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 THE EFFECTIVE 
 SMALL HOME 
 
 BY 
 
 LILIAN BAYLISS GREEN 
 
 FORMERLY EDITOR LITTLE HOUSE DEPARTMENT 
 
 OF 
 THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 WITH 
 
 DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 BY 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY, 
 191Y 
 
 n
 
 Copyright, 1917, bj 
 ROBERT M. McBaiDE & Co. 
 
 Published February, 1917
 
 TO 
 MY HUSBAND 
 
 THE AMIABLE VICTIM 
 
 OF 
 MY HOME-MAKING EXPERIMENTS
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO PART I i 
 
 I TRAINING THE CHILD'S SENSE OF BEAUTY . S 
 II THE IMPOSSIBLE TYPE OF RENTED HOUSE 
 AND THINGS THAT MAY BE DONE TO IM- 
 PROVE IT 13 
 
 III A PRACTICAL PLAN FOR THE NEWLY MAR- 
 
 RIED 24 
 
 IV How I FURNISHED OUR NEW HOUSE . . 34 
 INTRODUCTION TO PART II 51 
 
 I SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING .... 57 
 
 II LIGHTING FIXTURES 75 
 
 III THE HANGING OF CURTAINS 79 
 
 IV FLOOR COVERINGS 89 
 
 V TABLEWARE AND SILVER 94 
 
 VI PICTURES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS . . . 103 
 
 VII SYSTEM IN THE HOUSEHOLD Ill 
 
 VIII UGLY THINGS IMPROVED OR THE ART OF 
 
 MAKING USE OF WHAT Is AT HAND . .117 
 IX PLANTS, FLOWERS AND FRUITS IN HOUSE 
 
 DECORATION 122 
 
 APPENDIX I 133 
 
 APPENDIX II RECIPES AND SUGGESTIONS . 145 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 
 
 INDEX . 189
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN HALF-TONE 
 
 A living-room which contains expensive and inex- 
 pensive furnishings .... Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 An English style suburban house of stucco ... 6 
 
 A Colonial house restored 6 
 
 A room improved by redecorating 7 
 
 Mahogany furniture against a background of gray 
 
 walls 7 
 
 Two views of a well planned kitchen . . . .28 
 
 A buffet both sides of which are utilized ... 29 
 
 A hall and a dining-room entrance 40 
 
 A symmetrical arrangement for a dining-room . . 41 
 
 A simple and attractive guest room 41 
 
 A buffet made from a kitchen cabinet . . .58 
 
 A Hepplewhite sideboard 58 
 
 Furniture painted at home 58 
 
 A washable slip cover for a wing chair .... 59 
 
 A bathroom which contains a linen closet ... 84 
 
 Iron bedsteads made sightly by chintz coverings . 84 
 
 A corner cupboard made from old window blinds . 85 
 
 A day bed that conceals another bed by its valance . 118 
 
 A kitchen 30 x 40 inches 118 
 
 Two views of an ingeniously made closet . . .119 
 
 Ivy used for wall decoration 124
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 A corner effectively arranged 124 
 
 Flowers on a window sill 125 
 
 A plate rack that obviates dish wiping . . . .125 
 
 IN LINE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Colonial homestead whose gardens carry out the 
 motif of the architect and express the owner's 
 
 individuality 4 
 
 The main section of the Colonial house after restora- 
 tion 7 
 
 A home evolved from a doctor's offices .... 14 
 A cupboard built to cover an unsightly partition . 15 
 The bathroom side of the cupboard, used as a sup- 
 ply closet 15 
 
 A house that was easily made livable .... 18 
 Designs that show what can be accomplished with 
 
 two rooms and a bath 26 
 
 The ground plan of a nine-roomed suburban home . 35 
 
 The second floor of the nine-roomed house ... 36 
 A plate rack easily made that can be used above a 
 
 serving table 66 
 
 Different types of doors require different curtain 
 
 treatment 81 
 
 Effective curtaining for the old-fashioned type of 
 
 high window . 81 
 
 Curtaining which does not keep out the light . . 82 
 
 Three types of over curtains 83 
 
 Decorative windows should have plain curtains . . 84 
 Regulate light from high casement windows by 
 
 Dutch or double curtains 86 
 
 Curtains of thick materials hung on rings take the 
 
 place of shades at casement windows ... 86 
 
 The primary use of portieres is to insure privacy . 87
 
 THE ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mtt 
 
 A salad bowl of plain green pottery, Sedgi plates of 
 the same shade of green and figured cruets give 
 variety to the meal . 96 
 
 Mantel treatment in sleeping room of old Colonial 
 
 house 109 
 
 Showing what can be done with an ugly oak chiffo- 
 nier 121 
 
 The lights in the window on Christmas Eve . . .127 
 
 Candle brackets 130
 
 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME
 
 PART I 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 "Life don't consist in holding a good hand, but 
 in playing a poor hand well." 
 
 A RANCHMAN'S EPITAPH. 
 
 The ranchman's philosophy has always ap- 
 pealed to me, but never more so than in its 
 application to the Effective Small Home. 
 Such a home is, to my mind, one that affords 
 an environment for family life which inspires 
 high ideals, to be practiced first in the home, 
 and afterwards in the community. 
 
 In order that the small home may be effec- 
 tive, both esthetically and ethically, house- 
 keeping, which is only one factor in home-mak- 
 ing, must be efficient; that is, there must be a 
 definite plan whereby required results may be 
 obtained with the least possible expenditure of 
 time, energy, and money. 
 
 In the Bibliography is given a list of books, 
 specializing in different phases of efficiency, 
 which will be of service to those who wish to 
 
 i
 
 ii INTRODUCTION 
 
 perfect the machinery of the household. In 
 this book, it is my aim to show that charm in 
 the home is quite as important as efficiency, 
 and that one need not be obtained at the ex- 
 pense of the other. 
 
 So many efficiency experts have minds that 
 think in terms of proteids and calories, steps 
 and hand movements, dollars and cents, with- 
 out including the very important terms of 
 color, form, and charming arrangement. 
 Other writers on the subject of Interior Deco- 
 rating go to the other extreme, and write in 
 terms of color, form and arrangement exclu- 
 sively. 
 
 I was immensely amused, when reading 
 Elsie DeWolfe's delightful and valuable book, 
 "The House in Good Taste," to come upon 
 this naive ending to her chapter on "Small 
 Apartments": "As for the kitchen that is 
 another story. It is impossible to go into that 
 subject. And anyway you will find the es- 
 sentials supplied for you by the landlord. 
 You won't need my advice when you need a 
 broom or a coffee-pot or a sauce-pan you'll 
 go buy it." It is very evident that her book 
 was not meant for the vast majority of women, 
 who not only do their own decorating, but
 
 INTRODUCTION iii 
 
 their housework as well. Since this book of 
 mine is meant primarily for people of mod- 
 erate means, instead of ignoring the kitchen, I 
 go so far as to urge every woman to see to it 
 that an attractive, convenient kitchen comes 
 first in the equipment of the home of which 
 she is high priestess, performing each day the 
 solemn rite of preparing the food which is to 
 insure the health of those most dear to her. 
 
 I can hear skeptical readers say: "That 
 may be all very well for the woman who does 
 her own work, but what would happen to a 
 pretty kitchen with the average maid in it?" 
 This is what would probably happen: The 
 average maid when first introduced to a 
 kitchen that is "the prettiest room in the 
 house" is apt to look rather glum. She does 
 not feel altogether at home in it at first, for 
 she is used to spending her time in a dark room 
 with ugly utensils, where nothing matters so 
 long as she does certain routine things in an 
 indifferent sort of way. By the end of a week 
 in my kitchen a maid has developed a pride 
 in her surroundings: because things are 
 "pretty" she takes better care of them: be- 
 cause they are arranged conveniently she fin- 
 ishes her work more quickly and is eager to
 
 iv INTRODUCTION 
 
 dress for the afternoon and be back again in 
 her pretty room to read, sew, write letters or 
 entertain her friends. She is never ashamed 
 to take her friends into my kitchen and I am 
 never ashamed to take my friends into hers. 
 
 It may be too much to hope that within the 
 present generation one may go at random into 
 people's houses and find that the fundamental 
 principles of decorating have been observed, 
 but the prospect is encouraging, now that the 
 common schools are giving attention to these 
 things, and art students are more and more en- 
 tering the field of interior decoration. 
 
 The greatest scope of improvement in do- 
 mestic art lies with people of moderate means. 
 They are the ones who are most eager for 
 education, particularly along lines that will 
 help them to make what little money they have 
 go as far as possible. In order to have even 
 the really essential things, it is necessary to 
 make sacrifices, so they cannot afford to make 
 mistakes. They are therefore less apt than 
 are rich people to fill their houses with in- 
 harmonious and undesirable things. 
 
 Almost every house needs an overhauling 
 several times a year to prevent an accumula- 
 tion of unnecessary things. Fewer rather
 
 INTRODUCTION v 
 
 than more things are needed in most houses, 
 and fortunate is the person who has the gift 
 of being able to look at a room in his own 
 house in a detached way, and with a fresh and 
 critical eye decide what may be eliminated or 
 so changed as to be more useful or more beau- 
 tiful. 
 
 The best decorators know the value of space 
 and color as opposed to meaningless things, so 
 that the test of an effective home, from the 
 present high standard of decorating, is not 
 how much it contains but how little. 
 
 Part I of this book is a narrative of personal 
 experiences in home-making, which fitted me 
 for the editorial work explained in Part II. 
 
 Acknowledgment is due to The Curtis 
 Publishing Company, for permission to re- 
 print in this volume material which has already 
 been used by The Ladies' Home Journal. 
 
 LILIAN BAYLISS GREEN. 
 NEW YOEK, September, 1916.
 
 PART ONE
 
 THE 
 EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TEAINING THE CHILD'S SENSE OF BEAUTY 
 
 AT the age of three, I was one day dis- 
 covered pasting the colored picture of a 
 lion to the leg of the piano. When my mother 
 asked me why I was doing that, I said I was 
 "decowating." That is the only one of my 
 childish remarks that was ever remembered, 
 and that one probably because my whole life 
 has been spent in decorating one thing or an- 
 other, usually small houses. First came paper 
 doll-houses, furnished with enchanting "sets" 
 that a clever older cousin used to cut for us out 
 of rather stiff paper. In time we were able to 
 cut for ourselves, and it has just occurred to 
 me that an older person could very easily teach 
 children to make their paper furniture after 
 designs of the different "periods," thus famil-
 
 4 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 iarizing them at an early age with what is really 
 the best in house furnishings. 
 
 The house in which I was born, though out 
 in Ohio, looked as if it belonged in some New 
 England village, for it was Colonial in design 
 and painted white, with green shutters. Low 
 and rambling, with broad gabled roofs and pil- 
 
 A Colonial homestead whose gardens carry out the motif of the 
 architect and express the owner's personality 
 
 lared porches, it stood in the center of a large 
 yard full of shrubs and trees. 
 
 My mother had one side of the yard planted 
 with sod brought from the woods, so that in the 
 spring it was a mass of pale pink spring beau- 
 ties, with violets and anemones showing here 
 and there. Besides the rose garden, the bed
 
 TRAINING THE SENSE OF BEAUTY 5 
 
 of perennials, and the row of poet's narcissus 
 and jonquils that blossomed each spring at the 
 foot of a terrace, I remember vividly the cool, 
 shady rockery: a fairyland to a small child, 
 filled as it was with lilies of the valley, colum- 
 bines, day lilies, maidenhair fern, jack-in-the- 
 pulpits, and other woodsy things that made the 
 setting for many a flight of a childish imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 My mother's garden was very expressive of 
 her personality, but when she furnished the in- 
 side of the house, instead of carrying the simple 
 charm of the architect's idea into the furnish- 
 ings, as would have been done in New Eng- 
 land, she was influenced as so many brides are 
 by the fashions of the day, so the rest of her 
 life had to be spent with mid- Victorian furni- 
 ture covered with black haircloth, lace cur- 
 tains, oil paintings in heavy gilt frames, fig- 
 ured Brussels carpets, black marble mantels, 
 stereotyped bric-a-brac, and white and gold 
 china. Fortunately for us children, my 
 mother's buoyant, happy nature and her music 
 with which she enlivened the house did much 
 to counteract the gloom of the furnishings, and 
 made it homelike in spite of them. 
 
 An influence even then at work in forming
 
 6 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 my taste, were the pictures by Kate Green- 
 away and Walter Crane with which my father 
 kept me supplied. Unconsciously I preferred 
 their cheerful pleasant rooms, the colors, simple 
 furnishings, gay chintz curtains, plain walls 
 and symmetrical arrangement of which, all ap- 
 pealed to me and made me love their books. 
 That influence has lasted all through my life, 
 and I have always preferred a small pictur- 
 esque house to a large pretentious one. 
 
 A part of the old house was torn down many 
 years ago, but the main part has been restored 
 and is now occupied by a woman of taste, who, 
 recognizing the possibilities of the house, has 
 done things to it that have completely trans- 
 formed the interior. The ugly grained wood- 
 work in the hall has been painted a cream 
 white, which brings out detail that was quite 
 lost before. On the walls is a landscape paper 
 in tones of gray and gray-green, making the 
 hall seem much wider than when it had dark 
 paper on the walls. 
 
 When I was recently taken into our old 
 "parlor" it was difficult to realize that in the 
 center of this very room had once stood the 
 marble-topped table that held a vase of wax 
 flowers covered with a glass globe. Not a
 
 The coloring and general character of this English stucco 
 house are carried into the treatment of the interior 
 
 The main part of the Colonial house the plan of 
 which is shown on page seven
 
 An ugly room transformed by changing the walls from red 
 to white 
 
 A sunny room with mahogany furniture admits of plain 
 gray walls
 
 TRAINING THE SENSE OF BEAUTY 7 
 
 vestige of mid- Victorian ugliness remains, al- 
 though the mantel is the same one of black 
 marble that has always been there. The floors 
 and woodwork have been painted black to har- 
 monize with the mantel, the piano too is black, 
 but the rest of the furniture is all Colonial, the 
 sofas and chairs having slip covers of glazed 
 
 The main section of the Colonial house after restoration 
 
 chintz for summer use in a fascinating design 
 of birds and flowers. The walls are plain 
 cream color paneled, the hangings and lamp 
 shades are of rose color to harmonize with the 
 principal tone in the rugs. A few really good 
 old portraits in dull gold frames are the only 
 wall decoration, but jars of flowers about the 
 room, and glimpses of neighboring gardens
 
 8 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 through the windows, prevent the effect from 
 being too restrained. The old center chande- 
 lier has been removed, and at night lighted by 
 candles and lamps, the room is one of the 
 pleasantest living-rooms I have ever seen. It 
 was like having a dream come true. 
 
 I was the youngest of five children, and the 
 only girl. When I was seven years old my 
 mother died and I was taken to spend several 
 weeks with my grandmother. The night I 
 came home from my visit, my father took me 
 by the hand and led me down the hall past the 
 "arch room" where my mother had slept and 
 where my crib had always stood, on to what 
 had been a storeroom. My brothers were be- 
 hind us and everything was very mysterious. 
 My father opened the door; the room was 
 brightly lighted, and I didn't have to be told 
 that this was "My Room." My father and 
 brothers had planned it all as a surprise for me, 
 and I was the proudest little girl in the world 
 at that moment. There was a single bed, a 
 little chair, a small chest of drawers with a 
 mirror above it, and in a row along the wall 
 were all of my dolls, one of them asleep in a 
 canopied cradle that my mother had fitted up 
 for me. It must have been a very ugly little
 
 TRAINING THE SENSE OF BEAUTY 9 
 
 room when analyzed from a decorator's point 
 of view, for the wallpaper was dark and fig- 
 ured, the chintz curtains at the window and 
 closet door differed in design from the walls, 
 and the carpet too was figured with a design 
 different from either the walls or the chintz. 
 
 I had to play alone when I was at home, 
 and for this reason I suppose I always loved 
 the chapter called "Patty Pans" in "Little 
 Men," for I had great sympathy for Daisy, 
 not only because the boys wouldn't let her play 
 with them, but because she had a domestic turn 
 of mind similar to my own. Instead of the 
 wonderful game of "Patty Pans" that Daisy 
 had, I did my first cooking on a stove that I 
 made out of bricks in the back yard, and from 
 those days of burnt fingers and smoky concoc- 
 tions, cooking has always been to me a delight- 
 ful exercise of the imagination. 
 
 From the time I was eight until I was 
 twelve, most of my waking hours when not in 
 school, I spent with little girls who were so 
 fortunate as to have playhouses out of doors. 
 
 At last one of my friends was allowed to 
 have a miniature iron range in her playhouse, 
 and I shall never forget the thrill of seeing the 
 steam come out of the spout of the tiny tea-
 
 10 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 kettle, and the fun of sitting down with our 
 dolls to wonderful meals prepared on that 
 small stove. 
 
 This is the age at which the simple rudiments 
 of cooking should be taught to children. They 
 are enthusiastic and impressionable and so 
 eager to learn to do what they see older per- 
 sons doing. A little girl of five and six may 
 be taught to coddle an egg, make junket, cus- 
 tard, soup and cocoa ; in fact, many of her own 
 meals she may easily be taught to prepare for 
 herself. 
 
 The same thing applies to other branches of 
 housework, and a little time spent in showing 
 a child how to make her dolls' beds properly, 
 how to sweep and dust and wash dishes, will be 
 time well spent, for the lessons will never be 
 forgotten. 
 
 In my early teens I passed through the stage 
 that nearly all young persons go through; 
 when there is no one to give them object les- 
 sons in interior decorating as applied to their 
 own rooms. The natural inclination at this 
 age is to clutter their rooms with souvenirs of 
 all kinds. In my editorial work, I was con- 
 stantly receiving letters from girls and boys 
 asking me what to do with their collections of
 
 TRAINING THE SENSE OF BEAUTY 11 
 
 college pennants. I had to tell them to retain 
 them as collections but to keep them out of 
 sight. From the fact that they wrote to ask 
 me about them, I knew that they had an in- 
 stinctive feeling that those crude colors hung 
 together in the same room gave anything but a 
 pleasing effect, so I explained that pennants 
 were designed to be used in masses on athletic 
 fields, and used in that way, in the open, they 
 were very effective, and the colors had to be 
 vivid and crude, in order to carry. 
 
 At seventeen I started for Vassar, and 
 throughout my four years of college life I con- 
 fess that the decoration of my rooms was of 
 vastly more concern to me than my scholarship. 
 My apparent love of decorating led to the fre- 
 quent demand for my services in the staging of 
 hall plays and in preparations for all sorts of 
 festive occasions. I was put on the committee 
 for decorating our senior class parlor, and as 
 I look now at the picture of that room I am 
 surprised to see that there is nothing about it 
 that has not stood the test of time. The one 
 blot is a drop light of cut glass, suspended from 
 a central chandelier by a satin covered tube. 
 Fate had a hand in removing this defect. A 
 distinguished bishop came to spend a half hour
 
 12 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 in the senior parlor one Sunday after service. 
 Absorbed in a good story that he was telling to 
 a group of the girls, he inadvertently leaned 
 against the table that held the glass lamp. 
 The floor was waxed; the table tipped, and 
 down went the bishop amid a shower of glass. 
 Only his dignity was hurt, and the one eyesore 
 of an otherwise lovely room had been removed.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE IMPOSSIBLE TYPE OF RENTED HOUSE AND 
 
 THINGS THAT MAY BE DONE TO 
 
 IMPROVE IT 
 
 AFTER leaving college, I spent several 
 years studying art in New York and 
 Paris; at the end of that time I went west to 
 live, in order to be near my family. My 
 brothers were all married and my father was 
 living with one of them, so I decided to have a 
 studio of my own. In an apartment house 
 just across the street from where some of my 
 family lived I discovered a suite of rooms with 
 a private entrance. It had been designed as a 
 doctor's suite, but as no doctor had taken it the 
 proprietor was glad to let me have it at a very 
 low rental. 
 
 One room had three windows to the north; 
 just the light I needed for painting; the other 
 was a larger room with a closet, running water, 
 and a gas grate. The walls in this room were 
 covered with a dark green paper with large 
 
 13
 
 14 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 gold figures. In the studio the paper was 
 brown with red and green figures. No wonder 
 that my friends thought it a nightmare, and 
 tried their best to discourage me, but I knew 
 that the essentials were there and that chang- 
 ing the papers alone would do much toward 
 making the place habitable. This the landlord 
 permitted me to do, allowing me twenty cents 
 
 BATK (Til 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 STUDIO 
 
 A home evolved from a doctor's offices 
 
 a roll for the papers. For the larger room I 
 selected a grasscloth paper as nearly the color 
 of the pine woodwork as possible. For the 
 studio, I used an oyster white ingrain paper. 
 For this room I designed most of the furni- 
 ture, and had it made by an ordinary car- 
 penter at a very small expense. It consisted 
 of a long narrow table with four little benches 
 to match it exactly; there was also a cupboard
 
 IMPROVING THE RENTED HOUSE 15 
 
 that I had made to hang across an unsightly 
 window of ground glass that was in the center 
 of the south wall leading into the bathroom. 
 
 This cupboard 
 and set of shelves 
 combined served 
 as a place to keep 
 my dishes, and it 
 was decorative as 
 well. Directly 
 
 Under it I had -^ cupboard built to cover an un- 
 . , sightly partition 
 
 my bed couch. 
 
 For a sideboard, I selected a common kitchen 
 table, on top of which I used the top of a 
 kitchen cabinet, the whole giving the appear- 
 ance of a small 
 Welsh dresser. 
 All of this furni- 
 ture I painted a 
 bluish green, and 
 I had curtains of 
 denim of the 
 
 The bathroom side of the cupboard, o flTri p oho HP en 
 used as a supply closet same SnaQC, SO 
 
 hung as to cover 
 
 the woodwork as much as possible. The lower 
 sash of all of the windows was covered with 
 filet lace, which let in the light but at the same
 
 time acted as a screen, the windows being on a 
 level with the heads of passers-by. 
 
 In my larger room, I changed the hideous, 
 mottled tiles of the mantel to harmonize with 
 the yellow walls by going over them with two 
 rather thick coats of alabastine. This, being 
 a water color preparation, is easily washed off 
 if at any time one wishes to get back to the 
 original color of the tiles. 
 
 My landlord also gave me permission to 
 paint the metal of the grate and chandeliers a 
 dull black. They were the cheapest sort of 
 finish : imitation copper with splashes of black. 
 The floors in both rooms I painted a dark gray- 
 green. In my larger room I improvised my 
 first kitchenette by having a shelf on the level 
 with the top of the washstand where there was 
 running water. Around it I had a screen cov- 
 ered with denim the same color as the walls. 
 A few small rugs on the floor, chintz curtains 
 at the five windows, the same chintz used as 
 cushions for the chairs, potted plants on the 
 window sills, a few pictures, an electric lamp, a 
 table and a really beautiful old mahogany desk 
 that I had years before picked up for a song 
 down in Maryland, completed the furnishings 
 of this room.
 
 It was a surprise to my friends when they 
 saw what a complete little home I had made 
 for myself without spending much of anything 
 except thought and time. One of them, an 
 unmarried woman who had spent many dreary 
 hours in the hall bedroom of a boarding-house, 
 seeing that I had succeeded in removing most 
 of the horrors from spinsterhood, proceeded to 
 hunt a similar establishment for herself where 
 she afterwards had independence, comfort, and 
 real happiness without spending as much 
 money as it had cost her to board. Two or 
 three young women can live together in this 
 way very economically and have a wonderful 
 time doing it. 
 
 After spending three years in this little 
 apartment, I was married and went to live in 
 a small neighboring town. Houses for rent 
 were scarce, but one day when out by myself 
 I discovered a little white house with green 
 shutters that appealed to me very much. It 
 was on a good corner and faced in such a way 
 that all the rooms were sunny. When I took 
 my husband to see it, he was not in the least 
 enthusiastic about it. He couldn't see any- 
 thing except the wall papers, which were in- 
 deed enough to give one "the horrors." He
 
 18 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 had not yet had sufficient evidence of my abil- 
 ity to make a home "out of a pine cone" to be 
 able to visualize the place as I did in my mind's 
 eye, but when convinced of my genuine satis- 
 faction with it he succumbed, and we had the 
 things sent out to it from my own small apart- 
 ment. 
 
 Except bedroom things, we put all the furni- 
 
 A house that was easily made livable 
 
 ture into one room, the walls of which we had 
 changed from a hideous purplish red to a 
 white paper with an indistinct white lattice de- 
 sign. The woodwork was already painted 
 white, so the green curtains and furniture from 
 my studio looked quite as if designed for this 
 room. For the time being, we kept the desk 
 and the Canton chairs here also, which with the 
 double student lamp, our first wedding pres- 
 ent, made for us a very comfortable and
 
 IMPROVING THE RENTED HOUSE 19 
 
 attractive combination living- and dining- 
 room. 
 
 As we were married very quietly, we were 
 spared the usual conventional wedding pres- 
 ents. Those who really wanted to give us 
 something did so after we were married, letting 
 us, as a rule, select what we needed to conform 
 to what we already had. 
 
 Even so we made mistakes, the first of which 
 was in the selection of a rug for our dining- 
 room. 
 
 We selected a very pretty Scotch wool rug 
 in a shade of green that went beautifully with 
 the green furniture, but we soon found that on 
 account of the plain center every spot and 
 crumb showed on it. After spending much 
 money in having it cleaned, I decided that a 
 rug with a small indistinct figure was the only 
 kind to have in a dining-room. 
 
 In our tiny guest room, the paper of which 
 happened to be white with a design of a single 
 rosebud, we put the couch that had been in the 
 apartment. My new sewing-machine did duty 
 as a dressing table for this room by having 
 a board cut to fit the top of it. To this 
 board I tacked a valance, above the board on 
 the wall I hung a mirror with a white frame,
 
 20 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 and in front of this dressing table stood a 
 spindle-backed chair also painted white. A 
 rug and some simple curtains completed this 
 room. 
 
 From our next purchase I also learned a 
 valuable lesson which I here pass along to the 
 inexperienced housewife. We allowed our- 
 selves to be persuaded that a felt mattress of 
 good make, with woven wire springs, made an 
 excellent bed. Even this combination is ex- 
 pensive, but after a year or so of use it is most 
 unsatisfactory. The springs sag and the felt 
 gets hard in the center. Certainly, the mat- 
 tress and springs of the bed upon which one 
 spends a third of one's life are of first impor- 
 tance in furnishing a house. The best is none 
 too good, and the best bed, to my mind, is one 
 with an upholstered box spring, and a mattress 
 made of hard black South American horsehair. 
 This is a good investment, for although the 
 mattress must be renovated from time to time, 
 the same hair is always good. If it is neces- 
 sary to practice economy, let it be in regard to 
 the bedstead, rather than to the mattress and 
 springs. 
 
 Our living-room we left perfectly bare for 
 a while, but at length we had on hand a collec-
 
 tion of really choice things, all of them suit- 
 able companions for the old desk which was our 
 starting point in the equipment of this room. 
 One day on our way out to the club to play 
 golf, we stopped at the paper hanger's and 
 looked over his rather limited supply of 
 samples. We found a light gray fabric paper 
 that we both felt would be lovely in our sunny 
 room with the mahogany furniture. The man 
 said he was not busy that afternoon, so we gave 
 him the key to the house and when we returned 
 home that night our living-room had doubled 
 in size. The dark olive green paper with huge 
 figures that looked like crawling crabs was 
 gone, and in its place this plain gray paper ef- 
 fected a most astonishing transformation, and 
 even my husband in spite of his doubts in the 
 beginning had to admit that the house was all 
 that I had dreamed. He helped me then and 
 there to arrange the rugs and furniture, and 
 I lost no time in getting up the chintz curtains, 
 so that that very evening we used this room for 
 the first time and decided that it had been well 
 worth waiting for. 
 
 In less than a year from this time a promo- 
 tion in my husband's business took us to an- 
 other town to live. We hated to leave the
 
 22 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 pretty house where our first happy months had 
 been spent, but we had to go, and once more be- 
 gan the hunt for a house. 
 
 We chose one at length because of its loca- 
 tion. It faced a very pretty park, and certain 
 important rooms got the sun. To most people 
 it would have seemed palatial compared with 
 my own little apartment or with the little house 
 we had just left, because this house had hard- 
 wood floors and "oak trim." That "oak trim" 
 was my greatest objection to it, for nothing 
 could be worse as a setting for mahogany furni- 
 ture. In the dining-room we continued to use 
 our green furniture with white walls and the 
 green curtains, but the main room of the house, 
 which was supposed to be used as a living- 
 room, we called ironically "the sun parlor" be- 
 cause no ray of sunlight ever entered it. In 
 addition to that fact it had been papered with 
 dark green expensive paper which the landlord 
 refused to change. Rather than assume that 
 expense ourselves, not knowing how long we 
 should be in the house, we made the most of the 
 other room on the first floor, by doing it in a 
 color scheme of browns and tones of yellow, so 
 as to forget the ugly oak woodwork as much as 
 possible. The walls were a golden brown car-
 
 IMPROVING THE RENTED HOUSE 23 
 
 tridge paper, so I got hangings of sunf ast ma- 
 terial to match the walls. The mottled blue 
 and yellow tiles I got rid of by covering 
 them with cream-colored alabastine. Several 
 willow chairs, flowers, pictures in tones of 
 brown and gold, and ornaments of brass, made 
 of this a room suitable to use in receiving 
 casual acquaintances, but our real living-room 
 was upstairs. In the front of the house over- 
 looking the park, and getting the sun nearly all 
 day was a really pretty room with white wood- 
 work. It was meant for a bedroom of course, 
 but we had enough bedrooms without it, so we 
 had gray paper put on the walls, and in it we 
 used all of our choicest things. It was an un- 
 conventional thing to do, I admit, and we took 
 evil delight one day when a very conventional 
 friend called on us, in showing him the "sun 
 parlor" and then making him come upstairs to 
 our living-room. He simply looked bewil- 
 dered, and went away thinking we were 
 "queer." 
 
 We may have been queer, but to show that 
 we had also been wise in not even trying to 
 transform that dark grotto of a room at our 
 own expense, in the course of another year we 
 found ourselves living in Boston.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 A PRACTICAL PLAN FOE THE NEWLY MARRIED 
 
 WITH eggs at sixty cents a dozen, butter 
 fifty cents a pound, and rents propor- 
 tionately high, and with no hope that they 
 will be any lower, is it strange that the young 
 man who earns a moderate salary should look 
 upon establishing a home of his own as a 
 formidable undertaking? What is to be done 
 about it? Are young people going to continue 
 to enter upon long engagements and live in 
 that unnatural state until enough money can be 
 saved to start housekeeping in the conventional 
 way? Or are they going to start out in their 
 life together on a very small scale, regardless 
 of what their more fortunate or less sensible 
 friends are doing? I think I have found a 
 solution to this problem, but it applies only to 
 those who care more for one another than they 
 care for unenlightened public opinion. 
 
 The girl must be willing to do a certain 
 amount of housework each day. She will have 
 
 24
 
 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING 25 
 
 to use her head, her heart and her hands, hut 
 by following my plan she will avoid the count- 
 less pitfalls which her friends who start out 
 with false standards are sure to encounter. 
 The solution I have to offer was arrived at 
 quite by accident, as many good things are. 
 
 Being perfect strangers in Boston we de- 
 cided to spend a year looking for a place to 
 build our permanent home. Meanwhile we 
 wanted our time to be as free as possible, so 
 we took an apartment of two rooms and bath 
 in a desirable neighborhood. Although we 
 were given housekeeping privileges we started 
 by having all but our breakfast out. Little by 
 little we took more and more of our meals in 
 our tiny dining-room, and when our year was 
 up we were too comfortably established to de- 
 sire anything better for some time to come. 
 We were regularly keeping house in the two 
 rooms which a year before we had looked upon 
 as merely a temporary expedient. 
 
 The plan of the little apartment shows that 
 we had plenty of light and ventilation; good 
 closets and an open fireplace. Of our furni- 
 ture two single beds, three comfortable chairs, 
 a roomy table and a double student lamp were 
 the essentials. It is, of course, important to
 
 26 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL' HOME 
 
 have plenty of drawer space, but if it is possible 
 to combine several pieces of furniture in one so 
 much the better. This we did by using a sec- 
 retary, which is not only a very attractive piece 
 of furniture but is also bookcase, desk and chest 
 of drawers all in one. Balancing it in color 
 
 Ltvtsa ROOM 
 
 '9'a' m 300- 
 
 Designs that show what can be accomplished with two rooms 
 and a bath 
 
 and shape I had another chest of drawers on 
 the opposite side of the fireplace, and still an- 
 other combination desk and chest of drawers 
 against the north wall. This provided a place 
 for each of us to write and keep personal be- 
 longings. 
 
 Against the east wall between the two deep- 
 set windows we had our long, narrow green 
 table, a winged chair at either end, so placed 
 as to get the best light from the windows in 
 the daytime, and from the lamp in the center 
 of the table at night. 
 
 Just opposite the table on the west wall were
 
 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING 27 
 
 our two beds one above the other in the day- 
 time, the lower one being drawn out into the 
 room at night. The wooden frame painted 
 green, the green cover and valance that were 
 used, gave the appearance of what has come 
 to be called a "day bed." 
 
 Two wicker chairs, another large, winged 
 chair, with green Scotch rug, filet lace cur- 
 tains drawn tight across the window, and wash- 
 able chintz overhanging that served us in our 
 other houses, completed the furnishings of this 
 combination living- and sleeping-room. 
 
 As the plan shows, the other room was small 
 and of very awkward shape. We had it pa- 
 pered in a striped white paper, that being the 
 background for which our green furniture was 
 originally designed. Our landlord had a small 
 sink put into one corner, having it built high, 
 at my request, so that I need not stoop over 
 when washing dishes. A few shelves and a 
 two-burner gas stove with an adjustable oven 
 completed our kitchen equipment. 
 
 Up to this time, although I had been inter- 
 ested in cooking, I had never given the conven- 
 ient arrangement of my kitchen any special 
 thought. In our other two houses we had had
 
 28 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 the regulation kitchens, which I took as a 
 matter of course. As I think of them now, 
 they were too large and most inconvenient. 
 As I always kept a maid, I had not noticed the 
 unnecessary steps that had to be taken in the 
 course of a day. Here in this tiny apartment, 
 I was therefore confronted with an entirely 
 new problem, which brought all of my powers 
 of invention into play : how to make a complete 
 kitchen in a space that could not measure more 
 than thirty by forty inches outside the stove 
 and sink. This kitchen went through many 
 stages during the next few years, but in the 
 end it approached perfection. I started out 
 with a two-plate gas-stove with an adjustable 
 oven, which did very well for "light-house- 
 keeping," but was inconvenient when we found 
 ourselves having all of our meals at home. I 
 also started without an ice-chest, but ended by 
 getting one about a yard long with a flat top. 
 This served as a table under the plate rack that 
 hung on the wall midway between the kitchen 
 and dining-room end of this small, odd-shaped 
 room. To match the rest of the furniture, I 
 painted the ice-chest a blue green, and thus 
 transformed a commercial object of grained 
 brown paint into an ornamental piece of fur-
 
 Note the shelf beside the stove and the telephone beyond 
 
 The sink and stove are placed to receive the best light
 
 The two sides of a buffet that serves as a screen between the 
 dining-room and kitchen ends of the same room
 
 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING 29 
 
 niture, that fitted into the general scheme of 
 the room. 
 
 The space measuring thirty by forty inches 
 was inclosed on one side by a high green kitchen 
 cabinet, which acted as a screen between the 
 kitchen and dining-room and afforded a 
 shelf and a space on the kitchen side for hang- 
 ing the numerous cooking utensils. The 
 fourth side of the minute kitchen was formed 
 by a chiffonier, also painted green. On top 
 of it stood all the plates and bowls I used. 
 The back I had painted white, and on it hung 
 my matchbox, aprons and holders; under it 
 stood my white enameled bread-box. The 
 drawers were used for linen, drug supplies, 
 tools, papers, etc. 
 
 Under the sink a galvanized pail acted as 
 kitchen waste basket, except on cleaning days, 
 when it did duty as scrub-bucket. Then there 
 was a small garbage can into which I fitted 
 a newspaper every morning. As the can was 
 emptied each night by the janitor and boiled 
 out each week with soda, it never smelled 
 badly, and having it so near saved many steps. 
 Over the sink white canisters contained sugar, 
 flour for sauces, coffee, tea and salt. Season- 
 ings stood on a tiny shelf near the stove. Cov-
 
 ered canisters on the shelves contained cereals 
 and flour. So it was possible for me to pre- 
 pare a meal without moving from one spot, 
 and to put it steaming hot on our dining-table 
 less than four feet away in the same room. 
 
 The reason this all appealed to me very 
 strongly is because in doing my own cooking, 
 which I love to do, I may have all sorts of at- 
 tractive cooking utensils. 
 
 As there was an excellent bakery near by 
 where they made delicious whole-wheat bread, 
 and delivered French rolls and English muffins 
 in time for breakfast, there was no need to do 
 any baking. But aside from these articles I 
 did every bit of my own cooking, using very 
 little canned food, but all the year round 
 fresh, green vegetables, fresh meat, eggs, ce- 
 reals and fish. Fish was impossible until I 
 adopted paper-bag cooking; after that we 
 often had it, and it was impossible to detect 
 any odor from it while it was cooking. 
 
 It was better to plan simple meals ; but that 
 did not do away with having guests, preferably 
 one or two at a time. We had guests very 
 often, and they seemed to enjoy getting away 
 from their stereotyped routine and always 
 seemed to envy us our cozy little place.
 
 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING 31 
 
 All the rest of our miniature establishment 
 was easily managed. The good strong woman 
 who did our laundry work came in two morn- 
 ings each week, her duties being to keep the 
 floors, windows and bathroom clean. She 
 changed the beds, polished all of the brass, 
 copper and silver, boiled out the garbage pail, 
 and cleaned the enameled sink and the zinc 
 under the stove. The floor of the smaller room 
 was scrubbed twice a week, so it was always 
 immaculate. All of this, including the laun- 
 dry work, was done for a fixed and very rea- 
 sonable price each week. 
 
 My own part of the work took about two 
 hours each day. While we were eating break- 
 fast the beds were airing. After the dishes 
 were washed I made the beds and arranged the 
 room so that it became a living-room once more, 
 with no suggestion of a sleeping-room about 
 it. I then filled the lamp, did the dusting, made 
 out menus for the day, did any ordering that 
 was necessary and my housework was done, 
 except the preparation for our two simple 
 meals, which took but very little time. The 
 rest of the day I had with a perfectly free mind 
 for occupations that had no connection what- 
 ever with housework.
 
 82 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 There are certain temperamental requisites 
 for successfully living in this small way. 
 There must be a desire on both sides for sim- 
 plicity and for order. It must also be borne 
 well in mind that a home of two rooms is no 
 place for unpleasant moods, so they may not 
 frequently be indulged in. 
 
 On the other hand, housekeeping in minia- 
 ture for at least the first year of married life 
 has tremendous value as a preparation for 
 housekeeping on a larger scale. It is a period 
 in which two persons may gradually learn to 
 cooperate in keeping accounts and in develop- 
 ing a system of management for use all through 
 their lives. 
 
 The single fact of having such a limited 
 amount of room teaches the futility of accumu- 
 lating unnecessary things. All articles stored 
 away should be carefully listed and filed for 
 reference in case of urgent need. One gets to 
 hate the sight of useless objects about a room, 
 for they only add to one's care without con- 
 tributing either to beauty or comfort. Then, 
 too, there is nothing like doing one's work for 
 a time, to help one later in planning work for 
 servants. One comes to know how long it
 
 PRACTICAL HOUSEKEEPING 33 
 
 takes to do things thoroughly and avoids ex- 
 acting of a maid more than she can do. 
 
 On the whole I feel sure that young people 
 starting out in this way will always have rea- 
 son to look back with delight to their first ex- 
 perimental year together, particularly if they 
 have spent it in planning what they really want 
 their permanent home to be, in developing 
 their tastes and ideals and in establishing their 
 individuality, instead of drifting along with 
 the current and being like everybody else. 
 
 It was while we were living in this small 
 apartment that Mr. Bok, the editor of the 
 Ladies' Home Journal, came to see us. He 
 had heard that I had a genius for making a 
 complete home on the smallest possible scale, 
 so he came to see for himself. When I had 
 showed him everything, ending with my little 
 kitchen, he laughed and said, " Well, if you 
 can do this for yourselves, you are just the one 
 to do the same sort of thing for the hundreds 
 of women who write to us for advice." Thus 
 began my editorial experience, practically from 
 that moment.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOW I FURNISHED OUR NEW HOUSE 
 
 FOR four years my husband and I lived 
 very comfortably in this apartment. We 
 liked it in the winter, but as soon as spring 
 was in the air we longed for a garden. All 
 of our holidays were spent in search of the 
 right place to build an all-the-year home, and 
 many evenings in making plans for a house 
 which we wanted simple, comfortable, con- 
 venient, cheerful, and individual and to face so 
 that each room would have sunlight at some 
 time of the day. 
 
 Just a year ago, in answer to an especially 
 urgent call of the country, we seem almost to 
 have been led to a site so exactly right in every 
 way as to admit of no further doubts. We 
 selected an architect who has a strong feeling 
 for the picturesque, combined, curiously 
 enough, with an ability for planning conven- 
 iences. The result is a nine-roomed house of 
 rough, cream-colored stucco, distinctly Eng- 
 
 34
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 35 
 
 lish in character, with its long sloping roof 
 lines, built-in chimneys topped by red chimney- 
 pots, numerous casement windows that open 
 outward, and others with bluish-green shut- 
 ters. The outside doors and the gate, which 
 opens through a stucco wall, are also painted 
 
 The ground plan of a nine-roomed suburban home 
 
 green, while the paths, the little front stoop, 
 and the floor of the porch which opens out from 
 the living-room are all of ordinary red brick, 
 which repeats the red of the chimney-pots. All 
 of our own ideas were carefully incorporated 
 into the plans, so the result is thoroughly satis- 
 factory to us. 
 
 I have described the general character of 
 the outside of the house, because by it was de-
 
 36 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 termined in a large measure the treatment of 
 the interior. For example : there is a tiny ves- 
 tibule which helps to keep out the east winds 
 in the winter, but since the front door is usually 
 open in warm weather the vestibule is made 
 a continuation of the outside of the house, by 
 having walls, ceiling and woodwork painted 
 
 The second floor of the nine-roomed house 
 
 cream white, the floor being tiled with bluish- 
 green, hexagonal tiles to match the front door 
 as nearly as possible. This vestibule is too 
 small to contain any furniture, but as a wall 
 decoration there is a Delia Robbia lunette of 
 brightly colored porcelain. A glass door sep- 
 arates the vestibule from the hall, and as a 
 curtain for this door there is a panel of cream- 
 colored crepe, with insertions of filet lace.
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 37 
 
 As the hall in our house is merely a passage- 
 way, not a room in which one ever spends much 
 time, we decided to have on the walls a decora- 
 tive paper in a Chinese design showing wee 
 islands with bluish-green willow trees, tiny 
 pagodas, vases of flowers, swimming ducks 
 and flying birds, all on a white background 
 shot with silver the gayest little design im- 
 aginable. There are enough touches of black 
 in the design to make it possible to have the 
 hand-rail of the banisters, the lift-leaf table, 
 the mirror and shadow-boxes above it, as well 
 as the electric fixtures, all in black lacquer. 
 
 The runners in the lower and upper halls 
 are alike; of a Chinese tile design of darkest 
 blue on a neutral ground. The large case- 
 ment window halfway up the stairs has cur- 
 tains of cream-colored crepe close to the glass 
 with over-curtains of rose-colored, sunfast ma- 
 terial. On the ledge of this window there is 
 always some sort of plants or bulbs ; the white 
 pottery jar that stands on the landing of the 
 stairs also usually contains either a plant, flow- 
 ers, or green things from the woods. 
 
 The woodwork in the hall, as in all of the 
 downstairs rooms, is painted a deep cream 
 color; the ceilings, which are only seven and a
 
 38 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 half feet high all through the house, are tinted 
 a cream white. The floors are of oak, waxed 
 and polished. 
 
 To the left of the door as one enters the 
 hall, and opening from it by a pair of French 
 doors, is the living-room. This room faces 
 east, south and west, so on the walls I have used 
 a grayish-tan fabric paper with a glint of gold 
 in it. On the floor there are only two oriental 
 rugs in tones of deep blue and rose color. 
 Close to the glass in all the windows, as well 
 as at the French doors that open onto the 
 porch, I have draw-curtains of thin unbleached 
 muslin, edged with a narrow cream fringe. 
 The over-curtains are of a rather heavy silky 
 material in a dull grayish rose color, which 
 harmonizes well with the mahogany furniture, 
 and the dull red bricks, and hearth-tiles of the 
 fireplace. The electric fixtures, andirons, fire 
 irons, and other small furnishings of this room 
 are in burnished brass. 
 
 A feature of the living-room, and of the 
 other rooms of our house, are the window 
 shelves for plants, which we had made for all 
 of the windows. Nearly all of these shelves 
 are six inches wide, but in the bay window at 
 the east end of the living-room the shelf is much
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 39 
 
 wider than this, and is used not only for plants 
 and bulbs, but for books and magazines as well. 
 The sun pours into this window the greater 
 part of the day, so we have two large winged 
 chairs here with their backs to the light, for 
 daytime reading. Over the back of each chair 
 is an electric side-wall light, so that one may 
 read at night without changing the position of 
 the chairs. 
 
 In the center of the floor is a plug to which 
 is attached our double student lamp, in which 
 we used to burn oil. Two other base plugs for 
 lamps, two side lights besides the ones in the 
 bay window, and four wall sconces holding 
 twelve wax candles make it possible to light 
 the room brilliantly, when entertaining, with- 
 out the use of center ceiling lights, always so 
 unbecoming and so undesirable for ordinary 
 use. 
 
 There are only a few pictures in this room, 
 mainly Japanese prints that repeat the colors 
 in the rugs and other furnishings. The only 
 piece of built-in furniture is a bookcase extend- 
 ing to the ceiling and occupying a space that 
 could not be used for any other piece of furni- 
 ture. The open shelves bring the books on 
 the level of the eye, thus making them an im-
 
 40 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 portant part of the decoration of the room. 
 Beneath the open shelves are three shelves for 
 magazines, enclosed by drop doors. 
 
 The two pairs of French doors opening into 
 the hall and dining-room have curtains of 
 cream-colored crepe gathered between rods 
 placed at top and bottom of the glass. 
 
 THE DINING-ROOM 
 
 A small impressionist painting of which we 
 are very fond determined the treatment of our 
 dining-room. We wanted for once to have this 
 picture hung alone in a room, and as a living- 
 room cannot be too restrained in treatment we 
 felt that the dining-room would be the best 
 place to have it. The colors in the picture are 
 tones of greenish blue and cream color, with 
 touches of rose, so as a background for it we 
 had the rough plaster of the walls and ceiling, 
 the woodwork, as well as the moldings set on 
 to panel the wall spaces and ceiling, all painted 
 alike with many coats of oil paint in a very 
 deep cream color. On the west side of the 
 room there are three casement windows to- 
 gether, projecting out about a foot. A twelve- 
 inch shelf placed beneath the windows, is al- 
 ways filled with plants or bulbs. The curtains
 
 This symmetrical arrangement is not too restrained for a 
 dining-room 
 
 'Decorated rag rugs and Prenclt prints hung with ribbon 
 add color to this room
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 41 
 
 
 
 are very simple : merely two side strips of blu- 
 ish-green sunfast material joined by a narrow 
 valance run onto the same rod between them. 
 The panels at either side of the windows have 
 as a decoration strips of Chinese embroidery 
 mounted on bluish-green gauze. Some of this 
 same Chinese silk gauze is used on the table 
 between meals, with a centerpiece of fruit or 
 flowers. Opposite the windows is a pair of 
 French doors curtained with the same material 
 as the window hangings, and at either side of 
 them is a small shelf holding a pot of English 
 ivy on a trellis. The furniture of this room 
 is of mahogany in the Hepplewhite design, the 
 shield-back chairs having seats covered with 
 bluish-green leather. The four side-wall lights 
 are finished in silver to harmonize with the old 
 silver service which ornaments the sideboard. 
 Four candles in silver candlesticks are used on 
 the table at night. For general use our dishes 
 are of the plain green Sedgi ware; service 
 plates and plates for special courses having a 
 design of birds, very similar in character to the 
 design of the hall paper. We use no rug, 
 merely a polished floor which is very easily 
 kept clean, and which really gives a more pleas- 
 ing effect.
 
 THE KITCHEN 
 
 Of all the rooms in our house the kitchen 
 seems to make the most general appeal, and I 
 think that is because I thoroughly enjoy ar- 
 ranging a kitchen. First of all, I like to make 
 everything as convenient as possible, and then 
 I like to make the room as picturesque and 
 amusing as possible. While I do not want 
 this room to be cluttered with a lot of mean- 
 ingless things, I do feel that it is legitimate 
 to have a few purely decorative objects which 
 have no other purpose than to make the kitchen 
 smile at one instead of frowning, as so many 
 kitchens do. 
 
 As we live in the country and have an all- 
 gas stove, we have a white kitchen ; that is, the 
 walls and woodwork are painted white. The 
 sink and drain-boards are of white enamel. 
 Directly above the sink are two large casement 
 windows and an electric fixture, which give 
 light in the daytime and after dark, not only 
 for dishwashing and the preparation of food, 
 but for the actual cooking as well, the light 
 falling over one's left shoulder when at the 
 stove. 
 
 At the left of the sink and hanging above
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 43 
 
 the drain-board I have the utensils, such as a 
 dish mop, soap shaker, plate-scraper, bottle 
 brush and soap dish, while on the right are 
 metal and glass measuring cups, lemon 
 squeezer, tea strainer. Small sauce pans, 
 spoons, eggbeater, grater, skewers, sieves, cof- 
 fee pot, and canisters that are normally used 
 near the sink, are within easy reach. I find it 
 convenient to have a low bench near the sink 
 on which to keep an enameled pail with a cover, 
 which is used for waste and emptied once a 
 day into the garbage can in the yard, then 
 scalded. On this same bench I keep the enam- 
 eled dish pan and the drainer. 
 
 At the right of the stove I have a shelf, quite 
 low, and on it are canisters containing salt, 
 sugar, tea, cocoa, and flour for sauces. 
 Matches, holders, a spatula, and other utensils 
 that one needs when working at the stove are 
 right at hand, even though they are duplicated 
 in other parts of the room. A shelf that is 
 a part of the stove holds a salt shaker, pepper 
 grinder, and a bottle of paprika, so that the 
 ordinary seasonings are never out of reach. A 
 large dresser contains all supplies on the 
 shelves, while below, in ample cupboards, heavy 
 pots for occasional use are kept.
 
 44 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 The curtains at the windows are made of un- 
 bleached linen crash, with borders of Russian 
 darned work, in a block design. 
 
 Bright-colored German transparencies hang 
 in the windows above the sink, and on a narrow 
 rail all around the room is a row of decorative 
 plates and other pieces of gaily colored china. 
 This rail is edged with narrow blue and white 
 lace paper, and below it hang copper dishes and 
 Brittany bowls. Painted canisters for cakes 
 and pies, a painted clock with weights, a chintz- 
 lined tray hanging on the wall, pots of bright 
 red geraniums on the window sills, and bluish- 
 green chairs with roses painted on the backs, all 
 help to make the kitchen a jolly place in which 
 to work. The telephone is in the hall only a 
 few feet from the center of the kitchen though 
 separated from it by two doors. 
 
 Just back of the kitchen, and opening out 
 onto a back porch, is a little room where the ice 
 chest is kept, with all utensils needed near it 
 hanging on hooks, or placed on shelves conven- 
 iently near. In this room the woodwork is all 
 painted a bluish green like the outside door, 
 even the ice chest and the bucket for the ice 
 cream freezer having received a coat of the same
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 45 
 
 paint, so that even in this most utilitarian room 
 the colors harmonize and thus complete the pic- 
 ture. 
 
 ONE OF THE GUEST ROOMS 
 
 Directly over the dining-room, and having a 
 western exposure, is the guest room, which I 
 particularly enjoyed furnishing. The walls, 
 ceiling, woodwork, and furniture of this room 
 are deep cream color. At top and bottom 
 of the wall there is a very narrow border of 
 turquoise blue ribbon and pink roses. The 
 colors in this border are repeated in the oval 
 braided rugs, which I made from strips of tur- 
 quoise blue and cream-colored rags. 
 
 The pictures are all French prints in tones 
 of greenish blue, cream, and rose color, framed 
 in dull gilt and suspended from the molding 
 by turquoise blue ribbon. The four-post bed 
 has a coverlet of turquoise blue and cream in a 
 quaint design of roses and leaves. The dress- 
 ing table cover, as well as the cover to the bed- 
 side stand and the Italian linen towels, all have 
 cross stitch designs of baskets of flowers. The 
 toilet articles on the dressing table are of ivory 
 which has taken on a rich color like the walls,
 
 46 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 while the washstand set being of clear glass 
 looks as if it too, matched the room exactly. 
 At the windows, besides dark green shades that 
 are used only at night, I have Dutch or double 
 sash curtains of unbleached muslin edged with 
 cream fringe, with over-curtains of turquoise 
 blue linen, held back with bands of faded chintz. 
 The electric fixtures at either side of the dress- 
 ing table are finished in cream white enamel, 
 Salmon pink geraniums on the window sills, a 
 bonnet box covered with paper like that on the 
 walls, and trimmed with the same little ribbon 
 borders, and a door knocker of green bronze in 
 the shape of a charming angel figure with long 
 tapering wings, are the small furnishings for 
 this room which distinguish it from the other 
 sleeping rooms. 
 
 THE BATHROOM 
 
 The bathroom, which is at the head of the 
 stairs, has walls and woodwork painted with 
 white oil paint. The floor is of white hexag- 
 onal tiles, the fixtures, even those of the elec- 
 tric lights, are of white enamel. At the win- 
 dow there is a white sash curtain, with over- 
 curtains and valance of blue and white Japa- 
 nese toweling. The blue is repeated in a rag
 
 FURNISHING THE NEW HOUSE 47 
 
 rug on the floor, and in a single wall decora- 
 tion: a porcelain "Bambino," white on a bright 
 blue ground. 
 
 THE MAID'S BOOM 
 
 On the third floor there is a pretty room with 
 sloping sides and dormer windows. The wood- 
 work is the natural pine varnished, so in it I 
 carried out a yellow and white color scheme, 
 having a ceiling paper with a tiny conventional 
 design in yellow on a white ground used on 
 walls and ceiling both. The curtains are of 
 chintz in a design of small yellow roses and 
 green leaves. The rugs are in two tones of 
 brown ; the furniture, with the exception of the 
 plain white iron bed, is in brown also. Sev- 
 eral pictures in tones of brown, yellow, and 
 green, help to make the maid's room as inviting 
 as any room in the house. 
 
 THE OFFICE 
 
 On the first floor of our house, there is an 
 extra room, which does not open into any other 
 room and which at the same time is accessible 
 to all of them. It has one window to the east 
 and two to the north, and it is in this well- 
 lighted room that I did my work for the Jour-
 
 nal. Here I had my files, my reference books, 
 my samples, my typewriter, everything 
 that I needed to do my work comfortably, so 
 as not to have the "office" atmosphere reach 
 any other part of the house. Each day after I 
 had finished telling my correspondents what to 
 do with their houses, I closed the door of my of- 
 fice room, and passed out into my own dear 
 home, with the hope that I had succeeded in 
 helping other women to get an atmosphere of 
 simple beauty and comfort into theirs.
 
 PART TWO
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The average book on the subject of house 
 furnishing and decoration is of use only to 
 those who can afford to employ experts to 
 decorate their walls, prepare their floors and 
 woodwork, upholster their furniture, and give 
 advice on the selection of rugs, hangings, pic- 
 tures, lighting fixtures, and the countless other 
 things that require much thought in the equip- 
 ment of every house. 
 
 It may not be generally known that less than 
 ten per cent, of the women in the United States 
 can afford to keep even one servant. The 
 other ninety per cent, not only do all or most 
 of their own housework, but when their houses 
 are to be equipped they must use inexpensive 
 furnishings and do the actual work of finishing 
 the woodwork, floors, walls, and furniture 
 themselves. Their home-loving instinct gives 
 them enough strength and enthusiasm for this 
 work, but too often the knowledge of the easiest 
 way to go about the work, as well as the im- 
 
 51
 
 ,52 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 agination necessary for a really charming re- 
 sult, is lacking. 
 
 My eyes were opened to these facts during 
 the years in which I served as editor of "The 
 Little House" department of the Ladies' 
 Home Journal. Through the thousands of 
 letters that came to me from women in all 
 parts of the world, all of which I answered per- 
 sonally, I was brought into intimate touch with 
 the home-making problems of many who, ex- 
 cept for this free service, had no way of get- 
 ting much-needed advice. Often the question 
 of money was not involved, but the writers 
 lived in such isolated places that it was impos- 
 sible to get professional help. Even their pur- 
 chases had to be made from samples and cata- 
 logues. 
 
 The following extracts from answers that 
 some of my letters of advice called forth, speak 
 for themselves : 
 
 "I am going to follow your ideas almost to 
 the letter as you seem to have caught the spirit 
 of my real need." 
 
 "I have already arranged the furniture as 
 you suggested and the room looks like a differ- 
 ent place." 
 
 "I have continued to use the old walnut set
 
 INTRODUCTION 53 
 
 but have used the chintz and the color you sug- 
 gested for the walls and the room is lovely." 
 
 "I feel I am indebted to you for life. You 
 gave me so many new ideas. My ugly fire- 
 place is a thing of the past, as I followed your 
 advice and it worked beautifully." 
 
 "You have selected just the colors for per- 
 fect harmony in my room. How you, so far 
 away, can tell so quickly what the color scheme 
 should be, when I here in the room could not 
 picture it to my satisfaction, is a mystery." 
 
 "You would be well rewarded for your 
 trouble could you see how attractive our din- 
 ing-room looks. I followed your advice 
 closely ; had tables made of pine, used the Japa- 
 nese toweling for curtains and covers, and the 
 whole thing cost less than ten dollars." 
 
 "Your letter quite transformed my whole 
 vision of the nursery about which I wrote you. 
 I shall follow every suggestion, and I know the 
 result will be the prettiest, most charming nur- 
 sery imaginable." 
 
 "I have already started on my dining-room 
 curtains and can close my eyes and see that 
 pretty room as it will look in a few weeks, due, 
 dear lady, to your kind helpfulness." 
 
 From a bride who married a poor man, and
 
 54 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 from a large house went to live in a few rooms. 
 Her sisters, who had both married men with 
 money, were unable to help her with advice as 
 to how to live in her small quarters. 
 
 "Your personal experience helps me a lot, 
 and I dare say I shall become so wedded to few 
 rooms that I shall be pitying my less fortunate 
 sisters." 
 
 Should this book fall into the hands of the 
 sort of person from whom I frequently re- 
 ceived letters the person to whom "money is 
 no object" she will probably be struck by the 
 obviousness of much that I have to say, so for 
 her benefit I quote a letter which is typical of 
 hundreds I received: 
 
 "I am about to be married, and having 
 worked in an office ever since I left school I 
 have had little chance to learn much about a 
 house. Now that I am to have one of my own, 
 I want it to be a real home, so I turn to you for 
 advice. My husband's salary will be $75 a 
 month. Could you send me a list of furniture, 
 linen, china, and kitchen utensils that will be 
 necessary for a five-roomed house?" 
 
 After making out numerous lists of equip- 
 ment in accordance with salaries of from $50 a 
 month upward, I finally put them into concrete
 
 INTRODUCTION 55 
 
 form, in a loose-leafed pamphlet, called "The 
 Little House,'* the amplified substance of 
 which I give in Book II of this volume. 
 
 The following letter contained in each pam- 
 phlet expresses its purpose : 
 
 THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL 
 
 INDEPENDENCE SQUARE 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 EDITORIAL ROOMS 
 
 Dear Madam: 
 
 In answer to your request for suggestions this 
 booklet is sent to you, to explain the uses of the va- 
 rious rooms of a small house and to give a list of 
 appropriate furnishings for those rooms. 
 
 The prices given will enable you to adjust your 
 selections to your own circumstances. A house fur- 
 nished with the cottage furniture will be in as good 
 taste as one furnished in the most expensive way. 
 The important thing is to have your home honest. 
 Do not select cheap imitations of expensive furnish- 
 ings. By giving attention to line, color and com- 
 fortable arrangement, the simplest furnishings will 
 produce delightful results. 
 
 As each house is a law unto itself, you will be 
 wise, when selecting its equipment, not to be governed 
 by prevailing fashions nor by what your friends or 
 neighbors are using in their homes. After all, the 
 thing which gives a house charm is its individuality,
 
 56 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 so do not feel that it must be completely furnished at 
 the outset. Let it grow with your needs, that in the 
 end it may be an expression of the family life lived 
 within it. 
 
 Cordially yours, 
 
 LILIAN BATLISS GREEN, 
 The Little House Editor.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 
 
 THE VESTIBULE 
 
 fTlHE only furniture necessary in a vesti- 
 JL bule is a rack for umbrellas. The walls 
 should be painted with oil paint in some warm 
 color, and the floor should be tiled or covered 
 with inlaid linoleum in tile or mosaic design. 
 
 If the vestibule serves also as the only hall 
 it should contain, in addition to the above- 
 named article, a rug, a small table or chair and 
 a mirror. 
 
 THE HALL 
 
 Through the front door one gets one's first 
 impression of the occupants of a house. The 
 furnishings of the hall should, therefore, be 
 carefully chosen. It is a passageway rather 
 than a room and requires very little furniture. 
 
 The walls may be done in a landscape paper 
 if one wishes to make the room appear larger, 
 or in plain Colonial yellow if a bright effect is 
 desired. 
 
 57
 
 58 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 Furniture . 
 
 S-gl 5 g 1 1I 
 
 '32^ ..2 -1.3^ ~.S* 
 b .. a S I J S d 
 
 Table . $3.75 $6.75 $8.25 $9.75 
 
 Mirror ....... 3.00 3.00 3.40 3.75 
 
 Straight chair .... 2.75 4.50 5.50 6.50 
 
 Chest ....... 13.50 13.50 16.50 19.50 
 
 Sofa 
 
 Grandfather's clock . . . 60.00 60.00 
 
 Settle 18.00 18.00 22.50 27.00 
 
 Telephone stand .... 6.75 6.75 8.25 9.75 
 
 THE LIVING-ROOM 
 
 In houses or apartments of but five or six 
 rooms there is usually but one living-room. 
 This room should represent the tastes which the 
 members of the family have in common. The 
 first requisite of such a room is that it should be 
 restful. It is therefore advisable to use a wall 
 covering that is plain in effect. Tan or cream 
 is good in a room that is inclined to be dark; 
 gray-green or gray itself in a very bright liv- 
 ing-room. One large rug in two tones of one 
 color, preferably the same color as the walls, is 
 better than a figured rug for this room. Avoid 
 using rocking-chairs in the living-room. They 
 give a restless look and take up more than their 
 share of space. It is better to have comforta-
 
 A buffet made from 
 the top of a kitchen 
 cabinet and a kitchen 
 table 
 
 * 
 
 77; r silver service 
 harmonizes well with 
 this Hcppleu'hite side- 
 board 
 
 Attractive furniture 
 can be made by a car- 
 penter and painted at 
 home
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 59 
 
 ble armchairs, upholstered in plain material, 
 or willow chairs with cushions of chintz, if this 
 material is used as curtains. A roomy table 
 with a good reading lamp on it is essential, 
 while open book-shelves, a writing desk or 
 table, a sofa, a sewing table and a piano are 
 all appropriate furnishings for this room. 
 
 Plants are always appropriate to use in 
 sunny windows, and pictures of common inter- 
 est, framed in polished wood or dull gilt frames, 
 help to make the living-room attractive. Use 
 very little bric-a-brac. Nothing which does 
 not actually contribute to the beauty of the 
 room should be allowed to find place there. 
 
 Furniture 
 
 \i 
 
 Table 
 
 $4.50 
 17.00 
 
 $15.00 
 22.50 
 
 20.00 
 6.75 
 19.50 
 9.00 
 5.00 
 1.50 
 3.75 
 5.00 
 250.00 
 6.75 
 
 |j}| 
 
 $17.00 
 25.00 
 
 7.75 
 21.75 
 11.25 
 6.00 
 2.00 
 3.00 
 
 8.25 
 
 'g-S 
 
 3 S a 
 
 2*2- 
 5 2 * 
 o ft * 
 
 $50.00 
 45.00 
 55.00 
 38.00 
 15.00 
 90.00 
 100.00 
 17.00 
 35.00 
 6.00 
 5.00 
 450.00 
 28.00 
 
 
 Sofa . . . r - 
 
 Armchair 
 Desk chair . 
 Desk . . . 
 
 
 
 2.75 
 9.75 
 9.00 
 5.00 
 1.50 
 2.25 
 
 200.00 
 6.75 
 
 Bookcase 
 Sewing table 
 Tea table 
 Footstool 
 Wood box or rai 
 Piano 
 
 :k 
 
 
 Music cabinet . .
 
 60 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 Table $35.00 $59.00 
 
 Chair 30.50 50.00 
 
 Sofa 68.00 100.00 
 
 Armchair 32.00 65.00 
 
 Desk chair 4.75 15.00 
 
 Desk 28.00 90.00 
 
 Bookcase 25.00 100.00 
 
 Sewing table 18.50 
 
 Tea table 12.00 
 
 Footstool 4.50 6.00 
 
 Wood box or rack .... 5.00 5.00 
 
 Piano 450.00 
 
 Music cabinet . . 10.00 
 
 II 
 
 $12.00 
 
 12.75 
 
 23.50 
 
 9.75 
 
 8.25 
 
 37.50 
 
 13.50 
 
 13.50 
 
 7.25 
 
 5.25 
 
 3.50 
 
 When the most important room in a house 
 faces north, its decoration should be planned 
 first and should govern that of the adjoining 
 rooms. The best color for the walls of a north 
 room is yellow in a tone ranging from a deep 
 cream color to tan or a deep pumpkin color; 
 any shade, in fact that will give the illusion of 
 sunlight. By using thought, such rooms may 
 be very cheerful indeed. In rooms that are 
 sunny, it is possible to use any color except one 
 that fades easily. 
 
 A favorite way to treat a living-room that 
 opens into a dining-room by folding or French 
 doors, is to have the walls of both rooms alike, 
 in some plain color. The rug in the living- 
 room should also be plain in several shades
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 61 
 
 darker than the walls; the hangings and chair 
 covers may be of chintz. In the dining-room 
 since it is best to use a rug with a small figure, 
 the hangings should be of a plain color to em- 
 phasize the predominating color in the living- 
 room chintz. This brings the two rooms into 
 perfect harmony, without having them just 
 alike. 
 
 THE BEDROOM 
 
 The first requisite in the furnishing of this 
 room is that it be fresh and clean. 
 
 Unless the room must be used as a study 
 or sitting-room in the daytime the furniture 
 should be reduced as much as possible. The 
 walls should be light in color, and the wood- 
 work white if possible. The furniture may 
 also be white, although dull-finished mahogany 
 in Colonial designs, with small rag rugs on the 
 floor, makes a charming bedroom. One set of 
 draw curtains, of figured chintz if the walls are 
 plain, and of plain-colored material if the walls 
 have a small figure, is enough for each win- 
 dow. 
 
 The furnishings of a young girl's bedroom 
 should be carried out in her favorite color, and 
 to the usual bedroom furniture should be added
 
 62 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 a desk, lamp, work table and bookshelves. 
 The bedroom for a growing boy should be his 
 own sitting-room and study as well: a place 
 where he may entertain his friends, do his 
 studying and develop his hobbies. The walls, 
 hangings, couch cover, et cetera, should be very 
 plain, as a boy usually has a collection of 
 trophies which need the plainest sort of a back- 
 ground in order to prevent the room from look- 
 ing cluttered. Instead of the usual bed he 
 should have an iron-framed couch, which in the 
 daytime may be made up with a plain dark 
 cover with cushions, to be used as a couch; a 
 chiffonier, an armchair, bookshelves, writing 
 table and one or two small rugs will complete 
 the furnishings of the boy's bedroom. 
 
 Furniture 
 
 Bed . . . 
 
 i|l 
 
 P* 
 
 &s 
 
 a^ll 
 2 3 
 a o.a 
 
 fal 
 
 o 
 
 r. . . . $9.75 
 
 Colonial designs re- 
 n produced in oak 
 g or birch. 
 
 & Colonial designs re- 
 ~ produced in oak 
 - painted in gloss 
 in enamel. 
 
 Colonial designs re- 
 -< produced in oak 
 B painted in rubbed 
 enamel. 
 
 
 . . . . 3.35 
 
 16.00 
 
 16.00 
 
 16.00 
 
 Box spring 
 
 to 
 16.00 
 . . . . 20.00 
 
 to 
 
 25.00 
 20.00 
 
 to 
 
 25.00 
 20.00 
 
 to 
 
 25.00 
 20.00 
 
 Crib (iron) . 
 
 .... 12.75 
 
 12.75 
 
 12.75 
 
 12.75 
 
 Crib mattress 
 Pillows (pair) 
 
 .... 3.75 
 .... 1.25 
 
 9.00 
 2.10 
 
 9.00 
 2.10 
 
 9.00 
 9.10
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 63 
 
 - 
 
 Is 
 
 ' 
 
 abb ^ 
 
 Bureau 
 
 Washstand 
 
 Dressing table ... 
 
 Chiffonier (no mirror) 
 
 Chair 
 
 Rocking-chair ... 
 
 9.75 
 1.50 
 9.00 
 9.00 
 
 2.75 
 2.75 
 
 22.50 
 
 2.00 
 
 12.57 
 
 12.00 
 
 4.50 
 
 6.75 
 
 25.00 
 2.75 
 
 14.25 
 
 14.25 
 5.25 
 7.75 
 3.50 
 
 10.75 
 7.75 
 
 Waist box .... Home-made 2.50 
 
 Desk ....... 4.50 9.75 
 
 Armchair ...... 6.75 
 
 Couch ....... 5.00 13.25 
 
 (iron frame) (box) 
 Bookshelves .... Home-made 9.00 10.50 
 
 Cheval glass ..... 11.25 15.50 16.50 
 
 Stoves 
 
 Gas, $ 5.00 Wood . . $15.50 Franklin grate or 
 
 Coal, 17.00 Wood or coal 25.50 wood or coal . 
 
 27.50 
 3.50 
 
 15.75 
 
 16.50 
 6.00 
 8.75 
 4.50 
 
 11.75 
 8.75 
 
 12.00 
 18.00 
 
 andirons 
 . $35.00 
 
 "o a. 
 
 o l 
 
 Bed ......... $55.00 
 
 Mattress . . 36.00 
 
 I" 
 
 $30.00 
 36.00 
 
 P 
 
 $56.00 
 36.00 
 
 Box spring 30.00 20.00 20.00 
 
 Crib (iron) 12.75 12.75 
 
 Crib mattress ..... 9.00 9.00 
 
 Pillows (pair) 6.00 5.25 5.25 
 
 Bureau 75.00 50.00 67.50 
 
 Washstand 6.00 10.00 
 
 (enamel iron) 
 
 Dressing table 55.00 26.00 48.00 
 
 Chiffonier (no mirror) . . 100.00 39.00 60.00 
 
 (High Boy)
 
 64 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 =3 1SS- 
 
 3*3 I- 2 - 3 I 
 
 Chair 10.00 6.50 8.00 
 
 Rocking-chair 9.00 6.50 8.25 
 
 Waist box 20.00 16.00 4.50 
 
 Desk 60.00 20.00 28.50 
 
 Armchair 24.00 8.00 7.50 
 
 Couch 60.00 50.00 25.00 
 
 Bookshelves (built in) 21.50 13.50 
 
 Cheval glass 50.00 25.00 
 
 Correct Articles to Use on a Bureau or Dress- 
 ing Table 
 
 Mirror, brush, comb, nailfile, buttonhook, 
 pintray, shoehorn, powder-box, stud-box, pic- 
 ture frames, small powder-box, clock, hair-re- 
 ceiver. 
 
 These may be of silver, ebony, tortoise shell, 
 ivory or Parisian ivory. 
 
 CORRECT ARTICLES FOR WASHSTAND 
 
 In addition to regular toilet set of china or 
 crystal this is the place for bottles of toilet 
 water, talcum powder, tooth powder, medicine, 
 etc. 
 
 THE SEWING-ROOM 
 
 Even in a small house there is sometimes an 
 extra room which may be fitted up as a sewing-
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 65 
 
 room in such a way as to be very convenient 
 and practical, and at the same time so attractive 
 as to serve as an extra bedroom occasionally. 
 This room should be kept as light as possible 
 and should be so furnished that it may be easily 
 kept clean. 
 
 Furniture 
 
 Sewing machine with flat top to be used as a dressing 
 
 table $20.00 
 
 Chair 1.25 
 
 Box couch 13.25 
 
 Chiffonier 9.00 
 
 Mirror against a door 11.25 
 
 Low rocking-chair without arms 1.50 
 
 Cutting table, box underneath. Tilt top to be used as 
 
 a settle 6.75 
 
 Clothespole 3.38 
 
 THE DINING-ROOM 
 
 The room in which the family assembles sev- 
 eral times each day to enjoy its meals together 
 should be the most cheerful room in the house. 
 
 Because there is so much lovely blue-and- 
 white china in use many persons feel that they 
 want dining-rooms with blue walls. This is 
 usually a mistake, as blue used in large quanti- 
 ties absorbs the light and makes a room gloomy, 
 particularly on dark days and at night. By 
 using Colonial yellow on the walls, with hang- 
 ings, rug and decorative china in blue and 
 white, one has an almost ideal arrangement.
 
 66 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 There are many charming landscape and fol- 
 iage papers on the market which, used without 
 
 pictures against 
 them, but with 
 bulbs or plants 
 blooming on the 
 windowsills and 
 with hangings 
 of plain semi- 
 > transparent col- 
 ored 
 
 A plate rack easily made that can be make 
 
 used above a serving table ,. , . , 
 
 lightful 
 
 material, 
 most de- 
 rooms. 
 
 Plate rails or racks will always be a solution 
 for reducing the apparent height of an over- 
 high ceiling. It is better to use a simple flat 
 molding or paneling than to crowd a plate rail 
 full of inharmonious objects. 
 
 Furniture 
 
 'o- ^ * 
 
 *< 5 
 
 .go o'd 
 
 *"* CJ.fi 
 
 a- % 2 
 
 ** 5 a " ? 
 
 " 
 
 " a 
 R-.-H 
 
 Table . . 
 Chair . . 
 Armchair . 
 Serving table 
 
 1 
 
 o 6"" 1 O 
 
 $9.00 $30.00 $10.50 
 
 2.75 4.50 5.50 
 
 2.75 6.75 7.75 
 
 8.25 9.00 10.50 
 
 ilia 
 
 3 6* 
 
 
 $12.00 
 
 6.50 
 
 8.75 
 
 12.75
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 67 
 
 
 1! 
 
 Buffet ...... 18.00 
 
 China closet .... 15.00 
 
 Serving table on wheels 16.75 
 
 Screen 3.75 
 
 High chair .... 2.50 
 
 Stoves 
 
 Gas, $ 5.00 Wood . . $15.50 
 
 Coal, 17.00 Wood or coal 25.50 
 
 . 
 
 'S'S' Q 
 SH 
 
 OCxO 
 
 27.50 
 30.00 
 16.75 
 5.00 
 2.50 
 
 a8| 
 
 .&a* 
 "*fl 
 
 '' 
 
 oPiPi 
 
 21.00 
 
 34.50 
 
 30.50 
 
 4.50 
 
 4.15 
 
 a s 
 
 M 
 
 OPiPi 
 
 24.00 
 
 39.00 
 
 34.00 
 
 5.25 
 
 5.50 
 
 Franklin grate or andirons 
 wood or coal . . $35.00 
 
 3la 
 
 Table ...... 
 
 $85.00 
 
 $21.00 
 
 Chair 
 
 10.00 
 
 6.50 
 
 
 15.00 
 
 10.00 
 
 Serving table .... 
 
 35.00 
 
 18.00 
 
 Buffet 
 
 125.00 
 
 34.00 
 
 China closet .... 
 
 60.00 
 
 45.00 
 
 Serving table on wheels 
 
 27.00 
 25.00 
 
 27.00 
 20.00 
 
 
 10.00 
 
 9.00 
 
 THE KITCHEN 
 
 I 
 
 $16.50 
 8.25 
 
 28.00 
 82.50 
 
 24.00 
 8.00 
 
 The room in which the average housekeeper 
 spends the greater part of her time is usually 
 the least attractive room in the house, whereas 
 it should be and we learn by visiting foreign 
 kitchens it may be made a picturesque set-
 
 68 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 ting for one of the finest arts the art of cook- 
 ery. 
 
 The woodwork should be light in color, the 
 walls should be painted with oil paint, or cov- 
 ered with washable material, this also in a light 
 color. 
 
 Furniture 
 
 Stoves Gas $2.50, $10.00, $30.00 
 
 Blue-flame kerosene 10.25 
 
 Coal, wood, gas 56.00 
 
 Coal and wood 49.75 
 
 Small electric 33.00 
 
 Table $2.10; $9.00 (drop leaf) ; $11.25 (white enamel on steel) 
 
 Chair $1.87, $6.75 
 
 Ice chest $7.00, $15.00, $40.00 (white enamel) 
 
 Kitchen cabinet . . . $38.00; $39.00 (white enamel on steel) 
 Linoleum 60c. square yard, printed; $1.60 square yard, inlaid 
 
 INITIAL SUPPLY OF SMALL FURNISHINGS 
 
 Small-sized ironing- 3 graduated copper, 
 board $0.35 enameled or nickel- 
 Small glass washboard .35 handled dishes . . .50 
 Clothesline and pins . .15 2 covered earthenware 
 2 irons, holder and or enameled casse- 
 
 stand 70 roles . . . . . 1.50 
 
 2-gallon kerosene can .45 2 pie plates enameled .20 
 
 Small bread board . . .15 
 
 Rack for dish towels . .10 Alarm clock .... $1.00 
 
 6 large canisters . . .60 Galvanized-iron scrub 
 
 Wooden salt box . . .10 pail ...... .30 
 
 1 iron skillet 30 Small covered garbage 
 
 1 double boiler . . . 1.00 pail 35 
 
 Dish drainer 25 Scrubbing brush ... .20 
 
 2 dishmops 10 Broom and brushes . .60 
 
 Wire bottle washer . .10 1 quart ice-cream 
 
 Small rolling pin . . .10 freezer 1.75 
 
 Chopping machine . . 1.10 Roller for towel ... .10 
 
 Large saucepan ... .30 Bread box 50
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 69 
 
 4 small canisters . . .40 3 graduated small 
 
 2 sheet-iron pans to use saucepans 30 
 
 as roasting pans .20 Glass butter jar . .35 
 
 Dishpan (fiber) 
 Plate scraper 
 Soap shaker . . 
 Vegetable brush 
 Muffin tins . . 
 Granite soup kettle 
 
 .50 6 popover or custard 
 
 .15 cups 30 
 
 .10 Soapdish 25 
 
 .05 Knives, forks, egg beat- 
 
 .25 er, corkscrew, lemon 
 
 .45 squeezer, etc. . . . 5.50 
 
 THE NURSERY 
 
 In describing the requisites of the nursery 
 of a small house, I shall confine myself to a 
 room that has to be used by the children both 
 as a playroom and as a sleeping- and dressing- 
 room as well, as it would be unreasonable to 
 suppose that the average small house would 
 have rooms enough to provide both a day and a 
 night nursery which, however, is the ideal ar- 
 rangement where possible. 
 
 Such a room should have one or more sunny 
 windows, with outside blinds which for the day- 
 time nap may be closed, to make the room dark 
 without keeping out the air. If possible there 
 should be a fireplace, but that is not as neces- 
 sary as the sun. The floor should be bare, so 
 that it may be kept free from dust ; small rugs 
 may be provided when the children wish to sit 
 on the floor. The walls should be painted 
 with oil paint if possible, in some light, at- 
 tractive shade of cream, gray, or gray-green.
 
 Simple draw-curtains of plain white, of chintz 
 or of some plain-colored washable material, 
 may be necessary to soften the light, but it is 
 quite all right to leave the windows in this 
 room free from hangings if preferred. A com- 
 fortable winged chair, with a slip cover of gay 
 flowered chintz, is a picturesque addition to this 
 room, and one that a "grown-up" will appre- 
 ciate when visiting the nursery. For the chil- 
 dren, a low table, and a chair apiece, made of 
 plain oiled wood preferably, will be required. 
 After the crib stage has been passed, it is well 
 to select a "day-bed" for this room, as it may be 
 made up with a dark cover to be used in the 
 daytime as a comfortable sofa. A chiffonier 
 with plenty of drawers completes the neces- 
 sary movable furniture, but every nursery 
 should have low shelves and cupboards built 
 for toys and books, if the room is to be kept 
 neat, and if the children are to be taught to put 
 things away after they have finished using 
 them. If there is a little wall space left near 
 the floor, it should be blackened, and enclosed 
 by a molding. Such a stationary blackboard is 
 a source of endless delight in early attempts at 
 drawing, figure and letter making. 
 As a wall decoration, instead of a permanent
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 71 
 
 frieze of "Mother Goose" or "Alice in Wonder- 
 land" pictures, which a child will in time out- 
 grow, I suggest having parallel moldings about 
 ten inches apart placed across at least one wall 
 space. This space should be covered with glass 
 between the moldings, the higher of which 
 should have grooves cut at regular intervals to 
 admit the insertion of pictures. These pic- 
 tures may then be selected to suit the age of the 
 child as well as the season of the year, and 
 after serving this purpose they may be pasted 
 in cambric scrap-books, to be kept as souvenirs 
 of childhood, or passed along to other children 
 for use in their nurseries. 
 
 For each child there should be a "growing 
 stick": a piece of wood twice the width and 
 more than twice the length of an ordinary yard 
 stick, and marked in much the same way. At 
 the top of each stick should be the initials and 
 age date of the child, burned into the wood, and 
 the stick should hang on a door casing by 
 means of a hole bored into the top. On this 
 stick a comparative record of growth may be 
 kept, and if the family moves away these inter- 
 esting records may be taken along. It is such 
 little things as this which give a homelike at- 
 mosphere to the family dwelling.
 
 72 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 SOME "DON'TS" FOE THE AMATEUR DECORATOR 
 
 On seeing the same mistakes repeated again 
 and again, not only in the decoration of houses, 
 but in tea rooms and club rooms as well, it is 
 evident that the mind of the amateur decorator 
 needs to be impressed with a few important 
 
 "DON'TS." 
 
 DON'T have too many figured walls in the 
 same house. 
 
 DON'T have figured walls in two adjoining 
 rooms unless they are treated as one room and 
 the same figure is used in both. 
 
 DON'T use figured hangings in a room with 
 figured walls. 
 
 DON'T use more than one design of cretonne 
 in the same room. 
 
 DON'T use figured rugs and figured hang- 
 ings in the same room, even though the walls 
 are plain. 
 
 DON'T hang pictures on a wall with a dis- 
 tinct figure; have few ornaments and very 
 plain ones in such a room. 
 
 DON'T use figured "glass" curtains and fig- 
 ured overcurtains at the same window. One 
 or the other should be plain.
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURNISHING 73 
 
 DON'T use paper with a large figure in a 
 small room. 
 
 DON'T use many different colors or figures 
 on the walls of a small house or apartment. 
 An effect of space will be obtained by having 
 the walls in all the rooms done alike in some 
 plain light color. The rooms may be made 
 distinctive by, for example, having a symmet- 
 rical arrangement of pictures in the hall; by 
 having the walls of living-room and dining- 
 room paneled; by using narrow borders in the 
 bedrooms, and by having decorative china on 
 a plate rack in the kitchen. 
 
 DON'T use a drop ceiling or a wide border 
 in a room that is nine feet or less in height. 
 In such a room the best treatment is to have 
 the walls plain up to the angle of the ceiling, 
 with a simple molding to match the rest of the 
 woodwork. 
 
 DON'T use blue in large quantities; never on 
 the walls of a north room. 
 
 DON'T use striped or large figured paper on 
 the walls of a room with sloping ceilings. Use 
 instead, a plain or small figured paper on walls 
 and ceiling both, having neither molding nor 
 border, where walls and ceiling meet.
 
 74. THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 DON'T use much mission furniture in a house. 
 Stationary pieces such as desks and bookcases 
 are the least objectionable but pieces of furni- 
 ture that must be moved about, should be of 
 lighter weight and less clumsy to handle.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LIGHTING FIXTURES 
 
 WHEN planning one's own home it is 
 comparatively easy to select and place 
 the lighting fixtures to conform to the furnish- 
 ings in each room and to the use to which the 
 fixture is to be put, but in houses built to rent, 
 the ignorance and lack of taste displayed in the 
 lighting fixtures is appalling. Ghastly domes, 
 inverted bowls, and flimsy, over-decorated brass 
 fixtures are the rule, so placed that the light 
 from them is not only most unbecoming, but 
 practically useless. The cheaper the fixture, 
 the more ornate it is, as a rule. 
 
 Besides selecting fixtures as simple and in- 
 conspicuous as possible, the following sugges- 
 tions as to the placing of them in accordance 
 with the requirements of each room may be of 
 use to those who have given the subject little 
 thought. 
 
 In the vestibule it is correct to have either a 
 side-wall or an overhead light. The hall is an 
 
 75
 
 appropriate place for a decorative lantern of a 
 design to harmonize with the general scheme 
 of the room. As a lantern gives a softened 
 light, it is well to have side lights in addition, 
 especially at the head and foot of the stairs. 
 
 In a living-room, library or music-room, 
 there should be baseboard and floor plugs for 
 lamps to be placed conveniently on tables, 
 desks, or on the piano. Side-wall lights are 
 usually sufficient for the general lighting of the 
 room. Overhead lights except in rooms with 
 very high ceilings, are not needed, and even in 
 high rooms they are seldom used except when 
 entertaining in a formal way. 
 
 The most attractive way to light the dining- 
 room is to have side-wall lights for general 
 lighting, with candles on the table at dinner at 
 night. 
 
 The kitchen is the one room in a house in 
 which a strong light is desirable at all times. It 
 is a laboratory, and everything here should be 
 thought out in such a way as to facilitate work. 
 One of the most important things is to have 
 plenty of light where it is needed and when it 
 is needed. There should be a strong light di- 
 rectly above the sink, and one above and at the 
 left of the stove. There should be another in
 
 LIGHTING FIXTURES 77 
 
 front of the ice chest and one in front of the 
 supply cupboard. 
 
 In a bathroom, a light at either side of the 
 mirror above the washstand is all that is re- 
 quired, while in bedrooms there should be a 
 light at either side of each dressing table or 
 bureau, as well as a candle or lamp on a bedside 
 table. Where electricity is used, there should 
 be a light in each closet. Needless to say every 
 flight of steps in the house should be well 
 lighted. 
 
 Having passed through a period in which 
 leaded glass domes were rampant above the 
 dining-room tables in nearly all rented houses 
 and apartments, we are now in the midst of an 
 epidemic of inverted alabaster bowls, used to 
 conceal the light and to reflect it from the ceil- 
 ing down into the room. There are some 
 places in which this serves an admirable pur- 
 pose, as for example in stores, railway stations, 
 banks, and hotel corridors, where it is neces- 
 sary to use light in the daytime, and where an 
 illusion of daylight is to be desired. In the 
 lighting of a private house, there are other 
 things of greater importance than merely hav- 
 ing as much light as possible. Light is stimu- 
 lating to the nerves, and too much of it coming
 
 78 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 from above dilates the pupils of the eyes and 
 produces anything but the restful effect desired 
 at the end of a day. We shall make no mistake 
 if we allow ourselves in this respect to be gov- 
 erned by nature, by using low lights after sun- 
 down, with the light directed away from the 
 eyes and focused on the book we are reading, 
 the page we are writing, or the table on which 
 our meal is served.
 
 FROM the fact that fully a quarter of the 
 letters that come to the Ladies' Home 
 Journal decorating department are in refer- 
 ence to curtains, I am led to believe that the cur- 
 tain problem is one of the most puzzling to 
 women who are furnishing their homes. This 
 is due partly to a change in architecture, which 
 means that new and unfamiliar types of win- 
 dows are used. Then, too, the manufacturers 
 see to it that fashions in curtain fabrics change 
 as often as possible, for there are always women 
 who are unhappy unless everything they have 
 from clothes to curtains is the dernier cri. 
 Some one has aptly said that the difference be- 
 tween having things in good taste and having 
 them fashionable is that if they are in good 
 taste one will not be ashamed of them next 
 year. 
 
 Good taste is governed by suitability, so that 
 if the newest things in curtain materials hap- 
 
 79
 
 80 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 pen to be right for the windows in question 
 there is not the slightest reason why they should 
 not be selected ; but so long as they are service- 
 able, they should be used, and not be discarded 
 simply because something newer is on the mar- 
 ket. 
 
 The question of suitability depends upon the 
 height of the window, the view, the way it 
 opens, and the way the windows in adjoining 
 rooms are curtained. Some persons consider 
 the outside appearance of the house when 
 choosing their curtains, and that is right to a 
 certain extent, so long as the charm of the in- 
 terior is not sacrificed. 
 
 A window is designed primarily to let in 
 light and air, and is not a thing to be decked 
 out like an over-dressed child, in layer upon 
 layer of ruffles and lace. The important con- 
 sideration is how to get just the desired amount 
 of light and air from each window in the day- 
 time, and how to screen the room adequately 
 at night. 
 
 Let us consider, first, the glass in the front 
 door of a house. It usually contains the only 
 window to the front hall, so it should be cur- 
 tained in such a way as to let in as much light 
 as possible. On the other hand, as those who
 
 THE HANGING OF CURTAINS 
 
 81 
 
 do their own work know only too well, it is very 
 important to be able to see who is at the door 
 without being seen from the outside. These 
 considerations have led to the use of very thin 
 materials such as scrim, voile, thin China silk, 
 
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 ilJi.t- las'- 
 
 irn*n 
 
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 r'l 
 
 
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 r 
 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
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 j~ 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 ~l 
 
 p 
 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 D 
 
 r 
 
 ~~ 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
 1 - 
 
 > 
 
 Different types of doors require different curtain treatment 
 
 or net, gathered tightly between rods placed at 
 top and bottom of the glass. A flat panel of 
 filet lace is sometimes stretched across the glass, 
 or a panel charmingly wrought of coarse linen, 
 
 Effective curtaining for the old-fashioned type of high window 
 
 with insertions of filet lace. This is the one 
 place where a rather elaborate curtain is per- 
 missible. If there is a vestibule door with 
 glass in it, the curtain should match the one 
 used in the front door.
 
 82 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 In houses built from twenty to forty years 
 the ceilings, and consequently the win- 
 dows, are apt to be very high. Such windows 
 require a special treatment, because it is trying 
 on the eyes to have light coming from above. 
 Shades are almost a necessity, unless Dutch 
 curtains are used, and if the windows are nar- 
 row as well as high, a lower look may be ob- 
 tained by the use of overcurtains and deep val- 
 ances. The use of a valance is never a matter 
 of fashion: it is always a question to be deter- 
 mined by the person who is doing the decorat- 
 ing. A valance always makes a window look 
 shorter and broader, and a number of them 
 used give to a high room a cozier, lower appear- 
 ance. If that is the desired effect, then val- 
 ances should be used to produce it. 
 
 The "glass curtains," 
 those that hang close to the 
 glass, are usually hung 
 from a rod, the fixtures of 
 
 Curtaining which does not which are placed in the rUIl 
 kep out the light . . , 
 
 of the window, above the 
 shade, if a shade is used. The materials for 
 these curtains are muslin, either ruffled or plain, 
 scrim, voile, net, cheesecloth, theatrical scrim, 
 tarlton, thin linen, casement cloth, batiste, un-
 
 THE HANGING OF CURTAINS 
 
 83 
 
 bleached cotton and plain China silk. There 
 are many ways of hanging these curtains. 
 They usually reach only to the sill, but they 
 may either hang straight down, drawn together 
 across the glass, or they may be drawn apart. 
 Sometimes they are caught back in the center 
 with bands of the same material, while another 
 way is to have a rod at top and bottom, with 
 the material stretched between the two rods, 
 
 Three types of over curtains 
 
 with or without a narrow heading at each end, 
 and caught back or not as preferred. 
 
 When but one set of curtains is used at a win- 
 dow, any of the ways just described may be 
 used, or they may be hung as over-curtains are 
 hung. 
 
 Over curtains are, as a rule, used to help 
 furnish a room by adding color and variety to 
 the side walls, as well as to soften the light, and 
 to act as shades when drawn together at night. 
 The usual way to hang them is to have the fix- 
 tures placed in the center of the corner of the
 
 84 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 upper outer casing. The rod should be large 
 and strong enough to hold the curtains with- 
 out sagging in the center, but for the ordinary 
 window and with the sort of fabrics used now- 
 adays a solid brass rod about three quarters of 
 an inch thick is usually all that is required. 
 The fixtures should be as inconspicuous as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The curtains may be run 
 onto the rod by means of a 
 narrow hem at the top, or 
 they may be suspended 
 from it by means of small 
 brass rings placed about 
 three inches apart. If it is 
 desirable to draw these cur- 
 tains together at any time, 
 a valance, if one is used, 
 should be run onto a sepa- 
 rate rod, or tacked to a 
 narrow board affixed to the 
 top of the casing. Other- 
 wise the valance may be set 
 in between the two side curtains on the same 
 rod. 
 
 Sunfast materials suitable to use for over- 
 curtains are now to be found in a great variety 
 
 Decorative windows 
 
 should have plain 
 
 curtains
 
 One of the best 
 features of this 
 bathroom is the 
 closet for clothes 
 hamper and linen 
 supplies 
 
 Plain iron bedstead.'; 
 made sightly by covers 
 of chintz thai match 
 the window hangings
 
 THE HANGING OF CURTAINS 85 
 
 of colors, weaves, and weights. The more ex- 
 pensive, imported ones really do resist the 
 action of the sun, and, as they are very wide, 
 one-half the width is usually enough for each 
 side curtain. For sunny windows it pays to 
 buy the best, if colored material is to be used. 
 I have tried inexpensive domestic chintzes and 
 it is like throwing money away, for even before 
 they are washed, they have faded so that the 
 room looks shabby and colorless. On the 
 other hand I have English chintz that has been 
 in constant use for ten years, and after fre^ 
 quent washings, the color is as bright as the 
 day it was bought. 
 
 Linen, plain or figured, velvet, velour, cre- 
 tonne, Java and India cottons, silk, rep, 
 monk's cloth, chambray, denim, and countless 
 novelty fabrics, are used for over-curtains, their 
 suitability depending upon the room in which 
 they are to be used. 
 
 DUTCH CURTAINS 
 
 These are simply a separate pair of sash cur- 
 tains at each sash of each window, made to draw 
 together by having small brass rings at the top. 
 Suitable materials for these charming little cur- 
 tains are English casement cloth, unbleached
 
 86 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 muslin or linen, scrim, cheesecloth or English 
 net. Over-curtains of plain-colored material 
 or of figured chintz may be used. This sort of 
 curtains takes the place of shades and gives a 
 
 very harmonious ef- 
 fect if used in every 
 window of the house. 
 Casement windows 
 that are so much used 
 nowadays give much 
 trouble on account of 
 their very simplicity. 
 It is hard to believe 
 that shades may be dispensed with and that one 
 set of curtains is all that is really required. 
 They should be hung by small brass rings, so 
 that they may easily be drawn together, and 
 
 Regulate light in high case- 
 ment windows by Dutch 
 or double curtains 
 
 Curtains of thick material hung on rings take the place of shades 
 with casement windows 
 
 thus take the place of shades. If the window 
 opens outward, the fixtures for the curtain rods 
 should be placed on the casing above the win- 
 dow, but if the window opens into the room,
 
 THE HANGING OF CURTAINS 
 
 87 
 
 the fixtures should be attached to the sash, so 
 that when the window is opened, the curtain 
 comes with it. 
 
 French doors with small panes of glass are 
 being used more and more, not only as outside 
 doors, in which case the curtains for them corre- 
 spond to the curtains of the windows in the 
 same room, but between rooms as well. In this 
 case, it is customary to have curtains of thin 
 material, stretched tightly between rods placed 
 at top and bottom of the glass. Portieres are 
 sometimes used at either side of the doors, but 
 they are by no means essential. 
 
 PORTIERES 
 
 If there is an open space between rooms, it is 
 really necessary to have portieres in order to in- 
 
 The primary use of porti&res i to insure privacy 
 
 sure privacy at times. As that is the chief 
 reason for using portieres, it stands to reason 
 that the material used for the purpose should 
 be of sufficient weight, and sufficiently closely
 
 88 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 woven, to act as a complete screen. The ma- 
 terials that are best for these door curtains are : 
 rep, velour, heavy linen, denim, monk's cloth, 
 and the sunfast fabrics that go under various 
 trade names. It is hard for the enlightened 
 to believe that some people still use rope por- 
 tieres, but I have been in towns where such 
 things are shown at the "general store" as be- 
 ing the "latest thing out."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FLOOR COVERINGS 
 
 IN selecting floor coverings there are several 
 important considerations. The design and 
 quality should be governed by the treatment the 
 rug will necessarily have. 
 
 HALL 
 
 A hall rug or carpet will receive hard wear; 
 therefore, the quality should be good. A small 
 all-over symmetrical design in two tones of one 
 color or in several harmonizing colors will show 
 dust and wear less than a plain surface would 
 do. 
 
 Rag rug, machine made, 3 by 6 feet . . $1.75 
 
 Hand-woven rag rug, 3 by 6 feet . . . 7.50 
 
 Scotch wool rug, 3 by 6 feet 4.00 
 
 Hand-woven wool rug, 3 by 6 feet . . . 6.00 
 
 East India drugget, 3 by 6 feet .... 8.00 
 
 Saxony, 3 by 6 feet 9.00 
 
 Brussels rug, 3 by 6 feet 9.00 
 
 Oriental rug, 3 by 6 feet 35.00 
 
 LIVING-ROOM 
 
 In a living-room the floor covering will be 
 worn all over equally. Since there is always a 
 
 89
 
 90 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 variety of colors and forms in a living-room it 
 is well to keep the floor covering as plain as pos- 
 sible. A rug with a plain center and a darker 
 border of the same color is excellent in this 
 room, particularly if the walls or hangings are 
 figured. If they are plain, the rug or carpet 
 may have a small, indefinite figure. If several 
 domestic rugs are used in the same room they 
 should be exactly alike in design and color. If 
 small Oriental rugs are used they will, of 
 course, differ in design, but they should be as 
 nearly as possible in the same tone. 
 
 Good Living-room Rugs 
 
 Crex or grass rug, 9 by 12 feet . 
 
 Rag rugs, 9 by 12 feet . . . $10.00 to 45.00 
 
 Scotch wool rug, 9 by 12 feet . $14.50 to 25.00 
 
 Brussels, 9 by 12 feet 32.75 
 
 Hand-woven wool rug, 9 by 12 feet . . 36.00 
 
 East India drugget, 9 by 12 feet . . . 43.00 
 
 Saxony, 9 by 12 feet 50.00 
 
 Oriental, 9 'by 12 feet 200.00 up 
 
 DINING-KOOM 
 
 A dining-room rug gets very hard wear in 
 spots. It should, therefore, be selected in as 
 good quality as one can afford. It is not well 
 to have a perfectly plain rug in a dining-room, 
 as a plain surface shows crumbs and spots too 
 readily. There is no objection to having a din- 
 ing-room floor quite bare, if the floor is well fin-
 
 FLOOR COVERINGS 91 
 
 ished. Inlaid linoleum also makes an excellent 
 floor covering for a dining-room that receives 
 very hard usage. 
 
 The best coverings for this room are : 
 
 Crex ingrain rug, 9 by 12 feet .... $8.50 
 Rag rug, 9 by 12 feet .... $10.00 to 45.00 
 
 Brussels, 9 by 12 feet 82.75 
 
 East India drugget, 9 by 12 feet . . . 36.00 
 
 Saxony, 9 by 12 feet 50.00 
 
 Oriental, 9 by 12 feet 200.00 
 
 BEDROOM 
 
 On account of the lint which accumulates in 
 bedrooms it is a good plan to keep the space 
 under the beds bare, so that it may be dusted 
 every day. Small rugs laid where most needed 
 are more hygienic in sleeping-rooms than are 
 large rugs and carpets. Plain Chinese mat- 
 ting makes a clean floor covering when the 
 boards are not in good condition. Although it 
 is in good taste to use a carpet or one large rug 
 in a bedroom, the preference lies among the 
 following: 
 
 Small rag rugs, 3 by 6 feet $1.75 
 
 Oval braided rag rugs, 3 by 6 feet . . 2.50 
 
 East India drugget, 3 by 6 feet . . . 8.00 
 
 Saxony, 3 by 6 feet 8.00 
 
 Oriental, 3 by 6 feet 35.00 
 
 Oval rag rugs have become very popular 
 lately, and when carefully designed and made
 
 92 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 of either woolen or cotton rags in fast colors, 
 they are artistic, serviceable, washable, and 
 suitable to use in bedrooms, bathrooms, and 
 kitchens of any house. In simple houses, par- 
 ticularly those furnished with Colonial furni- 
 ture, these rugs are often used even in the hall, 
 living-room and dining-room, the size being 
 governed to suit the need. One of the chief 
 things to recommend them is the fact that they 
 may be made at home without the use of a loom ; 
 a child may even be easily taught to do certain 
 processes of the work, and to make tiny ones 
 for her dolls' house. 
 
 The rug in the lower photograph facing 
 page 41, I made of deep cream and turquoise 
 blue cotton rags, cut in one-inch strips the 
 width of the material. Each strip I folded 
 under a half inch on each side, then pressed 
 with a hot iron. This left a strip one-half inch 
 wide, with the rough side kept underneath 
 when braiding. It is easier to braid if the 
 strands are not too long, so I always join mine 
 as I go along, working the colors in to carry 
 out the design I have in mind. In this rug, I 
 began with the blue, and braided enough to 
 form the oval center, sewing the sides of the 
 braid together with linen thread on the wrong
 
 FLOOR COVERINGS 93 
 
 side, and holding the work rather loose, so as 
 to avoid unevenness when the rug is laid out on 
 the floor. As soon as the blue center was large 
 enough, I left out one strand of blue, and sub- 
 stituted one of cream, going round once, then 
 another strand of blue was omitted, and a sec- 
 ond of cream, was used. After going around 
 the rug once more, the third strand of blue was 
 left out, and the braid became solid cream color. 
 
 After carrying this around the rug, the whole 
 process was reversed, until solid blue was 
 reached again, and so on back to cream, until 
 the rug was the required size. The center and 
 the outer stripe ought to be the same color. 
 
 When my rug was done, I decorated it with 
 roses and green leaves made of strands of cot- 
 ton crepe in two shades of pink and two of 
 gray green.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TABLEWARE AND SILVER 
 
 SO many things have to be taken into con- 
 sideration in the selection of tableware, 
 that in giving lists of what seem to me the 
 essential things to buy at the outset I will at the 
 same time tell my reasons for choosing as I do. 
 
 To my mind, one of the charms of a meal is 
 to have a variety in the dishes from which the 
 different courses are served. For this reason, 
 I do not advise getting a whole set of one pat- 
 tern. My way in the long run will not be any 
 more expensive, for there are certain things 
 which must of necessity match exactly, and 
 these I select from an open stock pattern that 
 may always be found, when it is necessary to 
 replace anything that is broken. 
 
 To be specific, I will give a list of my own 
 tableware that is adequate. The numbers of 
 each, I will omit, as each person's requirements 
 differ so much, but in starting out, there are 
 many things, in dishes, silver and glass, which 
 
 94
 
 TABLEWARE AND SILVER 95 
 
 may as well be bought in half dozen as in dozen 
 lots. 
 
 Plain green Sedgi ware: Dinner plates, 
 luncheon plates (used also for breakfast and 
 salad), bread and butter plates, coffee cups 
 and saucers, hot milk jug, to be used also for 
 chocolate, a small platter to be used for ome- 
 lettes, eggs, or other breakfast dishes. These 
 are the only open stock dishes I have. 
 
 Soup plates of decorated German ware, to be 
 used also for cereals. 
 
 Coalport teapot, and cups and saucers in In- 
 dian Tree design. 
 
 Desert plates of Doulton semi-porcelain, to 
 be used alone or under glass plates. Design of 
 birds and flowers. 
 
 Deep green salad bowl of plain Italian pot- 
 tery. 
 
 Vinegar and oil cruets of French decorated 
 china. 
 
 After-dinner coffee cups of Minton ware, in 
 white and green. 
 
 Bouillon cups of Limoges in white and green. 
 
 Three casseroles of plain green Chinese pot- 
 tery with covers. 
 
 At first glance I may seem to have a hetero- 
 geneous assortment* of makes and designs in
 
 96 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 my dishes, but when in use, no two designs ever 
 appear on the table at the same time, while any 
 one of the figured dishes looks well with the 
 plain green ware. For example, when I serve 
 salad, I like to make it on the table, using my 
 
 A salad bowl of plain green pottery, Sedgi plates of the tame 
 
 shade of green and figured cruets give variety 
 
 to the meal 
 
 Italian bowl of plain green pottery. The 
 Sedgi plates are the same shade of green, and 
 the figured oil and vinegar cruets simply give a 
 variety which is pleasing after the main course 
 that was served from all green and silver dishes. 
 
 GLASSWARE 
 
 The excellent reproductions in pressed glass 
 of Colonial designs, make it possible to use 
 glass that is rather heavy and very inexpensive, 
 as a substitute for china. The modern cut 
 glass that one usually sees, has little to recom-
 
 TABLEWARE AND SILVER 97 
 
 mend it, for the designs are poor as a rule, so 
 this pressed glass is really to be preferred to cut 
 glass, unless one is so fortunate as to have some 
 of the genuine old English glass which was cut 
 in simple designs. This would be too precious 
 to use commonly, so that even by these fortu- 
 nate ones, the pressed glass would be desirable 
 for everyday use. 
 
 GLASS, COLONIAL PRESSED 
 
 % dozen tumblers 
 
 y z dozen sherbet glasses 
 
 14 dozen dessert plates 
 
 J / 2 dozen finger bowls 
 
 Sugar bowl and cream pitcher 
 
 Dish for lemons 
 
 Dish for nuts 
 
 Pitcher 
 
 Candlesticks ., . 
 
 Vinegar and oil cruets 
 
 Berry dish 
 
 % dozen iced tea glasses 
 
 % dozen individual salt cellars 
 
 1 large plate 
 
 1 large cream pitcher 
 
 3 plates for cheese, butter, etc 
 
 Pepper shakers for use in making salad .... 
 y 2 dozen coasters to be used under iced tea glasses 
 
 SILVERWARE 
 
 There is no objection to the use of plated 
 silver, so long as the design is good and the 
 plate is heavy enough to give good service. In 
 fact, even though it is thought best to get solid 
 flat silver, there are other articles of daily use
 
 98 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 that it seems to me wise, in the saving from 
 breakage alone, to select in plated silver at the 
 outset, having the design conform to that of the 
 flat silver. 
 
 1 dozen teaspoons 
 
 % dozen dessertspoons (used for soup also) . . . 
 4 tablespoons 
 
 1 dozen dessert forks (used also for breakfast, 
 lunch, salad, pie, fruit, etc.) 
 
 % dozen dessert knives 
 
 1/2 dozen table knives with steel blades and ivoroid 
 
 handles 
 
 Carving set to match steel knives 
 
 y a dozen table forks 
 
 2 fancy spoons for jellies, bonbons, etc 
 
 2 fancy forks for olives, lemon, etc 
 
 y z dozen after-dinner coffee spoons 
 
 y a dozen bouillon spoons . 
 
 1/2 dozen butter spreaders 
 
 1 gravy ladle 
 
 Saltspoon 
 
 Sugar tongs 
 
 PLATED WABE 
 
 Covered vegetable dish (cover may be used as a 
 
 dish by removing handle) 
 
 Platter . . . 
 
 Pitcher 
 
 Coffee pot 
 
 Toast rack 
 
 Small tray 
 
 Sandwich plate . 
 
 Silver bowl 
 
 Egg steamer ...... 
 
 Bread or fruit tray 
 
 Tea strainer 
 
 Candlesticks . 
 
 In addition to the lists given, there are cer- 
 tain little things that may be used on the table
 
 TABLEWARE AND SILVER 99 
 
 for the sake of variety and diversion. For ex- 
 ample, bone spoons for eggs will not tarnish as 
 silver ones will. Then instead of pepper 
 shakers, grinders may be used in order that the 
 real flavor of black pepper may be obtained by 
 grinding the pepper corns directly onto the 
 food that is to be seasoned. 
 
 For serving French rolls, muffins, and bis- 
 cuit, I like to use an oval wicker basket with a 
 napkin in it. For fruit in the center of the 
 table I sometimes use a charming oval basket of 
 wood, painted white and sparingly decorated 
 with green. 
 
 Teakwood stands are attractive to use in- 
 stead of tiles for holding a hot tea or coffee pot, 
 as well as to hold a bowl of flowers in the center 
 of the table. 
 
 An egg coddler of Britannia ware or plate is 
 a useful as well as an ornamental device, for 
 after pouring boiling water over the eggs, they 
 are placed in the coddler onto the table where 
 after about five minutes, during which time one 
 may attend to toast, and other things with a 
 free mind, they are done to a turn, and may 
 then be opened by the man of the house by the 
 use of an egg opener, which he is sure to ap- 
 preciate.
 
 100 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 One of the chief delights in visiting my 
 friends, and also in traveling in foreign coun- 
 tries is to see the ways others have devised to 
 make their tables interesting and individual, 
 without departing from the only hide-bound 
 requisites: those of order and absolute cleanli- 
 ness. A bare table of plain wood, set with 
 crude pottery dishes and coarse unbleached 
 linen will be picturesque and inviting if things 
 are spotlessly clean and symmetrically ar- 
 ranged. 
 
 TABLE LINEN 
 
 This brings me to the consideration of linen 
 for use on the table. Here I take exception 
 to the use of large tablecloths of pure white 
 damask, for general use. It is well to have at 
 least two of them in reserve, for there are times 
 when nothing else does so well, but for every- 
 day use I like better small cloths of creamy un- 
 bleached linen, heavy but rather coarse in tex- 
 ture. Arranging a table is to me like paint- 
 ing a picture, and I prefer a cream to a staring 
 white background for most of my table ar- 
 rangements. It is the tendency nowadays for 
 table decorations to be more individual and less 
 stereotyped and conventional than formerly.
 
 TABLEWARE AND SILVER 101 
 
 LINEN 
 
 Many young women wish to know the neces- 
 sary amount of table and bed linen to provide 
 when preparing for their first housekeeping. 
 The list given is meant for persons with aver- 
 age incomes. The quality should be the best 
 that one can possibly afford. The breakfast 
 runners and napkins are to be made by hand of 
 unbleached linen, such as one buys for dish 
 towels. With insets of imitation filet lace 
 these are very attractive, durable and easy to 
 launder. 
 
 No list has been given for kitchen linens, but 
 it is well to have a supply of linen tea towels 
 and roller towels. Floor cloths, pot holders 
 and cheesecloth dusters should also be provided 
 in abundance. 
 
 Table Linen 
 
 2 dozen 22-inch napkins, at $3.00 a dozen 
 
 2 dozen 12-inch luncheon napkins, at $4.50 a dozen 
 
 (Luncheon napkins at $1.00 a dozen if made by hand of 
 
 coarse linen) 
 
 2 two-yard-square tablecloths, at $1.25 a yard 
 Two-yard square asbestos or cotton flannel pad for table 
 y 2 dozen square teacloths 
 % dozen table runners for breakfast 
 1 dozen white fringed napkins 
 4 tray covers 
 
 1 dozen finger-bowl doilies 
 1 dozen plate doilies
 
 102 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 Bed Linen 
 
 4 sheets (extra long) for each bed 
 
 4 pillow cases for each pillow 
 
 1 mattress protector for each bed, with one extra one in the 
 
 house 
 
 9 spreads for each bed. 
 
 1 down or lamb's-wool comforter for each bed 
 1 pair of blankets for each bed, with 2 extra pairs in the 
 
 house 
 
 % dozen plain huckaback towels for each person 
 3 bath towels for each person 
 y z dozen washcloths for each person 
 1 bath mat in the bathroom, 2 in reserve
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PICTURES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS 
 
 fTlHERE is no subject pertaining to the 
 JL house upon which it is so difficult to give 
 suggestions as the subject of pictures, and yet 
 there is nothing that can so easily detract from 
 the beauty of a room as pictures that are un- 
 wisely selected or badly hung. 
 
 THE HANGING OF PICTURES 
 
 Large pictures should be hung by two paral- 
 lel wires from the picture molding. The cen- 
 ter of the picture should be on the level of the 
 average eye. The wires should be as near the 
 color of the wall as possible. 
 
 Small pictures should be hung somewhat 
 lower than larger ones. They may be hung 
 in groups if the wall space is large, or singly if 
 the space is small. A small picture may be 
 suspended by a brass ring screwed into the cen- 
 ter of the top of frame or by an invisible wire. 
 
 103
 
 104 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 In either case it hangs from a tack driven into 
 the wall. 
 
 There are a number of Eastern picture deal- 
 ers who, for a small sum, will send illustrated 
 catalogues of their pictures from which selec- 
 tions may be made. Some dealers will even 
 send pictures on approval to those who can 
 furnish some satisfactory business reference. 
 There is, therefore, no excuse for using any but 
 good pictures nowadays. Color reproductions 
 are now within the reach of the most modest 
 purse and in selecting reproductions of paint- 
 ings it is better to have them in color than in 
 black and white. 
 
 If one especially prefers black-and-white pic- 
 tures it is better to get photographs of good 
 specimens of architecture, sculpture or scenery, 
 etchings, reproductions of woodcuts or of black- 
 and-white drawings. 
 
 While it would be useless to attempt to give 
 a list of suitable pictures to use in the different 
 rooms of a house, a few general suggestions 
 may prove helpful. 
 
 In a hall with plain walls, have pictures such 
 as good decorative portraits, colored architec- 
 tural drawings or Japanese prints. If the
 
 PICTURES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS 105 
 
 hall has a figured paper it is best to have a 
 mirror and possibly a good plaster cast in ivory 
 finish as the only wall decoration. 
 
 In the living-room the greatest restraint 
 must be exercised or the restfulness, so impor- 
 tant to that room, will be sacrificed. If the 
 wall spaces really need a decorative treatment 
 select pictures of which no member of the 
 family will be likely to tire. Reproductions in 
 color of famous portraits of men, women or 
 children are apt to prove satisfactory. Repro- 
 ductions of landscapes, allegorical pictures, or 
 mural decorations are also good. The frames 
 may be in dull gold or plain wood to correspond 
 with the woodwork or furniture of the room. 
 
 If one has family portraits which have real 
 artistic merit, aside from association, the din- 
 ing-room is an excellent place for them. 
 While it is correct to hang pictures in a dining- 
 room it is well to make this room distinctive by 
 using on the walls decorative china, brass, cop- 
 per or pewter and by having the windows filled 
 with growing bulbs or flowering plants. 
 
 The bedroom is the right place for personal 
 things such as photographs, diplomas, senti- 
 mental pictures, religious pictures and family
 
 106 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 portraits, which have associations but no deco- 
 rative value. 
 
 ORNAMENTS 
 
 The rage for bric-a-brac is a thing of the 
 past. Select the necessary small furnishings 
 of a home with an eye to beauty as well as util- 
 ity and few other ornaments will be needed. 
 
 HALL 
 
 For umbrellas select a plain pottery jar to 
 harmonize with the color scheme. It will cost 
 no more than an ordinary wooden umbrella 
 rack. 
 
 The frame for the hall mirror may be orna- 
 mental. Colonial designs are good as are also 
 hand-carved frames done in dull gold. Carved 
 oak frames are also good when they harmonize 
 with the other furnishings. 
 
 On the hall table have a brass card tray if the 
 hall hardware is in brass; a silver one if the 
 hardware is nickel or black iron. On the 
 table have also a pencil and a leather-covered 
 pad. 
 
 The hall lantern or wall sconces may also 
 be selected in harmony with other furnishings 
 and have distinct decorative value.
 
 PICTURES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS 107 
 LIVING-ROOM 
 
 In the living-room the following articles are 
 indispensable and each one should be carefully 
 selected : 
 
 A reading lamp high enough to throw the 
 light properly when one is reading. The best 
 reading lamp is a double student lamp in brass, 
 with plain sage green glass shades and duplex 
 burners. A good lamp can be made by using 
 any piece of pottery of the right shape and size 
 fitted with an oil font or electric burner and 
 with a shade of plain silk or of Japanese rice 
 paper. 
 
 Book ends for the table are now to be found 
 made of wood, brass, plaster, tapestry and 
 bronze. 
 
 Library shears and paper-cutter in a double 
 sheath of leather or brass. 
 
 Clock in a simple, plain design of wood, 
 crystal, French gilt or leather. 
 
 Matchbox. 
 
 Desk appointments. 
 
 Waste-basket. 
 
 Dull pottery vases for flowers. 
 
 Terra-cotta window-boxes for plants. 
 
 Wall sconces or electric sidelights.
 
 108 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 Woodbox or basket. 
 
 Andirons. 
 
 Fire irons. 
 
 Cushions. 
 
 Ash receiver. 
 
 Sewing-box or basket. 
 
 Table-cover in linen, brocade, rep, velours or 
 sunfast fabric in plain color, the edges bound 
 with old gold gimp. 
 
 The piano may be left bare, but if a cover is 
 used for an upright piano it should fit the top 
 of the piano exactly, and should be made of 
 the same material as the table-cover. The 
 piano is to be treated as a musical instrument 
 rather than as a piece of furniture. No orna- 
 ments are required on a piano, but if any are 
 used they should be low and heavy so that they 
 will not shake when the instrument is played. 
 A handsome portfolio for music may lie on the 
 piano with a low jar of flowers at either end 
 of the top of the piano in case it is an upright. 
 
 MANTEL ORNAMENTS 
 
 There is no fixed way for arranging orna- 
 ments on a mantelpiece, but it is well to have 
 the arrangement as dignified and symmetrical 
 as possible, A candlestick at either end with
 
 PICTURES AND OTHER ORNAMENTS 109 
 
 4 
 
 a simple clock or vase in the center is a good ar- 
 rangement, although there is no objection to 
 using a pair of 
 vases or small 
 Tanagra figures 
 to balance the 
 spaces left be- 
 tween the other 
 ornaments. The 
 mantel should 
 never be cluttered 
 with unf ramed 
 photographs, cal- 
 endars or other 
 undecorative ar- 
 ticles. When in 
 doubt use flowers 
 in plain bowls or 
 vases, where you feel the need of an ornament. 
 They are always in good taste and when not 
 procurable there are substitutes to be found 
 in the woods at all times of the year. 
 
 DINING-ROOM 
 
 Decorative china for walls or plate-rail. 
 If there is a china closet, fill it with china 
 which really adds to the beauty of the room. 
 
 Mantel treatment in sleeping room 
 of old Colonial house
 
 110 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 Keep other china and glass in the pantry ex- 
 cept at mealtime. 
 
 Plants or bulbs growing in the windows. 
 
 Plant, fruit or flowers for the center of the 
 dining-table. 
 
 Silver for the sideboard. 
 
 Candlesticks in glass or silver to be used on 
 the table at night and kept on the serving-table 
 or buffet during the day. 
 
 KITCHEN 
 
 Decorative china, shining copper pots or 
 pans, enameled kitchen utensils, something 
 green growing in the windows, curtains of fig- 
 ured chintz, and linoleum in attractive design 
 are the ornaments of a well-planned kitchen. 
 
 BEDROOMS 
 
 Very few ornaments are necessary in bed- 
 rooms. Besides the regular toilet articles, 
 there should always be a matchbox con- 
 veniently placed, a waste-basket, a sewing- 
 basket, a desk set, a lamp and candlesticks. 
 There should also be a water pitcher and drink- 
 ing-glass on a tray on the bedside table.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SYSTEM IN THE HOUSEHOLD 
 
 NO system of housekeeping is good that 
 does not take into consideration the hab- 
 its of the family in question, therefore the best 
 way to do is for each housekeeper to make out 
 a system of her own to fit conditions which it 
 is impossible to change. After doing all she 
 can to perfect her own system, she will do well 
 to consult a book written by a housekeeping 
 expert, in order to compare notes and get 
 added suggestions. 
 
 Each member of the household should be 
 given some part of the daily routine for which 
 he is held responsible, in order that the woman 
 who does her own work may do it well and yet 
 have time left for other things. Not only 
 should each one assume some definite part of 
 the work, but he should be considerate in not 
 making work for another to do. This is where 
 good breeding and character count for much. 
 
 Some one has said that the test of a Christian 
 
 in
 
 112 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 is the way he leaves the washstand after using 
 it. The bathroom should be put in good order 
 once a day, and each person after using it 
 should leave it in as neat a condition as when 
 he found it ; tub and basin clean, towels folded 
 or put into a hamper if soiled. 
 
 When children have to go very early to 
 school, it is not possible for them to take en- 
 tire charge of their rooms, but they may be 
 early taught to hang up their night clothes, to 
 air their bed clothes, open the windows and 
 leave their rooms in good order. 
 
 Conveniences should be provided at the out- 
 set to make it possible for each one to do his 
 part with the least possible confusion. There 
 should be a shelf somewhere with a roll of 
 wrapping paper on it and a ball of stout twine 
 near at hand. In a drawer, it is well to keep 
 supplies such as paraffin paper, plain white 
 paper napkins, paper plates and cups in readi- 
 ness for an impromptu picnic lunch. 
 
 A tool chest may easily be improvised from 
 a shallow box and hung against the wall in a 
 convenient place. It should contain a ham- 
 mer, hatchet, screw-driver, screws, tacks, as- 
 sorted nails, screw-hooks, picture-wire, picture 
 hooks, et cetera.
 
 SYSTEM IN THE HOUSEHOLD 113 
 
 A large bottle of ink should be kept on hand 
 from which smaller bottles may be filled when 
 needed. Library paste is easily made and a 
 quantity of that, too, should be kept on the sup- 
 ply shelf. 
 
 It will be found very convenient to have a 
 place on the second floor to keep a broom, dust- 
 pan, brush, dusters and cleaning fluids, to save 
 having to carry them up and downstairs. 
 
 Near the telephone there should always be 
 a pad and pencil for taking messages. If the 
 house is in the country where trains and street 
 cars have to be used, it is well to have a sched- 
 ule posted somewhere, so that even a guest may 
 consult it conveniently. 
 
 As pins are constantly being needed, it is 
 convenient to have a pincushion in every room. 
 
 In every living-room there should be some- 
 thing provided for newspapers when not being 
 read. 
 
 If there are smokers in the family, there 
 should always be a supply of safety matches 
 and ash trays kept in a convenient place. 
 
 Above all, should there be a place some- 
 where in each house where one may always 
 find writing materials, a clean blotter and a 
 clear space on which to write. A well-ap-
 
 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 pointed desk is the ideal thing, but failing that, 
 a table will do very well so long as the chair 
 on which the writer sits is a proper height. A 
 pen tray containing both pointed and stub 
 pens, a writing pad with envelopes to match, 
 clean blotters, a calendar and a book of stamps, 
 are the only requirements. It should be some 
 one's regular duty to see that such a writing 
 table is always in order, the same person mak- 
 ing herself responsible for keeping magazines 
 in order on the table and for disposing of them 
 along with newspapers after they have been 
 used. These may seem like trivial things, but 
 in the house with no servant, a little co-opera- 
 tion on the part of the various members of 
 the family is necessary in order that all details 
 may be so looked after that a pleasant, orderly, 
 smoothly running home may be the result. 
 
 Whether a woman does all of her work or 
 employs a servant to do it, it is important to 
 go through the work often enough to stand- 
 ardize each process, so as to know how long 
 it takes, before making out a definite schedule 
 to be followed each day. Such a schedule 
 should then be typewritten and framed under 
 glass to be hung in a convenient place on the 
 kitchen wall for reference.
 
 SYSTEM IN THE HOUSEHOLD 115 
 
 (SAMPLE) SCHEDULE 
 
 WORK FOR EVERY DAY WORK FOR SPECIAL DAYS 
 
 6 A.M. MONDAY 
 
 OP* nn Wash clothes 
 
 Dress Scrub kitchen, laundry, bath- 
 
 Air bedroom _ room and cellar stairs 
 
 Put living-room and dining- Dampen and fold clothes 
 
 room in order 
 Set table 
 Prepare breakfast 
 
 7.30 A. M. 
 
 Serve breakfast 
 
 Clear table nn-ni<emAV 
 
 Wash and scald dishes TUESDAY 
 
 Make out menus for the day Iron clothes 
 
 Do ordering 
 
 Make beds 
 
 Clean bathroom 
 
 Dust rooms 
 
 Empty waste baskets 
 
 Water plants 
 
 WEDNESDAY 
 Mend and put away clothes 
 9.30 A. M. Sew 
 
 Do special work for the day 
 
 12.30 P.M. 
 
 Set table for lunch 
 
 1 P.M. 
 
 Serve lunch THURSDAY 
 
 SsVuSler table if necessary Clean silver .brasses, mirror, 
 
 Prepare vegetables and dessert 
 
 for dinner 
 Wash dishes 
 Scald dishes 
 
 Empty kitchen garbage pail 
 Scald garbage pail 
 Put away dishes 
 Sweep kitchen FRIDAY 
 
 * <" *' " gi e e n a e n al one ea roo g m each week 
 
 6PM thoroughly 
 
 Set table 
 Prepare dinner 
 
 6.30 P. M. 
 Serve dinner 
 
 Clear table _ . . 
 
 Wash, scald and put awy SATURDAY 
 
 dishes Baking 
 
 Rest Preparations for Sunday
 
 116 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 At one side of this schedule should hang a 
 pad with cord and pencil attached upon which 
 may be written the needed supplies, and at the 
 other side should be hung the menus for the 
 day. A calendar and a clock on this same 
 wall will concentrate all information as to what 
 is to be done and when. 
 
 A shelf for cook books and card catalogue, 
 a hook for supply slips and a scale with which 
 to verify weights are conveniences that all 
 kitchens should have.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BY using imagination and ingenuity, many 
 things about the house may be so trans- 
 formed as to be not only more useful but really 
 good-looking as well. 
 
 An unsightly chair of which the padding is 
 good but the surface worn and faded may be 
 concealed by a slip cover of washable material 
 which need not be expensive. These slip 
 covers are not difficult to make : simply lay the 
 material on the different surfaces of the chair 
 with the pattern wrong side out, but so placed 
 that the design best suits the spaces, allowing 
 plenty of the material around the seat and arms 
 to tuck in so that the cover may be slipped off 
 easily. Baste or pin the edges together, sew 
 on the machine, then cut close to the seam. 
 Now turn on the right side and make a French 
 seam around all of the edges. This strength- 
 
 117
 
 118 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 ens them and acts as a finish as well. The 
 whole cover should be made rather loose to al- 
 low for shrinking. 
 
 The same method of making slip covers may 
 be applied in making them for the ends of iron 
 beds that have become scuffed from hard usage. 
 Chintz or any plain washable material that 
 harmonizes with the room may be used, so long 
 as it has sufficient body to conceal the frame of 
 the bed. The spread should be of the same 
 material as the slip covers, and there should be 
 a valance of the same around the exposed sides 
 of the bed. 
 
 In a bedroom which lacked a closet, a very 
 roomy one was improvised by having a board 
 placed across an otherwise useless space. It 
 rested on wooden cleats placed six feet above 
 the floor. Between the cleats a pole was placed 
 from which innumerable waists, skirts, and 
 coats were hung. Below the waists, there was 
 room for several small packing boxes. To 
 hide all this, a curtain of chintz was suspended 
 by brass rings from a brass rod placed under 
 the front edge of the board. To hide this rod 
 as well as the rings of the curtain, a narrow 
 ruffle of the chintz was tacked to the edge of 
 the board. On top of the shelf were two
 
 A day bed that takes up little space and conceals another 
 single bed by its valance 
 
 A complete kitchen that measures 30x40 inches. A-ivhite 
 board covers the stove at the left
 
 Two views of a roomy closet that utilizes otherwise useless 
 
 space. The dress and hat boxes on the shelf are covered 
 
 with the same chintz as the curtains are made of
 
 ADAPTING WHAT YOU HAVE 119 
 
 dress boxes and two hat boxes, the fronts of 
 which were covered with the chintz. 
 
 A similar space to that described above, but 
 in the adjoining room, was utilized in this way: 
 being a six-foot space it held comfortably the 
 springs and mattress of a single bed. These 
 were held by wooden braces, placed high 
 enough to allow a low cot on castors to be run 
 underneath. In this way two beds were made 
 to occupy the space of one during the day- 
 time when this room was used as a sitting- 
 room. To hide the lower bed, there was a val- 
 ance of material to match the day cover of the 
 upper bed. The valance was run onto a brass 
 curtain rod which fitted into fixtures at either 
 end. 
 
 Old white inside shutters that were about 
 to be removed suggested to me a way of using 
 a very small corner in our apartment. I 
 asked permission of the landlord to use two 
 of the long and six of the short shutters. From 
 these I made designs which a carpenter readily 
 carried out for me at a very small cost. For 
 the corner space I had seven triangles of wood 
 cut to form the top and six shelves of a little 
 cupboard. The two long shutters made pan- 
 eled doors for it and at the top I had a simple
 
 120 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL' HOME 
 
 Colonial ornament of wood as a finish. This 
 afforded space enough for glass, china, and 
 silver, which I used occasionally when enter- 
 taining in this room. 
 
 Two of the short blinds I used to enclose 
 the lower shelves of our open bookcase. On 
 these enclosed shelves we kept magazines, 
 kodak books, and pamphlets. 
 
 The other four short shutters I used to en- 
 close shelves under a deep-set window in our 
 tiny dining-room. Here they protected glass 
 and china that were in everyday use from dust. 
 
 Removing the upper shelf from a rather 
 high, ugly mission magazine stand, and giving 
 it several coats of ivory colored paint, made it 
 into an attractive bedside table for the guest 
 room. There was space on top for the light 
 and a glass of water, the next shelf had room 
 for books, while below there were still other 
 shelves behind a little door. 
 
 An ugly oak chiffonier became a charming 
 piece of furniture after it was painted ivory 
 white and decorated with baskets of gaily col- 
 ored flowers. The flimsy handles were re- 
 moved and simple glass ones used instead. 
 The mirror, too, was painted, and with the ugly 
 ornaments removed, was hung on the wall above
 
 ADAPTING WHAT YOU HAVE 121 
 
 a dressing table made by placing a board of 
 the right length on top of the sewing machine. 
 A valance was tacked around the board, which 
 concealed the sewing machine completely when 
 not in use. 
 
 And so one could go on indefinitely, but I 
 hope I have given enough examples to illus- 
 
 Showing what can be done with an ugly oak chiffonier 
 
 trate the point which I am so anxious to make 
 in this book : that brains may be made to take 
 the place of money, and that the result of using 
 them in connection with what one already has 
 gives as a rule a home with individuality and 
 charm which those that are all cut after the 
 same pattern lack utterly.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 PLANTS, FLOWERS AND FRUITS IN HOUSE 
 DECORATION 
 
 fTlHE return in pleasure for a very little 
 J. money spent for plants, bulbs, flowers, 
 or fruit for house decoration is out of all pro- 
 portion to the investment. The important 
 thing is to be on the lookout for something that 
 will give the touch to a room that corresponds 
 to the high light in a picture. 
 
 English ivy is a satisfactory thing to use as 
 it is inexpensive, requires little care and no sun. 
 It lends itself delightfully to all sorts of ar- 
 rangements, but is especially good when 
 trained over a trellis. Bulbs also give excellent 
 results, and for those who enjoy flowers but 
 do not care to spend much time over them, 
 nothing is so desirable as paper white narcissus. 
 The bulbs cost only thirty cents a dozen and 
 even three placed in a bowl with enough peb- 
 bles to hold them straight and firm will give a 
 
 charming result. The only care they need is 
 
 122
 
 GROWING THINGS AS DECORATIONS 123 
 
 to have water about half the depth of the bulb. 
 
 Hyacinths, jonquils, and pale pink Murillo 
 tulips are lovely, but they are usually grown 
 in pots of earth and require a cold dark room 
 in which to form their roots before being 
 brought to the light. 
 
 Of potted plants, I have always been very 
 fond of old-fashioned fuchsias, which are deco- 
 rative and satisfactory. Geraniums, too, are 
 good for simple houses. I usually use bright 
 red ones in the kitchen and salmon pink ones 
 in bedrooms where the color is right. Chinese 
 primroses are also good for certain rooms; as 
 for cyclamen, that is about the best of all, for it 
 blooms incessantly from fall till spring. 
 
 In the woods it is possible at all times of 
 the year to find things that will last a long 
 time as house decorations, so that those who 
 have no means of visiting greenhouses are not 
 on that account barred from really beautiful 
 things for decorative purposes. In the fall 
 there are the autumn leaves, and colored ber- 
 ries, as well as various kinds of evergreen, in- 
 cluding juniper with its blue berries. Bay- 
 berry and laurel are lovely, as are pussy wil- 
 lows, and wild fruit blossoms in the spring. 
 
 When taking a walk in the country, I was
 
 124 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 one day excited on seeing a low tree with very 
 black scraggly branches and black berries. I 
 had been on the lookout for something decora- 
 tive for the mantelpiece of my room, the hang- 
 ings of which were of a gaily flowered chintz, 
 but the rest of the room all black and white. 
 Cutting some of the black branches, I hurried 
 home with them, eager to get them into a tall 
 white vase and on the mantel, where they were 
 indeed just right between two silhouettes, 
 themselves silhouetted against the plain white 
 of the paneling. 
 
 Some artists make a point of having in their 
 gardens certain flowers which when dried will 
 keep indefinitely, and take the place of fresh 
 flowers during the winter months. Among 
 these are rodanthe, helichrysum, and the irides- 
 cent pods of "honesty" which are very Japanese 
 in effect, and exactly right for certain rooms. 
 
 For a table decoration, fruit has always ap- 
 pealed to me strongly, for there is nothing 
 more fascinating than to arrange a basket with 
 differently colored fruits, just as if one were 
 weaving a tapestry or a design in cross-stitch. 
 The shape as well as the colors must be right. 
 As a thanksgiving decoration, nothing is so 
 symbolic as such a basket of fruit on the table,
 
 Ivy trained on a 
 
 trellis gives color 
 
 and design to a 
 
 plain wall 
 
 The panel under 
 the window at the 
 right, when raised 
 level with the sill, 
 forms the dining- 
 table
 
 GROWING THINGS AS DECORATIONS 125 
 
 with garlands of it after the manner of Delia 
 Robbia used appropriately on the wall or over 
 a mantel. 
 
 After trimming Christmas trees for many 
 years, I have finally developed a system of pro- 
 cedure which simplifies the process and gives a 
 really exquisite result. The same method may 
 be applied to any sized tree, from the full 
 grown ones to the tiny ones used as table dec- 
 orations. 
 
 I keep the colors all white, green, and silver, 
 and have nothing on the tree that is to be re- 
 moved until the tree is entirely dismantled. 
 The first thing is to select a good, full, sym- 
 metrical tree with a standard of wood, or of 
 iron, that will keep it firm and straight. If 
 electricity is available, electric bulbs of white 
 frosted glass are the first ornaments to be dis- 
 tributed through the branches. Next comes 
 the artificial asbestos snow; the sticky kind 
 that may be placed in around the stem of the 
 tree, and stuck to the needles to give the illu- 
 sion of a recent snowfall. To complete the 
 illusion, hang clear glass icicles from the tips
 
 126 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 of some of the branches. Then the silver orna- 
 ments are hung, the strings of small balls and 
 tinsel being hung perpendicularly. From the 
 apex of the tree is now suspended a shimmer- 
 ing veil of "Lametta," which is made of thin 
 strands of silver thread. The latest discovery 
 I have made and the thing which distinguishes 
 my trees from any I have ever seen, is called 
 "Engellocken" or Angels' Hair. It is made 
 of spun glass, and when hung from the tip of 
 the tree, and spread out as thinly as possible 
 over the entire tree, it gives to it a mysterious, 
 fairy-like appearance that looks like frosted 
 cobwebs. If candles are to be used, they 
 should be put on last, and for small trees I use 
 the tiny white wax ones, held by small white 
 rosebuds such as are sold for birthday cakes. 
 To finish the top of the tree, a white Santa 
 Claus, holding a white candle, may be placed 
 at the apex, to cover the ends of the Lametta 
 and Engellocken. 
 
 A sheet should be spread around the base 
 of the tree to cover the standard, and on it 
 should be laid all of the presents that can be 
 done up in white paper. Over everything 
 there should be a generous sprinkling of mica 
 snowflakes.
 
 GROWING THINGS AS DECORATIONS 127 
 
 WINDOW-LIGHTING ON CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 Having described the way to trim the Christ- 
 mas tree, I cannot end this book without de- 
 scribing also the ceremony which I first saw 
 while living on Beacon Hill in Boston, the 
 place where this impressive old-world custom 
 was first introduced. Like the municipal 
 
 'v'vy I > v'/C'V \">* .'' 
 
 c*...'i.. A ...-. '..' & (, 
 
 n n P. tt: r h-n 
 
 The lights in the window on Christmas Eve 
 
 Christmas tree, the ceremony has been adopted 
 by various communities, but it is so beautiful, 
 and so simple, that it ought to become a general 
 custom. The accompanying cuts show the 
 usual way to arrange the candles, so that any 
 one who has even a rudimentary knowledge of 
 carpentry can make the wooden strips that 
 support them. There is little danger if cur-
 
 128 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 tains are either taken down, or drawn well back 
 and carefully watched. 
 
 Conditions were perfect the first time I saw 
 the window-lighting, for it began to snow hard 
 the morning before Christmas, the great wet 
 flakes clinging to the branches of the trees. 
 Before night it turned much colder, a full moon 
 and brilliant stars showing in a deep blue sky, 
 making a wonderful setting for what we were 
 about to see. 
 
 Not realizing that it was so late, I was 
 startled by the sound of children's voices out- 
 side. Standing in the snow beneath the lighted 
 windows of the quaint old brick house opposite, 
 were three little girls singing "The First Noel." 
 As far as we could see up the hill, every win- 
 dow of every house was lighted with candles. 
 We simply had to see more, and as we walked 
 we found the hill deserted and absolutely still, 
 but a picture to remember always the lights 
 from thousands of candles reflected by the 
 snowy street. 
 
 In one window was a Delia Robbia cast of 
 the madonna and child in colored porcelain, a 
 tall candle burning at either side of it. At the 
 top of the hill we stopped to admire an old 
 Bullfinch house, every window of which held a
 
 GROWING THINGS AS DECORATIONS 129 
 
 three-branched candle stick with tall wax 
 tapers. Off in the distance we could hear a 
 group of men and girls singing that lovely old 
 carol, "Come Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Let 
 Nothing Ye Dismay." On they came trudg- 
 ing past us through the snow, leaving us 
 thrilled by their simple music. 
 
 We then passed through Walnut Street and 
 down into Chestnut, where the snow-laden 
 branches of the trees formed an archway across 
 that picturesque thoroughfare, on either side 
 of which the windows stripped of their dra- 
 peries gave fascinating glimpses of Colonial 
 interiors. Each house had an individual ar- 
 rangement of candles, but no matter how sim- 
 ple or how elaborate the grouping, the effect 
 was always charming. Outside, the doors 
 with their fan-lights were outlined with ropes 
 of laurel, bunches of holly or wreaths of it 
 hanging from the brass knockers. 
 
 As we turned back into Mount Vernon 
 Street, the air was vibrating with carols rung 
 out by the bells in the Church of the Advent. 
 The streets were filling with people, come to 
 listen to the carollers who made a quaint pic- 
 ture reading their words by the light of pierced 
 brass lanterns.
 
 130 THE EFFECTIVE SMALL HOME 
 
 In Louisberg Square they stood beneath the 
 windows of Saint Margaret's Hospital, sing- 
 ing in Latin, the "Adeste Fideles," the Sisters 
 in their black robes looking down from behind 
 rows of lighted candles. 
 
 I couldn't help thinking how sweet it would 
 be if every one, after the rush of shopping, the 
 sending off of packages, the frenzied last- 
 minute gift making, could get back to the real 
 meaning of Christmas by placing lighted 
 candles in their windows, as a symbol of the life 
 of the One whose birthday none ever forgets: 
 if everywhere on that one night of all the year 
 people could meet in the quiet, friendly way 
 they met that night on the Hill, all alike af- 
 fected by the universal language of music and 
 beauty.
 
 APPENDIX
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 To Clean Porcelain 
 
 Rub the inside of the bath tub, sink or basin with 
 a cloth dampened with kerosene. For bad stains, 
 use chloride of lime, dissolved in water. 
 
 To Lacquer Brass 
 
 Candlesticks, sconces, ornaments or hardware 
 made of brass may be kept permanently bright by 
 first having them clean, bright and dry, then, with a 
 soft brush apply a thin coat of white shellac, cover- 
 ing every bit of the surface. The work must be done 
 quickly as shellac dries almost immediately. 
 
 To Clean Lacquered Brass 
 
 Dust the article to be cleaned; rub with sweet oil. 
 Rub off the oil with a soft cloth and polish with a dry 
 duster. A brass bed should be cleaned in this way. 
 
 To Relacquer a Brass Bedstead 
 
 When some of the lacquer has rubbed off of a 
 brass bedstead, the rest may be removed with wood 
 alcohol or any commercial paint and varnish re- 
 mover. If the metal is solid brass it will require the 
 same treatment as that given above, but if the metal 
 
 proves to be iron, instead of white shellac a "Brass 
 
 133
 
 134 APPENDIX 
 
 Lacquer" will have to be used in order to give the 
 original finish. In any case the work will be easier 
 if the metal is heated slightly before the lacquer is 
 applied. 
 
 To Remove Wax from Candlesticks 
 
 Plunge them into hot water and allow them to re- 
 main until the wax is soft. 
 
 How to Lay the Dust When Sweeping Carpets or 
 
 Rugs or Beating Furniture 
 
 Lacking a vacuum cleaner, it is possible to sweep 
 without raising much dust if the broom is dipped in 
 hot water into which a little turpentine or ammonia 
 has been poured. Dry salt, damp tea leaves or 
 pieces of paper wrung out of ammonia water may 
 also be used for the same purpose. When obliged 
 to beat upholstered furniture without removing it to 
 the out of doors, cover it over with a dampened sheet, 
 then beat it and the dust will adhere to the sheet. 
 
 To Clean Smoky Ceilings 
 
 Mix starch and water to a paste. Go over the 
 entire ceiling with this even though only a small 
 portion of it seems to be black. Leave it until it 
 is perfectly dry, then brush it off. The paste must 
 be applied with a pad of flannel. 
 
 To Clean Chimneys 
 
 Sprinkle two ounces of powdered sulphur on a 
 bright fire. This will remove much of the soot from 
 the chimney, but will not take the place of the thor- 
 ough cleaning that is required from time to time.
 
 APPENDIX 135 
 
 To Clean Plain China Matting 
 
 Take out of doors on a fine day ; remove the dust ; 
 wash with bran water, using no soap as that turns 
 the matting yellow. Rinse with cold water; dry as 
 thoroughly as possible with dry cloths, then hang on 
 a line in the sun until perfectly dry. 
 
 To Clean Chintz, Cretonne and Tapestry 
 
 When the covering is not to be removed, the safest 
 thing to use is dry bran rubbed well into the surface 
 with a flannel. 
 
 To Wash Cretonnes and Chintzes 
 
 Use lukewarm water in which a little bran has 
 been steeped ; no soap. Rinse in cold water and dry 
 in a room where there is neither fire nor sunshine. 
 Iron on the wrong side. 
 
 To Clean Curtain Rings and Hooks Made of Metal 
 
 If very much discolored, boil in a mixture of one 
 part water to two of vinegar. Rinse in cold water 
 and dry. 
 
 To Run a Brass Rod Easily Through the Kern of a 
 
 Curtain 
 Place a thimble on the end of the rod. 
 
 To Prepare a Cloth for Polishing Silver 
 
 Boil soft cotton or linen cloths in milk in which 
 an ounce of hartshorn powder has been added, for 
 five minutes. Remove the cloths: plunge them into 
 cold water; wring out well and dry as quickly as 
 possible. These cloths may be used for keeping sil- 
 ver bright without cleaning it very often.
 
 136 APPENDIX 
 
 To Keep Earthenware, Glassware and Lamp Chim- 
 neys from Breaking Easily 
 
 Place them when new in a kettle of cold water. 
 Bring the water to a boil very gradually. Remove 
 the articles, and let them cool gradually. 
 
 To Clean Linoleum 
 
 Add a little kerosene to the water with which it is 
 washed: it helps to preserve the linoleum besides giv- 
 ing it a slight polish. 
 
 Home-made Linoleum 
 
 Cover the floor with newspapers, then stretch over 
 it and tack down securely, either plain burlap or 
 old brussels carpet wrong side up. Go over this 
 with a coat of thick flour paste ; let dry ; repeat, then 
 paint over the surface with one or two coats of deck 
 paint, finishing with a coat of good varnish. Before 
 using the varnish, the floor may be marked off in 
 three-inch squares with black paint, to look like tiles. 
 
 Home-made Glue for Use in Upholstering Furniture 
 Get sheets of fish glue, and melt it after breaking 
 it into small pieces into the top of a double boiler. 
 Add a very little water. 
 
 To Make a Dustless Duster 
 
 Dampen a square of cheesecloth with kerosene. 
 Place in a covered tin box for twenty-four hours. 
 By that time the oil will be evenly distributed. 
 
 A Good Furniture Polish 
 
 Put into a bottle equal parts of turpentine, boiled 
 linseed oil and cider vinegar. Keep well corked.
 
 APPENDIX 137 
 
 Shake well before using. Apply a little on a soft 
 cloth, to any plain or varnished furniture or wood- 
 work. 
 
 To Remove White Stains Made by Heat or Water, 
 from Varnished Surfaces 
 
 1. Apply olive oil and salt. Leave for half an 
 hour, then wipe dry with a soft cloth. 
 
 2. Wring a cloth out of boiling water. Place on 
 the spot for an instant : remove and rub till dry with 
 a soft dry cloth. 
 
 3. Alcohol or camphor applied quickly, then 
 rubbed off. 
 
 To Remove Grease Spots from Plain Floor Boards 
 
 Scrub well with a solution of unslaked lime, soda 
 and water. 
 
 To Remove Grease Stains from Watt Paper, or Tex- 
 tile Fabrics 
 
 Cover the spots thickly with French chalk. Place 
 a clean piece of blotting paper over it, and run a 
 warm iron across it, repeating the process until the 
 spot disappears. 
 
 Leather: to Clean; Polish; and to Restore Its Sur- 
 face 
 
 Equal parts of warm water and vinegar may be 
 used to clean leather. Apply with a sponge and dry 
 with a soft cloth. 
 
 To Restore the Surface to Leather 
 
 Mix equal parts of boiled linseed oil and white 
 shellac. Apply very quickly with a soft brush.
 
 138 APPENDIX 
 
 To Polish Leather 
 
 Rub the surface sparingly with the white of an 
 egg mixed with a teaspoonful of turpentine. 
 
 To Clean the Mica Linings of Candleshades 
 
 Use vinegar slightly diluted with water. If very 
 black soak them for a while in the solution. 
 
 To Clean Painted Woodwork 
 
 Peel, wash and grate a half dozen potatoes. Put 
 them into a pail of water. Let stand half an hour, 
 strain and apply to the woodwork with flannel. For 
 white woodwork and mirrors use whiting in the wa- 
 ter. 
 
 To Remove Paint from Glass 
 
 Use sal soda dissolved in hot water. 
 To Remove Hard Ott from Glass 
 
 Use powdered pumice stone. 
 
 To Remove Fly Specks from Gilt Picture Frames, 
 Chandeliers, Etc. 
 
 Dissolve an ounce of borax in a pint of boiling 
 water. When cold, sponge the soiled places with the 
 liquid, using only enough to moisten the spots. Re- 
 peat several times. Dry gently. 
 
 To Remove Rust from Stoves 
 
 About once in two weeks, go over the black part 
 of the stove with kerosene, doing the work at night 
 so as to get rid of the odor before morning.
 
 APPENDIX 139 
 
 To Remove Tarnish from Nickel 
 
 Make a paste of powdered pumice stone and sweet 
 oil. Rub the nickel with this, and polish with a soft 
 cloth. 
 
 To Make a Good Silver Polish 
 
 Shred a bar of good soap. Add water and heat 
 slowly until the soap is dissolved. When cool it will 
 form a jelly. To this add enough whiting to make a 
 cream. This will keep a long time, and may be used 
 on a flannel for polishing silver. Rinse the silver 
 in warm water and polish with a dry flannel or 
 chamois. 
 
 To Clean Windows and Mirrors 
 
 A little wood alcohol added to cold water gives a 
 brilliant polish without the use of soap. 
 
 To Set Colors in Cotton Fabrics 
 
 Dissolve one ounce of sugar of lead in eight quarts 
 of water. Soak the article over night in this solu- 
 tion. It has a tendency to darken reds, yellows and 
 blues, and to lighten greens. As the sugar of lead 
 is a poison it should be kept out of reach of chil- 
 dren, and should be emptied down a drain. 
 
 To Tint Cotton Fabrics Ecru or Cream Color 
 
 Try with small pieces of the material dipped in a 
 weak solution of coffee. Dry, and when the proper 
 shade is obtained, dip the material into the coffee 
 solution. Wring out and dry.
 
 140 APPENDIX 
 
 To Remove Old Paper -from Walls 
 
 Pull off all that is loose. Saturate the rest with 
 warm water, and pull or scrape it off, repeating the 
 operation as often as is necessary. 
 
 To Prepare Whitewashed or Calcimined Walls for 
 
 Papering 
 
 Brush the walls with a weak solution of vinegar. 
 When dry, brush off the loose lime, and give the 
 walls a thin coat of glue sizing. 
 
 To Repair Wall Paper 
 
 When papering a room, save some of the paper 
 and let it fade slightly by putting it in the sun. 
 When marred spots show on the wall, it is then pos- 
 sible to tear off pieces of the reserve paper, and paste 
 them over the spots, so that they will never be no- 
 ticed. 
 
 To Make Library Paste 
 
 Dissolve a teaspoonful of powdered alum in a quart 
 of water. Sift through the fingers into the water 
 enough flour to give the consistency of cream. Add 
 a saltspoonful of powdered resin and a few drops of 
 oil of cloves. Have a half pint of boiling water in 
 a saucepan on the fire. Into this, strain the above 
 mixture, and stir it until it is like a thick gruel. 
 It must not boil. Remove it from the fire and put 
 it away in covered jars. 
 
 To Clean Piano Keys 
 
 1. Rub them with split lemon followed by salt. 
 
 2. Rub them with alcohol.
 
 APPENDIX 141 
 
 To Remove Old Paint 
 
 There are many paint and varnish removers on 
 the market, but as they are expensive, the follow- 
 ing recipes for making them are given: 
 
 1. Mix three pounds of quicklime slaked in water 
 with one pound of pearl ash. When this mixture is 
 of the consistency of cream it may be applied with 
 a brush and allowed to remain a day. The old paint 
 may then be readily scraped off. 
 
 2. One pound of sal soda dissolved in a gallon of 
 boiling water and applied with a brush will soften 
 paint so that it may be scraped off. As both of these 
 mixtures are very caustic, gloves and old clothes 
 should be worn when doing the work. 
 
 To Keep Paint Brushes Clean 
 
 When brushes are being used from day to day, 
 stand them in water; when finished with them for a 
 time, wash them with strong soap and warm water 
 and rinse them in kerosene. 
 
 To Remove Black Stains Caused by Water from a 
 
 Hardwood Floor 
 
 Pour a strong solution of oxalic acid on the spot. 
 Let it remain until the stain disappears. The acid 
 will also remove the color from the wood, so this 
 must be restored by the use of a stain before the 
 polish is applied. 
 
 Encaustic No. 1 
 
 A Polish for Furniture, Floors and Marble 
 
 One pound of beeswax; one pint of turpentine. 
 Melt the wax over gentle heat in a water bath.
 
 142 APPENDIX 
 
 When soft, remove from the fire and beat in the 
 turpentine. 
 
 To Polish a Floor 
 
 Choose a clear day for the work. Sweep and 
 wipe the floor free from dust. Have the encaustic 
 warm and soft. Dip a cloth into it and go over the 
 entire floor with it, renewing the cloth when neces- 
 sary. Do not put it on thick. Let the encaustic 
 remain on the floor for at least an hour. Now pol- 
 ish with a weighted brush until a soft luster comes. 
 If a high polish is desired, pin a piece of old carpet 
 or flannel cloth to the bottom of the brush and go 
 over the floor with this. This method may be used 
 with stained, varnished or waxed floors. 
 
 Encaustic No. 2 
 
 To use in cleaning and polishing a floor at the same 
 time. It must not be used on stained floors as it 
 would remove the color. 
 
 5 quarts of boiling water 
 
 4 ounces laundry soap 
 
 2 ounces sal soda 
 
 1 pound beeswax 
 
 Cut soap and wax fine; put them into the water 
 and place on the stove. Stir often until dissolved, 
 then add soda and remove from the fire. Stir until 
 cool, then put away in a covered vessel. This pol- 
 ish when heated and mixed with its own volume of 
 turpentine may be used on floors, tiles, marbles and 
 bricks. It will also remove ink from varnished sur- 
 faces.
 
 APPENDIX 143 
 
 To Oil Floors Properly 
 
 1. Have the room free from dust. 
 
 2. Dampen a woolen cloth with a good quality of 
 boiled linseed oil mixed with one third its volume of 
 turpentine. Rub with the grain of the wood. If 
 the floors are new, put the mixture on hot so that 
 the boards will become saturated with it. 
 
 8. Polish the oiled surface with a dry woolen cloth 
 so that no surface oil remains. 
 
 Treatment of Furniture That Has Been Faded by 
 Exposure to Sun or Hot Air 
 
 If a piece of furniture stands near a window, reg- 
 ister or other heating apparatus, the oil will be 
 evaporated from the surface and it will become faded 
 and full of fine lines. To remedy this, oil the sur- 
 face with boiled linseed oil, rubbing it in well. Sev- 
 eral applications may be necessary before the trou- 
 ble is entirely overcome. Pieces of furniture thus 
 exposed should have this treatment now and then to 
 avoid this result. 
 
 To Bleach Fabrics 
 
 It is often an advantage to remove the color and 
 design from some cotton material which has faded, 
 and this may be done by dipping the material into 
 Javelle water, then rinsing it in clear water. 
 
 Javelle Water 
 
 This may be purchased at a drug store, but it 
 may be made at home by dissolving a quarter of a 
 pound of chloride of lime in a quart of water ; let
 
 144 APPENDIX 
 
 it settle, and pour off the clear liquid. Add to this 
 a pint of liquid soda. 
 
 Liquid Soda 
 
 Put a pound of sal soda and a quart of water in 
 a saucepan on the fire. When the water boils the 
 soda will be dissolved. Let cool, then put into bot- 
 tles for future use. This is used for whitening 
 clothes by adding a tablespoonful to a boiler of wa- 
 ter. It is also good for cleaning the sink.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 RECIPES AND SUGGESTIONS 
 
 fTPlHE following pages of recipes and suggestions 
 J. are for the use of those who are inexperienced 
 in cooking, and to whom a comprehensive cook book 
 seems formidable. I have selected only things which 
 from personal experience are most frequently used, 
 either by themselves or as a basis for other things. 
 They require few utensils, are in the main economical, 
 easy to make, palatable, nourishing and attractive. 
 By buying bread, it would be possible to live for a 
 long time and have plenty of variety without using 
 anything except the things for which recipes are here 
 given. These recipes are by no means original. 
 Many of them are taken wholly or in part from the 
 very reliable cook book the name of which is given 
 in the bibliography. 
 
 When these things have been thoroughly mastered, 
 and the other branches of housework have also been 
 reduced to their simplest form, it will be time enough 
 to consult a good cook book for directions for more 
 complicated things such as bread, cake, pastry and 
 elaborate desserts. 
 
 People of the greatest refinement live in such a 
 simple way each day, that they are not embarrassed 
 by the arrival of an unexpected guest. The table 
 
 145
 
 146 APPENDIX 
 
 is set with as great care for a simple family meal of 
 two courses, as it would be for an elaborate dinner. 
 Even when entertaining, fussed-up cooking is 
 avoided. A deep bowl containing a generous* quan- 
 tity of crisp lettuce leaves, which some one dresses 
 on the table, is far more suitable than a salad that 
 has been fearfully and wonderfully made beforehand, 
 and which looks like the colored pictures one sees in 
 illustrated household magazines. 
 
 It is a good plan to keep on hand something green, 
 such as parsley, water cress or lettuce, with which to 
 garnish a platter of meat or fish, but except for that 
 nothing is needed to improve the looks of a piece of 
 meat that is properly roasted or broiled. 
 
 Most things are best when allowed to retain their 
 own individual flavors, but it is well to know how to 
 make a few simple sauces which bring out the delicate 
 flavor of certain things that would taste rather flat 
 without them. 
 
 By learning how to make the things here given, a 
 housewife may keep her family well provided without 
 resorting to delicatessen shops for ready-prepared 
 foods that are always very high in price and seldom 
 as good as home-made things that are properly pre- 
 pared. In each case I give what seems to me the 
 easiest way to accomplish the desired result. I do 
 not say that the way I give is the only way nor the 
 best way, except when time and money are things 
 that must be considered. 
 
 The easiest way to entertain is to invite people to 
 come very informally for a cup of tea late in the
 
 APPENDIX 147 
 
 afternoon. The only preparations necessary are a 
 tray containing a pot of tea, a jug of hot water, a 
 plate with slices of lemon, sugar and cream; cups, 
 saucers, spoons and small tea napkins should be in 
 readiness, a plate of thin slices of bread and butter, 
 or dainty sandwiches and a plate containing sweet 
 wafers, cinnamon toast, meringues or any other sim- 
 ple cakes. Such a tea costs but little and affords a 
 delightful means by which one who has to economize 
 most strictly may repay her social obligations. 
 
 Another way to entertain that is unique, is in the 
 winter to invite people, only a few at a time to late 
 Sunday morning breakfast, giving them grapefruit, 
 coffee, sausages, waffles and honey or maple sirup. 
 
 Coffee 
 
 There are countless ways of making coffee but as 
 each way calls for a special kind of coffee pot, I give 
 but one way, as it is possible for every one to buy an 
 enameled coffee pot in which excellent boiled coffee 
 may be made. Important things to remember are: 
 to keep the lid of the coffee pot open when not in use 
 so that it may air well; to measure the water accu- 
 rately each time as well as the coffee itself. While 
 it is possible to get good coffee that comes ready- 
 ground in a tin container, it is still better to have a 
 coffee grinder and grind the bean just before using it. 
 
 To make good boiled coffee 
 
 Put into the coffee pot as many cups of cold water 
 plus one cup as there are persons to be served. 
 While this is coming to a boil, measure the same
 
 148 APPENDIX 
 
 number of heaping tablespoonsful of medium-ground 
 coffee as you have cups of water, and mix it in a 
 bowl with a little cold water and a whole egg shell 
 and all. When the water boils put in the coffee and 
 egg mixture. Stop up the spout of the coffee pot 
 with paper, and allow to simmer for five minutes, 
 stirring the grounds once or twice. Let stand for 
 three minutes after it is done to settle. Have the 
 pot heated from which the coffee is to be served on 
 the table, before pouring into it from the enameled 
 pot. In serving, always put the sugar and cream 
 into the cup before the coffee is poured in. If con- 
 venient have the cups warmed. 
 
 Tea 
 
 Many persons prefer tea for breakfast instead of 
 coffee, and even coffee drinkers like it now and then 
 as a change, particularly when served as an accom- 
 paniment of coddled eggs, toasted English muffins 
 and orange marmalade. Breakfast tea is usually 
 made somewhat stronger than that served in the aft- 
 ernoon, as it is usually taken with cream, whereas 
 afternoon tea is quite as often taken clear or with 
 lemon and tastes better when not so strong. It is 
 always well whenever serving it, to provide a jug of 
 hot water with which to dilute the tea to the desired 
 strength. English Breakfast tea or any good Cey- 
 lon tea is usually used. 
 
 To make good tea 
 
 Have a pint of freshly boiled water in an enameled 
 sauce-pan. Remove from the fire and when the water
 
 APPENDIX 149 
 
 stops boiling, put into it three level teaspoons of tea. 
 Cover and let stand for five minutes. Strain into a 
 heated china or silver tea pot and serve at once. For 
 iced tea use one more teaspoonful of tea for the same 
 amount of water, but make in the same way, allow- 
 ing it to cool before adding ice. 
 
 To make cocoa 
 
 Cocoa is a good drink for children, particularly in 
 cold weather. 
 
 % tablespoonful of cocoa 
 1 tablespoonful of sugar 
 1 cupful of boiling water 
 
 1 cupful of milk 
 Small pinch of salt 
 
 Scald milk ; that is, put it in the top of the double 
 boiler over cold water. When the water boils the 
 milk will be scalded. Mix the cocoa, sugar and salt 
 diluted with a quarter of a cup of boiling water, to 
 a smooth paste. Add remaining water and boil one 
 minute ; turn into scalded milk and beat for one min- 
 ute with a Dover egg beater. 
 
 Batter for Waffles, Griddle Cakes and Muffins 
 
 2 eggs 
 
 1 pint buttermilk or sour milk or cream 
 
 1 tablespoon melted butter 
 
 1 pint flour 
 
 % teaspoon salt 
 
 ^ teaspoon soda dissolved in a little boiling water
 
 150 APPENDIX 
 
 Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the flour, salt 
 and milk and beat until well mixed and free from 
 lumps. Add butter and soda. Beat the whites of 
 the eggs to a stiff froth and add at the last minute. 
 Pour onto the griddle or waffle iron from a pitcher. 
 Grease should be applied with a brush used only for 
 this purpose. 
 
 Griddle cakes, waffles and muffins may be made 
 with the same batter. The muffins are baked for 
 fifteen minutes in the oven in muffin tins. Griddle 
 cakes may be baked on a flat greased or soapstone 
 griddle, while waffles require a waffle iron which 
 should be kept at the right temperature throughout 
 the process of baking, the irons being greased on 
 both sides for each waffle. For this purpose a round 
 brush with a wooden handle is best. They should be 
 served at once on a hot plate. 
 
 Sausage is good to serve with waffles or griddle 
 cakes. The best way to cook it is to bake it in the 
 oven in a covered earthenware casserole. Any su- 
 perfluous grease should be poured off before placing 
 the casserole on the table. Lambs' kidneys, split, 
 dipped in flour that has been well seasoned with salt 
 and pepper, and placed in a buttered casserole, then 
 baked, are also delicious served with waffles. To 
 vary this dish, slices of bacon or fresh mushrooms 
 or both may be baked with the kidneys. When it is 
 not possible to secure pure maple sirup a very good 
 substitute may be made by boiling light brown sugar 
 with water to the proper consistency. When hot
 
 APPENDIX 151 
 
 add a few drops of Mapleine. Let cool. Keep some 
 of this on hand. 
 
 Oatmeal or Rolled Oats 
 
 Add four parts of salted water to one part of oat- 
 meal. Cook for three hours over water in a double 
 boiler. Cook enough to serve twice, cooking one day 
 and warming it over in time for breakfast the next 
 day. The rest may be kept covered in the ice-chest 
 until needed. 
 
 All cereals such as wheatena, hominy, cream of 
 wheat and farina are best when cooked in the same 
 manner as that described for oatmeal. These are 
 all good winter cereals. 
 
 For use in the summer, dry cereals such as shred- 
 ded wheat, puffed wheat, corn and rice are very pala- 
 table when dried thoroughly in the oven and eaten 
 with fruits and berries in season. 
 
 Whole Wheat Gems 
 
 Two cups of whole wheat flour mixed with just 
 enough cold water to make a very thick batter, that 
 falls, not runs from the spoon. Add a dozen Fard 
 dates cut in quarters. Have oblong gem pans 
 greased and smoking hot. Fill them level full of the 
 batter and set into a moderate oven to bake half an 
 hour. 
 
 Popovers 
 
 One egg, one cup of sweet milk, one cup of flour, % 
 teaspoon of salt. Beat well all together with Dover 
 egg beater. Custard cups, well greased and heated,
 
 152 APPENDIX 
 
 should be filled half full. It will require thirty min- 
 utes in a moderate oven to bake them. They should 
 be twice the height of the cup when done brown, 
 crisp and practically hollow. 
 
 Bacon 
 
 The most economical way to buy bacon is by the 
 strip. With a sharp knife it may be cut as needed 
 into very thin slices. 
 
 To COOK BACON 
 To bake 
 
 Place on a rack over a pan containing a little hot 
 water. Set in the oven and let bake until it is trans- 
 parent and crisp without being in the least burned. 
 Remove to a piece of absorbent paper until grease is 
 absorbed, then serve at once on a hot plate. 
 
 To fry 
 
 Place in a skillet on the stove. Watch it care- 
 fully, turning frequently so that it does not burn. 
 When thoroughly cooked, remove to a sheet of pa- 
 per ; serve when dry and crisp. 
 
 EGGS 
 Coddled Eggs 
 
 Have water boiling in a saucepan. With a spoon 
 lower the eggs into the water, cover and set aside. 
 At the end of four minutes they will be ready for 
 those who like very soft boiled eggs. At the end of 
 six minutes they will be deliciously jellied.
 
 APPENDIX 153 
 
 Shirred Eggs 
 
 Have porcelain dish for shirring eggs well but- 
 tered and heated. Break one or two eggs into each 
 dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper and set into the 
 oven until the eggs are glazed over the top. Serve 
 at once in the same dish. 
 
 Vermicelli Eggs 
 
 Separate the whites from the yolks of hard boiled 
 eggs, allowing one for each person to be served, with 
 one extra. Chop the whites of the eggs and mix 
 them with a rather thick white sauce, and pour over 
 small pieces of buttered toast arranged on a hot plat- 
 ter. Over all, mash through a sieve the yolks of the 
 eggs and serve at once, garnished with points of 
 buttered toast. 
 
 French Omelette 
 
 Break eggs into a bowl as many as there are per- 
 sons to be served. Break eggs with a fork enough 
 to mix the yolks and whites adding a tablespoon of 
 milk for each egg. Season with salt, pepper. Have 
 butter in an iron skillet sizzling hot. Turn in the 
 omelet mixture. With a flexible spatula, keep fold- 
 ing over the thin layers of the mixture that cooks 
 on the bottom of the pan letting the thin part run 
 over the bottom to be cooked. When all is cooked, 
 let brown; turn over to brown on the other side and 
 serve at once on a hot platter. The whole process 
 should not take more than a few moments. Chopped 
 parsley, chives chopped meat may be mixed with 
 the eggs jelly or marmalade may be added after it 
 is done, according to the taste.
 
 154 APPENDIX 
 
 Creamed Dried Beef 
 
 Tear dried beef into small pieces. Add it to white 
 sauce made without salt. Serve on small slices of 
 buttered toast. 
 
 Brown Soup Stock 
 6 Ibs. shin of beef 
 3 quarts cold water 
 ~y<2 teaspoon peppercorns 
 6 whole cloves 
 1/2 bay leaf 
 2 sprigs parsley 
 
 Carrot, turnip, onion, celery, % cup each, cut in 
 dice. 
 
 Wipe beef, and cut the lean meat into inch cubes. 
 Brown one-third of meat in hot frying-pan in mar- 
 row from a marrow-bone. Put remaining two-thirds 
 with bone and fat into soup kettle, add water and let 
 stand for thirty minutes. Place over a slow fire, 
 add browned meat, and heat gradually to the boiling 
 point. As scum rises it should be removed. Cover 
 and cook slowly six hours, keeping just below the 
 boiling point. Add vegetables, cook one and one- 
 half hours, strain and cool as quickly as possible. 
 Skim off the fat that rises and hardens on top when 
 cold. 
 
 Macaroni Soup 
 
 1 quart Brown Soup Stock 
 
 ^4 cup macaroni, broken into half-inch pieces 
 
 Salt 
 
 Pepper
 
 APPENDIX 155 
 
 Cook macaroni in boiling salted water until soft. 
 Drain and add to stock, heated to boiling point. 
 Season with salt and pepper. Spaghetti, noodles, 
 vermicelli or other Italian soup pastes may be substi- 
 tuted for macaroni. 
 
 Julienne Soup 
 
 To one quart Brown Soup Stock add one-fourth 
 each of carrot and turnip cut in thin strips one and 
 one-half inches long, previously cooked in boiling 
 salted water. Add two tablespoons each of cooked 
 peas and string beans. Heat to boiling point. 
 
 White Soup Stock 
 
 The water in which fowl or chicken is cooked makes 
 white stock. 
 
 White Soup Stock II 
 4 Ibs. knuckle of veal 
 2 quarts boiling water 
 1 tablespoon salt 
 ^ teaspoon peppercorns 
 
 1 onion 
 
 2 stalks celery 
 
 Wipe meat, remove from bone, cut in small pieces. 
 Put meat, bone, water and seasonings in kettle. 
 Heat gradually to boiling point, skimming fre- 
 quently. Simmer four or five hours and strain 
 through double thickness of cheesecloth. 
 
 Asparagus Soup 
 
 3 cups white stock 
 1 can asparagus
 
 156 APPENDIX 
 
 2 cups cold water 
 1 slice onion 
 
 *4 cup butter 
 14 cup flour 
 
 3 cups scalded milk 
 Salt and pepper 
 
 Drain and rinse asparagus; reserve tips. Add 
 stalks to cold water; boil five minutes, drain, add 
 stock and onions; boil thirty minutes, run through 
 sieve and bind with butter and flour that have been 
 cooked together. Add salt, pepper, milk and tips. 
 
 All cream soups may be made similar to the above, 
 using a very thick white sauce, thinned with white 
 soup stock and flavored with any desirable vegetable 
 cooked, put through a sieve and mixed with the 
 liquid. 
 
 Canned soups, particularly the clear soups, are 
 excellent, so it is no longer absolutely necessary to 
 go through the long process of soup making unless 
 one prefers to do so. 
 
 Oyster Stew 
 
 1 quart oysters 
 
 4 cups scalded milk 
 14 cup butter 
 
 1/2 tablespoon salt 
 
 1/3 tablespoon black pepper 
 
 Clean oysters by placing in a colander and pour- 
 ing over them three-fourths cup of cold water. Pick 
 over the oysters, reserve liquor and heat it to the 
 boiling point ; strain through double cheesecloth, add
 
 APPENDIX 157 
 
 oysters and cook until they are plump with curled 
 edges. Remove oysters with a skimmer, put into a 
 tureen with butter, salt and pepper. Add oyster 
 liquor, strained a second time, and milk. Serve with 
 crisp oyster crackers. 
 
 WAYS OF COOKING SALT AND CANNED FISH 
 Creamed Salt Codfish 
 
 Pick salt codfish in pieces and soak in lukewarm 
 water until soft, and until the greater part of the salt 
 has been removed. Drain and add to one cup of thin, 
 white sauce. Remove from fire. Add one egg well 
 beaten just before serving. This is best when cream 
 is used in making the white sauce. Good with baked 
 potatoes. 
 
 Codfish Balls 
 
 1 cup salt codfish 
 
 2 heaping cups potatoes 
 1 egg 
 
 1 tablespoon butter 
 % teaspoon pepper 
 
 Wash fish in cold water and cut with scissors into 
 very small pieces. Wash, pare and soak potatoes, 
 cutting into pieces of uniform size before measuring. 
 Cook fish and potatoes in boiling water to cover 
 until potatoes are soft. Drain, return to kettle and 
 mash thoroughly. Add butter, beaten egg and pep- 
 per. Beat with fork. Add salt if necessary. Drop 
 by spoonfuls into deep fat, allowing four to each 
 frying. Drain on paper. Serve very hot.
 
 158 APPENDIX 
 
 Baked Finnan Haddie 
 
 Put fish in dripping pan ; surround with milk and 
 water in equal proportions ; place on back of range 
 to heat slowly. Let stand half an hour; pour off 
 liquid, spread with butter, and bake for half an hour. 
 
 Creamed Salmon or Tuna Fish 
 
 Remove bones and skin from a can of salmon or 
 Tuna fish. Break up meat in small pieces and add 
 to a thick white sauce. Just before serving, remove 
 from the fire; add juice of one-half lemon and the 
 yolk of one egg well beaten. This is good served in 
 a ring of rice. 
 
 MEATS 
 
 Best cuts for broiling are : porterhouse, sirloin and 
 cross-cut of rump steaks. 
 
 To Broil Steak 
 
 Place on broiler ; turn several times during the first 
 two minutes so that the meat will be seared on the 
 outside and the juices kept in. Steak 1^ inches 
 thick will take six minutes to cook if liked rare. 
 Eight or ten minutes if liked well done. Remove to 
 hot platter, spread with butter, sprinkle with salt 
 and pepper. 
 
 Hamburg Steak 
 
 1 pound top of the round beef. 
 
 Salt, pepper and onion juice (if liked). 
 
 Grind the meat at home in a chopper. Add sea- 
 soning. Shape in balls not too hard. Broil. 
 Serve with Maitre d'Hotel Butter.
 
 APPENDIX 159 
 
 Roast Beef 
 
 Best cuts for roasting are : tip or middle of sirloin, 
 back of rump or first three ribs. The former is best 
 for a small family ; the latter for a large family. 
 
 To Roast Beef 
 
 Rub over with salt and dredge meat and pan with 
 flour. Place in a hot oven so that surface may be 
 quickly seared. After flour in pan is browned, re- 
 duce heat and baste every fifteen minutes. Allow 
 from twelve to fifteen minutes to the pound, accord- 
 ing to whether the meat is desired rare or well done. 
 
 To make good gravy 
 
 Remove all but about two tablespoons of grease 
 from the pan. Have bowl of milk thickened with 
 flour and seasoned with salt and pepper. Pour this 
 into the pan and place on top of the stove to boil. 
 When brown and of the right consistency, strain into 
 a gravy bowl to pass at table. 
 
 Fillet of Beef 
 
 This is the whole tenderloin and though more ex- 
 pensive than other roasts there is no waste to it and 
 it makes a very good cut to use when entertaining. 
 It should be larded, and roasted for from twenty to 
 thirty minutes. It is best when served with broiled 
 fresh mushrooms or with mushroom sauce. 
 
 Pot Roast 
 
 Put a four-pound piece of beef cut from the round 
 into a covered pot or kettle, with seasonings and less 
 water than half covers the meat. Let it cook four
 
 160 APPENDIX 
 
 hours, keeping the liquor below the boiling point. 
 Thicken the liquor to serve as a gravy. Horseradish 
 sauce is good served with Pot Roast. 
 
 Boiled Smoked Tongue 
 
 Parboil the tongue for five minutes. Pour off the 
 water. Cover with boiling water and let cook for 
 several hours or until tender. Remove outer skin 
 while hot. Serve at once. Spinach is a good ac- 
 companiment of smoked tongue. 
 
 Braised Fresh Tongue 
 
 Put fresh tongue in kettle, cover with boiling water 
 and cook slowly two hours. Take tongue from water 
 and remove skin and roots. Place in deep pan and 
 surround with one cup each of carrot, onion and 
 celery cut in dice, and one sprig of parsley; then 
 pour over four cups of sauce. Cover closely and 
 bake two hours, turning after the first hour. Serve 
 on a platter with sauce strained around the tongue. 
 
 Sauce. Brown one-fourth cup of butter, add one- 
 fourth cup of flour and stir together until well 
 browned. Add gradually four cups of water in 
 which the tongue was cooked. Season with salt and 
 pepper and add one teaspoonful of Worcestershire 
 Sauce. One and one-half cups of stewed and strained 
 tomatoes may be used instead of some of the water. 
 
 Lvver and Bacon 
 
 Have calves' liver cut one-half inch thick. Sprin- 
 kle each slice with salt and pepper. Dredge with 
 flour and fry in bacon fat. Serve garnished with
 
 APPENDIX 161 
 
 the crisp slices of bacon which have been drained of 
 grease on a sheet of paper. 
 
 Braised Liver 
 
 Have upper side of a calf's liver larded.' Place in 
 deep pan with two cups of brown stock or water. 
 Surround with onions or with a mixture of vegeta- 
 bles, such as carrot, onion and celery. Cover closely ; 
 bake for two hours, uncovering the last twenty min- 
 utes. Strain liquor. Add to one and one-half 
 tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of flour 
 melted together. Serve sauce separately, but gar- 
 nish the platter with the vegetables. 
 
 Corned Beef Hash 
 
 Remove skin, gristle and most of the fat from 
 cooked or canned corned beef. Chop and mix with 
 an equal quantity of chopped boiled potatoes. Sea- 
 son with salt and pepper, put into a hot buttered fry- 
 ing-pan, moisten with milk or cream, stir until well 
 mixed, spread evenly and place on a part of the stove 
 where it may brown slowly underneath. Fold and 
 turn onto a hot platter. Garnish with parsley, and 
 serve with fried apple rings. 
 
 Lamb and Mutton Chops 
 
 To broil see directions for broiling beefsteak. 
 
 Roast Lamb 
 
 Follow directions for roasting beef. It will re- 
 quire about an hour and three quarters to roast a leg 
 of lamb.
 
 162 APPENDIX 
 
 Irish Stew 
 
 Wipe and cut in pieces three pounds lamb from the 
 fore-quarter. Put in kettle, cover with boiling 
 water, and cook slowly for about two hours or until 
 tender. After the first hour, add one-half cup each 
 of carrot and turnip cut into one-half inch cubes, 
 and one onion sliced. Fifteen minutes before serv- 
 ing, add four cups of potatoes cut in quarter-inch 
 slices, previously parboiled five minutes in boiling 
 water. Thicken with one-fourth cup of flour mixed 
 to a thin paste with cold water. Season with salt 
 and pepper, and serve in an earthenware casserole 
 which has been warmed. 
 
 Veal Cutlets and Veal Chops 
 
 Season with salt and pepper. Dredge with flour 
 and fry in drippings or butter. Fry slowly and keep 
 well covered, so that the meat may be thoroughly 
 cooked. 
 
 Fricassee of Veal 
 
 Wipe two pounds of sliced veal cut from the loin, 
 and cover with boiling water; add one small onion, 
 two stalks of celery, and six slices of carrot. Cook 
 slowly until meat is tender. Remove meat, sprinkle 
 with salt and pepper, dredge with flour and fry in 
 pork fat. Strain liquor ; thicken with flour and pour 
 around the veal when serving. 
 
 Pork Chops 
 
 Sprinkle with salt and pepper, place in a hot fry- 
 ing pan on top of the stove and cook slowly until ten-
 
 APPENDIX 163 
 
 der and brown. Garnish platter with rings of apples 
 cut one-half inch thick and fried. 
 
 Roast Pork 
 
 Sprinkle with salt and pepper, place on a rack in a 
 dripping pan and dredge meat and bottom of the pan 
 with flour. Bake in a moderate oven three or four 
 hours. After the first hour surround the roast with 
 tart apples that have been cored and stuck with sev- 
 eral whole cloves. Let the apples bake with the pork 
 and serve as a garnish and as a substitute for a green 
 vegetable. 
 
 Broiled Ham 
 
 Soak a slice of ham one hour in lukewarm water. 
 Drain, wipe and broil for five minutes. 
 
 Boiled Ham 
 
 Soak several hours or over night in cold water to 
 cover. Wash thoroughly, trim off hard skin near 
 end of bone, put in a kettle, cover with cold water 
 and heat to boiling point. Cook slowly until tender. 
 Remove kettle from range and set aside that the ham 
 may partially cool ; take from the water, remove out- 
 side skin, sprinkle with sugar and fine cracker 
 crumbs. Stick with cloves one-half inch apart. 
 Bake one hour in a slow oven. Serve hot or cold, 
 thinly sliced. 
 
 POULTRY 
 
 Best way to broil a chicken 
 
 Place in dripping pan, skin side down; sprinkle 
 with salt and pepper, dot with butter, and bake fif-
 
 164 APPENDIX 
 
 teen minutes in a hot oven. Finish cooking on a 
 broiler to brown. 
 
 Boiled Fowl 
 
 Tie a four-pound fowl neatly together, and place 
 in a piece of cheesecloth. Place on a wire rack in the 
 bottom of a kettle, half surround it with boiling 
 water, cover and cook slowly until tender. Add salt 
 the last hour. 
 
 Chicken Fricassee 
 
 Dress, clean and cut up a fowl. Put in a kettle, 
 cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until ten- 
 der, adding salt to water when chicken is about half 
 done. Pour off some of the stock to keep for soup. 
 Thicken the remainder with milk and flour mixed to a 
 smooth paste and seasoned. Serve all on a platter, 
 the pieces of chicken being carefully arranged and 
 the gravy poured over them. 
 
 Mart/land Chicken 
 
 Cut up two chickens, sprinkle with salt and pepper, 
 dip in flour, white of egg and crumbs; place in a 
 well-greased dripping-pan, and bake twenty minutes 
 in a hot oven, basting after first five minutes with 
 one-third cup of melted butter. Arrange on platter 
 and pour over two cups of white sauce made with 
 cream. 
 
 POTATOES 
 Baked Potatoes 
 
 Select smooth, medium-sized potatoes. After 
 washing, place in a hot oven. Bake forty minutes 
 and serve at once. A variation of a plain baked po-
 
 APPENDIX 165 
 
 tato is to roll it until soft; 1. make two cuts at right 
 angles on one side of the potato ; open ; put in a good 
 sized piece of butter, salt and a generous sprinkling 
 of paprika. 
 
 2. Cut potato in half, scoop out the inside, mash 
 well ; mix with butter, salt, pepper and chopped pars- 
 ley. Heap into the potato skin and place in the oven 
 to brown slightly. 
 
 Boiled Potatoes 
 
 Select potatoes of uniform size. Wash, pare and 
 drop at once into cold water to soak. Cook in boil- 
 ing salted water until soft. Drain and serve in open 
 vegetable dish, with chopped parsley on top, melted 
 butter, browned butter or a white sauce. 
 
 Mashed Potatoes 
 
 Boil as above until softer than if serving boiled. 
 Drain, mash with a wooden masher until free from 
 lumps. Add cream or milk, butter and salt. Beat 
 with a fork until creamy. Reheat and pile lightly in 
 a hot dish. 
 
 Hashed Brown Potatoes 
 
 Cut cold boiled potatoes into tiny cubes. Have 
 butter or drippings hot in frying pan. Put the po- 
 tatoes in, season well with salt and pepper, turn fre- 
 quently until all are hot, then spread out over the 
 pan to brown underneath. Fold over and serve on a 
 hot platter. 
 
 Creamed Potatoes 
 
 Cut boiled potatoes in dice. Cover in top of 
 double boiler with a thin white sauce made with cream
 
 166 APPENDIX 
 
 if possible and well seasoned. Let heat until a thick 
 creamy mass. 
 
 Baked Sweet Potatoes 
 
 Bake as white potatoes. 
 Boiled Sweet Potatoes 
 
 Cook twenty minutes in boiling salted water. 
 Glazed Sweet Potatoes 
 
 Pare and boil medium-sized potatoes. Cook ten 
 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain, cut in halves 
 lengthwise, and put in a buttered pan. Brush over 
 them with a sirup made with one-half cup of light 
 brown sugar, four tablespoons of water and one of 
 butter, and boiled three minutes. Bake the potatoes 
 fifteen minutes, basting them with the remaining 
 sirup. They are good made this way in an earthen- 
 ware casserole and served in it. 
 
 Green Vegetables 
 
 All green vegetables should be washed in cold water 
 and cooked until tender in boiling salted water. 
 Their color will be kept better if a pinch of soda is 
 added just before putting them into the water and if 
 the lid is left off the kettle. 
 
 Asparagus 
 
 Wash well. Cut off hard ends. Tie in a bunch ; 
 stand up in lower part of double boiler, the ends out 
 of the water. Cover with upper part of boiler so 
 that the tips may cook with the steam. Serve on 
 toast with melted butter poured over it, with white or 
 Hollandaise sauce.
 
 APPENDIX 167 
 
 Green Siting Beans 
 
 If tender, string, cut with scissors aslant of the 
 bean in half-inch pieces, cook for one-half hour in 
 boiling salted water to which a pinch of soda has 
 been added. 
 
 Wax Beans 
 
 String and cut crosswise in half-inch pieces. Cook 
 as green string beans until tender. Serve with white 
 sauce thinned and mixed with the beans. 
 
 Lima Beans 
 
 Remove young lima beans from the pods. Cook 
 in boiling salted water until tender. Drain. Mix 
 with butter, pepper and salt or with a thin white 
 sauce. 
 
 Boiled Beets 
 
 Wash and cook young beets in boiling water until 
 soft ; it will take at least an hour. Drain ; add but- 
 ter, pepper and salt. They may be sliced thin before 
 seasoning is added if preferred. 
 
 Boiled Cabbage 
 
 Cut a solid head of cabbage into quarters and re- 
 move the tough stalk. Cook in uncovered vessel in 
 boiling salted water to which one-fourth teaspoon of 
 soda has been added. It will take from thirty min- 
 utes to one hour. Drain and serve. It is good 
 served with white sauce. 
 
 Cauliflower 
 
 Soak in salted water, head down, for thirty min- 
 utes. Leave a few of the tender green leaves on.
 
 168 APPENDIX 
 
 Cook head up, for twenty minutes in boiling salted 
 water. Serve whole with white sauce poured over. 
 Hollandaise sauce may be served with cauliflower. 
 
 Celery 
 
 Cut in one-half inch pieces. Boil in salted water 
 for twenty minutes or until tender. Drain and mix 
 with white sauce. 
 
 Corn 
 
 Green corn should have husks and silk removed 
 before being plunged into a kettle of boiling water. 
 It should cook from ten to fifteen minutes. Serve 
 with a napkin folded around it, or cut from cob and 
 heat with butter, pepper and salt. 
 
 Boiled Onions 
 
 Put onions in cold water and remove the skins 
 while under water. Drain, put in saucepan and 
 cover with boiling salted water; boil five minutes, 
 drain, and again cover with boiling salted water. 
 Cook one hour or until tender. Drain, add a little 
 milk, cook five minutes, season with butter, salt and 
 pepper. 
 
 Creamed Onions 
 
 Cook as above and cover with a white sauce made 
 with cream. 
 
 Green Peas 
 
 Remove from pods, cover with cold water and let 
 stand one-half hour. Cook until tender in a small 
 quantity of boiling water, adding salt and a little 
 sugar the last fifteen minutes. Drain off any water
 
 APPENDIX 169 
 
 that is left. Season with salt and pepper. Add 
 butter. 
 
 Boiled Spinach 
 
 Remove roots. Pick over carefully and wash in 
 several waters until very clean. Put into a stew pan 
 with a pinch of soda. Allow to heat gradually and 
 cook twenty-five minutes in its own juices. If it is 
 old it should be cooked as other vegetables in boiling 
 salted water. Drain, chop fine, reheat and season 
 with butter, salt and pepper. Garnish with slices of 
 hard boiled egg. 
 
 TOMATOES 
 Sliced Tomatoes 
 
 Wipe, and cover with boiling water ; let stand one 
 minute, then skin. Chill thoroughly, cut in one-half 
 inch slices and serve with a French dressing with 
 or without lettuce leaves. 
 
 Broiled Tomatoes 
 
 Cut in halves crosswise and cut off a thin slice 
 from rounding part of each half. Sprinkle with 
 salt and pepper, dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs 
 again, place in a well buttered broiler and broil six 
 to eight minutes. 
 
 Stewed Tomatoes 
 
 Wipe, pare, cut in pieces; put in a stew pan in 
 which some cubes of bread have been fried in butter 
 until a golden brown. Season with chopped onion, 
 sugar, salt, pepper and butter and let cook slowly 
 for twenty minutes.
 
 170 APPENDIX 
 
 Scalloped Tomatoes 
 
 Canned or fresh tomatoes may be first stewed and 
 then put into a baking dish with alternate layers of 
 bread or cracker crumbs, having the top covered 
 with the crumbs and dots of butter. Bake until the 
 crumbs on top are quite brown. 
 
 How to cook rice 
 
 Have three pints of boiling salted water in a 
 sauce-pan. Into it sprinkle gradually a cup of 
 washed rice. Do not let the water stop boiling. It 
 will take about twenty minutes for the rice to be thor- 
 oughly cooked. Put into a colander, pour over it a 
 pint of boiling salted water and stand the colander 
 in a very slow oven so that the rice may dry and 
 become very flaky. Serve as a vegetable with but- 
 ter or as a cereal with sugar and cream. 
 
 Mayonnaise Dressing 
 
 1 teaspoon dry mustard 
 
 1 teaspoon salt 
 
 1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar 
 Dash of cayenne 
 Yolks 2 eggs 
 
 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
 2 tablespoons vinegar 
 11/2 cups olive oil 
 
 Mix dry ingredients, add egg yolks and when well 
 mixed add one-half teaspoon of vinegar. Add oil 
 gradually, drop by drop at first. As mixture thicki
 
 APPENDIX 171 
 
 ens add vinegar or lemon juice. Alternate with oil 
 until all are used, stirring constantly. Everything 
 should be as cold as possible, and in the end the ma- 
 yonnaise should be stiff enough to hold its shape. 
 Do not add to salad until the last moment as it 
 quickly melts. 
 
 A small quantity may be made very quickly by 
 putting proportionate ingredients into a jelly glass 
 and using a small sized Dover egg beater. By add- 
 ding chopped sour pickle to this, Tartare sauce for 
 fish and crabs is made. 
 
 Russian Dressing 
 
 % cup of French Dressing 
 
 94 cup of Mayonnaise Dressing 
 
 *4 cup tomato catsup 
 
 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper 
 
 1 teaspoon powdered sugar 
 
 French Dressing 
 
 1/2 teaspoon salt 
 
 y teaspoon pepper 
 
 Dash of cayenne 
 
 Generous sprinkling of paprika 
 
 1 tablespoon of plain and tarragon vinegar to- 
 gether 
 
 4 tablespoons olive oil 
 
 Mix dry ingredients with the vinegar, then add 
 the oil, one tablespoon at a time. The bowl may be 
 rubbed with onion or garlic before the salad vege- 
 table is put into it.
 
 172 APPENDIX 
 
 Boiled Cream Dressing 
 1/2 tablespoon salt 
 1/2 tablespoon mustard 
 % tablespoon sugar 
 1 egg slightly beaten 
 1/2 tablespoons melted butter 
 !/ cup mild vinegar 
 % cup sweet or sour cream 
 
 Mix ingredients in order given. Stir constantly 
 in top of double boiler over boiling water. 
 
 Use French Dressing with: 
 
 Plain Lettuce 
 
 Romaine 
 
 Endive 
 
 Chicory 
 
 Combination of any of the above with tomatoes, 
 cucumbers, onion and green pepper 
 
 Sliced tomatoes alone 
 
 Sliced cucumber alone 
 
 Shaved young cabbage 
 
 Combination of grapefruit, celery, white grapes 
 
 Sliced oranges and Bermuda onion 
 
 Hawaiian pineapple 
 
 Orange 
 
 Grapefruit 
 
 Use Boiled Dressing for: 
 
 Potato salad with hard boiled egg and cucumber 
 Salmon or Tuna fish 
 Whole tomato with lettuce
 
 APPENDIX 173 
 
 Chicken 
 Cold slaw 
 Stuffed eggs 
 
 Use Mayonnaise Dressing for: 
 
 Whole tomatoes stuffed with chopped cucumber. 
 Green vegetable salads, such as string bean salad, 
 pea salad, celery salad, asparagus salad. 
 
 Use Russian Salad Dressing with: 
 
 Hearts of lettuce cut in halves or in quarters 
 Plain Romaine 
 
 SANDWICHES SUITABLE FOR LUNCH OR AFTERNOON 
 
 TEA 
 
 Rolled Sandwiches 
 
 Have a large loaf of fresh bread. Cut off all the 
 crust from the entire loaf. Cut the loaf in two and 
 begin cutting slices in the center of the loaf where 
 the slice is largest. Have butter creamed. Spread 
 the bread before cutting it both with the butter and 
 with orange marmalade or with whatever soft mix- 
 ture you desire. Have a very sharp carving knife 
 and cut even slices as thin as possible, then roll, and 
 arrange in a neat pile on a plate. If prepared be- 
 forehand they should be lightly covered with a damp 
 napkin or paraffin paper as they dry very quickly 
 on account of being so thin. 
 
 Egg and Green Pepper Sandwich 
 1 medium sized green pepper 
 1 hard boiled egg 
 1/2 cup boiled dressing
 
 174 APPENDIX 
 
 Put pepper and egg through a chopper. Mix 
 with the dressing and use as a filling between slices 
 of buttered white bread. Cut any desired shape. 
 
 Celery Mayonnaise Sandwich 
 
 Put celery through the fine blade of a chopper. 
 Mix with oil mayonnaise, and use as a filling between 
 slices of buttered white bread. 
 
 Tomato Sandwich 
 
 Remove skin from tomato. Cut in very thin 
 slices, salt and put between thin slices of white bread 
 and butter. 
 
 Onion Sandwich 
 
 Very thin slices of Bermuda onion dipped in 
 French Dressing may be used as a filling for sand- 
 wiches of white bread. 
 
 Brown Bread and Cream Cheese 
 
 Use brown bread that has been baked in a half- 
 pound Baking Powder tin. Cut slices thin, spread 
 with butter with a filling of cream cheese seasoned 
 with cayenne and paprika. 
 
 Club Sandwich 
 
 Cut toast in diamond shape. Butter and have a 
 layer of crisp bacon, a lettuce leaf, mayonnaise 
 dressing, white meat of chicken, mayonnaise, thin 
 slice of tomato, and toast on top. This sandwich is 
 more suitable for luncheon or late supper than after- 
 noon tea.
 
 APPENDIX 175 
 
 SAUCES 
 
 Thin White Sauce 
 2 tablespoons butter 
 11/2 tablespoons flour 
 11/2 cup scalded milk 
 14 teaspoon salt 
 Pepper or paprika 
 
 Melt butter with seasoning in sauce pan. Add 
 flour and stir until well blended. Add milk gradu- 
 ally and stir until thick. It may stand in the top of 
 the double boiler over hot water until needed. 
 
 Cream Sauce 
 
 Same as above, using cream instead of milk. 
 Maitre a" Hotel Butter 
 
 1/2 teaspoon salt 
 
 1/3 teaspoon pepper 
 
 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 
 
 % tablespoon of lemon juice 
 
 Put butter in a bowl; work until creamy with 
 wooden spoon. Add salt, pepper and parsley and 
 lemon juice very slowly. 
 
 Mint Sauce 
 
 I/I cup finely chopped mint leaves 
 
 1/2 CU P white vinegar 
 
 1 tablespoon powdered sugar 
 
 Add sugar to vinegar; when dissolved pour over 
 mint and let stand thirty minutes on back of range.
 
 176 APPENDIX 
 
 Hollandaise Sauce 
 1/2 cup butter 
 Yolk of one egg 
 Juice of ^ lemon 
 Salt 
 Cayenne 
 
 Put egg yolk, salt and cayenne in top of double 
 boiler over warm water away from the fire. Have 
 butter divided into small pieces on a plate. Add 
 one piece at a time until all are melted with the egg 
 yolk. The water must not be hot enough to cook 
 the egg just warm enough to melt the butter. Add 
 gradually the lemon juice and serve at once, with 
 fish, cauliflower, artichokes or asparagus. 
 
 FBUIT SAUCES 
 Apple Sauce 
 
 Wash apples well; quarter them without paring. 
 Leave seeds in but cut out all that is not good. Put 
 in a saucepan with a little water and sugar, and let 
 cook slowly until soft. Add sugar if necessary. 
 Mash through a colander. Add cinnamon or nutmeg 
 if liked or sprinkle on top. 
 
 Rhubarb Sauce 
 
 Cut rhubarb in inch pieces. Put into a saucepan 
 with a little water and sugar. Cook until soft. 
 Add sugar if required. 
 
 Cranberry Sauce 
 
 Pick over and wash three cups cranberries. Put 
 in a saucepan, add one and one-fourth cups sugar
 
 APPENDIX 177 
 
 and one cup boiling water. Cover, and boil ten min- 
 utes. Do not let them boil over. 
 
 Cranberry Jelly 
 
 Pick over and wash four cups of cranberries. Put 
 in a saucepan with a cup of boiling water and let boil 
 twenty minutes. Rub through a sieve, add two cups 
 sugar, and cook five minutes. Turn into one large 
 or individual molds. 
 
 Baited Apples 
 
 Wash and core as many Baldwin apples as needed. 
 Stick into each one three whole cloves. Put into a 
 baking dish with water in the bottom. Fill cavities 
 of the apples with sugar. Bake in a hot oven until 
 soft, basting now and then with the liquid. 
 
 SWEET SAUCES FOE DESSEETS 
 Foamy Sauce 
 Half cup butter 
 1 cup powdered sugar 
 
 1 teaspoon vanilla 
 
 2 tablespoons wine or fruit juice if desired 
 ^4 cup boiling water 
 
 White of one egg beaten stiff 
 
 Cream butter; add sugar, vanilla and wine. Just 
 before serving add the boiling water; stir well, add 
 egg and beat until foamy. 
 
 Hard Sauce 
 !/2 cup butter 
 
 1 cup powdered or soft light brown sugar 
 Flavor with vanilla, wine, or maple
 
 178 APPENDIX 
 
 Cream the butter ; add sugar and flavoring gradu- 
 ally. Do not chill. 
 
 Custard Sauce 
 
 Same as boiled custard. 
 
 INSTEAD OF CAKE 
 Meringues 
 
 Beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff foam. Add 
 gradually two cups of powdered sugar. Flavor with 
 vanilla. Drop in spoonfuls on a greased tin and 
 place in a very slow oven to dry for about an hour. 
 They should dry entirely before being allowed to 
 brown. The color should be very pale. 
 
 Marguerites 
 
 Beat the white of one egg to a stiff foam; add 
 gradually thick maple sirup that has been boiled 
 until it threads. Add chopped pecan or walnut 
 meats and heap on Saratoga wafers. Place in a 
 slow oven until the mixture is dry and slightly 
 browned. 
 
 Hickorynut or Pecan Wafers 
 1 cup nut meats 
 1 cup sugar 
 % cup flour 
 
 Mix well together and drop on buttered tins. 
 Bake in a moderate oven until brown.
 
 APPENDIX 179 
 
 Little Sponge Calces 
 Weigh 2 eggs 
 
 Weigh same weight of powdered sugar 
 Weigh 1/2 same weight of flour 
 Juice and grated rind of one lemon to five eggs 
 Little vanilla. 
 
 Separate the eggs. With a Dover egg beater beat 
 yolks, lemon juice and sugar together. Add gradu- 
 ally the flour, sifted. Add lemon rind and vanilla. 
 Fold in the whites of the eggs beaten very stiff. 
 Drop into buttered tins for drop cakes. Sprinkle 
 powdered sugar over the tops. Bake for about 
 twenty minutes in a moderate oven. 
 
 SIMPLE DESSEETS 
 Junket for two persons 
 
 1/2 P^t of milk 
 1 tablespoon of sugar 
 1/4 junket tablet 
 % teaspoon vanilla 
 Grated nutmeg 
 
 Dissolve sugar in milk in an enameled saucepan 
 over a low flame. Leave until lukewarm. It must 
 not boil. Dissolve junket by crushing it in a few 
 drops of cold water in the bottom of a sherbet 
 glass. Add vanilla to the milk, then add the junket. 
 Mix well and quickly pour into two sherbet glasses 
 to remain in a warm room until set. They must not 
 be disturbed until then, when they should be placed
 
 180 APPENDIX 
 
 where it is cold. Grate nutmeg over the top of each 
 glass just before serving. 
 
 Custard for two persons 
 Yolk of 1 egg 
 
 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar 
 Pinch of salt 
 
 Vanilla 
 
 Mix the egg yolk, sugar and salt m a bowl, using 
 an egg beater. Add to the milk which is placed in 
 the top of the double boiler over boiling water. Stir 
 constantly until the mixture coats the spoon. Re- 
 move at once, let cool, then add the vanilla and turn 
 into glasses from which it is to be served. The white 
 of the egg may be beaten at the last moment and, 
 heaped on top of the custard, will make it a "floating 
 island." 
 
 Cup custards 
 
 The above recipe may be used in making baked 
 custards by simply adding the egg, sugar and salt 
 mixture to the milk after it has been scalded, and 
 after adding the flavoring turn at once into custard 
 cups and set into a hot oven in a pan of water that 
 is just below the boiling point. It will require fif- 
 teen minutes to bake them. Test by inserting a sil- 
 ver knife. An agreeable departure from this is to 
 use grated maple sugar for sweetening and to have 
 a piece of maple sugar in the bottom of each cup 
 before adding the mixture.
 
 APPENDIX 181 
 
 Compote of Fruit Served with custard sauce 
 
 Stew any fruit such as strawberries, gooseberries, 
 currants, plums, green gages, peaches or figs, adding 
 a very little water and enough sugar to keep them 
 from being too tart. Let cook until rather thick. 
 When thoroughly chilled serve with a custard sauce. 
 
 Creamy Rice Pudding 
 1 quart milk 
 
 1 tablespoonful of washed rice 
 1/2 teaspoon salt 
 % cup sugar 
 
 1 teaspoon vanilla 
 
 Mix ingredients and pour into buttered pudding- 
 dish; bake three hours in very slow oven, stirring 
 every fifteen minutes during the first hour to keep 
 rice from settling. Seeded raisins may be added at 
 the end of the first hour if desired. Serve very cold. 
 
 Bread Pudding 
 
 2 cups stale bread crumbs 
 
 1 quart scalded milk 
 % cup sugar 
 
 }4 cup melted butter 
 
 2 eggs 
 
 1/2 teaspoon salt 
 1 teaspoon vanilla 
 
 Soak bread crumbs in milk; set aside until cool; 
 add sugar, butter, eggs slightly beaten, salt and 
 flavoring; bake one hour in buttered baking dish in 
 a slow oven ; serve hot with hard sauce.
 
 182 APPENDIX 
 
 Prune Whip 
 
 1 cup of prune pulp 
 
 Whites of five eggs 
 
 1/2 cup sugar 
 
 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice 
 
 Pick over and wash prunes, then soak several 
 hours in cold water; cook in same water until soft; 
 remove stones and mash through a strainer, add 
 sugar and cook five minutes. Beat whites of eggs 
 until very stiff; add prunes when cold, and lemon 
 juice. Pile lightly on buttered pudding-dish; bake 
 twenty minutes in a slow oven. Serve cold with 
 boiled custard. 
 
 Apple Meringue 
 
 Fill a pudding-dish half full of apple sauce. 
 Spread the sauce with a meringue made of the whites 
 of two eggs into which has been beaten 2 /j, cup of 
 powdered sugar. Flavor with vanilla. Set into a 
 slow oven until the meringue is quite hard on top 
 and a very pale brown. Serve very cold, with cream 
 or custard sauce made from the yolks of the eggs. 
 
 
 
 Fruit Salad 
 
 Shredded pineapple, sliced oranges and sliced 
 grapefruit arranged in alternate layers and sprin- 
 kled with powdered sugar. 
 
 To Shred Pineapple 
 
 Pare and cut out the eyes. With a silver fork 
 pull off small pieces of the soft part until nothing 
 but the core remains.
 
 APPENDIX 183 
 
 To slice oranges and grapefruit 
 
 Pare off the outer and the white skin. With a 
 sharp knife cut out the sections, leaving the white 
 skin that separates them. Remove all seeds. 
 
 Ambrosia 
 
 Sections of orange, powdered sugar and shredded 
 cocoanut served in sherbet glasses. 
 
 Lemon Jelly 
 
 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 
 
 ^4 cup cold water 
 
 1-/4 CU P S boiling water 
 
 % cup sugar 
 
 *4 cup lemon juice 
 
 Soak gelatine ten minutes in the cold water. Dis- 
 solve in the boiling water; add sugar, lemon juice 
 and thin slices of outside rind. train into a mold 
 that has been wet with cold water. Chill and serve 
 with custard sauce. 
 
 Orange Jelly 
 
 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 
 
 ^4 CU P cold water 
 
 % cups boiling water 
 
 % cup sugar 
 
 % cup orange juice 
 
 11/2 tablespoons lemon juice 
 
 Make same as lemon jelly. 
 
 Wine Jetty 
 
 Same as orange, add ^ cup cooking Sherry.
 
 184 APPENDIX 
 
 Coffee Jelly 
 
 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 
 14 cup cold water 
 
 ~y% cup boiling water 
 
 2 tablespoons sugar 
 1 cup boiled coffee 
 
 Make same as lemon jelly. Serve with sugar and 
 cream.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The House in Good Taste 
 The Charm of the Antique 
 
 The Practical Book of Pe- 
 riod Furniture . 
 
 Planning and Furnishing 
 
 the Home .... 
 Inside the House of Good 
 
 Taste 
 
 The Furniture of Our 
 
 Forefathers 
 Box Furniture 
 House Furnishing and 
 
 Decoration .... 
 The Efficient Kitchen . . 
 Boston Cooking School 
 
 Cook Book .... 
 The Small Family Cook 
 
 Book ..... 
 The New Housekeeping . 
 How to Cook in Casserole 
 
 Dishes 
 
 The Craft of Hand-Made 
 
 Rugs ..... 
 185 
 
 Elsie de Wolfe 
 Robert and Elizabeth 
 Shackelton 
 
 Harold Donald Eber- 
 lein and Abbott Mc- 
 Lure 
 
 Mary J. Quinn 
 Richardson Wright 
 
 Esther Singleton 
 Louise Brigham 
 
 McClure and Eberlein 
 Georgie Boynton Child 
 
 Fanny M. Farmer 
 
 Mary D. Pretlow 
 Christine Frederick 
 
 M. H. Hill 
 Amy Mali Hicks
 
 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Home Economics . . . Maria Parloa 
 The Small House for a 
 
 Moderate Income . . Ekin Wallick 
 
 CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 The Fun of Cooking . . Caroline French Benton 
 Housekeeping for Little 
 
 Girls Olive Hyde Foster 
 
 Little Men ( Chapter called 
 
 Pattypans) . . . Louisa May Alcott 
 
 Our Old Nursery Rhymes 
 
 Little Songs of Long Ago TT T , TM1 . , _ ... 
 TM- LIJ t *i J-H. Willebeck Le Mair 
 
 The Children s Corner 
 
 Little People 
 
 Das House in Der Sonne . Carl Larson 
 
 Little Ann Kate Greenaway 
 
 MAGAZINES 
 
 House and Garden 
 The House Beautiful
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 Advantages of living on a Bleaching fabrics, 143 
 
 small scale, 32, 33 
 Alabaster bowls, 77 
 Ambrosia, 183 
 Andirons, 38 
 Antique cut glass, 97 
 Apples, baked, 177; meringue, 
 
 182; sauce, 176 
 Asparagus, soup, 155; served 
 
 on toast with buttered 
 
 sauce, 166 
 
 Bacon, buying, baking, fry- 
 ing, 152; liver and, 160 
 
 Bambino, 47 
 
 Bathroom, 46 
 
 Bed cover, 45 
 
 Bed linen, 102 
 
 Bedroom, 61, 62, 63, 64; orna- 
 ments, 110; pictures, 105; 
 rug, 91; used as living- 
 room because sunny, 23 
 
 Beef, roast, 159; fillet of, 159; 
 corned, 161; creamed dried, 
 154 
 
 Beets, boiled, 167 
 
 Beans, green string, wax, 
 lima, 167 
 
 Bishop and glass lamp, 12 
 
 Black furniture, 37 
 
 Black handrail, 37 
 
 Black and white reproduc- 
 tions, 104 
 
 Bok, Mr., of Ladies' Home 
 
 Journal, 33 
 
 Books as decorations, 39 
 Bonnet box, 46 
 Brass, to lacquer, 133; to 
 
 clean, 133 
 
 Bread pudding, 181 
 Breeding, 111 
 
 Brown bread and cheese, 174 
 Brown color scheme, 22 
 Brussels carpets, 89, 90, 91 
 Built-in bookcase, 39 
 Bulbs, 122 
 
 Cabbage, boiled, 167 
 
 Cakes, little sponge, 179 
 
 Calendar, 116 
 
 Candles, in the dining-room, 
 76; in the bedroom, 77; ar- 
 rangement of, for Christ- 
 mas decorations, 126, 127, 
 128, 129, 130 
 
 Candlesticks, to remove wax 
 from, 134 
 
 Candle shades, to clean mica 
 lining of, 138 
 
 Canisters, 29, 43 
 
 Care of children's rooms, 112 
 
 Carols, 128, 129 
 
 Casement windows, 86 
 
 Casseroles, 95 
 
 Cauliflower, 167 
 
 189
 
 190 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ceilings, height of, 37; to 
 clean, 134; center lights 
 from, 39 
 
 Celery, 168 
 
 Chandeliers and metal work 
 painted, 16 
 
 Character, 111 
 
 Chickens, broiled, 163; fricas- 
 see, 164; Maryland, 164 
 
 Chimneys, to clean, 134 
 
 Chinese embroidered strips, 
 41; primroses, 123 
 
 Chintz, to clean, 135 
 
 Chops, lamb and mutton, 161 
 
 Christian, 111, 112 
 
 Christmas tree, 125, 126 
 
 Clock, 116 
 
 Closet made of jut in wall, 118 
 
 Cocoa, 149 
 
 Codfish, creamed salt, balls, 
 157 
 
 Coffee, boiled, 147; jelly, 184 
 
 College pennants, 11 
 
 Colonial homestead, 4; re- 
 stored, 6 
 
 Colored reproductions of pic- 
 tures, 104 
 
 Cotton fabrics, to set color 
 in, to tint, 139 
 
 Conveniences, 112 
 
 Cook books, 116 
 
 Corn, 168 
 
 Cranberry, sauce, 176; jelly, 
 177 
 
 Crane, Walter, 6 
 
 Cupboard covering partition 
 window, 15 
 
 Curtains, bathroom, 46; Ba- 
 tiste, 82; casement cloth, 
 82?, 85; casement window, 
 86; chambray, 85; China 
 silk, 83; chintz, 85; cheese- 
 
 cloth, 82, 86; cretonne, 85; 
 denim, 85, 88; Dutch cur- 
 tains, 65; filet lace, 81; fix- 
 tures, 84; French door, 87; 
 front door, 36, 80, 81 ; glass,' 
 82, 83; guest room, 46; In- 
 dia cotton, 85; Java cotton, 
 85; kitchen, 44; linen, 82, 
 85, 88; monk's cloth, 85, 88; 
 muslin, 82, 86; net, 82, 86; 
 over curtains, 83, 84; por- 
 tieres, 87; rope, 88; rep, 85, 
 88; scrim, 82; silk, 85; suit- 
 ability of, 80; sunfast mate- 
 rials, 84, 88; tarlton, 82; 
 theatrical scrim, 82; un- 
 bleached cotton, 82, 85; 
 valances, 82; velour, 85, 88; 
 velvet, 85; vestibule door, 
 81 ; voile, 82 
 
 Curtain rings, to clean, 135 
 Custard, for two, cup, 180; 
 
 sauce, 178 
 Cyclamen, 123 
 
 Decorated china, 95 
 Decoration of Colonial rooms, 
 
 7 
 
 Delia Robbia, 36, 125, 128 
 Descriptions and price lists, 
 
 57; of bedroom, 61, 62, 63, 
 
 64; dining-room, 65, 66, 67; 
 
 hall, 57, 58; kitchen, 67, 68; 
 
 living-room, 58, 59, 60; 
 
 nursery, 69; sewing-room, 
 
 64; vestibule, 57 
 Desserts, 179, 180, 181, 182, 
 
 183, 184 
 Dining-room, 40, 65, 66, 67; 
 
 rug for, 19, 90 
 Dishes, 41, 94, 95, 96 
 Doctor's suite, 14
 
 INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 Don'ts for amateur decora- 
 tor, 72, 73, 74 
 
 Door knocker, 46 
 
 Dressing, boiled cream, 172; 
 French, 171 ; mayonnaise, 
 170, 173; Russian, 171, 173 
 
 Dried flowers and pods for 
 winter decoration, 124 
 
 Dust, to lay when sweeping, 
 134 
 
 Duster, dustless, 136 
 
 Earthenware, to keep from 
 
 breaking, 136 
 
 East India drugget, 89, 90, 91 
 Editor's letter contained in 
 
 "The Little House" book- 
 let, 55, 56 
 Effect of plain light paper as 
 
 opposed to dark figured 
 
 paper, 21 
 Eggs, coddled, 152; French 
 
 omelette, 153; shirred, 153; 
 
 vermicelli, 153 
 Electric fixtures, 38, 39, 41, 42, 
 
 46 
 
 see lighting, 75 
 Encaustic, 141, 142 
 Enclosed shelves, 40 
 English ivy, 41, 122 
 Essential features in the 
 
 choice of a home, 22, 34 
 Extracts received by "Little 
 
 House" Editor, 52, 53, 54 
 
 Family portraits, 105 
 Fashions, 79 
 
 Figured paper, 37, 72, 73 
 Finnan haddie, baked, 158 
 Fire-irons, 38 
 
 Fish, ways of cooking, 30, 157 
 Floors, 38; to oil, 143; to pol- 
 ish, 141, 142 
 
 Floor coverings, 89; bedroom, 
 91; Brussels, 89, 90, 91; 
 dining-room, 90; domestic 
 rugs, 90; East India drug- 
 get, 89, 90, 91; hall, 89; 
 hand-woven wool rug, 89, 
 90; linoleum, 57, 91; living- 
 room, 89, 90; Oriental, 89, 
 
 90, 91; oval rag rugs, 92; 
 rag rugs, hand-woven, 89, 
 
 91, 92; machine made, 89, 
 90, 91; Saxony, 89, 90, 91; 
 Scotch wool rug, 89, 90 
 
 Flowers in house decoration, 
 
 122 
 
 Fowl, boiled, 164 
 French doors, 38, 40, 41, 87 
 French prints, 45 
 Fruit, compote of, 181; salad, 
 
 182; sauces, 176; in house 
 
 decoration, 124 
 Fuchsias, 123 
 Furniture, polish, 136, 141; 
 
 treatment for faded, 143 
 
 Garbage pail, 29, 43 
 
 Geraniums, 46 
 
 Gilt, to remove fly specks 
 from, 138 
 
 Glass, to clean. 138, 139 
 
 Glass door, 36 
 
 Glassware, cut glass, antique, 
 97; modern, 96; for wash- 
 stand, 46; list, 97; pressed 
 Colonial, 96; to keep from 
 breaking, 136 
 
 Glue, 136 
 
 Good taste, 79 
 
 Grapefruit, to slice, 183 
 
 Gravy, 159 
 
 Grease stains, to remove, 137 
 
 Greenaway, Kate, 6
 
 192 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Griddlecakes, 149 
 Guest room, 19, 45 
 
 Hall, 37, 57, 58; floor cov- 
 erings, 89; lighting fixtures, 
 75, 76 
 
 Ham, broiled, boiled, 163 
 Handrail, 37 
 Hash, corned beef, 161 
 Hepplewhite furniture, 41 
 Hickory nut wafers, 178 
 Hook for provision slips, 116 
 Hour work for cleaning wom- 
 an, 31 
 
 Housekeeping for children, 10 
 Housework, 31; schedule for, 
 
 115; system in, 111 
 Hyacinths, 123 
 
 Ice chest painted to match 
 furniture, 28, 44 
 
 Impressionistic painting, 40 
 
 Individually in house decora- 
 tion, 55 
 
 Irish stew, 162 
 
 Italian fringed towels, 45 
 
 Japanese prints, 104; towel- 
 ing, 46 
 
 Javelle water, 143 
 
 Jelly, coffee, 184; cranberry, 
 177; lemon, 183; orange, 
 183; wine, 184 
 
 Juniper, 123 
 
 Junket for two persons, 179 
 
 Jut in wall, used as closet, 
 118; occupied by two beds, 
 119 
 
 Kitchen, 30 x 40 inches, 16, 
 27, 28, 29, 42; linens, 101; 
 ornaments, 44; utensils, 43 
 
 Lamb chops, 161; roast, 161 
 
 Lamp for living-room, 107 
 
 Lanterns, 76 
 
 Large pictures, to hang, 103 
 
 Leaded domes, 75, 77 
 
 Leather, to clean, polish and 
 restore surface of, 137 
 
 Lemon jelly, 183 
 
 Library paste, 113, 140 
 
 Lighting fixtures, bathroom, 
 77; bedroom, 46, 77; din- 
 ing-room, 41, 76; hall, 75, 
 76; kitchen, 42, 76; living- 
 room, library and music- 
 room, 38, 76; selection and 
 placing of, 75; on stairs, 
 77; vestibule, 75 
 
 Lighting theory, 77, 78 
 
 Linen list, 101 
 
 Linoleum, 57, 91; to clean, 
 136; home-made, 136 
 
 Liquid soda, 144 
 
 Liver and Bacon, 160; 
 braised, 161 
 
 LMng-room, 38, 105, 107, 108 
 
 Maid's room, 47 
 
 Magazine stand, 120 
 
 Mantel ornaments, 108 
 
 Marguerites, 178 
 
 Matches and ash trays, 113 
 
 Matting, to clean, 135 
 
 Mattress, 20 
 
 Meringues, 178 
 
 Mid- Victorian furnishings, 5 
 
 Moldings, 40 
 
 Muffins, 149 
 
 "My Room," 8 
 
 Newspapers and Magazines, 
 113, 114
 
 INDEX 
 
 193 
 
 Nickel, to remove tarnish 
 
 from, 139 
 Nine-roomed suburban home, 
 
 first floor, 35; second floor, 
 
 36 
 
 Oak chiffonier transformed, 
 
 120 
 "Oak trim" not good with 
 
 mahogany, 22 
 Oatmeal, 151 
 
 Odd pieces of tableware, 99 
 Office, 47 
 Old inside blinds, what can 
 
 be done with, 119, 120 
 Onions, boiled, creamed, 168 
 Open stock china, 94 
 Orange jelly, 183; how to 
 
 slice, 183 
 
 Oriental rugs, 89, 90, 91 
 Ornaments, 106 
 Outside decoration of houses, 
 
 Christmas Eve, 129 
 Oval braided rugs, 45 
 Overhead lights, 76 
 Oyster stew, 156 
 
 Pad and pencil, 116 
 
 Paint, to remove, 141 
 
 Paint brushes, to keep clean, 
 
 141 
 
 Paneled walls, 40 
 Paper furniture, 3 
 Paper white narcissus, 122 
 Paste, library, 113, 140 
 "Patty Pans," 9 
 Peas, green, 168 
 Pecan wafers, 178 
 Percentage of women who do 
 
 their own work, 51 
 Piano keys, to clean, 140 
 Pictures, 103, 104, 105; af- 
 
 fecting treatment of room, 
 
 40; that repeat color of 
 
 rest of room, 39 
 Pincushion, 113 
 Pineapple, to shred, 182 
 Plated silver, 97, 98 
 Playhouses, 9 
 Polish, for furniture, 136, 
 
 141; for silver, 139 
 Polished floor without rug, 41 
 Popovers, 151 
 Porcelain, to clean, 133 
 Pork, chops, 162; roast, 163 
 Portieres, 87 
 Potatoes, baked, 164; baked 
 
 sweet, 166; boiled, 165; 
 
 boiled sweet, 166; creamed, 
 
 165; glazed sweet, 166; 
 
 hashed brown, 165; mashed, 
 
 165 
 
 Prune whip, 182 
 Pussy willow, 123 
 
 Rag rugs, 89, 90, 91, 92 
 Religious pictures, place for, 
 
 105 
 Rented apartments and 
 
 houses, how to improve, 13, 
 
 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 
 
 22, 23 
 Rep, 85, 88 
 Rhubarb sauce, 176 
 Rice, creamy pudding, 181; 
 
 how to cook, 170 
 Rope portieres, 88 
 
 Salad, fruit, 182 
 
 Salmon, creamed, 158 
 
 Sandwiches, brown bread and 
 cheese, 174; celery mayon- 
 naise, 174; club, 174; egg 
 and green pepper, 173;
 
 194 
 
 INDEX 
 
 onion, 174; rolled, 173; to- 
 mato, 174 
 
 Sauces, for desserts, 177, 178; 
 for meats and vegetables, 
 175, 176; fruit, 176 
 
 Sausage, 150 
 
 Saxony carpets and rugs, 89, 
 90, 91 
 
 Scales, 116 
 
 Schedules of work, 114, 115 
 
 Scotch wool rugs, 19, 89, 90 
 
 Sewing machine as dressing 
 table, 19, 121 
 
 Shades, 82, 86 
 
 Silver, 94; cloth for polish- 
 ing, 135; polish, 139 
 
 Silverware, 97 
 
 Sink built high, 27 
 
 Slip covers for bed ends, 118; 
 for chairs, 117 
 
 Soup, asparagus, 155; Juli- 
 enne, 155; macaroni, 154; 
 stock, 154, 155 
 
 Spinach, boiled, 169 
 
 Stains, to remove, 137, 141 
 
 Steak, Hamburg, 158; to 
 broil, 158 
 
 Stoves, to remove rust from, 
 138 
 
 Sunfast material, 41, 84, 88. 
 
 Table cloths, 100 
 Table linen, 100 
 Tableware, 94 
 Tapestry, to clean, 135 
 Tea, 148 
 Telephone, 44 
 Temperamental requisites for 
 
 living in small quarters, 32 
 Tiles, 36; colored with alabas- 
 
 tine, 16, 23 
 
 Toilet articles, 45 
 
 Tomatoes, broiled, 169; sand- 
 wiches, 174; scalloped, 170; 
 sliced, 169; stewed, 169 
 
 Tongue, boiled smoked, 160; 
 braised fresh, 160 
 
 Tool chest, 112 
 
 Train and street car sched- 
 ules, 113 
 
 Two beds occupying space of 
 one, 27 
 
 Two-roomed apartment, 26 
 
 Ugly things improved, 117, 
 
 118, 119, 120, 121 
 Upstairs broom closet, 113 
 
 Veal, cutlets, chops, fricassee 
 
 of, 162 
 Vegetables, how to cook 
 
 green, 166 
 Vestibule, 36 
 
 Waffles, 149 
 
 Wall paper, to remove, 140; 
 
 to remove stains from, 137; 
 
 to repair, 140 
 Walls, 38, 46; to prepare for 
 
 papering, 140 
 Washstand set of clear glass, 
 
 46 
 
 Whole wheat gems, 151 
 Wild fruit blossoms, 123 
 Window lighting on Christ- 
 mas Eve, 127 
 Window shelves for plants, 
 
 38, 40 
 
 Wine jelly, 184 
 Woodwork, 37, 46 
 Writing materials and table, 
 
 113
 
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