The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-09-23

Afamily of small means, with good
taste and culture, can make a house
interesting and beautiful with their own
hands and with the expenditure of very
little money. 1t is only necessary for
them to throw 'tfashion" out of the
window; to consult comfort first. ele-
gance next and to let the elegance be
simple and natural. All the neonIe
who went to see Max and his wife. were
sure, in the course of the EVENING IN
express n sort of enyious admiration of
the elegance with which the parlor OF
these good people was furnished, The
i1rBt impression was that of CeliphtfnI
coZlness; but, by degrees, the chairs md
tables, the carpets nmd bookcases were
found to have a charm beyond mere
coHlneSs. What was 1t? Could such n
result be bOught2 What did this cost
and this? But the cost finally appeared
TO be merely the money paid to the
carpenter for executing what Max had
designed. It seemed that he never
bought anything in the way of furniture
in the shops. These candiesticks were
OF maple-wood, turned to good pattern
OF ms designing, and decorated in this
pretty fashion, with colOrs, by his own
hands, of an evening, as he chntted with
his wife and child. Meanwhile, she by
his side painted this vase, made of yef-
lowish clay Mt the pottery over the river
with borders and figures made up OF
flowers and leaves they had gathered
i'll their afternoon walk. 1t is done ms
simply and naturally, almost, as a bit
Ofthirteenth-centur work, Their book
case, too, how pretty it isl Narcotic
made il, you think? Calder the carpen-
ter made it, in his shop in the village;
no more skill than ne is master al
went to it. 1t is nothing, in fact, but a
pile of long, narrow boxes laid one on
top of another, the whole standing on a
low base, four or five inches high 10
keep the lowest books from being touch
ed by the foot. There is not a inoldinp
or chanfer on the whole bookcase, The
end of each box is pierced with a cres-
Gent-shaPed trefoil, SO that it can be
lifted by two people and carried off, if
necessary, and the whole outside is
painted n dark, deep green, and the in
side and edges good vermilion. Plain
as 1t is, it would have been pretty
enough as 1t stands, for the books made
1t gay with their bright, cheerful and
varied bindings; but Max was laid up
for a week last winter, had hurt foot,
and, so, amused himself with painting
In circles, one at each end of every box
the portraits of the half dozen great
poets and great men he loves, Max Is no
painter, but he copied such portraits as
he found suitable, and though roughly
Qone, they are n great addition. He and
Laura shared the work; for while he
painted a headin the circle at ono end,
She painted a flower in the circle at the
other. Thus, he worked away at Dan
Chaucer ON one side, and she painted IN
daisies and their leaves and buds at the
other. She didn't copy English daisies
out of a book, but went ont and cot
American ones from the field. Then
Dante's face was matched with lilies,
and Keats with roses, and SO no Won
der questionable people liked the book
case; But, 1t is in this way that Max
deal of taste, and love of home, have
made their home beautiful.- PdLh.