July 1933

Across the Editor's Desk

WHEN the superintendent of the waterworks in a mediumsized middlewestern city becomes such an outstanding citizen that his passing is noted in a great and distant metropolitan paper, in what is known as "tophead" story, you may know that he was truly a national figure.

It's News to Me!

NICK says it was his father who taught him never to refuse a proffered dish at table. "Some days you want more, some days you want less, but always you want some," his father would say. I'm that way about hot water in homekeeping-- always I want "some."

Family Fun

"GOOD SHOT, Daddy," says 12year-old sister. "That's your game." "Time out!" says mother, "while I turn down the fire under the potroast The winner of the next set may pick the dessert for tomorrow."

Lifeblood of the World

BACK in the days of the Old Oaken Bucket our forefathers had a saying, "You never miss the water till the well runs dry."

Minutes for Meals

I DASH into the kitchen, and into a smock, with one eye glued to the clock, listening for a step on the front porch. The table is all set, thank goodness!-- a trick I learned from my neighbor. I had set it before going to the afternoon club meeting.

Phlox for Summer Gayety

AMONG our showy garden flowers there is none more truly American than the phlox. Like the American Indian, it is a genuine native. The wild Blue Phlox, or wild-sweetwilliam, like the Red Man, greeted our European ancestors when they first set foot on our soil, but the possibilities of this common North American flower of the woods and prairies were not appreciated until Mr. Drummond of Glasgow, Scotland, came to this country about one hundred years ago to collect seeds and plants for the Botanical Society of Glasgow.

We Had a Lot of Fun Doing It Over!

OUR bedroom is large, exposed on the north, east, and west; it is well lighted by large casement windows, and at one end by French doors. The walls and ceiling were calcimined over rough plaster and the cream-colored paint on the woodwork was badly worn and chipped.

From Start to Finish

ONE day I ran across a catalog of water gardens containing really fascinating illustrations of waterlilies and fish. A particularly lovely picture of the sacred lotus of the Nile, which would grow in any pool, decided our fate.

Trim as a Clipper Ship

HARDLY two miles from the statehouse in Boston, and only a stone's throw from one of the busiest streets in Brookline, Massachusetts, is this gardened home of Maurice A. Dunlavy on Gardner Path, a footpath reached from the street below by stone steps and rough board walk flanked by shade trees meeting overhead.

It's Fun to Furnish Gardens

WHAT can we do that is fun in July? Why not visit gardens this month? Be sure to take along your sketch pads, pencils, and garden notebooks. We are going to see who can discover the most interesting things in a garden besides its plants.

Solving the Great Lupine Mystery

SOME wag has said that to grow lupines successfully was no mere cultural success, but an act of God: you either had them, or you didn't. There was nothing you could do to insure success, and failure was no stricture on one's gardening skill. After trying patiently for years to grow these lovely floral candles, thousands of gardeners were forced to agree with him.

These Make a Lot of Difference

REFRIGERATORS, like children, respond promptly and satisfyingly to intelligent treatment. Is your refrigerator giving you a full measure of service? Is it orderly? Does it yield its contents willingly?

Let Him Suck His Thumb!

NOT long ago an interested group of honorary "aunties" watched a nurse prepare one of the finest of our Better Homes and Gardens babies for his formal introduction to his mother.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Meet my two old July pests, the Chinese twin garden gods who punish me for my sins. They dropped in on me today and, doggone it, they're likely to stay. The one that gives me a pain in the neck is Mow and the one that gives me a pain in the back is Hoe. Yes, sir, I mowed the lawn and the garden paths and then hoed.

Three Chairs for Your Yard

The Miracle of the Match

SLOWLY... ever so slowly... the savages coaxed fire from their crude implements. As the dry stick was twirled in its notch, the friction caused heat. Then followed a smoky, smouldering combustion and... FLAME!

FOR BABIES ONLY

This is the way to--Make Mayonnaise

Your Home Service Bureau

DINNERS these hot days should be cool, appetizing, and easy to prepare. Send for the Better Homes & Gardens booklet "Thirty Plate Dinners for Summer Evenings" and delight your family, and yourself, with a succession of attractive plate dinners which take a minimum of preparation. These are the kind of dinners you can serve on the porch, or in the garden, if you like.

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

FAR at the end of many a garden, away from this world of rush and fretting, there is a pool, be it ever so tiny, yet it holds within it the best antidote for the haste, hurry, and pother of life. On its surface float silent and lovely and beneficent, spirits which we call waterlilies.