November 1937

ACROSS THE Editor's DESK

The Picture on the Cover: It's with pleasure that we pay tribute this month to the heart's treasure of any home lucky enough to claim a member of the newest American generation, which Gladys Denny Shultz, Better Homes & Gardens' child-training director, says comes larger and better than ever before. We like the sample shown here, certainly. It occurs to us that with the soapsuds frosting removed, and garnished tastefully with clothing, he could be offered as the best reason in the world why the United States should give thanks this Thanksgiving Day month.

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

nov. 2 Our mailman brought a long box today, the first order of my fall roses. Says I to Maggie, "Here's your present." Says she, "What present?" Says I to Maggie, "Why, it's a combination wedding-anniversary present I didn't get bought on September 24 and a birthday present for you for tomorrow." Says Maggie-- nothing. I'm afraid my plan won't work. The ground was too wet for planting, even too wet for heeling in, and I left home tonight on a trip, so I left the roses in the box without unpacking.

IT'S News TO ME!

1 To drape your glass curtains back in neat pleats, avoiding any bunched effect, the metal portion of the hold-back fixture (Sketch 1) which is nearest the window is corrugated its whole 6 inches across. The surface which you see is a glass bar in flower design, in crystal, blue, amber, green, or rose. [No. 10688, 90 cents a pair in stores; Kirsch Co., Sturgis, Mich.]

Rearrange-itis

RECENTLY an actress named Mayo Methot was granted a divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty. According to the newspapers, she claimed that her husband wouldn't allow her to rearrange the furniture in their home.

MY Window Garden BLOOMS ALL WINTER

THIS is the tale of an indoor garden that needn't be raised at all but will just grow-- like-Topsy. Not only will it grow rampantly in any suburban living-room for anyone, but it will bloom from October to May.

A Greenhouse LENDS A HELPING HAND

EVERY so often someone takes a tip from the florist and goes semi-professional in his gardening methods. That's what happened to Edgar W. Anthony, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, when he built this lean-to greenhouse a few years ago.

THE LIVING EARTH

SUPPOSE you extracted every living root, bulb, and rhizome from your garden soil this autumn, and suppose you could detect and pick out every seed from the pebbles and sand-grains they simulate; would the earth then be lifeless?

A HOME THAT LIVES OUT-OF-DOORS

IF PROSPECTIVE home-owners or home-builders would only search long enough, what delightful locations they could sometimes find for their new homes! Few, however, could hope to equal the building site discovered by Mr. and Mrs. A. E. McLinn, Better Homes & Gardens readers, for their home near Van Nuys, California. Located on a knoll which projects from the northern edge of the Santa Monica Mountains, it commands a marvelous view of the broad San Fernando Valley, with its background of lofty mountains and rugged peaks.

Colonial Cottages in new fersey

EXCEPT for the materials used, this design is somewhat reminiscent of the houses on Cape Cod. The Cape Cod house was usually built of gray shingles, but this is of concrete block, plastered with cement mortar on the outside, and whitewashed. The gable ends are of clapboard, painted white; the roof is shingled. The front door frame, altho slightly ornamented with some carving, is very simple.

SHELTERS

Catch the Mood of your Windows

THERE ought to be a law covering crimes against windows. Say, 20 years for building a window too big or small, or placing it in an absurd location, and certainly decapitation for draping any window atrociously when the stores are full' of lovely materials, and magazines, decorators, and drapery clerks are running over with expert advice to be had for the asking.

ARE THESE Your ROOM PROBLEMS?

Too Many Windows and Doors? No doubt about it-- an architect who'd plan such a room should be shot. But if you've one such, here's a clever solution:

YOU'D SWEAR THEY WERE Modern

They Tied It All Together

I MUST have passed this old house in Darien, Connecticut, a good many times before Mr. and Mrs. William F. Batten bought and transformed it.

HERE'S YOUR TICKET TO THANKSGIVING AND "DAY-AFTER" meals

GATHER the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." It's a skimpy feast if there isn't plenty left. Usually great leftovers imply extravagance, thoughtless buying; but not on Thanksgiving, our national holiday of "great too much." It's the celebration of a land of plenty-- plenty of space, plenty of food, plenty of family. So let the turkey be ample, that after second and third helpings all around there's still a meal or two on his frame.

Baby's thankful, too

NEVER in history has there been a better time to be born than now-- at least so far as early life is concerned. Never has earth witnessed such a blooming, happy, flourishing crop of babies as that which is amusing itself this November in the playpens of the nation.

ANOTHER OLD KITCHEN GOES Modern

"ALL this came about because we bought a new range just before we bought this old home," my hostess explained, as she swung open the door into a kitchen that was new and modern from floor to ceiling. "As soon as I saw my gleaming, businesslike range coming thru the door, I knew that things had to be done to the kitchen-- and that it was no kitchen for half measures."

BARBARA COOKS FOR fun

"HOW does it feel to be a famous cook?" That, I decided as I rode across town, would be the first question I'd ask small Barbara Jenkins, youthful kitchen wizard and toast of Denver, Colorado, her home town. A few minutes early, I watched a woman and little girl come up the street. Brown curls bobbed back and forth as the little girl, clad in green and white print with short green socks, skipped along by her mother's side.

BUILT-IN Country Comfort

IN PLANNING this house, I have in mind a fairly spacious lot sloping gently toward the rear, such as is often found in small cities and in the suburbs of our larger cities.

Dogs TO ORDER

"SNOOTY" is a Peke, and all wool, but far from a yard wide; in fact, he's only 6 inches long and built to true Pekingese specifications, even to his grand plume tail that stands so proudly on its pipe- cleaner foundation. Definitely a lady's dog, we'll send him in white unless you prefer a pastel-- peach, orchid, pink, or the like.

THE Question BEFORE THE HOUSE

Two methods, either of which is economical and effective, are used for applying an attractive weatherproof finish to concrete walls. Portland-cement stucco applied in three coats according to standard practice familiar to any reliable stucco contractor will give a weatherproof concrete masonry wall in a wide choice of colors and surface textures.

RECIPE FOR Writing Menus

WE WERE at breakfast when my dusky, bare-footed maid-of-all-work entered, and announced in Spanish, "Dona, there wasn't any tongue at the market." A simple declarative sentence, yet it was stark tragedy at the time. After you've lived away from your native land, and have eaten fried rice and stewed beans twice a day over a period of years, you'll reach the state where if you don't live to eat, at least you live for the time when you hope to eat the thing you're fondest of.

THE Taxes We Add!

A FEW months ago, Preston F., a neighbor of mine, paid a luxury tax which won't occur again in his family. As he has told all his friends about it, I'm free to condense his story. "Dr. J. sent me a bill for $6," he explained, "for a single call on Helen. His usual fee for a house visit being $3, I called him to ask about it.

Hold THAT HEAT!

HOME insulation has outgrown its swaddling clothes.

MAKE THE MOST OF CORNERS

ONCE upon a time corners were positions of disgrace, bare and desolate, as tho waiting for a naughty child. But with better or perhaps fewer children, the modern mother no longer reserves them for moments of discipline. She's discovered that corners can provide the unexpected touch, the element of piquancy that contributes so much to the homelike atmosphere that "makes" a room.

Bouquets FROM THE RADSIDE

WHEN frost takes the garden flowers we turn to the roadside for bouquets. Tho we may find but weeds, they, by their interesting variation in form and pod, offer endless decorative possibilities....

NUTS CRACK KNOTTY PROBLEMS

THE delectable nutmeat has for years frivoled at the end of engraved dinner menus, and there may it continue! But it's not to be reserved for tails and décolletés. The nutmeat is as much a part of the light lunch or economical one-dish meal; in fact, the plainer the food, the more can be expected from the nutmeat.

Lace net Curtains add Glamour to your Dining Room

SINCE the beginning of civilization, dining has been attended by a certain degree of ceremony. Although our early forebears found their fingers more serviceable than forks, drank from a single tankard and shared a common trencher of meat, their meals held far more significance than the mere consumption of food.

French Cottage

THIS Better Homes & Gardens Bildcost Gardened Home of Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Dougherty, Wichita, Kansas, was designed by Bildcost Architect Frank Wallis and photographed by Edgar B. Smith. The house was completed in June, 1936.

HOW TO GET YOUR GARDEN READY FOR Winter

WE TALK freely these days of insulating and air-conditioning our homes, but garden-makers point with pride to the many years they've insulated and air-conditioned their gardens from wintery blasts.

We Buy a Puppy

IN THE excitement of choosing a pup we'd hardly given a thought to its future care and training. But now that we had Sally we discovered that she did have to eat-- even as you and I.

Stuffing vs. Dressing

Cooks' Round Table of Endorsed Recipes

AS USUAL, two Cooks' Round Table Recipe subjects for the contest recipes that will be announced in April, 1938. If you're the just right age, you'll say, "Let's have one for Chocolate Cake Recipes." April's the best time for egg recipes, too. Let's have our cake and our eggs, too. Five dollars to the winner for either a chocolate-cake recipe or an egg recipe. The cake may be chocolate all the way thru, or just part chocolate.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

There's no season like autumn to bring home the realization that life is short, life is fleeting, and you must begin now to do next year the things you forgot to do last year.

WHEN YOU Talk Building

Damp-Proofing-- Mixing into the foundation walls or painting the outside or inside foundation walls with a waterproofing material to prevent water seepage from the outside.

A Horse Is Known by the Teeth He Keeps

Bound TO BE Gay

BOOKS as things of beauty have definitely arrived. No more relegating them to a musty library or back-hall bookcase. They perch proudly on the mantel shelf, peep invitingly from the corner cupboard, squat possessively in their own little fireside niche.

All But the Squeal!

'Ten-shun! Clubs!

ALONG THE Garden Path

Do YOU remember a series of advertisements, some years ago, in which various mournful characters were shown grabbing the small of the back and registering discomfort? They looked the way some of us feel after the first day of hard digging in early spring.