dinner, the decoration must consist of 
centerpiece only. Care must be taken, 
too, that the table is not “ cluttered up” 
with unnecessary dishes; many excel¬ 
lent housekeepers fall into this error. 
The little bone plates that we were all 
buying a few years ago have now disap¬ 
peared ; they are out of date. A multi¬ 
plicity of small dishes, containing pickles 
or relishes, is also a mistake, detracting 
from the appearance of the table. 
Ip we used ilowers on the Thanksgiv¬ 
ing table, we should certainly select 
chrysanthemums, either yellow or pink. 
But if the woods must supply material, 
a combination of evergreen ferns, bronze 
leaves, and the red berries of Bitter¬ 
sweet or Climbing waxwork may be 
most attractively arranged. A low 
basket of rough braid, loosely filled 
with these materials, and surrounded 
by a fiat garland of leaves and berries, 
laid on the cloth, is pretty, or the 
foliage may be stuck into a firm mound 
of moss, arranged on a flat dish, the 
outer row of ferns drooping over on the 
cloth. The centerpiece should always be 
low. If there be room, some loose gar¬ 
lands of leaves may be laid on the cloth, 
between the dishes. 
In arranging the table, care must be 
taken to avoid unsuitable material, such 
as ribbon or tinsel; it always gives a 
cheap look. And put the dishes on “ just 
so no matter how plain both crockery 
and linen may be, a good effect can al¬ 
ways be produced by accurate neatness 
and perfect cleanliness. And don’t make 
the dinner too long or too ambitious in 
the multiplicity of the dishes ; better a 
simple arrangement, well served, at 
which the hostess may sit with easy 
mind. Be sure that no difficult dishes 
are attempted, for the first time ; they 
have such an exasperating trick of fail¬ 
ing at the critical moment; better 
familiar viands, often rehearsed. Let 
the hostess have a chance to give thanks, 
as well as the guests. 
ANGELICA’S MAKING-OVER. 
N OT the prosaic making-over of old 
gowns that absorbs the best efforts 
of so many women ; it is not that which 
I think worth telling about Angelica. 
Still, it is true that the great idea came 
to her as she was engaged in the Hercu¬ 
lean task of making big sleeves and a 
seven-gored skirt out of a three-seasons- 
past gown with small sleeves. She was 
discouraged ; and no wonder ! For, in 
addition to the trial of these impossible 
sleeves, the waist utterly refused to fit 
at the back, but just held away as though 
loath to have aught to do with such a 
defective figure. The Angelica of those 
days (now many moons ago) was flat- 
chested, round-shouldered, and hollow- 
backed, with a tendency to prominence 
of the abdomen at which she often shud¬ 
dered as she beheld herself. She couldn’t 
walk far, and she was sallow and ill- 
nourished. In short, though nowhere 
deformed, she gave almost the impres¬ 
sion of deformity. 
used the cut paper patterns, which do 
really fit all figures so remarkably 
well, when we consider that they are 
fitted to a type or a composite woman 
rather than to the individual. On the 
discouraged day about which I began to 
tell you, she suddenly resolved, since 
that horrid back would not be made 
over to fit, she would cease the ever- 
recurring task of trying, season after 
season, to make it fit, and would, in¬ 
stead, make over the back to fit the 
pattern. Mrs. Jenness-Miller’s ideas as 
to correct standing helped her much ; 
but she was aided still more by certain 
directions for overcoming the tendency 
to stooping and to round shoulders. At 
first she stood before the mirror to prac¬ 
tice, and the difference between herself 
as she then was, and the figure which 
she could temporarily make of herself 
by correct posture, gave her a very 
strong incentive to perseverance. For, 
the girl found that when her weight 
was properly balanced, and her chest 
held up and well forward, the extra and 
irritating prominence in front was 
magically transferred to the very hol¬ 
low in the back which was so distressing 
to her sensitive feelings. In a word, she 
found that she herself, and she only, 
was responsible for all her worst defects 
of figure ; merely because she carried 
herself in a faulty fashion. Now, at 
once, the one problem in happy Angeli¬ 
ca’s mind became how to make the im¬ 
proved carriage a habit. You will, 
doubtless, be as surprised as she was to 
find that the two changes in posture re¬ 
ferred to were all that she needed ! And 
she was equally surprised to find that 
the new carriage became a habit with 
one-tenth the effort she expected to 
give. Doubtless this was because the 
correct carriage is the natural one. 
To get a good balance, Angelica first 
brought all her weight on the balls of 
the feet, instead of on the heels. Keep¬ 
ing this constantly in mind, she stood as 
erect as she could, and practiced sway¬ 
ing forward and back (from the ankles 
only) for 10 minutes at a time, once or 
twice a day. Soon she found that she 
did not stumble so easily as before prac¬ 
ticing, and that she could far more easily 
recover her lost balance at any time. 
The second change she found a little 
more difficult in her first efforts to as¬ 
sume the new posture, but easily ac¬ 
quired when once the knack wasgrasped. 
Indeed, she practiced formally only when 
walking on the street, yet was mistress of 
the new carriage in a month’s time. She 
had had dinned into her ears since earliest 
childhood that she should throw her 
shoulders back. But this admonition had 
been of no use to her. When, however, 
some one told her simply to raise the 
chest by using its own muscles, she 
found that, in this effort, the shoulders 
at once assumed their proper position. 
As soon as she was mistress of her mus¬ 
cles to the necessary extent for raising 
the chest, behold Angelica, a “ new 
woman.” 
This is the kind of new woman which 
it is desirable to urge at least one-half 
our girls to be. And it is just as prac¬ 
ticable for any one with a faulty car- 
new women of a sort that would antago¬ 
nize no one, but of whose appearance 
all might be proud. myra y. norys. 
WASHING LAMP CHIMNEYS. 
O F course, every woman has her 
ways, and feels deep down in her 
unconfessed self - sufficiency that few 
have better. Is your way of dealing with 
the lamps better that this ? After the 
lamps have been filled and the wicks 
made fresh and even (pinch them off and 
never cut them if you like, but I want 
scissors to even off the rough edge and 
slightly slope the corners after the 
charred part is pinched off), after an old 
cloth has rubbed lamp and burner to a 
shine, collect all the chimneys and pre¬ 
pare a basin of strong soapsuds, which 
need not be too hot for comfort to the 
hands. Have a pan containing clean 
water on the range ; then, with all the 
freshly washed chimneys set on a pan or 
tray, seat yourself with drying cloths— 
generous-sized pieces of old cotton—and 
rolling a chimney in the clean, hot water, 
dry it at once. One-tenth the rubbing 
necessary in any other method I have 
tried, will give a surface perfectly clear 
and transparent. The chimneys being 
somewhat warm, do not break, though 
the water be nearly boiling, the hot 
glass dries quickly, the drying cloths 
are so little dampened that one will 
suffice fornseveral chimneys. Also, one 
may warm her feet and rest while the 
polishing is in progress—that is, she can 
rest her feet, but I hope that she has not 
the bad habit of frequently toasting her 
soles at the fire, though that is, perhaps, 
less of an evil than going with them 
cold. Now do not ask if I sit by the 
drawer or bag, will keep sufficiently 
clean for a long time. Pouring water 
through a smoked chimney will remove 
most of the lampblack, and make the 
washing cleaner and easier. A wash¬ 
cloth that nearly fills the chimney is 
preferable, if it be of pliable material, 
to a small one, and driers need to be 
about a yard long, that the hands need 
not come in contact with the glass. 
Handle clean chimneys by the extreme 
base or top, and where they fasten with 
a screw, turn it up close, and then back 
one turn to leave room for the glass to 
expand when heated by the lighted 
Wick. P. T. PRIMROSE. 
What the children are to eat is one of 
the perennial questions in a household. 
We may decide on a family bill of fare 
that is desirable for old and young alike ; 
still there are many relishes, wholesome 
in themselves, that should not be allowed 
the juvenile palate. Similarly, while the 
various cereals, in the form of mush or 
porridge, should form a part of the 
children’s breakfast, every child cannot 
eat them. Many of the oatmeal prepara¬ 
tions are found indigestible by delicate 
children, and, in warm weather, this 
particular cereal may be the cause of 
various trilling but disfiguring eruptions 
of the skin. We have known several 
cases where young children suffering 
from such ailments have been cured by 
the change from oatmeal to cracked 
wheat. Where mush or similar prepara¬ 
tions seem indigestible, the trouble is 
often caused by too hasty eating, and 
this is obviated by teaching the child to 
eat a little thin bread and butter with 
the mush. 
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Howie Parties 
And Church Sociable Ideas 
Are made a constant feature in The Ladies' 
Home Journal. Experienced home and 
church entertainers originate and fur¬ 
nish them. A page of ‘ i Home Parties'' 
is in the November issue; in the 
December number there will be 
two pages. Succeeding pages 
in other issues, all new ideas. 
One Dollar for One Year 
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