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An Illuminated House Number 
T HE combined porch light and house 
number, electrically illuminated, which 
has just been devised by a resident of 
Tropico, California, may readily be 
adopted for use on the suburban or coun¬ 
try home. These two necessities are gen¬ 
erally used throughout the country, but it 
was not until recently that the idea of com¬ 
bining was conceived, and the adding of 
the electrical feature is entirely new, at 
least in the southern portion of the Golden 
State. A pleasing feature about this ap¬ 
paratus is that it can be made in any size, 
shape or style, thereby being made to 
match any type of architecture. It may be 
placed anywhere upon the home, gateway, 
fence, etc. 
In form this new sign is similar to a 
small shed. It has an overhanging roof, 
which, at the front, extends an inch and a 
half and at the ends one inch over the 
framework of the box. It is made entirely; 
of lacquered brass and frosted glass. The' 
roof, framework and figures are of brass,* 
while the ends, front and bottom are of 
glass, these resting upon the inside of the 
framework. The figures are five inches 
in height. In this lamp a sixteen-candle- 
power electric lamp is hung. The frame¬ 
work is ten inches in length, four and a 
half inches wide and its height at the rear 
is eight inches and at the front is six 
inches. 
This little “lighthouse” is both useful 
and ornamental and admirably serves the 
purpose for which it is intended. 
To Remove Stains from a Idled 
Floor 
A N obstinate stain may readily be re¬ 
moved from a tiled floor in the fol¬ 
lowing way: Cover the spot with turpen¬ 
tine and leave it for several hours; then 
wipe up the turpentine with a dry cloth. 
If the discoloration still remains, rub it 
vigorously with pumice stone and wash the 
spot with gasoline. 
A most obstinate stain of iodine was re¬ 
cently removed from a bathroom floor in 
this way. 
Refitting the Old Room 
T often happens that after one has be¬ 
come accustomed to a room, the pleas¬ 
ing effect it had at first wears off, and a 
complete changing around and varying 
of the color scheme seems desirable. This 
was the case in a New England home not 
long ago, where the mistress’ room, while 
neat and tidy in every way, had grown 
tiresome through long familiarity. 
There were in the room a white iron 
bedstead with brass trimmings badly worn, 
an old mahogany bureau, a mahogany 
table and several chairs, while in one cor¬ 
ner stood a sewing-table. All the wood¬ 
work in the room needed a fresh coat of 
paint, so the housewife bought a quart of 
white enamel all mixed for seventy-five 
cents and painted the room herself. The 
brush which she bought for twenty-five 
cents, she was careful to clean with kero¬ 
sene and soap when she finished, so that 
it could be used again. 
The matting on the floor was all worn 
An electrically illuminated house number serv¬ 
ing also as porch light 
out. She had turned and changed the 
breadths about until they refused to look 
right in any other position. So the mat¬ 
ting was taken up, and, while the paper 
hanger was putting on a blue and white 
narrow striped paper with a border of 
daisies around the top and down the cor¬ 
ners of the room, the lady was busily filling 
the cracks in the floor with newspapers 
that had been torn into small pieces and 
moistened. She poked the paper into the 
cracks with a knife, then covered it with 
putty colored with a little of the paint to 
be used on the floor. She bought a floor 
paint in one of the light gray shades at 
sixty cents a quart. This was put on at 
night and was dry in the morning, and 
two coats were sufficient to finish the floor. 
The bed was repainted with white enamel 
paint, and she also bought a bottle of 
banana lacquer for twenty cents and did 
over the brass trimmings, until the bed 
looked quite like new. The bureau she 
cleaned thoroughly with a soft rag and 
warm water and ivory soap. Then she 
took a woolen rag and wet it with cheap 
olive oil and rubbed down the bureau, pol¬ 
ishing it with a dry cloth. In the same 
way she brightened up the mahogany 
chairs and tables. 
From the attic an old pine chest was 
brought down and painted with the gray 
floor paint and placed under the window, 
to hold the mending basket and pieces of 
material. The rag-bag was bulging with 
a long accumulation of pieces, and the mis¬ 
tress emptied the contents out and decided 
to have rag rugs made. A friend had told 
her of cutting her pieces into half-inch 
strips and sewing them together, and when 
she got as many pounds as she needed for 
a rug, she carried them to the village, 
where there was a woman who dyed them 
any color desired and wove them into 
rugs. 
Then rose the question of draperies and 
coverings for bed. bureau and tables, and 
also for the small pillows on the chest. 
The attractiveness and charm of the room 
was growing with every change made, and 
the curtains and upholstery must give the 
crowning touch to the whole. The freshly 
papered walls showed daisy-bordered blue, 
and the fresh white paint, the gray floor 
( AH) 
