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FROM OUR MUSICAL EDITOR.

BERKSHIRE HOTEL, Pittsfield, Mass., Sept. 22, 1850.

MY DEAR GODEY.—­You know I do not often brag of Hotels, and it is perhaps out of the line of the “Book.”  But, in this particular instance, I know you will excuse me, when I write of a spot in which you would delight.  I wish, in the first place, to introduce you to MR. W.B.  COOLEY, the perfect pink of landlords, wearing a polka cravat and a buff vest, externally; but he has a heart in his bosom as big as one of the Berkshire cattle.  If you ever come here—­and by you, I mean the 100,000 subscribers to the Lady’s Book, don’t go anywhere else, for here you will find a home—­a regular New England home.  His table is magnificent—­his beds and rooms all that any one could ask; and his friendly nature will make you perfectly at home.  Indeed, it is the only hotel I have been at, on my protracted tour, where I have felt perfectly at home.

How I wish you, and your wife and daughters, and lots of our mutual friends, were here with me.  We would have glorious times—­music, dancing, singing, sight-seeing, conversation, &c. &c.  I cannot write much; but I wish you to understand that this is the ne plus ultra of hotels.  Don’t fail to patronize it.  Lebanon Springs and the Shaker settlement are within a short ride.

  Yours ever,
  J.C.

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VARIOUS USEFUL RECEIPTS, &c., OF OUR OWN GATHERING.

Rice for curry should never be immersed in water, except that which has been used for cleaning the grain previous to use.  It should be placed in a sieve and heated by the steam arising from boiling water; the sieve so placed in the saucepan as to be two or three inches above the fluid.  In stirring the rice a light hand should be used, or you are apt to amalgamate the grains; the criterion of well-dressed rice being to have the grains separate.

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ARROW-ROOT FOR INVALIDS.—­The practice of boiling arrow-root in milk is at once wasteful and unsatisfactory; the best mode of preparing enough for an invalid’s supper is as follows:  Put a dessertspoonful of powder, two lumps of sugar, into a chocolate cup, with a few drops of Malaga, or any other sweet wine; mix these well together, and add, in small quantities, more wine, until a smooth thick paste is formed.  Pour boiling water, by slow degrees, stirring all the while, close to the fire, until the mixture becomes perfectly transparent.

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