A Friendship Cushion

Is divided by black lines into squares a few inches across, and tilled in to suit the taste of each worker.

Japanese quilt, described under chapter on screens, makes a handsome chair or sofa cushion, especially so with a diagonal band of plush across it.

Odds And Ends

There is just now a great fancy for the old-fashioned flax wheel with a tuft of flax tied to the spindle with ribbons. It is certainly a picturesque object, and very suggestive of the old and charming industry by which our grandmothers furnished their linen closets with the excellent material of which stray table-cloths and tray-cloths come down as heirlooms. We have seen a tiny wheel gilded. It was very pretty, but somewhat theatrical.

Cabinets

Are the rage at present. We saw one lately which had adorned a garret for years. It now occupies the place of honor between the front windows in a handsome house. It has been ebonized, to be sure, and the panels of the doors gilded, and a border in brown and gold painted across the top of each panel; but the old thing seems puzzled to find itself once more "the top shelf," and seems to consider itself an illustration of the ups and downs in this world.

From Nuremburg have come countless old treasures of this sort. We think perhaps the old and dusty city parts gladly with some of its age and general mustiness, and replaces the old things with new. We Americans, in our newness, are equally charmed to acquire things which were old one hundred years ago. Many fine old cabinets come from Holland, and Italy gives up many treasures to the hordes of Americans who come armed with the invincible dollar.

Hall Benches

Beautiful inlaid hall benches come in great numbers from Milan, Genoa, and Florence. We have heard of three within as many weeks coming to the West. All along the Hudson River there are treasures of old Dutch work to be seen, claw-footed "breeches," a sort of buffet and stout-backed old chairs in mahogany. Once upon a time the garret of one of the old Dutch houses in Albany gave up its own, and the rush of curiosity seekers was immense. The South is now considered a promising field for the old furniture buyer. We have seen a handsome, old-fashioned mahogany sideboard brought from there, which was of use and beauty far beyond the narrow, "high shouldered" things we are accustomed to see.

Be Original!

It is a pity that every man and woman in furnishing a house cannot work after the fashion of " The Chambered Nautilus," making their own house and furniture, or at least having it made, after their own needs and notions. This originality is the great charm of the antique.

The furniture was not turned out by the thousand, but each piece was constructed either to fill an order or all "out of the carver's brain," so that to this, to any day, the charm of human expression hangs about the work.

I think the rage for the antique in furniture, so far as it is a fashion, will pass away; but interesting old things will always be treasured by those who feel the charm of old associations.

Use Up The Pieces

A friend indulged not long ago in some crimson felt for a screen. There were some pieces left. With the largest, she made the center of a scarf table-cloth, putting some striped stuff on each end; and then there were some long ribbons of the felt left. She feather-stitched them in old-gold, and threaded them into a willow chair, where they did much better than ribbons, not fading, and looking more like use. A little piece still remained. She lined it with pasteboard, first having worked the motto, "Fast Bind, Fast Find," upon it, and made an excellent brush-broom holder for the hat rack.