Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1876 — Hints for Home Work. [ARTICLE]

Hints for Home Work.

There is a prejudice in small towns among people who hold “ style” to be the chief end of man, against book-cases in the parlor or jstate-room. People, however, who have plenty of books arp not apt to care for style; and know how to furnish their houses with good sense and fine meaning. Yet there are, no doubt, among even this class of our readers many mg with little money fiave not yet learned to carry out their ideas, or to help themselves to the useful and pretty tilings which they cannot buy. They have the right feeling about their books; they know them as old friends, and feel that hospitality requires that they shall be bestowed with honor in the new home. If they could afford it, there would be no article of ftirniture on which they would spend so much money as the book-cases. Antique carving, black with age, inlaid work, bronze bass-reliefs, would be but fit housing for their grave and faithful friends; but they have no money for carving, bronze, or even solidly made cases. By all means, let them avoid the cheap and showy imitations offered in auctions of cabinet-ware—stately structures of glass-veneer and halt-inch wood, whose joints i-ip open at the first touch of furnace heat, and whose rickety shelves are perpetually tumbling out of place. The in such a sham, just as old Mocha loses its aroma in a plated pot. Let the carpenter (or Tom himself, if he come of a family that have the use of their hands) build a case oi walnut boards fitting closely into the recesses on each side of the fire-place. The hack can be made oi well-seasoned pine, stained. The case should be from four to five feet high, with three shelves, the top curving slightly in the center. Strips of ogee 'walnut molding can be fastened on the sides and base, the top covered with cloth, and the edges of the shelves finished with either strips of scalloped leather or woolen fringe (of the same tint as the border of carpet and wall-paper) put on with silver tacks. The cost of such a case, if Tom builds it in off hours from the office, ought not to be more than six dollars; it will be large enough to hold four or five hundred octavos, and can readily be duplicated as books increase, until the cases make a dado of learning, wit and wisdom all around the room. No matter what the other ftirniture, this part of it will always appear solid, retd and artistic. These cases, of course, cannot he used where bituminous coal is burned, and the books must be protected from soot and ashes. It Amelia has also “brains in her fingers,” there is no better way in which she can help Tom to make home homelike than by draping .windows, mantelshelves and door-ways. These are some of the“et caeteras”. of house-furnishing from which upholsterers make their largest profit, but which, if made at home, cost not half the expenditure of money, skill or time, as does Amelia’s new suit, fitted and sewed by herself. But let her eschew all the stiff, angular lambrequins, which are so popular, and still less be tempted by any paper abominations. Drapery on a wall or a woman should be soft, full and flowing, or it loses its first significance. There is seldom any need for doors in the inside of a house. If they must be there, why not have them flush with the wall and decorated, so that they cannot be distinguished from the paper or fresco, thus preserving the unity of the room; a better plan, where practicable, is to remove them, and substitute lull curtains, pasted in the middle, and sliding by rings on a rod. In summer, where privacy la not necessary, a light, arabed trellis may take the place oi the curtains, up which ivy, or quick-growing house-vines, may be trained.

Busy, middle-aged fathers and mothers, with enough to do to feed and clothe the quick-growing flock, have no time for work such as this. But the young people can and should attend to it. — Scribner’t Monthly. . . Tint pomegranate is one of the most profitable fruits grown in this valley. The trees bear fruit in three yeaife from the cuttings, and will grow on the most ordinary soil without Irrigation. The pomegranate is a delicious fruit and possessing medicinal qualities of great value. It will bear shipment better than any other fruit. It may be barreled up and sent around the globe in good order. The retail price of the pomegranate on the street is ten cents apiece, and Gen. Stoneman informs us that be has a standing oiler from a San Francisco firm to take all the pomegranates he can produce at five cents apiece.—jCosJbgePs (Cal.) Herald. r. I, <nr ■ —1» . . Ths Louisiana Sugar Bowl says that numerous shipments of moiaaees have been made from the Teehe country direct to New York and Charleston, and that the prices realized are much higher than in the New Orleans market, there being as much Mi #6 per ban-din favor of the New York market, while the freight it only thirty oents per barrel more. - fey