November 1936

Let's Discuss YOUR TAXES

WITHIN a few days after you receive this copy of Better Homes & Gardens you will go to the polls to vote on some exceedingly vital issues. Nearly every cross you put in a square will have a definite bearing upon taxation, and every item of taxation has a direct or indirect bearing upon home ownership and the cost of living.

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

nov2 Outdoors this Saturday afternoon, I proceeded at cleaning up that space along the side fence at the back, spading up some of it, and so on. And there were some more perennials to be moved, in my fall-planting campaign.

IT'S News TO ME!

THE house is neat, and tonight's the night for taking some pictures indoors! Have you tried it? We think it's fun. You need very bright electric-light bulbs, called Photofloods. They cost a quarter each, fit a floor lamp, burn 2 hours. That's quite a while because you light them only for the seconds the picture is being filmed.

MARCH IN STEP WITH LIFE

BACK in 1917, a dear lad whom I knew well and loved, filled with the glorious fervor of patriotism, was determined to "get in the service." He was turned down for the infantry because of flat feet. He was turned down for the air service because of poor breathing apparatus. He was turned down for the artillery because of defective vision. What he did have-- and a drug on the market it is during war times-- was an astute and whimsically brilliant brain.

I GROW PLANTS IN Any Window

"BUT I have only north and northwest windows-- how can I grow house plants?" People ask me this time and time again.

OUR GARDEN GETS A NEW DEAL

"WHAT-- take up all those hundreds of plants and bulbs and move the garden where we can't see it!" our neighbors protested with one voice.

Another SENSATIONAL BILDCOST GARDENED HOME

YOU'VE already seen our suggested solution of the problem of the absolute minimum cost of building a home which will provide the necessary area for proper utility and comfort but which has the minimum of waste space. Illustrations of this house and explanations appeared on pages 13, 14, and 15 of last month's Better Homes & Gardens.

SUN FOR THE BUSY BASEMENT

DUNGEON days are done. There was a time when basements were habitually as dark as they were large. Besides being dismal they were lazy, too. But now the modern family, with its diversified activities, demands usage from every inch of the house. However, it's one thing to rouse the basement from its Rip Van Winkle slumber; it's quite another to keep it up-and-going in useful pursuits.

Tied TO THE OUT-OF-DOORS

ROUNDING a curve in a winding street one comes upon this modest California house, and at first glance its charm goes straight to the heart of even the most casual observer.

THE SMOKE GOES UP THE CHIMNEY

Looking for All the World Like Upholstery

THE minute I entered the room my hostess apologized: "I'm so ashamed of the old suite. I know it's shabby, but it costs almost as much to have a set slip-covered as to have it re- upholstered, and I'm just afraid to tackle it myself."

THE Question BEFORE THE HOUSE

WE PLAN to build immediately and wish air-conditioning but cannot afford it at present. Can we make provision for a later installation?

A Dog's Life

HAD to collaborate with my dog Sandy to do this story. So much of it is biographical that, could he but type, I would have asked him to write it entirely on his own.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

After an exhausting after-supper session with the tots I sank into a chair and tried to work on their sympathy.

November's Four High Spots

DO YOU who belong to America's clubs realize that you're a part not only of your individual groups of fifty or a hundred members, but of a vast movement, thousands strong, marching across our country?

Marigolds Lose B.O.

FOR the first time in horticultural history, the lowly marigold, one of America's easiest-to-grow annuals, is ready to bid for recognition among the "social set" of flowers.

WE WINTER A Garden Circus

NO NEED to ballyhoo the fun of winter window-gardening if you've ever tried it yourself. But many haven't, so I'm up on the box with my megaphone crying, "Hurry! Hurry! See the strange plant that moves like an animal! Hurry! Hurry!" For you can get as much excitement from the strange pets you winter on your window 'sill as any three-ring circus can provide.

A Visit With the Van Loons

OUR first invitation to visit Dr. and Mrs. Hendrick Willem Van Loon, Better Homes & Gardens readers, was scribbled on a card which Doctor Van Loon handed us one day in Amsterdam, Holland. It was a sketch of a frying pan with an egg sizzling, a picture of a clock with the hands pointing to noon, and a date scrawled hastily.

Little Things Count

NO TWO mailboxes in your block need be alike; in fact, the more extraordinary your box, so long as it doesn't draw undue attention to itself, the more you can enjoy the possession, but do tie it in with your house.

Highlights IN THE COLONIAL KITCHEN

IN THE Colonial or early- period home an old-fashioned kitchen with its rack of brightly shining kettles is in vogue again. The glow of copper and the sheen of aluminum and steel not only add decorative charm to kitchen furnishings, but the arrangement is of practical service value as well.

WHEN DO WE EAT?

"WHEN do we eat?" It's the war cry of many a man. The children coming home from school want a lunch.

Perfection ON THE PLATTER

CRUSTILY plump and golden, just right for the carver's knife, breaking apart at the touch of a fork, and still oozing rich and savory juices-- that's the theme of the artist and the prayer of the hostess in this pre-holiday season.

None Too Neat

RESOLUTE souls, who from time to time gladden my heart by reporting that they've followed the child care and training department since its beginning in Setter Homes & Gardens, may or may not have noticed that tho many subjects have been treated here, one has been left pretty severely alone-- that of teaching children to be orderly.

Not Too Late to Make Them

LAST January we resolved to start whittling right away on next December's demands, but now just look at that calendar with the merry mad scramble still ahead! That makes clever needlecraft, where every stitch is made to count, most welcome news.

How to Bind

ARE you one of those people who can never find the particular copy of Better Homes & Gardens that contains that special article about the one and only subject in which you're just now vitally interested? If so, you aren't alone in this difficulty, for good magazines are hard to keep unless bound together, and the one you want is frequently the one missing.

A Family "Memo" That's Important

AN ELDERLY widow whose husband died three years ago recently came to the end of her resources and was about to go to a charitable institution. A member of the staff called on her. Among the few keepsakes she wished to take with her was an old life-insurance policy. As she held it up she said, "If only my husband had been able to keep this going, I mightn't be in this fix today."

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

THE kindergarten, graced by the presence of my 5-year- old son, spent some time recently dictating "poems." Out of this exercise emerged a profound bit which I shall pass on for your edification: