October 1938

Tattle Tales

WHEN Ray Giles set out to write a book on sleep [Sleep! for Greater Power and Achievement, Bobbs-Merrill, $1.75], he thought it would be difficult to throw 50,000 words together, so little had been done previously in gathering the facts about life's third most interesting subject (1. Food; 2. Love).

Like a friendly handclasp

THE DIARY of a Plain Dirt Gardener

This bright late afternoon, out in overalls, I had my notebook along and gave myself a lesson in what the la-de-da gardeners call antirrhinums, but which in plain-dirt-gardener language are known as snapdragons. Mine right now are in fine bloom.

It's News to Me!

Now hybrid flowering crabs, white in spring with bloom, give highly edible autumn fruit for the jelly shelf! University of South Dakota's Dr. N. E. Hansen has crossed the hardiest Siberian crab apples with our own types, explains Alfred Hottes. One is the Dolga Crab. [5 to 6 foot, $2.50, Harlan P. Kelsey, Inc., East Boxford, Mass.]

Profit in Your Possessions

MOST PEOPLE, particularly young people just starting out in married life, need to work out for themselves a well-defined philosophy with respect to possessions.

Truly Yours

THERE'S something about a smartly designed monogram that gives a lift to whatever it's on. Perhaps it's that "all our own" look that magically makes the simplest things elegant, the fine pieces positively luxurious. Anyway, it's good news that monograms are just as popular as ever and are turning up all over the country in a host of clever new styles.

Bosom Companions for Bulbs

PERHAPS when you sat down last winter to think of better combinations for your garden, you searched the catalogs and wondered whether the Valentin Tulip after all is the proper color to go well with the Alyssum Basket of Gold, and whether the effect would be heightened by edging it with English Daisies.

Make War on the Weather!

WHEN the snow's on, you can tell an uninsulated house a mile away. The roof betrays it.

Rolling Hill

"WITH the children all gone the house seems so huge!" Doctor Holbrook and I so often had heard this lament from our friends, as big homes, with a room for each child, gradually emptied as each young member set out for himself, leaving parents with too many rooms, too much loneliness.

Indoor GARDENING GUIDE

AS WE near the autumnal revel in crimson and tawny leaves, purple asters, and goldenrod, a swift, cold day brings warning that our indoor gardens must be ready to serve as cheery substitutes for spring and summer bloom. While our indoor gardens may not be things of beauty like those outside, they'll seem lovely because it's winter and all outdoors is drab. Like pets, they're our handiwork, grown from a mere leaf or cutting, or rejuvenated from an old plant. In September we prepared ourselves with those essentials to a successful indoor garden-- rich, loamy soil, clean containers, and convenient tools.

Outdoor GARDENING GUIDE

OCTOBER-- what memory-pictures and sensations it gives us! Indian Summer, autumn color-- frosts-- falling leaves-- the last blooms-- plants going to seed-- and finally the silhouette of bare branches, some with bright-colored bark, others with colored fruits.

Colleges for Canines

MOST of the 13 million dogs in America have bad manners. This, however, is not the fault of the dogs, but of their owners; and the owners and their friends, provoked by muddy paws, yapping, and disobedience, have begun to do something about it.

Something Old Something New!

IN EVERY whitewashed brick and gay cornice of this cheerful and compact home in Washington Park, Seattle, there's a match for the sunshine, color, and laughter of its happy family; and that's just as a house should be.

Concrete Example of a DREAM HOUSE

POSSIBLY there's one home-builder in a thousand who doesn't want modern step-saving convenience and intimate comfort built into every room and passageway of a house.

Make a Welsh Dresser-- and a Chair

THE sight of a shining hammer and saw, to say nothing of the smell of new lumber, had always given me the urge to build something.

From Three Little Rooms

AGAINST the background of Temple Hills, where they look down majestically upon the Pacific Ocean and Laguna Beach, California, you'll find this inviting little home of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey S. Abbott.

Three R's NEW STYLE

"AND now it's a tutor for Jerry!" Mrs. Smith lamented. "He's having a terrible time with his reading-- can't seem to get it at all."

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Not long after Labor Day the b. w. begins to talk about starting the heating plant and I always look at last winter's fuel bills, and remind her of the lovely Indian summer that's coming.

Sleeping Recipes For Better Homes & Bedrooms

DISCUSS sleep with architects. Or sound out furniture dealers and interior decorators on the subject.

Whims & Hobbies

When Mrs. Kathryn Church, of Santa Barbara, California, has guests for dinner she asks them to sign their names on a fine white linen tablecloth (used on the table when the family has guests). She then embroiders the names in white before the cloth goes to the laundry.

WHAT NOW, Gourd Grower?

THIS is the season when otherwise nice men and women ruin the gourds it has taken them all spring and summer to grow. They did have such high hopes for them too, because just everybody now is ornamenting the house with them or cutting them into birdhouses and dippers and spoons and water bottles and things like that.

The Picture on the Cover

Light-as-a-Feather

It's the most deliriously tantalizing aroma in all the realm of smells --the spice-laden whiff that emanates from the kitchen when gingerbread comes all dark and moist, rich and crusty from the oven. It stacks up as reason No. 1 why young folks don't leave home but linger hungrily at the kitchen door for that first warm slice of goodness.

Ask Me Another!

Q. In our new home we're enameling the woodwork a light ivory. Will it be all right to leave the doors dark? I've two small children who leave finger marks wherever they go and I want to avoid unnecessary cleaning.

HERE'S AN Idea!

RE-DOING the youngster's bedroom? Fixing up the kitchen? Generally brightening your home? Or do you just wish you could-- but shudder at decorators' prices?

Don't Furnish in HASTE

"BARGAIN SALE! Everything cut to the bone!" How tempting that sounds if you're just at the point of furnishing a new home or refurnishing an old one! But hold everything.

COLOR in the kitchen

Tips on LAWN CARE

IF ALL the dollars spent on lawns in America were put end to end, we have no idea how far they'd extend. But lay down the dollars wasted by false starts, patch jobs, and failure to observe simple rules, and they'd make a bright green strip across the country.

"She ain't what she used to be"

Trim Limbs This Way

Annuities Can Be Flexible

MOST of us are familiar with the annuity which offers a fixed income for life. But during the past few years another type of immediate annuity has come into existence. Let's see why Paul B., a businessman who retired early in 1936, decided to divide his annuity funds between the old nonparticipating and the new participating annuities.

Gardeners North

Along the Garden Path

NOT long ago I ran across a photograph of a tulip garden in which 52,000 bulbs, flanked by thickets of azaleas and dogwoods, marched to glory. Such an exhibition-- obviously beyond the dreams of average-- couldn't fail to be a knock-out.