scrt a puff between each cluster of tucks. 
The yoke in this instance, must be separate, 
and finished around with a narrow ruffle. 
For skirts, a favorite style is this:—A strip 
like to keep posted. I have not been one 
long enough to think I must twist my hair as 
tight as I can , and hope I never sludl. 
I hope so too. Beauty has a ministry as 
wine color, with crimson braid; black and 
white braid is used together; embroidery 
in parti-colored embroidery silk is greatly 
used. Indeed, many of the fashionable 
bucatiomtl 
annrrs 
WHAT SHALL I READ? 
MINTWOOD’S CONVERSAZIONE. 
I sham, not attempt any wise reply to this 
question, as I, too, am a ymmg lacly, and 
only too conscious of my own lack in good, 
solid reading. In answering me the same 
question a short time ago, a friend gave me 
a list of books. I am sorry to say they have 
none of them yet been read, and I can only 
remember now, three on the list; these were: 
“ Prior's Life of Edmund Burke;” “Diary 
of Fanny Burney,” and “Queens of Society 
but at the same tune my friend told me of a 
book which may prove to be the best, answer 
to the above question. It is “ PycrolVs 
Course of English Reading.” I found it in 
pamphlet form, though it is also in book 
' _ form. It is a complete 
Jp guide for a thorough course 
readimr; 
Fio. 1.—STANDING Co Lt, A ft, WITH THltNF.D ENDS. 
house sacks suggest Turks and squaws. A 
pretty scarlet one at Stewart’s was cut in 
rather broad scollops around the bottom, 
bordered with black and white fringe, head 
ed with one row of flat black braid, with 
short lengths of braid joining it at right 
angles an inch or so apart. 
Fia. 3 .—Batin Ckavat. 
of cloth four or five inches wide is laid in 
small side plaits, stitched liko tucks, which 
form the bottom of the skirt, horizontal 
tucks alternating with puffs; tuck a length 
of the cloth and cut on the bins, in strips 
from throe to six inches in width, and use ns 
inserting. A stylish trimming is formed by 
Fig. 2.—Curir to Collar. 
well as utility. Underclothes are made, in 
suits, with the same style of ornamentation 
for drawers, chemise and night dress. A 
few styles are described for your benefit. In 
the night dress, the garment is cut whole- 
in any style of 
so, with plenty of hooks, 
plenty of time, and this able 
director, one would no 
longer have any excuse lbr 
ignorance. 
But I often think the 
benefit we receive from 
books, comes more from the 
way we read, than what we 
read. I take up a new 
book, and think as 1 do 
when meeting a stranger. 
1 wonder what 1 am going 
to learn from you? And I 
always leant something. 
Even in the worst novel 
it lias ever been my mis¬ 
fortune to get hold of, I 
have found some little good 
thing—it may he only a lew 
lines on one page to be re¬ 
membered, out of the hun¬ 
dred and fitly to he forgot¬ 
ten ; even that may be a 
quotation. 
Time is wasted in read¬ 
ing such a book, I. bear 
many say. I grant that it 
may be. A great deal ot 
our time runs to a worse 
waste than when spent on 
a poor book, though. And 
I never read a poor novel 
when 1 can get a good one, 
just as I never stay with dis¬ 
agreeable people except 
when l can’t help it. Under 
both circumstances— with 
the hooks ami people — I 
always wait for the few 
lines that. I am sure to fliul 
written before I come to 
The End. 
A good novel is indeed 
a good friend to me, and I 
part from It often with tears. 
It is said to be a sign of 
weakness to cry over a hook, 
for we know it Is “ only 
a story.” “ Only a story 1” 
But what mole are our 
lives? 
Whatever we read, his¬ 
tory, novels, biography or 
poetry, it is all the same. 
One gives us its thousands 
of lives; another its few; 
another its one, and an¬ 
other but its tiniest shad¬ 
ows of one. 
“ A book,” “ The Story 
of Yesterdays," .tells us, 
“you know, is all between 
the covers; something must 
Come of it before you got 
through. Certain people 
couldn’t make the books so, if the real thing 
wasn’t; it wall between the covers.” 
Lot us learn to read well, whatever wc 
the fabrics that “ never 
wear out.” You can order 
it through your merchant, 
if he has it not already on 
his counters. 
Cottar nnd CafFs — FIrs. 1 
Ullll ' i . 
These designs may serve 
as models for collar and 
chemisette and cuffs made 
of crape, of muslin or linen. 
If of crape, the folds arc of 
crape, with a beading of rib* 
bed silk stitched on. The 
standing part of some stiff 
foundation stuff, is one inch 
wide, and from fifteen to 
sixteen inches long, accord¬ 
ing to the size of the neck. 
The turned down corners 
are separate pieces set on. 
The width of the trimming 
stripe is a little less than 
an inch. The chemisette 
part is trimmed to corre¬ 
spond. For the cuffs, cut 
from foundation a piece the 
cuff shape ; cover with 
crape ami apply the trim¬ 
ming as in illustration, fast¬ 
ening with two small black 
buttons. In linen, they may 
be made entirely plain, the 
chemisette laid in plaits; 
or the points of collar may 
be edged with lace or em¬ 
broidered. The collar can 
be made separate, to be 
worn in the neck of a high 
waist. With the chemisette, 
it is to be worn with a point¬ 
ed or square neck, to lie 
worn with a neck-tie sim¬ 
ilar to the “ 8atiu cravat,” 
Fig. 3, which is equally suit¬ 
able for gentlemen. 
TriiniuiiiKH for Drrsaes, 
Jackets, A pro us, Etc.— 
Fin. 1. 
This trimming is suitable 
for all kinds of fabrics, from 
cambric to velvet, lt can 
be readily made from the 
illustration. The plaited or 
finked frills each side of the 
cross stripe, are in double 
staff. The lower or under 
side may be of a different 
shade, or contrasting color, 
which gives a fine effect. 
One or both edges may be 
frilled to suit the fancy. 
If faced with a different 
shade, the piping or cording 
each side of the cross piece 
should be of that shade. 
Cap.-Flar. 5, 
For a foundation, cut a three-cornered 
piece of net seven and a-huif inches long 
and three and a-half wide through the micl 
die. Bind it with a limber wire ami a fold 
of silk. The covering may bo made of 
pinked crape, or white muslin, or double 
widths of blonde or tulle, in black or white. 
The outside row of folds is one and 
three-quarter inches wide. The ribbon used 
is an inch in width. The lappets, hanging 
loose, are from twenty-two to twenty-three 
inches long and two and a-half inches wide. 
The folds are kept in place by the ribbon 
being caught on in spiral form. 
Ilouse Sacks. 
Ella asks if house sacks are fashionable 
for ladies and misses. Yes. Also, bow 
made, of flannel or broadcloth ? Of both. 
They are mostly quite loose, with only 
shoulder and side seams, close or flowing 
sleeves, sailor collar, ami square corners in 
front. The side seams are left open up to 
the licit of the dress. They are in a great 
variety of shades. Those for evening are of 
while Thibet or French cloth, embroidered 
in gold braid. For ordinary wear, black 
broadcloth, or ladies’ flannel, are braided 
with white or gold braid; scarlet material, 
embroidered with black silk and jet; dark 
BLIFFKINS’ PREPARATIONS FOTR TPIANKSOIVIlN Gr. 
lieturning Irom th.e City to his Suburban Home, a clay or two before Tbanltsgiving, BlifFltins meets a fashionable 
lacly friend. He wishes he wasn’t there. 
laying a double width of the goods—an inch 
in width after folded—in small side or box 
plaits, ami putting it on the skirt in broad 
curves. A tape covers the top; two or three 
LiiiRcrie. 
The same correspondent also writes 
“ Please give us some pretty styles for under¬ 
clothes. I have a pile of fine, bleached 
muslin to make up this winter, and have a 
with shoulder and side seams. The shoul¬ 
der part is laid iu perpendicular tucks, a 
cluster of four small oues, alternating with 
two wide ones. These are stitched down to 
the depth ancl shape of a yoke, mul a yoke 
is further simulated by having a strip of 
tape, or fold of the cloth, stitched on the 
wroug side, outlining the shape. The full¬ 
ness formed by the plaits ot course adds to 
the fullness of the skirt. The sleeves are 
like a large coat sleeve, with a little fullness 
at the top and bottom. The collar is straight 
or round, to suit the taste, with broad turn¬ 
down corners. The cuffs arc straight, four 
inches deep, with round corners, and fasten 
with two buttons; cuffs like those worn un¬ 
der dress coat sleeves, sewed on the end of 
the night dress sleeve. 
The collar and cuffs arc prettiest with the 
edge embroidered. A few of the yoke tucks 
may run to the bottom of the gown, each 
side of the button hem, and for a blind to the 
button holes, a strip embroidered on each 
edge is fastened on at intervals, between each 
button hole. 
For chemise, lay the front in tucks, with 
button-hole blind like the gown. Straight 
yoke, puffed sleeves, with bands embroidered 
slightly, or made strong with cording; draw¬ 
ers tucked to match, Another style is to in- 
EDUCATIONAL NOTES 
Wlmt are ll»« Northern Liulitn ? 
Joel Grimes, iu answer to this question, 
page 289, Rural New-Yorker, replies: 
“The Northern Lights are the suu’s rays 
shiniug tipou the icebergs at the North, and 
reflected upon the sky. Am I right ?” 
Hattie B., not yet fifteen years old, an¬ 
swers :—“ It is a light caused by the passage 
of electricity through the rarifled atmos¬ 
phere of the upper regious.” 
To Compute ihc Dtmmaur of Cylindrical 
Cups. 
I itavf. searched Ilaswcll’s Mechanics’ 
and Engineers’ Pocket Book, Grocnleuf’s 
Geometry, also Grcenlenfs, Thompson’s, 
Davies’, Stoddard’s and Feller’s Arithmetics 
through, for a rule to compute the dimen¬ 
sions of cylindrical clips— i. e., 1 desire a 
gill, pint, quart and gallon cup. What shall 
be their dimensions, and a rule for the same. 
Will some kind and intelligent reader of the 
Rural New-Yorker answer this ques¬ 
tion ?—W. S. R., Baker's Basin, JV. J. 
Fig. 5—Cap. 
rows are sufficient,; the bottom has a straight 
row sewed between the skirt and facing. 
Skirts are slightly gored in front; full in 
the back. 
Fig. 4. — Trimming for D it ess os, Jackkts 
aprons, Etc. 
sewing machine to help. Also, what style 
of hoods will be worn by women and girls 
this winter ? I am a farmer’s wife, but I 
