CHARLESTON MERCURY, September 21, 1861, p. 1, c. 3
Flint Hill, Fairfax Co., Va., September 14.

"The excitement of camp life!" What a myth! Catch your youngbirds with chaff, but don't try to sprinkle this sort of husk on the tail of an old one. If you _really_ want excitement, go to a Quaker Meeting, attend a lecture on Phrenology, illustrated by the examination of decrepit old gentlemen's head, spend some Sunday afternoon in the Fish Market--these are lively and diverting amusements compared to the company, battalion, and brigade drills--the breakfast, dinner and supper cooking--the noonday doze, the afternoon nap, the long uneasy night slumber--the dirt, the smoke, the heat, the rain--which make up the sum of a camp day's unrelieved and intolerable tedium.

CITRON PUDDING

Take half pint of cream, one tablespoon full of flour, two ounces of white sugar, and little grated nutmeg. Mix all these ingredients together with the well-beaten yolks of three eggs. Cut two ounces of citron into thin slices, place pieces of it in small buttered moulds or cups, fill them with the mixture, and bake until the pudding assumes a light brown color. This quantity will make five puddings.

Peterson's Magazine. March, 1863.]

Flowers of the South Living History Society

back to FSLHS home

The Home Companion

Suggested method for making worked button holes...

A thread button hole is also called a worked button hole. When done correctly, the worked button hole can outlast a machine button hole.

1. Mark each button hole with a pencil.

2. Using #40 or #50 mercerized cotton thread, baste around each button hole, before you cut.

3. After you have marked the button hole, basted around the place to be cut, and made the cut, your next step is to overcast the cut edges so they will not ravel. Overcasting also provides "body" for your button hole stitch.

4. The needle is inserted under the edge of the button hole to whatever depth seemed desirable and the thread brought under the point of the needle as shown below.

5. Button hole stitches are taken close together, so that you cannot see the fabric showing between the stitches, but they do not overlap. The depth, or bit, of the stitches is determined by the size of the button hole, and the type of fabric used. Naturally, a large button hole on a heavy fabric will have stitches which go deeper into the material than those in a tiny button hole on a lightweight fabric.

6. The end of the button hole which bears the greater strain should be finished with a group of stitches worked fanshape. (This is the end which has the pulling against it.) Make a bar tack, as shown, at the opposite end.

 

 

 

From Peterson's Magazine, February, 1862.