The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-02-10
Hints for Home Work.

THERE is a prejudice in small towns
among people who hold "style" to be the
chief end Of man, against book cases in
the parlor or state-room. People, how
ever, who have plenty Of books are not
apt TO care for style, and know how to
furnish their houses with good sense and
| fine meaning. Yet there are, no doubt
among even this class of our readers many
! young couples just beginning hCusekeep-
ing with little money, who have not yet
| learned to carry out their ideas, or TO help
themselves to the useful and pretty things
which they cannot bny. They have the
right feeling about their books; they
know them as old friends, and feel that
hospitality requires that they shall be be
slowed with honor in the new home. If
they could afford il, there would be no
article Of furniture on which they would
spend so much money as the book gases
| Antique carving, black with age, inlaid
work, bronze bass-reIiefs, would be but
fit housing for their grave and faithful
friends; but they have no money for cary
ing, bronze, or even solidly made cases
By all means, let them avoid the cheap
and snowy limitations offered in auctions
Of cabinet-ware stately structures of
glass veneer and hait-inch wood, whose
joints rip open at the first touch of furnace
heat, and whose rickety shelves are per
petually tumblng out Of place. The
spirit would evaporate from Ella, and
ThaCkeray would utter platitudes, shut up
in such a sham, just as old Mocha loses
its aroma in a plated pot
Let the carpenter Tor Tom himself, if he
come of a family that have the use of
their hands, build a case of walnut boards
fitting closely into the reCesses on each
side of the fire place. The back can be
made of well seasoned pine, stained. The
case should be from four to five feet hirh.
with three shelves, the top curving slight
ly in the center. Strips of ogee walnut
molding can be fastened on the sides and
base, the top covered with cloth, and the
edges of the shelves finished with either
strips of scalloped leather or wooden
fringe (of the same tint as the border of
carpet and wallpaper put on with silver
lacks. The cost of such a case, if Tom
builds it in off hours from the office.
ought not TO be more than six dollars; it
will be large enough to hold four or five
hundred octavos, and can readily De du-
plicatcd as books increase, until the cases
make dadO of learning, wit and wisdom
all around the room. No matter what
the other furniture, this part of it will al.
ways appear solid, real and artistic.
These cases, of course, cannot be used
where biuminous coal is burned, and the
books must be protected from SCOT and
ashes.
II Amelia has also "brains in her
fingers" there is no better way in which
she can help Tom to make home home
like than by draping windows, mantel-
shelves and door-ways. These are some
of the set caterasn of house furnishing
from which upholsterers make their larg-
est profit, but which, if made at home,
cost not half the expenditure of money,
skill or time, as does Amelia's new suit
fitted and sewed by herself But let her
eschew all the stiff, angular lambrequins,
which are so popular, and still less be
tempted by any paper denominations
Drapery on a wall or Il woman should be
soft, full and flowing or it loses its first
significance.
There is seldom any need for doors in
the inside of a house. If they must be
there, why not have them flush with the
wall and decorated, so that they cannot
be distinguished from the paper or fresco,
thus preserving the unity of the room; a
better plan, where practicable, is to re-
move them, and substitute full curtains,
parted in the middle, and sliding by rings
on rod. In summer, where privacy is
not necessary, light, arched trellis may
take the place of the curtains, up which
ivy, or quick growing housewives, may
be trained. 40
Busy, middle aged fathers and mothers,
with enough to do to feed and clothe the
quick-growing flock, have no time for
work such as this. But the young people
can and should attend to it.-Scrtbner's
ToayII,,