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AMKRICAN AaRICULTURlST. 
185 
l®ILDo 
(Of" fTor other IloueehoU Iteme, »ee." Hostel " pages.) 
Work-Baskets and Bags, 
rniZK K*»AY BV EVA B. COLUNi!, ItOCUESTElt, X. T. 
Every lady, whetlicra woman or little girl, should 
have a cuuveuiciit recei)taelc for the implements 
which are nec¬ 
essary for her 
use in sewing. 
A household 
work-box, ba.s- 
ket, or bag, is 
a household 
nuisance. Each 
person should 
have her own 
thimble, wax, 
thread,needles 
scissors, etc., 
and a place to 
keep them ; 
and the man¬ 
ner in which she keeps the latter is a pretty sure 
index to her habits of neatness and order in other 
respects. So great a variety in the style of these 
articles lies 
within reach 
of each of 
us, that our 
individuality 
, can in no way 
be bet ter dis- 
cenied than 
in the choice 
^ wemakc.Our 
minister tells 
us that copy- 
Fig. 1.— ORANDMOTUEU’S BAO. 
Fig. 2.— BAQ REVERSED. 
ing is a suicidal act, and that the spirit of the 
aphorism is applicable to the commonest incidents 
of daily life. Why not, then, to our selection of 
an article which presents so great a vaiicty of 
funiis ?—not that he can mean, in this case, that we 
should each have a work-box unlike those we see 
about us, in 
order to ex¬ 
press our in¬ 
dividual i ty, 
for it would 
be but an¬ 
other form of 
the same act, 
and equally 
suicidal in 
its nature; 
rather that 
each should sulllciently understand her own needs 
and preferences, as to have a choice even in so 
small an item as this. Grandmother thinks there 
U nothing quite so convenient as her work-bag, 
fig. 1, the mag¬ 
ical properties 
of which arc 
Fig, 3.— BAO OPEX. 
Fig. 4.— n.vo STRiNOS. 
universally ac¬ 
knowledged ; though none of us would think of 
con.structing such another with a hope of its won¬ 
derful properties being inherent in bags of that 
description, as everything that belongs to Grand¬ 
mother partakes of the same nature. It consists 
of a round piece of box-board, covered, and sur¬ 
rounded with pockets. Turned wrong side out, 
Fig. 5. —^WORK BASKET. 
(fig. 2.) and emptied of its contents, it Is easy to sec 
how it i’ made. Tlic pockets, fig. 3, arc eight in 
number. These, and the inside of the bottom board 
arc of gray merino. The upper edge of the pocket 
is scalloped with dark blue saddler’s silk, which 
is the outside 
color. A rub¬ 
ber cord holds 
the gray pock¬ 
ets so tightly 0 .-POCKET 3 . 
drawn up that the bag stands of its own accord, 
when the strings, figure 4, whieh arc run in the 
outside from opposite directions, are loosened. 
Mother’s work-basket is made on the same prin¬ 
ciple. It is a basket lined w'ith pockets, fig. 5, in¬ 
stead of a bag. The inside is made separately, and 
afterwards fastened firmly to the basket at the bot¬ 
tom of the pockets. 
The top could bo 
simply made fast 
with coarse tlircad 
to the basket, 
though that would 
not look so neatly .... 
„ , , , , , Fig. 7.— BOTTOM OF POCKETS, 
finished as it would ° 
wound witli ribbon over the top of the basket, and 
through the material of the lining, with bows tied 
over between the pockets, where the strain upon 
the lining is grc.atcst, in the way mother’s basket is 
finished off. The pocket®, fig. 6, arc 
made in a straight piece, just long 
enough to fit the top of the basket. The 
bottom of the row of pockets, fig. 7, 
is slightly gather¬ 
ed to fit a circle 
of the same material which 
fits the bottom of the basket. 
Katie has''a standing work- 
basket of willow, with three 
compartments. She has vari¬ 
ous nice little contrivances 
among which arc “ crabs.” 
Fig. 8. 
Fig. 9. 
to hold her work, 
^ A crab like this is 
composed of three pieces of stiff pasteboard of an 
oval shape, two inches iu width by three in length, 
neatly covered with silk, and sewed together at two 
Fig. 11.— NEEDLiB-CASE. 
Fig. 10.— NEEDLE-BOOK, OPEN. 
of the edges. By a slight pressure at the ends it 
opens, and reveals a cozy little room large enough 
for small work, and convenient to carry iu a dress 
pocket. In this crab, which is brown on the out¬ 
side and blue within, I sec Katie has a bunch of 
tape trimming, and 
_ a spool of thread. 
No. 50. In another 
gray and i)ink one 
there is some ruf¬ 
fling, narrow lace, 
and 100 thread; 
while stowed away in the drab crab I discover her 
tatting shuttle, fig. 8. It is one Grandfather made 
from the centers of two old fine-tooth combs, 
placing a couple of strips of ivory between the 
outside i)iecc 3 , and riveting the whole finnly to¬ 
gether. Katie 
says it is en¬ 
tirely owing 
to her sup- 
l)ly of crabs 
that she al- 
w.ays has a va¬ 
riety of light 
work ready 
for any emer¬ 
gency. Her 
needle- book, 
figure 9, al¬ 
though large, j,. 22 ,—work box. 
is approprl- 
ate to her basket, which Is large and roomy. It is 
of bronze morocco, bound and lined with blue, 
with lc.avcs for needles at one end, and a place for 
the thimble in the side of the broad flat cushion at 
the other end of the case, fig. 10. There is a mo¬ 
rocco iiocket between the silk pocket and cushion. 
My needle-case, fig. 11, is smaller, and is therefore 
better suited to my work-box, fig. 12, where every 
inch of space is precious, and accordingly econo¬ 
mized. It rolls up into quite a small compass, 
and lies under the tray, or sometimes in the tray. 
-THREAD CASE. 
beside my button-box. Between these and the 
cushion, is a narrow depressed division for knife, 
pencil, stiletto, buttons, tape, needle-book, etc. 
Tlie scissors, kapc-mcasure, emery, thimble, shut¬ 
tle and pin-ease belong in the division opposite the 
thread; while under the tray is a ball of welting 
cord,box of hooks _ . 
and eyes, case of 
skeinS of silk, fig. 
13,scis8or8’ sharp¬ 
ener, sticks and 
roll of tape, pa¬ 
pers of floss and 
French cotton, 
Afghan needles, a 
crab or two, and a 
dozen l,ittlc bun¬ 
dles of work in 
Fig. 14.— W'ORK BOX. 
various stages of “ 
development, besides a thousand and one other ar¬ 
ticles, which do not legitimately belong to the 
box, yet are most conveniently kept here. 
Jennie’s work-box, fig. 14, which is a tidy little 
affair, is a hexagon of stiff pasteboard covered Avith 
silk—gray on the outside, and scarlet within. On 
three of the side pieces are fastened pockets of the 
same material with which the basket is lined. On 
one side a covered strip of thin pasteboard, fig. 15, 
is fastened for a thimble case, over which hangs an 
emery, fig. 10, made from 
two round pieces of strong 
linen, stuffed Avith emery 
and wool, and covered with 
scarlet silk. The toma- • 
to shape is produced by drawing a double thread 
of green silk six times through the center of the 
emery—each time passing over the surface at an 
angle of sixty degrees from the last thread. A tuft 
of green is fastened Avith the string to the center of 
one side of the emery to increase its resemblance 
to a tomato. Jennie made several such boxes for 
her little friends a fcAV months ago, some of Avhich 
AA'cre A’cry delicate in color—light blue and salmon^ 
sea green and gray—and Avere prettier than her s, 
though scarcely as well adapted as her’s for daily use. 
Leaves from My Journal.—No. IV- 
FUIZE ESSAY BY MRS. B. M’CLELLAN, OF OHIO. 
Jfay.—Lizzie and I have some pleasant chats to¬ 
gether. I made her laugh to-day Avhilc telling her 
about putting up and taking doAvn stoves in these 
premises. That is a job I absolutely dread. I be¬ 
lieve I am very apt to lose my temper. Such fit¬ 
ting of pipes, lugging up stairs and doAvm into 
bedroom and parlor, scattering the grimy contents, 
and bedaubing every door and passage-Avay, one 
calling here and another in exactly the opposite di¬ 
rection, all doors open and all faees aAvry, to say 
nothing of seeing every one lift enougdi to break 
his back in two, I long ago placed it m ' 
endar as a day of all the year the worst. ’iV ell 
well, Mrs. Frisby,” said a poor woman who was 
helping me at such a time, and to Avhom I was ex 
iicipiiig freelv “ I tell you it is 
pressing my mind pretty ire y, 
harder Avhere there are no stoves, and nothin 
put in them cither!” Was not this a reproof for 
;;,y impatient spirit! Formerly the pipes of bo h 
Bittin.'-room and parlor stoves were carried to the 
ch irs above, and after making sundry circum¬ 
locutions, and turning various sharp corners, found 
into tho roarlns aimney. Wb«t t.mcn 
