December, 
iqio 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
Connection between the pipe and the 
cleaner is made by means of flexible rub¬ 
ber tubing. On each floor of the house 
there is a wall inlet in the baseboard 
where the cleaning tube is connected. 
This is not unsightly, but is merely a 
small metal cap well concealed in the 
woodwork. There are no water or sewer 
connections necessary. 
If moving day comes, the vacuum 
cleaner is merely a piece of furniture, 
like the gas range — not a permanent house 
fixture like the furnace. The cleaner un¬ 
doubtedly goes a long way toward solv¬ 
ing the domestic problem. 
Mission Clocks 
M ISSION furniture of a well built 
sort has for some time been easy 
to find in the shops — everything except 
clocks — which almost invariably have 
been flimsy, ill-made affairs. Sometimes, 
The so-called Mission type of clock was given 
a bad reputation by reason of the poorly 
designed and cheaply built examples put on 
the market some years ago. A well de¬ 
signed pattern, such as this may now be had 
for about $100 
in a tall clock, the hanging weights were 
left exposed to the air and to the touch 
of children, and the works were apt to be 
distinctly inferior in quality. 
Some new Mission clocks of quite dif¬ 
ferent description have, however, lately 
appeared on the furniture market. The 
grandfather’s clock, six feet high, is a 
well constructed piece of cabinet-work; 
the face is a zinc plate, its soft gray con¬ 
trasting pleasingly with the warm brown 
of the woodwork. The numerals are 
etched on the zinc together with a charm¬ 
ing little decorative design. The hands 
are of hand-wrought iron, and the door 
pulls match the face in color. 
The mantel clock is quaint in design, 
recalling some of the best modern work 
in German furniture. In our example the 
face is of copper, etched like the zinc, and 
with iron hands. The wood finish, done 
upon quartered oak, is a soft brownish 
green. On the pins that project, half-way 
down the front, rest the works, so that 
the pins have a structural reason. 
These clocks are no more expensive 
than some of the atrocities in Mission 
guise that have heretofore attempted to 
tell time to the public. 
Driftwood 
T HE charm and fascination of drift¬ 
wood fires is no longer limited to 
seashore dwellers alone. An enterprising 
New England community has started an 
industry in the sale of this commodity, 
which is apt to appeal to many people who 
dwell inland. 
The hulks of former whalers, aban¬ 
doned and in decay, are broken up into 
convenient lengths and sold by the barrel. 
As the supply is rapidly being used up, 
the price is $5.00. 
A driftwood fire is a source of addi¬ 
tional pleasure for the Christmas season. 
It lends as cheery a glow as the Christ¬ 
mas tree, and makes a good substitute for 
the Yule-log — almost an impossibility in 
the modern fireplace. 
The beauty and rarity of such a fire 
makes this wood a particularly desirable 
Christmas gift. 
A Home-made Corner Bookcase 
L IKE the majority of flat-dwellers, we 
found on moving into a new apart¬ 
ment that we were more or less crowded 
for space, particularly in the living-room. 
The disposal of a baby grand piano, a 
desk, a treasured old mahogany table and 
enough chairs to appear hospitable, in a 
room with a very limited amount of wall 
space, turned out to be a regular Chinese 
puzzle. When it was nearing a solution 
we found that the only place left for 
books was a bit of corner stranded in be¬ 
tween two doors. 
No self-respecting furniture man had 
ever turned out a bookcase of such shape 
and dimensions -—- we knew that without 
looking for it. An ordinary corner-cup¬ 
board arrangement would have accommo¬ 
dated just about half of the books, and 
a straight and narrow bookcase, such as 
would have filled one side of the angle, 
would have practically wasted the other 
side. 
There was nothing to do therefore but 
get to work and fill in that corner to suit 
ourselves. We measured the two sides of 
the wall, decided on the height and care¬ 
fully divided it into the required number 
Or you can have a mantel type of Mission 
clock in which the structural pins serve 
the real purpose of supporting the works, 
for $20 
of shelves; then took the dimensions to 
a carpenter who cut the boards accord¬ 
ingly. He furnished us with three up¬ 
right pieces, eight pieces for shelves, two 
top pieces and sixteen strips for support¬ 
ing the shelves. The cost was a little less 
than $3.50. 
The shelves and top pieces were made 
straight at one end and triangular at the 
other so that two pieces joined to make 
a right angle for the corner. Putting the 
bookcase together was simply a question 
of a judicious use of hammer and nails, 
and when it was set up in place we stained 
it green, matching as nearly as possible 
the dark green walls of the room. It is 
perhaps not beautiful but it serves an ex¬ 
cellent purpose. 
The materials for the home-made bookcase 
cost $3.50; the making of it was a pleasure; 
and it makes useful a corner between two 
doors 
