The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-01-30

Il n tan New England. Just try
on your husband, and see hoy
patiently he waits for his dinner whel
he comes home all hour earlier thai
usual, expecting you to know it before
hand and be ready accordingly. Or
try it on yourself, for that matter
when you have kept things sizzling fol
two hours while that same obstreper
Gus better half stays down town talk
ing business" with-well. never minC
with whom, but try the remedy sug'
gested and lull yourself into serene
frame of mind before he returns.
No room for a coy corner? Non
sense! You can build it in the middle
of the floor II doesn't matter where
it is, If only it is comfortable.
The fashionable woman who has been
going in for Delsartean flops, after
every physical effort has learned the
value of lounging places in her boudor
But how about us poor, ordinary NOR
tails who cannot afford boudoirs and
would hardly know what to do with
them If we could? The average woman
has neither time nor inclination to re-
tire to her bed-room-for that is what
most Of us have instead of a boudoir
every time she wrings out her dish
cloth or hangs up her broom, but if
there were a comfortable corner handy
where she could drop down for a mo-
ment without going TO bed or disar-
ranging the order which has just been
accomplished, there would be fewer
cases Of nervous prostitution and more
peaceful households.
The orientals have taught us a lesson
IN roatfer Chairs almost I'm
known in the harem, yet the women
there are healthy and beautiful beyond
all others, else be assured they would
not be there. For the past two years.
women have been deluged with litera-
ture descanting upon the value of re-
pose, but as to how that repose is to
be attained without neglecting neces-
sary work or without being caught in
ungraceful attitudes, the majority of
us have been left in ignorance.
This, my girl chum and I have
learned from an experience born of ne
cessity. We had no furniture to speak
of. and we We're compelled to find
cheaper substitute. First, let me give
you list of all the articles of set fur
niture with which we started. and with
which we proposed to fit out five rooms:
One single bed, one secretary, one set
of book-shelves, two chairs. two little
tables. and a bureau. With these, plus
three cozy corners and a couch since
procured. we have developed a domicile
which we should hesitate to exchange
for the most palatial residence in New
York.
The directions for making corner
seats always say, Have a carpenter
oto +o Ix-Ia ha
through, pay him more than a brand
new couch would cost. But I am here
to bear testimony that no carpenter has
ever crossed our threshold. What we
did was to go to a publishing house.
smile upon the man who has stacks of
big, flat, wooden boxes to dispose of,
nav two little boys forty cents to bring
over couple of those smilingly-pro-
cured boxes on a push cart. and the
rest was in our own hands. We then
borrowed a saw, though if we could
not have borrowed it we should have
bought one. Hammer and nails were
already ours, and we proceeded to tear
those boxes to pieces to get the neces-
sary boards, some of which We're five
feet long. Two of these we set at
right angle and nailed together to fit
the corner The front board had to be
Iieced with a smaller one from q gro
GERS box This was the skeleton, across
the top of which we nailed small boards
and stretched pieces of burlaD. web
bling, or anything strong enough to hold
a mattress. One of our mattresses
which of course are three-cornered to
fit the frame-we stuffed with excelsior,
another with cotton batting, and the
third was a contribution from a rela-
tive and gloried in a true inwardness"
of proper, curled hair The mattresses
which we made ourselves We're COW
cred with figured denim at fifteen cents
a yard, and cost about eighty-fiVe cents
apiece, including the stuffing. In pur-
chasing the denim, one should remem-
Der to get enough to make an extra
ruffle which will conceal the front of
the board frame and the flaws of anna
teur carpentering.
The triumph of artistic repose was
not reached, however, until we provid-
ed our seats with comparable pillows
and with canOpes overhead. The can
opies were a cause of much perpleXity
at first, but we made one with DENIM
in a contrasting shade to the mattress
and for the other some one gave us an
old chenille curtain which we draped
from a rod and tackled to the wall with
brass tacks. The front Of the chenille
canopy formed an inviting place for an
old red parasol, and the corner at the
back was filed with a couple of bright
fans, a pen-and-ink sketch, and a red
and blue striped sash which had served
its term of usefulness as an article Of
wearing apparel.