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 Gatherings from an Artist's Portfolio. 
 
 By JAMES E. FREEMAN. 
 One volume, 16mo, ------ Cloth $1.25. 
 
 " The gifted American artist, Mr. James E. Freeman, who has for many 
 years been a resident of Eome, has hrought together in this tasteful little 
 volume a number of sketches of the noted men of letters, painters, sculptors, 
 models, and other interesting personages whom he has had an opportunity to 
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 " 'An Artist's Portfolio' is a charming book. The writer has gathered 
 incidents and reminiscences of some of the master writers, painters, and 
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 beautiful descriptions and delightful conversations. He talks about Leslie, 
 John Gibson, Thackeray, and that inimitable writer, Father Prout (Mahony), 
 in an irresistible manner." — New Fork Independent. 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. 
 
.pgldons' Pamc ^mhn. 
 
 HOME amuseme:nts. 
 
 By MT W wTs.-'K''^ 
 
 AUTHOR (JF AMEjqiTIES OF DOME," ETC. 
 
 ' There be some sports are painfal ; and their labour 
 Delight in them sets off." 
 
 •Tc elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves ; 
 And ye that on the sands vyith printless foot 
 Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him, 
 "When he comes back ! " 
 
 1 do invoke ye all. 
 
 NEW TOEK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STEEET. 
 1881. 
 

 COPYRIGHT ET 
 
 D. APPLETON Kmi COMPAKT, 
 
 1S81. 
 
 Afmy and N; V' ^i '.b 
 May 27, 1929 
 
OOIsTTEI^TS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. — Peefatoet ...... 5 
 
 II. — The Gaeeet . . . , . 7 
 
 III. — PeITATE TnEATEIOALS, ETC. .... 9 
 
 IV. — Tableaux Vivants .... 20 
 
 V. — Beain Games . . . . , .25 
 
 VI. — FORTUNE-TELLINa ..... 37 
 
 VII. — Amusements foe a Eaint Day . . .45 
 
 VIII. — Embeoideey and othee Decoeative Aets . 50 
 
 IX. — ^ETCHiNa . . . . . .64 
 
 X. — Lawn Tennis . ' .' . . . 67 
 
 XL — Gaeden Pasties . . ' ". . . 77 
 
 XII. — Dancing . .:*-' r . . . 86 
 
 XIII. — Gaedens and Plowee-Stands . . .93 
 
 XIV. — Caged Bieds and Aviaeies . . . 104 
 
 XV.— Picnics 112 
 
 XVI. — Plating with Fiee. Ceeamics . . . 117 
 
 XVIL— Aecheet ...... 124 
 
 XVIII. — Amusements for the Middle-Aged and the Aged 131 
 XIX.— The Paeloe . . . . . .135 
 
 XX.— The Kitchen ..... 140 
 
 XXI. — The Family Hoese and othee Pets . . 144 
 
 XXII. — In Conclusion ..... 148 
 
HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 PEEFATOEY. 
 
 G-OETHE, in " Wilhelm Meister," struck the key-note of 
 the universal underlying dramatic instinct. The boy be- 
 gins to play the drama of life with his puppets, and after- 
 ward exploits the wild dreams of youth in the company of 
 the strolling players. We are, indeed, all actors. We all 
 know how early the strutting soldier-instinct crops out, 
 and how soon the little girl assumes the cares of the ama- 
 teur nursery. 
 
 " I have learned from neighbor Nelly 
 "What the gui's doll-instinct means." 
 
 We begin early to play at liying, until Life becomes too 
 strong for us, and, seizing us in merciless and severe grip, 
 returns our condescension by making of us the puppets 
 with which the passing tragedy or comedy is presented. 
 With this idea in mind we have begun our little book with 
 the play in the garret — the humblest attempt at histrionics 
 — and so going on, still endeavoring to help those more 
 ambitious artists who, in remote and secluded spots, may 
 essay to amuse themselves and others by attempting the 
 
6 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 role of a Cushman, a Wallack, a Sothern, a Booth, or a 
 Gilbert. 
 
 Our subsequent task has been a more difficult one. To 
 tell people how to give all sorts of entertainments — in fact, 
 to tell our intelligent people how to do anything — is nearly 
 as foolish a practice as to carry coals to Newcastle, and im- 
 plies that sort of conceit which Thackeray so wittily sug- 
 gests when, in his ''Eebecca and Eowena," he presents 
 the picture of a little imp painting the lily. It is hard to 
 know where to draw the line. It would be delightful to 
 amuse— to help along with the great business of making 
 home happy — to tell a mother what to do with her active 
 young brood, and yet to avoid that dreadful bore of men- 
 tioning to her something which she already knows a great 
 deal better than we do. 
 
 The Scylla of barrenness and the Charybdis of garrulity 
 are before any author who tries to speak upon a familiar 
 theme. Let us hope that, through the kindness of our 
 readers, we may not have wrecked our little bark on either. 
 
THE GAEEET. 
 
 Happy the children who have inherited a garret ! We 
 mean the good old country garret, wherein have been 
 stowed away the accumulations of many generations of 
 careful housewives. The more worthless these accumula- 
 tions, the better for the children. An old aunt who saved 
 all the old bonnets, an. old uncle who had a wardrobe of 
 cast-off garments to which he had appended the legend, 
 
 " Too poor to wear, too good to give away — " 
 
 these are the purveyors to the histrionic talents of nations 
 yet unborn. Old garrets are really the factories of His- 
 tory, Poetry, and the Drama. 
 
 Into such a garret crept the lame little Walter Scott, 
 and what did he not bring out of it ! Talk of the lumber 
 of a garret and the accumulations of a house, and you men- 
 tion to the thoughtful the gold and diamond mines of a 
 future literature. A bright boy or girl will unearth many 
 a pearl of price from those old trunks, those dilapidated 
 bureau-drawers, those piles of old love-letters, those gar- 
 ments of the past, that broken-down guitar, that stringless 
 violin, that too-reedy flute. The taste for old furniture 
 has rather emptied the garret of its time-honored chairs 
 and old clocks, but there is still in its ghost-haunted cor- 
 ners quite enough goblin tapestry for the fancy of the 
 growing child. 
 
8 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 A country home is, of course, tlie most precious posses- 
 sion a child can have — a country home in which his ances- 
 tors have lived for years, and which has a large garret, a 
 capacious cellar, and several barns. One might wish that 
 every child might be born in Salem or Plymouth, or near 
 one of those old settlements. But as that would be quite 
 impossible, considering the acres which we are compelled 
 to cover as a nation, we may as well see what can be done, 
 in the way of Home Amusements, with the garret as well 
 as the parlor. The garret, in both town and country, has 
 been the earliest home of the legitimate drama since the 
 first youthful aspirant for histrionic honors strapped on the 
 sock and buskin. A good country barn has also been 
 sometimes the scene not only of the strolling but of the 
 resident player. 
 
III. 
 
 .PEIVATE THEATEIOALS; ACTING PEO VERBS 
 AND CHAEADES. 
 
 "Wheeeyee the amateur actor pitches his tent or erects 
 his stage, he must consider wisely the extraneous space be- 
 hind the acting arena necessary for his exits and entrances, 
 and his theatrical properties. In an ordinary house the 
 back parlor, with two doors opening into the dining-room, 
 makes an ideal theatre 5 for the exits can be masked, and 
 the space is specially useful. One door opening into a 
 large hall is absolutely necessary, if no better arrangement 
 can be made. The best stage is, of course, like that of a 
 theatre, with areas all around and behind it, so that the 
 actors haye a space to retire into. This is difficult in a 
 parlor, unless it be a very large one. The difficulty, how- 
 eyer, has been and will be solved by the ingenious. Draw- 
 ing up the big sofa in front of the footlights, and. arranging 
 a pair of screens and a curtain, has often served well for a 
 parlor play. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that all these arrangements 
 for a play depend, in the first place, on the requirements 
 of the play itself and its legitimate business, which may 
 demand a table, a bureau, a piano, a fireplace, etc. And 
 here we would say to the youthful actor. Select your play 
 at first with a view to its requiring little change of scene, 
 and not much furniture. A young actor needs space ; he 
 is embarrassed by too many chairs and tables. Then, again. 
 
10 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 choose a play which lias so much varied incident in it that 
 it will, as it is said, "play itself." Of this branch of our 
 subject we will treat later. 
 
 The first thing to be built is the stage. Any carpenter 
 will lay a few stout boards on end-pieces, which are simply 
 squared joists, and for yery little money will take away the 
 boards and joists afterward ; or a permanent stage can be 
 built for a few dollars. Sometimes ingenious boys build 
 their own stage with old boxes ; but this is apt to be dan- 
 gerous. Very few families are without an old carpet, which 
 will serve for a stage-covering ; and, if this is lacking, green 
 baize is very cheap. A whole stage-fitting — curtains and 
 all — can be made of green cambric ; but it is better to have 
 all the stuffs of woolen, for the danger from fire is other- 
 wise great. Footlights may be made of tin, with pieces of 
 candle put in ; or a row of old bottles of equal height, with 
 candles stuck in the mouth, make a most admirable and 
 very cheap set of footlights. The mother, an elder brother, 
 or some one with judgment, should see to all these things, 
 or the play may be spoiled by an accident. 
 
 The curtain is always a trouble. A light wooden frame 
 should be made by the carpenter ; firm at the joints, 
 and as high as the stage, to the front part of which it 
 should be attached. This frame forms three sides of a 
 square, and the curtain must be firmly nailed to the top- 
 piece. A stiff wire should be run along the lower edge of 
 the curtain, and a number of rings be attached to the back 
 of it in squares — three rows of four rings each, extending 
 from top to bottom. Three cords are now fastened to the 
 wire, and, passing through the rings, are run over three 
 pulleys on the upper piece of the frame. It is well for all 
 young managers of garret theatres to get uj) one of these 
 curtains, even if they have to hire an upholsterer to help 
 them. The draw-curtain never works surely, and often 
 hurts the denoumenf of the play. In the case of the drop- 
 
PRIVATE THEATRICALS, ETC. 11 
 
 curtain wliicli we haye described, one person holds all the 
 ends of the cords, tied together ; and, on pulling this, the 
 curtain goes up and down as if by magic, and rarely gets 
 out of order, which is a great gain. 
 
 Now as for stage properties. Almost any household, 
 or any self-respecting garret, will hold enough of " things." 
 If it does not, let the young actors exercise their ingenuity 
 in making up, with tinsel-paper and other cheap material, 
 all that they will want. Turnips, properly treated with a 
 jackknife, have heretofore served for Yorick's skull in the 
 great play of " Hamlet." A boy who knows how to paint 
 can, on a white cotton background, with a pot of common 
 black paint, indicate a scene. If he be so fortunate as to 
 know a kindly theatrical manager who will let him for 
 once go behind the scenes, he will find that the most splen- 
 did effects are gained by a very small outlay. 
 
 As for the theatrical wardrobe, that is a very easy mat- 
 ter, if the children have an indulgent and tasteful mother, 
 who will help a little and lend her old finery. 
 
 A brigand's costume (and brigands are very convenient 
 theatrical friends) is easily arranged. Procure a black felt 
 hat, fastened up with a shoe-buckle ; a bow and a long 
 feather ; a jacket, on which Fanny will sew some brass 
 buttons ; one of mamma's or sister's gay scarfs, tied round 
 the waist several times ; an old pair of pantaloons, cut off 
 at the knee, and long stockings, tied up with scarlet rib- 
 bons ; a pair of pumps, with another pair of buckles, and 
 any old pair of pistols, dirks, or even carving-knives, stuck 
 in the belt, and you have, at very small expense, a fierce 
 brigand of the Abruzzi. 
 
 Girls' dresses are still easier of attainment. But the 
 great trouble in the dressing of girls for their characters is 
 the frequent inattention to the time and style of the char- 
 acter. A young lady who plays the part of Marie Antoi- 
 nette must remember the enormous hoops which were a 
 
12 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 part of the costume of the unlucky queen. She must not 
 be content to merely powder her hair. She must remem- 
 ber time, place, circumstance, and dress herself accurately, 
 if she wishes to produce a proper dress. A lady once wore 
 in the part of Helen of Troy, for private theatricals in New 
 York, a pair of high-heeled French slippers, with the clsi's,- 
 &\c peplum. A gentleman of archaeological tastes declared 
 that he could not stay in a house where such crimes were 
 committed against historical accuracy ! She should have 
 worn the classic sandal, of course — not modern black slip- 
 pers. 
 
 The '^ make-up" of a character requires study and ob- 
 servation. In the painting and shading of faces, adapta- 
 tion of wigs, application of mustaches and whiskers, there 
 is much to be done. A box of water-colors, a little chalk, 
 camel's-hair pencils, a saucer of rouge, a burnt cork, and 
 some India ink, all are useful. If these can not be got, one 
 burnt cork, aided by a little flour, will do it all. Mus- 
 taches can be made by borrowing mamma's old discarded 
 artificial curls, cutting them ofE to a proper length, and 
 gumming them on the upper lip. The hair of a good old 
 Newfoundland dog has served this purpose. A very pretty 
 little mustache can be painted with India ink. However, 
 if near a barber or a hair-dresser — or, still better, a cos- 
 tumer — it is well to get ready-made mustaches, which come 
 of all colors, already gummed. If the make-up of an old 
 man is required, study a picture of an old face, and trace 
 on your own face with a camel's-hair pencil and India ink 
 the wrinkles, the lines of an aged countenance. Make 
 a wig of white cotton if you can not hire one of gray 
 hair. 
 
 If a comic face is needed, stand before a glass and grin, 
 watch the lines which the grin leaves, and trace them up 
 with a reddish-brown water-color. Put on rouge particu- 
 larly about the nose and eyes. A frown, a smile, a sneer. 
 
PRIVATE TEEATBIGAL8, ETC. 13 
 
 a simper, or a sad expression, can always be painted by 
 this process. The gayest face can be made sad by drop- 
 ping a line or two from the corners of the mouth and of 
 the eyes. 
 
 For a ferocious brigand, cork the eyebrows heavily, and 
 bring them together over the eyes. If you wish to produce 
 emaciation or leanness, cork under the eyes, and in the hol- 
 low of the cheek (or make a hollow), and under the lower 
 lip. To make up a pretty girl, even out of a young man's 
 face, requires only some rouge and chalk and a blonde wig. 
 There should be also a powdering about the eyebrows, ears, 
 and roots of the hair. There should be a heavy coat of 
 powder on the nose, and after the rouge is put on, a shower 
 of powder over that. All will wash off without hurting 
 the complexion. For a drunkard or a villain, purple spots 
 are painted on chin, cheek, forehead, and nose. 
 
 The theatrical wardrobe, to be complete, should have 
 several different wigs, and as these can not be made well 
 except by an artist in hair, we recommend the actors to lay 
 out all their spare cash on these adjuncts. Having dressed 
 for the part, the acting comes much more easily. No one 
 knows the effect of dress better than the real actor, who 
 calls it "the skin of the part." 
 
 The lines to be spoken should be committed most 
 thoroughly to memory. Without this no play can be a 
 success. Each performer should write out his own part, 
 with the "cues," or the words which come directly before 
 his own speeches, and commit the whole to memory. 
 When the performer hears the words of the cue, the words 
 of his own part come to his lips immediately. 
 
 The exits and entrances, and what is known as " stage 
 business," are always difi&cult to beginners. The necessity 
 of closets, etc., in a small stage, places to retire to, and the 
 like, can be managed, however, by screens, and these are 
 so useful in all private theatricals that one should be made. 
 
14: HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 six feet higli by three feet wide, hinged, and covered with 
 wall-paper, before any plays dire attempted. 
 t We are describing the very cheapest and most unsophis- 
 Iticated private theatricals — such as those which school-boys 
 and girls could get up in the country, or in a city basement 
 or garret, with very little money or help from their parents. 
 And these are the ones which give the most pleasure. Ex- 
 pensive and adroitly-conducted theatricals, in a city where 
 experts can be hired to do these things, have no lasting 
 charm. It is, as in all other things, the amount of our- 
 selves which we put into anything which makes us enjoy 
 private theatricals. And in a city, grown people have the 
 privilege of the best theatricals, beside which all amateur 
 efforts are lamentably tame. But a party of fresh young 
 people, full of the ichor of youth, can with the slightest 
 hel|) produce the most delightful effects with very simple 
 means. 
 
 Young girls are too apt, in playing private theatricals, 
 to sacrifice character to prettiness. Now this is a fatal 
 mistake. To dress a part with finikin fineness, which is 
 to be a representation of quite different sorts of qualities, is 
 poor art. Let them rather imitate Miss Cushman's rags in 
 Meg Merrilies, or Bastian Le Page's homely peasant sim- 
 plicity in Joan of Arc. Remember, the drama is the mir- 
 ror of nature, and should produce its strong outlines and 
 its deep shadows. It is in this realism that men surpass 
 women. The college theatricals, in which all parts are 
 played by men, are by far the best. 
 
 In selecting a play, amateurs should try and find one, 
 as we have said, which "plays itself." They should not 
 attempt those delicate and very difficult plays which only 
 great artists can make amusing. They should select the 
 play which is full of action and situation, like " The Fol- 
 lies of a Night," or "Everybody's Friend." The most 
 commonplace actors fail to spoil such plays as these ; and 
 
PRIVATE THEATRICALS, ETC. 15 
 
 there are for younger performers hundreds of good plays, 
 farces, and musical burlesques to be found at every "book- 
 store. " !N"aval Engagements/' "A Cure for the Fidgets/' 
 "The Two Buzzards/' " Betsey Baker/' "Box and Cox/' 
 "AEegular Fix/' " Incomj)atibility of Temper," "Ici I'on 
 j)arle Frangais/' " To oblige Benson/' are among the many 
 which really help the amateur, instead of crushing him. 
 
 But no one who is not a first-rate actor should attempt 
 "Two can play at that Game," "A Morning Call," "A 
 Happy Pair," or any of those beautiful French trifles which 
 look so easy, and in the hands of good actors are so charm- 
 ing, for they depend upon the most delicate shades of act- 
 ing to make them even passable . 
 
 For those players of a larger growth, who attempt the 
 very interesting business of amateur theatricals on a more 
 ambitious plane, we can illustrate our meaning as to plays 
 which "play themselves" by two instances : 
 
 " Ici Ton parle Fran9ais" gives the two amusing situa- 
 tions of a man who is trying to speak French with the aid 
 of a phrase-book, and the counterpoise of a Frenchman who 
 is trying to speak English in the same fragmentary manner. 
 Their mutual mistakes keep the house in a roar ; and al- 
 most any clever pair of young men can assume these two 
 characters to great advantage. They each have an eccen- 
 tric character mapped out for them, and very little shad- 
 ing is necessary. 
 
 Again, for a very much more poetical and entirely dif- 
 ferent range of part, but yet one which "plays itself," we 
 would suggest "Pygmalion and Calatea," Gilbert's beauti- 
 ful and poetical play. Here we have the great novelty of a 
 young lady disguised as a marble statue. She can be 
 "made up" with white powder and white merino drapery 
 to look very like a marble statue, and a powerful white 
 lime-light should be thrown on her from above. There is 
 a tableau within a play to begin with, and something novel 
 
16 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and interesting. The marble statue, however, at the very 
 start becomes endowed with life, steps down from her ped- 
 estal, walks forward to the footlights, talks, and receives 
 the homage of a lover. Now, almost any pretty and intel- 
 ligent maiden can make this part very interesting. She 
 needs nothing but grace and a good memory to do this 
 Galatea well. The part plays itself. 
 
 The same young actress could not do Lady Teazle — that 
 delightful and intricate bit of acting, so dependent upon 
 stage tradition and stage training that old theatre-goers say 
 that in fifty years only five actresses have done it well. 
 Still less could she approach the heroine in the '^ Morning 
 Call" or the young wife in " Caste." These parts demand 
 the long, severe stage training of an accomplished artist. 
 The Galatea is assisted by the novelty of the position, by 
 the fact that every young maid is a marble statue, in one 
 sense, until Love makes her a woman, so that each joerson 
 may give a strikingly individual portrait ; and, above all, it 
 is a play which is a new creation, and therefore capable of 
 a new interpretation. 
 
 We do not advise amateurs to undertake Shakespeare, 
 unless it be "Katherine and Petruchio," which is so gay 
 and scolding that 'it almost plays itself. 
 
 The very beautiful comedies of Eobertson seem very 
 easy when one sees Mr. Wallack's company play them ; but 
 they are very difficult for amateurs. They depend upon 
 the most delicate shading, the highest art, and the neat- 
 est finish. 
 
 The sterling old comedies — all excepting " The Eivals" 
 — are almost impossible, even those which are full of inci- 
 dent and full of costume. Their quick movement seems 
 to evade the player ; and what is so terrible to the listener 
 as to endure even a second's suspension in the "give and 
 take" of a comedy? "The Eivals," strange to say, is a 
 very good play for amateurs. 
 
PRIVATE THEATRICALS, ETC. 17 
 
 Boucicault's farces and society plays run very well on 
 the amateur stage. Lady Gay Sijanker is not a difficult 
 part. Bulwer's "Lady of Lyons" should never be attempt- 
 ed by amateurs. It becomes mawkishly sentimental in 
 their hands. But Charles Eeade's " Still Waters run 
 Deep "is excellent for amateurs; and "Money "runs off 
 rather more easily than one would suppose. 
 
 Amateurs are very fond of "A Wonderful Woman," 
 but we can not see much in it. "The Wonder" is very 
 picturesque. It is one of the plays which plays itself ; and 
 the SjDanish costumes are beautiful. The famous comedies, 
 "My Awful Dad," " Woodcock's Little Game," and "The 
 Liar," should be studied very thoroughly by observation 
 and by book before being attempted by amateurs. The 
 " Little Game" has two very hard parts to fill, Mrs. Colo- 
 nel Carver and Woodcock ; still it has been done moderately 
 well. For a parlor comedy, "The Happy Pair" is a great 
 favorite; and "Box and Cox" can be done by anybody, 
 and is always funny. Music helps along wonderfully, as 
 witness the immortal " Pinafore," which has been played 
 by amateurs to admiration for hundreds of admiring audi- 
 ences. 
 
 A stage manager is indispensable. In getting up am- 
 bitious plays in a city, which the courageous amateur some- 
 times attempts, an actor from the theatre is generally hired 
 to "coach" the neophytes. In the country, some intel- 
 ligent friend should do this, and he can properly be arbi- 
 trary. It is a case for an absolute monarchy. The stage 
 manager must hear his company read the play over first, 
 and tell John faithfully if he is better fitted for the part of 
 the lackey rather than that of the lover. He must disabuse 
 Seraphina of the belief that she either looks or can play the 
 ingenu, and relegate her to the part of the housekeeper. 
 We all have our natural and acquired capabilities for vari- 
 ous parts, and can do no other. 
 
HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Then, after reading tlie part, comes the rehearsal ; and 
 this is the crucial test. The players must study, rehearse, 
 rehearse, study, and not be discouraged if they grow worse 
 rather than better. There is always a part lagging, and 
 the dress rehearsal is in variably a discouraging thing. But 
 that is a most excellent and adyantageous discouragement 
 if it inspire the actors to new efEorts. Nothing can spoil 
 a priyate theatrical attempt like conceit and self-satisfac- 
 tion. The art is as difficult a one as playing on the yiolin ; 
 and, although an amateur may learn to play pretty well, the 
 distance between him and a professional is as great as that 
 between an amateur yiolinist and Vieuxtemps. The ama- 
 teur must remember this fact. 
 
 " Acting proyerbs " is an ingenious way of suggesting 
 an idea by its component parts rather than stating it out- 
 right. The parts are not written, but merely talked oyer, 
 and are often done by cleyer young people on the spur of 
 the moment. It is well, however, to consult beforehand 
 as to the argument of the play. The books are full of little 
 plays written upon such proverbs as "All is not Gold that 
 Glitters," ''Honor among Thieves," ''All is Fair in Love 
 and War," etc. But we advise young people to take up 
 less well-known proverbs, and to write their own plays. 
 They might learn one or two as a sort of exercise, but the 
 fresh outcrop of their own originality will be much better. 
 The same may be said with the acting of charades. 
 
 A dramatic charade is a very ingenious thing, and a 
 very neat little play in four acts can be made from the 
 word Ab-di-cate. A B, of course, presents a school scene. 
 And at a watering place, if some witty man or woman will 
 represent the schoolmaster or schoolmistress, all the pupils 
 can be the grown men and women who are well known. 
 The entran'ce of a fashionable mamma, her instantaneous 
 effect on the severity of the teacher, the taking off the fool's- 
 cap from the head of Master Tommy, who has been in dis- 
 
PBIVATE TEEATBIGALS, ETC. 19 
 
 grace — all will cause laughter and an opportunity for local 
 jokes. This is Act I. Di can be represented by the dye- 
 ing process of a barber who has to please many customers ; 
 or '"The die is cast" ; or an apposite allusion to Walter 
 Scott's " Die Vernon " ; or some comico-tragico scene of " I 
 can but die.^' This is Act II. Gate, to " cater,'" " Kate " 
 — for bad spelling is permitted — all these are in order. 
 This is Act III. The last act can be the splendid pageant 
 of a Turkish Abdication, in which a sultan abdicates in 
 favor of his son. All the camel's-hair shawls, brilliant tur- 
 bans, and jewelry of the house and neighborhood can here 
 be introduced with effect. 
 
 Charades in which negroes, Irish or German people, or 
 anybody with a dialect, enter in and form a part, are very 
 amusing if the boys of the family have a genius for mim- 
 icry. Amateur minstrels are very funny. The getting up 
 of a party of white men as black men is, however, at- 
 tended with expense. The gift of singing a comic song is 
 highly appreciated in the family circle of amateur drama- 
 tists, and a little piece with songs is very sure to be accept- 
 able. 
 
 If every member of the party will do what he can, 
 without any false shame, or any egotistical desire to outdo 
 the others, if the ready-witted will do what they can to 
 help the slow-going, and if the older members of the fam- 
 ily will help along, these amusements will cheer many a 
 winter's evening, many a long rainy week, and will improve 
 all who are connected with them ; for memory and elocu- 
 tion, good manners and a graceful bearing, are all included 
 in the playing of charades, proverbs, and the little dramas. 
 
IV. 
 
 TABLEAUX VIVANTS. 
 
 We now come to one of the most artistic of all Home 
 Amusements — the ToMeau vivant. 
 
 Lady Hamilton amused the people of her age, all over 
 Europe, by playing in a parlor very striking living pic- 
 tures. All she asked was a corner of the room, a heavy 
 curtain behind her, and a few shawls and turbans. Being 
 a beautiful and graceful woman, with the dramatic in- 
 stinct, she gave imitations of celebrated statues and pic- 
 tures, and was no doubt aided by some very ingenious 
 painting, which she knew how to apply to her own fair 
 face. The art she discovered is certainly worth trying in 
 the present age as an amusement. 
 
 The preparations for good tableaux should be some- 
 what elaborate. A vista should be built and lined with 
 dark-colored cloth ; lights should fall from the io^, sides, 
 and front, so as to avoid shadows. The groups should be 
 striking, the colors clear, and the attitudes simple. Some- 
 times there are such wonderful and unpremeditated effects 
 from these living joictures that artists hold up their hands 
 in despair ; more often they are ruined by shadows ; the 
 lights are not well arranged, and the whole effect lacks ele- 
 vation and meaning. It is difificult to arrange a crowded 
 tableau, but it can be done. 
 
 The principle of a picture — a pyramidal form — should 
 be observed closely in tableau. To secure this desirable 
 
. TABLEAUX VIVANTS. 21 
 
 object the persons in the background must stand on eleva- 
 tions. Boxes covered with dark cloth, so as to be unnotice- 
 able, are the best of all devices, and the effect of any object 
 held up in the hand, as a scepter, a bird, a distaff, or a 
 wreath, must be carefully noted, as it may throw a shadow 
 on the picture in the background. There never was, or 
 could be, a tableau which did not have some weak spot, 
 and these shadows are the faults which most easily beguile ; 
 but they can be avoided. 
 
 A group of Puritans make into many very striking pic- 
 tures. The costume is beautiful and becoming ; red cloth 
 can be laid on the table or floor to set off the grays ; and 
 the many picturesque incidents in our early history form 
 very pleasing subjects. It is a beautiful dress for women 
 and a dignified one for men — that gray dress and high ruff, 
 that broad hat, and plain, long gown. A group of young 
 people might take a winter's amusement out of reading up 
 the Puritan annals, and giving at the Academy or in their 
 own homes a series of Puritan tableaux. 
 
 A tableau can be given in parlors separated by folding- 
 doors ; but they are not by any means as good as those for 
 which a stage, vista and footlights, flies and side-lights, are 
 arranged. If there is a large unused room, where these 
 properties can stand, the result is very much better. There 
 should be a gauze curtain or one of black tarlatan, which 
 should have no seams in it, and this curtain should hang 
 in front of the stage all the time. The drop-curtain must 
 be outside of this. The gauze curtain serves as a sort of 
 varnish to the picture, and adds to the illusion. 
 
 Although the pure white light of candles, gas, kerosene, 
 or lime-light is the best for tableaux, very pretty effects are 
 produced by the introduction of colored lights, such as can 
 be produced by the use of nitrate of strontia, chlorate of 
 potash, sulphuret of antimony, sulphur, oxymuriate of po- 
 tassa, metallic arsenic, and pulverized charcoal. Muriate 
 
22 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 of copper makes a bluisli-green fire, and many other colors 
 can be obtained by a little study of chemistry. Here are 
 some simple recipes : 
 
 To make a red fire. — Five ounces nitrate of strontia, 
 dry, one and a half ounces finely-powdered sulphur. Take 
 fiye drachms chlorate of potash and four drachms sulphuret \ 
 of antimony and powder them separately in a mortar ; then : 
 mix them on paper, and, having mixed the other ingre- 
 dients, previously powdered, add these last, and rub the 
 whole together on paper. In use, mix a little spirits of 
 wine with the powder, and burn in a flat iron plate or pan. 
 
 A green fire may be made by joowdering finely and mix- 
 ing well thirteen parts flour of sulphur, five parts oxymu- 
 riate of potassa, two laarts metallic arsenic, three parts 
 pulverized charcoal, seventy-seven parts nitrate of baryta ; 
 dry it carefully, powder, and mix the whole thoroughly. 
 A polished reflector fitted on one side of the pan in which 
 this is burned will concentrate the light and cast a brilliant 
 green luster on the figures. A bluish-green fire may be 
 produced by burning muriate of copjser finely powdered 
 and mixed with spirits of wine. These fires smell unpleas- 
 antly in the drawing-room ; and equally good effects may 
 almost always be produced by colored globes, if the light 
 is not needed too quickly. 
 
 Sulphate of copper, when dissolved in water, will give a 
 beautiful Uue color. The common red cabbage gives three 
 colors. Slice the cabbage and pour boiling water on it ; 
 when cold, add a small quantity of alum, and you have 
 purple. Potash dissolved in the water will give a brilliant 
 green. A few drops of muriatic acid will turn the cabbage- 
 water into a crimson. 
 
 Then, again, if a ghostly look be required, mix common 
 salt with spirits of wine in a metal cup and set it upon a 
 wire frame over a spirit-lamp. When the cup becomes 
 heated, and the spirits of wine ignite, the other lights in 
 
TABLEAUX YIYANTS. 23 
 
 the room should be extinguished, and that of the spirit- 
 lamp shaded in some way. The result will be that the 
 whole group will become like the witches in Macbeth, 
 
 " That look not like the inhabitants of the earth, 
 But yet are of it." 
 
 This burning of common salt produces a very weird ef- 
 fect. It seems that salt has some other properties than the 
 conservative, preserving, hospitable kind of quality which 
 legend and the daily needs of mankind have ascribed to it. 
 
 A very fine and artistic set of tableaux can be gotten 
 up by reference to such a great work as " Boy dell's Shake- 
 sjDeare," if it happens to be at hand. Also a study of fine 
 engravings, such as one finds in the "National Academy." 
 If these books are not attainable, almost any pictorial maga- 
 zine will furnish subjects. Or, if imagination is consulted, 
 construct a series out of Waverley, or from the but too well 
 known scenes of the French Eevolution, or from George 
 Eliot's delightful "Eomola" — a book full of remarkable 
 pictures, with the additional charm of the old Florentine 
 dress. Sometimes a very impressive poem is given in tab- 
 leaux, like Tennyson's "Princess," or, the "Dream of Fair 
 Women." Then there are many artistic but rather horri- 
 ble surprises, as " The Head of John the Baptist," which 
 can be "cut off" admirably by an intervening table, and 
 so on ; but nothing is so good as a study of the fine groups 
 of the best painters. 
 
 Venetian scenes, from Titian's and Tintoretto's pictures, 
 can be admirably represented in tableaux. The Italian 
 wealth of color is always impressive ; and as engravings of 
 these pictures are attainable, it is well to represent them. 
 Eoman scenes are very effective, and especially as Alma Tade- 
 ma arranges them for us, with his fine feeling for the antique. 
 
 The humor of Hogarth, aided as it is by the picturesque 
 dress of his day, can be represented in a tableau. But 
 
24 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 without some sucli aids liumor is generally lost in a tab- 
 leau. There is not time for it. Some of Darley's groups, 
 as, for instance, the illustrations of "Eip Van Winkle," are 
 admirable, and would seem to contradict this statement, for 
 they are full of fun ; but then — they are wonderfully well 
 dressed. That early Eeyolutionary dress, borrowed in part 
 from the days of Queen Anne, is very picturesque. 
 
 If there is some one in the group whose fine sense of the 
 proprieties of art can be trusted, the allegorical can be 
 attempted. But the danger is that the allegorical in art 
 is generally ridiculous. Faith, Hope, and Charity, Mercy 
 and Peace, are better anywhere than in pictures. 
 
 The grotesque is always lost in a tableau, where there 
 seems to be a sort of sesthetic demand for the heroic, the 
 refined, and the delicate. A double action may be pre- 
 sented with very good effect ; as in some of those fancies of 
 Ketzsch and Ary Scheffer, where an angel bends over a 
 sleeping child, or a group, unknown to the actors in front, 
 is representing another picture behind. But the best 
 effects are the simplest. One should not attempt too much. 
 The old example, called " The Dull Lecture," painted by 
 Gilbert Stuart Newton, where a prosy old philosopher is 
 reading aloud to a pretty girl who is fast asleep, is a case in 
 point. That has been a favorite tableau for forty years, 
 nor are its charms yet done away with. Tableaux from 
 Dickens have only a moderate success, excepting, perhaps, 
 the rather overdone "Christmas Carol." The dress is 
 wanting in color and character. 
 
 Tableaux in which animals are introduced are sometimes 
 very effective, if stuffed bears and lions and tigers can be 
 hired from a museum. A fine tableau was once composed, 
 from a French print, of the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solo- 
 mon ; but the camel on which that lofty lady arrived was a 
 piece of scene-painting done by a very clever artist, and it 
 would be difficult to improvise one. 
 
V. 
 
 BEAIN GAMES. 
 
 We now come to the winter evening, and the pencil and 
 paper. 
 
 It is a delightful feature of our modern civilization that 
 books are very cheap, and that the poets are read by every- 
 body. That would be a very barren house where one did 
 not find Scott, Byron, Goldsmith, Longfellow, Tennyson, 
 Browning, Bret Harte, and Jean Ingelow. Very few boys 
 and girls can reach the age of sixteen without having com- 
 mitted to memory some immortal poem of one of these 
 most popular poets. 
 
 Therefore there would be no embarrassment if we asked 
 the members of any evening circle to write down three or 
 four lines in the measure of "Evangeline," "Lady Clara 
 Vere de Vere," "The Corsair," "The Traveler," " Mar- 
 mion," or "Herve Eiel," "The Heathen Chinee," or the 
 pretty " Bird Song " of Jean Ingelow. Not a parody only, 
 however, but a parody involving a certain idea or word. 
 
 In the great year of Coggia's comet this game was thus 
 played, and a young man was requested to speak of the 
 comet in the style of "Mother Goose." The result was as 
 follows : 
 
 " Sing a song of Ooggia — 
 Comet in the sky ! 
 Wonder if he'll trouble us, 
 Whip up you or I ! 
 2 ■» 
 
26 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 "When his tail is over, 
 
 Then begin to crow ; 
 Four-and-twenty doctors, 
 
 Tell us all you know ! " 
 
 Another of the circle was directed to treat of the Wood 
 Fire in the measure of Tennyson's ''May Queen." The 
 result was the following : 
 
 " If you're snapping, snap out wisely, snap out wisely, burning 
 wood! 
 You would not snap so wildly if your drying had been good. 
 Nor had I, sitting near you with the hearth-brush in my hand, 
 Have found no peace in sitting, for fear of burning brand." • 
 
 This was declared to be too easy a g^tme for such a wild 
 and superfluous supply of brains, and, therefore, the word 
 Poker was pronounced to be an essential element of every 
 future poem. Poor Browning and Longfellow, Bret Harte 
 and Walter Scott, were mercilessly spitted on that poker. 
 Much foolscap was spoiled, but much fun gained. Here is 
 one of the poker successes : 
 
 " AFTEE BTEOKT, WITH A POKEE ; ALSO AFTEE DEINKING FLIP. 
 
 "Here, too, the Poker stands in brass! and fills 
 
 The air around with safety ! "VVe inhale 
 
 The ambrosial aspect which its heat instills 
 
 (Part of its immortality) to Flip 
 (That beer which is half drawn), within the cup 
 "We breathe, and its deep secrets dip. 
 "Who Flip can make — who cares where he may fail ! 
 Before its wide success let Heliogabalus turn pale. 
 
 " "We drink, and turn away — we care not where ! 
 Fuzzled, and drunk with porter, till the head 
 Reels with its fullness. There, for ever there. 
 
 Stand thou in triumph. Poker, strong and red I 
 "We are thy captives, and thine ardor share. 
 Away ! there need no words, no terms precise. 
 To say in loving accents, Flip-cup, thou art nice ! " 
 
BRAIN GAMES. 27 
 
 To this class of Home Amusements belongs also the fa- 
 mous game of ''Twenty Questions," which was played so 
 much at one time by the Cambridge professors that they 
 declared that any subject should be reached in ten ques- 
 tions. The proper formula for this yery intellectual game 
 is this : Two parties are formed, the questioners and the 
 answerers, the first haying the priyilege, after the word 
 has been chosen, to inquire — 
 
 " Is your subject animal, yegetable, or mineral ?" 
 
 "What is its size ?" 
 
 " To what age does it belong ?" 
 
 *'Is it historical or natural ?" 
 
 *' Is it ancient or modern ? " 
 
 ''Is it a manufactured article ?" etc. 
 
 The number of subjects which are none of these, or 
 which are all three, or which can not be defined in some 
 way, is of course small. Thus, a Blush, a Smile, a Tear, 
 an Echo, an Avalanche, a Drought, are all indescribable 
 by the exact definitions of the aboye questions. But the 
 questioner soon arrives at this negative, and begins a new 
 series. 
 
 Perha^DS one of the most puzzling of subjects is a 
 "mummy." It fulfills certain conditions, but not others ; 
 and the final question, "What is its use ?" and the answer, 
 "It is used for fuel," though true — ^for the Arabs cook 
 their dinners by them — does not at all coyer the ground of 
 the supposed use of a mummy. The shield of Achilles, 
 the Hole in the Wall through which Pyramus and Thisbe 
 kissed, have been asked and guessed ! A Bat baffled even 
 the most ingenious twenty questioners, while the Parlor 
 into which the Spider invited the Fly was guessed. 
 
 It is a yery intellectual and very amusing game, and 
 those who play it should be as honest as possible in their 
 answers. If puns and ^yordy equivoque are allowed, the 
 game ceases to be legitimate. 
 
28 . HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Among games requiring memory and attention we may 
 mention "Cross Purposes," "The Horned Ambassador," 
 "I love my Love with an A," "The Game of the Eing" 
 (arithmetical), "The Deaf Man," "The G-oose's History." 
 "Story Play" consists in putting a chosen word into a 
 narrative so cleverly that it will not be readily guessed, 
 although several people tell different stories with the chosen 
 word several times repeated. The best way to play this is 
 to have some odd word which is not the word — like Ba- 
 nana — and use it several times ; yet one's own conscious- 
 ness of the right word will often betray the story-teller. 
 "The Dutch Conceit," "My Lady's Toilet," "What is my 
 Thought like ?" "Scheherazade's Eansom" are very pretty, 
 and may be found in many Manuals of Games. This last 
 deserves a description. 
 
 Three of the company sustain the parts of the Sultan, 
 the Vizier, and the Princess Scheherazade. The Sultan 
 takes his seat at the end of the room, and the Vizier then 
 leads the Princess before him, with her hands bound be- 
 hind her. The Vizier then makes a burlesque proclama- 
 tion that the Princess, having exhausted all her stories, is 
 about to be punished unless a sufficient ransom be offered. 
 All the rest of the comjDany then advance in turn and pro- 
 pose enigmas, which must be solved by the Sultan or Vizier; 
 sing the first verse of a song, to which the Vizier must an- 
 swer with the second verse ; or recite any well-known piece 
 of poetry in alternate lines with the Vizier. Forfeits must 
 be paid either by the company when successfully encoun- 
 tered by the Sultan or Vizier, or by the Vizier when unable 
 to respond to his opponents ; and the game goes on till the 
 forfeits amount to any specified number on either side. 
 Should the company be victorious and obtain the greatest 
 number of forfeits, the Princess is released, and the Vizier 
 has to execute all the penalties that may be imposed upon 
 him. If otherwise, the Princess is led to execution. For 
 
BRAIN GAMES. . 29 
 
 this purpose she is blindfolded, and seated on a low stool. 
 The penalties for the forfeits, which should be previously 
 prepared, are written on slips of paper and put in a basket, 
 which she holds in her hands tied behind her. The owners 
 of the forfeits advance and draw each a slip of paper. As 
 each person comes forward, the Princess guesses who it is, 
 and, if right, the person must pay an additional forfeit, the 
 penalty for which is to be exacted by the Princess herself. 
 When all the penalties have been distributed, the hands 
 and eyes of the Princess are released, and she then superin- 
 tends the execution of the various punishments that have 
 been allotted to the company. 
 
 Another very good game is to send one of the company 
 out, and as he comes in again to address him as the sup- 
 posed character of Napoleon, a Eussian emperor, Gustavus 
 Adolphus, or some well-known character in history or fic- 
 tion. For instance, a young lady leaves the room, and as 
 she enters some one says : 
 
 " Charming and noble heroine, most generous and most 
 faithful ! we are glad to see you. How well you look, after 
 all that has happened to you ! Burned alive ? Yes, I 
 should say so ; and all that you suffered before ! How did 
 you like wearing armor ? and what do you think of un- 
 grateful kings ? How was it at home before you left ? 
 
 Did you really see those visions ? and how did St. look? 
 
 And, now that you are come back, will you ever be so gen- 
 erous and noble as to fight for any cause except yourself ? " 
 
 Of course, the young lady knows that she is Joan of 
 Arc. But it is not necessary that character should be so 
 plainly indicated, however, as in this example. 
 
 " The Echo " is another very pretty game. It is played 
 by reciting some little story, which Echo is supposed to 
 interrupt whenever the narrator pronounces certain words 
 which recur frequently in his narrative. These words re- 
 late to the profession or trade of him who is the subject of 
 
30 . HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 the story. If, for example, tlie story is about a soldier, the 
 words which would recur the most frequently would natu- 
 rally be ''IJniform," ''Gaiters," '' Chapeau bras," -'Mus- 
 ket," "Plume," "Pouch," "Sword," "Saber," "Gun," 
 " Knapsack," " Belt," "Sash," "Cap," "Powder-flask," 
 " Accouterments," and so on. Each one of the company, 
 with the exception of the person who tells the story, takes 
 the name of Soldier, Powder-flask, etc., except the name 
 "Accouterments." "When the speaker pronounces one of 
 these words, he who has taken it for his name ought, if the 
 word has been said only once, to pronounce it twice ; if it 
 has been said twice, to pronounce it once. When the word 
 "Accouterments" is uttered, the players — all except the 
 soldier — ought to repeat again the word "Accouterments" 
 either once or twice. 
 
 These games are amusing, as showing how defective a 
 thing is memory, and how apt, when under fire, to desert 
 us. It is also very queer to mark the difference of charac- 
 ter exhibited by the players. The most unexpected revela- 
 tions are made. 
 
 Another very funny game is " Confession by a Die," 
 played with cards and dice. It would look at first like a 
 parody on "Mother Church," but it is not so guilty. A 
 person takes some blank cards, and, counting the company, 
 writes down a sin for each. The unlucky sinner when 
 called upon must not only confess, but, by throwing the 
 dice also, confess as many sins as they indicate, and do pen- 
 ance for them all. These can, with a witty leader, be made 
 very funny. 
 
 "The Secretary" is another good game. The persons 
 sit at a table with square pieces of paper, and pencils, and 
 each one writes his own name, handing the paper, carefully 
 folded down, to the Secretary, who distributes them, say- 
 ing "Character!" Then each one writes out an imagin- 
 ary character, hands it again to the Secretary, who says 
 
BRAIN GAMES. 31 
 
 "Future!" The papers are again distributed, and the 
 writers forecast the future. Of course, the Secretary 
 throws in all sorts of other questions, and, when the game 
 is through, the papers are read. They form a curious and 
 heterogeneous piece of reading. Sometimes such curiouB 
 bits of character-reading crop out tliat one suspects and 
 dreads complicity. But, if it is honestly played, the game 
 is amusing. 
 
 Of Euses and Catch-games, Practical Jokes, and all 
 plays involving mystification and mortification, we have a 
 great abhorrence. They do not belong to the class of 
 Home Amusements. Let them be relegated to that bad 
 limbo of "college hazing," and other ignoble tricks which 
 some people call fun. Far better the games which call for 
 wit, originality, and inspiration ; which show knowledge, 
 reading, and a full repertoire ; and a familiarity with all the 
 three homely studies — ^geography, arithmetic, and history, 
 including natural history. One of these games is called 
 " The Traveler's Tour," and may be made very interesting, 
 if the leader is ingenious. It is played in this way : One of 
 the party announces himself the " Traveler." He is given 
 an empty bag, and counters with numbers on are distributed 
 among the players. Thus, if twelve persons are playing, 
 the numbers must count up to twelve — a set of ones to be 
 given to one, tivos to two, and so on. Then the Traveler 
 asks for information about the places to which he is going. 
 The first person gives it, if he can ; if not, the second, and 
 so on. If the Traveler considers it correct information, or 
 worthy of notice, he takes from the person one of his count- 
 ers, as a pledge of the obligation he is under to him. The 
 next person in order takes up the next question, and so on. 
 After the Traveler reaches his destination, he empties his 
 bag, and sees to whom he has been indebted for the great- 
 est amount of information. He then makes him the next 
 Traveler. Of course, this opens the door for all sorts of 
 
32 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 witty rejoinders, as the players choose to exaggerate the 
 claims of certain hotels, the geographical position of places, 
 and the hits at such a place as Long Branch, for instance, 
 by describing it as an *' inland spot, very retired, where 
 nobody goes," etc., etc. Or it can be played seriously, 
 with the map of Europe or America in one's memory. The 
 absurd way is, however, the favorite style with most, as in 
 this wise : 
 
 Traveler. "1 am going to Newport this summer. 
 Which is the best route ? " 
 
 Ansioer. "Well, start by the Erie Railroad and try to 
 form a junction with the Pittsburg and Ohio." 
 
 Trav. " When shall I get there ? " 
 
 An. " If you take the Southern Pacific you may reach 
 Newport before the Eall Eiver boat gets in " (sarcasm on 
 the slowness of the boat). 
 
 Trav. ''How if I go by the ISTorthern Pacific ?" 
 
 An. "Well, that is better than the WicTcf or d xonte." 
 
 Or Trav. says : "I want to go to San Francisco ; how 
 shall I start?" 
 
 An. "Well, at the rate the Cunarders are going to 
 Europe now, your quickest way is to take the Gallia, and 
 on reaching Liverpool to go to India by the Overland Route, 
 and so round the world." 
 
 The rhyming game is also very amusing. It is done in 
 this way : 
 
 SpeaTcer. " I have a word that rhymes with Game.'^ 
 
 Interlocutor. "Is it something statesmen crave ?" 
 
 8p. "jN"o, it is not Fame." 
 
 In. "Is it something that goes halt ? " 
 
 8p. "No, it is not Lame." 
 
 In. " Is it something tigers need ? " 
 
 Sp. "No, it is not to Tame." 
 
 In. "Is it what we all would like ? " 
 
 Sp. " No, it is not Good Name." 
 
BRAIN GAMES. 33 
 
 In. " Is it to shoot at Duck ? " 
 
 Sp. "' Yes, and that Duck to maim." 
 
 Such words as Nun, Thing, Fall, etc., which admit of 
 many rhymes, are very good ones to choose. The two who 
 play it must be quick - witted and read each other's 
 thoughts. 
 
 The end rhymes, which the French like, are very in-, 
 genious.* Try making a poem to fit these words, for in- 
 stance, and you catch the idea : 
 
 Town. 
 
 Lay. 
 
 Place. 
 
 Long. 
 
 Eenown. 
 
 May. 
 
 Space. 
 
 Wrong. 
 
 Eun. 
 
 Fame. 
 
 Eain. 
 
 
 Sun. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Train. 
 
 
 The game of "Crambo," in which each player has to 
 write a noun on one piece of paper and a question on an- 
 other, is curious. As, for instance, the drawer may get 
 the noun "Mountain," and the question, "Do you love 
 me ? " he must write a sonnet or poem in which he an- 
 swers the one and brings in the other. 
 
 The game of "Preferences" has had a long and a suc- 
 cessful career. It is a very good addition to Home 
 Amusements to possess a blank-book lying on the parlor- 
 table, in which each guest should be asked to write out 
 answers to the following questions : 
 
 Who is your favorite hero in history ? 
 Who is your favorite heroine in history ? 
 Who is your favorite king in history ? 
 Who is your favorite queen in history ? 
 What is your favorite male Christian name ? 
 What is your favorite female Christian name ? 
 
 * This was the invention of a poor poet named Dulot, who found 
 rhymes for other poets. 
 
34 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 What is your favorite flower ? 
 
 What is your favorite color ? 
 
 What is your favorite style of music ? 
 
 What is your favorite style of climate ? 
 
 What is your favorite amusement ? 
 
 What is your favorite study ? 
 
 Wiiat is your favorite exercise ? 
 
 What is your favorite book ? 
 
 What is your favorite game ? etc., etc. 
 
 These questions may be amplified according to the taste 
 of the owner of the book. 
 
 These books are very common in English country 
 houses, and the statistics of favoritism have been taken. 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, even in the land of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, had the greatest number of admirers as a hero ; 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, was the favorite queen in a majority 
 of instances ; Lord Byron led off as a poet, and the names 
 Edward and Alice had the greatest number of votes as 
 admired Christian names. Joan of Arc is always ahead as 
 a heroine. In America, after -a five years' experience, a 
 number of books were compared, and resulted in a close 
 tie between Washington and Napoleon as hero ; between 
 Charles X, of Sweden, and Francis I as king ; with Mary, 
 Queen of Scots, far ahead as queen ; with Theodore and 
 Mary as Christian names in advance. Yet an occasional 
 originality crops out in these " preferences," and the ex- 
 amination of the different opinions is always interesting. 
 
 The game of Authors, especially when created by the 
 persons who wish to play it, is very interesting. The game 
 can be bought, and is. a very common one, as, perhaps, 
 everybody knows ; but it can be rendered uncommon by 
 the preparation of the cards arrfOng the members of the 
 family. There are sixty-four cards to be prepared, with 
 each the name of a popular author, and any three of his 
 
BRAm GAMES. 36 
 
 works. The entire set is numbered from one to sixty- 
 four. Any four cards containing the name and works of 
 the same author form a book. Thus, " Henry W. Long- 
 fellow, 'Hyperion,' '^Evangeline,' 'New England Trage- 
 dies,' " would form one set. As the shuffling and distri- 
 bution of these cards, and the plan of also drawing from 
 a pile in the middle of the table, creates the greatest uncer- 
 tainty as to the whereabouts of a certain card, much amuse- 
 ment can be derived in the effort to make a book. The 
 cards must be equally distributed one at a time, begin- 
 ning at the left of the dealer. The players then arrange 
 their cards in the hand. If one finds four of a kind, 
 he immediately declares a book, and lays it face down- 
 ward on the table ; and then, if holding one of the 
 "Longfellow's," he will say "Evangeline." He can ask 
 any other player for "Hyperion." After receiving either 
 the card or a negative answer, the next player to the left 
 goes on with his play. Players can only call for such cards 
 as belong to books of which they hold a portion. Should 
 a player call for a card which he already holds, that card is 
 forfeited to the person of whom it was called. The caller 
 always finds the name of the card he wants among those 
 printed in small type ; the person of whom it is called finds 
 it in large type at the top. 
 
 This game may be made very useful by using the names 
 of kings and queens, and the learned men of their reigns, 
 instead of authors. It is a very good way to study history. 
 The popes can be utilized, with their attendant great men, 
 and by playing the game for a season the dates and the 
 events of some obscure period of history will be effectually 
 fixed in the memory. 
 
 As the numbers affixed to the cards may.be purely arbi- 
 trary, the count at the'end will fluctuate with remarkable 
 impartiality ; thus, the Dickens cards may count but one, 
 while Tupper will be named sixteen ; Carlyle can be two, 
 
36 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 while Artemus Ward shall be sixty. This is made very 
 amusing sometimes. King Henry VIII, who set no small 
 store by himself, can be made to count yery little in the 
 kingly game, while the poor Edward TV may haye a higher 
 numeral than he was allowed in life. 
 
VI. 
 
 FOETUNE-TELLING. 
 
 We now come to that game which interests old and 
 young. None are so apathetic but that they relish a look 
 behind the dark curtain. The apple-paring in the fire, 
 the roasted chestnut and the raisin, the fire-back and the 
 stars, have been interrogated since time began. The pack 
 of cards, the tea-cup, the dream-book, the board with the 
 mystic numbers, and the Bible and Key, have been con- 
 sulted from time immemorial. The makers of games have 
 given in their statistics, and they declare that there are no 
 cards or games so sure of selling well as those which fore- 
 tell the Future. 
 
 Now a very jDretty Home Amusement is to cultivate, 
 without believing much in them, the innocent sciences of 
 palmistry and of fortune-telling. Several years ago this 
 led to the making of a very pretty book by Mrs. Grilman, 
 of South Carolina — a poetical and very harmless fortune- 
 teller — made up of lines from the poets. The young ladies 
 of the period used to draw as future husbands : "A pro- 
 fessor, and a log cabin in the West"; "a lord, and a 
 castle"; " a merchant prince " ; " an irresolute and an ob- 
 stinate fool" ; "a well-favored gentleman," and so on, the 
 good fortunes being in great advance of the bad ones. It 
 was a popular work, and amused many a tea-party. 
 
 Many people, since the advent of Spiritualism, have 
 amused themselves with that wonderful toy, " Planchette," 
 
38 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and other curious caprices of mind-reading, clairvoyance, 
 table-tipping, and knocks. The Key, which seems to jjos- 
 sess strong magnetic powers, and all the performances 
 which the unbeliever calls "nonsense," or worse, and which 
 the believing call ''manifestations," are also interesting; 
 but we can not recommend, this sort of tampering with 
 nervous and exciting pleasure, as it has undoubtedly some- 
 times unhinged the most truly innocent minds. Such in- 
 vestigations should be left to strong and sober men, and 
 should be approached in a very philosophical spirit, or not 
 at all. 
 
 There can be no harm, however,, in a playful consulta- 
 tion of the leaves of the daisy, the four-leaved clover, the 
 fortunate black cat who brings us luck, the moon over the 
 right shoulder, the oracular "You shall travel over land 
 and sea " — ^.believing in all the good fortune, but in none of 
 the bad. The salt should be carefully thrown over the left 
 shoulder, if spilled, and all the Fates and Fairies should be 
 propitiated. It gives delightful variety to life to know all 
 the superstitions and the lore of old nurses and grand- 
 mothers. Did we follow them back, we should find that 
 they each had a poetical origin. We all like to believe that 
 we can enumerate on our fingers the false friends, the ene- 
 mies ; but we may hope that the world could not hold the 
 admirers and the friends whom one four-leaved clover or 
 one black cat had given us — or promised us. To be sure, 
 "we had dreamed of snakes, and that meant enemies." 
 But, after all, are not enemfes next best to friends ? They 
 give us consequences, and who that is worth anything was 
 ever without them ? That would be a very colorless indi- 
 vidual who should go through life without an enemy. 
 
 The riches which are hidden in a fortune-telling set of 
 cards (although like Peter Goldthwaite's treasure) are very 
 real and comforting while they last. They are endless, 
 they have few really trying responsibilities attached, they 
 
FORTUNE-TELLING. 39 
 
 can not be taxed, tliey are absolutely wliere thieves can not 
 break through and steal. They are so satisfactory, which 
 real wealth never is ; they buy everything we want ; they 
 go farther than any real fortune could go ; they are our 
 real and personal estate, and our poetical dreams ; our Lamp 
 of Aladdin, and our Chemical Bank. They are gained 
 without hurting anybody ; they are dug out of the ground 
 without painful backache or bloodshed ; they are inherited 
 without stain, and can be spent without fear of profligacy. 
 Of what other fortune can we say as much ? 
 
 It would be an unending theme to try to make a cata- 
 logue of the superstitions of all nations. The Irish, with 
 their wild belief in fairies, that Leprechaun — the little man 
 in red, who, if you can catch him, will make you happy 
 and prosperous for ever after ; who has such a strange rela- 
 tionship to humanity that at birth and death the Lepre- 
 chaun must be tended by a mortal ! to read, as they do — 
 these imaginative people — a sermon in every stone ; to see 
 luck beneath the four-leaved clover, and to hang a legend 
 on every bush ; to follow the more spiritually -minded 
 Scotchman in his second sight, who holds that 
 
 " Coming events cast their shadows before." 
 
 A very learned book has been written on the " Supersti- 
 tions of Wales " alone. Eloquent and poetic are the people 
 who have invented the Banshee, the Brownie (or domestic 
 fairy who does all the work). The more tragic and less 
 loving superstitions of Italy teach that the " evil eye " is 
 always to be dreaded. The Breton superstitions are as wild 
 as the sea-gust which sweeps from their coast. All these 
 are subjects of profound interest to those who read the 
 great subject of- race, from ethnology, folk-lore, and ballads^. 
 The superstitions of a people tell their innermost charac- 
 teristics, and are thus profoundly interesting. 
 
 The French have, however, tabularized fortune-telling 
 
40 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 for us. Their peculiar ability iu arranging ceremonials 
 and fetes, and their undoubted genius for tactics and strat- 
 egy, show that they are able to foresee events with unusual 
 clearness. Their ingenuity in all technical contrivances is 
 an additional testimony in the same direction, and we are 
 not surprised that they have here, as is their wont, given 
 us the practical help which we need in fortune-telling. 
 Mile. Lenormand, the sorceress who prophesied to Napo- 
 leon his greatness, and to many of the princes and great 
 men of France their downfall and their misfortunes, has 
 left us thirty-six cards (to be bought at any book-store), 
 wherein we can read the decrees of fate. Her preface says, 
 ''Thousands of noblemen did then acknowledge her great 
 talent already during her lifetime, and did often confess 
 that her method was full of truth and exactness." Lenor- 
 mand was a very clever sibyl ; she had great ingenuity ; she 
 throws in enough of the inevitable bad, and finds enough 
 of the possible good, to at least amuse those who consult 
 her oracles. Whether we have confidence or faith in the 
 divination, we can not but look for the lucky cards. In 
 this game " The Cavalier " is a messenger of good fortune, 
 and, if not surrounded by unlucky cards, brings good news, 
 which the person may expect either from his own house or 
 from abroad. This will, however, not take place immedi- 
 ately, but some time after. 
 
 "The Clover Leaf" is a harbinger of good news, but 
 if surrounded by clouds it indicates great pain ; but if No. 
 2 lies near No. 26 or 28, the pain will be of short duration, 
 and will soon change to a happy issue. 
 
 '* The Ship," the symbol of commerce, signifies great 
 wealth, which will be acquired by trade or inheritance. If 
 near to the person, it means an early journey. 
 
 " The House " is a certain sign of success and pros- 
 perity, and although the present position of the person may 
 be disagreeable, yet the future will be bright and happy. 
 
FORTUNE-TELLING. 41 
 
 If this card lies in the center of the cards under the person, 
 this is a hint to beware of those who surround him, 
 
 "A Tree/' if distant from the person, signifies good 
 health. Nine trees, of different cards together, leave no 
 doubt about the realization of all reasonable wishes. 
 
 *' Clouds " : if their clear side is turned toward the per- 
 son, it is a lucky sign ; with the dark side turned toward 
 the person, something disagreeable will soon happen. 
 
 '' A Serpent " is a sign of misfortune, the extent of 
 which depends upon the greater or smaller distance from 
 the person ; it is followed invariably by deceit, infidelity, and 
 sorrow. 
 
 *'A Coffin," very near to the person, means, without 
 any doubt, dangerous diseases, death, or total loss of for- 
 tune ; more distant from the person, the card is less dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 '' The Nosegay " means much happiness in every respect. 
 
 "The Scythe" indicates great danger, which will only 
 be avoided if lucky cards surround him. 
 
 " The Eod " means quarrels in the family, domestic 
 afflictions, want of peace among married persons, fever, and 
 protracted illness. 
 
 ''The Birds" mean hardship to be overcome, but of 
 short duration ; distant from the person, they mean the 
 accomplishment of a pleasant journey. 
 
 These are descriptions of a few of the picture-cards 
 with which Mile . Lenormand tells fortunes still, although 
 she has gone to the land of certainty, and has herself 
 found out if her symbols and emblems, and her combi- 
 nations, really did draw aside the curtain of the future with 
 invisible strings. We advise all our readers to possess 
 themselves of her " Fortune-telling Cards " if they wish to 
 become amateur sibyls. 
 
 The cup of tea, and the mysterious wanderings of the 
 grounds around the cup, so long the favorite medium of the 
 
42 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 sibyl, seems to be an English superstition. It fits itself to 
 the old crone domesticity of the Anglo - Saxon humble 
 home, rather than to the more out-of-door romance of the 
 Spaniards and the Italians ; and yet the most out-of-door 
 people in the world — the gypsies — use it as a means of dis- 
 cerning the future . 
 
 The cup should be filled with a weak infusion of tea — 
 grounds and all — and then carefully turning the cup toward 
 one, the tea should be carefully turned out, waving the cup 
 so skillfully that the tea-leaves are dispersed over the surface 
 of the cup. Happy the maid who can turn out the tea 
 without spilling the leaves. If one drop of tea is left in 
 the cup it will mean — a tear. 
 
 These grounds, or tea-leaves, have been used from the 
 earliest days as the alphabet of the Parcse. Before Chinese 
 tea was brought to England the old fortune-tellers made 
 some sort of a brew out of powdered herbs, which left their 
 mark on the cup. "We can understand how that sinuous 
 serpent who has had so much to do with our destiny, as a 
 synonym of evil, can be pictured or " visualized " by such a 
 process ; but where the sibyl finds the light-haired young 
 man crossing a river, where she finds gold and where 
 trouble, we must leave to the interpreters. 
 
 That most interesting of sibyls, "Noma of the Fitful 
 Head," used molten lead as a means of interpreting the 
 unseen, and that can be done by our modern soothsayers. 
 
 Cards from early antiquity have been used to tell for- 
 tunes. The Queen of Hearts is the heroine, and as about 
 her group the propitious reds, or the gloomy blacks, so may 
 we hope for good or dread bad luck. The Ace of Spades is 
 a bearer of evil tidings ; the King of Hearts, at the right 
 of the Queen, is the very Fortunatus himself. And now, 
 who is this goddess so often invoked ? Fortuna, courted 
 by all nations, was, in Creek, Tyclie, or the goddess of 
 chance. She differed from Destiny or Fate in so far that 
 
FORTUNE-TELLING. 43 
 
 she worked witliout law, giving or taking at her own good 
 pleasure, and dispensing joy or sorrow indefinitely ; her 
 symbols were those of mutability — a ball, a wheel, a*pair of 
 wings, a rudder. The Eomans affirmed that, when she 
 entered their city, she threw off her wings and shoes, and 
 determined to live with them for ever ; she seems to have 
 thought better of it, however. She was a sister of the Par- 
 cse, or Fates, those three who spin the thread of life, meas- 
 ure it, and cut it off. Fortunatus, he of the inexhaustible 
 purse of gold and the wishing-cap, is too familiar a figure 
 to the readers of fairy tales to be mentioned here . 
 
 And yet, although all nations have desired to proj)itiate 
 Fortuna, her high-priests and interpreters have ever been 
 in disrepute. In Scotland, that land of demonology and 
 witchcraft, of seco-nd-sight, of dreamy superstition, for- 
 tune-tellers were denounced as vagabonds, and their pun- 
 ishment, by statute, was scourging and burning of the ears. 
 We all know how the knowledge of the "black art" was 
 denounced in Germany ; and the witches of Salem, while 
 they were approached at dead of night by a pale magistrate 
 who desired to have his fortune told, were, at his high 
 behest, tortured, pilloried, and hanged the next week, if 
 the fortune was a bad one, or, if being well foretold, was 
 slow of accomplishment. That half -belief which super- 
 stitious persons repose in their oracles, shown in the case 
 of the Indian, who breaks or maims his God if he does 
 not respond to his prayer, and in the remarkable ^tory of 
 Louis XI, of France, who used to alternately pray to and 
 abuse his leaden images of saints, is repeated often in the 
 history of fortune-telling. 
 
 Mother Redcap, "a very witch," was resorted to by 
 hundreds of persons in England as a fortune-teller ; her 
 image remains on a coin dated 1667. The well-known 
 prophecies of her neighbor. Mother Shipton, have come 
 down to us. Poor Eedcap had all the duckings and the 
 
44: HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 batings of the populace . She and her black cat were the 
 favorite horrors of the superstitious inhabitants of Kentish 
 Town, "and hundreds of men, women, and children saw the 
 devil come in state to carry her off. But Mother Shipton 
 (who was born at Knaresborough in the reign of Henry 
 VII) became the most popular of British prophets, and, 
 although she was supposed to have sold her soul to the Old 
 Gentleman, she yet died in her bed decently and in order 
 at an extreme old age. So Fortuna is capricious, even in 
 her treatment of her votaries . It is not strange that ^' Palm- 
 istry " should have taken higher ground than mere fortune- 
 telling, and indeed the lines of the hand will seem to map 
 out character, and perhaps destiny, with some accuracy. 
 The books say that the lines running through the palm 
 indicate will or indecision, force or weakness, quickness or 
 slowness ; indeed, all which makes character and fate. We 
 are the arbiters of at least a part of our fortune. 
 
 The power to tell fortunes by the hand can be learned 
 from any of the French books on palmistry, and there are 
 one or two little English translations. It can be suJBfi- 
 ciently curious and varied to amuse the home circle, and so 
 long as it is done for that purpose, fortune-telling can do 
 no harm. 
 
 But the moment we rise above the idea that the beans, 
 the tea-grounds, the black cat, the cards, or the lines in 
 the palm, are but blind guides, making the most palpable 
 mistakes, then the tampering with the curtain becomes 
 dangerous, and we had better leave the future alone. 
 
VII. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS FOR A EAINY DAY. 
 
 It may seem an impeachment of the taste of our readers 
 to have lingered so long on the lesser lights of games and 
 fortune-telling as " Home Amusements," when we have 
 before us the great world of decorative art : gesthetic em- 
 broidery, dinner-card designing, china painting, the mak- 
 ing of screens, and the thousand and one devices by which 
 the modern family can amuse itself. 
 
 The making of screens is an amusement which occupies 
 the whole family most profitably for a rainy day, even if it 
 is to be only the cutting out of pictures from the illustrated 
 newspapers, and the subsequent arrangement of them in 
 curious conjunction on a white cotton or muslin back- 
 ground. The use of screens has dawned upon the Ameri- 
 can mind within a few years. They are delightful in a 
 dining-room to keep off a draught or to hide a closet-door. 
 They break up a too long room admirably. They are very 
 useful in a bedroom to shut off the washstand and bath ; 
 and they are very comforting to the invalid, as a protection 
 to his easy-chair against insidious breezes. 
 
 Of course, those of satin or linen, embroidered by a skill- 
 ful hand ; those painted on canvas by the best painters of 
 to-day ; those from China and Japan — are the screens of 
 the opulent. Very pretty paper screens may be bought at 
 the shops for three or four dollars. But those on which 
 a group of pictures are to be pasted are the cheapest and 
 
46 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 most amusing of any. And do not go and buy liiglily- 
 glazed pictures for the purpose. If you do, the screen looks 
 like a valentine. ' But cut out the pictures from old copies 
 of the "London Illustrated News," ''Punch," "Harper's 
 Weekly," " Harper's Bazar," and the English " Graphic," 
 paste them thickly one upon another, and you have a cu- 
 rious and most interesting mosaic. A lady in 1876, the 
 Centennial year, made a very beautiful screen of fashion 
 plates from the ordinary magazines of the period. Al- 
 ready (1881) these fashions look very antiquated, and the 
 screen is becoming historically valuable. The effect of 
 these delicately-colored pictures, put on as thickly as possi- 
 ble over the white muslin, has an effect like a festal proces- 
 sion, and is very pretty. 
 
 The medium used for adhering "the pictures is common 
 flour paste, the pictures being also washed over the out- 
 side with the same, and all the edges effectually fastened 
 down, the cotton cloth to which they are applied being 
 tightly stretched over a wooden frame. When domestic 
 paste is made, the material is frequently injured by scorch- 
 ing, or by the addition of too much water. Good paste, 
 when spread on paper, will not strike through it like water, 
 but will remain on the surface, like butter on a piece of 
 bread. To make paste of a superior quality, that will not 
 spoil when kept in a cool place for several months, it is 
 necessary to add dissolved alum as a preservative. When a 
 few quarts are required, dissolve a dessert-spoonful of alum 
 in two quarts of tepid water. Put the water in a tin pail 
 that will hold six or eight quarts, as the flour of which the 
 paste is made will expand greatly while it is boiling. As 
 soon as the tepid water has cooled, stir in good rye or wheat 
 flour, until the liquid has the consistency of cream. See 
 that every lump of flour is crushed before placing the ves- 
 sel over the fire. To prevent scorching the paste, place 
 over the fire a dish-kettle or wash-boiler, partly filled with 
 
AMUSEMENTS FOR A RAINY BAY. 4T 
 
 water, and set the tin pail containing the material for paste 
 in the water, permitting the bottom to rest on a few large 
 nails or pebbles, to prevent excessive heat. Now add a tea- 
 spoonful of powdered resin, a few cloves to flavor the paste, 
 and let it cook until the paste has become as thick as 
 " Graham mush," when it will be ready for use. Keep it 
 in a tight Jar, and it will last for a long time. If too thick, 
 add cold water, and stir it thoroughly. Such paste will 
 hold almost as well as glue. 
 
 The famous picture-books of Walter Crane make a very 
 pretty frieze for screens ; the artists of the family some- 
 times paint a frieze. In these days of dadoes the screens are 
 often made with dado, wainscot, and frieze in three differ- 
 ent colored papers, so that there are three tiers oi back- 
 ground for the pictures, if the maker desires to leave spaces 
 between them. The cutting out of the pictures is an amus- 
 ing occupation for all the family on a rainy day. 
 
 This making of screens sometimes leads to another very 
 attractive work for a rainy day — the preparation for a fancy 
 dress ball. This, in a lonely country house, far away from 
 the chance of any outward amusement, has often cheated 
 a fortnight's bad weather of its heart-depressing qualities. 
 
 As. we have not the stores of old armor, old brocade 
 and satin, powdered wigs, and costumes of the different 
 reigns, which may be supposed from modern English nov- 
 els to be the property of every English mansion, we must 
 call upon taste and upon our national faculty of invention 
 to help us in this dilemma. The country store will give us 
 black and white tarlatan, chintz, cotton flannel (a most ex- 
 cellent medium), and, indeed, flannels of all sorts. Black 
 lace, Jewelry, and flowers are in every lady's trunk, and, 
 with some stiff linings and applique chintz flowers, an old 
 silk can be made into a priceless brocade. 
 
 Let us take a Venetian dress first. We will have King 
 Pantelon, the Lord of Misrule, in black with scarlet shirt 
 
48 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and three-cornered hat, and attended by his gay and disso- 
 lute crew. We will have the Illustrissimi, wearing the 
 dress of the ancient Venetian nobility, scarlet cloaks, and 
 long bag wigs, mightily disdainful ; the Chiozotti in black 
 velvet, wide lace collars, and high cloth caps, adorned 
 with artificial flowers — they shall shower confetti and 
 make jokes ; we shall have dominoes and masks, Egyp- 
 tians and Neapolitans in velvet, with scarlet caps and stock- 
 ings, clapping castanets ; we shall have Armenians, Levant 
 merchants and sailors, Turks in caftans, Greeks and Dal- 
 matians, regular-featured Mussulmans, Hindoos with jet- 
 black hair, and Malay Lascars. in many-colored turbans, 
 fez, and scarf ; grinning soot-black negroes, Polish Jews in 
 furred caps and long coats, Magyars in Hessians and pe- 
 lisses ; Bohemian nurses in Czechen costume, a colored 
 handkerchief in the hair ; dark-eyed young bourgeoises in 
 coquettish black veils ; elegant ladies in velvet and point 
 lace ; the gondolier, in his picturesque sailor costume and 
 broad sash ; the Finland peasant, with short skirts, long- 
 dangling ear-rings, and silver pins ; the Maltese with her 
 fazzoletto ; an old Contadino, with short velveteen knee- 
 breeches, gaiters, and colored cotton umbrella ; priests all 
 in black gown, shovel hat, and black silk stockings ; dash- 
 ing naval officers ; the Guar Ma Nazionale, and weather- 
 beaten fishermen with bronzed faces and red Phrygian cap. 
 We shall have Lord Byron, pale and melancholy, and pictu- 
 resque Masaniello ; the patriarchs of the Greek Church ; the 
 Spanish beauties, the Swiss peasant, the German Madchen ; 
 the madcap Harlequin dress of a Spanish princess. Then 
 there will be all the seasons — winter, for instance, in tulle, 
 swansdown, and spun glass ; the Marie Antoinettes, in pink 
 brocade with long, square trains and trimmings of Marabout 
 feathers ; the lovely Georgian costume, a Seville gypsy, a 
 Eussian peasant ; a flower-girl, a Nymph ; Night and Day ; 
 Spanish students and Flemish boors ; Pages of Queen 
 
AMUSEMENTS FOR A RAINY DAY. 49 
 
 Blanclie of Castile ; the beautiful white uniform of the 
 Dragon de Villars ; a gothic costume; Charlemagne and 
 his Paladins. In short — 'Hhe Carniyal of Venice." All 
 this was done, and well done, at a country house and the 
 adjacent village (a village of not more than fifteen hundred 
 inhabitants), and for very little money, only a few years 
 ago. 
 
 The business is done if one only thinhs he can do it j 
 and there are numbers enough to work at it. A boarding- 
 school holiday, a watering-place, a large town bent on "get- 
 ting up something " for charity, should have one such 
 home behind it, where a natural-born leader will set the 
 whole thing going, and the picturesque shores of Italy will 
 give up their delights to some western town, some inland 
 village, some quiet and decorous hamlet of New England, 
 where all the inhabitants are dying of ennui. 
 
 But here, from the pictures of our screen, which have 
 suggested all this, we have been led off from Decorative 
 Art into the business of giving a ball ! We have been en- 
 tertaining a motley crowd indeed ! 
 
 "The day was dull, and dark, and dreary, 
 It rained, and the rain was never weary." 
 
 But see ! how we have cheated the clouds ! The rainy 
 fortnight has been the most dissipated season possible — all 
 owing to our happy device of getting up a fancy ball — one 
 of the very many pleasant thoughts which have grown out 
 of screens and screen-making. 
 
 3 
 
VIII. 
 
 EMBROIDEEY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 
 
 Let us return to our three legitimate decorations — our 
 fan-painting, our screen-painting, and our embroideries. 
 
 Of Embroidery tlie world is full, and at its best estate. 
 The foolish old Oerman wool-worsted work has gone out, 
 and in its place we have the very elaborate church needle- 
 work of the Middle Ages, and, better still, its tapestry. 
 
 Some ingenious lady discovered that a plain piece of 
 carpet made a very good background for a rich curtain, 
 after a few stitches of embroidery were added ; and it took 
 but one step farther for another lady to find in cotton 
 velvet a good background for tapestry. . The figures are 
 sketched on, and then the embroidery is artistically added, 
 in the style of the thirteenth century, when the characters 
 were outlined by a single line, which also designates the 
 shape and folds of the garments. These outlines are filled 
 in with masses of stitches in two or three shades of color. 
 It is best, in making tapestry, to adhere to this simplicity, 
 as in attempting the later richness of the Gobelins the work 
 degenerates into a vulgar imitation. 
 
 And in stitching away at the tapestry frame, the well- 
 read mamma might give her daughters a little sketch of 
 the history of tapestry. How once these artistic draperies 
 were the adornments of those stone castles which knew no 
 plastered walls. How they caught the story of the " Iliad " 
 and " Odyssey," the scenes from the Bible, thewhole story 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 51 
 
 of mythology, tlie history of great wars. There hangs to- 
 day, at Blenheim, a perfect set of pictures of the victories 
 of the great Duke of Marlborough, done for him by the 
 pious Belgian nuns. 
 
 But those works anterior to the sixteenth century have 
 the greatest interest for the student of tapestry. Grold 
 thread and silk were freely used in their embellishment, 
 and the effect is rather that of a mosaic than of a picture. 
 The greens are a study. They are produced with a dark 
 blue for the dark, and a yellow for the light tints. The 
 wonderful work of Matilda, called the Bayeux tapestry, 
 wrought on brown linen ; the many historical pieces found 
 in Italy, done in wools ; and the collections all over Eu- 
 rope, show a mastery over the needle which we have lost. 
 
 But it was left for Francis I, of France, to establish the 
 most renowned factory for these beautiful things, when at 
 Fontainebleau he founded what is now the Gobelins. The 
 Gobelins were two Dutch dyers of wool, celebrated for 
 their brilliant scarlets, who eventually gave their name to 
 the art, and a '' Gobelin " got to mean a tapestry. Under 
 Louis XIV the Luxurious this manufactory attained to 
 highest importance. They became the Herters and Mar- 
 cottes of France. Colbert, the Prime Minister, united 
 under one head all the different bands of workmen who 
 were employed on furniture and decorations for the royal 
 palaces of France. To the weavers of carpets and tapestry 
 were added embroiderers, goldsmiths, wood-carvers, dyers, 
 etc. Charles Lebrun and his pupils were charged with 
 furnishing designs. Lebrun himself furnished over twenty- 
 four hundred designs. In 1667 Louis himself paid a visit 
 of state to the manufactory, accompanied by Colbert, and 
 examined the magnificent carpets, tapestries, silver plate, 
 and carvings which formed the splendid " Manufactory of 
 Furniture to the Crown." This great establishment, how- 
 ever, went down, as Louis lost money ; and after the death 
 
52 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 of Lebrun (he was father to the wretched husband of pretty 
 Madame Le Brun) it returned to its original function of 
 producing tapestry. These Gobelin tapestries grew to be 
 the most wonderful reproduction of pictures eyer seen. 
 
 But why, one paiises to ask, try to reproduce a picture 
 '^done in oils" by the laborious process of needle-work or 
 weaving ? Why by process of mosaic ? It is one of the 
 useless fancies of the human race. The old tapestry, done 
 by hand when there were no Gobelins, had a meaning and 
 a use. So has the modern tapestry done by hand. It is 
 cheap, it is individual, it is original ; but for the Gobelins, 
 that favorite luxury of kings, we fail to see an excuse. 
 However, it is very beautiful, expensive, and rare. 
 
 The process of tapestry weaving is called the " Tiaute 
 Usse," the warp being placed vertically, in contradistinc- 
 tion to the "basse lisse" a work with a horizontal warp, as 
 is usual. The weaver stands with the model which he is to 
 copy behind him. As the surface of the tapestry must 
 present a perfectly smooth and even ' surface, all cuttings 
 must be made on the wrong side, for the workman never 
 sees the beautiful work he is doing. This has been made 
 use of in poetry in the following simile : 
 
 " We work but blindly at the loom, 
 Nor see the pattern, save in parts; 
 Not ours to mark the gleam or bloom, 
 But labor on, with patient hearts. 
 
 " But when the angels overhead 
 
 The soul- wrought tapestry unfurls, 
 Perhaps the tears we vainly shed 
 
 May glow amid the threads — like pearls. 
 
 " The sorrow which has crushed the heart 
 A lily blooms, on azure field ; 
 The strife in which we bore our part 
 In bud and flower may stand revealed." 
 
■ EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 53 
 
 The Gobelins used gold, silver, pearls, and everything 
 decorative in their work, at times, to produce effect. The 
 first Eevolution brought destruction to the Gobelins, as it 
 did to everything else, and many choice pieces were burned. 
 But it rose again under the first Napoleon, David furnish- 
 ing designs. In 1871 the Communists again set fire to the 
 manufactory, burning up the exhibition-room. Four hun- 
 dred thousand dollars was the estimated loss. But when 
 we remember that there perished tapestries of the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth centuries, including the '* Acts of the 
 Apostles " by Eaphael, and the now valuable, graceful, al- 
 though affected, charming designs of Boucher, which were 
 wrought for Pompadour, besides historical portraits and 
 scenes, this seems a low estimate. The embroidery of the 
 cartoons of Raphael, copies of which may be seen at Hamp- 
 ton Court, were among the greatest of the Gobelin tri- 
 umphs. 
 
 However, to those who have walked the galleries of 
 Florence, who have seen there the grand and beautiful 
 specimens of embroidered tapestry of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, there will ever be a charm about old tapestry in the 
 crude perspective and the sudden shading. It is this, 
 perhaps, which can be copied. It is this to which the 
 modern tapestry worker should address herself, if among 
 the amusements of home she counts the making of cur- 
 tains, and wall - coverings, and portieres, which shall 
 almost suggest the possibility that they once hung in a 
 Florentine or a "Venetian palace. A dark background of 
 some cheap woolen stuff, a knowledge of drawing, the 
 silk and woolen and cotton and linen threads now 
 brought to our hand so cheaply — will all furnish forth 
 the appliances for the making of tapestry hangings, such 
 as a castellan of the Middle Ages would not have de- 
 spised. 
 
 Painting on fans has become a very common Home 
 
54 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Amusement, and it is a very elegant one. The white silk 
 fan is usually selected, although linen, satin, and wood fans 
 are all easy and pleasant mediums. For painting on silk, 
 some technical knowledge is necessary, some gum-water, or 
 sizing, to prevent the paint from spreading. For painting 
 on wood, one needs only the common water-color box, 'and 
 a simple knowledge of drawing and painting. Flowers, 
 birds, and butterflies are the favorite devices, monograms 
 having gone out of fashion. It is better, if possible, to 
 have the silk stretched on a frame before it is mounted on 
 sticks, as one still sees the masterpieces of Boucher, Wat- 
 teau, and Greuze, not yet mounted, but framed, in galleries 
 — far too precious to mount, the Marchioness who ordered 
 them having, perhaps, fortunately forgotten her caprice 
 that we may admire it. 
 
 And what pretty and pleasing and altogether historical 
 memories come in with the fan ! It was created in prime- 
 val ages. The Egyptian ladies had them of lotus-leaves ; 
 the Greek and Eoman ladies followed. The word jlabellum 
 occurs often in the Roman literature. They also had fans 
 of peacock-feathers, and of some expansive material painted 
 in brilliant colors. They were not made to open and shut 
 like ours ; that is a modern invention. They were stiff, 
 with long handles, for ladies were fanned by their slaves. 
 The flahellifer, or fan-bearer, was some young attendant, 
 generally male, whose common business it was to carry his 
 mistress's fan. "Would that were the fashion now ! There 
 is a Pompeian painting of Cupid as the fan-bearer of 
 Ariadne, and lamenting her desertion by Theseus. In 
 Queen Elizabeth's day the fan was usually made of feath- 
 ers, like the fan still used in the East. The handle was 
 richly ornamented, and set with stones, A fashionable 
 lady was never without her fan, which was chained to 
 her girdle by a jeweled chain. A satirist of the day, 
 Stephen Gosson, a^^proves of the fan if used to drive away 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 55 
 
 flies and for cooling the skin. He, however, continues 
 scornfully : 
 
 "But seeing they were still in hand, 
 
 In house, in field, in church, in street, 
 In summer, winter, water, land, 
 
 In cold, in heat, in dry, in wet — 
 I judge they are for wives such tools 
 As babies are in plays for fools." 
 
 Queen Elizabeth dropped a silver-handled fan into the 
 moat at Auistead Hall, which occasioned many madrigals. 
 Sir Erancis Drake presented to his royal mistress a "fan of 
 feathers, white and red, enameled with a half-moon of 
 mother-of-pearl ; within that a half-moon garnished with 
 sparks of diamonds, and a few seed pearls on one side. 
 Having her Majesty's picture within it, and on the reverse 
 a crow." Why not try, young ladies, to paint a fan like 
 this ? Use silver dust to illustrate "sparks of diamonds." 
 It would be a very pretty conceit. 
 
 Poor Leicester gave, as his New Year's gift, in 1574, "a 
 fan of white feathers set in a handle of gold, garnished on 
 one side with two very fair emeralds, and fully garnished 
 with rubies and diamonds, and on each side a white bear 
 (his cognizance), and two pearls hanging, a lion romping, 
 with a white muzzled bear at his foot. " This fan would 
 be difficult to copy. It was evidently a love-token from 
 poor, ill-used Leicester to his haughty queen. Just before 
 Christmas, in 1595, Elizabeth went to Kew, dined at my 
 Lord Keeper's house, and there was handed her a " fine fan, 
 with a handle garnished with diamonds." 
 
 Fans in Shakespeare's time seem to have been composed 
 of ostrich-feathers, and so on, stuck into handles. In 
 "Love and Honor," by Sir William Davenant, we find the 
 line, 
 
 " All your plate, Yasco, is the silver handle of your old prisoner's 
 fan." 
 
56 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Marston says : 
 
 "Another, he 
 Her silver-handled fan would gladly be." 
 
 Forty pounds were often given for a fan in Elizabeth's 
 time. Bishop Hall, in his ''Satires/' in 1597, says : 
 
 " While one piece pays her idle waiting man, 
 Or buys a hood, or silver-handled fan." 
 
 The fan of the Countess of Suffolk resembles a powder- 
 puff. 
 
 But gentlemen carried fans in those . days. We find in 
 a manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, the 
 following allusion : " The gentlemen then had prodigious 
 fans, as is to be seen in old pictures, like that instrument 
 which is used to dry feathers, and it had a handle at least 
 one half as long, with which their daughters oftentimes 
 were corrected. Sir Edward Cole, Lord Chief Justice, 
 rode the circuit with such a fan, and William Dugdale told 
 me he was witness of it." The Earl of Manchester also 
 used such a fan. " But the fathers and mothers slasht their 
 daughters, in the time of their besom -discipline, when they 
 were perfect women." Both fashions have happily passed 
 away. Lords Chief Justices no longer " slash " their daugh- 
 ters, nor do they carry fans. 
 
 Of Catharine de Braganza (1664) we read that she and 
 her maids walked from Whitehall in procession to St. 
 James's Palace through the park in glittering costume of 
 silver lace in the bright morning sunshine. Parasols being 
 unknown in England at that era, the courtly belles used 
 the gigantic green shading-fans, which had been intro- 
 duced by the Queen and her Portuguese ladies, to shield 
 their complexions from the sun, when they did not wish 
 wholly to obscure their charms by putting on their masks. 
 Both were in general use in this reign. The green shading- 
 fan is of Moorish origin, and for more than a century after 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 57 
 
 the marriage of Catliarine of Braganza was considered an 
 indispensable luxury by our fair and stately ancestral dames, 
 who used them in open carriages, in the promenade, and 
 at' prayers, where they ostentatiously screened their devo- 
 tions from public view by spreading them before their faces 
 while they knelt. 
 
 But China and Japan — the home of fans — are waiting 
 to be let in ! and as soon as the India trade was opened by 
 Catharine's marriage treaty, there entered the carved ivory 
 fan, the light bamboo and palm-leaf, the paper fan, the 
 silk folding fan, mounted on beautiful Japanese sticks ; all 
 came to England about this time. 
 
 The vellum fans of France, on which Watteau first 
 painted his shepherdesses in hoop-petticoats, and swains in 
 full-bottomed wigs, the choice impossible goddesses of 
 Boucher, with cupids and nymphs, all came next. The 
 history of fans, in France alone, would fill a volume ; and 
 the neighboring kingdom of Spain, where the language of 
 fans has become a very serious study, would give us another 
 volume. The fans of tortoise-shell, enriched with jewels, 
 are a favorite luxury of to-day. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 has written a delightful poem on the " Origin of the Fan." 
 In all our art loan collections there is, nowadays, an exhibi- 
 tion of fans. The young student of fan-painting should 
 strive to see some of those of "Watteau and of Boucher. 
 Tiffany to-day turns out some very beautiful specimens ; 
 and more than one of our artists could admirably paint a 
 fan or two as his contribution to Fan History. 
 
 Nothing can be prettier as a Home Amusement than 
 fan-painting, into which much, but not too much, Japanese 
 suggestion should creep. Eemember, young ladies, the 
 plea of that poor stork, of which we have seen so much, 
 ** that he be allowed to put down his other leg ! " and spare 
 us the gilded bird, or give him to us but seldom. 
 
 The art of Illumination, which is now studied occa- 
 
58 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 sionally by our young ladies, goes wonderfully well into 
 fan-painting. Perhaps it is too good for it. Perhaps the 
 same hand which can copy the old initial letter which 
 makes the missals rich and rare, should not condescend to 
 the application of the same delicate manipulation in order 
 to ornament a fan. But a fan of vellum, painted by an 
 illuminator, is still a very beautiful thing. 
 
 A fan painted to illustrate a song or a ballad is a very 
 pretty thing. The common linen fan, on which a clevet 
 hand draws with pencil or ink the story of " Mary, Mary, 
 quite contrary," becomes a precious possession. And ii> 
 these days of Kate Greenaways and Eosina Emmets w& 
 ought to have many charming fan decorators. We should 
 not object if they selected the old-fashioned manure god- 
 desses, hovering cupids, smiling nymphs, and pose infants 
 of Boucher, if they would give us his cool, pearly grays, 
 and sweet, soft rose tints. We have had enough of real- 
 ism and ugliness, disagreeable cat-tails, and harsh, dirty 
 Joan of Arcs. Let us have a little beauty by way of a 
 change, at least on our fans. Perhaps we could " live up 
 to it." 
 
 Nor should we fail to note the pleasant possibility of all 
 the dinner-cards of a winter coming fresh from the hands 
 of the young ladies of the family. What infinite sugges- 
 tion does one glimpse of the garden on a June morning 
 give to the fair artist ! We can imagine that some poetical 
 member should thus summon and direct her sister and 
 brother artists in the following manner : 
 
 ''Do give me, Eosamond, that spray of sweet-brier 
 which has caught a bit of spider-web over its sweetest 
 pink bud. Throw in that green dragon-fly who is about 
 to dart through the spider's web. Give me, Grace, that 
 morning-glory cup with a yellow butterfly floating over it. 
 It will shame the best Venetian glass of Mrs. Crcesus. 
 
 "You, Jane, paint me those dandelions, strewed by 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 59 
 
 some millionaire who is tired of his gold. You, Constance, 
 take this volume of the old poets, and hunt up appropriate 
 mottoes to write under these fancies from Nature. They 
 shall illuminate our dinners of next winter, and breathe 
 the breath of Nature through our stifE conventionality. 
 They shall be our visitors from Titania. 
 
 " Yes, a happy thought ! You, Mary, who are so akin 
 to the fairies, give us your kindred. Paint me Oberon and 
 Queen Mab giving a banquet in yon lily. What a splendid 
 and baronial apartment ! How the golden shower falls on 
 their royal heads from those laden stamens ! True cour- 
 tiers they, who never stop flattering. Suggest, if you can, 
 with your brush, the perfume of luxury which is born and 
 bred in this royal pavilion. Show me their delicate guests. 
 Here comes the Butterfly, most repandu of beaus ; and the 
 Humming-bird, rich bachelor (hard to catch), who dashes 
 in for a look at the beauties, and away again — you can put 
 him in ; he is a type for a dinner-card. 
 
 *' And you, Paul, who are of a strong, masculine, satiri- 
 cal turn, shall make all these frogs and toads into guests in 
 another set of dinner-cards. Give me the frog as an Am- 
 bassador. I like his pouting throat, his puffy air — it so 
 simulates importance. How grand and disdainful he is ! 
 
 I declare, he looks so like old Mr. ! But do not make 
 
 a portrait ; that would give offense. These toads are just 
 about as lively and as brilliant as the rank and file of 
 diners-out. Put them all in Worth dresses. Make the 
 dishes on the table after Hawthorne's delicate fancy, the 
 shapes of summer vegetables — squashes, cucumbers, pea- 
 pods. What is that pretty poem I remember about Pods ? 
 
 " ' The Monk's-hood and the Shepherd's-pnrse, 
 
 And the Poppy's pepper-caster ; 
 The Eose's scarlet reticule, 
 
 And the somber box of the Aster ; 
 Nasturtion's biting brandy-flask, 
 
60 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 infused with a wliolesome smart ; 
 Aud the Milkweed's knot of white floss silk, 
 
 Which "will not come apart ; 
 For next to the bud where the Poppy nods, 
 
 And the sweet Moss-rose — are the late Seed-pods.' " 
 
 ''Yes," said Mary, ''pods are very pretty." 
 
 Well, we have, perhaps, talked nonsense enongb. about 
 the dinner-cards. It is a pretty Home Amusement for 
 the back piazza in summer, or for the close and guarded 
 warm home parlor of winter. Give us the results of 
 both, young ladies. And since all the wealthy chromo 
 people are offering such splendid sums for the Christ- 
 mas, Easter, and even advertising cards, why should not 
 every group try their hand at the — perhaps — thousand dol- 
 lar prize ? 
 
 Here is a suggestion for a Christmas card : A group of 
 young pagans going out of the Catacombs are represented 
 as strewing flowers and singing gay songs. On the other 
 side a group of austere early Christians are coming in, sing- 
 ing hymns. Between the two a ray of light comes down 
 through a fissure of the roof and forms a cross. The re- 
 ligion that is going out, the religion that is coming in — 
 the cross is between them. How much a clever hand could 
 make of this moment of time, so replete with interest to 
 all the world ! 
 
 It would seem as if, with all the suggestions of Easter, 
 that no one would need anything but a paint-box and a 
 pack of blank cards to interest them at this season. We 
 should have the World being hatched out of an ^gg ; the 
 Saxon goddess Eastre ; the Legend of the Stork ; the Cer- 
 man children searching for the ISTest in the garden where 
 the Easter-hen had laid her egg ; the great Sunburst ; the 
 Sun dancing on Easter morning ; the games of mediaeval 
 England, when the women played ball at one end of the 
 town and the men at the other, and one fine couple taking 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 61 
 
 occasion to run away to get married on the sly. The 
 Easter Egg is full of meat for the artist. 
 
 Growing out of these thoughts comes up the great and 
 increasing taste for symbolism, which finds its highest ex- 
 ponent in church embroidery. The Catholic Church has 
 ever been a good customer of the decorative art schools. 
 It needs and consumes or uses much embroidery. But the 
 pious women of Protestant communion now also deem it a 
 duty and a pleasure to decorate the altars of their beloved 
 churches with much that is symbolic and beautiful, and it 
 is a favorite form of Home Amusement to create an altar- 
 cloth or some draperies which shall engross an hour or two 
 a day of the time of the best embroideresses in the family. 
 
 The favorite symbols are these : The Cross in its various 
 forms ; the monogram composed of the Greek letters X 
 {CJi) and P {R), the first two in the name of 
 Christ ; the Apocalyptic letters A and ^ {Al- < j> 
 pha and Omega), often combined into a mono- ^ ^ 
 gram ; and the Greek characters IH2, the first X N^^ 
 three letters in the name IHSOrs (Jesijs). 
 This last symbol is sometimes interpreted thus, in Latin : 
 J\esus], H[ominum'\ 8{alvator] — Jesus, of ME]sr the Say- 
 
 lOUE. 
 
 Less frequent is the Fish, which was often used by the 
 early Christians as a kind of secret sign of their faith, the 
 reason being that 1X6X2, the Greek word for "fish," con- ' 
 tains the iiytials of an article of their creed, thus : l\r}aovg'\ 
 'K.\jpLaTO(;'\, Q\eov\ T\Loq\, S[a)T7)p] — Jesus Christ, God^s Son, 
 the Saviour. 
 
 Besides the foregoing, we have the Ship, indicating the 
 Church, as typified by Noah's Ark ; the Anchor (always in 
 close connection with the ship) entwined with a dolphin — 
 emblems of Fortitude, Faith, and Hope ; the Dove, occa- 
 sionally bearing the olive-branch — the symbol of Christian 
 Charity and Meekness ; the Phoenix and the Peacock — sym- 
 
62 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 bols of Eternity ; the Cock of Watchfulness ; the Lyre of 
 the Worship of Grod ; the Palm-branch — the heathen sym- 
 bol of Victory, but in a Christian sense that of Victory 
 over Death ; the Sheaf ; the Bunch of Grapes, with other 
 Biblical signs and allusions, such as the Hart at the Brook ; 
 the Brazen Serpent ; the Ark of the Covenant ; the Seven- 
 branched Candlestick ; the Serpent in the Garden of Eden; 
 and, lastly, the Cross, with flowers, with a Crown, with a 
 dove hovering about it. Many of these decorative symbols 
 suggest themselves to the contemplative mind, and enter 
 into the appropriate designs for ecclesiastical embroidery. 
 
 This embroidery must be beautifully executed to be 
 worthy of its mission. The face of Christ has been so ex- 
 quisitely wrought by some devout embroideresses that it is 
 like a painting. The work should be done in a frame, and 
 after considerable study. 
 
 And how pleasant a study for a winter evening becomes 
 the universal subject of symbolism ! We learn that the 
 Eagle and the Thunderbolt were the symbols of Power 
 under pagan mythology, because the attributes of the highest 
 among the gods. The Eod, wjth the two serpents, indicated 
 Commerce, because Mercury, whose insignia they were, was 
 the God of Traffic. The Club, the emblem of Strength, 
 was the attribute of Hercules. The Griffin — most useful 
 animal for all decorative purposes — was sacred to Apollo. 
 The symbol of the Sphinx was taken from the fable of 
 CEdipus. We are coming back to the Oriental method of 
 teaching by parables in all our new internal decoration ; 
 and for the illuminator the knowledge is priceless. 
 
 We mount up from these simpler emblems to a consid- 
 eration of the myths of Niobe, of Cupid and Psyche, of 
 Orpheus captivating the wild beasts of the forest by the 
 sound of his lyre, in which was supposed to lurk an analogy 
 of the history of our Lord. Then we come down to the 
 materialism of the ancients, by which a river is symbolized 
 
EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS. 63 
 
 by a river-god ; a city, by a goddess witb a mural crown ; 
 night, by a female figure with, a torch and a star-bespangled 
 robe ; heaven, by a male figure throwing a veil in an arched 
 form over his head. All these reflections, born of study 
 and leading to it, are brought in by the practical applica- 
 tion now made in embroidery, painting, and wall-decora- 
 tions ; and it would be well if, among the Home Amuse- 
 ments, these graver studies went hand in hand with the 
 pleasant duties of embroidery and illuminating cards and 
 books. 
 
 Ole Bull says that he arrived at his wonderful eflEects 
 upon 'the violin less by manual practice than by medita- 
 tion. It would be well to thinh much over the subject of 
 art. He practiced less and tliouglit more, it is said, than 
 other violinists. No occupation conduces more to quiet 
 and pleasant thought than that of embroidery. We want 
 realism ; but we also want idealism. There is no sort of 
 doubt that Art, once admitted as a friend of the family, 
 becomes the greatest instigator of all sorts of Home Amuse- 
 ments, whether peeping out through the paint-box, the 
 needle, the embroidering-frame, the etching tool, or the 
 turpentine - bottle and the mineral paints which are to 
 decorate the plaque. Art is a sprite whose acquaintance 
 should be cultivated. 
 
IX. 
 
 ETCHINa. 
 
 "Good etching is the poetry of drawing, written down, 
 rapidly in short-hand." No doubt many a very orderly 
 mamma, who has had a son or daughter afflicted with a 
 mania for etching, as so many young people are now, 
 has a vision of bath-tubs misappropriated to mixtures 
 of what looked very unlike clear water for cleansing pur- 
 poses, and which turned out to have plates of copper inside 
 waiting for a bite of acid. Such mammas will blame us 
 for calling this a Home Amusement ; they call it — it is to 
 be feared — "a Nuisance." And yet what form of Art is 
 so near the highest forms of poetry ? The etcher is next 
 door to his subject and his jpublic. He has but the ink 
 and himself between that cloud-shadow and them. 
 
 Etching is defined by some writers as the stenography 
 of artistic thought ; a system of short-hand writing. Given 
 a copper plate, an etching-needle, and the jjroper knowl- 
 edge — easily learned — of the action of the acid, and etching 
 can be done at home as well as crochet or embroidery ; and 
 as only the simplest lines and the simplest curves are ad- 
 missible, the question of merit narrows itself to one of 
 intelligent combination. The best etching is that which 
 combines the maximum of speed with the maximum of 
 expressional clearness ; so that the landscape may be writ- 
 ten on a "monument less perishable than brass," while the 
 thought is fresh and vivid. An artist can see in the 
 
ETCEING. ^ 65 
 
 short-hand of an etching the glory of a sunset amid its 
 clouds. 
 
 Highly-elaborated drawings can also be reproduced by 
 etchings as in no other way, as we have learned by con- 
 sulting the Magazines and Art Periodicals of the day ; and 
 although a great etcher must have a genius for it, many 
 without genius can learn the art. An etching is not a 
 skeleton of a picture, but a resume. Samuel Palmer, Fred- 
 eric Taylor, and Hook, in England ; Jules Jacquemart, 
 Flameny, Eajou, Boilvin, Le Eat, Hedouin, Greux, Cour- 
 tey, Laguillermie, and others, in France, have taught us 
 what a beautiful resume it is, not to speak of our own 
 gifted interpreters. The original etchers can produce strong 
 sentiment concerning life and nature ; and although there 
 is at first discouraging uncertainty about results, yet there 
 is a great chance of success. 
 
 And the capriciousness of the thing is one of its charms, 
 as it is, like poetic expression, dependable upon personal 
 thought and feeling. It is like the success which attends 
 upon a happy hit in poetry when one makes a good etching, 
 yet a certain amount of mechanical exactitude can always 
 be acquired. Let the boys and girls of a large family be 
 taught etching, and some one will turn out a clever and, 
 perhaps, a first-rate etcher. 
 
 It is quite too unfortunate that our young girls in the 
 country do not take more to sketching from Nature, and 
 to water-color. To sit at one's window, and, with a ''few 
 telling touches," to give the trees in the near foreground or 
 the distant reach of the river, is the every-day amusement 
 of many an English lady. Our first efforts must be la- 
 bored, of course ; we must patiently observe and copy what 
 we see ; but then comes the attainment of ease, and our 
 Home Amusements are infinitely enriched. It is best to 
 study at first in single tint until one gets accustomed to 
 form, and then to try varied colors. 
 
i 
 
 QQ HOME AMUSEMENTS. ^ 
 
 The mastery of the three primary colors — yellow, red, j 
 and blue — is the Alpha and Omega of painting. As force ■ 
 of color is only to be obtained by opposing one of these 
 singly to all the others combined, they are consequently all 
 present whenever opposition occurs ; and no picture is per- 
 fectly pleasing without the presence of all three, even 
 though they may be subdued to the most solemn and sober 
 undertones. Try the effect of mixing the various colors, 
 and preserve the mixtures you find most useful. But this 
 is an art which must be learned, and for the elucidation of 
 which we have no space here. 
 
X. 
 
 LAWN TENNIS. 
 
 Akd now we come to what, perhaps, our readers may 
 imagine we might have come to before — the out-of-door 
 Games and Amusements which radiate from Home. 
 
 Lawn Tennis is so preeminently the game of the present 
 moment that we must give it a central place in our volume. 
 
 It has great antiquity, of course. What fashionable 
 game has not ? Did not Agrippina play at croquet, and 
 Cleopatra institute "Les Graces" ? We know that Diana 
 started archery, for isn't she always drawn with a bow ? 
 And yet she died an old maid. 
 
 The Greeks styled court tennis as " Sphairistihe," and 
 the Eomans called it Pila. It was the fashionable pastime 
 of French and English kings. Charles V, of France, and 
 Henry V, VII, and VIII, of England, were all good tennis 
 players. Who does not remember the insult which the 
 French king put upon royal Harry ? 
 
 " Tennis balls ! My lord?" 
 
 It has been justly described as one of the most ancient 
 games in Christendom. It became in England the exclu- 
 sive sport of the wealthy, owing to the expense of erecting 
 and maintaining covered courts ; for in early days we learn 
 that it was always played within doors. Indeed, the history 
 of France is full of it. The unhappy Charles IX gave the 
 order for the massacre of St. Bartholomew from a tennis 
 court. The French Eevolution was born in one. 
 
68 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 But to Major Walter "Wingfield do we owe Lawn Tennis. 
 This oflficer, of the First Dragoon Gruards, attempted, unsuc- 
 cessfully, in 1874, to procure a patent for a new game. He 
 had taken the net out of doors, and no longer did four 
 walls encompass the players. A little pamphlet is in exist- 
 ence now which fully establishes the claim of this officer 
 to the rightful title of inventor of lawn, tennis. It is called 
 ''The Major's Game of Lawn Tennis; dedicated to the 
 party assembled at Nautelywdjin, December, 1873, by W. 
 C. W.," and is illustrated with an elaborate pictorial dia- 
 gram, containing a sketch of a lawn tennis court, erected 
 in a pretty garden. The only difference appreciable to a 
 modern player in the appearance of the court is that on 
 one side it is divided into two squares, and that on the 
 other the server stands in a diamond-shaped space. With 
 slight exceptions, the game remains as it did when Major 
 Wingfield invented it. 
 
 Now, in 1881, as in the days of Henry III, of England 
 (about 1222), it is a favorite with people of superior rank, 
 well befitting the tastes of the nobility, in the perform- 
 ance of which they could exercise a commendable zeal, as 
 also their whole physique ; that is to say, it is the fash- 
 ion. The name undoubtedly comes from Tennois, in the 
 French district of Champagne, where balls are manufac- 
 tured, and where, it is claimed, the game was first intro- 
 duced. 
 
 A lawn, well clipped and evenly rolled, is the first 
 requirement. The courts should be laid rectangularly. 
 The game should be gotten up with reference to the wind, 
 the net being set at right angles with it. Thus will be 
 avoided the tendency of air currents to carry the balls off 
 or beyond the bounds ; and the play will be then against 
 or with the wind. In either case its influence can be more 
 accurately calculated. 
 
 The lines of boundary and division should be indicated 
 
LAWIf TENNIS. 69 
 
 upon the greensward by means of whitewash, carefully laid 
 on with brush and string. The larger or double court 
 should be seventy-eight feet long by a width of thirty-six 
 feet, inside measure ; and the smaller or single-handed 
 court seventy-eight by twenty-seven feet, inside measure- 
 ment. As in the old game of tennis, so in this, the court 
 is divided across the middle and at right angles to its great- 
 est length by a net, so stretched and fastened to and by . 
 two posts, standing three feet outside of the side lines, that ■. 
 the height of the net at each post for the double-handed or 
 larger court is four feet, and in the middle over the half- 
 court line three feet six inches ; and for the single-handed 
 or smaller court four feet nine inches at the posts, and three 
 feet in the middle over the half-court line. These divisions 
 are termed courts, and are subdivided into half-courts by a 
 line midway between the side lines, and running parallel 
 with the greatest length, which is known as the half -court 
 line. The four resulting half-courts are respectively divided 
 by a line on each side of the net, parallel to and twenty- 
 two feet from it. These two lines, called service lines, it 
 may be observed, will then be seventeen feet inside of the 
 lines of boundary for»the short sides, known as base lines. 
 
 The implements comprise net, posts, cordage, balls, and 
 rackets. The net should be taut, the posts straight, the 
 ball hollow, of India-rubber, covered with white cloth ; in 
 size, two inches and a half ; weight, two ounces. The racket 
 is made with a frame of elastic wood, with a webbing nicely 
 wrought -^f catgut. The large-sized rackets made at Phila- 
 delphia and in London are the best. 
 
 The players don a costume of flannel for the purpose, 
 wearing shoes of canvas with corrugated rubber soles, with- 
 out heels. Indeed, a chapter might be written on lawn- 
 tennis dresses, aj)rons, and other fancies. But these — so 
 they are loose and easy, and not long or cumbrous — may be 
 left to the fancy of the individual. 
 
TO ROME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 The choice of sides and the right of serving are left to 
 the chance of toss, with the proviso that if the winner of 
 the toss choose the right to serve, the other player shall 
 have the choice of sides, or vice versa. 
 
 There are double-handed, three-handed, and four-handed 
 games, each having som^ variations. In the double-handed 
 game the players stand on opposite sides of the net. The 
 player who first delivers the ball is called the server, and 
 the other the striker-out. The first game having been 
 played, these interchange ; the server becomes the striker- 
 out, and the striker-out the server ; and so alternately in 
 subsequent games of the set. The server usually announces 
 the intention to serve by the interrogation "Eeady ?" If 
 answered aflBrmatively, the service is made, the server 
 standing with one foot outside the base line, and from any 
 part of the base line of the right and left counts alternately, 
 beginning with the right. 
 
 The ball so served is required to drop within the service 
 line, half-court line, and side line of the court which is 
 diagonally opj)osite to that from which it was served, where 
 the service from the base line must fall to be a service. If 
 the ball served drops on or beyond .the service line, if it 
 drops in the net, if it drops out of the court, or on any of 
 the lines which bound it, or if it drops in the wrong court, 
 or, if in attempting to serve, the server fails to strike the 
 ball, it is a ^' fault." A fault can not be taken, but the 
 ball must be served the second time from the same court 
 from which the fault was served. 
 
 Though the service is made if the striker-out is not 
 ready, the service shall be repeated, unless an attempt is 
 made to return the service on the part of the striker-out ; 
 which action shall be construed to be equivalent to having 
 been ready. ISTo service is allowed to be ^''volleyed" ; that 
 is, the striker-out is not allowed to return a service while 
 the ball is "on the fly," or before a "bounce." If such 
 
LAWIf TENRIS. Yl 
 
 a return of service is made, it counts a stroke for the 
 server. 
 
 To properly return a service, and have the ball in play, 
 the ball is to be played back over the net or between the. 
 posts before it has touched the ground a second time, or 
 while on the "first bounce," and is subject to no bounds 
 other than the side and base lines of the court. After the 
 ball is in play, it may be struck while "on the fly," but 
 policy would dictate a bounce to determine whether or not 
 it has been played beyond the boundaries of the court. A 
 ball served, or in play, may touch the net, and be a good 
 service or return. If it touches the top cord it is termed a 
 ''let," a "life," or a "net" ball, and need not be played 
 if it drops just inside the net, on the striker-out side, but 
 must be served again. Should it fall on the service side, 
 or in the wrong court on the striker-out side, or out of 
 bounds, it counts a "fault." If, however, it falls so as to 
 be a good return, in any stage of the game other than 
 service, it must be played as a good ball. In play, if the 
 striker-out volleys the service, or the ball in play, or fails 
 to return the service or the ball in play, or returns the 
 service or the ball in play so that it drops untouched by 
 the server, on or outside of any of the lines which bound 
 the court, or if the striker-out otherwise loses a stroke, as 
 we will find presently, when we consider the conditions 
 common to both server and striker-out, the server wins a 
 stroke. 
 
 In the handling of the racket the greatest dexterity 
 may be attained by careful study and practice. The twist 
 ball is a feature of the game which good players utilize to 
 the greatest advantage. The uncertainty of its bounces is 
 calculated to outwit the most adroit. 
 
 Since, under certain conditions of failure on the part 
 of the striker-out, the advantage in count of a stroke comes 
 to the server, so, too, the striker-out reaps a harvest if 
 
72 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 the server serves two consecutive faults, or if tlie server 
 fails to return the ball in play, or if the server returns the 
 ball in play so that it drops untouched by the striker-out 
 .on or outside any of the lines which bound the court, 
 or if the server loses a stroke under conditions common to 
 both server and striker-out, in any of which cases the 
 striker-out wins a stroke. There are conditions under 
 which each player loses a stroke : If the service-ball, or 
 ball in play, touches the player, or anything worn or 
 carried by him, except the racket in the act of strik- 
 ing ; or if the player strikes or touches the service-ball, 
 or ball in play, with the racket more than once ; or if in 
 returning the service-ball, or ball in play, the player 
 touches the net with any part of the body, or with the 
 racket, or with anything that is worn or carried ; or if the 
 ball touches either of the posts ; so if the player strikes 
 the ball before it has passed the net, or if the service-ball, 
 or ball in play, drops or falls uj)on a ball lying in either 
 of the players' courts. So much for the conditions under 
 which the players, either server or striker-out, win or lose 
 a stroke. 
 
 As for scoring, there are two systems, each of which has 
 its adherents. Both should be understood, and the more 
 thoroughly the player understands both, the more at ease 
 will he be in any company with whom he may be play- 
 ing. 
 
 The first plan is this : The first stroke won counts for 
 the player, winning a score of fifteen ; the second stroke 
 won by the same player counts for that player an additional 
 score of fifteen, making a total of thirty ; the third stroke 
 won counts for him an additional ten, making the score 
 forty. Unless there is a tie of forty, the fourth stroke 
 won by that player entitles him to score game. If, how- 
 ever, both players have won three strokes, the score is called 
 deuce, and so on until at the score of deuce either player 
 
LAWIi TENNIS. 73 
 
 wins two consecutive strokes, when tlie game is scored for 
 tliat player. Six games constitute a " set," and the player 
 who first wins them wins the set, unless in case both players 
 win five games, when the score is called '^games-all," and 
 the next game won by either player is scored advantage 
 game for that player. If the same player wins the next 
 game he wins the set. If he loses the next game, the score 
 is again called "games-all'' ; and so on until at the score 
 of games-all either player wins two consecutive games, when 
 he wins the set. An exception to this is where an agree- 
 ment is entered into not to play advantage sets, but to 
 decide the set by one game after arriving at the score of 
 games-all. In this mode of scoring both the server and the 
 striker-out are entitled to count, while in the " alternative 
 method " it is different. 
 
 An alternative method of scoring is as follows, in which 
 the term " hand-in " is substituted for " server," and 
 "hand-out" for "striker-out." In this system the hand- 
 in alone is able t% score. If he loses a stroke he becomes 
 hand-out, and his opponent becomes hand-in, and serves his 
 turn. Fifteen points won constitutes the game. If both 
 players have won fourteen points, the game is set to three, 
 and the score called "love-all." The hand-in continues to 
 serve, and the player who first scores three points wins the 
 game. If he or his partner loses a stroke, the other side 
 shall be hand-in. During the remainder of the game, when 
 the first hand-in has been put out, his partner shall serve, 
 beginning from the court from which the last service was 
 not delivered, and when both j)artners have been j)ut out, 
 then the other side shall be hand-in. 
 
 The liand-in shall deliver the service in accordance with 
 the restrictions mentioned for the server, and the opponents 
 shall receive tlie service alternately, each keeping the court 
 which he originally occupied. In all subsequent strokes 
 the ball may be returned by either partner on each side. 
 
 4 
 
74 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 The privilege of being hand-in two or more successive 
 times may be given. 
 
 What has been said of double-handed games applies 
 equally well to the three-handed and four-handed games, 
 except that in the three-handed game the single player 
 shall serve in every alternate game ; in the four-handed 
 game the pair who have the right to serve in the first game 
 may decide which partner shall do so, and the opposing 
 pair may decide similarly for the second game. The part- 
 ner of the player who served in the first game shall serve 
 in the third, and the partner of the player who served in 
 the second game shall serve in the fourth, and so on. In 
 the same order, in all the subsequent games of a set or series 
 of sets, the players shall take the service alternately through- 
 out each game. 
 
 No player shall receive or return a service delivered to 
 his partner ; and the order of service and of striking-out 
 once arranged, shall not be altered ; nor shall the strikers- 
 out change courts to receive the service Tjefore the end of 
 the set. The players change sides at the end of every set. 
 When a series of sets is played, the player who was server 
 in the last game of one set shall be striker-out in the first 
 game of the next. 
 
 A Bisque is one stroke which may be claimed by the 
 receiver of the odds at any time during a set, except that 
 a bisque may not be taken after the service has been deliv- 
 ered. The server may not take a bisque after a fault, but 
 the striker-out may do so. One or more bisques may be 
 given in augmentation or diminution of other odds. 
 
 Half-fifteen is one stroke given at the beginning of the 
 second and every subsequent alternate game of a set. 
 
 Fifteen is one stroke given at the beginning of every 
 game of a set. 
 
 Half-thirty is one stroke given at the beginning of the 
 first game, two strokes given at the beginning of the second 
 
LAWJ^ TUNNIS. Y5 
 
 game, and so on alternately in all the subsequent games of 
 a set. 
 
 Thirty is two strokes given at the beginning of every 
 game of a set. 
 
 Half-forty is two strokes given at the beginning of the 
 first game, three strokes at the beginning of the second, 
 and so on alternately in all the subsequent games of the 
 set. 
 
 Forty is three strokes given at the beginning of every 
 game of a set. 
 
 Half-court is when the players having agreed into which 
 court the giver of the odds of 'half-court shall play, the 
 latter loses a stroke if the ball returned by him drops out- 
 side any of the lines which bound that court. 
 
 If the game is to be umpired, there should be one for 
 each side of the net, who shall call play at the beginning of 
 a game, enforce the rules, and be sole judge of fair and un- 
 fair play, each on his respective side of the net. 
 
 We have followed the best manual and the best opinions 
 of the most successful players in the above lengthy ab- 
 stract for the use of many who may be confused by the 
 very absurd and contradictory rules published in the news- 
 papers. These rules of ours are those which were used at 
 Newport, at the Casino, during the famous Lawn Tourna- 
 ment of 1880, which was so very interesting, and in which 
 the victors were rewarded by prizes, from Mr. Bennett, of 
 silver pitchers, bracelets, and rings of great value ; and 
 which shows that the game of lawn tennis deserved the 
 high encomiums pronounced by Henry III on court tennis. 
 It is a game of science ; it does exercise every part of the 
 body; and it requires skill, good temper, staying power. 
 Judgment, and activity. 
 
 Of course, few groups at home will play with the sci- 
 ence and skill displayed in these tournaments ; yet the rules 
 of the game should be thoroughly learned, and those who 
 
Y6 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 play scientifically will ayoid those conteutions and disputes 
 whicli spoil any game. 
 
 It is better in giving a lawn-tennis party not to invite 
 any but those who really are devotees of the game. As to 
 others, the absorption of the players makes the party 
 stupid. 
 
XI. 
 
 GAEDEN PAETIES. 
 
 A Gaeden" Paktt is a scene of enchantment, to whicli 
 the lawn-tennis net lends an additional grace and yariety. 
 
 A lady, living near a city, who chooses to inaugurate 
 the season with a garden party, sends her invitations a 
 week in advance, and carefully incloses a card telling her 
 guests by what roads, railway trains, and boats she may be 
 reached. There must be no confusion or lack of carriages 
 at the end of the route. This hospitality must cover every- 
 thing. If the weather is fine and the distance short, la- 
 dies generally drive to these entertainments in gay dresses 
 and bonnets or hats ; for a garden party should look as 
 much like a Watteau as possible. Those who have had the 
 advantage of seeing a garden party in England — at Hol- 
 land House, or at Buckingham Palace — will remember how 
 beautiful, finished, and gay a scene it is. A dressy parasol 
 and a fan hung at the side are indispensable. Ladies go 
 either in the short Amazonian dresses which the practice 
 of games has made 'so fashionable, or else in Worth's last. 
 and most elegant trailing costumes, trusting to the grass 
 being dry, and knowing that they can sit on the piazza. 
 
 Most garden-party givers provide band music, which 
 plays either in the grand hall, or at some spot on the lawn 
 where dancing can go on. But our turf is not like the 
 English turf, and modern dancing is not that springing 
 measure of "young Bertine," as she bounds under the wal- 
 
78 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 nut-trees of Southern France. So we can not count in 
 dancing as one of the usual pleasures of a garden party, 
 unless a broad platform is laid ; and this has in its way 
 ^ a very pretty effect under the trees or in a large tent. 
 
 A garden party is for all ages ; so there should be in our 
 uncertain climate full provision for the elderly, who can 
 not always spend an afternoon on the lawn. Broad piazzas 
 are very useful, and much enjoyed by those who fear our 
 treacherous malarious soil ; and if one can riot exercise, it 
 is better to sit on a piazza than on the grass. 
 
 As it is always prone to rain at picnics and garden par- 
 ties, it is better to have the refreshments in the house. 
 Gentlemen can run into the banquet-hall and get a plate 
 of lobster-salad for a lady, or the waiters can carry the 
 refreshments about ; but for a sudden shower of rain to 
 descend on a table is miserable, and defeats the object of 
 the table. 
 
 The lady of the house, however, often improvises a hasty 
 roof or covering for her table, put up by the carpenter at 
 a small outlay, if she is determined to have everything 
 al fresco. Frozen coffee, iced tea, punch, ice-cream cro- 
 quets, salads, jellies, pressed turkey, potted meats, po^te de 
 foie gras, and sandwiches, are spread about. Do not • at- 
 tempt any hot dishes at a garden party ; they are out of 
 place, and impossible. 
 
 The garden party is said to be "the first hybrid which 
 unites society and nature." It is a growing taste with us 
 Americans, and will grow to be a greater favorite as time 
 goes on. The popularity of the game of archery, that 
 relic of Eobin Hood and Maid Marion, " that vision of Lin- 
 coln green," is now added to lawn tennis, croquet, and 
 " les Graces,'^ as one of the most popular features of a gar- 
 den party. One would think that there was nothing needed 
 but the long sweep of the trees upon the lawn, the vision 
 of the distant city, the flower-beds where geraniums and 
 
GARDEN PARTIES. 79 
 
 calceolaria vie in color, the ^'pleaclied alley," the butter- 
 cup in the grass, the Watteau-like picture, or groups of 
 gay ladies and gallant cavaliers causing ''unpremeditated 
 effects " to make the garden party agreeable. But there is 
 always a need of preparation for such a party. No lady 
 should trust alone to the power of her guests to amuse them- 
 selves. She must do all that she can. 
 
 In the country a lady can wait for a day of fine weath- 
 er, and invite her guests only the day before. The grounds 
 and garden walks, the lawn tennis, the archery, should all 
 be in order, and a few chairs out under the trees. It is not 
 long before all her guests begin to enjoy themselves in their 
 own way, and to appreciate how much better a room is 
 made by the Gothic arch of the trees than by any sort of 
 cramped-up house arrangement. 
 
 One can be more general in the invitations to a garden 
 party than to any other ; for if people like each other they 
 can group together, and if they do not, they can easily walk 
 apart, and get rid of each other. In a small room, par- 
 ticularly at a dinner party, how two people can glow and 
 glare at each other, to the dreadful dismay of the hostess ! 
 But at a garden party Nature is too wide for them. They 
 are almost obliged to seem amused whether they are or not. 
 If not at all amused, they can, however, go and sulk under 
 the lilacs. Those fragrant vegetables will not care whether 
 the guests sulk or smile. 
 
 Every country house has its charms. How lovely a gar- 
 den party can be given at the Locusts, when all those trees 
 are in flower, sending down the perfume of Araby the Blest ! 
 How the perfume reminds one of St. John's Gardens, Ox- 
 ford, when the lime-trees are in bloom, and every bough is 
 laden with wild bees who make a music as they sip ! A 
 flowering tree is the most perfect thing which Adam and 
 Eve saved from Paradise. One seems, in inhaling its fra- 
 grance, to have just recovered from a long illness. 
 
80 • HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 The best part of a spring or early summer garden party 
 is this first whiff of fragrance which is brought to the dis- 
 used or insulted nostril of the city. We little know until 
 then how the most aristocratic of the senses has been 
 wronged. "VVe are always, and all of us, most patient over our 
 city bad smells until we go into the country and realize 
 what a bath of delicious odors a forest is — a bit of wood- 
 land, a field of growing grass, one sweet cherry-tree, an 
 apple-blossom, a violet ! The perfume of lilacs is the per- 
 fume of luxury ; and the first scythe of the mower, as it 
 sweeps through the young blood of the grass, reveals a 
 thousand scent-bottles all uncorked for our use. A lady 
 in giving a garden party should always have a bundle of 
 new-mown hay somewhere about the grounds. 
 
 And at the garden party what may not those who sit 
 on the benches remember ? All the sprightly, frivolous, 
 charming figures who seem to have posed for us at garden 
 parties in France ! Philippe d' Orleans and La Phalaris ; 
 the Due de Eichelieu and the Abbess de Chelles ; Watteau, 
 Voltaire, Carmargo ; Louis XV, with Pompadour and Du 
 Barry ; Boucher and Vanloo ; Greuze, Voisenon, and Ber-- 
 nis ; Guimaud and Sophie Arnould ; Crebillon, the tragic, 
 and Dancourt, the gay ! What a faithful study of naiads 
 and hamadryads did the beautiful women of these days 
 suggest to the artists at those garden parties when, to- 
 ward the end of spring, the trees were in blossom, and 
 the enameled grass carpeted' the |)arks ! Madame de Pom- 
 padour asked Louis XV to come and see her hermitage ! 
 Venus, Hebe, Diana the huntress, the three Graces — all 
 were in order ! The garden itself a masterpiece of attrac- 
 tion — a wood, rather than a garden — a wood peopled with 
 statues, formed of verdant and odorous arcades, of charm- 
 ing groves, of dark, shaded retreats. Such was the Pare 
 mix Oerfs. 
 
 We think again of the rose-tree of Jean Jacques at the 
 
GABBEN PARTIES. 81 
 
 hermitage. We remember Dufresny, wlio '^studied love 
 in his heart, grandeur at the court, war upon the field of 
 battle, architecture in the erection of buildings, nature in 
 Ms garden, music in song." Dufresny was in love with 
 gardens. A poet, a friend of Louis XIV, he loved roses 
 better than any other luxury. It was he who broke up 
 the stiff, old-fashioned plan of gardening at Vincennes, and 
 introduced Nature with her charming caprices and fairy 
 fantasies. It was he who said, " Cultivating roses, mark- 
 ing out paths, planting hedges, is the same as writing 
 sonnets, songs, and poems." In his day a picturesque gar- 
 den was often called " a la Dufresny." Under his rule 
 Versailles became what it is. '^ I shall never be poor while 
 I have a garden ! " said he to the King. " I find there the 
 green vine-tendrils, or the roses, for a crown." To him 
 verdant prospects were real terrestrial paradises. 
 
 "We can remember how the boy Florian gathered cher- 
 ries, and forgot his Greek and Latin ! We remember him, 
 in Voltaire's garden, naming the poppies after the faithless 
 Trojans. The most beautiful he called "Hector," and 
 then demolished him with a blow from his wooden sword. 
 Later, when he had grown up, still wandering in gardens, 
 he wrote his eclogues, poems, dramas, fables, and "Numa 
 Pompilius." His style has all the tender freshness, the 
 brilliancy, the perfume, the clear color, of a "garden 
 party," It is an idyl of primroses and dandelions. 
 
 We hardly think of Buffon at a garden party. (When 
 Voltaire heard of his "Natural History" — "ISoi&o natu- 
 ral,'' said the great wit.) The laborious and tranquil life 
 of the great author of the "Garden of Plants" seems out 
 of place at a garden party, and yet he lived and wrote in a 
 garden. He submitted Nature to a crucible, and tore a 
 lily to pieces to see of what it was made ; and yet he 
 brought together the flowers and trees of all nations. We 
 admire, but do not love Buffon. 
 
82 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 We cross the Channel and see, in imagination, the 
 Princess Anne with Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stuart, 
 Lady Churchill, and all their friends, loftily walking in the 
 groves and alleys of Spring Gardens, emerging into St. 
 James's Park, ^he glories of Bird-Cage Walk come back 
 to us. From these models did CoUey Cibber get his "Lady 
 Betty Modish," and what a pretty, stylish, affected model 
 it was ! Loyely Lady Fitzhardinge was of the Princess's 
 party, and later, when Lady Churchill became Duchess of 
 Marlborough, what garden parties at Blenheim ! 
 
 A garden party always brings back Lady Mary Wortley 
 Montague, who left many an account of those stately old- 
 time gardens at Eome, Florence, Naples, Genoa, Avignon — 
 not to speak of the early adventures at Twickenham, and 
 later at Strawberry Hill. All England is a garden. The 
 garden party is possible anywhere. 
 
 And the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire and Mrs. 
 Crewe ! How they adorn a garden party ! We almost 
 see the splendid cream-colored horses of George III drive 
 up past Carleton Gardens, to proceed in solemn state to St. 
 James's, as we hear the low, rippling laughter of the two 
 beauties in brocade. 
 
 The Prince of Wales forgot his two hundred thousand 
 pounds of debts as he received the Buffs and Blues at a 
 garden party, which began at noon and continued all night, 
 at Carleton House. The Duchess of Devonshire was then 
 lady paramount of the aristocratic whig circles, in which 
 rank and literature were blended with political aspirations. 
 It was she who canvassed for Fox, and allowed the butcher 
 to kiss her for his vote ; and to her was paid the compli- 
 ment, highly prized, by the link-boy who asked if he 
 ''might light his pipe at her eyes." These women seem 
 to have lived in garden parties. 
 
 Sweet Madame de Sevigne, with her children, at Les 
 RocTiers, and later at Paris, talking gayly under the trees 
 
GARDEN PABTIES. 83 
 
 of her garden, witli Corneille, Eacine, Moli^re, La Fontaine, 
 and Boileau, again wins us back across the Channel, and 
 back a hundred years or so. 
 
 Garden parties have this advantage : they are like Mad- 
 ame de Stael's age — "not dated." They are of all time. 
 Madame de Sevigne's garden party comprised Pascal, 
 Bourdaloue, Mascaron, Bossuet, the restless De Retz, the 
 Scotchman Montrose, La Eochefoucauld, Marshal Tu- 
 renne, Le Grand Colbert, and Conde. The ladies were the 
 Duchess de Longueville, the political intrigante of the 
 Fronde ; the penitent La Valliere ; the heartless Maintenon ; 
 Madame de Montespan ; the Comtesse d'Olonne, daughter 
 of Madame de Eambouillet, and one of the Precieuses ; 
 Madame de La Fayette, the authoress of "Zaide." Alas, 
 and alas ! we could not get together such a garden party 
 of to-day ! No ! not if we had a fortnight's time before 
 us, and all the wealth of the Indies. 
 
 Madame de Sevigne was that delightful combination — 
 a beauty, a wit, and a femme cfesprit. As an instance of 
 the flattery to which even genius stooped in speaking to a 
 monarch who loved flattery and adulation more than any- 
 thing, she relates an answer made by Eacine to Louis XIV 
 when that sovereign expressed his regret that the poet had 
 not accompanied the army in its last campaign. " Sire," 
 said Eacine, " we had none but town-clothes, and had 
 ordered others to be made ; but the places you attacked 
 were all taken before they could be finished." "This," 
 adds Madame de Sevigne, "was well received." 
 
 . It is in her famous correspondence with her daughter 
 that we find many an account of a garden party, or SifUe, 
 which we should gladly have seen, and which at our own 
 garden parties we are glad to remember. . Her letters con- 
 tain much talk on books, religion, philosophy, and politics ; 
 on the frowns and smiles of the great monarch ; the favor 
 accorded to this courtier, the disgrace of that ; the mar- 
 
84 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 riage contracted, tlie Ions mots circulated. But it is upon 
 society tliat she is strongest. She loved nature, too, in a 
 Frenchv/oman's way. When she walked the garden of her 
 uncle, the Abbe, at Livry, or far away in the solitudes of 
 Brittany, she rejoiced in the song of the nightingale, in the 
 change of the leaf, in the glad freshness of the air. She is 
 a poet, without meaning it. Her garden-party letters are* 
 her best letters. 
 
 Very stately must have been those garden parties at 
 Wilton, when Ben Jonson and Philip Massinger afforded 
 amusement to the intellectual great. The Masque, an en- 
 tertainment of the rich and noble in the time of Elizabeth 
 and James I, called out the powers of these men. The 
 actors were people of the highest class, sometimes royal 
 personages, the masques always in the open air. Dancing 
 and music were introduced. These various actors learned 
 their parts under the tutorship of the Master of the Eevels, 
 Lawes composed music, to which the poetry of Jonson was 
 luting ; and the scenes, decorations, and dresses were con- 
 trived and executed by Inigo Jones. Certain great families 
 copied the example of the court, and ordered masques to be 
 written, and played at their own country-seats ; calling 
 in for the choruses the children of the Chapel Eoyal, 
 who were regularly trained to take their part in masques. 
 \ki Wilton, at Belvoir Castle, at Whitehall, at Windsor, 
 l^hese charming but costly diversions were carried on. Ben 
 jonson might have been heard scolding and working over 
 these garden parties at the house of the beautiful Mary 
 Sidney, sister to the author of the ^^ Arcadia," who was 
 afterward Countess of Pembroke. She often gave these 
 entertainments at Wilton. She there received Queen Eliz- 
 abeth, Walter Kaleigh, the Earl of Essex, Will Shakespeare, 
 Spenser, and Cecil. Philip Massinger was in her servants' 
 hall, a humble retainer. The pious Countess, for her solemn 
 hours, had Dr. Donne, most devoted of servitors. The 
 
GARDEN- PARTIES. ' 85 
 
 death of her noble brother, Philip Sidney, broke her heart, 
 and there were no more garden parties at Wilton. We all 
 know how Walter Scott has described these garden parties 
 in " Kenil worth." Indeed, they make us rather out of love 
 with our later attempts. 
 
 Once in our own land a masque was attempted, the 
 famous Miscliianza of Major Andre, on the Delaware, at 
 Philadelphia . Had not he and Arnold gone out together 
 in that rather sad way, we might like to tell of that garden 
 party, but we will skip it. 
 
 After all, man was born, the race was started, in a gar- 
 den. Adam and Eve held the first garden party. What a 
 pity that the serpent crawled in ! 
 
XII. 
 
 DANCING. 
 
 Dai^cikg is so well known to all young people as a Home 
 Amusement that it seems perhaps hanale to describe it. A 
 glance at the dances now fashionable may, however, not 
 be out of place. • 
 
 From the Virginia Eeel to the German Cotillon is in- 
 deed a bound. Our grandfathers were taught to dance the 
 Pirouette, the delicate Pigeon- wing — indeed, all the paces of 
 the dance such as it was when Vestris bounded before 
 Louis XVI. When commanded to dance before him, the 
 dancer loftily replied : "The House of Vestris has always 
 danced for that of Bourbon." 
 
 Dancing then was an accomplishment. Who does not 
 recollect seeing some grandfather still "taking his steps" ? 
 Now at the most is permitted the Galop, which has the 
 needed element of Jollity without coarseness. It is Tallegro 
 of the ballroom. The Gambrinus Polka also lights up the 
 ballroom occasionally. With these vivacious exceptions, 
 dancing is reduced to the Waltz — la valse a trois temps — 
 the various steps of which consist of the Hop-Waltz, the 
 Glide-Waltz, the Eedowa, and the Waltz proper. The Bos- 
 ton "Dip," the "Eacket," and the "Society," are spu- 
 rious. They are not taught by the best dancing masters. 
 They are "rowdy," but some people, desirous of notoriety, 
 do dance them at the Charity Ball. As a famous dancing 
 authority observes, " Did such a style of dancing prevail. 
 
DANCING. 87 
 
 dancing must go down ; its enemies would have unanswer- 
 able arguments against it." The dance of society is now 
 quiet, easy, natural, modest, and graceful. Those who 
 would make it otherwise must remember that they are copy- 
 ing the excesses of the Bal Bfahille. 
 
 The spurious dances mentioned above are ridiculed in 
 ''Punch" as the ''pivotal" dances. The Eedowa is a 
 pretty form of the Waltz. It is composed of a step known 
 as the pas de 'basque. Its movements are indicated as a 
 fete, a glisse and a coupe dessous ; the feet, however, are 
 never raised from the floor. 
 
 The Galop is a great favorite with the Swedes, Danes, 
 and Eussians ; it has a Viking force in it ; while the Ee- 
 dowa reminds one of the graceful Viennese, who dance it 
 so well. The Mazourka, danced to the wild Polish Ma- 
 zourka measure, is a more poetical dance, and has many a 
 poem written to its honor ; but it rarely appears seen at a 
 fancy-dress ball. 
 
 The German Cotillon, born many years ago in a Vien- 
 nese palace to meet the requirements of court etiquette, is 
 now the favorite dance at home and at balls, as a way of 
 finishing the evening. Its favors, beginning with flowers, 
 ribbons, and bits of tinsel, have ripened into fans, bracelets, 
 gold scarf-pins, and pencil-cases, and many other things 
 even more expensive. Favors now often cost 15,000 for one 
 fashionable ball. So the German, thus conducted, can 
 scarcely be called a Home Amusement. 
 
 To dance by the firelight to the music of the piano is 
 a Home Amusement. And if there be a good old kitchen, 
 with a hard floor, into which a negro fiddler can be intro- 
 duced, and where the contra-danse can be also added, and 
 the evening can end with Virginia Eeel — this is a Home 
 Amusement. The old-fashioned quadrilles, the Lancers — 
 dances in which old and young can join — these are home 
 dances ! 
 
88, HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 "There is sometliing so conscientious about papa's 
 dancing," said a profane youtli who was watching his esti- 
 mable parent through the decidedly complicated mazes of 
 Money Musk. Youth will always laugh at age when it 
 attempts the accomplishments. That is a real dance, how- 
 ever, when papa, mamma, and the children all Join in, and 
 when Jane, aged seven, leads out grandpa. How Dickens 
 luxuriates in Mr. Fizziwig's dancing at the Christmas 
 supper in the "Christmas Carol" ! Dickens could never 
 have made the " German " so pathetic or so funny ! 
 
 All fashion polishes off the edges, and causes an aristo- 
 cratic icing to form over the outside of any expression of 
 jollity ; so no wonder that fashionable dancing has become 
 a glisse. It would not be well to attempt any gay dancing 
 at a fashionable ball — that would look like romping ; but 
 surely in the old kitchen, in the private parlor, at Christ- 
 mas, on birthdays, one is allowed to romp a little. 
 
 The German is a dance of infinite variety, and a leader 
 of original fancy constructs new figures constantly. The 
 Waltz, Galop, Eedowa, and Polka steps occur in its many 
 changes. There is a slow walk in the quadrille figures ; a 
 stately march ; the bows and courtesies of the old minuet ; 
 and, above all, the tour de valse, which is the means of 
 locomotion from place to place. The changeful exigencies 
 of the various figures lead the forty or fifty or the two 
 hundred people to meet, exchange greetings, dance with 
 each other, change their geographical position many times ; 
 and the Grand Army of the Eepublic did not have a more 
 varied scope. 
 
 The Kaleidoscope is one of the prettiest figures. The 
 four couples perform a tour de valse, then form as for a 
 quadrille ; the next four couples in order take positions 
 behind the first four couples, each of the latter couples 
 facing the same as the couples in front. At a signal from 
 the leader, the ladies of the inner couples cross right hands. 
 
DANCmG. 89 
 
 move entirely round, and turn into places by giving left 
 hands to their partners ; at the same time the outer couples 
 waltz half round to opposite places. At another signal, 
 the inner couples waltz entirely round, and finish facing 
 outward ; at the same time the outer couples cJiasse croise, 
 and turn at corners with right hands, then decliasse, and 
 turn partners with left hands. Valse generale with vis-d,- 
 vis. 
 
 Another pretty figure is La Corleille, VAtmeau, ef la 
 Fleur. The first couple performs a toicr de valse, after 
 which the gentleman presents the lady with a little basket 
 containing a ring and a flower, then resumes his seat. The 
 lady presents the ring to one gentleman, the flower to an- 
 other, and the basket to a third. The gentleman to whom 
 she presents the ring selects a partner for himself ; the 
 gentleman who receives the flower dances with the lady 
 who presents it, while the other gentleman holds the 
 basket in his hand and dances alone. Counterpart for the 
 others in their order. 
 
 Le Miroir is another very pretty figure. The first couple 
 performs a tour de valse. The gentleman seats his lady upon 
 a chair in the middle of the room, and presents her with a 
 small mirror. The leader then selects a gentleman from 
 the circle, and conducts him behind her chair. The lady 
 looks in the mirror, and if she decline the partner offered, 
 by turning the mirror over or shaking her head, the leader 
 continues to offer partners until the lady accepts. The 
 gentlemen refused return to their seats, or select partners 
 and join in the valse. 
 
 Le Cavalier Trompe is another favorite figure. Five or 
 six couples perform a tour de valse. Tbey afterward place 
 themselves in ranks of two, one couple behind the other. 
 The lady of the first gentleman leaves him, and seeks a 
 gentleman of another column. While this is going on, the 
 first gentleman must not look behind him. The first lady 
 
90 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and tlie gentleman whom slie lias selected separate and ad- 
 vance on tiptoe on eacli side of the column, in order to de- 
 ceive the gentleman at the head, and endeavor to join each 
 other for a waltz. If the first gentleman is fortunate enough 
 to seize his lady, he leads off in a waltz. If not, he must 
 remain at his post until he is able to take a lady. The last 
 gentleman remaining dances with the last lady. 
 
 Les . Chaines Continues is another good figure. The 
 first four couples perform a tour de valse. Each gentleman 
 chooses a lady, and each lady a gentleman. The gentlemen 
 place themselves in line, and the ladies form a line oppo- 
 site. The first gentleman on the left giv^s his right hand 
 to the right hand of his lady, and turns entirely around 
 with her. He gives his left hand to the left hand of the 
 next lady, while his lady does the same with the next gen- 
 tleman. The gentleman and lady again meet, and turn 
 with right hands, and then turn with left hands the third 
 lady and gentleman, and so on to the last couple. As soon 
 as the leader and his lady reach the fourth couple, the sec- 
 ond couple should start, so that there may be a continuous 
 chain between the ladies and gentlemen. When all have 
 regained their original places in line, they terminate the 
 figure by a tour de valse. 
 
 A very pretty figure, and easily furnished, is called Les 
 Drapeaux. Five or six duplicate sets of small flags of na- 
 tional or fancy devices must be in readiness. The leader 
 takes a flag of each pattern, and his lady the duplicates ; 
 they perform a tour de valse. The conductor then presents 
 his flags to five or six ladies, and his lady presents the cor- 
 responding flags to as many gentlemen. The gentlemen 
 then seek the ladies having the duplicates, and with them 
 perform a tour de valse, waving the flags as they dance. 
 Repeated by all the couples. 
 
 Another of the favorite combinations is Les Ruians. 
 Six ribbons, each about a yard in length, and of various 
 
dan-ging: 91 
 
 colors, are attached to one end of a stick about twenty-four 
 inches in length ; also a duplicate set of ribbons, attached 
 to another stick, must be in readiness. The first couple 
 perform a tour de valse, and then separate. The gentleman 
 takes one set of ribbons, and stops successively in front of 
 the ladies whom he desires to select to take part in the 
 figure. Each of these ladies rises, and takes hold of the 
 loose end of a ribbon. The first lady takes the other set of 
 ribbons, bringing forward six gentlemen in the same man- 
 ner. The first couple conduct the ladies and gentlemen 
 toward each other, and each gentleman dances with the 
 lady holding the ribbon duplicate of his own. The first 
 gentleman dances with his partner. The figure is repeated 
 by the other couples in their order. 
 
 To give a German, a lady should have all the furniture 
 removed from her parlors, a crash spread over the car- 
 pet, and a set of folding-chairs introduced for the couples 
 to sit in. The great trouble of this proceeding is what has 
 led to the giving of Germans, in large cities, at private 
 balls or in public places. It is considered that all taking 
 part in a German are formally introduced, and upon no 
 condition whatever must a lady, so long as she remains, in 
 the German, refuse to dance with any gentleman whom she 
 may chance to receive" as a partner. Every American must 
 learn that he should speak to every one whom he meets 
 in a friend's house, if necessary, without an introduction, 
 as the friend's house is an introduction. So in the Ger- 
 man, the very fact that guests are there is an introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 In taking a review of the German we may as well say 
 that, in a country house, the making of the favors is a very 
 pretty amusement. The ribbons are easily bought at the 
 village store. The same gold-paper and tinsel which fur- 
 nishes forth the private theatricals will do for the orders 
 and insignia, and the prettiest bouquets come from the 
 
92 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 garden. These hastily-improyised home Germans are yery 
 amusing and yery pretty. 
 
 The laws of the German are, howeyer, so strict, and so 
 tiresome occasionally, that a good many parties haye ab- 
 jured it, and now dance some of its figures without a 
 leader, and as sporadic attempts. A leader for the German 
 needs many of the same qualities as the leader of an army. 
 He must haye a comprehensiye glance, a quick ear and eye, 
 and a yery great belief in himself. He must haye the talent 
 of command, and make himself seen and felt. He must be 
 full of resource and quick-witted. With all these qualities 
 he must haye tact. It is no easy matter to get two hun- 
 dred dancers into all sorts of combinations, to get them out 
 of it, to oSend nobody, but to produce that elegant kalei- 
 doscope which we call" "the German." 
 
 The term tour de valse is used technically, meaning that 
 the couple or couples performing it will execute the round 
 dance designated by the leader once around the room. 
 Should the room be small, they make a second tour. After 
 the introductory tour de valse, care must be taken by those 
 who perform it not to select ladies and gentlemen from each 
 other, but from among those who are seated. When the 
 leader claps his hands to warn those who are prolonging 
 the valse, they must immediately cease dancing. 
 
 The religious objection to dancing haying almost died 
 out, we recommend all parents to haye their children 
 taught to dance. It is a necessary thing toward physical 
 culture. It is the most embarrassing thing for a man later 
 in life to find himself without the- grace which dancing 
 brings. Nothing contributes so much to Home Amuse- 
 ment as the informal dance. Nothing can be more inno- 
 cent. If, in after-life, this accomplishment leads to late 
 hours and to reckless loye of pleasure, we must remember 
 that all good things can be abused. 
 
XIII. 
 
 GAEDENS AND ELOWER-STAISTDS. 
 
 The making of gardens is decidedly and judiciously 
 conceded to be a Home Amusement, and it is a pity that 
 the new fashion of bedding-out plants, which is so beautiful 
 in our public parks and in the pleasure grounds of the 
 rich, should have seemed to so utterly do away with a taste 
 for the old-fashioned gardens of early English poetry — 
 of Miss Mitford, of every sweet New England dame of 
 the early days, who had her garden, with its "pretty 
 posies," and its bed of sweet marjoram, lavender, and sage. 
 It is, however, a hopeful sign to see in remote country 
 towns some effort to keep up the old-fashioned idea of a 
 pretty flower-plot, and there are always women who have 
 the gift of making flowers "blow" and grow in a quiet 
 way. 
 
 Yet science can help to bring the old-fashioned garden 
 to perfection, as well as to make those artificial beds of 
 many-leaved coleus, and steadier groups. Every garden de- 
 sign, every project of garden furnishing, and every item of 
 garden work, should be governed by this consideration, that 
 it is hard work to fight against Natvire, and there is seldom 
 thus a conquest worth obtaining. Aim modestly to gain a 
 victory over the easily-cultivated native flowers at first, and 
 you will secure enjoyment. 
 
 Fortunately, if gardening is pursued with earnestness, 
 every soil and every climate will be found to produce some 
 
94: HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 flowers in rare beauty and in unexpected luxuriance. Geo- 
 metric plans, if well carried out, are very pretty, and the 
 amateur gardener should learn to mass her geraniums, pe- 
 tunias, and pansies, her gladioli, roses, marigolds, and pop- 
 pies, so as to give a good and really splendid result of color. 
 Nature takes care to send us delicate, pale yellows and 
 lilacs in Spring in her sweet dafly-down-dilly, and the ele- 
 gant fleurs-de-lis ; and the peonies come on mildly with 
 pink and white before they dash into red. Then come the 
 Turkish carpets of the portulaca, and so on until midsum- 
 mer blazes with poppies, gladioli, and all the gorgeous zin- 
 nias. These may all be found in the commonest garden, 
 without mentioning the larkspur, the mignonette, the pe- 
 tunia and the sweet-pea, and a thousand other charming 
 common flowers. The delightful flowers which sow them- 
 selves, and those hardy bulbs, the crocus, tulip, lily of the 
 valley, snowdrop, and hyacinth, should not be neglected. 
 A quantity of white-lily bulbs stowed away in the garden 
 reward one year after year with their elegant flowers and 
 fragrance at no cost whatever. Pansies, daisies, and poly- 
 anthus keep from season to season, and carnation pinks 
 need to be two years old before they will blossom, while the 
 chrysanthemums make the garden gay in October. 
 
 N"ow for borders to the garden beds. Common grass is 
 the best and easiest, as the gardener's boy can cut it with a 
 sickle each week and keep it from spreading. Or the little, 
 cheap mosses make a pretty border, as does the periwinkle, 
 which looks so like myrtle. To attempt a border of the 
 gorgeous coleus requires a hothouse and an accomplished 
 gardener. In the common large country garden rows of 
 hollyhocks, as against a stone wall, or marking out the long 
 walks, are most ornamental. Dahlias also are very good in 
 groups. Phlox, that much-abused plant, is also pretty in 
 masses. Asters too, of many varieties, delight the eye, and 
 are easy of culture. In trying to raise shrubs, why not take 
 
GARDEN'S AND FLOWEB-STANDS. 95 
 
 the American wild pink, or azalea, the laurel and the rho- 
 dodendron, and, by studying up their habits, capture 
 them ? 
 
 The best soil for the rhododendron is a peat containing 
 much sand and much vegetable fiber. Any clean, pulverized 
 product of vegetable decay will like them. It is their native 
 food. The laurel is capricious, and resents the act of trans- 
 plantation ; but they will flourish if planted thick enough. 
 They love company, and thrive in it. The best way to treat 
 them is to study their quality, and to give them the same 
 conditions which made them grow so luxuriantly on the 
 hill-side. 
 
 But if even these plants resist you, every lady loves a 
 rosarium, and it will go hard with her but she has a rose 
 garden somewhere. The gardeners now sell one hundred 
 rose roots for a dollar, at Eochester, and if planted out and 
 attended to they give a million of dollars in pleasure back 
 again. 
 
 Some ladies understand budding, and this is a very in- 
 teresting process. In this way an army of sweetbriers can 
 be covered with yellow Marshal Neills and royal Jacquemi- 
 nots. To propagate by layers is, however, the easiest way, 
 if, indeed, one does not prefer to buy them all started. For 
 garden roses we need vigorous growers that are sure to 
 flower freely, and will contribute to the gayety of the gar- 
 den. One of the best — the old-fashioned damask — if set out 
 well, will blossom for thirty years. A very effective garden 
 of roses is produced by roses pegged down. A deep, rather 
 rich, loamy soil is to be prepared, the position selected being 
 rather open. When the plants are about a foot high peg 
 down the strongest growths. The rose prefers a firm soil. 
 Those who desire to have firm blooms the second season 
 must cut off a few inches of the 'flowering wood as soon as 
 the first bloom is over, and give the beds a thorough soak- 
 ing of manure or sewage-water every third or fourth day. 
 
96 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 But in this, as in every sort of cultivation of an especial 
 flower, one should buy an especial treatise on the subject. 
 
 Every lady gardener is troubled by insect pests — the hor- 
 rid green canker-worm, the little green louse, the potato- 
 bug ; these are everywhere. One fights them with all sorts 
 of powders and all sorts of syringes. One very simple cure 
 is not generally known. It is to plant a lettuce beside your 
 rose ; the vermin prefers the lettuce. It is the same prin- 
 ciple which induced the rich owner of a wine-cellar to put 
 a barrel of whisky beside his best Madeira ; the whisky 
 went, but the Madeira stayed. Dirty flower-pots, filled 
 with dry moss, put in the neighborhood, will catch large 
 numbers of these gentry, for vermin are fond of dirt. Dust- 
 ing with powdered lime, or sulphurized tobacco-dust, will 
 kill the insects which destroy the asters. Lettuces also save 
 the asters, and a bed of green lettuce is not an ugly "bed- 
 ding-out " plant. 
 
 No manure is so good as that common rotted vegetation 
 of the forest. Bring a pailful home from every drive, and 
 it will make your flowers grow. Nothing, also, so good as 
 this for that lovely flower, the pansy, which thus recalls its 
 early start in the forest. The pansy does not require much 
 water, but in very hot, dry weather the beds should be 
 sprinkled at night with a watering-pot. 
 
 But these few directions may seem impertinent, as every 
 lady has now the most ample means of reading up about 
 her garden. The cultivation of a few flowers in the house — 
 window gardening — is by far the more essentially a Home 
 Amusement. And, as almost everybody has once bought a 
 lot of greenhouse plants but to see them fade before her 
 eyes, we recommend to all to either raise a slip from the 
 root or to start very young plants in a dark room. Thus 
 accustomed to the atmosphere of the house they are to live 
 in, they do sometimes live. 
 
 The hardier roses, the calla-lily, all the geraniums (use- 
 
GARDENS AND FLOWER-STANDS. ■ 97 
 
 ful dear creatures), the violets and the pinks, grow well in 
 the house. Hanging pots of calceolarias and healthy- 
 primroses are also possible. Some ladies can raise azaleas 
 at home, but they are difficult. Then there is the kanga- 
 roo-vine, and the Jerusalem, and all the other very hardy 
 vines. If a large ivy-vine can be induced to grow over a 
 picture-frame, it is a beautiful friend in midwinter. 
 
 Then come the delightful hanging baskets, the Wardian 
 fern-cases, the ornamental stands of pot-plants, and the in- 
 door box of earth for planting rice and grass seed, the wild 
 flowers, which now have become exotics, and all the pretty 
 fancies of throwing seed over a wet sponge. Anything 
 green in winter looks lovely. ISTothing more charming than 
 the branches of nasturtion growing in water can be imag- 
 ined. They grow and flower all winter, and the blue con- 
 volvulus flourishes well in a hanging basket ; so do the 
 common morning-glory and the scarlet bean, both delight- 
 ful, airy visitors at Christmas. 
 
 A wire-work ox-muzzle, filled with moss, makes an ad- 
 mirable basket. It should be painted dark green, and hang 
 over a box of growing flowers, so that it can drip when 
 watered and hurt nothing. Put in the ivy-leaved geranium 
 to drop over its edges ; fuchsia, variegated geranium, bright 
 blue lobelia, and the healthful dracaenas, begonias, and se- 
 dums also make a very pretty combination. The gardeners 
 give you wooden baskets filled with flowers, and ivy, and 
 ferns, but it is Home Amusement to make these baskets 
 yourself. 
 
 Fern-cases are delightful as winter friends. Wardian 
 cases can be made very cheaply, and their perpetual con- 
 densation and shower is a very pretty study in physics. A 
 large case, in which large-sized ferns can be accommodated, 
 is best. As regards cultivation, the first thing that de- 
 mands attention is the drainage of the case ; for, if that is 
 defective, neither ferns nor any other plants can be culti- 
 
 6 
 
98 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 vated successfully. In order to secure good drainage the 
 case should be fitted with a false bottom, into which the 
 water may drain through perforated zinc or iron, on which 
 the rock- work and little bank for the ferns should be placed. 
 The false bottom, being a little kind of tank or drainer, 
 should be perfectly water-tight, so as to protect the carpet, 
 and should have a tap fixed in one corner of it, by means of 
 which the surplus water should be drained off. 
 
 To be able to give free ventilation to the plants every 
 morning is another essential point, as a stagnant atmosphere 
 is as injurious to plants as it is to young children. Over 
 the perforated tray of the case a good layer of broken pot- 
 tery should be laid, and this should be covered with cocoa- 
 nut fiber, on which the rock-work should be laid. The 
 space in which it is intended that the ferns are to grow 
 should then be filled in ; and nothing is better than peat, 
 rotten turf, and sharp grit sand as a soil for ferns. In 
 the parts of the case intended for the planting of rather 
 strong-^growing ferns a larger proportion of rotten turf 
 should be mixed with the peat than in those intended for 
 less robust varieties. The adiantum pedatum (maiden- 
 hair), capillus veneris, pferis tessulata, eretica, albo lineata, 
 polypodium vulgare, acrophorus chair opJiyllus, Mspidus 
 anemia adiantifolia, asplenium striatum, hulbiferum, with 
 trichomanes and lelazinellas, are all useful, pretty ferns for 
 these cases. If the fern-case be large, it might be advisable 
 to have an arch reaching from end to end. 
 
 But any intelligent gardener will tell more in an hour 
 than we could do in a week on the subject of ferns. Many 
 ladies delight in selecting these lovely aristocrats of the 
 forest themselves. They find no difficulty in arranging a 
 little family of native ferns in an improvised Ward's case ; 
 and this pursuit, as a reason for a woodland ramble and a 
 subsequent fit of industry on the back piazza, is one which 
 has no end as a Home Amusement. 
 
OAEDENS ARD FLOWER-STAWDS. 99 
 
 Plant-stands for halls are very favorite decorations now- 
 adays ; but, of course, the plants must be hardy, as they 
 will be subject to sudden changes of temperature. One 
 lady made a fine effect by cultivating young pine-trees, 
 spruces, and firs in the large stone jars of her hall. Cocoa- 
 nut palms or India-rubber plants are the favorite exotics. 
 Hardy ferns group in well for these hall plant-stands. In 
 the bottom of each jar should be placed some broken pot-1 
 tery, for drainage, placed so that the moisture will drain 
 down through the fragments without the soil choking the 
 jar. Over the potsherds a little cocoanut moss should be 
 placed, and then a mixture of leaf -mold, rotten turf and 
 peat, and glass-maker's sand, to keep the whole porous. On 
 the surface of the pots and between them should be put 
 wood moss, as in the case of stands for sitting-rooms. A 
 common seed-pan, filled with selaginalla denticulata drop- 
 ped into a small vase, has a fine effect ; long sprays grow 
 out over the sides of the vase and drop down eight to ten 
 inches. 
 
 In an ordinary apartment, where the window-sills are 
 not wide enough to hold flower-pots, the plan of wire 
 stands is an admirable one for the window gardener. A 
 piece of oil-cloth under the stand catches all the drippings, 
 and a servant-girl with a wiping-towel can clean up all the 
 debris. Soft-wooded plants and those with soft leaves 
 should be arranged as near the window as possible ; and if 
 rearranged and turned against the light often, so much the 
 better. Hard-leaved plants, like ivy and the India-rubber 
 plant, may be. put anywhere away from the light. But 
 most plants need light before anything. The yucca quadri- 
 color, so much used in the decorative house-jars or vases, 
 becomes beautifully tinted with crimson if it has enough 
 light. Now, if a lady has not room for many rustic jardi- 
 nieres and ornamental flower-stands in her room, she can 
 have zinc-pans and pots, neatly enameled and painted, set 
 
100 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 on the floor, in whicli lier larger plants may be put out, 
 This is a very good idea for grouping ; for she thus pro- 
 duces in her tout ensemble some of the wild confusion and 
 grace of Nature. 
 
 A climbing rose should go scattering itself over an im- 
 perceptible wire trellis. A geranium should steadily blos- 
 som beneath. A group of yucca, agave, dracsena, Jeru- 
 salem cherry, should form a distinct and effective grouping 
 below. And then beautiful trailing plants should drop 
 from hanging baskets, and from every " coigne of vantage." 
 Ivy grows well in the shade, and may be employed for 
 trailing around sofas, couches, tete-a-tete chairs, and pic- 
 ture-frames. Ladies sometimes tie a bottle of water behind 
 a picture-frame, and allow the long shoots of nasturtion 
 to grow out as if from the wall. The effect is startling. 
 Mirrors are often cunningly placed behind a flowering plant 
 which is growing in a hanging basket against the wall, thus 
 doubling the effect. 
 
 As the days grow shorter, and the T^^nter threatens to 
 come upon us apace, we are always tempted to bring in 
 from the garden the flowers that we think will last. Just 
 before the fatal frosts, roots of mignonette should be planted 
 in pots and put in a dark closet for a few days, where the 
 plant takes root and accommodates itself to its change of 
 base. It will make a room sweet all winter. 
 
 A lady can make all sorts of ornamental flower-pot 
 coverings, and herself arrange pretty leather and paper 
 standard covers for the ' ugly but useful flower-pot of com- 
 merce ; or she can buy at most country potteries some very 
 artistic flower-pots — also useful. And to put red, green, 
 and blue glass tubes for hyacinths among these gives her 
 window a very pretty effect. The very study of color in 
 these minor matters adds much to her window garden. It 
 is lucky for all lovers of beauty that beauty is now cheap. 
 Art is putting her slender foot down everywhere ; and it is 
 
GARDENS AND FLOWEE-STANDS. 101 
 
 almost possible, in a remote country yillage, to get the 
 delicate classic shapes in cheap pottery which the cultivated 
 Greeks imagined three thousand years ago. 
 
 For internal decoration by means of cut flowers, it 
 seems almost absurd to attempt to delineate the proper 
 thing to do ; for, if a lady has taste, she will know with- 
 out being told. But some few hints may not appear im- 
 pertinent. 
 
 For the breakfast-table and dinner-table fresh flowers 
 are almost indispensable. The pretty, cheap, and useful 
 combinations of glass and silver, of china and pottery, 
 which are made to hold flowers, are innumerable. Select 
 a high vase, and fill it every day with fresh grasses, a few 
 daisies, or some graceful ferns combined with white lilies, 
 and you have always a superb center-piece. 
 
 For the summer, a large lump of ice covered with flow- 
 ers, in a silver or glass dish, is delightfully refreshing. It 
 also keeps away the flies. In grand party decorations ice 
 is now freely used, and if some way can be devised to get 
 the refuse water out of the way, it will be always a good 
 thing for a country party or at a grand fete at Newport. 
 For great blocks of ice covered with vines and flowers, lighted 
 from behind, have a splendid effect. They cool the air and 
 keep all the flowers fresh. Flowers, when cut, demand 
 coolness ; and the effect of the white crystal column is 
 always beautiful. 
 
 Some ladies have a large tub put in the corner of the 
 room, and the pyramid of ice placed in that. Then the 
 tub can be masked by moss, branches of trees, evergreen, or 
 any floral device, and the ice is draped with garlands. At 
 a fete at Newport, in 1879, this ice decoration was much 
 admired. At a ball given by the Prince of Wales to the 
 Czarina of Eussia in the large conservatory of the Eoyal 
 Horticultural Society of South Kensington, ten tons of ice 
 were used to build an ornamental rockery. This was 
 
102 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 draped with droojDing ferns and graceful vines, and was sur- 
 rounded with crimson baize and lighted from behind. 
 
 Nothing is so pretty for the breakfast- or dinner- table 
 as a tall, slender vase which carries the floral decoration 
 high U13 above the articles of food. Nor is a garden neces- 
 sary for this species of decoration. Wild flowers, ferns, 
 grasses, and all the beautiful furniture of forest and field, 
 make these vases doubly elegant. 
 
 In the rose season — in the sweet days of June — most 
 country gardens overflow with the always regal flower ; and 
 this is a table ornament of the highest. The great, broad, 
 low baskets are best for these full, rich queens of color and 
 fragrance. Mass your roses for the middle of the table, 
 and have specimen glasses for some of the more rare vari- 
 eties. The rose is a cleanly flower, and can be put any- 
 where near food. But if an unlucky visitor has the rose- 
 cold, then it must be put far away ; for the subtile, pun- 
 gent odor of a rose makes the sufferer sneeze fearfully. 
 There are some families in which roses are thus tabooed. 
 
 A basket of roses is the prettiest thing in the world ; 
 and the lady going into the country for the summer had 
 better supply herself with a number of these, with handles, 
 from the florist or the basket-maker. If she gets a tin pan 
 also fitted in cunningly, she has the loveliest table orna- 
 mentation all ready. Her buffets, her parlor-table, her 
 piano, her brackets can all hold these pleasant things, for 
 which no money need be paid, but which have a value far 
 above money. Never give these baskets a heavy, packed 
 look, but allow plenty of the rich green leaves of the rose 
 to set them off. It seems to us that ladies might create an 
 endless succession of Home Amusements by studying how 
 to vary the effect of their vases and baskets of flowers. 
 
 A simple bunch of yellow buttercups in the early spring 
 will make a purple room perfectly beautiful ; and dande- 
 lions can be massed with great effect. Yellow flowers are 
 
GARDENS AND FLOWER-STANDS. 103 
 
 rare, but necessary to produce fine contrasts of color. We 
 all tend too much to the red and white easily - obtained 
 effects. They are poor compared with what we can do. 
 
 If Fashion has rather run its worship of the daisy into 
 the ground. Fashion might have done a worse thing. We 
 can scarcely blame Fashion for going back to this impres- 
 sive flower, which in its simplicity has moved all philoso- 
 phers, poets, and fortune-tellers to admire and study it. 
 
 It seems to us that something more cheerful than our 
 usual Christmas decorations could be invented. We make 
 them too somber. Try mixing in the beautiful bitter- 
 sweet berries, which are so very easily obtained, and which 
 keep all winter. The holly is not so common with us as 
 in England ; still, many a ]^ew England swamp produces a 
 host of hips and haws and red berries. 
 
 The business of preserving autumn-leaves shows ten fail- 
 ures to one success. Yet, when autumn leaves are well pre- 
 served, they are very charming means of winter decoration. 
 They are luminous at evening, and, mixed with ferns and 
 grasses, are perpetual bouquets. But do not varnish them : 
 that gives them a waxy effect, which is detestable. Press 
 them carefully, and iron them wnder a piece of brown 
 paper. That seems to preserve the color. 
 
 Grasses, on the contrary, and a thousand pods and seed- 
 vessels, grains and cat-tails, and certain weeds, dry into 
 beautiful colors and make most wonderful groups for the 
 parlor mantel. The young ladies of our vast continent 
 can not do a better thing than to each year add to these 
 beautiful and most graceful bouquets, which retain, like 
 the fabled Dryads, all the fascination of Nature, even when 
 they have passed into sticks and dry leaves. 
 
XIV. 
 
 CAGED BIEDS AND AYIAEIES. 
 
 Eeom flowers to birds is a natural transition, and we 
 enter upon that part of Home Amusement which centers 
 around a cage of singing-birds. It is a dreadful thing to 
 snare and to imprison an innocent bird ; therefore we be- 
 gin with that bird which seems to take most kindly to cap- 
 tivity — the canary. 
 
 Trayelers tell us that this yellow darling has gray plu- 
 mage at home ; but as we know them they are generally yel- 
 low, white, green, or brown. Climate, food, and inter-, 
 mixture of breeds has, no doubt, to do with this. The 
 canary, which in France is nearly white, at Teneriffe is as 
 brown as a berry. AVe can not tell why they are always 
 yellow in cages. 
 
 The exact date of the introduction of the canary is not 
 known to us. In 1610 the bird was considered a great 
 rarity. According to some authors, the island of Elba was 
 the first European ground on which the canary found a 
 resting-place for its tiny foot. A ship bound for Leghorn, 
 they say, haying on board a number of sweet songsters, 
 foundered near this island, on which the birds, set at lib- 
 erty by the accident, found a refuge ; and the climate was 
 so congenial to their nature that they remained and bred, 
 and would probably have remained there had not their un- 
 lucky, fatal gifts of beauty and song betrayed them to the 
 bird-catchers, who hunted them so assiduously that not a 
 
CAGED BIRDS AND AVIARIES. 105 
 
 single specimen was left on the island. From Italy these 
 birds soon found their way into France and Germany, from 
 the latter of which countries and the Tyrol we now receive 
 our best supplies. Canary breeding and teaching is con- 
 ducted in the Tyrol on a large scale, and these trainers 
 have the power always to obtain large prices for their birds. 
 Canary societies exist in England, and small traders, like 
 Poll Sneedlepipes, compete for prizes. • 
 
 Canary critics recognize two varieties — two grand divis- 
 ions — in fancy canaries : "gay birds," or "gay spangles," 
 and fancy, or "mealy," birds — the first being plain, like 
 the original stock, and the last variegated. This also in- 
 cludes the Jonques, or Jonquils, as the yellow birds are 
 technically called. The varieties of these two grand divis- 
 ions are almost innumerable, nearly every year producing 
 a new one, which, like a prize flower, is in high favor until 
 superseded by a greater beauty. Every year has its fash- 
 ionable bird, its professional beauty, its Mrs. Langtry, un- 
 til some Mrs. Cornwallis West or Lady Lonsdale carries off 
 the palm. Like all hobbies, this is a hobby desperately 
 ridden. It is a "Dutch taste for tulips," and immense 
 prices are given for prize canaries, even by men who can 
 not afford to speculate in such very uncertain stock. 
 
 There are certain standard properties which are always 
 considered essential toward gaining a prize. The first 
 property considered in the show bird is the "cap," which 
 must be of a good gold color. The next is purity of color 
 through the whole bird. Then the wings and tail, which 
 must be black quite home to the quill. The fourth relates 
 to the spangle, which must be distinct. Fifth, size and 
 shape. Besides these properties there are what are called 
 "additional beauties," not essential to the winning of a 
 prize, but adding to a bird's chances. These are five in 
 number : pinions, for size and regularity ; swallow and 
 throat, for size ; fair breast, for regularity ; legs and flight, 
 
106 • HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 for blackness. In explanation of this it may be noted that 
 from the beak to the back of the neck is called the '* cap," 
 and this should be of a clear orange-color, fnll and rich in 
 the ground, and with black edges to the feathers. The 
 feathers on the loins, or the saddle as it is sometimes 
 called, as well as those of the breast, must be free from 
 black, while the wings must have no admixture of any 
 other color. No bird can fairly compete for a prize which 
 has not black on the stock or neb of the back, flight, or 
 tail feathers, or that has less than eighteen flying feathers 
 in each wing or less than twelve in the tail. Such, lady 
 bird-fanciers, is a prize canary in England ! 
 
 Holborn is the great canary mart. In St. Andrew's 
 Street every third or fourth house is occupied by a dealer, 
 and those who desire to possess a first-rate singer should 
 visit that street. It is best to go by gaslight, when all the 
 birds are on the twitter. 
 
 Now, in America we have the plain yellow bird, with no 
 admixture of black ; and yet the same conditions seem to 
 be observed as to his treatment. Sacrifice the beauty of 
 your bird to his song, which is his chief accomplishment. 
 He should have a comfortable mahogany cage, and be al- 
 lowed to step into it of his own accord. It should be well 
 furnished with seed and water. Place a light in front of 
 the cage, and he will begin to sing. A single hemp-seed or 
 a morsel of chickweed will induce the little prisoner to sing 
 almost immediately. They are very amiable and happy in 
 captivity. 
 
 The blackcap, called the *' mock-nightingale," is a very 
 charming household pet, if he will live. His power of 
 song is almost equal to that of the nightingale. He is 
 sometimes called ''the English mocking-bird," and he imi- 
 tates any songster whom he may hear — blackbird, thrush, 
 or meadow-lark. They are by no means plentiful birds, 
 and they bring a good price in the market. They are 
 
OAQED BIRDS AND AVIARIES. 107 
 
 about the same size as the linnet, and the prevailing colors 
 of the plumage are ashen-gray and olive-green. The old 
 birds feed their young on caterpillars, moths, and other 
 insects. They can be reared, however, on bread and milk. 
 If brought up with a canary or a nightingale, they will ac- 
 quire a beautiful song composed of their own natural notes 
 and those of these brilliant performers. This bird has been 
 known to live twelve or sixteen years in confinement. It 
 demands some sort of fruit, like cherries, currants, or rasp- 
 berries in summer ; a bit of apple, pine, or orange in win- 
 ter. To keep it in perfect health, it must have an iron 
 nail in its cup of water. 
 
 But chacun a son gout. Every lady has her preferences 
 as to her feathered favorites. Suffice it to say a few words 
 as to the care of these poor little creatures. 
 
 Birds are naturally tender things. They are not born 
 to live in cages ; therefore they should be especially cared 
 for. Domestic pets are apt to come to untimely ends, par- 
 ticularly if left to the care of servants, who regard them as 
 a burden and a nuisance, and too often cruelly neglect 
 them. Birds in captivity are very liable to diseases which 
 do not attack them in their wild state ; and in the various 
 casualties which endanger their prison life, their owners 
 should seek to protect them and to cure them. Let it be 
 one of the Home Amusements for the lady to feed her pet 
 canary — to clean its cage, or see that it is done. We have 
 seen a little boy of seven take such care of his pet canary 
 that he shamed all the older people in the house ; and a 
 happier bird never lived. 
 
 If you keep but one bird in a cage in very hot weather, 
 his cage should be cleansed once a day. If you minister 
 personally to the comfort of your bird, he will grow very 
 much attached to you. If the perches are not kept clean, 
 the birds become afflicted with the gout and other mala- 
 dies, resulting in the loss of toes. 
 
108 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Wooden cages^ especially of maliogany, are tlie best, as 
 they are less likely to harbor insects. If of fir or soft wood, 
 the cage should be painted green. The wires of a cage 
 should never be painted, as the wire being non-absorbent, 
 the bird pecks off and eats the paint, which poisons it. 
 Japanned zinc cages are yery well. A cage should not be 
 too open. There should always be a snug corner or 
 sheltered place, where the bird can retire and shun ob- 
 servation. It is great cruelty to hang a cage in the sun 
 unprotected. Eemember that in their free state birds seek 
 the shady tree. In a shower always bring your birds in- 
 doors, for they are apt to take cold if wet in an imprisoned 
 state. 
 
 It is a pity that more of our country residents have not 
 the idea of an aviary. It is so very pretty — an abiding- 
 place of beauty, love, song, and happiness. Surely it does 
 not cost so much as a greenhouse. 
 
 The model aviary is built of brick or stone, iron and 
 glass, with a stove and pipes fitted to keep it of an evpn 
 temperature all winter. The floor should be an earthen 
 one, beaten hard, like the floors of some barns. Bricks are 
 too cold. Planks harbor insects, retain bad smells, and 
 form coverts for rats and mice. The roof of the aviary 
 should be semicircular or shelving, with vines and flowing 
 creepers trailing over it, so that there shall be a rustle of 
 green leaves steeped in sunshine, and air laden with sweet 
 perfume to delight the birds within. There should be 
 also creepers and shrubs growing inside for the birds to 
 nest in. Perches and wicker baskets with horse-hair 
 and wool should be left around, and there should be a 
 small marble basin and fountain in the middle, of 
 which the water should be always fresh and changing for 
 the birds to drink. This is, of coiirse, a very magnifi- 
 cent aviary, costing money. But wh.at an addition to 
 Home Amusements to care for the happy family within ! 
 
CAQED BIRDS AND AVIARIES. 109 
 
 The birds can be of all sorts. At the period of migra- 
 tiou — about tbe last of August — all birds kept in con- 
 finement show a great desire to get out, and often beat 
 themselves to death against the walls of their cages. In 
 this time of ardent enterprise the top of the aviary or the 
 cages should be covered with dark cloth, and the poor 
 things shut out from the light. 
 
 A much cheaj)er aviary is built in the form of a large 
 cage on the top of a tree, with open exit and entrances, 
 fitted up with every convenience of bird-furnishing, and 
 visited twice a day by the boys of the family. Here many 
 birds come to lodge and get tamed, as the Indian does by 
 having a house and garden, and often one pair of birds 
 comes back several times. This is a charming sort of avi- 
 ary, and very much to be commended. What romantic 
 tales of a wayside inn do the robin redbreasts and orioles 
 tell the peeping boy as he goes up the ladder to feed his 
 familiar friends ! It is the prettiest sort of correspondence 
 with Vinconnu ! 
 
 It is a curious thing that the lungs of birds in captivity 
 always suffer from impurity of air, especially when the 
 temperature is at all varied ; this must be one of the points 
 very carefully attended to. 
 
 For food — ^we now are getting to a very creepy stage of 
 our narrative— meal-worms, ugh ! are the piece de resis- 
 tance ; but canaries, goldfinches, bullfinches, linnets — all, 
 God bless them ! — prefer seed ; while chaffinches, buntings, 
 and the whole tit family and larks must have seeds, in- 
 sects, and fat meat — namely, worms. The nightingales, 
 thrushes, redbreasts, blackcaps, must have worms, crickets, 
 cockroaches, and ant-eggs. The maggots of the blow-fly 
 and all such tidbits, meal-worms, and flesh-maggots must 
 be kept in reserve ; and this kind of housekeeping is apt to 
 shock the delicate sense. Let the boys of the family attend 
 to this part of the birds' diet. Boiled cabbage, green peas. 
 
110 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 all sorts of pudding, dry bread, and a little finely minced 
 cooked meat, bread-crumbs mashed up and scalded in milk, 
 milk itself, hemp-seed, a little chickweed, lettuce, and 
 cresses, can be given to birds with advantage. 
 
 The bathing of birds must be done with great skill and 
 wisdom. After the operation of a warm bath, with soap, 
 which should be given to nestlings who are troubled with 
 vermin, great care must be taken that they are not chilled, 
 as death will be the result. Wrap them up, like little babies, 
 in flannel. 
 
 In teaching them to sing, the voice, the piano, and flute 
 are all good teachers. The patient and music-loving Ger- 
 mans teach all birds to sing. It should be begun in the 
 morning early, when the bird is hungry; and his lesson 
 should not last more than an hour. 
 
 Early aud regular attendance, gentleness and kindness, 
 are the rationale of bird-tending, as of nearly everything 
 else ! 
 
 Those half-captives, the pigeons, should be around every 
 country house. How beautiful they are in Venice ! the 
 pigeons of St. Mark, which have swooped about that storied 
 piazza for so many years, because regularly fed there. All 
 boys should learn to cultivate them ; to have the lovely 
 shifting luster of their necks lighting up the ground and 
 making gay the twilight. How proud and pompous are the 
 pouters ! how gentle the ringdoves ! and how pretty the 
 whole family ! Peacocks are very stately visitors, and, ex- 
 cept for their horrid shrieks, are especially to be commended. 
 The old ruffled turkey-gobbler has his charms ; and the 
 pages of Hawthorne teach us how very amusing a group of 
 hens and chickens may become. We advise every family 
 to have as many birds as they can possibly feed ; for every 
 bird is a study, from the blink-eyed owl which hides in the 
 fir-tree, to the poor old goose that quacks and hobbles toward 
 the pond. Indeed, the aesthetics are all pretending that 
 
I 
 
 CAGED BIRDS AND AVIARIES. HI 
 
 the goose is the most beautiful of them all ! — a perfect love, 
 a type, is a goose, since Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway 
 came in. But we still prefer the stately swan, of which 
 splendid specimens are now beginning to add their attrac- 
 tions to our inland lakes. The goose is all yery well in 
 her way, but the swan is better. 
 
XV. 
 
 PICNICS. 
 
 Peehaps it is not well to class . among Home Amuse- 
 ments a series of entertainments which imply, at first sight, 
 the getting away from home. But, as the basket of lunch- 
 eon has to be packed at home, and the best part of a picnic 
 is the getting home again, we must be permitted a diver- 
 gence. 
 
 It is curious to see how emphatically fond of picnics the 
 Americans are. A uniyersal national hunger seems to seize 
 the tired cit as the first warm day of May beams upon us. 
 They "babble of green fields." Best of all charities those 
 which send the poor children off, on boats and trains, for a 
 whiff of pure air ! It is the blessed privilege of the rich to 
 thin out the crowded tenement, and to send the overplus of 
 an irrepressible civilization back to Nature for a moment. 
 
 But, for a Home Amusement in the country, what can 
 compare with the joy of getting ready for a picnic ? The 
 baskets for the provisions (and be sure, Mary, not to forget 
 the salt or the sugar), the coffee-pot that will stand being 
 poked down into the wood-coals, the fine old swinging iron 
 kettle, the bread, the knives, and the pail of ice. Ah ! 
 
 Then, as to carriages. Not the luxurious cushioned 
 barouche, but the shabbiest old rattletraps about the place 
 are the proper ones. A good old hay-wagon is the very 
 best — if it have hay in it. It may do very well at Newport 
 for the luxurious to drive out to one of Mr. Bennett's pic- 
 
PICNICS. 113 
 
 nics in a four-in-hand or a drag, or a Victoria or a barouche ; 
 but in the country take the buckboard, the old Eockaway 
 wagon, which holds nine — ^the more the merrier — the farm- 
 wagon, and the market-cart. Filled with youth, beauty, 
 and Jollity, these become the chariots of Apollo. 
 
 It is not always easy to get mamma to a picnic ; but it 
 is good for her, and for all the others, if she will go. She 
 is apt to be anxious about rain, and is afraid of farmer Bell's 
 bull ; and she should be allowed to go in an easy carriage. 
 She also fears to take cold, and is mightily frightened at 
 those crazy boats on the lake. But it is better for all parties 
 if these fears are assuaged and she really goes. The change 
 does her good, and she acts as a temporary restraint on the 
 too volatile spirits of the party. 
 
 Another power hard to coerce is Statira, who is the head 
 of the commissary department. Statira, cook and factotum, 
 was brought up on the wrong side of a mullein-patch her- 
 self, and she is not in love with the country. She. remem- 
 bers the woods as a place where she went to look, in her 
 youth, for recalcitrant cows ; and in winter, how cold and 
 bleak the woods were ! Her present warm and cultivated 
 kitchen, with stationary wash-tubs, is to her a far more 
 agreeable spot. She hesitates, as the young people ask for 
 her delicate apple-pies and her delicious cakes, " to cram 
 into baskets," to " eat out in the pasture," as she sniflQngly 
 avers. 
 
 However, although Statira is a greater tyrant than N'ero, 
 the young people prevail, and the picnic gets started some- 
 how. What a jolly hour is passed in driving through the still 
 valley to the brow of yonder hill, which commands a view 
 of the whole country ! Then Susan, the thoughtful one, 
 dreads lest the coffee-pot has been forgotten. Hurried 
 search ! The coffee-pot is found under a back seat. Hap- 
 piness restored, the songs go on, and the murmuring pines 
 and the hemlocks take up the wondrous tale. 
 
114 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Then the party arriye at the lake. The girls take off 
 their hats. The winds play with the " tangles in Nerea's 
 hair." The picnic is a nice opportunity for a pretty foot, 
 a fine figure, and a splendid head of hair — so it is said. 
 Then come rambles into the forest. 
 
 That is a pretty story of a nymph who appeared on the 
 edge of a forest, but who disappeared as she was followed, 
 until, at last, as her lover pursued her farther into the 
 forest, he threw his arms about a white hawthorn-tree. It 
 is the world's earliest romance that the first courtship took 
 place at a picnic. Koses and briers twine around lovers 
 for ever, and the lotus and the buttercup tell the same 
 story. 
 
 Picnics are healthy ; l)ut should be appropriately dressed. 
 Balmoral boots, broad hats, and flannel dresses, warm, 
 plain, and serviceable. A white Marseilles which will wash 
 — ^percales and cambrics and ginghams will do ; but no 
 finery should be allowed. At Newport one may try the 
 Watteau combination of brocade and satin, with fine old 
 house, grounds, and trellised arcades. But at a country 
 picnic Watteau dresses are out of place. Our climate is 
 too fitful for safe picnicking, as we dread rain. In Eng- 
 land they do not care, but lunch at Ascot, with the rain 
 pouring into the champagne. But here we need to go 
 prepared with aquiscutums and umbrellas, and a neighbor- 
 ing barn is well in the near distance. 
 
 It is a common want, this need of the confessional of 
 Nature. We leave our morbid fancies, our discontents, in 
 th-e bosom of our dear common mother, and we come back 
 as cheerful as is the dappled deer. We like to go back to 
 that idyllic spot where the race started. 
 
 In the spring certain natures get frisky, like the colts. 
 One pasture will not hold them. We get tired of white 
 man's work. It was a true reading, of the human heart 
 which made the Greeks place Apollo with the shepherds of 
 
PICNICS. 115 
 
 Admetus, and Jove stooping to the people of the hill-sides. 
 " The populous all-loving solitude " of Nature draws us 
 with a potent hand. Our houses are a false shell. Tita- 
 nia's subjects will rebel. That rural solitude, which has no 
 conventionality ; that desert rock, against which the noisy 
 wave of human folly breaks itself ; the dense forest, where 
 is sung the mighty hymn of the pines ; tha brow of the hill 
 which the sun kisses last ; the lone seashore ; the distant 
 heath ; that cloud-shadow on the mountain — these are all 
 necessary to us once a year. We must go once to ''La 
 rocTie qui pleure." We must go where the forest-growths 
 expand in all their strength and splendor. We must find 
 the shyest wild flower, the most untamable vine. It is in 
 the fable of Daphne that we read the deep significance, the 
 poetry, the true meaning of our love of the picnic. 
 
 Who of us — comfortable and well. housed — but has in 
 some moment of nomadic instinct envied the tramp and 
 the gypsy their life of chapleted ease, as they lie on the 
 greensward, hugging dear mother Nature to their very 
 bosoms ? Who has not some wild, untamed blood in his 
 veins — some fellowship for the Indian — some desire for 
 the flitting caress of the passing breeze, or the somber greet- 
 ing of the mountain shadow ? 
 
 But no more poetry, if you please. We are getting 
 hungry. Where are those baskets ? Ah ! the cold roast 
 beef, the wing of a chicken, and the salt, not forgotten ! 
 
 Those hard-boiled eggs — ^how good they are ! So glad 
 that chicken-raising has been one of our Home Amuse- 
 ments ! Just a high picket-fence, a few good hens, some 
 boxes, and a little attention, and what eggs these are ! 
 Mamma will not, however, eat them ; she says they are un- 
 wholesome. But she takes a piece of the breast of a noble 
 pullet, and a cup of coffee in a tin mug, made by Sam, best 
 of cooks, amateur — college-bred cook — who has boiled it 
 under the trees ! and laid the grounds with a dash of cold 
 
116 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 water. Sam puts his own clearness and strength, into the 
 coffee. 
 
 And now for an hour's reverie by the side of the lake ; 
 and then a rough-and-tumble drive home ! How tired, 
 ragged, jagged, disheveled, and happy we are as we get 
 home ! 
 
 Statira has built a splendid wood-fire for us, and has a 
 sujoper of broiled chicken, cold ham, preserves and cream, 
 baked potatoes, and toast, and hot biscuits which might 
 tempt the virtue of an anchorite. We have no such proud 
 resistance. "We have brought an appetite from the place 
 where they make them ; and we can eat hot biscuits and 
 still wrap the drapery of our couch about us and lie down 
 to pleasant dreams. 
 
 A picnic is, therefore, a Home Amusement. It has home 
 at both ends ; else it would not be a picnic. 
 
XVI. 
 
 PLAYING WITH FIEE. CEEAMICS. 
 
 Now let us ascend from these trivialities to the consid- 
 eration of the great subject which has been more talked of 
 and dabbled in for the last seven years than any accomplish- 
 ment ever was, before or since. The splendid display of 
 Ceramic Art at our great Exposition of 1876 no doubt had 
 its share in creating that intense interest in the subject 
 which has been felt everywhere. 
 
 How it came into the category of Home Amusements we 
 hardly know, unless the art schools stimulated the pursuit. 
 But now we do know that nearly every lady paints a plate, 
 from grandma down to the smallest child. Especially has 
 it become the pastime of middle-aged ladies, who have got 
 through with the work of life, and have much leisure on 
 their hands. It is one of the many accomplishments which 
 has taken the place of the German wool worsted abomina- 
 tion, the canvas roses, and counted out violets. 
 
 "Home would be happier were it not for the smell of 
 turpentine," said a lively girl as she found her grand- 
 mother, mother, and sister all hard at the plaques. It is 
 true, this pungent liquid is necessary, and the china after 
 being painted has to be baked — two very unpleasant accom- 
 paniments. But let us see how it is done. 
 
 One needs, first, a porcelain palette ; a glass slab about 
 eight inches square ; several small and medium-sized cam- 
 el's-hair brushes ; several blenders, large and small ; a quart- 
 
118 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 bottle of spirits of turpentine ; a quart-bottle of alcohol ; a 
 small bottle of oil of turpentine ; one of oil of lavender ; 
 one of copaiba ; a steel palette-knife, also one of horn or 
 ivory ; a rest for the hand while painting, made of a strip 
 of wood about an inch and a half wide and twelve inches 
 long, supported at each end by a foot an inch and a half 
 in height. A flat ruler or thin strip of wood may be used 
 for plates, or any flat piece having a raised edge, and may 
 be found more convenient than the cumbrous rests. A 
 fine needle, set in a handle, for removing particles of dust 
 which may settle in the painting, and a small glass muUer, 
 are required. 
 
 The china used for decoration must be of the finest 
 quality, and free from spots. The hard porcelain of French 
 manufacture is the best for this purpose. The mineral 
 paints bought in tubes (those of Lacroix, of Paris, being 
 the best) are the colors which stand fire. Brushes, as for 
 water-color painting, are used. Small camel's-hair brushes 
 with square ends may be had, which will do for blending 
 when necessary in fine work. 
 
 In tinted surfaces and borders large blenders are neces- 
 sary. The brushes used by gilders, and called "trade- 
 gilders' brushes," make good blenders ; No. 9 is a very use- 
 ful size. In placing the color on these surfaces, a broad, 
 flat camel's-hair brush, rather more than an inch in width, 
 should be used. In narrow bands and lines, brushes of suit- 
 able size with very long hair and square ends are employed. 
 The colors most in use are : dark carmine, flesh-red, 
 capucine-red, dark red, brown, iron-violet. In purples — 
 deep purple, dark golden violet. Blues — sky-blue, dark 
 ultramarine, deep blue. Greens — grass-green, brown green, 
 apple-green. Yellows — mixing yellow, ivory-yellow, jon- 
 quil-yellow, orange-yellow. Browns — dark brown, yellow 
 brown. Blach — ivory-black. Permanent white ; pearl-gray ; 
 black gray. 
 
FLAYING WITH FIRE. OERAMIGS. 119 
 
 Now, in commencing to paint a design on china, tlie 
 first thing to be done is to sketch the outline. The best 
 "way to do this is to prepare the china by rubbing the sur- 
 face with spirits of turpentine, and, after having left it a 
 few minutes to dry, draw the design upon it very lightly 
 with a hard lead-pencil. Alcohol may be used for the same 
 purpose, and has the advantage that it is not so liable to 
 catch the dust. The surface, however, does not receive the 
 marks of the lead-pencil so well as when it is prepared with 
 turpentine. 
 
 Lithographic crayon may be used, and without any 
 preparation ; but the outline is not so delicate as that drawn 
 with the lead-pencil. 
 
 If the subject is a difficult one, as, for instance, a design 
 containing several figures, time may be saved, and liability 
 to error avoided, by tracing the design, which insures the 
 correct relative position of the figures, and tends to pro- 
 duce the object desired — a correct copy of the original. It 
 is better, however, to sketch simpler subjects direct on the 
 china. It is commonly supposed that a tracing is of great 
 assistance to any one unskilled in drawing ; but if one is un- 
 able to draw a correct outline, it is hardly possible that the 
 painting will be good. It is so very easy to lose the out- 
 line in working that, after all, a tracing is but a slight in- 
 dication, which has for its principal use the placing of the 
 design in exactly the right position on the plate or other 
 object to be decorated. 
 
 There are various ways of tracing, the simplest and best 
 of which is the following : Lay a piece of transparent paper 
 over the design to be copied, and trace the outlines very 
 carefully with a hard lead-pencil. Then turn the tracing- 
 paper over on any white surface, and go over all the lines 
 on the reverse side with a soft pencil. You can now lay 
 the tracing right side up on the china, which has been 
 previously prepared for the lead-pencil with turpentine. 
 
120 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and having placed it in exactly the right position, secure it 
 Tby means of bits of modeling-wax or gummed paper at the 
 corners, and pass over the lines with a hard point, or rub 
 the entire surface with a rounded instrument ; the handle 
 of the palette-knife may be used for this purpose. This 
 will transfer the pencil drawing to the surface of the china. 
 
 The more delicate the outline the better, provided it is 
 more plainly visible, as a heavy, dark, or colored outline 
 sullies the colors used upon it, and causes much annoyance 
 in working. Although it may disappear in the firing, it is 
 better to avoid it. Faulty lines in the tracing may be rec- 
 tified by the use of a sharpened stick of soft wood moist- 
 ened with turpentine. 
 
 If tube-colors are used, and found difiicult to lay, a drop 
 of oil of turpentine may be added to the turpentine. Care 
 should be taken, however, to avoid too much oil,«as it ren- 
 ders the colors liable to blister in the fire. The use of clove- 
 oil as a medium is advised by some. The color can, perhaps, 
 be more easily laid with it .than with spirits of turpentine. 
 It does not dry so quickly, however, and, unless recourse is 
 had to the process of drying the work with the aid of -an 
 alcohol lamp, its use involves tedious waiting. It is better 
 to use turpentine and finish the work at one sitting. The 
 drying of colors is affected by the state of the atmosphere. 
 If, during the progress of the painting, it is found to be 
 difficult to work over the colors first laid — which are indeed 
 very liable to come up — the piece of china may be placed 
 in a moderately warm oven to dry before proceeding. On 
 being taken out of the oven, the colors will be found to 
 have lost their gloss, if perfectly dry, and, perhaps, will have 
 changed their hue. No alarm need be felt at this, as they 
 will return to their former brilliancy when fired. But here 
 we come to a great trouble. 
 
 The chance of a piece " firing" well is one of the great 
 trials of the china painter, and is beyond her control j but 
 
PLAYING WITH FIRE. CERAMICS. 121 
 
 this is always counted in. It is best to send the piece to a 
 pottery to be burned. A cup containing turpentine should 
 stand near the working table to wash the brushes ; and 
 after using a color containing iron, the brush should be 
 carefully washed before it is charged with one which does 
 not contain iron, or if white is to be used. The brushes 
 ought not to be too small, and the colors should, as far as 
 possible, be laid in broad washes, and decided touches placed 
 lightly and quickly, and not overworked. The use of the 
 blender may be resorted to if necessary, especially in laying 
 the first washes ; although it is better to ayoid using it 
 afterward, if possible. 
 
 The same rules may be applied to china painting as to 
 water-colors, to which it bears a strong resemblance. The 
 greatest art consists in placing each touch where it should 
 go, and leaving it ; not spoiling it by uncertainty, or de- 
 grading the tint by overwork. In fine work, lining and 
 stippling are necessary in finishing, but should not be car- 
 ried to excess or made too apparent. These latter processes 
 are, perhaps, more indispensable in preparing work for a 
 single firing, as it is very difficult to lay repeated washes 
 over one another ; the under-tint comes up so readily, 
 especially when it is not thoroughly dry. The same place 
 must never be passed over by the brush twice in immediate 
 succession, as the under-tint will certainly come np, and 
 the blot caused in the painting will be difficult to rectify. 
 It is of no use to attempt it while it is wet. Work on some 
 other part, and then go over it, or first dry it in the oven. 
 
 Some of the tube-colors may require to be rubbed down 
 after being taken from the tubes. This will be especially 
 necessary in the case of the carmines and the whites. A 
 horn or ivory palette-knife should be used with these colors, 
 as well as with the blues, and all colors containing no iron. 
 Mixtures of colors on the palette may be rubbed down oc- 
 casionally, or mixed with the brush before using, to prevent 
 6 
 
122 HOME AMUSEMENTS. ' 
 
 them from separating themselves into their component 
 parts. 
 
 Too much turpentine should not be taken into the brush 
 when it is to be charged with color. Dip it into the tur- 
 pentine, and remoye the surplus moisture by drawing the 
 brush over the edge of the vessel containing it before taking 
 up the color from the palette. The tint may be tried first 
 on the edge of the plate. Surplus color or moisture may 
 be removed by touching the brush upon a muslin rag, which 
 should always be at hand for the purpose of wiping the 
 brushes. 
 
 After using, the brushes should be washed in alcohol. 
 The bottle containing it should be kept tightly corked, as 
 it evaporates very quickly when exposed to the air. Care 
 must be taken that no drops of the alcohol drop upon the 
 painting, as it will immediately remove the colors from the 
 surface. When the large brushes are cleaned after being 
 washed in the alcohol, the hairs should be spread apart, and 
 the fingers passed lightly over them until they are dry ; 
 otherwise the hairs may stick together in drying, and the 
 brush be rendered unfit for use. Washing in alcohol will 
 prevent the turpentine used in painting from injuring the 
 brushes, as it would if allowed to remain in them. The 
 tube-colors should be preserved from heat as far as possible. 
 
 We have taken these rules, partly from personal experi- 
 ence, partly from the best manuals, and the china painter 
 can begin on them. But a few lessons from a master are 
 very valuable, and the best of all teachers — patience — will 
 help the young and inexperienced better than any written 
 directions. 
 
 We would like to say a few words more on the all- 
 important subject of firing. "The Amateur's Miniature 
 Kiln," now sold by the Decorative Art Society, and by the 
 patentee. Miss N. M. Ford, Port Richmond, New York, 
 enables the amateur to fire small articles of decorated china 
 
PLAYING WITH FIRE. CERAMICS. 123 
 
 witli perfect success. If near a large city, it is better to 
 send the plaques to a large establishment where they are in 
 the habit of baking them. 
 
 The amateur has to make up her mind to a great many . 
 failures at first, but after the accomplishment is somewhat 
 conquered, it is an inexpensive and delightful addition to 
 Home Amusements. 
 
 No one should, however, attempt to paint upon china 
 who does not know first how to draw. The hand should 
 be skillful on paper before it touches the flat brush ; for 
 the outlines, while seemingly coarse, must be very expres- 
 sive, and very certain. 
 
XYII. 
 
 ARCHEEY. 
 
 Fashiok has again brought round as one of the Home 
 Amusements this pretty and romantic pastime, which has 
 filled the early ballads with many a picturesque figure. 
 Now on many a lawn may be seen the target and the group 
 in Lincoln green. Indeed, it looks as if Archery were to 
 prove a very formidable rival to Lawn Tennis. 
 
 The requirements of Archery are these : First, a bow ; 
 secondly, arrows ; thirdly, a quiver, pouch, and belt ; fourth- 
 ly, a grease-pot, an arm-guard or brace, a shooting glove, a 
 target, and a scoring card. 
 
 The bow is the most important article in archery, and 
 also the most expensive. It is usually from five to six feet 
 in length, made of a single piece of yew, or of lance-wood 
 and hickory glued together back to back. The former is 
 best for gentlemen, the latter for ladies, as it is better 
 adapted for the short, sharp pull of the feminine arm. The 
 wood is gradually tapered, and at each end is a tip of horn, 
 the one from the upper end being longer than the other or 
 lower one. The strength of bows is marked in pounds, 
 varying from twenty-five to thirty pounds. Ladies' bows 
 are from twenty-five to forty pounds in strength, and those 
 of gentlemen from fifty to eighty pounds. One side of the 
 bow is flat, called its "back" ; the other is rounded, called 
 the " belly." !N"early in the middle, where the hand should 
 take hold, it is lapped round with velvet, and that part is 
 
ARCHERY. 125 
 
 called the "handle." In each of the tips of horns is a 
 notch for the string, called the "nock." 
 
 Bow-strings are made of hemp or flax — the former being 
 the better material ; for though at first they stretch more, 
 yet they wear longer and stand a harder pull, as well as 
 being more elastic in the shooting. In applying a fresh 
 string to a bow, be careful in opening it not to break the 
 composition that is on it. Cut the tie, take hold of the 
 eye, which will be found ready worked at one end, let the 
 other part hang down, and pass the eye over the upper end 
 of the bow. If for a lady, it may be held from two to two 
 and a half inches below the nock ; if for a gentleman, half 
 an inch lower, varying it according to the length and 
 strength of the bow. Then run your hand along the side 
 of the bow and string to the bottom nock. Turn it round 
 that, and fix it by the noose, called the "timber noose," 
 taking care not to untwist the string in making it. This 
 noose is simply a turn-back and twist without a knot. 
 When strung, a lady's bow will have the string about five 
 inches from the belly, and a gentleman's about half an inch 
 more. The part opposite the handle is bound round with 
 waxed silk, in order to prevent its being frayed by the 
 arrow. As soon as a string becomes too soft and the fibers 
 too straight, rub it with beeswax, and give it a few turns 
 in the proper (Jirection, so as to shorten it, and twist its 
 strands a little tighter. A spare string should always be 
 provided by the shooter. 
 
 The arrows are differently shaped by various makers, 
 some being of nniform thickness throughout, while others 
 are protuberant in the middle ; some, again, are larger at the 
 point than at the feather-end. They are generally made of 
 Avhite deal, with points of iron or brass riveted on ; but 
 generally having a piece of heavy wood spliced on to the 
 deal between it and the point, by which their flight is im- 
 proved. At the other end a piece of horn is inserted in 
 
126 HOME AMU8EMENT8. 
 
 •whicli is a notcli for the string. They are armed with three 
 feathers, glued on, one of which is of a different color from 
 the others, and is intended to mark the proper position 
 of the arrow when placed on the string, this one always 
 pointing from the bow. These feathers properly applied 
 give a rotary motion to the arrow which causes its flight to 
 be straight. They are generally from the wing of the tur- 
 key or the goose. The length and weight of the arrows 
 vary, the latter (in England) being marked in sterling sil- 
 ver coin, and stamped on the arrow in plain figures. It is 
 usual to paint a crest or a monogram or distinguishing 
 rings on the arrow Just below the feathers, by which they 
 may be known in shooting at the target. 
 
 The quiver is merely a tin case painted green, intended 
 for the security of the arrows when not in use. The pouch 
 and belt are worn round the waist, the latter containing 
 those arrows which are actually being shot. A pot to hold 
 grease for touching the glove and string, and a tassel to 
 wipe the arrows, are hung at the belt. The grease is com- 
 posed of beef -suet and wax melted together. The arm is 
 protected from the blow of the string by the brace, a broad 
 guard of strong leather buckled on by two straps. A shoot- 
 ing glove, also of thin tubes of leather, is attached to the 
 wrist by three flat pieces ending in a circular strap buckled 
 round it. This glove prevents that soreness of the fingers 
 which soon comes on after using the bow without it. 
 
 The target consists of a circular mat of straw, covered 
 with canvas painted in a series of circles. It is usually from 
 three feet six inches to four feet in diameter. The middle 
 is about six or eight inches in diameter, gilt, and called the 
 '^gold" ; the next is called the "^'red," after which comes 
 the " inner white," then the '* black," and finally the 
 "outer white." These targets are mounted on triangular 
 stands at distances apart of from fifty to a hundred yards — 
 sixty being the usual shooting distance. 
 
ARCEEEY. 127 
 
 A scoring card is proyided with columns for eacli color, 
 which, are marked with a pin. The usual score for a gold 
 hit or the bull's-eye is 9 ; the red, 7 ; inner white, 6 ; 
 black, 3 ; and outer white, 1. 
 
 To bend the bow properly the bow should be taken by 
 the handle in the right hand. Place one end on the ground, 
 resting in the hollow of the right foot, keeping the flat side 
 of the bow, called the back, toward your person. The left 
 foot should be advanced a little, and the right placed so 
 that the bow can not slip sideways. Place the heel of the 
 left hand upon the upper limb of the bow, below the eye of 
 the string. Now, while the fingers and thumb of the left 
 hand slide this eye toward the notch in the horn, and the 
 heel pushes the limb away from the body, the right hand 
 pulls the handle toward the person, and thus resists the 
 action of the left, by which the bow is bent ; and at the 
 same time the string is slipped" into the nock, as the notch 
 is termed. Take care to keep the three outer fingers free 
 from the string, for if the bow should slip from the hand, 
 and the string catch them, they will be seyerely pinched. 
 If shooting in frosty weather, warm the bow before the fire, 
 or by friction with a woolen cloth. If the bow has been 
 lying by for a long time, it should be well rubbed with 
 boiled linseed-oil before using it. 
 
 To unstring the bow, hold it as in stringing, then 
 press down the upper limb exactly as before, and as if you 
 wished to place the eye of the string in a higher notch. 
 This will loosen the string and liberate the eye, when it 
 must be lifted out of the nock by the forefinger, and suf- 
 fered to slip down the limb. 
 
 Before using the bow, hold it in a perpendicular direc- 
 tion with the string toward you, and see if the line of the 
 string cuts the middle of the bow. If not, shift the eye 
 and noose of the string to either side, so as to make the two 
 lines coincide. This precaution prevents a very common 
 
128 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 cause of defective shooting, which, is the result of an. uneven 
 string throwing the arrow on one side. After using it, 
 unstring it. V and. , at a large shooting party, unloose your 
 bow after every round. Some bows get bent into very 
 unmanageable shapes. 
 
 - ■ The general management of the bow should be on the 
 principle that damp injures it, and that any loose floating 
 ends interfere with its shooting. It should, therefore, be 
 kept well varnished, and in a waterproof case, and it should 
 be carefully dried after shooting in damp weather. If there 
 are any ends hanging from the string, cut them off close, 
 and see that the whipping in the middle of the string 
 is close and well fitting. The case should be hung up 
 against a diy internal wall, not too near the fire. In select- 
 ing your bow, be careful that it is not too strong for your 
 power, and that you can draw the arrow to its head without 
 any trembling of the hand. If this can not be done after 
 a little practice, the bow should be changed for a weaker 
 one. For no arrow will go true if it is discharged by a 
 trembling hand. 
 
 .,,■ If an arrow has been shot into the target or the ground, 
 be particularly careful to withdraw it by laying hold close 
 to its head, and by twisting it round as it is withdrawn in 
 the direction of its axis. Without this precaution it may 
 be easily bent br broken. 
 
 : In shooting' at the target, the first thing is to nock the 
 arrow ; that is, to place it properly on the string. In order 
 to effect this, take the bow in the left hand, with the string 
 toward you, the upper limb being toward the right. Hold 
 it horizontally while you take the arrow by the middle, pass 
 it on the under side Of the string and the upper side of the 
 bow, till the head reaches two or three inches past the left 
 hand. Hold it there with the forefinger or thumb while 
 you remove the right hand down to the nock. Turn the 
 arrow till the cock-feather comes uppermost, then pass it 
 
ARGEERY. 129 
 
 down the bow, and fix it on the nocking part of the string. 
 In doing this, all contact with the feathers should be 
 avoided, unless they are rubbed out of place, when they 
 may be smoothed down by passing them through the hand. 
 
 The body should be at right angles with the target, but 
 the face must be turned over the left shoulder, so as to be 
 opposed to it. The feet are to be flat on the ground, with 
 the heels a little apart, the left foot turned toward the 
 mark. The head and chest inclined a little forward, so as 
 to present a full bust, but not bent at all below the waist. 
 
 Draw the arrow to the full length of the arm till the 
 hand touches the shoulder, then take aim. The loosing 
 should be quick, and the string must leave the fingers 
 smartly and steadily. The bow-hand must be as firm as a 
 vice — no trembling allowed. 
 
 The rules of an Archery Club are usually these : 
 
 That a "Lady Paramount" be annually elected. 
 
 That there be a President, Secretary, and Treasurer. 
 
 That all members intending to shoot shall appear in 
 the uniform of the club. That a fine shall be imposed for 
 non-attendance. 
 
 That the Secretary shall send out cards at least a month 
 before each day of meeting, acquainting the members with 
 place and hour of meeting. 
 
 That there shall be four prizes for each meeting — two 
 for each sex ; the first for numbers, the second for hits ; 
 and that no person shall be allowed to have both on the 
 same day. A certain sum of money is voted to the Lady 
 Paramount for prizes for each meeting. 
 
 That in case of a tie for hits, numbers shall decide ; 
 and in case of a tie for numbers, hits shall decide. 
 
 That the decision of the Lady Paramount shall be final. 
 
 That there shall be a challenge prize of the value of 
 
 dollars, and that a commemorative ornament be presented 
 to winners of the challenge prize. 
 
130 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 That the distance for shooting be sixty or one hundred 
 yards, and that five-feet targets be used. 
 
 The dress of the club to be decided by the Lady Para- 
 mount. 
 
 The expenses of archery are not great — about the same 
 as lawn tennis — although a great many arrows are lost in 
 the course of the season. Bows and other paraphernalia 
 last a long time. Sides are chosen as at lawn tennis, and 
 the game grows on one. The lady arcliers are apt to feel 
 a little lame after the first two or three essays, but they 
 should practice a short time every morning, and always in 
 a loose waist or Jacket. It will be found a very healthy 
 and strengthening pastime. 
 
 We must not judge of the merits of ancient bowmen 
 from the practice of archery in the present day. There are 
 no such distances now assigned for the marks as we find 
 mentioned in old histories or poetic legends, nor such pre- 
 cision, even at short lengths, in the direction of the arrow. 
 
 " The stranger he made no mickle ado, 
 
 But he bent a right good bow, 
 And the fattest of all the herd he slew, 
 
 Forty good yards him fro ; 
 ' Well sTiot^ well shot,'' quoth Bolin Hoody 
 
 Few, if any, modern archers in long shooting reach four 
 hundred yards, or in shooting at a mark exceed eighty or a 
 hundred. But archery has been since the invention of gun- 
 powder only followed for pastime. It is decidedly the 
 most graceful game which can be practiced, and the legends 
 of Sherwood Forest, of Eobin Hood, Maid Marian, Little 
 John, Friar Tuc£, and the Abbot carry us into the fragrant 
 heart of the forest, and bring back memories which are 
 agreeable to all people who have in them a drop of Saxon 
 blood. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MIDDLE-AGED AND 
 THE AGED. 
 
 We can not but notice, as people go on in life — wlien, 
 as Lord Mansfield said, ''The absence of pain is pleasure, 
 just as in youth the absence of pleasure is pain " — that the 
 quiet corner by the fire, or the seat at the library-table with 
 the shaded lamp, and a quiet game or two when reading 
 has fatigued the eyes, becomes almost necessary. 
 
 Of all the means of cheating a succession of dull even- 
 ings of their tedium, perhaps that little invention called 
 a " Solitaire " board — which is simply a board pierced with 
 thirty-seven holes, which are nearly filled with thirty-six 
 pegs — has proved itself the most eminently successful. It 
 was invented, it is said, by a French Jesuit, in Canada, 
 to help him through the long Canadian winter evenings, 
 and it has proved to be a boon to mankind. 
 
 One peg takes another when it can leap over into an 
 empty hole. To get all off but one peg is nearly impos- 
 sible, but it can be done. 
 
 Then comes " Merelles," or " Nine Men's Morris," which 
 can be played on a board, or on the ground, but which 
 finds itself reduced even to a parlor game. This, however, 
 takes two players. 
 
 "American Bagatelle," which can be played alone, or 
 with an antagonist ; Chinese puzzles, which are infinitely 
 amusing ; and all the great family of the sphinx known as 
 
132 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 puzzles — are of infinite service to the retired, quiet, lonely 
 people for whom the active business of life is at an end. 
 The guessing of arithmetical puzzles, the solution of enig- 
 mas, and the solution of a paradox — these amuse many an 
 evening. 
 
 We may give one of these old things as an example. It 
 is called '* The Blind Abbot and his Monks," and is played 
 with counters. Arrange eight external cells of a square so 
 that there may always be nine in each row, though the 
 whole number may vary from eighteen to thirty-six. 
 
 A convent in which there were nine cells was occupied 
 by a blind abbot and twenty-four monks, the abbot lodg- 
 ing in the center cell, and the monks in the side cells, three 
 in each, giving a row of nine persons on each side of the 
 building. The abbot, suspecting the fidelity of his breth- 
 ren, often went out at night and counted them, and when 
 he found nine in each row the old man counted his beads, 
 said au Ave ! and went to bed contented. The monks, 
 taking advantage of his failing sight, contrived to deceive 
 him, so that four could go out nightly, yet leave nine in a 
 row. How did they do it ? 
 
 The next night, emboldened by success, the monks re- 
 turned with four visitors and then arranged them nine in 
 a row. The next night they brought in four more belated 
 brethren, and again arranged them nine in a row ; and 
 again four more. Finally, when the twelve clandestine 
 brothers had departed, and six monks with them, the re- 
 mainder deceived the abbot again by presenting a row of 
 nine. Try it with the counters, and see how they so abused 
 the privileges of a conventual seclusion. 
 
 Then try quibbles — ''How can I get wine out of a bot- 
 tle if I have no corkscrew, and must not break the glass 
 or make any hole in it or the cork ? " 
 
 The telling of a good story well should be encouraged. 
 The raconteur can be the most delightful of all house- 
 
AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MIDLLE-AaEB. 133 
 
 hold blessings, A motlier who can tell a story well by the 
 nursery fire is a potent force ; and the one who will light 
 up the winter evening by telling stories of adventures — the 
 simplest every-day ones in the street — the little journey, 
 even the round of, shopping, becomes very much of a trea- 
 sure. Some ladies commit to memory the stories of Hans 
 Christian Andersen; Grimm, the fairy-story maker; Charles 
 Kingsley's short stories, Ouida's "A Dog of Flanders," or 
 the poems of Dr. Holmes, or some other benefactor of 
 mankind, and tell these stories and poems in a sort of un- 
 premeditated way by the library-table. This is a charming 
 accomplishment. Some people have the gift of improvis- 
 ing, and will tell a very good bit of ghost story in a very 
 gruesome manner for the entertainment of those who enjoy 
 the night side of nature. 
 
 But this talent should never be abused. The man who 
 in cold blood fires off a long poetical quotation at a dinner, 
 or makes a speech in defiance of the goose-flesh which is 
 creeping down his neighbors' backs, is a traitor to honor 
 and religion, and he deserves the death of a Nihilist. It 
 is only when these extempore talents can be used without 
 alarming people that they are useful or endurable. 
 
 We might make our Christmas holidays a little more 
 gay in this country. We might read and study up all the 
 old English and the German customs, beyond the mistle- 
 toe, the tree, and the rather faded legend of Santa Claus. 
 There are worlds of legendary lore which would help us to 
 make this time-honored festival even more lively and gay 
 and amusing than it is. We have not yet reached -the Eng- 
 lish jollity at Christmas. 
 
 The supper-table has, as an American home festival, 
 rather fallen into desuetude. We sup out, but rarely have 
 that informal and delightful meal which once wound up 
 every evening devoted to Home Amusement. Mrs. Eliza- 
 beth Montague, in her delightful letters, talks about the 
 
134 ROME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 ''whisk and the quadrille parties with a light supper" 
 which amused the ladies of her day. We still have the 
 ",whisk/' but what has become of lansquenet, quadrille, 
 basset, and piquet, those pretty and courtly games ? 
 
 Playing-cards made their way throjigh Arabia from 
 India to Europe, where they first arrived about the year 
 1370. They carried with them the two arts, engraving and 
 painting. They were the avants coureurs of engraving on 
 wood and metal, and of printing. 
 
 Cards early began to be the luxuries of kings and queens, 
 the necessity of the gambler, and the consolation of those 
 who innocently like games. Piquet, a courtly game, was 
 invented by Etienne Vignoles, called La Hire, one of the 
 most active soldiers of the reign of Charles VII. This 
 brave soldier was an accomplished chevalier, deeply imbued 
 with a reverence for the manners and customs of chivalry. 
 Cards continued from this time to follow the whim of the 
 court and to assume the character of the period through 
 the regency of Marie de Medicis, in the time of Anne of 
 Austria and of Louis XIV. The Germans are the first peo- 
 ple who essayed to make a pack of cards assume the form 
 of a scholastic treatise. The king, queen, knight, and 
 knave iQ)i\ of English manners, customs, and nomenclature. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE PAELOE. 
 
 That is a poorly-furnished parlor, think some people, 
 which has not a chess-table in one corner, a whist-table in 
 the middle, and a little solitaire-table at the other end near 
 the fire, for grandma . People who are fond of games stock 
 their table drawers with cribbage boards and backgammon, 
 cards of every variety, bezique counters and packs, and the 
 red and white champions of the hard-fought battlefield of 
 chess. 
 
 Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble, one of the most gifted of 
 women — whose recollections would, one would think, be 
 the most attractive book which one could read — is devoted 
 to card solitaire. Every evening she describes herself as 
 spending an hour or two over these combinations. This is 
 not to be confused with the game of peg solitaire. 
 
 Whist ! Who shall pretend to describe its attractions? 
 What a relief it is to the tired man of business who has 
 been fighting the world all day, to the woman who has no 
 longer any part in the gay and glittering pageant of so- 
 ciety ! what pleasure in its regulated, shifting fortunes ! 
 We all have seen that holding the cards — even the highest 
 ones — does not always win the game. We have noticed 
 that with a poor hand somebody wins fame, success, happi- 
 ness. We feel the injustice of that long suit which has 
 baffled our best endeavors. Whist is a parody on life ; we 
 play our own experience over again in its faithless kings 
 
136 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 and queens. The knave is apt to trip us up on the green 
 cloth as on the street. We are simply playing the real over 
 in shadow. 
 
 The great passion for gambling is no doubt behind even 
 the game of Boston, played for beans. We all like to ac- 
 cumulate, to believe that we are Fortune's favorite. What 
 matter if it be only a few more beans than one's neighbor ? 
 The principle remains the same. 
 
 So long as cards do not lead to gambling, they are inno- 
 cent enough. Indeed, they are a priceless boon to eyes 
 which can no longer see to read ; to those who must get rid 
 of time ; to those who are ill, weary, or unfortunate. We 
 always wonder at seeing the young take to them ; it seems 
 as if they could do so much better ; but the sight of a par- 
 lor, warm, well lighted, with its games going on in every 
 corner, is not a disagreeable one. Especially should the 
 young ladies of the family look to this arrangement, and 
 see that everything is comfortable for papa's game of whist, 
 bezique, or cribbage. They do not know how great a ne- 
 cessity it may be to him — what a relief, what a consola- 
 tion ! 
 
 As for Chess, the devotee of this heavy, remorseless 
 game has no further need of our help or sympathy. To 
 any one who likes to puzzle his brain over the fantastic 
 skips of the Knight or the prodigious descent of the Castle, 
 we can offer no suggestions except that he may be left un- 
 disturbed. 
 
 As for Music, one can hardly say anything which has 
 not been said about its transcendent powers in assisting at 
 every Home Amusement. The family circle which has 
 learned three or four instruments, the brothers who can 
 sing part songs, are to be envied. They can never suffer 
 from a dull evening. Even the musical absurdities of 
 Kindergarten choruses are to be commended, and the Ger- 
 man mimicry of all the instruments. What a blessing to a 
 
TEE PARLOR. 13T 
 
 family is the man who can sing comic songs, and who also 
 does not sing them too often ! 
 
 It is well, where it can be done easily, to allow young 
 boys to sing in church choirs ; to train their voices, and 
 be with musical people ; to learn choruses, chants, etc. 
 In that way Arthur Sullivan began, that benefactor of his 
 species, the author of "Pinafore." What has not ''Pina- 
 fore" done to help along the musical education of our 
 young people ? How it has been sung in country towns ! 
 How church choirs have taken it up ! How popular, inno- 
 cent, sweet it is ! 
 
 Now, in our musical home training we may not make an 
 Arthur Sullivan, but we shall certainly add to the sum of 
 innocent enjoyment ; and it is a delightful fact that if there 
 are six or seven children in a family, one of them is apt to 
 have a good voice, one a talent for the piano, and generally 
 all can be taught to play and sing a little. Sometimes 
 there are rarely gifted, great musical organizations in all 
 the sons and daughters, which is a supreme blessing. For 
 there is not only Home Amusement in it, but a certainty 
 of making a good living, if fortune frowns and makes work 
 necessary. 
 
 The only deep shadow to the musical picture is the 
 necessity of practicing, which is not a Home Amusement ; 
 it is a home torture. If only a person could learn to play 
 or sing without those dreadful first noises and those hide- 
 ous shrieks ! But, since these are not to be avoided, some 
 one in the family must have the tact to arrange them well, 
 and to have the hours of the various students so placed that 
 there need not be a perpetual tinkle-tinkle, or something 
 worse. 
 
 The season of early spring and summer ! Oh ! what 
 .sounds come through the first open casement ! How dread- 
 ful is that appoggiatura ! how fearful that badly-played 
 waltz ! Is it possible that yon violinist will ever be Mau- 
 
.138 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 rice Dengremont ? And yet it is by these hard chromatic 
 steps that all have mounted the heavenly stairs of melody. 
 
 No young lady should sing in public — that is, before a 
 party of friends — until she can sing well. In these days, 
 when amateur cultivation has reached a high point, let 
 everybody say to herself, " Am I sufficiently advanced to 
 give pleasure by my singing ? " and let her modestly abstain 
 from singing if she finds that, after hearing her once, her 
 friends do not press her to sing again. There is, perhaps, 
 nothing so foolish as for a woman to persist in singing in 
 her own parlor when she is not a thoroughly good vocalist. 
 No one can get away from her there. They must suffer. 
 Still, if birds can sing, they should sing. Nothing is more 
 disagreeable than to have to urge a person to sing. The 
 possessor of a voice is always a very rare and much to be 
 envied person, and a certain amiability in singing becomes 
 such a person very much. 
 
 All young ladies who have been taught the piano should 
 have some pieces learned, and be able to play for the amuse- 
 ment of the home circle. Especially should they be able 
 to play for dancing. A few waltzes are very convenient. 
 They often help off a dull evening wonderfully. The per- 
 son who plays should be willing occasionally to be made 
 use of. Are we not all made use of at times ? Is not the 
 good talker in perpetual request ? The raconteuse — is she 
 not begged to tell that story over and over again ? Does 
 not the wit find himself invited out to dinner to amuse the 
 company ? And are they not all, if amiable, glad to per- 
 form their part ? Surely the pianist should be as amiable ! 
 
 Reading aloud is one of the most common of Home 
 Amusements, and one of the best. It is a pity, however, 
 that our women, especially, do not cultivate elocution a 
 little, so that they may read aloud intelligently. There 
 is no prettier accomplishment. A lady at a watering- 
 place, who can read a poem or story well, is always sur- 
 
TEE PARLOE. 139 
 
 rounded. The sweet voice, tlie correct accent, the air of 
 intelligence — all give the author a great help, and Longfel- 
 low never wrote a prettier stanza than this : 
 
 " Then read from tbe favored volume 
 The poem of thy choice, 
 And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
 The music of thy voice." 
 
 But, when the favored volume and the poem have to be 
 filtered through a nasal accent and an uneducated drawl, 
 we feel that the poet has been vilified, and his gold and 
 silver turns to dross. Every woman especially should re- 
 member the fable of the girl whose lips dropped pearls and 
 diamonds, who was so much more agreeable as a friend and 
 acquaintance than that other damsel whose lips dropped 
 toads and vipers. The latter, evidently, had never taken 
 lessons in elocution. 
 
 We have a certain national vice in pronunciation and 
 in accent which we ought to correct. A moment's listening 
 to the English accent will soon teach us to pronounce with 
 a more melodious finish. We need not hug ourselves with 
 any vainglorious national conceit. We do not speak as well 
 as our English cousins. 
 
XX. 
 
 THE KITCHEN. 
 
 "We began at the garret, and we are now at the kitchen. 
 So our readers may learn that we are on the home-stretch, 
 and shall be through very soon. If we have wearied them, 
 let them bear with us but a little longer, and then, on our 
 faithful steed, whom they shall find at the kitchen door, 
 they shall ride off and neyer be troubled with us any more. 
 
 A model kitchen is every housekeeper's delight. In 
 these days of tiles and modern improvement, what pretty 
 things kitchens are ! 
 
 The modern dairy, with its upright milk-pans, in which 
 the cream is marked off by a neat little thermometer ; the 
 fire-brick floor ; the exquisite range, with its polished lat- 
 terie de cuisine ; every brilliant brass saucepan, seeming to 
 say, " Come and cook in me " ; every porcelain -lined pan 
 urging upon one the necessity of stewing nectarines in 
 white sugar ; every bright can suggesting the word " con- 
 serve," which always makes the mouth water ; every clatter 
 of the skewers, saying, " Dainty dishes, dainty dishes, come 
 and make me ! Come and make me ! " All this is quite 
 fascinating to an amateur. 
 
 ISTo pretty woman — did she but know it — is ever half so 
 pretty as when she is playing cook. The clean, white apron, 
 the neat, short cambric dress, the little cap, the fair bare 
 arms — does the reader remember Euth Pinch and the beef- 
 steak-pie ? A lady should make the desserts in summer 
 
THE KITCHEN'. 141 
 
 sometimes. Such ice-cream, such glorified Charlotte Eusse, 
 such cakes, such delicate apple-pies, such creams and jellies 
 as fall from a lady's fingers — these are ambrosial food ! 
 
 There is among certain women a great passion for the 
 cleanly part of household work. The love of a dairy has 
 grown to be a favorite task with many a duchess. In our 
 country, where ladies are compelled to put a hand, per- 
 haps once too often, to the household work, owing to the 
 inefficiency of the servants, this is not ordinarily considered 
 the most thoroughly amusing of Home Amusements. To 
 cook a heavy dinner in warm weather, to wash dishes after- 
 ward — this is sober prose, and by a very dull author. But 
 the poetry of house-work, the rose hue o'er our russet cares 
 — this can be classed as a Home Amusement. 
 
 In the early morning we can imag^ine a lady going into 
 her neat kitchen to prepare the desserts for the day, and 
 finding it very agreeable. She will set her well-flavored 
 custard away in. the ice-chest with a serene knowledge of 
 how good it will be at dinner, and place her compote of 
 pears securely on a high shelf, away from that ubiquitous 
 visitor the cat, who has in most families so remarkable and 
 irrepressible an appetite. She can take a turn at the milk- 
 pan, and skim off the cream herself if she pleases. It 
 will be much thicker if she does. It is a not unpleasant 
 duty to steal into the kitchen ten minutes before dinner, to 
 see to it that the roast birds are garnished with water- 
 cresses, that the vegetables are properly prepared, that the 
 silver dishes are without a smear. All this sort of atten- 
 tion makes good servants, and very good dinners. 
 
 It is often one of the Home Amusements for a party of 
 girls to try their hand at clear-starching. Statira, indeed, 
 does not like this ; but they should learn to flute their own 
 ruffles. Who knows but they may marry an army officer, 
 and go to Nebraska ? 
 
 All sorts of fine washing and ironing, all sorts of doing 
 
142 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 up of lace, of renovating old silks, etc., may be made into 
 Home Amusements, if done cheerfully, and in the right 
 spirit. The modern embroidery requiring pressing, the 
 many modern accomplishments of lace-making, applique, 
 etc., lead a young lady into the kitchen, and she can de- 
 rive a vast deal of amusement from this room, if she 
 chooses. 
 
 One of the holiest of duties is to learn how to cook for 
 the sick. This requires a great deal of patient talent, and 
 it is a sufficient reward if we can see the beloved convales- 
 cent tasting our arrowroot and sago, and good beef-tea and 
 jelly, with approbation. 
 
 Among Home Amusements, how many reckon the Jolly 
 party assembled to make the wedding-cake ? Susan and 
 Sarah shall stone the raisins, Charlotte and Clara shall 
 beat the eggs, Louisa shall slice the citron, Matilda, who 
 has a judicial mind, shall weigh ! Then all shall stir, and 
 who shall be the one to get the ring ? 
 
 The baking is momentous. Mamma had better be 
 consulted here. And then the great question of the icing ! 
 Oh ! how anxious ! The mince-pies require another season 
 of deep thought and much very stringent stirring. The 
 excellent brandy, the dash of orange cura9oa, must be 
 poured out by the lady, else why is it that ever after the 
 mince-pie seems to lack that inspiriting and hidden, fire ? 
 We read that there is many a slip between the cup and the 
 lip! 
 
 The modern elegant devices by which strawberries, vio- 
 lets, and orange-blossoms are candied in sugar, efEect a Home 
 Amusement for dainty-fingered girls ; and since the estab- 
 lishment in Boston of a cooking club, at which each young 
 lady is to contribute some article of her own cooking, we 
 see signs of a revival in all branches of the great art of 
 cookery which is most encouraging. It was a notable old 
 maxim among Puritan mothers that every wife should 
 
THE KITGEEN. 143 
 
 know how to make bread, and, perhaps, it has not died out 
 yet. 
 
 Looking at the subject broadly, every thoroughly accom- 
 plished woman should know how to do everything, from 
 making a soup up to a cup of tea — the Alpha and the Ome- 
 ga of cookery. 
 
 In the matter of flavoring, the colored race have us at 
 a great disadvantage. Any old colored cook can distance 
 her white ''Missus" here. This highly-gifted race seem to 
 have a sixth sense on the subject of flavors. The rich 
 tropical nature breaks out in reminiscences of orange-blos- 
 soms, pineapple, guava, cocoanut, and Mandarin orange. 
 Never can the descendants of the poor, half-starved, fro- 
 zen exiles of Plymouth Eock hope to achieve such custards 
 and puddings as these Ethiops turn out. And as to the 
 juicyness of their fried oysters and their inimitable terra- 
 pin, who has ever approached them ? It is as if a luxurious 
 and tasteful, beneficent power had left us, when we were 
 given what we proudly call a ''higher intelligence." Who 
 would not exchange all the cold mathematical supremacy 
 in which we glory for that luscious gift of making pies and 
 puddings a ravir f 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE FAMILY HOESE, AND OTHEE PETS. 
 
 STANDiiq-G at the kitclien door, all ready for the most 
 timorous to drive, is the most important minister to the 
 Home Amusements — the family horse. He is a beast of 
 burden, no doubt. There is but little Arab steed left in 
 him, if, indeed, there ever was much. He is a plodder, a 
 patient, much put-upon beast. The boys can harness him, 
 the girls can drive him. He is allowed to take out grand- 
 ma — when she consents to be driven, and isn't afraid of the 
 railroad train, and does not think that it is going to rain. 
 The baby, when he takes his first adventurous journey down 
 the village street, is put in state and in blankets behind the 
 family horse. No one is afraid of Blossom. No one likes 
 to whip him, because if he were whipped, what antics he 
 might give way to ! 
 
 Blossom is an exceedingly inappropriate name. Dried 
 Leaf would be far more descriptive. Still Blossom is ad- 
 hered to, because the suggestion that he was once young, 
 and that really he is frisky, in his silent way, is still a 
 delightful legend in the family. 
 
 Blossom, who is an intelligent old beast, knows perfectly 
 well how utterly weak and imbecile the whole family are 
 about him. So he will never do anything but walk and 
 trot very gently, because he knows that no one dares to 
 whip him. Once a young cousin, who had none of the 
 family reverence for Blossom, did give him a few cuts on 
 
THE FAMILY EOBSE, A¥D OTHER PETS. 145 
 
 his exceedingly smooth, fat sides. Blossom had the pres- 
 ence of mind to stand up on his hind legs, frightening 
 mamma nearly to death ; and she mentioned, in Blossom's 
 hearing, that " he never was to he whipped again, because 
 he really had a great deal of fire in him, and would not 
 brook whip or spur ! " 
 
 ''I remember, dear," she says, "your father says that 
 he heard, when he bought him, that he came of very proud 
 stock." 
 
 It has been noticed that when papa wishes to catch the 
 train Blossom can go as fast as anybody. 
 
 Blossom is a great pet, and he has that instinct of a good 
 family horse — he stops when anything is wrong. Once, 
 when the harness broke, Blossom, instead of running, 
 stopped short, and saved the lives of the whole family. He 
 has a quick ear for a coming railway train, and never has 
 balked going up hill. The girls feed him with sugar, and 
 take their first ride on his dear, safe, hard old back. The 
 boys have had imaginary jousts with neighboring knights, 
 urging him in the lists. He has been put through all the 
 sports of the middle ages, has Blossom, and probably he dis- 
 trusts the institution of chivalry. Still, he likes the boys, 
 and does all that a phlegmatic temperament and an indom- 
 itable laziness will allow in the way of a sjsirited and im- 
 pulsive charge. 
 
 There are persons whom Blossom dislikes ; one is the 
 spinster sister, Miss Caroline, who drives him with many a 
 whirrup, and "get up," and "g'lang," and has a nervous 
 twitch to her hand, and a distrustful and uncertain temper 
 with the whip. Miss Caroline nags Blossom, as she has 
 nagged everything and everybody all her life, and Blossom 
 resents her absence of repose and confidence by starting 
 wildly to right and left as he goes down the village street, 
 appearing to make for a distant fence when she is endeavor- 
 ing to guide his nose toward the gate of the parsonage. 
 
146 EOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Indeed, the village wit says that if he sees only the back of 
 the family carriage he can tell that Miss Caroline is driving, 
 as he watches that respected vehicle describing parabolas 
 and angles as it wobbles down the street. 
 
 When mamma drives. Blossom goes in a slow, stately, 
 but dignified manner, and, although he imposes upon her 
 good-nature, and does not put forth any mile-in-three- 
 minutes style, yet he shows a due respect for himself and 
 her. When the girls drive him, he, feeling through the 
 reins a little of the ichor of their young blood, becomes 
 almost vivacious, and goes almost half as fast as he can go. 
 When papa drives, he feels a strong hand behind him, and 
 actually gets there. 
 
 Every family should have as many animals as possible. 
 Dogs of every breed and variety — especially big ones, and 
 good ones, like mastiffs and Newfoundlands, and a few little 
 ones to play with. Cats and kittens, if they like them, 
 rabbits, goats, pigeons, lambs, peacocks, etc., and as much 
 live-stock as can be accommodated about the ]3lace should 
 be there. These four-footed friends, especially dogs, are 
 indispensable in the country. What attachments one forms 
 for them ! How dreary the hour when they die ! Perhaps, 
 then, we wish that they had not been so intimate, so dear, 
 so loving, so trustful. The walk, the ramble, the quiet 
 seat on the piazza — all, all must be endeared by the silent 
 friendship of the dogs. 
 
 There is sometimes a want of harmony among the pets. 
 Carlo must be shut up while Flirt is at large, and the par- 
 rot must be kept away from the pigeons. The parrot can 
 take care of herself as to the cats ; but how about the ca- 
 naries and the blackcap ? Eternal vigilance is the price 
 of liberty, and the only safety of slavery. 
 
 And yet these enforced duties : do they not fit the boys 
 for the cares of government ? Do they not tell the future 
 politician what he is to do ? Are they not, after all, a part 
 
TEE FAMILY HORSE, AITD OTHER PETS. 147 
 
 of that great education wliich Home, and only Home, can 
 give us ? 
 
 We shall have few friends so faithful as Blossom, few 
 who will impose upon us so gently, and who will really im- 
 pose upon us to our advantage. We shall have few such 
 friends as Carlo and Flirt, who love us, faults and all ; who 
 never ask what wrong we have committed, or how un- 
 worthy "we are, but who are, without doubt, the most flat- 
 tering of worshipers, loving us simply because we are our- 
 selves. How few love us for that, and that alone ! 
 
XXII. 
 
 m CONCLUSION. 
 
 In looking over our list of Home Amusements — the 
 priyate theatricals, the tableaux viyants, the brain games, 
 the fortune-telling, the making of screens, the painting of 
 fans, etc. ; the games at cards, the etching, the lawn ten- 
 nis, the dancing, the garden party, the window gardens, 
 the birds, the picnics, the plaque-painting, the archery, 
 the parlor and the kitchen — we can only feel how much we 
 have left out. Why have we not spoken more fully of the 
 library, with its quiet and respectable arm-chairs, its green 
 table, its shelves filled with those silent friends who never 
 desert us, its paper-cutter, its wood-fire, its latest magazine, 
 its quiet, and the heavy curtain dropped at evening ? How 
 did we happen to so slight this delightful room, wherein so 
 many of the best amusements of home are always arranging 
 themselves ? Perhaps because the story told itself, and we 
 did not need to tell it. 
 
 How could we have forgotten the quest for green apples 
 and choke-cherries in the spring, or the subsequent repent- 
 ance ? the bird-snaring and nesting ? and in summer the 
 search for wild flowers ? the attempts at making an her- 
 barium ? the berry-picking ? the nutting in the fall ? that 
 cracking of butternuts by the winter fire ? that arrange- 
 ment of the autumn-leaves ? 
 
 Simply because the record of Home Amusements is end- 
 less. It is almost all of life which is worth remembering. 
 
IN GONGLUSION. 149 
 
 But we can not leaye the reader here, particularly if 
 that kindly personage be a young lady, without congratu- 
 lating her upon the age in which she exists. She finds vastly 
 more to amuse her in her home-life than her mother or 
 her grandmother did before her. They were content to 
 receive once a month " The Lady's Book," with a few hints 
 as to lace-work, worsted- work, patterns for the embroider- 
 ing of slippers or sofa-cushions. A new suggestion for em- 
 broidery on white cambric, or, through a friend in some 
 great mart of fashion, the cut pattern of an article of 
 dress — think of that, ye who get the fashions by telegraph. 
 Dress itself was a crude thing compared to what it is now. 
 There was not even at Newport the slightest approximation 
 to the luxury of to-day. A "London-made" habit, for 
 instance, was almost unknown. There was no " riding to 
 hounds," no skating rink, no casino ; there were quiet din- 
 ners, and very many '' Germans," but they were conducted 
 inexpensively, at the hotels almost universally. 
 
 Of course, New York and Philadelphia, Boston and 
 Washington, offered an exciting life to the prominent and 
 fashionable women of the day for a few weeks of the season. 
 But the long life at home of the rank and file, the severe 
 winters, during whose rigors the ardent and ambitious and 
 pleasure-loving were shut up for months behind four dreary 
 walls, were not illumined by patterns of artistic fancy-work 
 from South Kensington, or by the delightful knowledge 
 of china painting. No ingenious boy or girl thought of 
 cutting or carving in wood beyond the vulgar whittling, 
 which all good housekeepers condemned. The elderly lady 
 sat about with her knitting — very plain knitting at that. 
 The crochet-needle had not then begun that endless chain 
 which has since united our vast continent in a network of 
 elaborate tidies, and covered our babies with delicate flannel 
 Josies, or given us, for the head and neck, the softest of 
 wraps. The sewing-machine had not begun its prodigious 
 
150 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 marcli down our long seams. People did much "plain 
 sewing," but knew not of artistic curtains made of cheese- 
 cloth, or of unbleached muslin elaborated into Roman 
 scarfs — a singular marriage, by the way, of Lowell and its 
 looms with the Eternal City, all of which they know now. 
 
 Young ladies had not then been taught to draw and 
 paint artistically, sincerely, as they are taught to-day. The 
 education in music was infinitely less thorough. It was an 
 age when the person who aspired to the accomplishments 
 had much to contend against. There were but few rail- 
 roads which penetrated to the remote villages ; and it must 
 be confessed that life had its dull evenings. 
 
 But around the one astral lamp which then shed its 
 uncertain rays upon the family circle there were the same 
 elements of which human society is now composed, and 
 there was one amusement present whose absence we now 
 sometimes have to regret. We refer to that lost art of con- 
 versation which has, it would seem, departed from our^busy 
 last half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, it has left the 
 whole world, if we can believe Cornelius O'Dowd, Mrs. 
 Stowe, and Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and even some French 
 writers. Mrs. Stowe, in one of her books of early New 
 England life, referring to the art of conversation, speaks 
 feelingly of the change. Young ladies were driven by the 
 very dullness of their lives to be readers of good books. 
 There were many admirable historical scholars and Shake- 
 speareans among the New England girls of a past genera- 
 tion. They read Milton and John Bunyan, and the early 
 essayists and poets. Their novels had been written for 
 them by Walter Scott and Miss Austen, and they were an 
 education in themselves. 
 
 And conversation, such as we do not hear often, lighted 
 up those long winter evenings. Perhaps, too, this very 
 quiet and dullness was helping to forge the armor of some 
 heroine who was to take her part in civilizing the West.. 
 
m conclusion: 151 
 
 Certainly it made some great women. However, as we take 
 account of what little we may have lost, we are very grate- 
 ful for all we have gained. Our present civilization rubs 
 out individuality, no doubt. Life is smothered in appli- 
 ances. 
 
 What is -called the higher education of women, and the 
 very superior culture now possible, may not have yet made 
 a race of good talkers, but it has undoubtedly made an 
 army of thinkers. 
 
 It certainly has helped to fill the country with refined 
 and happy girls, who have no reason to complain of repres- 
 sion. It would seem almost impossible to find now the re- 
 pressed, morbid, undeveloped, and crushed natures which 
 a gloomy religion and a lingering of Puritan prejudice made 
 almost too common in early 'New England. Many of those 
 women still live, and have found expression in literature 
 to tell us how devoid their homes were of amusement. 
 
 The world is not filled with geniuses, or with those for- 
 tunate people who can evolve an amusing life from out of 
 the depths of their inner consciousness. We may, there- 
 fore, be very grateful for every innocent amusement. In- 
 deed, we may be very grateful that amateur concerts, little 
 operettas, cantatas, musical clubs, are now common, and 
 that the performers, young ladies of all ranks and classes, 
 are admirably trained in music ; that in decorative art in- 
 dustries they are no longer novices, but deserving of the 
 higher name of artist. 
 
 All these better developments of the mind and power of 
 each inmate can not but render home interesting, gay, 
 cheerful, happy, blessed. 
 
 And all the Home Amusements should be made, or 
 studied to be made, the amusements of the whole. 
 
 No pursuit or pleasure can be carried on in the best 
 spirit without being in some measure unselfish if it con- 
 duces to the amusement of home. Thus the indulgence of 
 
152 HOME AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 a favorite taste may have the beauty of philanthropy in it, 
 if it is made to help along the cheerfulness of home. 
 
 There are some trades which are solitary and exclusive. 
 Authorship is one of these ; and perhaps the author is not 
 always a very amusing inmate. But the actor in the pri- 
 vate play, the clever and ready wit who makes the charade 
 lively, the musician, the embroideress, the fortune-teller, 
 the good partner at whist, the clever amateur cook, and 
 the artistic member — these can all add to Home Amuse- 
 ments. 
 
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NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 Social Etiquette of New York. 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 The Yalue of Etiquette ; Introductions ; Solicitations ; Strangers in 
 Towns ; Debuts in Society ; Visiting, and Visiting Cards for Ladies ; 
 Card and Visiting Customs for Gentlemen ; Morning Receptions and Ket- 
 tle-Drums ; Giving and attending Parties, Balls, and Germans ; Dinner- 
 giving and Dining out ; Breakfasts, Luncheons, and Suppers ; Opera and 
 Theatre Parties, Private Theatricals, and Musicales ; Extended Visits ; 
 Customs and Costumes at Theatres, Concerts, and Operas (being two ad- 
 ditional chapters written for this edition) ; Etiquette of Weddings (re- 
 written, for this edition, in accordance with the latest fashionable usage) ; 
 Christenings and Birthdays ; Marriage Anniversaries ; New Year's Day 
 in New York ; Funeral Customs and Seasons of Mourning. 
 
 18mo, eloth, gilt, price, $1.00. 
 
 " This little volume contains numerous hints and suggestions, which are specially 
 serviceable to strangers, and which even people to the manner born will find interest- 
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