Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1884 — SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE. [ARTICLE]

SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE.

. Smell of paint can be neutralized by a handful of hay in a pailful of water. It is said that equal parts of a butternut bark, and black tea, with water in which a few rusty nails have been thrown, will restore hair that is prematurely turning gray to its original color. Steep well ami saturate the hair once a day. There is nothing injurious in the mixture at any rate. If a lamp is tilled quite full in a cold room, and then is brought into a warm one, the heat will cause the oil to expand and overflow, and lead to the suspicion that the lamp leaks. This should be avoided by not filling completely; knowing that this may occur, sufficient space should be left to allow for expansion. Ter Ornament Photographs.—Take a piece of white unruled paper, one suitable for water-color paints, and on it paint a vine of morning glories, roses, ivy, or a spray of some pretty, delicate drooping flower. The spray or vine should curve in almost a half circle. Lay it . away where the dust will not reach it until perfectly dry, then with . a pair of sharp scissors cut out the flowers. Next take a piece of white cardboard, cut out a square nearly as large as the photograph, paste the picture over the square on the wrong side of the paper. Take the flowers and arrange them half over the paper and half over the picture, and when the position is satisfactory secure them with mucilage. Frame the card with an oak frame, and a very pretty effect will be obtained. Instead of the painted flowers; pressed ferns and mosses may be used with excellent results. For a simple folding screen, suitable for a bedroom or dining-room, take seven yards of firm, unbleached cotton cloth, three and one-half yards each of olive silesia and upholstery cretonne, three small brass hinges and several dozen brass-headed tacks and two frames, each five feet high and two and one-quarter feet broad. These frames are made of four strips of pine board, one inch thick and two and one-half inches wide, nicely jointed at the corners so as to be quite fiat. It is preferable to have the cretonne of bright but harmonious colors and of large figures. The landscape patterns are pretty for this. Cover the fraones on both sides with the cotton cloth, fastening it with very small common tacks, and, after that, stretch tightly across one side of each a piece of the cretonne an inch larger all around than the frame. On the other side stretch the silesia, with the edges turned in and overlapping the cretonne, and fasten these in the middle of the inch-wide edge with a row of the brass-headed tacks, on which will be the top and the outer side when the two panels are joined together with the hinges. The other two ends must be sewed.