Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-07

Cfusta, ana tlnSp2r. 1t Is an GuSiisu mo
facture, the material a kind of solid paint
which shows the same color through its
quarter inch of thickness. 1t comes in the
best tile patterns and mellow colors of burnt
tiles yellow-brown harmonlzing with dark
brown and brownish red, or faint slaty blues
and red, with ochre yellow, or brilliant
BYZANTINE patterns The material is really
tile work, checks and pieces of the solidlhed
paint fitted together, and must be perfectly
damp proof, warm and silent, which burnt
tiles are not. The tilecloth comes in pieces
two yards wide and 20 yards long, and must
be nearly indestructible.
In houses with floors as poorly laid as
they are in most American dwellings, it is
serious matter to get them artisticallv COW
cred, to be warm and yet dust proof, agree
able to the head and not requiring to be
taken up every year, or changed in five
years wear. For halls, passages, dining
and sleeping rooms, studios and nurseries,
the tile cloth is admirable. Until we have
inventions to sling chairs and cabinets in
the air while carpets are anonymously
rolled up, removed, cleansed and put down
again, they will remain the occasion of
much unhealthiness in the household, not
more by their absorption of everything
wicked in the way of dust and smells, than
by the tasking drudgery Of keeping them
swept.
SWEEPING THE CARPETS.
The hardest work in servants 70 utine is
sweeping thick carpets. 1t strains more
muscles, offers more dangerous dust and
f1ue to inhale than all the other work on
floor. Rugs, if of any size, are delusion,
for half-szed Smyrna mat is heavy as a
whole carpet, and the beating they get at
the hands of genteel housemaids is careful
not to disturb the body of dust. 1nlaid
floors are costly to lay and to keep in order,
as they must be wiped and polished more
or less daily, or they are as delightful as a
piano case with the dust on. Few floors are
good enough to bear the dark paint and
shellac which makes the most satisfactorily
cheap finish, clear and handsome as pol
ished black oak at the expense of sweeping
with damp mop daily, which is easy as
busting the piano lid aforesaid, and re-
vanishing once in six months at 80 cents a
room. 1t is cheap, letting the household off
so much drudgery, dust and discomfort, plus
tine brilliant, clean effect.
But few floors are smooth enough to be
satisfactorily polished this way, and in pre-
pairing for comfort in winter, the wise house,
keeper finds nothing available so warm,
soundless and pleasant in every way but one,
as the thick plain corticine. a quarter inch
through, and feeling to the foot much like
elastic sole leather. If there could be some
way of decorating 1t, in East India color
ings for instance, dying is right through, in
patterns, without the tac-tac left bv a painted
surface and without gloss, it would be an
ideal floor covering. Carpets are IN ere dust
and disease traps, and the sooner we get rid
of them the better. Cotton carpets OF fast
dye, firm weaving and good design would
be far better than wool ones which have a
fatal property of absorbing everything they
should not.
FUN AT THE FAIRS.
The season of fancy fairs is not far dis
tant and veteran managers are planning for
attractions as far ahead as managers of the
theatrical sort. The newest diversion in
English and continental fairs is the cafe
chantant, in separate room, where ladies
of condition get themselves up as much like
Judic and the music hall stars as possible,
and from a music stage charm the audience
with the airs and graces of those singers. 1t
is strictly correct, being imitation naughti-
ness only, ard safe for bishops wife to at
tend, and it is surprising how closely the
daughters of careful houses reproduce the
fetching" effects of the variety stage. If
the Spanish dance, a la Carmencita could
only be put on the dais for the next hospital
fair, how many ladies would be found equal
to filling the role, and how it would drawl
IF Pittsburg's seminaries could not furnish
girls able to reproduce Carmencita's glances
and poses, Vassar and Wellesley could.
For a good cause, Boston now, for ex-
ample, does not require such high special
bills of fare. Two things you can depend
on hearing at any public or semi-public oc-
casion there; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe reads
her Battle Hymn Of the Republic. and tells
how it came to be written; and Mrs. some
body else gives a whistling solo. They had
them at the Woman's Relief Corps meeting
in fremont Temple, Grand Army week,
and were to have them at a lawn party the
day before-or was it a reading of poetry
in place OF whistling? / heard of good
pious woman tell of Chicago mission Sun
day school when of an afternoon a man and
his wife played the cornet together, and an
other woman gave a whistling exhibition.
that was to draw the masses, and I should
think it would
RIDING IN THE PARKS.
A nice girl wishes TO know if it will be
proper for her to ride bicycle or a tricycle.
alone in Allegheny Parks, as she is very
fond of the exercise-needs it, and has no
one to go with her. If she had only written
Mr.. Ward McAllister, of New York, about
the matter she would stand a chance of an
opinion she could fall back on. 1t Is NOR
ally certain that most city circles who want
to be nice would promptly declare it i'm
proper for young lady to ride anything in
the park unattended. But L am not sure
that Mr.. McAllister, surveying the situa-
ton, of needed outdoor exercise and the i'm
possibility in certain wide circles outside
his own of always commanding the escort of
father, brother, or groom as escort, and
calling on the clear common sense which
marks his decisions, would not tell her to
put on a plain gown, go out in the forenoon
or early afternoon before the park is filled
with riders, and behave like good girl, at
tending strictly to her own business. There
must be care to preserve these outdoor liber-
ties for women, which means SO much to
their health and spirits.
We can't afford to have our nice middle
class girls hampered by the hallucinations
of the upper circle concerning the indispens-
ability OF chapersns and escorts if u girl
goes out in plain daylight. If We do, the
middle class girls may turn out as badly as
some of the upper ones. They may cling to
their formal proprieties-they seem to need
them-for chaperons, escorts, grooms and
footmen don't seem to keep them from COM
ing to grief often.
NEEDED LIBERTY.
But cycling is so fascinating and needed
a sport, worth all the gymnastics in the coun-
try for development of health and activity,
that the good sense of the community or the
better part of it should protect women in
that and all other needful and gracious lib
erty, But you want to use freedom without
abusing it. You want TO dress quietly, not
to draw attention, and do not think the
blue Striped flannel skirt with cream Zouave
jacket covered with gilt buttons depicted by
a woman rider in cycling paper at all lady
like or quiet. 1T could be seen mile ahead
and would of itself say to any man rider