1884 .] 
AMEEIOAl?’ AGEiOlTLTtrPJST. 
381 
Make Your Home Attractive. 
Can we do too much to make home healthful, 
pure, and beautiful ? It is especially woman’s mis¬ 
sion to do this, and to what nobler work can any 
woman aspire than that of moulding the char¬ 
acters of the boys and girls to become the men 
and women who are to fill responsible positions in 
private and public life. We are often shown some 
cheap, unattractive dress, bought “just to wear at 
home,” and a glimpse is frequently had of some 
wife and mother in the morning, with hair un¬ 
combed, frizzes still in papers, loose wrapper with¬ 
out collar or ribbon, etc. This, she says, is “ well 
enough for home.” In her afternoon jiromenade, 
stylishly and becomingly dressed, we should hardly 
recognize her. In these days, when a pretty print 
or muslin dress can be bought for five or eight 
cents a yard, cambric and satteens in choice colors 
for fifteen cents, or cotton and wool fabrics for 
suits at twenty-five cents, there is little reason why 
a lady should not be prettily dressed when about 
her work at home. If tlie warm, damp weather 
takes the curls all out of her frizzes, a few mo¬ 
ments should be employed after the family are scat¬ 
tered to put them up again. A little more trouble 
and expense will more than pay, if the little chil¬ 
dren are overheard to say, “ Doesn’t mother look 
sweet ? ” Boys, especially, are very early influenced 
by the surroundings of home. Happily the old 
custom of having a “best room” shut up, except 
for weddings, funerals, or occasional company, is 
fast being abandoned. Now the home rooms are 
all thrown open. Sunbeams are welcomed, for it 
has been found, that it is a choice between them 
and malaria, or disease in some form. All the best 
things are not crowded into one room, and the 
others left bare and shabby. Doors are removed, 
and curtains or portieres, hung on brass or stained 
rods, divide halls and rooms. The curtains are 
made of a variety of materials. There are heavy 
striped and figured goods, which come for this 
purpose, but plain goods with broad bands of con¬ 
trasting color are richer. Double-faced canton 
flannel is the best cheap material. Dark blue or 
garnet is handsome, and bands of strips used for 
saddle-girths, or some kinds of coach trimmings, 
are very effective upon them. Often one wishes a 
curtain between a large and small chamber or 
dressing-room. Cretonne is best for this. Screens 
used for this purpose are very useful and orna¬ 
mental, and may be very expensively or cheaply 
made. A clothes “horse” makes a good frame 
when stained or ebonized. If it has three panels, 
each should be different. Painting and embroidery 
are very handsome, but they are expensive in time 
and money. Rich wall paper with dado and frieze, 
if the patterns are earefully selected, make a very 
handsome screen. A small one of plain felt, with 
a bunch of peacock feathers in one comer, is 
pretty. Coarse canvas-work, canton matting, 
painted roughly, or embroidered with coarse wors¬ 
teds; cretonne, with figures outlined with crewel 
or silk; Japanese or Chinese crape pictures with 
velvet borders, are some of the other designs 
used. In nothing does good taste in the home 
manifest itself so much as in the ornamental fur¬ 
nishing. To do without it altogether, makes a 
room look bare and uninviting, even if well furnish¬ 
ed. Too much of it is even worse in its effect. A few 
well selected ornaments for the parlor are in much 
better taste than many cheap ones. Books are in 
place almost everywhere and pictures also, but one 
had better go without the latter until they can 
be purchased one by one from among the best. 
Copies of fine paintings—engravings,can be readily 
found to meet the taste and purse of those who 
cannot afford to buy the originals. Marble topped 
tables, by some called “parlor tombstones,” are 
discarded, and table covers of all descriptions are 
used. Bureaus are furnished with covers, pin¬ 
cushions, handsome bottles, and a jewel-case. Es¬ 
pecially in table furnishing should the best that 
one can afford be provided. It used to be the am¬ 
bition of most ladies to have a plated silver tea 
set, if they could not have a solid one. Now these 
are set aside, and glass and china, of which no 
two pieces need be alike, take their place. Tliis 
involves some trouble, for a lady must take such 
things into her own care, if slie would ])reserve 
them, but is any trouble too mu th to make home 
more attractive ? Ethet. Stone. 
A Circular Flower-Stand. 
Eor the upright center-piece of the flower-stand 
shown in the engraving, use a stout scantling, two 
by two inches at the bottom, and tapering towards 
the top. To this, bolt four hard-wood legs, which 
in shape and position resemble those seen on many 
center-tables. Two circular shelves about eight 
inches in width, are supported by four braces run¬ 
ning through the central support. To keep the 
shelves Ormly in place, run two stout wires across 
the center at right-angles. On the top of the sup¬ 
port, place a circular shelf for one large flower-pot, 
or two or three small ones. The lower shelf is 
three and one-h;ilf inches across, and comes up to 
within six inches of the window sill. A railing is 
placed around the outside edge of each shelf, to 
prevent the flower-pots from slipping off. This 
stand will enable one to arrange plants attractively. 
With casters under the legs, the stand can be easily 
turned around, and all the plants given sufficient 
sunlight, without moving the flower-pots. This 
circular plant-stand may be quickly and easily 
made by any one familiar with ordinary tools. 
A Cellar-Bin. 
The engraving shows a cellar-bin we have used 
for years and can highly recommend. It is twelve 
feet long and four feet wide, with six posts. A 
bin sixteen feet long requires eight posts, four at 
the corners, and two intermediate on each side, 
each three and one-half feet long. A floor is 
nailed on the cross-pieces, and the sides and ends 
are eighteen inches high. The bin is easily made 
deeper by using longer posts and more siding. 
Use no straw, as it harbors mice. Pour in the ap¬ 
ples and potatoes carefully, and they will not 
bruise. Two or more kinds of fruit or vegetables 
may be separated by partitions. The bins may be 
placed against the cellar wall, and a board laid on 
the top at the front, makes a convenient shelf. A 
bin sixteen feet long, four feet wide, and eighteen 
A BIN FOR THE CEXJLAB. 
inches deep, requires two two by four scantlings, 
fourteen feet long, and one hundred and twenty-four 
square feet of inch-boards, each sixteen feet long. 
A twelve-foot bin requires two two by four twelve- 
foot scantlings, and ninety-six feet of inch-boards, 
twelve feet long. J. M. S. 
A Convenient Corner-stand. 
A neat, serviceable, and quickly-made corner- 
stand is shown in the engraving. The top and 
shelf, &, &, figure 1, should be twenty inches wide. 
When boards of the proper width are not at hand, 
nail two narrow ones together with cleats on the 
under side. * The square legs, a, a, are an inch and 
a quarter thick and thirty inches long, secured in 
Fig. 1. 
place by nails or screws. If the baseboard of the 
room projects, the legs should be fitted to it, al¬ 
lowing the top to press firmly .against the wall at 
all points. Tack a cloth curtain around the top, of 
sufficient length to reach the floor. The stand may 
remain pl.ain with no cover, be covered with oil 
cloth, or painted as desired. There may be two 
shelves below the curtain, which will be very con¬ 
venient for storing small articles. L. D. S. 
A “ Smoke-House,” or Smoke-Box. 
An easily extemporized “ smoke-house ” is shown 
in the engraving. An old box-stove is placed in the 
back-yard, with a dry-good’s box mounted on a 
frame close at its rear. The stove and box are con¬ 
nected by an elbow of stove-pipe. Place hooks in 
the top of the box upon which to hang the hams, 
etc. One end of the box serves as a door. The 
fire in the stove is easily governed by a draft-slide 
in front. An opening in the rear of the box over 
the door, .allows the smoke to p,ass out when neces¬ 
sary; otherwise it is closed by a slide. When a 
smoke-house of this kind is once used, we are 
AN EXTEMPORIZED S.MOKE-HOUSE. 
sure no one will thereafter willingly resort to old 
barrels or hogsheads, which frequently are set on 
fire, injuring the meat that is being smoked within. 
Nice Spiced Round of Beef.— Rub the round 
well with a mixture of salt with one-third its bulk 
of saltpetre; let it stand two days and wash it 
off. Then for fifteen pounds mix well together a 
pint of salt, half pint brown sugar, half table¬ 
spoonful of red pepper, half ounce each of cloves, 
mace and allspice, with a teaspoonful or more of 
saltpetre according to its purity and the high red 
color desired. Take out the bone and rub the 
spice mixture all over, inside and outside. Put in 
a crock or any earthenware vessel that will about 
hold it, and turn and rub well with the mixture 
daily tor ten days. If the exuding juice does not 
cover it either make brine enough out of the same 
materials to cover the whole, or turn it over every 
two days for three weeks, when it will be ready for 
use. Stew it slowly all day in its own liquor. 
Then pack in a vessel that just holds it, with a 
heavy weight upon the cover during a night. 
