The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-05-31
Alake-Shifts.

for the edifcation of housekeepers ap-
pear in the ''household' columns of
family newspapers. It would be hard
to decide which are the most distress
ing to a delicate organization the
highly colored descriptions of popular
family murders, or those regular
yearly recipes for making green toma-
to pickles.
We have seen spirited correspond
ence sustained in a ''home journal"
concerning the proper size of dish
towels. One lady argues with great
force and earnestness that all the ne
cessities of modern civilization require
us to use dish-towels at least three
feet long and made of home-woven
linen. Another promptly retorts that
some people can use up 4 whole chest
of linen in one immense dish-towel if
they choose, but for her part, give her
liberty or give her death, and being a
free woman she proposes to use Il
dish.cloth that she can squeeze in one
hand, and towels made Of clean old
rags which may be used up in one day
and then give place to fresh ones.
for homemade window-baskets. When
will that dreadful turnip cease making
it's appearance Who wants a hang
ing basket made of a scraped turnip {?
1t is a pleasant surprise, sometimes, to
see such homely things as a turnip, a
cabbage, or squash, by chance shape
themselves into suggestion of some
thing beautiful. Hawthorne used to
lean upon his garden wall and gloat
over the ruddy-gold squashes with
their classic shapes. But he never
transferred them to his parlor win
dow. A tin can cut in stri ps half way
down, the strips being curled over,
forms another of these forlorn make
shifts. But there is one of these per-
ennial suggestions for home adorn-
ment in the adaptability of which we
have great faith. That art is very un-
attractively designated as putty-work,
and at the risk of becoming possible
enemy to public peace, it is herewith
presented once more:
This work must be cooperative, in
the beginning. The original plan was
to paint and ornament old tin basins
with designs in putty, but plants will
not flourish in tin. 1t is foolish to try
wooden bowls and ornament them, be-
cause they cost as much as a handsome
terra-cotta basket, and when orna-
mented will look no prettier. Indeed,
make-shifts should never be adopted
by anybody except those who need
every penny for pure necessity, or
those who positively have nothing
more important in the world for their
hands to do. In this work you must
call on your ''handiest'' boy to make a
box Of wood in the shape of a basket,
flaring at the top and small at the bot
tom, with four sharp corners-or if
you choose, it may be made hexagonal
and will be unique and pretty in that
shape. Next, paint it brown. You
can buy a little lumber, some oil, and a
very small quantity of white lead, and
mix it yourself, and you will need a
small medium-sized bristle brush, such
as artists use, When the box is dry
ornament it with designs in putty.
Don't mix paint with the putty, and
use only enough oil to make it pliable.
Have the handy boy white out some
cunning little paddles of hard wood,
and with these it will be easy to shape
the putty into any artistic form YOU
like and then transfer them to the
box. When the putty is dried and
hardened on the box the whole can he
again painted and finally vanished.
A little oil or varnish brushed on once
or twice in year will bring your bas-
ket out clean and bright again. The
attraction of this work lies in the fact
that it really calls for some artistic
skill. Those of us who are not pain.