FROM DAY TO DAY. 
Among the pretty trifles now made 
from crape paper,are photograph frames, 
the pasteboard foundation being cov¬ 
ered with the paper, laid on quite 
smoothly. The frame, rectangular at 
the bottom, is curved like a graceful 
scroll at the top, and the orifice to hold 
the picture is heart shaped. A small 
twisted cord of the paper in two con¬ 
trasting colors is laid all around the 
outer edge, and also borders the opening 
for the picture. A very pretty frame of 
this kind was made of pale terra cotta 
paper, the twisted cord being terra¬ 
cotta and white. Since the adoption of 
globes instead of shades upon most of 
our newer lamps, the crape paper shades 
have followed this shape, and some very 
showy ones are noted, made of many 
large curving petals, formirg a whole 
like some gigantic tulip. Still, in spite 
of their beauty, we do not favor paper 
lamp shades, because of their excessive 
inflammability, having witnessed several 
accidents arising from this cause. There 
is less risk in using them as candle shades, 
not only because they are smaller, but 
also because it is so much easier to ex¬ 
tinguish a candle than an oil lamp. 
* 
The Medical Record says that out of 
222 pupils in the grammar schools in 
Chicago who attained a certain per¬ 
centage of efficiency, only 25 were boys. 
This would indicate that girls are about 
four times as bright as boys. It is hard 
to understand these things and straighten 
up the rules of heredity. It is, we be¬ 
lieve, the accepted rule that boys “ take 
after ” their mothers and the girls after 
their fathers. If they, the women, are 
the smarter, the boys, “ taking after 
their mothers,” should also be the 
smarter. If the men are the smarter, 
then the girls, “ taking after their 
fathers,” should be smarter. It is a diffi¬ 
cult riddle to unravel. We think that 
the explanation is to be found in the 
greater industry and application of the 
girls. The intense fervor with which 
conscientious girls throw themselves 
into their studies is very noticeable and, 
at this period, they are likely to excel 
the boys. Too often, however, this is 
offset a few years later by a lack of the 
staying power developed by the boys. 
* 
Advertisements offering some prize 
for an easily-solved puzzle, usually with 
the condition that the prize-winner 
must send a subscription to the publica¬ 
tion offering the prize, have been very 
numerous for two or three years. Usu¬ 
ally the publication offering such prizes 
is merely inferior, and not otherwise 
harmful ; but apparently this is not 
always the case. A case is reported to 
us where a little girl answering such an 
advertisement received a sample copy of 
a paper so disgusting in character as to 
be unfit for transmission through the 
mails. Fortunately this vile sheet was 
destroyed by the parents, before its 
uncleanness could filter through the 
child’s mind. But there is no doubt that 
such literature is widely distributed, 
and this one circumstance shows the 
necessity for care in permitting the 
children to answer an advertisement 
through curiosity, no matter how inno¬ 
cent it may appear. Names thus re¬ 
ceived are exchanged or sold among 
the dealers in frauds of every class. One 
of the best safeguards against pernicious 
literature is an abundant supply of 
good reading, on which the child un¬ 
consciously forms his taste. It must not 
be imagined, however, that the need for 
supervision ends with the selection of 
books and magazines. The daily and 
weekly papers must be selected quite as 
carefully, not only as to their reading 
matter, but also their advertisements. 
A paper containing advertisements of 
doubtful character has no place in the 
home, no matter how high its character 
in other respects. 
A MODEST MONEY-MAKING SCHEME 
FOR WOMEN. 
(Concluded.) 
Of course, it is not necessary to get up 
a club to carry on this simple trade, 
though I recommend it when possible. 
It is a great pleasure for a few congenial 
women to gather and work together oc¬ 
casionally ; but one woman can arrange 
with a merchant to take her work, and 
she may be entirely sheltered from pub¬ 
licity if she desire, as there is no reason 
why any one except the merchant need 
know where the articles come from. 
Neither need the sale of the work be 
confined to the holidays. Useful articles 
may be kept in the show window through 
the whole year. But try through the 
year, to accumulate a lot of nice things 
for the next holidays. Keep them put 
carefully away from dust and exposure, 
and by all means, do not exhibit them 
promiscuously to acquaintances, as it 
will destroy the novelty and be death to 
the 6ale. 
C As to the kind of articles to make, try 
anything that you have the faculty to 
make well. There is no reason why the 
woman whose talent produces a first-class 
sunbonnet or extra-nice gingham apron, 
shall not offer them in the same window 
with her friends’ strictly ornamental 
work. These useful articles often sell 
quickly where the more pretentious ones 
find they must wait. Many women pre¬ 
fer buying useful gifts for members of 
their family, and they will often select 
a pair of crocheted slippers in prefer¬ 
ence to a sketch in water color, no mat¬ 
ter how well done. For the benefit of 
those not gifted with originality, there 
are the many women’s papers, with 
their generous assortment of descrip¬ 
tions for making all kinds and sorts of 
things. Some of the homemade articles 
described in The R. N.-Y., as the pretty 
mint sticks, the hampers, baskets, etc., 
made of wooden hoops and matting ; 
the little device for cleaning flatirons ; 
all these are pretty as well as useful, 
and are easily made. 
Articles made of chamois seem to pos¬ 
sess a fascination beyond all others. 
Nice chamois of different colors can be 
bought quite cheaply now, and it can 
be turned into many beautiful things. 
Sofa cushions, made by pinking all 
around two squares of chamois, and lac¬ 
ing them together with a silk cord over 
a feather cushion, having around its 
edge a silk puff (one side of the cushion 
may also be of silk) are beautiful, either 
plain or ornamented with embroidery 
or painting. Chamois bags of every de¬ 
scription sell well; reticules, opera-glass 
bags ; little bags in which a woman may 
put her watch and rings when travel¬ 
ing. The club mentioned above cannot 
remember having left over from any of 
its three sales, a single chamois article 
that was exhibited. Even the tiny pen¬ 
wipers, made and painted in the shape 
and color of flowers, and composed of 
the bits of chamois left from larger arti¬ 
cles, sold readily. Nearly every little 
scrap of chamois can be utilized ; those 
too small for any other purpose can be 
cut into tiny strips to form tassels for 
cushions and bags. 
Embroidered linen articles, as photo¬ 
graph frames and table pieces, sell well, 
if the worker does not value each of her 
stitches as bits of gold, and attach a 
price to her work beyond the usual 
shopper’s purse. Do not try to get enor¬ 
mous prices for your work ; calculate 
the actual cost of the material used in 
an article, and if you can double the 
amount in the sale, it is a fair equivalent 
for the time expended in its construction. 
There is one class of holiday-gift buy¬ 
ers that stores seldom provide for, yet 
this class is a very large one—the boys 
and girls. They seldom have more than 
a dollar to spend, and they usually wish 
to buy with that, something nice for 
mother, father, grandma, and auntie. 
They are pretty good judges of well- 
made articles, and how welcome to them 
are the “dear, sweet” little chamois 
bags, pen-wipers, needle-books, razor- 
cases, and the pretty tissue paper balls 
used for shaving papers, and so simply 
made by folding small pieces of paper 
like a handkerchief, and stringing them 
(at the folded corner) on a stout thread 
until a ball is formed. Several of these 
balls can be made from five cents’ worth 
of paper, and sold for 10 cents each—a 
pretty little profit on the five cents in¬ 
vested. 
Other articles that attract liliputian 
shoppers, are tiny jewel boxes made by 
filing (use a small file) into two parts 
the shell of a big egg, lining the shell 
with wadded silk, glued in, and finish¬ 
ing with three legs and a handle, made 
of large cloves. Remove the little ball 
at the top of the clove, and fill the space 
it leaves with first-class glue, then stick 
to the shell. If tiny Dresden figures 
are painted over the egg, it has the ap¬ 
pearance of a fine china box. Study the 
class of people around you, and make 
some things they are likely to fancy 
and able to buy. 
Let me impress upon all who try to 
make money in this way, the import¬ 
ance of having all articles well made. 
Do not throw a thing carelessly together 
and imagine that some one will buy it. 
Just in this little particular must the 
home work expect to gain its advantage 
over ordinary store products. The large 
stores that employ workers have to con¬ 
sider as money, every moment of time; 
therefore, they can not afford to sell 
first-class work at low prices. But the 
home-bound woman can give her spare 
time to the making of a first-class article 
to be sold for a reasonable price, and 
feel that thus, the time which otherwise 
would have been wasted or idly spent, 
has brought her a most welcome, even 
though it be a small sum of money. 
M LANE GRIFFIN. 
“NEXT TO GODLINESS 
A MAN who had spent months at a 
time wandering in the East In¬ 
dian jungles, collecting rare plants, was 
asked what, in his estimation, was the 
most delightful feature of modarn civil¬ 
ization. His answer was, “ A big bath¬ 
tub.” Dr. Nansen, describing his so¬ 
journ, during that terrible winter, in a 
miserable little hut in the frozen zone, 
makes light of the daily and hourly 
specter of death by cold or starvation, 
but he grows really pathetic over the 
impossibility of washing himself and, 
when he and his companion finally met 
the explorer Jackson, and thus found 
themselves once more within touch of 
civilization, his first thought was the 
contrast between his own appearance, 
black with the encrusted dirt cf months, 
and that of the clean, well-washed Eng¬ 
lishman, exhaling a whiff of good soap. 
Perhaps the boy in that tub, shown in 
Fig 350. doesn’t really know what a lux¬ 
ury he is erj jying. We think there is 
many a man on the Skaguay trail this 
winter, who will look back with home¬ 
sick longing to the days when, seated 
by the stove whittling, or mending old 
Rover’s collar, he watched his mother 
drag out the big tub, arm herself with a 
cake of yellow soap and a big towel (one 
of those scratchy, unbleached ones, that 
raise a sunset glow all over a fellow’s 
complexion), remarking, “Now. Johnny, 
you’ve got to have your bath rigdt 
away.” How Johnny would screw up 
his face, and say, “Ouch! you needn’t 
put all the soap in a feller’s eyes,” but 
we don’t think he really minded the 
operation nearly so much as he made 
out. After it was over, what a luxury 
it was to huddle over the stove for a few 
minutes, with a red-cheeked apple or 
handful of ginger-snaps, before racing 
up to the frosty chamber, where the 
boys nestled down under an infinity of 
patchwork quilts. Mariy a man who now 
bathes luxuriously in a big porcelain 
bath, surrounded by costly fittings, per¬ 
formed his boyish ablutions in a wooden 
wash-tub like that in our picture. But 
it would be lots easier for mother if 
every farmhouse contained a well-ar¬ 
ranged bath-room, no matter how plain 
its fittings. 
X 
We will givfi 
$ 1000.00 
to the person who will 
send us the largest num¬ 
ber of subscribers be¬ 
tween now and April 15, 
1898. This is in addition 
to a liberal commission 
paid for every subscriber 
secured. 
We shall divide $11,500 
among 440 agents who do 
the best work for us be¬ 
tween now and April 15, 
1898. 
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA 
