FURNISHING. - 71 



lamp or small chandelier, with perhaps a little basket of 

 Kennelworth Ivy, or other gracefully growing vine, sus- 

 pended from it. Such a light glorifies the plainest tea- 

 table. 



As for chairs there are a great many ways for achiev- 

 ing handsome ones without paying five dollars apiece for 

 them at furniture shops. If a dozen oak chairs without 

 seats can be obtained " in the rough " at the factory, they 

 can be transformed into something pretty and substantial 

 at small cost. They should first be oiled and varnished. 

 Then with some stout sacking or canvas, some rich, dark 

 cretonne, some gimp and furniture tacks, and either hair 

 or wool for stuffing, upholster the seats being careful to 

 fasten the canvas securely in place and to cut the cre- 

 tonne to fit neatly. Even the cheap "splint-bottoms" 

 which cost much less than oak, can be made into hand- 

 some chairs by painting the wood-work black, ornament- 

 ing it with gilt and scarlet lines, and varnishing the 

 seats to be upholstered in cretonne, striped linen, or 

 common chintz. 



For pictures, let us do away with the poor slaughtered 

 innocents that have so long been selected for dining-room 

 walls ! Why is a dead fish with its ghastly open mouth, . 

 or a shot partridge hanging by one leg to a nail, consid- 

 ered a pleasing object for contemplation while one is eat- 

 ing ? " Game Pieces " ought to be banished to the walls 

 of butchers' shops ! In our dining-rooms let us rather 

 have friendly portraits, children's faces, radiant flowers, 

 and living birds and fishes. 



THE PARLOR. 



I place this room last because it is least in every genu- 

 ine home the home that is made to be used and enjoyed 

 by the family. If means are small and best room furni- 

 ture seems to be among the things never to be obtained, 



