October 1924

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS

I APPRECIATE a great deal more than I can express the very great interest which so many of you, our loyal friends, are taking in the effort to make Better Homes and Gardens' growth as rapid as possible.

Whole Lives Are Lived In the Quiet Hours Here

The Vogue of the Dutch Colonial

This Type of American Home Well Deserves Its Popularity

Let Us Have More Pansies

IF there is one flower above another that is sure to bring a smile to the face of man, woman or child, it is the pansy. Poor Ophelia was demented when she said what she did about it, but she said the truth all the same, for the pansy does provoke thought, and pleasant thought at that.

A Woodland Garden

In Which Native Plants and Shrubs Gain in Favor

Building An Interesting Fireplace

AS the fireplace, in its most primitive form, dates back almost to the beginning of history, we are building modern ones with both the old and new materials. This gives us a great variety in form, as well as making the fireplace one of the most interesting details of our homes. The hearthstone has always been considered the natural center of the home. So today, altho we may depend on other forms of heating, we still make it the greatest point of interest in our living rooms. When well constructed it can easily combine both the useful and artistic.

Spare Which--The Rod or the Child?

SOME eight or ten years ago in a talk with a college professor who is also quite considerable of a father he put an odd question to me. "Which do you believe?" he asked. "Do you think, when a child is whipped, it should be whipped in a hot and enthusiastic anger at its misdeeds, or in a cold and calm consideration of its best interests?"

Expert Advice on Chrysanthemum Culture

HOW long have I been growing flowers?" She turned to me with a puzzled smile. "Why I have always grown them! A garden was part of my heritage. But as we grow older and wiser we find in this as in other things, we must specialize-- must intensity our culture. So, gradually, I found myself loving chrysanthemums more than other flowers.

Is It a Toadstool or a Mushroom?

A SEASON never passes that some one does not say to me, "How do you tell a mushroom from a toadstool? I like mushrooms but I am afraid to touch them for fear of getting a toadstool." This is a good question but what these people want is some easy way to distinguish a mushroom. There is only one easy way to tell. Eat it, and if it is a toadstool it will make you sick or possibly kill you. If it is a mushroom you will be fortunate in having had a good meal.

Homes of Famous Americans

I HAD just come from the Concord School of Philosophy which Louisa M. Alcott financed for her visionary father and which is located in the woods in the rear of her Orchard House. As I passed up the old Lexington Road, I was greatly intrigued by a Path leading up the steep side of the hill.

Landscaping the Irregular Lot

Wherein Problems of Planting the Long, Narrow Lot are Solved

Face Brick Is Used in This Typical Cottage

A small house you can afford to build

The Gentle Art of Draping

DRAPING is an art today; a very gentle art-- tho, perhaps, it might be better termed a science! It is, indeed, something which ought to be most assiduously studied by everyone to whom interior decorating is either a pursuit or privilege; for by the aid of expert draping, even a very commonplace home interior can acquire a delightfully decorative atmosphere.

Hyacinths In Midwinter

MY first experience trying to grow hyacinths in pots was not a success. Being told it was necessary to pot the bulbs in the fall and keep them in a dark place when the temperature would be even, neither too hot or too cold, until early spring and then gradually bring into the light and into a higher temperature, I naturally decided a dark corner of the basement would be the ideal place for my experiment.

Flowers in Winter

DAD'S PRACTICAL POINTERS

OCTOBER is the busy handy-man's month. There are storm doors and windows to put on and the screens to store away in the attic or basement. Perhaps there is some grading to do. A few outside repairs still to be attended to, should be fixed up for next month cold winds will blow.

Music For Every Home

IN almost every community of America there is a musical tragedy. It may be some gifted young musician who has longed for instruction; some young artist who has had the training but no engagements; some young person who has wasted money on the wrong instruction, or it may be some musical exile saving in the little city for the day when the doors of the bigger city shall open again.

Colorful Embroideries to Beautify Your Home

Transfer pattern, No. 160, blue, 20 cents, supplies designs for a pair of pillow cases, one case being illustrated above. It is worked in pink and pale green, flowers and leaves in lazy daisy stitches, centers, black and orange French knots, stems, green outline. Wide scallops are finished with double-fold bias binding or rickrack in color. Sufficient floss, needle and bias binding or rickrack will be supplied for 45 cents. Please state whether you wish pink, blue or lavender, also whether rickrack or bias binding. If no colors are mentioned mink will be sent. Transfer pattern 159, blue, 20 cents, gives motifs used on the cushion just below, also additional motifs for scarf to match.

Along the Garden Path

I WATCHED a bumble bee stumble thru the snapdragons in my garden last Saturday. He knew the mystery of that aloof and chaste flower! He would light on the threshold, his weight pulling open the door, then he would walk in, the flower closing up around his Falstaffian carcass.