ora 
1 iSnimiei anti Piet or rat 
OHIO 
lOiiijianion. 
HOUSEFURNISHING. 
In furnishing a bouse let all harmonize with your 
fortune and position. Do not have one fine thing to 
set at variance all the rest or draw attention to their 
deficiencies. If you have a rag carpet on the sitting 
room (and what is more home-like and useful?), do 
not have a gorgeous one in the parlor; but something 
neat and sensible. Have nothing too fine for use. 
Cosy chairs, and sofas covered with chintz, having 
large pillows, are really more elegant than still 
hair-cloth or faded rep. A tassel on the corners or 
a cord round the pillows will be all needed to im¬ 
prove them. Study color in buying and arranging as 
far as circumstances will allow. If you do not know 
the proper contrasts, get different shades of one color. 
Do not put dark paper on your walls or dark paint 
on sunless rooms. Let all be as light and cheerful as 
possible. Dark rooms affect the spirits, and also 
bring on diseases of the eye, which needs light to 
preserve its health. 
In arranging the parlor, do not fill it with too many 
ornaments; as it adds to your care and departs from 
the simplicity of true elegance. Be sure that your or¬ 
naments are in good taste. Flowers and shells are far 
better than tawdry vases, full of gilt and glaring col 
ors. A good chromo is better than a poorly-executed 
oil painting. Do not accumulate indifferent pic¬ 
tures, or a miscellaneous collection of fancy articles. 
Some parlors resemble a bazaar of tidies, mats, etc. 
An elegant vase does not need a mat, to mar its beau¬ 
tiful outlines and graceful proportions. Flowers are 
always an adornment, and if arranged with taste are 
fitted for the costliest dwelling, as well as the hum¬ 
blest. In France we saw glazed earthen vases, in the 
form of a cornucopia, which are made to hang on the 
wall like a wall pocket. These, filled with flowers 
and hanging vines, are a very graceful ornament. 
In the sitting-room let comfort reign. There should 
be places of rest for the tired, who seek it as a place 
of refuge. Have closets and boxes for sewing mate¬ 
rials, so that baskets be not the chief ornament or 
piles of unmended clothes. Have wall-baskets for 
papers, and a shelf for books of reference. Diction¬ 
aries and atlases should always be at band. If there 
are children, they should be taught the pleasure of 
examining these for themselves, at meeting with any 
unfamiliar word or place. Be sure to have a conven¬ 
ient table and light, where the family can gather in 
the evening. It promotes a pleasant home feeling. 
If the dining-room is used as a sitting-room, a place 
should be left where the family may sit without be¬ 
ing inconvenienced by the setting and clearing of the 
table. If the kitchen is large, it is much better for 
the family to eat there than crowd up the sitting- 
room, misplace the sewing, etc. A dining-room alone 
need not be encumbered with much furniture, yet 
should have an air of comfort too. Dark colors are 
considered appropriate to the dining-room; but we 
believe in light, cheerful houses, and that quite as 
much elegance would prevail if cultivated people 
would consult their own taste, and not follow the 
often false standard of fasliioo. Americans lack in¬ 
dependence of opinion in social matters, and thereby 
lose a good deal of comfort. Here a lesson besides 
fashion might be taken from Europe, where most 
people seem to choose their dress, furniture, and style 
of living without consulting their neighbors about 
them. 
For the arrangement of the kitchen good judgment 
is required; for it is lamentable that scarce one in a 
hundred is fitted for its purposes. Either the light is 
not where the work is, or the door is where the win¬ 
dow ought to be, the fireplace or range set where 
light could be let in to advantage (we have seen all 
these defects), or the windows open on a blank wall. 
There is only one, or there is a basement kitchen of 
dungeon-like aspect. How can the niceties of cook¬ 
ing be done in such places? Is it any wonder an 
American woman declines the place of cook ? Does 
she find a comfortable place to sit in, or even a chair, 
during her intervals of rest ? Is it any wonder the 
cook finds the alley gate or the street a pleasanter 
resort; or that an Irish girl we wot of declined a service 
place on account of the “back buildings.” Here a 
woman having a taste for architecture might find a 
mission, and call it Kitchen Reform. We knew of 
two ladies who planned their own domicil; making a 
model for the builder out of pasteboard, with the doors 
hung to open as they wished, etc. The builder said 
he had never had less trouble, as he knew exactly 
how to proceed. Why could not ingenious ladies plan 
model kitchens, furniture, etc., and exhibit them 
at Paris, etc. They might be made as attractive as 
the parlor in their cheerfulness and cleanliness, not 
to say cosiness. 
For cleaning regular days should be kept as invio¬ 
late as health will permit. Kitchen, closets, cel¬ 
lar, garret, and yard should have their days, or neg¬ 
lect will creep in, rubbish accumulate, and the labor 
be trebled. Articles kept on shelves and seldom used 
should be covered from dust or be put in paper bags. 
Shelves also can be covered with paper, to save scrub¬ 
bing and strength. Painting strips, shelves, etc. 
will also save much labor, soap, and brushes. 
Do not keep many things for extra occasions. It 
makes care, that had better be bestowed on the health 
by a walk in the open air or for needed rest. What 
is in use for the family should be good enough for 
its friends; for broken pots or dishes and things out 
of order are no more fit for the family than for 
guests, and give poor ideas of thrift to the “ rising 
generation,” who should see order daily, and not as 
an exhibition for strangers. 
We hope to see more labor-saving machines for 
women. The excuse that they get out of order ap¬ 
plies to all machinery; yet what man would give up 
an engine or a threshing-machine on that account? 
A washing-machine (we have seen two that were 
cheap yet good) will save half a day’s labor, and a 
wringer nearly as much, where there are large wash¬ 
es. Fluids are next best. We have seen them all u ed 
to advantage. One lady we know is so choice of her 
washing-machine, because it washes bed-clothes 
nicely, that she will not allow her washwoman to use 
it for the week’s wasli; and yet it cost but five dollars 
and is easily worked (something inventors forget, and 
make many of the machines as hard to work as the 
washing by hand and often to greater disadvantage). 
The sleeping rooms of a house should have only 
needed furniture in them, that they may be easily 
aired and cleaned. Do not keep out the sunshine. It 
is the best of purifiers. Have nothing that is too good 
for it in the way of carpets and bed furniture. Do 
not shut out this blessing and shut in miasma, mold, 
and dampness. Here again we would remark that a 
full supply of sheets, pillow-cases, towels, etc. and 
good bedding show far more elegance than any s' upen- 
dousness in the way of bureaus or bedsteads. White- 
curtained windows, dressing-table, etc. will give 
more an air of grace by their purity and freshness 
than gilt or coarse carving. Overornamentation is 
not so elegant as plainness, if the quality be good. 
Blankets should be washed nicely by being soaked 
in the hot suds of some cleansing soap for half an 
hour, and then rubbed clean; and be rinsed in hot 
water, with a very little soap in it. To keep them 
from moths, pin them up carefully in a large sheet, 
and they will need no further care. We have kept 
them and other woolens unscathed for years in the 
same way. Furs may be tied up in a muslin bag, and 
be quite as safe, thus avoiding the odor of pepper, 
tobacco, and other disagreeable substances. 
Take good care of the cellar, that it be sweet and 
clean, for all that is amiss in a cellar soon renders 
unhealthy the cleanest house otherwise. It is there 
that health commissioners first look for seeds of 
disease in an epidemic. The part in which food is 
kept should be paved or floored in some way, so that 
it can be scrubbed. It should always be well aired, 
except in the extremes of the weather. No rubbish 
should be kept in it that will decay and vitiate the 
air. An arch of brick shut up with a door is an ex¬ 
cellent preserver of meat, etc., if cooled off during 
summer with a daily drenching of water. A hole 
three or four feet deep, lined with brick and reached 
by a few steps, is an excellent place to keep butter 
and milk, if refrigerators are not at hand. Always 
have well-covered pots, etc., to keep meat, etc. from 
vermin that may abound. The remedy for these is 
perpetual vigilance, besides the secondary remedies; 
and here we would suggest a few. For roaches we 
have found nothing so effectual as sprinkling ginger 
in all their haunts, and we have tried borax, Paris 
green, skunk cabbage, and insect powder, all of 
which are good in their way. For snails nothing an¬ 
swers but destroying them with salt. Besides this, you 
must wait till nearly 11 o’clock p. m., and then search 
their haunts. A large cellar was cleared in this way 
in one week’s searching. Ants need the presence of 
coal oil, which soon puts them to flight. For the 
other vermin of a household there are nostrums in¬ 
numerable; but constant searching and cleanliness is 
the best of all remedies. We would add that for fleas 
snuff sprinkled regularly about is effectual. 
There are many little things we have not space to 
mention, such as drying herbs in paper bags, hung in 
the heat and then labeled, or made fine and put into 
bottles, etc. Keep a set of books for entries. One in 
which to set the time and season for certain work 
and any improvement in household arrangements; 
another for receipts in cooking—new dishes to try 
and any improvement or alteration made by yourself. 
Do not make this the regular receipt book, as the 
jottings down will often be hurried and need correct¬ 
ing. Keep one more for household expenses, wages, 
etc Tnis will help you to know the cost of living, 
and, if needed, where retrenchment may be made. 
In conclusion, we would say: Take care of the chil- 
d ren. Give them regular employ ment, and make them 
responsible for what they have to do. Do not ask too 
much. Their minds cannot take in much at a 
time without a strain; so let their work be sim¬ 
ple. We knew of a little girl of five who had for 
her daily work the sweeping of the back stairs. She 
did this so carefully as to pick the dust from the cor¬ 
ners with a pin. This task, faithfully performed, gave 
her the habit of regular, conscientious work. Anoth¬ 
er child, in a different family, having an excellent 
memory, had it so much taxed as to injure her by 
tue responsibility put upon her of remembering that 
this or that should be done at a certain time. At 
times set let them assume new duties, so that they 
may grow up under the idea of responsibility, and not 
have it thrust on them all at once, like a heavy load, 
without the discipline of regular employment at reg¬ 
ular intervals. Woe to the young minds thrust out in 
the world without this careful preparation. It ac¬ 
counts for the poor work and shittless living so often 
seen. 
Let all children have some amusement. It is necessa¬ 
ry to their health. Let the boys have collections of 
minerals, shells, plants, etc.; but see that they are 
thorough iu their acquisition of knowledge. Teach 
them to earn books. That will increase their interest in 
these things. “Put in the good, tnat the evil may 
have no place,” said a wise man. These are saving 
tastes. Almost any kind of a book is better than a 
resort to corners of streets or indiscriminate compa¬ 
ny; for what a man learns in early youth seems to be 
seared in with iron. Above all, keep them pure from 
evil influences. Question them closely, even the little 
ones, of what is said and done in their play, especial¬ 
ly with strangers. Let these innocent mioris pre¬ 
serve their heavenly heritage. 
Anna Gkisgom. 
Baltimore, Md. 
