CASTILE SOAP.

The existence of a plague in India has developed some interesting facts anent to the manufacture of castile soap, which has such a favorable reputation from a hygienic standpoint. The prevailing impression has been that the renowned soap of Marseilles was made from the pure olive oil from the south of France, while the truth of the matter is that it is manufactured from common linseed oil imported from India.

The truth came out by peculiar means. When the quarantine was placed against India, it served to Shipcause an estoppel to all commercial relations. ping was discontinued and the soap factories were forced to close.-Dietetic Gazette.

CARD FROM AN OLD AND RELIABLE ADVERTISING AGENCY'S HOUSE.

TO OUR BUSINESS FRIENDS:

We have pleasure in advising you that Messrs. Albert G. Bradford and Jarvis A. Wood were on January First admitted to partnership in the firm of N. W. Ayer & Son. In connection with this announcement a brief resumé of the history of the house may not be without passing interest.

In 1867, Nathan W. Ayer, a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Brown University, Providence, R. I., removed from western New York to Philadelphia to continue in a private school the work of teaching, to which his life had been devoted. In 1868 his son, F. Wayland Ayer, then a student in the University of Rochester, N. Y., followed him to Philadelphia to seek his fortune in busi

In 1873 Mr. N. W. Ayer died, and at the beginning of 1874 Mr. Wallace was admitted to, an interest in the business, which continued until his death in 1887. Henry N. McKinney entered the employ of the house in 1875, and became a partner in 1878. Albert G. Bradford removed from Albany, N. Y., in 1884 to enter the employ of the firm, and since the death of Mr. Wallace has had charge of all its negotiations with newspaper publishers. Mr. Wood's employment dates from 1888, when he became a personal assistant to Mr. Ayer, later assuming charge of the preparation of advertising copy, the engagement of help and a general oversight of inside affairs.

So much for the present personnel of the firm. On the business side it may be added that we have paid to the publishers of this country over twenty million dollars for newspaper and magazine advertising. This now means that the regular order of business for each day includes the payment of five thousand dollars to publishers.

While on the subject of payments it can be said that in this respect we have many a time stood between publishers and serious losses-a position we have never wished for-nor run away from. It might be added that while many of our competitors, past and present, have settled their newspaper accounts at all number of cents (and no cents) on the dollar, we have always avoided such short cuts, and hope that-no publisher will treat us the worse because we have done so.

As our entire business for our first year was $15,000, the fact of growth is quite apparent. We refer to it here only to point out that we have been from the start creators of newspaper advertising. While many of the chips have not fallen into our own basket, our axe has not stopped on that account, but we have been everlastingly at the promotion, encouragement and development of that great business-building method.

This brings us to the last point. We are by no means satisfied yet. We are better qualified to handle business in our line than ever, and we expect to have more of it to handle. We ask from you hearty co-operation, real confidence, helpful suggestions and the best possible treatment in a business way.

N. W. AYER & SON.

EASTER MORNING.

Mid clouds of gold and crimson
The Easter morning breaks,

From dreams of death and darkness
The slumbering world awakes;
In woodland, vale and meadow
The birds' glad carols ring,

And swelling buds and blossoms
Remind us of the spring.

The foaming, dashing river
Rejoicing to be free,
Goes madly leaping onward
To join the distant sea;
In nature's heart the current

Of life-blood's flowing strong, The reign of death is ended,

The world is filled with song.

Old winter's chains are broken, The earth awakes from sleep, And joins with us in worship

This Easter Day to keep, While those with sorrow laden Lift up in praise their voice, The dreary night has vanished, The nations all rejoice.

Oh, glorious Easter morning, The message that you bring Is dearer than the sunlight

Or fairest flowers of spring, For all the bells are ringing, And in one sweet accord They tell the joyful story

Of Christ the risen Lord.

The Easter lilies blooming,

With incense fill the air, The rosy sunlight lingers

Within each chalice fair; And carols sweet ascending Are wafted to the skies, "The Saviour has arisen

And we shall surely rise."

-W. G. Park.

CHAPTER IV.-A SMALL FARM.

"If one eats

Fruits of the earth, rendering to kindly Heaven
No gift of toil, that thief steals from his world."

F there is ever so small a patch of ground belonging to you you should be thankful, regarding it as an important item in your estate. So, if you own a home, no matter how poor, you should feel that it means something more than free rent which taxes and insurance and repairs go far to cover, and is the show-rooms, the factory, the base of operations for whatever you elect to do. A house and its garden mean the most of living; one must have some clothes and some money, but in thousands of hamlets it has been proved that body and soul can be kept together at such trifling cost that Mrs. Wiggin's heroine who was called well-to-do with two hundred dollars a year is no fiction at all. Therefore, if you have such a refuge as this don't leave it. Don't strike out into the world and quit your vantage ground unless positive that you are not forsaking a surety for a chance.

The abandoned farm is a factor in modern civilization not to be overlooked when we are reckoning all the possibilities. The opportunity of securing one is now or never. Seekers for such a country home find them scarcer than a few years ago, and the prevalent craze for a summer cottage rather than hotel life threatens to soon make the whole subject of these deserted homesteads take a place among other myths of our childhood. The pressure towards the towns made these abandoned farms in the first instance. The pressure countrywards is taking possession of them again.

Besides the advantage of growing most of one's necessary food, the farm has another, of allowing one to dress as one pleases. If a woman must be very economical indeed, this is no slight consideration. Another is that out-of-door work is of the most healthful sort, and, if she does not attempt too much, will

do her as great good as tending shop or sewing on a machine would assuredly do harm.

It should not be necessary, although perhaps it is best, to say that few women, and none without the training of years of experience, could farm on a large scale, or raise great crops for market. Almost any woman, with average health and discretion, can make a living and something more by cultivating to the utmost an acre or two of ground. A german business man, living in the heart of an overgrown village, once invited me to come out of the house and see his vegetables. I followed him through the back doorway, in no small surprise, for he had only half an ordinarysized building lot, and I wondered where any garden could be hidden away. There, behind the high board fence shutting out inquisitive passers-by, was a green lawn, with shaded swing for the children. Beyond Beyond that was a sunny terrace where his crops were grow ing. He had one vegetable planted between rows of another, line after line extending from fence to fence, a carefully tended, thrifty looking allowance of "green stuff," amply sufficient, in that contracted spot, for the fresh food supply of the family. I asked the justly-proud owner, knowing that he and his son were busy people, if the care of his garden did not cost more than it was worth. He answered nonchalantly: "O, no. It doesn't cost me anything. My boy and I do all that is done, early in the morning and in the evening. It is clear gain."

This making the best of everything is peculiarly foreign: that is, French or German. It certainly is not American, although there is no reason why it should not be. It is more feminine than masculine, too, to save the pennies, to count the cost, to cut according to the pattern, and make the brave utmost of circumstances. It should be, still more than it has so far been, the part of women to coax profit as well as pleasure out of a garden patch.

If you are one of those blessed people who are the envy of their neighbors, who can make roses bloom on an ash heap, and a mass of bloom run over a clay bank, why not use the secrets to still further limits? Why not, in that same plot where flowers will always blossom, try the cultivation of herbs for drying, or of chives, and cress and tarragon, and other of the more uncommon sorts of vegetables which are not often offered for sale, but are often called for in modern recipes, to the confusion of the average cook?

The raising, scraping and bottling of horse-radish is a horrid, because painfully lachrymose proceeding, yet I have seen it carried on. There are kinds of early vegetables quite possible to force, by painstaking, and the aid of nothing nearer a hothouse than a box with half a window sash set over it. Lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, spinach, cucumbers and asparagus, even if only a little ahead of the regular dealers, always pay for the extra work they have entailed.

Small fruits, their manner of growth and uses, have been exploited in many manuals. Raspberry vines.

spread like wildfire, currant bushes last for many years, and neither require much culture, while the fruit of both, if not disposed of in its natural state, can often find buyers as jams and jellies. Here, once more, let us return to the adjuration to go outside the beaten track. Don't "do up" blackcaps only, but try canning the red Antwerps. These are a comparative novelty so treated, and are a revelation to those who eat them for the first time. Black currants are valued for their medicinal qualities, and a bush of them will not take up a great deal of room. In the same way, if buying grape vines, choose some of the new white sorts that are almost as attractive as the Malagas, and no more trouble than any other to raise. White grape jelly has its peculiar beauty and toothsomeness, and green grape preserve, made of the oldfashioned Concords, is a sweetmeat that looks as good as it tastes.

Even house plants, or the garden posies, may be made to yield a little return for their care. If there is no florist near by, one may often sell flowers, especially at school commencements, and at the holidays where bouquets and potted plants are so largely, now-a-days, called upon for friendly offerings. This is all intended to imply a modest scale of prices and business, and quite apart from the bolder plan of setting up a conservatory, which will be spoken of in another place. Some women, for the benefit of a country church, have been in the habit, for many summers, of sending boutonnieres and larger clusters of flowers to a hotel in the neighborhood. One person could carry on the same industry, and could also, throughout the year, raise slips, pot plants, take them up in the fall, and sell separate flowers, or window boxes, to advantage.

In the house, too, one can raise what might be called a kitchen box or two. That is, such flavorings. and garnishings as parsley, for instance, that many cooks would like to own as a growing plant from which to snip what is wanted, rather than an uprooted sprig to quickly wither and die.

If you already have a cow, you know, of course, how much can be done with her produce. Cream sells, outside the cities, for thirty cents a quart, and is much more lucrative thus disposed of than made into butter. Milk retails at six cents, and there is a chance to sometimes dispose of it after it has soured, either as cream cheese or by the pail. It has usually been thought better to sell one's supply of milk outright to a creamery rather than to attempt butter making. If circumstances are such that it is advisable to do this, really first-class butter will always bring a fair price, for it is one of the articles of food most difficult to find. There is never anything like the amount of superior quality offered that might be consumed if its worth were understood. And, if you do make butter, you can find customers for the buttermilk at two cents a quart. Physicians recommend this drink so highly, and it is so agreeable to many palates that it has become rather a fad. And any innocent whim must be catered to in our search for