11 
Improve tlie Kitchen. 
The question is, wliat shall be done to 
the kitchen to make it bright and attract¬ 
ive, and the suggestions given are intended 
partially for country kitchens, which seem 
to be very often the thoroughfare, if not 
the resting-place for the family. Vines, of 
course, would be in the way in the sum¬ 
mer, and at that time they are not needed 
so much, as the kitchen doors are frequent¬ 
ly draped with honey-suckles or morning- 
glories on the outside, as well as the kitch¬ 
en windows. But in the winter, when it is 
cold and cheerless, on tfte outside, and the 
graceful vines have turned into brown, 
dead-looking stalks, try to have something 
green and fresh in the kitchen. Train a 
vine, if only a sweet-potato vine, on one of 
the windows, and besides, having saved all 
empty cans from canned fruit and veg¬ 
etables, paint a couple of them red; have 
two holes bored in each near the top, 
through which to run the strings, by which 
they are to be suspended over the window. 
In one plant “Wandering Jew,” or a Tra- 
descantia, so easy to grow from slips, and 
which will soon run on the sides, making 
it a thing of beauty; and in the other, 
which must be nearly full of water, lay an 
old sponge or piece of white cotton, over 
which sprinkle flax seeds thickly, keeping 
the cotton moist where they are sown. In 
two or three weeks these will sprout, and 
the cotton will be covered with a beautiful 
green mossy looking growth. 
Save the old kitchen chairs; cut off the 
broken backs close to the seats, also the 
lower part of the legs, to make them a con¬ 
venient or comfortable height. • Then make 
a bag the size of the seat, of some old tick¬ 
ing or other material, and stuff it with fine 
shavings or slivered husks, and after nail¬ 
ing it securely on the seats, cover with 
bright cretonne or chintz, the former can 
be bought for twenty or twenty-five cents 
a yard, and would be forwarded from a 
city store on sending the order, and giving 
an idea of the ground color wanted. Two 
or three palm leaf fans painted a bright red 
would decorate the wall very prettily. If 
the edges are worn, they can be bound 
with some material of the same color. 
The lower part of the dresser would look 
well, if, instead of beirg covered with the 
usual pieces of scalloped newspapers, it 
were covered with a strip of crash towel¬ 
ling, the ends fringed, and hanging down 
about a quarter of a yard or so, and the 
center ornamented with a large letter in. 
red cotton or worsted embroidery. 
Tlie Beautiful Flowers. 
The veteran horticulturist Mr. J. J. Thom¬ 
as, while of a decidedly practical turn of 
mind, has at the same time almost a wom¬ 
an’s fondness for flowers, and he is credited 
in the Michigan Fomological Report with 
these noteworthy remarks which do him 
honor: 
“I am a very plain man, and perhaps 
most of you would not think from a gaze 
at my exterior that I am a passionate lover 
of flowers. But there is nothing in which 
I take greater delight, and from long ex¬ 
perience in farm life I can say that, although 
I have given a great many hours to the cul¬ 
tivation of flowers, the time thus spent has 
been by no means lost. I am no poorer for 
my flower garden. I am richer in all that 
makes my life worth living. And when 
any man excuses himself for assisting his 
wife and children to arrange a flower gar¬ 
den because he has no timeior such foolish 
things, I set him down as one who does not 
take broad ground in matters of real econ¬ 
omy. I look upon economy as something; 
that applies to more than a man’s pocket- 
book. It looks to the health and happiness 
of his family, and it is my opinion that there 
is nothing connected with farm life that, 
has more elements, of true economy in it 
than the plan of spending time and thought. 
among the flowers.” 
— 
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Never mind these over-dressed people- 
If there is vanity in the head, why hang 
out the sign, by all means. 
Half the money sent us on subscriptions will be- 
applied to paying for any premium desired from our 
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Compliments are the coin that we pay 
a man to his face; sarcasm is what we pay 
him with, behind his back. 
