. (Ed. Note: Don't forget that raw eggs can make you ill; a non-egg substitute can probably be found in your grocer's dairy case).

Milk Punch for the Sick

Nice sweet milk, ½ pt.; white sugar, 2 table-spoonfuls; best brandy, 2 table-spoonfuls, ice. DIRECTIONS-Dissolve the sugar in the milk, and add the brandy, stirring well.

Claret Punch

Claret, 1 bottle; ice-water, ¼ as much as wine, sliced lemons, 2; powdered sugar, ½ cup. Put the sugar upon the sliced lemons for a few minutes; add the ice-water and stir well for a minute or two, then pour in the wine. Put plenty of ice into each glass as served. For the sick come as near to the proportions as practicable, for why should not the sick have their share of the good things, as well as those who only use them for the enjoyment? These fixtures are only additions to improve flavor, and make more palatable; hence let the sick have the advantage of them by all means.

Mint Tea, Juleped

Take a few sprigs of green mint (if any urinary difficulty, or in case of fever let it be spearmint, as that is more diuretic and febrifuge than peppermint, while the peppermint it the most carminative and antispasmodic), and bruise them in a glass with a spoon-mashing considerably-adding sugar freely, and cold water to half fill the glass, with a table-spoonful or two of wine, or brandy, and pounded ice to fill, shaking, or stirring well, and if quaffed quickly you will think there has been a hail storm in the neighborhood, of an agreeable character-a little of which is not bad to take by sick or well people.

Waverly Obsession, French Needlework

My new obsession is the Waverly Garden Room Vintage Rose Collection, found at Target and online via Amazon. I've got the sheet set, quilt, table topper, and balloon valances. The comforter was a Christmas gift (Thanks Mom!). But some of the pieces are proving to be a bit difficult to find, like the pillow shams.

I'm designing a sampler using some wonderful motifs that I found on two French cross-stitch sites. They are not too difficult to figure out. If you run into trouble, you can use the "translate" feature of AltaVista.com

http://crucifilistes.pressotech.com/symboles/index.php3 (dead)

http://www.anniecicatelli.com/fresques.htm

Free Antique Sofa...

Well, you have to print it out and put it together first. This printable comes from a rare antique book called "American Girl's Home Book of Work and Play," 1888.

I recommend printing it out on heavier paper. There were no instructions given—just cut around the outline and fold/glue the tabs to give your sofa shape.

Click to download the antique sofa [1 meg] (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

The Birth of New Year's Day

By Bessie Beechwood, for The Caterer and Household Magazine, 1883

The winter shivers among the leafless branches, and the bare earth shows no sign of buried fruitfulness. Why should the year begin with such a desolate scene? Why not amid the budding days of Spring that speak not only of beginning, but promise growth and progress?

So thought the ancients, who set their semi-tropical March to lead the cycle of the months that ran numerically, an order still apparent in our October, etc., July and August having been also numbered until the imperial vanity of the great Julius and his worthy successor Augustus, changed both names as lasting monuments of their glory. But long before the time of these great rulers, dates had become "a muddle" from the failure of the civil year to keep pace with the solar year. Crude attempts were made by the civil powers to adjust the matter. One of these was the creation, by Numa, of two extra months: January and February which he located at each end of the year. The first was named from Janus, the god of beginnings, and the second from a feast of purification held at the end of the year, or from the old word fiber, meaning "an end," either of which was appropriate when located as the first designed; but in the year B. C. 452, the Decemvirs then in power, put February second, thus destroying the significance of the name.

So the world blundered along until great Caesar proved his true greatness in the arrangement of the Julian calendar, which is still materially the accepted mode of regulating dates, except by Russia, which has not, even yet, officially adopted it.

The first Julian year B. C. 46, January 1st commenced the long series of "New Year's Days" that have borne such cheer and such heart-searchings down to our own favored era. Once again it brings the clean page and the fresh pen to record the solemn resolutions we broke so easily a year ago. Nevertheless we may "than God and take courage," pressing on to the bettering of everything we meet. A refining touch here, a device of beauty there, a helpful suggestion yonder, until all the year shall breathe out the fragrance of a purer, better life, full of good deeds and self-forgetting charity.

The Snow Queen Blacklock, Thomas B. Click for More Info

'Tis Snowing by Will Carleton

FIRST VOICE

Hurra! 'tis snowing!
On street and house-roof, gently cast,
The falling flakes come thick and fast;
They wheel and curve from giddy height,
And speck the chilly air with white!
Come on, come on, you light-robed storm!
My fire within is blithe and warm,
And brightly glowing!
My robes are thick, my sledge is gay;
My champing steeds impatient neigh;
My silver-sounding bells are clear,
With music for the muffled ear;
And she within-my queenly bride-
Shall sit right gayly by my side;
Hurra! 'tis snowing!

SECOND VOICE

Good God! 'tis snowing!
From out the dull and leaden clouds,
The surly storm impatient crowds;
It beats against my fragile door,
It creeps across my cheerless floor;
And through my pantry, void of fare,
And o'er my hearth, so cold and bare,
The wind is blowing;
And she who rests her weary head
Upon our hard and scanty bed,
Prays hopefully, but hopeless still,
For bright spring days and whip-poor-will;
The damp of death is at her brow,
The frost is at her feet; and now
'Tis drearily snowing.

FIRST VOICE

Hurra! 'tis snowing!
Snow on! ye can not stop our ride,
As o'er the white-paved road we glide:
Past forest trees thick draped with snow,
Past white-thatched houses, quaint and low;
Past rich-stored barn and stately herd,
Past well-filled sleigh and kindly word,
Right gayly going!
Snow on! for when our ride is o'er,
And once again we reach the door,
Our well-filled larder shall provide,
Our cellar-doors shall open wide;
And while without 'tis cold and drear,
Within, our board shall smile with cheer,
Although 'tis snowing!

SECOND VOICE

Good God! 'tis snowing!
Rough men now bear, with hurried tread,
My pauper wife unto her bed;
And while, all crushed, but unresigned,
I cringe and follow close behind,
And while these scalding, bitter tears--
The first that stain my manhood years--
Are freely flowing,
Her waiting grave is open wide,
And into it the snow-flakes glide.
A mattress for her couch they wreathe;
And snow above, and snow beneath,
Must be the bed of her who prayed
The sun might shine where she was laid;
And still 'tis snowing!

Sign Up for Miss Mary's Gazette

Never miss an issue! Sign up to receive announcement and freebies.

All Images & Text © Mary B. Welsch unless otherwise noted. Hard linking to images on this server is not permitted.