The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-04-14
TO BEAUTIFY HOMES.
How a Bare Room May Be Made
Both Cosy and Artistic.

country. A writer in Decorator and
Fu2nisher tells how she transformed
such a room into the cosiest retreat
possible, and one that is within the
financial reach of any who has
the plain room and a wil1to do.
Within my main room l put corner
shelves in the northwest corner, leav-
space for a couch beneath them;
shelves above all the doors and win
dows. The top corner shelf (Which
was deeper than those beneath it, and
all these shelves / furnish with a rail-
ing made OF spools, about three inches
apart and supported by a reglet stick
finished with q wooden button mould,
through all Of which / drove a nail
that held them firmly in place. In
the upper part of windows and doors
| had grill frames, made of moulding,
fitted. The grilIs | made of thin
strips of wood woven together and
fastened to the frames.
The mantel decided the color of the
wood work, which l was sorry to
have black walnut. / made a hot
dive with brown diamond dye to
match it in color and rubbed all the
wood work and floor with it. The
wood work l finished with oil, the
floor with beeswax and turpentine,
and both were satisfactory. | could
find no suitable paper at the little
store, but finally got some OF the very
cheapest brown backed wall paper
and put it on wrong side out, putting
glue in the paste TO insure its sticking.
The frieze was of lighter Drown,
almost cream. This / decorated by
I--..-. -w1..11 farnc rt.ocxac and
leaves ON the paper in such a manner
that they appeared to be growing
naturally from the bottom when the
frieze was in place.
/ then resorted to the very inartis-
tic spatter work, long since confined
to outer darkness by modern art
workers. Here diamond dye and
bronze powder again served my pur-
pose-light blue at the top shading
gradually into darker, and then
bronze at the bottom. Here and there
/ painted a butterfly in bronze, and
touched up my work with bronze,
grasses, etc. A narrow molding at
the top and a wider picture molding
at the bottom completed my wall
finish; the ceiling | had tinted a light
cream color.
NV carpet was brown, with a little
peacock blue running through it. OF
this l made a large square rug, leav-
ing a margin OF polished floor w
feet wide around it.
At the window / hung long sash
curtains of cheese cloth. From the
lower edge of the grill short curtains
of pongee, embroidered with leaves in
brown; tassels of brown crewels.
The portieres are all of dull blue
serge. embroidered in bold designs,
each different, of dogwood, woodbine
and ~varicolored branches of maple
and chestnut.
The couch beneath the corner
shelves is an old haircloth sofa,
draped with an embroidered blue
army blanket, and half concealed by
long curtains falling from a pole at
tached to the upper shelf. Luxurious
cushions, filled with odorous leaves,
covered with blue denim, over which
are drawn work covers, makes this
corner a cosey one.
His First Love letter.
A writer in the Christian Union
gives an amusing account of the first
letter ever written to his wife by a GER
tain old gentleman. The couple had
never been separated in all the years
of their life until Pa at the age of
seventy, concluded to visit some rela-
tives in Boston.
When he was preparing to start on
his memorable trip his wife, who was
to remain at home, said
PA, you never writ me a letter in
your life, an | do hope when you git
safely there you'll write me a line and
let me know how you bore the jour
ney. I'll buy a sheet of paper and put
in a wafer, SO you won't have no
trouble about that"
Pa was absent a week, and, faithful
to his promise, he sent a letter. 1t
read thus
RESPECTED LADY, got here safe,
and / am very well, and I hope you
are the same. | shall be glad to git
home, for the pride of the airth that /
see here is enough to ruin the nation.
Gadl the women folks are too lazy to
set up in their carriages. They loll
back and look as if they was goin' to
sleep, and | don't s'pose one of 'em
could milk d COW or feed a pig.
Nephew Abijah has a proper dairy
of horses, an have rid all owe Bos-
ton. There want no need of o. put
tim them boughten buttons on my
coat, for nobody noticed 'em. | am
YOUR RESPECTED HUSBAND.
A Mascot Ten Dollar Bill.
Speaking of General Forrest, the