February 1934

A Frank Talk With You

THE usual title of this page, "Across the Editor's Desk," is omitted this month because I want to tell you of a business detail of our very pleasant relationship.

NEWS

"I HAVE no hesitancy in predicting that developments in the realms of the physical sciences, discovery, and invention will be even greater in the years to come.

IT'S news TO ME!

From the Vermont hills-- and simply delicious! We lifted the lid to find this log cabin neatly filled with pure maplesugar hearts. A new process makes them firm for handling, yet creamy and smooth. Maple-sugar flavor inspires my February entertaining: for a Lincoln's Birthday luncheon table, ecru (or unbleached muslin) cloth, set with pottery, and a cabin at either end, to be opened later and the sweets served for dessert.

Up and Over-- a dozen at a time

"SEE Like this.... there you are! "Now let's see you take the other pan. "That's the ticket. Just one perch is a bit askew. But you are improving."

The All-American Team of 1934 Annuals

EVEN as football players become All-American stars each year, so also scores of flower candidates annually parade before ten judges, and out of their combined opinions this great All-American Team of flowers is selected and may be grown thru many years to come.

Tell All About Floors

MY WIFE and I wanted to get all possible information about floors so we could decide just what we really wanted.

Light

LIGHT! A candle blown by the wind, flickering, stabbing the darkness in some wilderness hut. The bright lights of Broadway. The comforting beacons of light that guide the ships of the sea and the air. What is it?

Curtain Makings New and Smart!

THE Blessed Adventurers

ONE of the chief worries of parents is that Johnny and Susie will put something into their mouths that they should not, yet men and women thruout the ages have not departed from their childish ways in regard to putting things into their mouths.

It's Perfect

NESTLING low to the ground, among luxurious growths of semitropical plants and evergreen trees, the sun glistening on its plastered walls and rugged, colorful tile roof, this beautiful gardened home is a picture of enduring comfort and serene loveliness.

The Cost to Build This Gardened Home

A City Plan Protects Your Home

"WE want our homes protected." The speaker stood before a city-planning commission in a typical American city. With him were other men and women of the same mind-- some of them of moderate means, others obviously of wealthier station.

Is There a CWA Project in Your City?

Sturdy Youngsters Guaranteed

MARIETTA sat at the small table in the nursery school and chewed and chewed. Fascinated, we watched her, a pretty child but with such pitifully thin arms and legs, while she chewed away on one mouthful of gelatine pudding, chewing the harder whenever she became conscious that anyone was looking her way.

Each Cutting Job needs its Special Knife

JANE had been a school-teacher before she settled into a new four-rooms-and-bath in the suburbs. I spent a week-end with her recently in this attractively furnished home. In the living-room comfortable chairs, conveniently placed lights, and little tables offered gracious hospitality. Such a lovely place, I thought to myself, so new and shining.

We All Stop at a Sundial

"A SUNDIAL," I explain to earnest little visitors to our garden, "is a sun-clock, only it has a shadow for hands." Alert small boys usually trace the shadow's edge with inquiring forefingers. They scowl at the sun. But a sundial, I should judge, is a pleasant, calm sort of mystery to this youngest generation whose bedtime stories come by radio.

THE GARDEN Melting Pot

ONCE upon a time I heard this conversation:

Magic under the Snow

"HOW'S your garden today?"-- my neighbor hailed me gayly as I was on my way to the skating pond.

They're Spiny--But Beautiful

A SPANISH explorer of the time of Coronado was plodding across the Mexican desert on his way back from the mythical land of gold, when his moody eye chanced to fall upon a beautiful flower set in the midst of a spiny cactus.

Enter Now!

YES we're going to have a big, new 1934 Better Homes Contest! And you'll want to enter it at once. Better Homes & Gardens will give $3,000 in 116 cash prizes to the families that best increase the comfort, beauty, and convenience of their homes this year.

Life Stories

YOU may remember the day about seventeen years ago when Jeanette Rankin, our first Congresswoman, stood in the halls of Congress and with tears streaming down her face said, "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war."

Backgrounds

THE TUGWELL BILL AND YOU

PROFESSOR REXFORD GUY TUGWELL, versed in theories but lacking practical experience, has suddenly become the exponent of an autocratic philosophy of government, thru his active sponsorship of a dangerous bill with a smooth title.

The Diary of a Plain Dirt Gardener

Feb. 4 My trail this Saturday afternoon led me to the little town of Lithopolis, and there we stopped to see the famous Wagnalls Memorial Library, built by his daughter as a memorial to the founder of a great publishing house.

Why I Belong to a Club

I ASKED twelve women, interesting women all of them and intelligent, too, the question, "Why do you belong to a club?"

Rules of the 1934 Better Homes Contest

1. The Better Homes Contest begins January 1, 1934, and ends December 31, 1934. The work must be begun and finished within that period. Photographs and a 300-word letter describing the improvements you make must be mailed in an envelope which bears a postmark not later than midnight, December 31, 1934.

THE FASCINATION OF THE EVERYDAY

ON THE banks of a little stream at the foot of Sapo Hill, near Rome, early in the first century A.D., soap is thought to have been discovered by the women of Rome as they washed their clothes in the water.

Winners of First 100 Recipe Endorsements

"I WANT to thank you so much for the Certificate of Endorsement on my recipe for 'Divinity Lemon Pie.' I am so proud of it that I had it framed and it hangs in my kitchen."

Pop Pop!

I Like to Tinker

GIVE me a portable radio at the other end of the workbench, an assortment of "hopelessly ruined" objects, and I am completely happy. I am prepared to do magic-- tinker, mend, patch, fix up household cripples.

How To Get AHEAD

"TO GET AHEAD, spend a little less than you earn; a little less spent means much more happiness, a little more spent means trouble"-- so said E. T. Meredith, founder of Better Homes & Gardens, to me years ago.

Article

Along the Garden Path

GARDENS have ever been symbols of beauty and places of quiet contemplation. The writings of the earliest historians abound in descriptions and sincere appreciations of gardens.