Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-10-20
HOW TO MAKE BEAUTIFUL HOMES.


waiting till they can afford to have a pleasan
home, forgetting that they can at no time af
ford to have any other. = We take the
color of our daily surroundings, ard are hap
I pier, more amiable, stronger to labor and
6rmer to endure, when those surroundings are
pleasing and in good taste. To possess these
important qualities they need not be expensive.
True beauty. is cheaper than we think.
!, The first charm of a home, within and with
QUITS thorough neatness, and this is the re-
suit of habit, not outlay. 1t is often cheaper
than filth. Paint the house if you can; il
not, whtewash but in any case let it be in
thorough repair. Let there be no loose shin
giles or dangling claptoards Or gates hanging
bya broken hinge These hints tayo. thrift
as well as taste. Let the house be suff cer,ly
shaded This will pay in comfort, wear of
furniture and lack of flies. If you cannot
afford green blinds, you can always afford a
green tree or two, thai costs nothing but labor
and patience, and will shelter you from the
sun in summer and the wind in winter.
Plant vines of some kind about your prem
ises they are indispensable to grace they
show that nature takes kindly to your home
and has thrown her arm around it. Yon need
not resort to costly climbers; woodbine and
clematis may be had for the gathering, and
grapes and hop-vines may be so trained as to
combine beauty and profit. Let your turf be
smooth and firm as velvet and enforce the
death penalty upon weeds with all unsparing
hand. No man, rich or poor, can afford to
raise weeds. They choose the richest spots,
where flowers, or fruits, or vegetables might
grow, and send abroad their seeds as mission
aries of evil into every mock and corner. Ill
kept places alSays have their vegetable Five
Points, where sin and misery are mimcked
in pigweed, burdock and nettles. 4 very
few flowers will suffice; monthly rose in the
window, morning-glory over the doorway.
bright border between your kitchen garden
and the street; these add to tho picture just
those touuhe- of color that makes it pleasant
to the eye. With half dozen cheap and
common kinds. your wife will take care that
something is always in boon. :: -.
But flowers are gross feeders and II you keep
no domestic animals, you fancy, perhaps, that
you have no manure. You were never more
mistaken Every human dwelling is centre
of fertilizing agents, mostly wasted as times
CO. rich enough to make the whole plot around
it blossom like the rose Tell the soil that
yco have nothing to give it! Give it what
you have and it will laugh in yoir face. The
suds from The laundry is store of liquid
wealth Never waste a drop of it in drains or
sewers. 1T is q floating currency promising
to pay rosndly in grass and vegetable and
fruit. Invest it in your home bank, which
never suspends payment. These grassy slopes
are grecnbacks, whose issue is as good as gold
Carpet sweepings are manure in concentrated
form. Dug into your flower borders they
weave richer pattern than the one from which
they were worn. Those old bones that de-
form the premises, if buried beneath the grape
vine, Will be @ health to the bones of all your
friends q d boots and shoes, those most un-
slightly wrecks, are the favoritc food of the
raspberry and all its palatable kin. Tainted
brine, if such unhappily is yours, is a treasure
for the. plum trees and the asparagus bed ;
slacken lime with it, and it will make rich
dressing for any garden soil. Evers house,
hold should have its compost bed, be it only
an old packing box, where wooden rags, BITS
of paper, apple pearngs refuse of vegetables,
slops from the kitchen, chips and saw-dust
are storing up the elements of a glorious
growth Let not yours be one Of the homes
where all these bright possibilities arrive only
at burning instead of beauty" We have
named but part OF the fertilizers Of every
household. Generally Speaking, whatever is
offensive to sight Or smell IS urging the ap-
peal to our revoltcd tastes.-Bury nc, aud
I'll do you good, ,-SpriageGH Rcp~biicnn.
4 II