230 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
willing to go to the expense, the “ Standard Scroll 
Saws” are the best; they range in price from $10 
to $35. If a hand-saw is used the work should be 
held, edge upwards, to the t'able by means of a vise. 
Fig. 2 is a design for a Hanging Cabinet which 
will be useful, as well as ornamental. It may be 
black-walnut, oak, or ash. It is exceedingly simple 
In construction, and will bear much elaborate orna¬ 
mentation, upon which, indeed, its beauty will 
mainly depend. The wood-carver should have 
thoroughly understood intentions before attempt¬ 
ing to put them into execution, since mistakes 
cannot be rectified and regrets over errors in com¬ 
position will prove unavailing when seen too late. 
It is always advisable for the student to go to 
Nature for designs, where there is an endless variety 
of admirable subjects for the chisel; skill and in¬ 
genuity in adapting such things as may appear suit¬ 
able will soon be acquired. Leaves and flowers are 
the most easily represented, and while we may not 
in wood reproduce the loveliness of tint or delicacy 
of texture, we may very faithfully give the grace 
of outline, the tender curves of the flower, and the 
bolder sweep of leaf. Birds are especially showy 
and ornamental, requir¬ 
ing but little of the 
finer work ; animals of 
all kinds, and even the 
human figure, may be 
adapted to the purpose 
of our ornamentation. 
It is best to start out 
with a well formed idea 
in view, and carry it 
faithfully throughout 
the whole work, other¬ 
wise the effect may be 
fragmentary and not 
wholly satisfactory. I 
have seen a masterly 
piece of work designed 
and executed by an 
amateur, in which the 
story of Passion was 
delicately and beautifully carried out, the carv¬ 
ings were of the passion-vine ; painted tiles still 
further suggested the same idea, and the whole 
work served as a frame to the picture of Francisca 
da Rimini. The absolute consistency of the whole 
was its chief beauty. Scroll-hinges, nickel-plated, 
add greatly to effect where hinges are required, and 
may be procured of any size. The design for or¬ 
namenting the door, or other parts of the cabinet, 
may be furnished according to the worker’s own 
taste, in bold relief or the more easily executed in¬ 
cised work ; in the former case, the wood of the 
panel should be thick, according to the depth of 
the cutting, as the gluing on of extra thickness is 
not to be recommended. The spray of apple blos¬ 
soms on the door of the cabinet is merely a sugges¬ 
tion, but might be carefully handled in low relief, 
especially if copied from nature, so as to produce 
an exquisite effect. In fig. 3 is given a design for 
a border, arranged from Lotus-flower. Figure 4 is 
a figure which may be used for a side ornament. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Dolls’ Patterns. 
Within a few years a new department has been 
added to the illustrated pattern catalogues—a page 
of Dolls’ Patterns. The pattern dealers say that 
little girls find a pleasure in making up wardrobes 
for their dolls, far surpassing any to be found in 
those ready-dressed dolls whose fine clothing is so 
made that it can not be taken off and put on again, 
That this is true, I have learned by my own experi¬ 
ence as a little girl, and lately by much observation 
as a mother. Patterns are useful. Without them 
the little dress-makers are apt to waste their ma¬ 
terials in fruitless efforts to cut and fit dolls’ gar¬ 
ments, and they grow discouraged by their frequent 
failures, unless mamma or some other experienced 
friend comes to their aid. 1 had furnished my lit¬ 
tle daughters with patterns of dolls’ gabrielle or 
princesse dresses, underwaist and drawers, before 
I heard of dolls’ patterns for sale, and the eldest 
had learned to cut her cloth by these patterns, 
using her own ingenuity, with occasional advice 
about trimmings and making other garments. Any 
mother who can cut and fit her own children’s 
clothes can make these dolls’ patterns, which are 
merely like children’s patterns on a smaller scale. 
Yet I protest against some dolls’ patterns offered 
by fashion dealers, because the absurdities of fash¬ 
ion are reproduced here and taught 
to our children, such as the full length 
illustrations of dressed dolls with 
trains or demi-trains and much super¬ 
fluous trimmingand puffing and loop¬ 
ing. It is a pity for a little girl to 
he set to playing with mimic young 
ladies. It is better for her mind 
and morals that her dolls should 
be babies or little children of her own sphere, 
simply dressed in fabrics she herself is able to 
wear. Dolls with costumes of the richest ma¬ 
terials, teach extravagance, do not seem to be 
so much beloved as are the plain rag babies, 
even. I was much interested last fall, in the anx¬ 
iety of my nine-year-old to get her little dollies all 
fitted out with under-flannels as the weather grew 
cold—to see the incipient woman learning to pay 
most attention to essentials, to the warmth and 
health of her children. One of the popular fashion 
catalogues gives patterns of the combination che¬ 
mise and drawers (or cliemiloon) 7 sizes, and there 
are some other sensible patterns. There are pat¬ 
terns for baby dolls, but none especially for little 
girl-dolls, though the sack and basque patterns 
may be used for all ages, and the dress patterns 
may be shortened in length. Mothers have this 
matter much in their own hands—whether to train 
up their daughters to dress their children accord¬ 
ing to the rules of health and simplicity and econo¬ 
my, with reference always to good taste and genu¬ 
inely artistic effects ; or to let them grow up with 
no idea of feminine dress except as a means for 
displaying the greatest possible variety of fabrics 
and designs in ornamentation, a costume in which 
trimming is the main idea, and which is extrava¬ 
gant in its very foundation principles. I try to 
hope that the next generation of women will have 
been so well taught in the principles of health and. 
economy and true beauty, that the past and pres¬ 
ent absurdities of feminine costume will not be 
tolerated. The dolls’ patterns advertised have 
rather discouraged that hope. 
The Kitchen Wood-Box. 
Once upon a time I delivered a familiar lecture 
to the people in my own kitchen whom it might 
concern, the upshot of which was as follows (with 
some alteration of names): “ I want you, Polly, to- 
empty this wood-box to-day and sweep it out clean,, 
sweeping and scrubbing where it has stood, when 
you clean the floor. I have heard of such wood- 
boxes before, but I never saw one in such a condi¬ 
tion until now, and it must not happen again. Mary 
told me the other day about Mrs. Brown’s kitchen 
wood-box.—She said, ‘ O mamma! you ought to 
see their wood-box. They don’t keep wood in it; 
they keep dirty old rags in it. You hardly ever see 
any wood there, but it is all dirt and paper and rags 
for about a foot deep. You can’t think how it 
smells ! ’—I should think so. I have been in the 
kitchen so little for two months past that I have 
not noticed our box, and now I see that there is an 
accummulation of several inches of rubbish. I 
supposed it was nearly all bark and splinters, but 
when I began shovelling it out into the fire, I found 
old paper and even one or two old rags, and was 
convinced that dirt had sometimes been thrown in 
that should have gone out of doors. Now let me 
tell you all plainly that the wood-box is the place 
for wood only. Torn papers to be used for kindling 
must be put somewhere else. Get a strong paper 
flour sack and hang it handy, and keep the torn 
papers in that. You may as well burn the coarsest 
brown paper wrappings at once,.as they are not 
good for kindling fires, and are not needed here for 
any other purpose. Dirty rags, if not worth wash¬ 
ing (for the rag bag if for nothing better), should 
be burned as soon as possible. All useless matter 
must be washed or burned without delay. And 
now remember, children, you must never shake 
the crumbs from your bibs or napkins over this 
box, nor toss an apple core or peeling into it. Now, 
Poll} 7 , I want you to empty the box once a week, 
on your scrubbing day, and then we can always see 
the bottom and know just what is in it. The pure 
air of the room and the good health of the family 
depend upon this among other things.” 
Thus ended the first lesson, and the second lesson 
should be to the carpenter, who should be told to 
make the box with a high back, so that the wall 
need not be bruised and broken by careless throw¬ 
ing in of wood; also to make the box rather long 
and high and narrow, as a general rule, so that it 
may hold considerable wood without occupying 
much floor space. 
Bringing- the Baby Up by Hand. 
The baby and its mother are both unfortunate 
when artificial means must be used for feeding the 
child. This might be avoided many times, by more 
careful management during the first week of its 
life. The young babe should always be put to the 
mother’s breast as soon as both have been properly 
attended to by the nurse. Often this is not done, 
because the child can not find milk there. But 
milk is not what it needs at first, and the Creator 
has given to the human mother, as He has to 
mothers lower in the animal kingdom, just the 
nourishment needed by the new-born babe. There 
is usually so little of it at first that the baby seems 
to get nothing, but it at least cultivates the instinct 
of nursing, and its attempts in that line stimulate 
the secretion of such food as it needs, in the 
mother’s breast. Sometimes it happens that the 
baby is fed a little at first because its mother is 
supposed to be too feeble to nurse it, and then a 
few days later when the “milk has come,” and 
must be disposed of somehow, the babe is thought 
to be too weak to draw so much away with its little 
mouth, and when this crisis with the mother is 
past, behold the babe has forgotten its first natural 
instinct and can not be made to nurse. All this 
comes of neglecting to study Nature’s teachings. 
I have had no such experience, but I have seen it 
in other cases. Sometimes there is good reason 
why the babe must be “brought up by hand.” 
Fig. 3.— BOBDER OF EGYPTIAN LOTUS. 
