December 1934

Across the Editor's Desk

THE cover painting this month is by Seymour Snyder, who also did our October cover. Back of the cheerful fireplace, which radiates warmth of a happy Christmas season, is a little story. Do you wish to look back of the scenes? Here are some of the circumstances surrounding the painting of the picture:

IT'S news TO ME!

Alfred Hottes sprayed his evergreens to remove soot. He used metaphosphate flakes, commercially packaged, and a little soap, in water. This spray turns soot to a jelly-like mass which clear water rinses.

"Jerusalem, the Golden.--"

WHEN I walked thru the Haifa Gate into Jerusalem I realized that I had stepped back several centuries, for within the rambling old walls of the Holy City things for the most part are as they were many centuries ago.

Home-Furnishings Notes For Santa!

The Romance of Paper

ALL of human history merely sung from one generation to the next! The Garden of Eden, The Flood, Man's progress from the very beginning only hearsay or vaguely pictured in symbolic characters, weirdly prisoned on rocks or tablets of clay! Time eternally whirling on and on, bringing at least efforts at communication, as one Era wrote to the next with strange letters scratched or chiseled upon metal plates-- brass, copper, lead! And Christianity's gift to all coming Civilization saved for a waiting, eager world-- on the skins of animals!

These Gay Green Vines

I COULDN'T be without my begonia and geranium, or the brave aspidistra which has lingered thru many a dark cold winter with me, but I know if I were asked which are my favorite house plants I'd say without a moment's hesitation, "Gay green vines!" Gay green vines, bubbling with sheer exuberance over the window sill and up to the highest curtain rods, amazingly friendly vines with astonishing flowers and the most captivating leaves I have ever come across!

Your Fireside and Garden Path

WHAT a treasure is a home of your own! Every night to come back to it, seeing its sturdy walls and roof and its enframing of trees and shrubs, gathering charm with the years-- that is the most enduring pleasure a man may have. Into such a home is built not only sentiment but a consciousness of a strength of purpose-- the idealization of a life's dearest ambitions, for the holiest passions of life are unconsciously woven into the very pattern and fabric of it.

Beautiful and Comfortable

THE home of C. H. Gutermuth of Louisville, Kentucky, was a very ugly one indeed. However, Stratton O. Hammon, the architect called in to remodel it, appreciated that a few simple changes would serve to bring out the shape of the building, which was perfectly satisfactory in itself. The clumsy overhanging roof was cut back to the wall lines and finished with a simple molded treatment. The heavy dormer on the front of the house was cut off and two smaller dormers substituted.

The Question Before the House

There are two ways: one is to dig to the base of the foundation and lay drain tile, with an outlet to the storm sewer; the other is to build up a good terrace about the house, tamping it down well, and planting grass. This latter way forces surface water away from the wall so that only the small amount which finds its way into the ground may attempt to seep into the cellar.

Make Way for Saint Nick

THERE is a road we know of going north, a little road, elusive, mysterious, with woods on either side. In summer it is grass-grown and shady; in winter the snow levels the tracks and makes one soft, white expanse. Where it goes or how far it goes we cannot surely say, but we know what we think that-- it continues on and on, clear up to the North Pole and Santa Claus' house.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

The weather today was like Dec. 5 summer, so that I could work out until after dark in my shirt sleeves-- possibly the warmest December 5 in history. So I moved some roses that were where they were being crowded and put them into the big rose bed to fill some vacant spots.

"Gardener Harold L. Ickes

Mrs. Hawkins Shares Her Oklahoma Garden

HER eyes sought and begged beauty as she rode beside her husband, viewing the packed, rocky clay of one Oklahoma oil field after another. But. such natural beauty, if indeed it had ever existed, had been blighted with greasy black baptism.

Bind Your Copies

IF ALL readers of Better Homes & Gardens think as much of the magazine as I do, then I am sure the following method of home-binding their precious copies will be hailed with delight. I bind six issues at a time and turn out almost as finished a volume as any bookbinder.

Easy upkeep VS HARD LABOR

Another Prize Winner!

The $3,000 Better Homes Contest Closes December 31

Much Ado About Christmas

A CLATTER of voices, hurrying footsteps, and the front door flies open. In rushes what looks to be two piles of walking underbrush. Beneath it are legs that belong to the Markham twins, Marshall and Mary. Plop! Into the middle of the orderly livingroom floor they drop their armloads of berried greenery.

Get These Candy Recipes FOR CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS is the great candy-making time in the gardened home. To prepare for holiday festivities you'll want Better Homes & Gardens' leaflet No. B-F-7, "42 Candy Recipes." It is just 4 cents.

How to Carve It

STAND up to carve if you can do the job better-- it is done in the best circles. Place the turkey with neck to the left, hold in place by inserting carving fork firmly in breast of turkey, the tines astride the breast bone just behind the point. Carve side nearest you first.

ALONG THE Garden Path

ONCE again thruout the Christian world it's Christmas-- the season of giving, of religious services, woodland greens, and candles aglow. There are legends, stories, and historic anecdotes associated with Christmas in each land. According to the practices in our childhood, each of us is inspired to think of Christmas as meaning something quite different and distinct from our neighbor.