The workingman's advocate., 1864-11-05
To Raautifx Home.

The greater part of our population wait
ing till they afford to have pleasant homes,
forgetting that they can at time afford to
have any other. We take the color of our
daily surroundings, and are happier, more
able. stronger TO labor and tirmer to endure,
when those surroundings are pleasing and in
good taste. To possess these important quail
ties they need not be expensive. True beauty
is cheaper than think. The first charm of
home, within and without, is thorough neat
ness, and this is the result of habit, not outlay.
1t is often cheaper than filth. Paint the house
If you can; if not, whitewash; but in any
case let il be in thorough repair. Let there
be no loose shingles, or dangling clapboards,
or gates hanging by broken hinge. These
hints favor thrift as well as taste. Let the
house be sufficiently shaded. This will pay in
comfort wear Of furniture, and lack Of flies
If you not afford green blinds, You can
always afford green tree or two, that costs
nothing but labor and patience, and viii shell
/ ter you from the sun in summer and in the
winter.
Plant vines of some kind about your pre-
misses they indispensable to grace; they
show that nature takes kindly to your home,
and has thrown her arm around it. You need
not resort 10 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 a. velvet, and enforce the
death penalty upon weeds with an unspairing
hand. No man, rich or poor, afford TO
raise weeds. They choose the richest spots,
where flowers, or fruit, or vegetables might
grow, and send abroad their seed as missisn-
aries Of evil into every nook and corner. III
kept places always have their vegetable five
points, where sin and misery are mimicked in
min brrdnnk and A fax
flowers win suffice; monthly rose In the
window, morning glory over the doorway, a
bright border between your kitchen garden
and the street; these add to the picture just
those touc hes of color that make it pleasant TO
the eye. With half dozen cheap and COM
mon kinds, your wife viii take care that some
thing is always in bloom.
But flowers are gross feeders, and if you keep
no domestic animals, you fancy, perhaps, that
you have no manure. You were never more
mistaken Every human dwelling is centre Of
fertalizing agents, mostly wasted as times 60,
rich enough to make the whole plot around it
blossom like the rose Tell the soil that you
have nothing to give it Give it what you
have and it win laugh in your face. The suds
from the laundry is store of liquid wealth.
Never vast drop in drains or sewers 1t is
floating currency promising to pay roundly in
grass, and vegetables, and fruit. Invest it in
your home bank, which never suspends pay
ment. These grassy slopes are as good as gold.
Carpet sweepings are manure in concentrated
form. Dug into your flower borders they weave
a richer pattern than the one from which they
were worn. Those old bones that deform the
premises, if buried beneath the grapevine,
will be health TO the bones " of all your
friends. Old boots anu shoes, those most un-
slightly wrecks, are the favorite food of the
raspberry and all its pa,atable kin. Tainted
brine i such unhappily is yours, is a treasure
for the plum-trees and the asparagus bed (;
slacken lime with it, and it will make a rich
dressing for any garden soil. Every household
should have its compost bed, be it only an old
backing box, where woolen rags, bits of paper,
apple parings, refuse of vegetables, slops from
the kitchen. chips and sawdust 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 fer
tilizers Of every household. Generally speak
ing, whatever is offensive to sight or smell is
urging the appeal to our revolted tastes-Bury
me, and I'll do you good.