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SEA MOSSES. 
Parlor Jbtoraitott$ + 
WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE P 
“ I cannot understand, Lucy, how it is that your 
parlor always wears such a home-like look, while 
mine is as stiff and straight as a poker. I am sure I 
try to have pretty things in my house, but it never 
looks any way but simply horrid, while everybody is 
talking about what a pretty home you have.” 
Thus ungrammatically and inelegantly, but with 
truthfulness, does my friend complain. We went to 
house-keeping at the same time, she with money, I 
with none. As the years have glided, one by one, 
away, a goodly number of bright dollars have fallen 
into my till, but that early experience I would not ex¬ 
change for worlds. 1 learned that rich furniture and 
costly carpets do not give a home-like look to a room. 
Nay, not. always an elegant appearance. 
Here is a city parlor, gotten up on the regulation 
pattern—you will all recognize it if I draw a picture of 
its accompaniments : A velvet carpet, dark or light, 
small or large figured, according to the existing 
fashion, three or four chairs and one or two easy 
rockers, perhaps a “ sleepy hollow,” all elegantly up¬ 
holstered to_ match the carpet, several large pictures 
in rich frames on the walls, a light stand or two with 
some costly piece of statuary or heavy vase thereon, 
lace curtains, with perhaps rep lambrequins, and a 
marble centre-table with a few handsomely bound, but 
unreadable, books lying about on it. Have you not 
seen such rooms'? Do they not bear a strong flavor 
of furniture stores; and more than all, do they not 
savor of dollars and cents ? 
I set out to furnish my room with as little expense 
and as much beauty as possible. I bought a lovely 
ingrain carpet with a three-ply figure, and no one 
would have known the difference. My carpet being- 
gray and scarlet, I found some beautiful gray and 
scarlet chintz at forty cents a yard with which I cov¬ 
ered my sofa and all my chairs. The furniture was 
second-hand hair cloth, but my neighbors supposed it 
to be the finest material covered for protection. I 
next purchased my curtains—Nottingham lace, full 
enough and long enough to be dainty and pretty, 
though they were but sixty cents a yard; I looped 
them up with scarlet cord and crowned them with 
scarlet lambrequins, which I made at a slight expense, 
cutting them out of merino and lining them with stiff 
cambric. I bought sdme velveteen, the shade of the 
gray in the carpet, cut it into leaf shapes, and trans¬ 
ferred these around the edge, forming a vine. Every 
one who came in admired and wondered where I 
bought them. I had two or three splendid chromos, 
instead of a great many pictures, without name or 
fame, and upon these I spent all the money I had to 
spare for that purpose. Raphael’s Holy Family hung 
in the best light and changed the whole aspect of the 
room; a lovely Madonna and the prettiest Beatrice 1 
could find adorned two other sides. I had a small 
round stand in one window with a large dish of flowers 
always upon it, when I could obtain them. I brought 
as many pretty trifles to the parlor as I could find, 
placing them on the several brackets, mantel, and 
table, which stood in the centre of the room. I was 
true to my colors, admitting only scarlet and gray ; 
consequently there was a general air of fitness about 
the room, with never a discord in the harmony. 
Somebody says that a parlor portrays the character of 
its owner. Let us put forth an effort in this direction 
and our houses will become homes. 
E. E. Dickinson. 
An album of these lovely sea flowers will be an ac¬ 
quisition to your treasures, and a few directions for 
pressing and arranging them may prove acceptable. 
August is the best time to collect and dry them. 
Collect them carefully and put in a tin box or pail, 
with sea water, for these sea flowers fade marvelously 
fast, when roughly gathered. It is best to gather them 
in the morning, as then you can arrange them during 
the afternoon, and they look nicer if arranged when 
fresh. The finest and rarest specimens are found in 
the lowest tide-pools, and after a storm, but even at 
high tide you will find many pretty ones. When 
ready to arrange them, fill shallow pans with fresh 
water, take a piece of the moss and rinse until clean, 
then float it gently in the pan of water until it resumes 
its natural position, then gently slip a piece of the best 
drawing paper or bristol board (cut the desired size) 
under the moss, and With a needle mounted on a small 
stick arrange as you desire them to lie, thin out all 
superabundant branches with small sharp pointed 
scissors; when all are as you desire them raise the 
paper carefully, so as not to disturb the position of the 
moss, let the paper rest in a slanting position until the 
moisture runs off; while the paper is yet damp, cover 
with old soft linen or muslin, then a sheet of blotting 
paper, place in a book, with sufficient pressure to keep 
smooth and even, change every day, and in a week 
they will be ready for the album. Some weeds which 
are glutinous must not be pressed now, but laid out in 
the desired form on the paper until perfectly dry, then 
moisten the underside of the paper, and give a gentle 
pressure only. Others will not adhere to the paper; 
and these, when dry, brush over with a preparation of 
one ounce of oil of turpentine, in which some gum 
mastic the size of a nutmeg has been dissolved; this 
gives a rich gloss and helps to preserve the color of 
the specimens. The larger mosses will be ready for 
use in ten days or so, if changed to dry papers every 
day. Tiny specks of bright worsted may be fastened 
among the mosses with good effect, as they look like 
buds and blossoms. There are some varieties of weeds 
which need only to be washed clean and hung up to 
dry, and are pretty for many uses. 
A very pretty way of arranging the small mosses 
is to imitate flowers, etc. With the shades of green 
and pink you can arrange exquisite Moss Rose-buds, 
feathery Pinks, Geranium blossoms, etc. With 
green, purplish, and yellow shades you can simulate 
Pansies and Violets; with the variety of shades you 
can form different flowers. Trees are pretty imitated 
with these mosses. Harps, anchors, crosses, initials, 
and a variety of other forms can be made of the 
brown shades, and ornamented with the green and 
bright ones to represent vines and flowers twining 
around them. These form beautiful ornaments for an 
album of mosses. They are greatly admired and sell 
readily in cities at good prices. 
The pretty album of these treasures I have, justifies 
me in saying, any one who tries these directions will 
feel rewarded for all trouble in collecting and arrang¬ 
ing an album of Sea Mosses. Flora Day. 
HOUSEHOLD ART. 
In the good old days that we have heard so much 
quoted, every young lady was expected to qualify her¬ 
self to be the mistress of a home. Girls lent a hand 
in household arts and sciences and helped to make the 
happiness of the home circle. 
Our girls must be better educated than their grand¬ 
mothers— and we do not question their right to this— 
but the better education seems to take so much of 
their time. About forty weeks in each year is given 
to books— only twelve remain for other uses — siuce 
young girls of my acquaintance are almost always 
obliged to study out of school. Mother wants her 
Katy and Sue to stand as well as her neighbors’ 
daughters, and so urge's the study. 
Nobody denies that each lady should be competent 
to manage the affairs of her own household, whether 
she may have a score of servants, or no; and the 
mother should teach her own daughters, since no one 
else can do it so well. It requires systematic effort 
upon her part, but no pains should be spared to form 
in the mind of her girl a love for home and all that 
pertains to it. This can be done if they are trained 
from their early years to minister in small things to 
the comfort of others, to remember birthdays, holidays, 
etc. If a mother is wise she can invest the homeliest 
domestic trifle with a charm. 
Almost all little girls like to watch the mysteries of 
cake and pudding making ; the kitchen is a never- 
failing amusement to them, I know one mother who 
made a large apron for her active Martha, when the 
child was four or five, and regularly took her into the 
kitchen on baking days; with a little board and roll¬ 
ing-pin she made delightful pies and cakes from her 
mother’s big pans of dough, till she could be trusted to 
mix for herself. When old enough to value it as a 
privilege she laid the tea-table nicely, and afterwards 
ordered the teas alone. When older she was taken to 
market and given many practical lessons to be learned 
in no other way. After she left school she spent a 
certain length of time each day in doing some necessa¬ 
ry task. She was taught the most healthful way of 
preparing food and the quickest way of doing things. 
All the wisdom that had come to the mother by ex¬ 
perience the daughter had to begin with. The year 
before her marriage the entire housekeeping fell to her 
share, and when she went into a home of her own she 
went fully ready for those cares that so often rise like 
mountains before an ignorant young bride. 
The kitchen in which Martha learned her delightful 
lessous had east and south windows, with shades, 
painted walls with pictures on them, plants in the 
windows, a cooking form with all conveniences, and 
the tins she used were always bright and pretty. She 
had a pretty cocoauut dipper, a black walnut butter 
stamp, a carved crumb brush, and all manner of little 
elegancies that made the compounding of stews and 
soups, and creams and jellies, more like artistic work 
than the hateful drudgery that it seems to most of us. 
The kitchen was fully as pleasant, in its way, as the 
parlor. 
To be sure, the mother was an artist, and we all 
may be artists if we will. No one needs mental disci¬ 
pline, self-control, common sense, faith, cheerfulness, 
and health more than a house-mother. I cannot think 
of another calling that needs so varied an array of 
talents as the housekeeper’s and mother’s calling. The 
purity of our homes, their happiness or their misery, 
lie mostly in the mother’s hands. Happy is the wo¬ 
man who can so live and mould the lives of her child¬ 
ren, that they shall rise up and call her blessed. 
Rochester, N. Y. Dole Hamilton. 
PAPER STARS. 
If I. E. Newton will send her address to Miss 
Fannie Harford, Morris, Grundy Co., Illinois, I will 
send her some paper stars, from which she will have 
no trouble in making some that are suitable for bas¬ 
kets, frames, etc. F. M. H. 
