Lamps For The Library

1902

The newest lamps for the drawing room and library are of metal and naturally form a fitting foundation for those beautiful bent glass domes in leaded effects or other metallic settings. A number are in art nouveau effects; one of these is of oxidized brass. In shapes they range from graceful forms (not the very squat shapes) to tall monumental affairs of the banquet variety.

A clever thing of Grecian form with low, graceful supports is in mandarin bronze, and is very attractive. One charming oxidized bronze lamp is in the old Dutch style, a simple, sturdy loving cup as to shape and the column resting on three savage looking griffins.

Choosing a lamp is easier than choosing a shade, for a shade must look well when lit up, and it must be becoming. — New York American.

You Ought To Have a Wheel Hoe

1917

A wheel hoe is the gardener's best friend; with it one man can do as much work in two hours as he can in six with the old-fashioned common hoe. It saves laborious stooping, makes the work easier and does it better. These hoes have several attachments such as drills, cultivators and different-sized hoes, making it suitable for crops of all kinds and sizes. If a man is too lazy to attend to his own garden, his wife will find the use of the wheel hoe very comforting.


His Dress

When a girl falls in love with a young man she wishes he would wear some other kind of necktie.


Handicapped

"Ernest, were you looking through the keyhole last night at your sister and me?" "Honest, I wasn't. Mother was in the way."

Racks That Match Tables

1910

Newest Kind Made of Thin White Wood, Covered with Fancy Material

Handsome racks can be bought in brass and different woods to match various tables. Those in burnt wood are also popular, with those who like this form of decoration.

So much of this decorating is done by amateurs that it is one of the first kind of rests chosen to make. Far newer, however, are the racks made of thin white wood and covered with fancy cretonnes, embroidered brocades or other materials.

The wood part is made to slide like the ordinary racks, and is either painted white and enameled or is stained to correspond with table, on which it is to be used.

Even easier to make are the racks with two ends and under slides with no connecting rods. Each end has an upright with rounded or square angles to be slipped under the end books.

These frames may be made of wood or heavy cardboard, and are covered with green burlap, bound with dull gold braid and have flat brass ornaments pasted on each end.

Economy in Small Ways

1896

The little leaks in the household expenses, says the Jenness-Miller Monthly, are the most mischievous. The big ones are prominent enough to compel attention. Do you not, for example, trust all your tradespeople implicitly? You can't afford to do so.

The head servants in the Vanderbilt and Astor, and other wealthy families have among their chief duties that of weighing the household supplies. Dry goods measurements in the large shops are generally very accurate because the employes are under strict orders to be exact. But grocers and butchers will bear watching. Get for yourself or your kitchen priestess a set of measures and some scales, and after you and she have learned to use them, you will be amazed to see how much you have been paying for that you haven't had.

Even in the most reliable shops — so called — the weighing is very lax. Butchers claim that the deficiencies in their weights are all due to the waste in trimming. Very well, order the meat sent untrimmed. You will get fresher meat, and what you trim off will often give you nice bits for the stock pot, suet, etc. Try it and be convinced.

A quick-witted housekeeper says she has earned many a dollar in plumbers' bills by buying a force cup and learning to handle a wrench. Despite washing soda and potash, now and then something unmeltable slips through the sink strainer and clogs the pipe. All the more modern plumbing has a nut at the bottom of the "goose-neck," just below the sink. By setting a pan beneath this, and with a wrench loosening and then removing the cap, the obstruction will generally be found right there. Sometimes the force-cap applied over the strainer in the sink will be sufficient to clear the pipe without taking the cap off the gooseneck. If both fail, no harm will have been done, but one or the other, or both, succeeds often enough to make it worth while to exercise one's ingenuity a bit.

Servants in South Africa

1900

Only rich people can afford to keep white servants in South Africa. All ordinary folk, says a contributor to the London Mail, have to be content with the well-meant, if casual, ministrations of the native "house-boy."

The best of all servants is a Zulu, especially if he is raw, that is, fresh from his native kraal and totally unspoiled by the wiles of civilization. Such a boy is honest, sober, quick, clean, and anxious to learn the ways of the "umlungu," or white man.

He soon becomes as deft as an English butler, and as handy as the ideal housemaid. He does everything, from cooking to answering the door, and after a little practice he does it well. His knowledge of English at first is scanty, but he soon picks up a few words and mixes up Kaffir, Dutch and English in a quaint polyglot dialect.

When they are new to their work the boys make funny mistakes. A lady once had a good but raw boy who did not understand the etiquette of visiting-cards. Three visitors called. Two of them gave the boy their cards; the third did not happen to have one with her. The boy ushered the first two into the drawing-room, but kept the third waiting in the hall, saying, "Two misses got ticket. You no got ticket, you wait outside."

The boys have all manner of strange names, usually chosen by themselves from some one or other of the words that they hear often used, such as Sixpence, "Tickey" (three-penny piece), Shilling, Breakfast, Kettle, Silly Fool, Ugly, Pint Pot, Scrubber, Chopper or Whiskey.

Of course they have their own tribal names, but they never use them in white men's houses, and if none of the aforementioned common objects serves to provide an appellation, the boy is usually Jim, Charley or John. — Youth's Companion.

Managing a Husband

1910

Men are like children; they want managing, although you must never let them dream that you think so. No child likes to be ordered about, no man will endure coercion. But managing! It is an art so subtle, so elusive, that few women understand even the rudiments of it.

Sisters mine, let us reason together, says Woman's Life. In every human being there is a spark of the divine; it is yours to fan that spark into a flame — that is managing a man — it is to get the very best out of him there is to have, and not two women in ten can do it. Do not think that there is anything unworthy in managing a man — to bring out the best is a high vocation.

Only let us see to it that we are worthy of it. There are women who have made angels of men, but at the cost of their own divinity. There is room for more than one unselfish person in a family.


His Bad Break

"Will you love me when I am old?" she whispered. "Didn't I tell you that I love you now?" he responded. And she didn't speak to him again for a whole week.


Not Risking a Quarrel

Heiress-Tell me truly, Arthur, is it your love or your reason prompts you to marry me? Arthur—Just as you like, dearest.


To Credit's Discredit

Business will have its periodical reverses so long as a man who couldn't pay cash for a wheelbarrow is able to buy an automobile on credit.

Daughter Can Save Mother

1915

There Are Many Little Pleasures Girl Can Give Her Parents — Don't Talk Disrespectfully

There is so much a daughter can do for her mother that it is hard to know where to begin. Remember, girls, that all your lives your mothers have been sacrificing themselves for you. Now you have a chance to reverse things.

Your shoulders are young and strong; help lift the burden a little from the tired shoulders that have borne it so long. Let mother see that you appreciate all that she has done for you. Take the heaviest part of the housework off her hands. Make her stay in bed in the morning while you get the breakfast. Send her out to enjoy herself while you look after the children.

Of course you cannot do this every day, but you can do your share of it.

If you are a business girl you cannot do much of this sort of thing, but there are many little pleasures you can give her.

Something pretty to wear will please her. She likes pretty things as well as you do. Confide in her and tell her your hopes and ambitions. She is better than all the girl friends in the world and will never tell your secrets.

The trouble about mothers is, that we get so used to them that we don't half appreciate them until we lose them. Then quickly enough we realize what all that divine care and tenderness meant. No matter how much you do, you can't begin to return all they have done for you, but do the best you can. A little love and petting is always appreciated by mothers; try it with yours and see if she does not thrive under it.

As for the girls who talk and act disrespectfully toward their mothers, for them no criticism is too harsh. If only they knew what outsiders think of it I believe they would stop it.

The prettiest girl in the world is absolutely devoid of charm if she is impertinent to her mother.

Begin today, girls, and save your mothers all the worries you can; show them all the consideration you can, and give them all the love you can. — Selected.

Crepe Lingerie

1914

A girl who is courageously preparing to face comparative poverty with the "dearest fellow in the world" is making all of her lingerie in white cotton crinkle crepe — because she knows that for several years, at least, she will have to do her own washing.

Please don't imagine that this bride's undergarments are anything like the atrocities marked "a bargain — 59 cents each." They are lovely, dainty white combinations, petticoats, night dresses and negligees handmade and cut from the latest French patterns. Some of the sets are finished about the neck, front and sleeves with white lingerie beading, through which narrow ribbons may be run, others are edged with hand-embroidered scallops and several are trimmed with narrow cluny, the one sort of imitation lace which washes well and doesn't look cheap on underwear.

This girl has made her boudoir set, so called — although the nearest she'll come to owning a boudoir for years to come will be a bedroom in a small flat — of white crinkle crepe. It consists of a spread for the dressing table, a cover for the sewing machine, a square pillow for the lounge, a pair of sash curtains and a bed spread to match the lingerie outfit and it will always look fresh because she can wash it with her own hands.

Woman's Humor — "Looking For a Maid"

1905

Mrs. Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman was discussing, at her home in Metuchen the popular fallacy that woman has no sense of humor.

"Woman," said this powerful writer, "has a keen sense of humor, and of this fact I am continually hearing excellent proofs. Often it is a sad and bitter humor. But I do not like it less on that account. "From a friend in Exeter I heard a good specimen of woman's humor the other day.

"An old bachelor of Exeter had advertised for a maid of all work. A robust woman of middle age answered his advertisement. The bachelor told her that her appearance, her look of strength, pleased him, and then he proceeded to enumerate the duties that would be required of a maid of all work in his house.

" 'To suit me,' he said, 'a maid will have to do the cooking, the washing and ironing, the sweeping, the cleaning and the marketing. She will have to tend to the garden. She will have to look after my clothes, pressing my trousers once a week, sewing on my buttons, mending my shirts, darning my stockings and so on. She must pay all the bills, and she must keep an account book to show where the money goes. She must—'

"But the woman of middle age held up her hand to interrupt the old bachelor, and his flow of talk ceased.

" 'Well?' he asked.

" 'You,' said the woman, 'don't want hired girl. You want a wife.'

"And with a grim smile — the smile, maybe, of a widow who knew whereof she spoke — she walked away."

What Is Due To A Wife

1874

One of the very best wives and mothers I have ever known once said to me that whenever her daughters should be married she should stipulate in their behalf with their husbands for a regular sum of money to be paid them, at certain intervals, for their personal expenditures. Whether this sum was to be larger or smaller was a matter of secondary importance — that must depend on the income and style of living — but the essential thing was that it should come to the wife regularly, so that she should no more have to make a special request for it than her husband would have to ask her for his dinner. This lady's own husband was, as I happen to know, of a most generous disposition, was devotedly attached to her, and denied her nothing.

She herself was a most accurate and careful manager. There was everything in the household to make the financial arrangements flow smoothly. Yet she said to me: "I suppose no man can possibly understand how a sensitive woman shrinks from asking for money. I can prevent it, my daughters shall never have to ask it. If they do their duties as wives and mothers, they have a right to their share of the joint income, within reasonable limits; for, certainly, no money could buy the service they render. Moreover, they have a right to a share in determining what those reasonable limits are."

And I fancy that those who feel it most are often the most conscientious and high-minded women. It is unreasonable to say of such persons, "Too sensitive!" "Too fastidious!" For this very quality of finer sensitiveness which men affect to prize in woman, and wish to protect it at all hazards. The very fact that a husband is generous; the very fact that his income is limited; these may bring in conscience and gratitude to increase the retaining influence of pride, and make the wife less willing to ask money of such a husband than if he were a rich man or a mean one. The only dignified position in which a man can place his wife is to treat her at least as well as he would treat a housekeeper, and give her the comfort of and perfectly clear and definite arrangement as to money matters. She will not then be under the necessity of nerving herself to solicit from him as a favor what she really needs and has a right to spend. Nor will she be torturing herself, on the other side, with the secret fear lest she has asked too much and more than they can really spare. She will, in short, be in the position of a woman and a wife, not of a child or toy.

I have carefully avoided using the word "allowance" in what I have said, because that word seems to imply the untrue and mean assumption that the money is all the husband's, to give or withhold as he will. Yet I have heard this sort of talk from men who were living on a wife's property, or a wife's earnings; from men such as keepers of boarding-houses, who worked a little while their wives worked hard, and from men such as farmers, who worked hard and their wives work harder. Even in case where the wife has no direct part in the money-making, the indirect part she performs, if she takes faithful charge of her household, is so essential, so beyond all compensation in money, that it is an utter shame and impertinence in the husband when he speaks "giving" money to his wife as if were an act of favor. It is no more an act of favor than when the business manager of a firm pays out money to the unseen partner who directs the indoor business or runs the machinery. Be the joint income more or less, the wife has a claim to her honorable share, and that, as a matter of right, without the daily ignominy of sending in a petition for it.

Housecleanograms

1916

Husbands flee when dustpan pursueth.

What you wife yanks out you must tack down.

A dinner in town is worth ten off the set tubs.

When your wife asks you to clean the rug — beat it!

No woman is a Lillian Russell when she is cleaning house.

Behold, how great a mess a little soap and water maketh!

He who reneges and runs away will live till next housecleaning day!

No man steppeth on a cake of soap and getteth up and praiseth the Lord!

Things You Shouldn't Oughta Do For Good Economy

1916

Anti-Economical Don'ts

Don't save too many paper boxes.

Don't save all your paper and string.

Don't save cracked or mutilated dishes.

Don't save dirty rags. It does not pay to wash them out.

Don't have the kitchen drawer littered with paper bags; you might use one, but you can't use a dozen.

Don't save too much dry bread. Keep a supply of bread crumbs, but the chances are that you will not use all your stale bread for bread pudding.

Don't save many bottles. The amount of space they occupy is not compensated for by the amount of money you receive if you sell them.

Don't save opened bottles of liquids without going over them to see if they still are good; many lose strength or spoil after being opened. The too-careful housewife is apt to clutter her shelves with iodine that has grown too strong, oil that has become rancid, or furniture polish that is merely dregs.

The Luxury of a Great Porch in the Summer

1912

SUMMER PORCHES

The Luxury of Living Outdoors in Hot Weather

WHAT PAINT WILL DO

Get Out Your Own Chairs, Buy Two New Wickers, Give Them a Green Coat and Then Dress Them Up In Gay Chintzes

It seems a pity that all country homes are not built with roomy, spacious piazzas. After all, the principal reason that any one has for living in the suburbs and going through all the trouble of commuting is because he wants to live in the country. Of course six months in the year it is too cold to sit out of doors, but when spring comes the suburbanite wants to enjoy the country to the utmost. He cannot do this by sitting indoors, certainly. He wants to read his paper and smoke his pipe where he can see nature's beauties spread all out before his eyes — namely, on the porch.

Modern architects are realizing more and more the need for big porches, no matter how small the house. Of course the suburbanite who owns his own home can always add to the porches if he wishes. But the others must make the most of what they have and do the best they can to make their piazza cozy and comfortable, no matter how small it may be.

You women who live in the country will find that a can or two of paint and a bolt of pretty chintz will do much to transform your porch furniture. If you have no comfortable chairs for piazza use do buy one or two. They need not be expensive pieces, but be sure they are comfortable and have pretty lines.

The wicker or reed furniture is really the most attractive for verandas, and it is not at all expensive.

You need not worry if you have two or three pieces of one kind and a couple of pieces of another variety. After you have given them all a coat of the same paint and made chintz cushioned seats and backs for them they will look enough alike to fool any casual eye. Besides, no one expects rigid formality in porch decorations.

If your house is white or gray you will find that green porch furniture will look best. Give all the chairs, tables and settees a coat of green paint and one of green enamel paint. The chintz for green furniture should contrast with it, and a figure with a good deal of red in it will be found most effective.

It may be wisest to have a cheap upholsterer make the seat cushions and backs if you are afraid to tackle so tricky a job. Have them made with some white goods as a cover. Then you can yourself make slip covers of the chintz for them. The reason why it is better not to have the chintz put right on as the first cover of the cushions is because it may soil very quickly, being where the street dust can easily reach it. If the chintz is made into slip covers they can be removed and washed when soiled.

If your house is any other color except white or gray brown porch furniture is prettiest. So you can paint your furnishings brown and use almost any gaily colored, pretty bright chintz for cushions.

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 24, 1916, page 7.

What is Expected of a Mother?

1919--

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF A MOTHER

In thinking over what is expected of the average woman who becomes a housekeeper, wife, and mother, it occurs to a recent writer that she must be master of all the arts and sciences in order to properly fit her position. Her education, to be complete, must be perfect along many lines.

She must be entertaining and accomplished, to charm her husband and her husband's friends; she must be a well-rounded housekeeper, understand cooking thoroughly, else how can she direct the energies of her domestic in that line?

She must be well acquainted with the sanitary code, to see that her house is well ventilated, properly heated, and the plumbing in good condition; must know how to attend to the marketing and general buying, so that sufficient economy may be practiced; must make all her own calls, and her husband's as well, to keep in touch with her social duties; her knowledge of sewing must be such as to keep the family mending done, if not to fashion the clothes; then, when the children come, she must be a trained kindergartner, and then, later on, she must remember all she ever learned at school or college, so as not to be put to shame by the girl or boy of the twentieth century, while at the same time she must be young again to enter into their joys and sentiments, and see that their companions are what they should be, and when sickness comes a mother is expected to be a trained nurse, ready to be up day and night, taking the temperature, giving the medicine.

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 20, 1919, page 10.

Motor-Drive Egg Beater

A small electric motor, which had become unfit for shop work, was used by one of the mechanics in his home kitchen, where it rendered good service in beating eggs, whipping cream, and even churning butter. He screwed it to the kitchen wall, with the drive shaft in a vertical position, and as this adjustment threw all the weight of the armature onto the lower thrust bearing, he placed two mica washers between the bearing and the shoulder of the armature. The power was transmitted to the egg beater by means of a collar, pinned permanently to the lower end of the shaft, and the top of the egg beater was thrust into the collar and held firmly with a thumbscrew, so that it revolved with the shaft. The beater was made from a piece of fairly coarse iron wire, twisted into spirals at its lower end, where it entered the dish or pan containing the eggs. To prevent the weight of the thumbscrew from causing the shaft to turn unevenly, a small lump of solder was used as a counterweight on the collar, opposite the screw. Several wire beaters were made and twisted into different shapes, so as to adapt the machine to the nature of the work which was to be done.

Mirror Bait for Raccoon Trap
To catch a raccoon without using edible bait, use a steel trap of medium size, with a mirror, or piece of tin foil, laid flat on the bait pan and secured in position with solder or wire. Set the trap, in water if possible, by some creek, or in some gully, where the tracks of a raccoon have been found. He is a very inquisitive animal, and when he sees light reflected from any surface, he is apt to paw it with his foot -- in this case to his own destruction. - J. W. Reynolds, Mason, Ill.

--Popular Mechanics, August 1919