Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-08

HOLD
lINTS

abound, the moving van is busy night ana
day. and the housewife saying over and
over again with more of truth than poetry.
Three moves are as bad as a fire.
The children of the next generation will
have few localized home associations, more
is the pity! There will be no dear mem
DRY pictures of the cherry tree by the
kitchen door, covered in spring with snowy
bloom through which bees hum, robins
fit and frt and build their nests, and
later sing twilight tie deums over their
downy broods and the luscious crimson
fruitage os their roof tree. There will be
no thinning for
That inward eye,
Which is the bliss of solitude
of the "host of golden daffodls'' or clus-
tered Stars of Bethlehem in one corner
of the old home garden. of the dusky gar
ret with its dormer windows and sloplng
roof under which we kept house with all
our dolls. or else saw visions and dreamed
dreams to the accompaniment of the ram
drops patter on the shngled roof.
There are no more garrets with all their
store of heirlooms, that made charades
and tabeaux and playhouse" a joy for
ever. In these days of endless fittings, we
can scarce hold on to the old family Bible,
let alone the mOth-eaten garments and
musty books of our forebears Not only do
we skip with scarce a moments notice
from seaboard to seaboard shedding as we
go the impedimenta that complexities our
passage, gaining it may be in wide views
of things and people. but losing it, seems
to me. the old-time love of stability that
incTusted our dwellings with the priced
accretions of generations and a thousand
pleasurable associations. Instead of one
set of school friends to be cherished all
through the coming years, our children have
a dozen sets, ranging in residence from Dan
to Beersheba. Instead of one dear pulpit
and familiar pew there are scores, or else
and this is more generally true-none at
ALL Instead of one mothers room. halloWed
by bedtime condolences, prayers or stories
or made memorable by chastisngs grievous
at the time, but for our moral betterment
in the end, there is a composite of rooms
large and small high and low. with no per-
manent background on which can
project the image of the guardian angel of
our peripatetic home.
Builders and cabinetmakers recognize
these changed conditions. In the up-to-date
new houses, everything possible is built in.
Walls are decorated, floors inlaid or of hard
wood ready for rugs, while window seats
divans plate shelves, sideboards, hat racks,
hall seats medicine closets, washstands
mirrors. refrigerators freplaces and gas
and coal ranges minimize the work of fur
nshng.
The new furniture that one buys is mostly
portable The big, rOomy, comfy old
fashioned bed is out" and in its stead the
lightest possible single bed, the cot. the box
couch. Morris chairs, dining tables, book
cases come in sections ready for rapid
transit, while rugs and few cans of some
of the many stains and polishes on the
market reduce the care of the floors to a
minimum.
After ALL there is no great loss without
some small gain, and the work of moving
and housekeeping is vastly easier than IN
mothers day.
Paint and Paper.-Where is the house
paint and paper in the spring? Never was
there a more fascinating display of the
latter, and never greater range in price.
For those who do not have to count the
cost. there are self-toned damask and bro
catelle silk effects with Louis XVI, rocco
and moires with panel borders. These more
especially for the drawing room. For din
ing rooms and libraries there are wonder
full forest and fruit tapestries, burlap and
fabric effects, and heraldic, colonial and
modern art papers. These run in price from
10 cents a roll to 81. There are also mag
nificent panels in sets, forming continu-
Gus scene around a room. These are all
of the same length, but have large sky
space that may be cut down to fit the room
in which they are used. These vary in
price from $15 to $3.50 set, and include
hunting scenes, with gay red coats, French,
German and japanese designs, mostly hunt
ing or out-of-door sports. There is largely
revival of quaint "old-timey' designs,
doubtless due to the increasing popularity
of colonial furnishings and architecture.
For bed rooms and summer cottages all the
natural flowers are reproduced; peoples,
dahlias and roses that run the gamut from
tiny moss rosebuds to famboyant blossoms
as big as well-developed cabbageS. Only
few women dare attempt this in its entirety.
a popular way is to use texture IN solid
color for the body of the walls, ending with
shelf or moulding near the top, and above
this the roses carried over the ceiling. There
are also many Chinese and Japanese de-
risY IN, fIa oh ing no Uov
colorings taken from old porcelains, while
the latter are principally all-over designs
of landscapes or dwarf pines in green
on a light foundation. Japanese grass
cloth is frequently used in combination with
these papers, in alternate panels of paper
cloth. But no matter what designs In wall
covering one may elect to have, there are
cretonnes chintzes and other fabrics to
match. which are to be used for furniture
covers draperies for bed and windows and
cushions.
For the Nursery-Special attention has
been given by designers to the decora-
lions for the nursery or children's room.
Some OF these are eXquisitely restful in col
oring and design, while others are attrac-
tive for the present, but might grow weari-
some in course of time. Such is Noahs
ark where all the animals march round In
woodeny pairs about the room. Very dainty
ones are the flower dances, "Buttercups and
Daisies" Nuts and May Mulberry
with four little girls dancing happily on
green background. Some of the walls are
to be covered in plain toned paper, then
finished with poster friezes. One OF these
is called The Pigeons" showing flock
of snowy birds feeding on the roof An
other is THE Snow Storm" with dancing
flakes falling over the housetops.
Arsenic in Wall Paper.-Mothers VINO
have been brought up to look askance at
green wall paper on account of the arsenic
used in the coloring may pluck up courage
from recent bulletin issued by the De-
partment of Agriculture, which says wnlle
many papers do contain arsenic, hardly any
have it in dangerous amounts. Massachu-
sets is the only state that has law reg
ulating the use of arsenic in wall paper,
the maximum amount being fixed at one
tenth of a grain square yard. The WASH
ington experts recommend that the limit
be fixed at five-tenths of a grain a square
yard a far more liberal allowance. While
only four out of 537 samples of wall paper
tested showed more than the Massachusetts
limit, a brown bear rug contained 1889
grains of arsenic to a square yard, ana
black stockings were found to contain the
deadly poison in alarming quantities.
In Preparing for Painters and Paper
Hangers.-In preparing for painters and
paper hangers, there are several things TO
be borne in mind. Cleaning for painting
should be thoroughly done as dark marks