The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1894-10-24
MRS. wTAEReY AS A DECORATOR.
She Fits Up Cottage Which Is Slightly
Out of Repair.

Mrs. Witherby was in the country
last week getting ready the summer
home. Of course after Mr.. Witherby's
unfortunate decrease in salary they
could not afford fashionable resort in
spacious house. But Mrs. Witherby
said that even if she didn't know much
about cooking she fattered herself
there was little left for her to learn
about home decoration. So she JOY
ously assured her husband that if they
took the hillside cottage, which was a
little out of repair, but which had
beautiful view, she could make charm
ing summer home for them.
81 can leave cook to keep house for
you," she said, "and I'll spend a week
there getting the place in order. I'll
board at Mrs. Nextdoor's and have her
help me-"
She made her journey into the rural
district, accompanied by unnumbered
yards of cheesecloth and silkoline, rolls
of cheap wallpaper, cans of paint and
varnish, and enough nails, tacks and
hammers to equip carpenter just
starting to build a house. Then she
took possession of the house ''a little
out of repair"
The walls bulged here and there in
way very trying to Mrs. Witherby's
orderly taste. The floors, which she of
course intended to make more beautiful
than hard wood by means of stain and
varnish, consisted of uneven boards of
seven inches wide alternating with
cracks about half an inch wide The
roof leaked, the doors were off the
hinges, and the windows had numerous
broken panes of glass. Fortunately
Mrs. Witherby realized that her early
education had not included instruction
in roofing, lock-making and glazing, so
she hired men from the village to at
tend to those matters for her.
She felt little disconnected about the
walls. She had bought cream and
green paper for the bedrooms, and
blue and cream for the dining-room,
and it was her artless intention to make
those apartments dreams of beauty,
with ivory white woodwork and the
various wall coverings. She decided
to paper the walls first, then to paint
the woodwork with enamel paint, and
then to stain her floors. So she bravely
mixed the paste according to the direc-
tions OF THE Young Housekeepers'
Guide to Happiness" borrowed step
ladder, and began. The paper wrinkled
and twisted in the most marvellous and
trying way. She covered herself with
paste; she was unable to effect neat
Jennings; the buiging showed more
distinctly than ever. There was bitter
ness in Mrs. Witherby's heart, but she
hoped sit would look better when it
dried"
1t would take tragic poet to do
justice to her trials of that week. The
enamel paint looked smeary at its best,
and hopelessly blotched at it's worst.
The floors absolutely refused to yield to
stain and varnish. The packing boxes,
dow seats, sideboards and footstools,
refused to fit in any place. The broom
stick handles which Mrs. Witherby had
thriftily painted to use as curtain poles
had way of falling and hitting her
shoulder or her nose, and did not fit
any of the windows. After few days
the paper began to peel from the walls,
because they had not been properly
prepared to receive it.
Mrs. Witherby came home in tears
and offered to spend the summer in
town. But when her husband accepted
the proposal with glee she had Mysteries
and said she had never, never expected
such treatment. So Mr.. Witherby sent
the proper furnishers to the cheap cot
tage on the hillside and at the end of a
week it was ready, with ivory-enam-
eled woodwork, pretty paper, denim
carpeted floors, and muslin hangings
Mr.. Witherby calculates that by going
without lunches for two years he will
be able to pay for his wife's attempts at
home decoration.