Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-05-30
From Harper'e Bazaar.

iittef which vexes the soul of housewife must
De reduced to reason with a firm hand Bits Of
rope should be washed clean, dried, and hung in
a hank over a big hook or wooden pin in the
garnet. All pits OF board about the premises
should be gathered. enlisting the boys of the
family for this purpose. Nice bits should be
Kept for amateur carving and understanding
in a neat pile in the workshop. which hope is
attached to your house, where all sorts Of dOmes-
tic carpentry, painting. purifying, and mending
goes on with conveniences. AS a device for
keeping boys out of the street, the workshop Is
to be highly recommended. There is time when
a sharp plane and jackknife have attractions be-
yond the corner saloon and the Police Gazette
There should be a tray with divisions for all
scraps of brass. tin and bits of machinery or
household fixtures. A rivet, a cap to curtain
rod, the eye for picture cord, may be wonder
fully convenient often, and | have learned to
hoard all these things, finding how frequently the
work In hand is stopped for want Of such a
trife Old keys should be kept for q few minutes
filing will fit one when trunk or closet key is lost
Here on shelves keep all cracked crOckcry and odd
pieces. like covers, and wash-pitchers without
basins, and bowls without jugs. They find
mates in time. / was reioiced, after keeping
rosebud toilette pitcher five years, to find that
one of my neighbors had a full set lacking that
very piece which she returned by sending me
Nankin cup to match an old saucer in my china
have jar to root plants in for your washer
wOmans girl, or a three gallon jar with the crack
mended with putty may not be despised by the
woman who cleans the windows. Offer her the
piece and she will take it very coOlly, but tell
her to see if there is anything on such shelf
she would carry away. and the selection will be
eagerly made.
Tin cans are the bane of country towns on
whose outskirts they form an establishment,
together with the coal ashes of unthrifty fami-
lies. The trail Of the white man across the con-
tinent is marked by the cast-away tin can, and
one wishes for more emgrants as thrifty as the
man Captain Goldman found on the plains, who
had picked up all the tomato cans he found on
his way out with an Ox-team, and rooted his
shanty with the plates he hammered from them
If you would rid your house and neighb6r-
hood OF the nuisance of old tin cans about the
back premises, always have them opened at the
soldered end, when dropping them into hot
fire will unsoltier the top leaving a neat bright
can convenient for mixing paint polish and all
the messes in which the amateur wOrkwOman
delights. Melt off the other end and you have a
tin plate which is of use for mailing over rat
holes, or lining squirrel boxes or rabbit hutches
so that they cannot gnaw out. The timer will
roll them fiat for you, when they can be ia
PANIED and painted for tile-wOrk and jarln-
ieres. Old broken crOckery has valuable use,
when ground, for mixing with various clays
In pottery and bricks. And the time
win come when 1t will have a market like rags
and scrap-iron, all of which children should be
encouraged to collect not so much for the trfing
price as for the sake of seeing yards, streets,
and river-banks free from such rubbish. don't
know why should apologize for mentioning
this industry, when every village ia scalloped
with fiourishes of waste pottery and metals, and
the boys are half the time lounging about with
hands in their pockets in want Of any earthly
occupation. The children of well-tO-dO families
are the very ones who do not hold themselves
above such mercantile ventures. The son of
the ex-mayOr of one Of the richest suburbs of
Boston collects his heap Of scrap-iron and of
bones for the fertilizing of the flower beds. II
your meat bones are cracked. as they should be-
for soups. they will be reduced to plant food in
years time less than if left whole to decay
II you can send your years gathering Of bones
to the phosphate mill I'm exchange for ground
bone meal. it will be for the benefit Of your
lawn which will keep green in hot July weather
piece of thrift joins another, and all turn to ac-
count in beauty
CrOckery and pottery bits should be thrown
into the nearest open field drain. or be used for
the lower layer OF garden walks, where they as
sist the drainage. Florists sometimes are glad
to exchange plants for such sfards broken fine
for pot drainage. All the dead leaves and gar
den litter should be raked up in the autumn, the
old boots and sweepngs from the house added,
and earth thrown over the pile, for garden
dressing In spring; All dead animals cats and
BIRDS should find sepulture at the roots Of
shrubs and trees. hope you have all the ashes
screened with tight barrel SITTER which makes
the work neither hard nor disa1reeable; for
the cinders will be worth as much as an
extra ton Of coal in a year. and. what ia OF
more account. this care prevents unsighty accu-
mutations. Pour water over the cinders to
wash the dust of. and they are cieanly, pleasant
fuel especially for keeping fires overnight. The
coal ashes are good for the second layer of
streets and garden walks, just over the drain
are layer OF stone and sharGs. Detestabe as
they are for a whole walk in the common shift
less mode OF using them. when they track with
every shower and thaw, few inches of sand
rolled above them will make clean and endur-
ing walk. II not needed for SUCH uses for earth
closets. they should be carried to low marshy
places, and left for clean and wholesome filling.
If women have any influence in town matters
they will protest against the barbarous and
dangerous practice everywhere common of
dumping the offal OF town to fill up sunken
lots, where the made ground must be poisonous
for years. The doctors can tell YOU of the
fevers, the diphtheria, bred in the pretty new
Queen Anne houses built on such land, with
their cellars In the heart of its corruption. The
animal refuse of towns should at once go to
fertize the farms about it. and nothing be
allowed for filling lots but sifted ashes. gravel.
and sand.
Old furniture may have been defaced hut good
furniture Is never too old for use. Glue, rivets,
and hardwood pins will make the worst fracture
sound, and have ceased to call ANYTHING past
garden scat made from the foot-rail of q cot
tase bedstead; the fOot-board and legs formed
the back Of the settee, to which plank was
fitted for seat, with two front legs-all painted
the vermilOn which is supposed to make things
lovely in rural taste. II you have au old soup
kettle, pOrridge pot, or griddle with a bail, of
course you have 1t swung from three crossed
poles. gypsy fashion, for hanging basket out
Of-doers- l only beg You not to paint 1t bright
red, but try bronze or iron brown instead.
which will harmonic with the green of plants.
What isn't available for garden use? Barrels
and kegs sawed in two and painted green. for
evergreen hOneysuckles or laurels, which
flourish green in the hall all winter: a
chair back for a low rose trellis. and all along
shore You viii see fOrsa&en fishing-boats drawn
up by the house, filed with earth and overflow
Ing with portuIaca or mignOnette will men
tion, without opinion, the device of the woman
who turned an old tub upside down. cushioned
and covered 1t for round ottoman in her hall.
the hoops first riveted to each, stave, and legs
put in for casters: champagne basket lined.
dressed with bright cretonne and red bows. and
filled with old things, is pretty bedroom seat.
AID the end of wicker crib will make a nice
back for it. IfyOu havea cheap, awkward bed
stead improve 1t by lOweringit likes French bed.
IL OF the straight OPen-wOrk spindle pattern
known as the cottage bedstead mt hanvinps of