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There is an excellent 
“ Scatter the germs of 
the beautiful, by the roadside let them fall,” and so 
forth ; hearing it frequently, it as often causes me to 
muse upon humanity’s universal love of beauty, and 
I feel that we should all foster this love by striving 
ever to ennoble and beautify our homes. Let us 
daily flood them with blessed influences by admitting 
an abundance of sunshine and fresh air, ever remem¬ 
bering to let the sunshine of love also irradiate our 
countenances for the cheering of our children, and as 
a salve of consolation for the observant husband wea¬ 
ried by the cares of the day. As we would have our 
children’s future homes, so should we make ours in 
the present; and if the real still fails to compare 
favorably with the ideal, we should not be discour¬ 
aged. We may cause so much of beauty, so many 
comforts and aesthetic delights, to cluster around us, 
that they will never forget the dear old home when 
they have formed new homes amidst other scenes. 
Forget not that children are the flowers of humanity : 
treat them with tender regard, and, although you 
may not succeed in cultivating house-plants success- 
full}', yet remember that earth’s fairest and dearest 
blossoms may be trained to enliven and beautify 
home as no other flowers can, ultimately repaying us 
for our patient devotion to their interests. Permit 
me at this time to allude to some of the household 
elegances with which persons who have leisure may 
embellish their homes, pausing only to say that 
where one does not possess a cabinet great care 
should be exercised in the selection and artistic ar¬ 
rangement of minerals, relics, bric-a-brac, etc. 
Home should be neither a bazaar nor a miniature 
baby-house; hence, if one has more of such things 
than one has room for it is best to present some to 
friends, or have two sets, one for summer, the other 
for winter, and use alternately. First, calling your 
attention to my palm-leaf whatnot, I will endeavor 
to tell how it was made. One summer day, having- 
thought of a plan by which I might have one entirely 
novel, I sent blond-haired Tillie, our little German 
help, to “ the stores” with thirteen “ nickles ” where¬ 
with to purchase thirteen palm-leaf fans, telling her 
to have them of uniform size as nearly as possible. 
Now, Tillie’s rather lagging feet could not keep pace 
with my nimble fancies, but in the course of an 
hour she returned to the ark of home, bearing, in lieu 
of an olive-branch, the required number of branching 
leaves of the tropical palm. I had not thought the 
errand would prove unpleasant; but she was just 
budding into womanhood, and she also brought back 
several budding roses on her cheeks as she told how 
the clerks had quizzed her about being so excessively 
overcome by the heat. Begging pardon for this di¬ 
gression, I will proceed. I had the handles sawed off 
and laid by for future use; joined the fans in pairs, 
with a layer of dark cotton batting between; took 
two pairs for each shelf except the top one, which had 
an additional fan doubled up and joined to it to form 
a small semicircle for the corner. When in shelf- 
shape, at the place from whence the handles were 
removed I tacked flat rosettes of dark paper to hide 
stitches ; bound the edges, then twisted narrow strips 
of heavy black paper into what children call cat-steps, 
and trimmed all the edges. Had it stained, varnish¬ 
ed, hung with scarlet cords, and my original and 
oriental piece of furniture was ready as a surprise for 
my husband. It cost one dollar and ten cents only, 
was kept in the parlor two years, and has been used 
in my bedroom for the last two years as a receptacle 
for the family band-boxes. Let me add that the 
panels were stained, and being entwined with the 
cord keep the shelves from slipping out of place. In 
making air-castles fray green cloth and simulate moss 
instead of snow. Preserve real mosses by painting 
them dark green. Place painted ferns with bright 
autumn leaves in a dark gray vase, engraved with 
maroon and silver lines, and you will have “a thing 
of beauty.” I have a large pear-shaped hollow stone 
which I line with moss, and scatter over it white peb¬ 
bles and tiny forest leaves with good effect. I re¬ 
serve some unpainted ferns and use them freely in 
making pansy pictures, one of which I will describe, 
as it is an invention of my own. I covered a card¬ 
board the size of my frame, eighteen by twenty-one 
inches, witn black velvet; this formed a rich back¬ 
ground. A little above the base I pasted a line of 
royal pressed pansies of every hue of light and dark 
(their gorgeous colors making them resemble airy 
butterflies), then built it up in the form of a pyramid 
of pansies alone, until I reached a point where one 
flower only was needed. I gave to this for a pillow 
a scarlet geranium blossom, which served to brighten 
it in its loneliness. At the base of the pyramid I 
placed a support of amber-colored, locust-shaped 
leaves combined with arbor-vitae, with here and 
there sprays of both green and withered ferns, to 
give contrasting color. At its top pasted an arch of 
small, round leaves and feathery grasses, with a few 
detached petals (not blossoms) of scarlet geranium. 
Over all was placed a smooth glass, and, framed in 
walnut and gilt, it became my mother’s Christmas 
gift. Ferns and fluffy things from nature’s store¬ 
house look well in an egg-shell vase ; make it thus : 
break a small piece of shell from the large end of a 
white, smooth egg; after removing its contents paste 
a very delicate binding of gilt around its broken 
edge. Leave the rest plain white or trim with peanut 
lace ; then glue it by the small end to a dark, square 
surface, and your vase is complete; it costs scarce a 
penny and its uses are many. Pleasant remem¬ 
brances of the joys to be found in woodland ways 
may be secured by hoarding black-thorns, horse- 
chestnuts, burrs, pine-cones, acorns, mountain-ash 
berries, sycamore balls pendant from limbs, mosses, 
grasses, and other beauties too numerous to mention. 
Oak balls strung on silvered wire, d la bead-work, 
| and finished with a fringed tassel make lovely hang¬ 
ing-baskets. 
Frosted Ornaments . — The more substantial of the 
above, also small fruits, may be frosted with sugar 
frosting, retaining and frosting the stems; thus dis¬ 
guised, place them in a choice plate upon a mat of 
red leaves, and if they are well done you will not 
complain of fruitless efforts or lost time. Coal-ein- 
l ders as they come from the grate are not objects of 
beauty, but if fantastic in shape, color them with 
carmine or violet inks or aniline dyes, with a few 
crystallized for white ones, and their last state will 
not be worse than their first. They may then be 
placed with choice minerals, and there puzzle the 
observer, unless he chance to be a geologist familiar 
with every form of matter “ on this mundane sphere.” 
“ Lichens and toad-stools, laugh them not to scorn; 
Bright-colored, shell-shaped things, they shall adorn 
The home of one to fits of musing prone, 
Whose love for nature ne’er may be outgrown ! ” 
Once at a picnic I found a hollow, horn-shaped 
stick, its many knots and indentations covered with 
rich-looking bark, and bore this token of “ ye merry 
greenwood ” to a relative, who varnished it, filled it 
with cedar, rose-berries, straw flowers, oats, crys¬ 
tallized grasses, grasses natural, various seed-pods 
and thorns. High on the wall in a corner it makes, 
in its rich, dark colors, a pleasant contrast with her 
thrifty plants and cool green vines. My fern-brack¬ 
et was once a portion of a dark-red, pebbled paper 
collar-box. I cut the rim and side pieces in an open¬ 
work pattern, bound the edges with narrow strips of 
white paper cut in points; then, placing two golden- 
brown chestnut-leaves at the base, clothed it with 
ferns, grasses, and green puff-balls, and hung it 
above a bracket on which rests a flesh-tinted bust of 
Dickens, displayed against black velvet trimmed 
with cedar. Rainbow flowers may be made by 
fringing out silks, delaines, or canton flannels, and 
sewing the ravellings in imitation of zephyr flowers. 
They are as brilliant as the latter, and much more 
delicate. Our Memorial Wreath, on white card¬ 
board, is an array of pressed leaves from nearly 
every State of the Union; with Southern flowers, 
holly, mistletoe, etc., sent me by a soldier friend 
during the war. Skeletonized leaves are over some 
of the brightest colors, and, to represent our own 
prairies, I have enthroned one tiny keepsake; for 
the pearl of them all, near the centre, is my snowy 
white violet. Elegant portfolios for engravings and 
handsome woodcuts may repose on the centre-table, 
and afford our friends much pleasure. To make 
them procure perforated cardboard, and embroider 
them and bind with ribbons. Be sure to have the 
word “ Engravings” wrought or printed upon them. 
Also be old-fashioned enough to have several scrap¬ 
books for the amusement of old and young. I have 
one which I prize very highly. In it I preserve only 
poems from authors of acknowledged merit, or such 
anonymous gems as are exquisite enough to find a 
welcome without the author’s name. Sponges uti¬ 
lize thus: cut them into thin slices with a sharp 
razor, and after coloring them rose-red, fashion them 
into a card-basket. Groceries are useful as beauti- 
fiers in spite of their prosaic qualities—flour, rice, 
raisin-stems, almonds, peanuts, cranberries, apples, 
cloves, oh ! there is not space to enumerate all. Al¬ 
mond lace for decorating silk articles may be obtain¬ 
ed by placing an almond on its side and cracking 
carefully, to avoid breaking the handsome wooden 
lace-work which will be found between its inner and 
outer shell. Remove with a pin. I suspect that tiny 
worms are the artisans which carve for us these exqui¬ 
sitely minute patterns, but they are found in good as 
well as refuse almonds. Mns. George R. Lee. 
