House and Garden 
BEGINNING OF HOUSE-NUMBERING 
TN the London and Paris of a cen- 
tury ago ciphered houses did not 
exist. The coat-of-arms, the house- 
name, or the sign-board were the only 
indications to guide our ancestors’ wan¬ 
dering feet by day or dark. “Watch¬ 
man, what of the night, and where the 
deuce am I must often have been the 
cry of these bewildered minds. Berlin 
began to number houses in 1795- 
Starting from the Brandenburg Gate, 
the Prussian ediles counted straight on 
to infinity, neither beginning afresh 
with fresh streets, nor numbering the 
houses by odds and evens. Vienna 
adopted the latter reform in 1803, and 
Paris followed in 1805. The ciphered 
house came 100 years ago; the ciphered 
citizen is surely coming. Already a 
postal society is being formed in Vienna 
to suppress all names and addresses, 
and to deliver letters by a system ol 
private marks and identity tickets. 
Our familiar addresses will look 100 
years hence like the beginning of an 
algebraical problem, and our personality 
will be reduced—like tbe Government 
majority — to a mere expression of 
naughts and crosses .—The Churchman. 
INSECTICIDES FOR SUCKING INSECTS 
T 3 ULLETIN 118, of the Purdue, Ind., 
University Station, gives the fol¬ 
lowing formulas for the best insecticides 
and directions for preparing them; 
First—Kerosene Emulsion: This is a 
well-knowm remedy for soft bodied 
insects. To prepare it, dissolve one 
pound hard laundry soap in one gallon 
of water. If the water is hard, add a 
little sal soda to soften it. Put two 
gallons of kerosene in a warm place, so 
that it will heat without danger to about 
room temperature or a little warmer. 
When the soap is dissolved, add the 
kerosene and agitate violently for five or 
ten minutes. This agitation is best 
accomplished with a small force pump 
with which the mixture may be churned 
into itself, thus ensuring a thorough 
emulsion. A good emulsion should be 
thick and creamy and of uniform con¬ 
sistency. No free kerosene should 
separate out on standing. The mixture 
may be diluted and used at once, or the 
stock solution may be kept for some 
time. When cold it curdles like sour 
milk and should be diluted with three or 
four times its volume of hot water, before 
line 
Cool—Light- 
Airy Rooms 
Your home will be more comfortable, 
more sanitary, more pleasing and more 
artistic when the walls are decorated 
with Alabastine. 
You practically seal up the walls of the 
room when you decorate with wall-paper 
(put on with paste) or with kalsomine 
(which is stuck to the walls with animal 
glue). Both paste and glue decay and 
afford breeding places for disease germs 
and insects. Alabastine does neither. 
The Sanitary Wall Coating 
is made from a pure, antiseptic rock and when 
applied to the wall, hardens and becomes a part 
of it, the same as plaster. Plaster is porous. So 
is Alabastine. Air permeates freely Through the Alabas- 
tined wall, while it cannot penetrate the wall covered 
with paste or glue. 
The dainty Alabastine tints harmonize perfectly with 
pictures, woodwork and furnishings, and the immense 
variety of color combinations enable you to show your indi¬ 
vidual taste in the decoration of your home. The sanitary 
character of Alabastine makes it the ideal wall decoration for 
rooms used for public gatherings. The soft tints make it 
especially suitable for church auditoriums and school rooms. 
Alabastine is sold in carefully sealed and properly 
labeled packages at 50c for white and 55c for tints, 
at all Paint, Drug, Hardware and General Stores. 
See that the name “Alabastine” is on each package 
before it is opened, either by yourself or workmen. 
Send 10c in coin or U. S. stamps for the book “Dainty Wall Decorations,” 
which contains complete plans in color for decorating homes, churches and 
school houses in dainty Alabastine tints. This book is worth far more to 
anyone who intends to decorate. 
The Alabastine Co., 921 Grandville Ave., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Eastern Office, Dept. V, 105 Water Street, New York City. 
r: 
SOMETHING NEW 
With the article “Housing the Automobile” House and Garden is taking 
up a feature of interest to the suburban and country housekeeper. The sug¬ 
gestions made in the article are eminently practical, • the garages illustrated 
being the most inexpensive of their kind .—New York Comynercial, April 4, igo8. 
The John C. Winston Co., = Publishers 
In v'riling to adrertisers please mention House and Oapden. 
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