3o8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 23 
^ Woman and 
| The Home. 4 
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FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Dog-collar belts, made of leather 
studded with nailheads, are expected to 
be very popular this season. They are 
shown in all sorts of leather, a favorite 
being light brown elephant’s hide. 
Whether the elephant is really responsi¬ 
ble for this leather, we cannot say ; it is 
flexible, but very firm and close-grained. 
The nailheads are of silver, gilt, or 
nickel, and are arranged just like those 
on a dog-collar. Harness buckles are 
usually seen upon belts of this class, 
though many of the buckles are leather- 
covered. When wearing russet shoes, 
a leather belt should be chosen to cor¬ 
respond with the color of the shoes. 
A great many red straw hats are of¬ 
fered, both for children and adults. They 
are not very satisfactory for summer, 
because so many red straws fade un¬ 
evenly under a hot sun. For children, 
the red straws are often trimmed with 
bright red poppies and bright blue Corn¬ 
flowers, or a combination of field flowers 
which includes poppies, Cornflowers and 
buttercups. The fancy for burnt orange 
has given vogue to shaded flame-colored 
nasturtiums. A pretty dark-blue hat of 
the short-backed sailor type was ef¬ 
fectively trimmed with black fish net, 
black quills, and a mass of orange and 
flame-colored nasturtiums. 
press Eugenie nearly 30 years ago. It 
is a shape becoming only to a pretty 
youthful face. The big picture hats 
worn during the Winter do not appear 
among the Spring styles. A great many 
fancy braids are seen. It is too early 
for sailor hats yet, but they promise to 
be as popular as ever. The crowns are 
not to be quite as high as last season, 
but there is very little change otherwise. 
* 
Little girls’liatshave made littleor no 
change in shape ; wide brims, either flat 
or waved, and pointed or square crowns 
are equally in favor. The square crowns 
are not quite so high as last year. Most 
of the girls’ hats look very much over¬ 
trimmed ; they are loaded with ribbon 
and flowers. A pretty style for a little 
girl is a hat of brown Milan braid, hav¬ 
ing a flat brim and pointed crown. 
Around the under side of the brim, just 
showing beyond it. is a pleating of pale 
yellow ribbon velvet one inch wide. The 
trimming consists of brown ribbon vel¬ 
vet one inch wide, made into bows of six 
long loops, drawn tightly together in 
the center ; some bunches of yellow cow¬ 
slips are looped into the bows on the 
right side. Wild flowers are always pre¬ 
ferred for children's hats; daisies, clo¬ 
ver, buttercups, poppies, primroses, dog 
roses and cowslips are very popular, 
while double roses are seen only upon 
the headgear of their elders. A child's 
hat may be prettily trimmed (without 
the pleating around the edge) with 3 % 
yards of ribbon velvet and a bunch of 
flowers, costing, including the hat of 
Milan braid, about S3.25. The same hat. 
ready trimmed with precisely the same 
materials, will cost from $4.25 to $4.75. 
As most of the stores will trim a hat 
with materials purchased from their 
stock, for 50 cents, it will be seen that 
the trimmed hat affords a fine field for 
profit. _ 
BUILDING A SCRAPBOOK. 
On page 219, one of our readers asks 
for information about building a scrap¬ 
book. IIis question seems an interest¬ 
ing one, and so many correspondents 
send suggestions to T. T. H. that their 
advice overflows into the Woman's page. 
Some excellent suggestions are made as 
follows : 
The trouble with the unevenness of 
the leaves after pasting the scraps in the 
book can easily be got rid of. Have 
ready some soft newspapers—so that 
they w r ill absorb moisture quickly—and 
place one of these under the leaf and 
one above the scrap as soon as pasted in; 
then close the. book carefully and place 
it under pressure. It is best to take five 
or six folds of the papers, so as to have 
absorbent enough, and they should be 
folded smoothly. The soft paper not 
only absorbs the moisture, but prevents 
it from spreading to the other leaves of 
the book and making them uneven, as it 
would do. The papers should be changed 
several times, replacing them with other 
papers of the same kind, but perfectly 
dry. On the desk, as I write, is a scrap¬ 
book in which two scraps were pasted an 
hour ago. It is under the two volumes 
of the Standard Dictionary, and to be 
sure of pressure enough, Lippincott’s 
Gazetteer is on top. The papers have 
been changed twice, and will, probably, 
be changed twice more. Good flour paste, 
made properly, answers every purpose. It 
is well to paste quickly, so as to prevent, 
as much as possible, the expansion of 
the scrap by the moisture. R. J. B. 
I can give T. T. H. a much better plan, 
and something more easily managed. 
Several years ago, I procured Foster's 
Scrap Holder. I bought a pack of cheap 
envelopes, and marked them Peas, Poul¬ 
try, Corn, etc. Everything of value I 
cut out and placed in an envelope under 
its separate head, and put in “P” or “C” 
department of the holder. I never have 
any trouble finding just what I want in 
a moment. These holders can be ob¬ 
tained from Rev. Elon Foster, D. D., 
147 Ilewes Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. j. c. l. 
I have practiced, for many years, the 
cutting out and preservation of scraps 
on a great variety of subjects, and have 
made up a number of scrapbooks. What¬ 
ever kind of paste is used, do not spread 
it on the whole back of the scrap, but 
only on the edges; a line of paste one- 
eighth inch wide is quite enough, and it 
can best be put on with a very narrow 
bristle brush, such as are sold as mark¬ 
ing brushes. It takes less paste and 
less time, the fingers can be kept 
comparatively clean, and the pages 
are not badly cockled, in fact they are 
almost perfectly smooth. Do not put 
all subjects in one book. Have one book 
for dairy matters, another for fruits, 
another for fertilizers, another for tools, 
etc. 
Don’t be in a hurry about making up 
The flowers really are beautiful, even 
though they arc not very true to nature. 
Blue and green being a favorite combi¬ 
nation, these hues are much used in mil¬ 
linery. Cornflowers are extremely popu¬ 
lar, and they are often combined with 
bright green grasses. Wreaths of deep 
blue Cornflowers and vivid green Quak¬ 
ing grass are seen among the handsomest 
trimmings. A vivid flaming shade called 
burnt orange is very fashionable in mil¬ 
linery, and many flowers are seen in this 
tint, regardless of their natural hue. 
Burnt orange is often combined with 
blue, sometimes very attractively — 
sometimes with very startling effect. 
* 
Most of the new hats displayed so far 
are excessively startling, but this is 
usually the case in the early Spring. 
The first headgear shown is sure to be 
of an exaggerated type, and it is a pity 
to purchase anything of this style, if 
one expects to wear it through the sea¬ 
son. It is noticeable that flowers, rib¬ 
bons and quills lead in the trimming, to 
the exclusion of the huge collections of 
birds seen during the Winter. Perhaps 
gentle woman really is gentle, and is 
listening 1o the plaint of the Audubon 
Society ; perhaps she is only tired of 
the ornithological museum she has been 
wearing. The sight of a woman wear¬ 
ing an entire pheasant raking fore and 
aft upon a hat tipped well over her nose, 
or a pair of pathetic gray-and-white sea¬ 
gulls with their poor little pink legs 
hanging over the brim, is not an endear¬ 
ing spectacle, and any change would be 
welcome. So we are all glad to see 
the flowery hats and bonnets. 
# 
The shapes so far do not show any¬ 
thing very novel. The short-backed 
sailors, quite heavily trimmed, seem as 
popular as ever. Small toques are 
trimmed quite broadly. The Tam 
O’Shanter crowns, such as we have seen 
for several years, still appear in soft, 
rough straw, and there are many of the 
crowns tapering towards the bottom. 
Rather flat, wide-brimmed hats, having 
the brim pressed down slightly in front, 
and rolled a little at either side, are 
quite novel; this is a French shape, sug¬ 
gestive of a style introduced by the Em- 
Four Flower Pages: 
VIOLET-GROWING AS A WOMAN’S TRADE 
SHADY NOOKS FOR SUMMER DAYS 
UNIQUE FLOWER STANDS AND POTS 
THE REVIVAL OF THE OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 
will be among the Special Features in the 
Easter Ladies’ Home Journal 
Enlarged to 48 pages—this number is, we think, 
quite the best we have ever issued—filled with 
special features of practical worth to every reader 
—and with a wealth of handsome illustrations. 
FOk 25 CENTS WE WILL SEND 
THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL 
ON TRIAL FOR THREE MONTHS 
ALSO, a handsome illustrated booklet containing our 
Prospectus for 1898, with portraits of famous writers 
and small reproductions of some of the illustrations 
that ar# to appear in the Journal in future numbers. 
$1.00 per Year 
10 cts. a Copy 
The Curtis Publishing Company Philadelphia 
