$6 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



high has been laid off in black mortar, and upon 

 this background music-staves have been out- 

 lined with small white sea pebbles. Upon 

 these staves is the beginning of the fire-motive 

 which is heard at the end of Wagner's " Wal- 

 kiire," when Wotan, the great god of northern 

 mythology, calls upon Loge, the god of Fire, 

 to surround the sleeping Brunhilde with fierce 

 flames. 



The plaster of this big room is purposely left 

 rough, and is colored a sombre red. Across the 

 ceiling goes a big beam or girder a foot square, 

 and were it not for the cold winds of November 

 and December, no plaster at all need have been 

 used. Around the whole room, in lieu of a cor- 

 nice, or frieze, runs a series of silhouettes of 

 life-size heads of friends of the family who have 

 been inmates of the house at one time or an- 

 other. Such silhouettes, if cut out of light- 

 brown paper, show the profile outlined upon a 

 black background with extraordinary vividness; 

 the process of making them is so simple that 

 almost every one has tried it. With a candle 

 and a sheet of paper the shadow of a head 

 is thrown upon any paper screen, and a pencil 

 mark will indicate where the cutting is to be 



