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SELECTING PICTURES FOR THE HOME. 
The choice of pictures with which to decorate the 
walls of a home is a matter of no slight importance, in 
whatever light we may view the matter, either as 
one of purely ornamental character or as having a 
real moral bearing upon the life of the family. No 
home should be without pictures, if it is possible to 
procure them without the sacrifice of more impor¬ 
tant considerations than are usually allowed to ex¬ 
clude them. 
Few persons who have not had a thoroughly artis¬ 
tic education are able to judge of the merits of an 
oil-painting as a work of art, and those who are not 
conversant with the subject should be extremely 
cautious in selecting pictures which may, although 
purchased at heavy cost, give little real or lasting- 
pleasure. In cases where the outlay of large sums | 
of money is intended, it is well to take counsel with 
artists of repute, whose judgment may be relied 
upon as to the artistic merit of a picture which may 
have captivated the fancy by its idea, while the exe-! 
cation is faulty, or even wretched. But while we 
avoid one danger it is well to beware of running 
into another—that of selecting a picture because it is I 
well painted, when the subject does not attract. A 
painting lasts through generations, and if it is 
worthy its charm increases rather than diminishes 
by familiarity. It is, then, most desirable that its 
subject should be one likely at once to interest the 
mind and charm the eye. In regarding a picture 
as the decoration of an apartment, its appropriate 
ness to the purpose for which the room is intended 
should be among the first considerations—one too 
often, we might almost say generally, forgotten, so I 
that we see the grossest incongruity in this respect j 
extremely common. 
Mrs. Brown hangs a Battle Scene in her guest- I 
chamber, where her visitors must needs see it when ; 
first awake or when just about going to sleep, and ' 
Mr. Brown places a fine engraving of the Martyrdom 
of St. Cecilia over the mantel of the family dining¬ 
room, both with serene unconsciousness of having- 
committed an outrage upon good taste ; but the taste 
which is outraged is sensitive, and the educated 
eye perceives the want of fitness at a glance. 
Good pictures may now be had so cheap that 
there is no excuse for disfiguring a house with tawdry ! 
chromos, unmeaning and commonplace engravings, 1 
or vast stretches of canvas covered with daubing in 
oil. 
The most beautiful objects in the world may now 
all be seen in photograph, and one really good pho¬ 
tograph of a splendid statue is worth twenty inferior 
paintings in oil. 
Choose, then, pictures good of their kind, and frame j 
them in a manner correspondent to their value and 
style. Elaborate and costly frames should never 
enclose simple, inexpensive pictures, and the color 
and material of the frames should be such as to dis¬ 
play the picture to the best advantage by judicious 
contrast. There is an endless variety in frames, 
and the scale of prices ranges from twenty-five cents 
to hundreds of dollars. The new styles in passe-par¬ 
tout are beautiful for engravings and crayon draw¬ 
ings ; simple cross-piece frames suit small photo¬ 
graphs ; plain bars of gilt moulding should always 
have colored mats of a tint to harmonize the frame 
with the picture. This is a great improvement in 
framing engravings either light or dark, as they 
appear richer with an intermediate tint between the 
picture and the gold band. In wood frames the 
root of the black-walnut is perhaps the handsomest, 
but they are also costly. Maple is good for some 
subjects, and for small and highly-colored water- 
color drawings velvet in dark rich tints looks ex¬ 
tremely well. In arranging upon a wall the char¬ 
acter of the frames used should harmonize with each 
other. By this we mean not that they be all of one 
style, but such as contrast well together. 
As to choice of subjects, it must be to a great de¬ 
gree a matter of personal choice, but some general 
rules may always be applied. 
Let those for the bed-chamber be simple, tender, 
and full of repose. A quiet morning or evening- 
landscape, an interior domestic scene, a Madonna 
and Child, would be appropriate. 
In rooms for the general use of the family there 
may be wider range in subjects. Flowers, fruit, 
game, harvest-scenes, in the field, the vineyard, 
or the orchard, feasting and merry-making, are es¬ 
pecially suited to the dining-room, while grave, 
sombre subjects seem at home in the library, though, 
of course, here the greatest variety may be admitted, 
illustrative of history, poetry, and science. Here, 
too, portraits of distinguished personages are most 
appropriate. 
Family portraits belong to the family living-room, 
among those who love them, for they cannot be sup¬ 
posed greatly to interest strangers. 
In hanging pictures use cords of one color, and 
nails of a uniform kind. Place the largest pictures 
about midway between the height of a table and the 
ceiling, smaller in the centre of the wall-space, with 
smaller ones at the sides, and the smallest below as 
pendants. Nearly all pictures look best inclining 
out at the top from the wall, and paintings require 
either an upper or side light; it should never come 
from the directly opposite side of the room. If ar¬ 
ranged with taste, a wall may be almost filled with 
pictures without any appearance of crowding. 
If chromos are used they should be selected with 
great care, for a crude cliromo is a disgrace to the 
name of art; but there are those that are excellent 
copies of valuable paintings which are far beyond the 
reach of ordinary purses, and these are most desira¬ 
ble possessions. 
Whatever is selected, let it be good of its kind and 
chosen for its merit as a picture, not as an article of 
furniture. 
book, and find the following. A very small amount 
of meat can be made into a rich dish for a large 
family, if the following directions are observed. 
Take cheap bits of meat—always perfectly sweet, of 
course — but that which is not fit to roast or fry will 
answer perfectly well—neck pieces, trimmings from 
roast, tough edges unfit for broiling—two pounds, or 
a little more, at the cost of ten cents or so ; cut into 
small pieces, put into a porcelain-lined kettle, if con¬ 
venient, or a common stew-pan will do, and place it 
on the back of the stove to stew slowly for hours or 
until perfectly tender; and any meat will boil tender 
if kept covered with water and allowed to cook long 
enough. Just before your potatoes are ready to be 
taken up for dinner beat smoothly together two heap¬ 
ing tablespoonfuls of sifted flour in a half-pint of milk 
with a piece of butter half as large as a hen’s egg, and 
pepper if you like ; stir this in with ..your meat- 
broth, which should be simmered down to about a 
pint, and salt to taste. Meat will stew tender 
in less time if salt is not added until it is nearly 
done, as salt hardens the meat, and vegetables 
also, if put in at first. Now stir your thickening, 
and stew together for two minutes until it is 
thoroughly cooked, then turn into the tureen. Our 
folks think nearly as much*of this broth as of an 
oyster-stew. 
Still a cheaper relish for your potatoes is to tear 
up salt fish into small shreds, the smaller the better— 
dry bits lying around, unfit for hash or hardly any¬ 
thing else, will do. Wash thoroughly, then put it in 
the stew-pot with a quart of water. Let it freshen 
thus for fifteen minutes; then pour off this water, 
and add a pint of fresh hot water, in which the 
bits of fish must simmer until soft. Prepare a 
thickening precisely like that for the meat relish, 
and serve with newly boiled potatoes. Such dishes 
as these help out the noon-meals wonderfully well 
when we live some distance from the butcher and 
the fish-market. 
LEAVES FROM MY SCRAP-BOOK;. 
In these days which try men’s souls, and women’s 
too, every effort to economize should merit applause; 
and this is why the beautiful Cabinet should be 
welcomed and supported in every refined household. 
Its lessons of economy are useful, beautiful, and fas¬ 
cinating. So I turn over the leaves of my scrap¬ 
The Wax-wing (Ampelis Corolinensis ).—The 
wax-wing, cedar-bird, or chatterer, for it is known 
by all of these names, is found in all parts of 
America from Canada to Mexico, and is called wax¬ 
wing from the curious appendages at the extremities 
| of some of the secondary quills, resembling small 
pieces of brilliant red sealing-wax. It is a handsome 
bird, about six inches long, of a soft gray color, with a 
large dark patch on the throat and a black band up- 
I on the head. The back is a dark blue mixed with 
I cinnamon brown. It feeds upon the berries of the red 
j cedar, of which it is excessively fond, and is commonly 
found in orchards in the month of June, devouring 
^ the choicest of the cherries, and chattering with his 
j mates in the most lively manner. It makes its nest 
of grass, and the eggs, four in number, are of a dingy 
bluish-white variously spotted with black. When 
berries are abundant, as in the autumn, he becomes 
very fat, and is then in considerable esteem for the 
table. The wax-wings abound in Southern Ken¬ 
tucky, the home of so much beauty in the domain of 
nature, and where the distinguished Audubon found 
such rich material for his magnificent work on 
