AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
February, 1911 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 3 
Fig. 4 
Fig. 2 —Bananas. The old Irishman taking his pig to market. Fig. 3.—The elephant is made from a big pear and a small apple skewered together 
and mounted on two pieces of banana. Fig. 4.—Banana pigs. 
fruit be converted into a mysterious pair of porkers by the 
simple expedient of adding broken matches for legs, paper 
tails and ears, and eyes painted with Chinese white upon 
the yellow rinds, and it will be changed at once into an 
object of desire. Let the reader prepare a few such “banana 
animals” and arrange them upon plates with a little colored 
paper shaving, and she will be 
surprised at the wild delight which 
her handiwork will call forth. 
Bananas adapt themselves fav- 
orably to this kind of treatment, 
as several of the accompanying 
photographs bear witness. ‘The 
old Irishman taking his pig to 
market “to pay the rint” is always 
a great favorite. The manner of 
rendering the pig has already been 
described. His master is simply a 
banana with a small portion sliced 
off one end so that it will stand 
erect. <A little piece of colored 
tissue paper makes an admirable 
cloak, to which may be added a 
scrap of ribbon to play the part of 
scarf. The old gentleman’s hat 
requires a word of special counsel. 
It is formed from a small cork. 
gummed upon a circle of cardboard 
for the brim, the whole being duly 
blackened. 
A top-hat is invaluable in the 
preparation of the Welsh woman 
and her cat, which together make 
an attractive dish. The lady’s 
body is simply a banana appropri- 
ately garbed in colored tissue 
paper. Her head is a filbert nut, the crown of which is 
flattened by means of a penknife in order to support the hat. 
The cat is also formed of two filbert nuts joined together 
and supported by pieces of matches. Holes are carefully 
bored through the shells of the nuts in order that the 
matches may be accommodated, and when a touch or two 
with a nut for her head. 
nuts and some matches. 
~ 
TS \%, 
Fig 6 
Fig. 5.—An old Welsh woman made out of a banana 
Fig. 7 
The legs are matches, while the eyes are indicated in icing sugar. 
of the paint brush has supplied eyes and mouth, a very 
weird creature results. 
Other fruit besides the banana may be pressed into service 
with considerable advantage. In the dish entitled “The 
Red Indian,” the body of the noble savage is a good sized 
Turkey fig. His head is a filbert nut with the outer husk 
intact; his arms are’ piecesmuor 
almond; while the river upon which 
his canoe or banana sails is ren- 
dered by means of some pale 
colored jelly. 
The “Old Tramp” dish ex- 
plains itself, being produced by 
a combination of filberts and ban- 
anas. The Elephant is a little 
more complicated, and calls for a 
word of special description. His 
body is a pear, and is joined to the 
head (a small apple) by means of 
a little wooden skewer. He is sup- 
ported upon two pieces of banana, 
which act as legs; while his trunk 
is a piece of orange peel. His tail 
is a straw; his eyes are of glass, 
purchased at two cents a pair 
from a neighboring bird-stuffer’s 
establishment (ordinary  glass- 
headed pins serve the purpose 
equally well); while his ears and 
his trappings are of colored paper. 
The strange “booby bird” was 
prepared in a similar manner. The 
body is a pear, to which, by means 
of a skewer, is fixed a banana to 
do duty for the head and the 
neck. The beak is a piece of 
bleached almond. The legs are skewers fixed into the 
upper halves of too small pears. The tail and top-knot are 
made from colored tissue paper, some of which also does 
duty for the nest, in which a few grapes (‘eggs’) repose. 
It is obvious that the few brief descriptions which have 
been given by.no means exhaust the list of possible dishes. 
The cat is made from two 
Fig. 8 
Fig. 6.—This old tramp is made from a banana; his fire being a few filbert nuts; his hat a blackened cork on a small circular card. 
Red Indian. A banana,a fig, a filbert nut, and some jelly in plate. Fig.8.—This booby bird is made from fruit, skewers, and tissue paper plumes. 
Fig. 7.—The 
