Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1885 — A Young Lady’s Good Taste. [ARTICLE]

A Young Lady’s Good Taste.

A well-cooked meal served on a poorly set table is like gingerbread with the spice left out. Say as you will; eatables taste better out of pretty dishes; but tqbe pretty, it is not necessary that they should be expensive.' A lady was once visiting a family whose means were somewhat straitened, yet through the deftness and ingenuity of one of the daughters’ busy fingers, their home always possessed a cozy prettiness peculiarly its own. “My dear,” said the lady, “I was never so much surprised aS when Hattie explained to me the modus operand! of some of her home achievements. Why, the chair I was sitting on, such an easy one, with just the right hollow for your back, was made out of a flour barrel! Her brother did the carpentry and she the upholstery. Old-fashioned flowered chintz, too lovely for anything. And then the lunch. I don’t mean the eatables, which were very simple, but deliciously cooked. You would never have guessed what the center-piece for the table was composed of. As pretty a flower ornament as I ever saw that girl had manufactured out of an old cruet-stand and a pie plate. Positively! The cruet-stand was set upon the tin plate, the whole covered with this luscious green moss, excepting, of course the handle, around whiph w’ere twined, so as to conceal the plating, some creeping.vines. Nestling amid the moss were half-blown roses and buds, while feathery ferns trembled gracefully at each passing breeze. There, you see, I am getting quite poetic over it, and no wonder, for really that house is the abode pf poesy. It was summer time, and they have a lovely garden, or they could not have afforded the flowers, of course; but I assure you, before my visit ended, I should not have doubted Hattie if she had informed me she could transform a teakettle into a lovely parlor ornament.—A lady, in New York Mail.