Flintshire Observer Mining Journal and General Advertiser for the Counties of Flint Denbigh

GARDEN NOTES. BALSAMS and cockscombs must be potted on as necessary and kept warm; any check received now, either from want of food or water, or from cold will prove fatal to the production of fine plants and good blooms. Warm the soil before potting, and with these and other things take care that the water used is tepid. Little details like the above will by attention or inattention make all the difference between healthy and weakly plants. Herbaceous calceolarias will re- quire little if any heat now. When potting, place the plants lower than they were in the previous pots, keep them moist at the roots, and look out for slugs, give plenty of air, light position, and fumigate occa- sionally. Liliums that are growing freely should have a top-dressing of peat and cow manure, and require plenty of water. LARGE fuchsias for exhibition or the conservatory must have good shifts keep them warm and well syringed. Those who grow succulent or cactaceous plants should now overhaul their collection. When growing, these require plenty of air, sunshine, and moisture; the soil for repotting or top dressing should consist of good tui fy loam with a liberal addition of mortar rubbish and a sprinkling of Clay's Fertiliser. A few cinerarias grown rather large are now coming into flower; these plants as before noticed are impa- tient of moisture; other plants for the latest batch are being potted and the growths tied out a little. Pelargoniums that were potted a month since will require another shift and must be again stopped if good bushy plants are required; keep the plants close for a day or two after the operation. Those which are to bloom earlier must have their growths staked out, and as the pots are filled with roots give a little liquid manure occasionally; on no account let them get dry, or the bottom leaves will turn yellow and drop off while the blooms will be lacking in substance; give plenty of air on all possible occasions to ensure sturdy growth and good trusses of flowers. IN the warm greenhouse we have several begonias now flowering profusely and supplying us with quan- tities of cut bloom two especial favourites are the white B. brasiliense and the rosy carmine B. semper- florens gigantea rosea. A few plants of Canna Revol Manot are very fine with intense orange scarlet flowers, the bases of the petals being marked with yellow. The hard-wooded spirtcas are well suited for conservatory work they also look very elegant when stood in fancy pots in the dining or drawing- rooms their value is known to market growers, as one often sees them on the costers' barrows or in the florists' shops. Our latest batch of deutzias is by far the best we have had this year the plants have had a long season, being the first batch brought into flower last winter. A large plant of the red camellia monarch is blooming well in the conservatory the blooms are semi-double and large camellia flowers, by the way, are less in demand this year than is usual. Half a dozen varieties of paeony arborea have been forced and are now blooming; in a large establishment a variety is necessary, but I should not (" G. S." says) advise their culture by those who have limited space. BORONIAS are coming nicely into flower and are very fragrant; at one end of the conservatory we have a good batch of clivias; these are good plants for hall decoration. Other subjects flowering are narciss, daffodils, freezias, acacias, polvgalas, eupotoriums in variety, cinerarias, the blue Marguerite (Agathea caTulea), Choisya ternata, heaths, epacris, grevilleaa, azaleas, and rhododendrons. EARLY melon plants are now making good progress; the increased light and occasional glimpses of sun- shine we have experienced has enabled them to grow out of that weak state which is always apparent with plants started early in the year. The leading branches should be stopped only as often as it is necessary to secure erowth to fill up the wires. Continual pinch- ing of the young growths must be avoided, or the vines will not be strong enough to carry aDy fruit. Those shoots which promise to be fruitful should not be stopped until one foot or more in length beyond the fruit which is showing. In favourable weather a day temperature of 70 degrees is not too high if air be admitted to the house. Syringe the plants freely twice a-day, and keep the bottom heat at 75 degrees. Melons grown in pots will require liberal supplies of water at the roots now that the leaves are developing to a good size, and as soon as fruit is set, give them a top dressing of loam, mixed with rotten manure, and a sprinkling of Clay's Fertiliser or Thompson's Plant Manure. Cucumbers are giving less anxiety just now. Still they require a brisk temperature to seture tender fruit 70 degrees to 75 degrees by day in fairly good weather will ensure a vigorous growth, and in bright sunshine the thermometer may be allowed to register 90 degrees if a moist atmosphere is maintained, especially between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Give the border a top dressing of rich material once a fortnight, and keep the bottom heat up to 80 degrees. Very few of the young shoots should be removed when they have grown about a foot in length it is better to take out the top and tie the growths in. It is not necessary to give the plants any air at this season of the )ear. THE fruit on the earliest fig trees will now be swelling fast, and if these have not been thinned no time should be lost in removing a few where thi6kly placed. Plants whose roots have plenty of border room grow more vigorously than those in pots, and will need to have some of the weakest growths cut out, and that which is left will require stopping at the seventh or eighth joints. Figs growing in pots must have a rich top dressing of loam and bone meal, but those which are favoured with a border for their roots will need loam only as a dressing, if liquid stimulants are given them a little later. The tem- perature for figs should be 60 degs. at night, and 70 degs. by day it is, however, desirable to close the house early in the afternoon to conserve the sun beat. Figs require a good deal of root moisture when in active growth, while the foliage should be well syringed twice a day. Tomatoes have not set many fruit as yet, although plenty of flowers have expanded on plants that have been all the winter in pots standing on a bed of soil they are perfectly healthy, and with drier weather, we may hope, the fruit will set better. Strawberries in all stages of growth must be well supplied with water; those which have fruit colouring upon them must be syringed twice a day, or red spider will attack them ¡ and do serious injury they will aiso require plenty of fresh air. SHOULD the proverbial March dust be in evidence by the time this note is published it will be a great boon to gardeners, for owing to the ground being so saturated with moisture, the most important work in the kitchen garden has been delayed. Onions and wrinkled peas are the crops most likely to suffer from this delay. With regard to the former (" D. L." observes) I have marked out the ground they are to occupy into beds five feet wide, leaving alleys 15 inches wide between them. This arrangement will enable us to draw the drills and sow the seed without treading upon soil, and even in its present Wft condi- tion a fine day or two will dry the surface sufficiently to allow the seed to be sown. With regard to the second sowing of peas made a fortnight ago, I am fearful that, owing to the wet and cold condition of the ground, the seed will rot before it has a chance to germinate. In view of such a possibility, I have made another sowing in 4in. pots and placed them in a warm house, so that if those in the open fail I shall have another batch to fall back upon, as it would be a serious matter to be short of green peas early in the season, and none of the wrinkled varieties are so hardy as the round seeded kinds. On the whole February was fairly mild, and the prevalence of such weather is liable to make young gardeners feel a greater eecurity with regard to. its future behaviour thaa we older ones have found to be trustworthy. Severe frost has been known to occur later in the month of March than the present date. Therefore it is necessary that we should be prepared for its re- currence at any time for another month. In no part of our business does this remark apply with more im- portance than in the case of crops growing in pits and frames; potatoes, for instance, have their tops near the glass, and are liable to injury from frost. Beds of young carrots, radishes, &c., will still require plenty of external coverings at night. French beans sown now on a bed of ferment- ing materials in brick pits or substantial frames will be more productive than those grown in pots, and in bearing at the same time. If large leeks are required early in the autumn the plants should be raised in heat from seed sown at once; the Lyon and Ayton are both excellent varieties. Tomato plants for out- door fruiting ought to be large enough to occupy 4in. pots at once, and then shifted into those 7in. in diameter three weeks later the Old Red and Sutton's Earliest of All are unsurpassed varieties for outdoor culture as they set their fruit much earlier than any of the Perfection type. THE making of hotbeds for cucumbers and melons should now be commenced; beds made four feet high during the next fortnight may be expected to retain sufficient heat to keep the plants steadily growing until the natural temperature furnishes the required degree of warmth. Celery should now be sown for the main crop Standard Bearer I find to be a very hardy variety. Yeitch's autumn cauliflower may be sown now on a warm border, while capsicums and chilies must be sown shortly in a warm house if the plants are to be grown to a useful size. Garlic should also be planted, and the various crops for salading will require attention, according to the de- mand. Asparagus beds should be raked down and given a light dressing of salt. Potatoes foi planting should be laid out thinly in a light airy position.— Gardeners' Magazine.

AMERICAN FUN. & NATURE has given us two ears, and but one tongue, in order that we may repeat but one-half of what we hear. A COUNTRY doctor was sent for to see a labourer who had received a concussion of the brain. He told his wife to apply leeches which he promised to send. The next morning he found the man worse and delirious, and asked the wife whether she had used the leeches. She answered that she had given him one; whereat she was told by the indignant doctor that she had risked her husband's life. The poor woman pleaded that she had done her best. I cut un up small, I vinegared and I peppered un, but 'a said 'a'd lefer die nor take another." IN all the towns, Nathaniel Brown's Extravagance was flagrant; There came a crash, He lost his cash— He's now an extra vagrant. SMART ALECK met Jones this morning, and, after the usual manner of the slang-slingers, he said, Hello, Jonesey, old man, what do you know when you don't know anything?" I know you," replied Jones, calmly and serenely, and Aleck withdrew to a sequestered spot to ruminate. IT is said Fortune knocks once at every man's door." In most cases it must have been when the man was out. SOPHRONIA What is philosophy ?" It is some- thing that enables a rich man to say there is no disgrace in being poor. J ONES says that after trying for years te photo- graph his girl upon his heart all he got from her in the end was a negative. You made a fool of me," said an irate man to his wife. My love," she sweetly responded, you do yourself injustice. Call yourself a fool, if you wish, but remember you are in all respects a self- made man." IT was evening. Three of them were killing a cat. One of them held a lantern, another held the cat, and the third jammed a pistol in the cat's ear and fired, shooting the man in the hand who held the cat, and the one with the lantern was wounded in the arm. The cat left when it saw how matters stood and that ill-feeling was being engendered. A DINNER party-the youngest gentleman (it is his first visit) has broken the ice at last by inquiring the name of the hostess's little daughter, t6 which the child has replied, Ethel." And why, Ethel, do you keep patting me on the arm ?" Because mawma says you're a muff "-(awful pause, during which the child strokes him down)-" but you don't feet like one, you know." (Tableau child com- placent -nobody else.): SOMEBODY wants a honey store established in every town. In Louisville the dry goods stores have all been enlarged to make room for sweetness. THE Chinaman who thought he was Americanised enough to squeeze a Texas girl's hand on the sly has departed for some quiet place in the hills, where he can pick 60 bird-shot out of his legs. A RELIGIOUS tract, called Pat Not Your Trust in Princes," was thrown into the saloon of a simple old German. He read the title and soliloquised Vell, I don't put some drust in Brinces. Dey must pay der cash in the shop shust der same as vite mans." A WESTERN editor once apologised to his readers somewhat after this fashion We intended to have a death and a marriage to publish this week, but a violent storm prevented the wedding, and the dcotor being taken sick himself, the patient recovered, and we are accordingly cheated out of both. DURING the past summer the Ohio River became so low that all the boats built for it had to tie up," and the Mountain Boy was taken from the Big Sandy and put on the Portsmouth and Cincinnati route. It was important for General John Echols to reach Maysville from Ashland by a certain hour, and he went by land to Portsmouth, reaching there before sunrise; but he found, to his great annoyance and disgust, that the Mountain Boy had left the wharf at three o'clock in the morning. Somewhat im- patiently he asked of the wharfmaster why the boat had left at such an unreasonable hour, and received the satisfactory reply, The fact is, general, the skipper wanted to get the advantage of the dew." How satisfactorily a witness answered a cross- examining lawyer is thus told by a New York paper It was a sad thing for Lettie Davis when she put out her washing on the clothes-line of her South Fifth Avenue abode. Peterson Knapp was there on the watch, and, it is alleged, carried off the raiment, part and parcel. At all events, a policeman arrested him for the offence, and he went to Jefferson Market Police-court prepared to maintain his innocence by counsel. Lettie was there too, and, in spite of nume- rous trying interruptions from the counsel, she got down to the point in her narrative where she discovered Peterson longingly eyeing the clothes as she hung them out. Dat brack niggar,' she said, urgently apostrophising the prisoner,' he stood dah wif an ole clay pipe shoved whar it 'd do de mos' good, and he a puffin' as if he'd like to split. But the way he looked at dem clothes was quite 'nough to show any reason'ble 'oomans dat dey wa'nt safe.' Come, witness,' quoth counsel sarcastically, tell us just what kind of a look that is.' Oh, you git out was the snappish rejoinder. I I insist on that question. How did the prisoner look to convey the impression that the clothes were in danger?' Witness was ready with another tart reply, but his Honour said, Come, you must answer. How did he look ?' The witness seemed puzzled. Did he look,' asked his Honour, glancing round for a smile—' did he look iike-like counsel, for instance ?' Oh, 'deed, no, sir,' replied the witness. If he looked de least bit like dat gemman, dere wouldn't been no robbery at all.' Ah,' said the counsellor, I how's that?' I'd made udder arrangements.' Indeed be continued, smil- ing. What might they have been ?' Why, if he looked at all like you does, I wouldn't have dar'd to hang dem clothes out at all! BEING asked What is an epigram ?" Josh Billings replies: An epigram's a bee-a little thing, With just a buzz, some honey, and a sting." WEATHER Report-A clap of thunder. If the doctor orders bark, has not the patient a right to growl ? THE sun is no invalid, but it always goes south to spend the winter. CROWS never complain without caws. That's where they are sensible. ALWAYS ready to take a hand in conversation —deaf and dumb people. ACCORDING to an arithmetical exchange the pro- portion this year is about four liars to one trout. FOOD for reflection: Eating a large supper and going to bed to lie awake and think about it. WHY are seeds, when sown, like gate posta p- Because they are planted in the earth to propagate.

THE HOUSEHOLD. PICKLED RED CABBAGE.—Trim off the outside leaves and stalks pull the cabbage to pieces, wiping each leaf to be sure there is no grit. Cut them into shreds; lay them on a large dish or clean tea-tray; cover freely with salt, two ounces to a large cabbage the next day shake away as much of the salt as possible. .Put the cabbage into jars, and cover the cabbage with boiling vinegar to every quart of vinegar one ounce of bruised ginger, a few cloves, and whole pepper; boil 10 minutes. When cold, tie down with brown paper. It is ready in a week or 10 dajs. HASTY PUDDING.—Put a pint and a half of new or skim milk into a saucepan, set on the fire to boil, take a breakfastcupful of flour, stir this quickly into the milk, as soon as it boils; let it boil five minutes, keep- ing it well stirred from the bottom of the saucepan to prevent its burning. Turn it into a pudding-dish and eat with treacle or butter and sugar. A WAY OF COOKING HADDOCK.—Well rub a fresh haddock with salt after having it skinned. Split it, and let it stand for about an hour then wash it, and cut it into small pieces. Place in steW- pan about two chopped Spanish onions with a little butter and mignonette pepper. Let them simmer until soft, then place the pieces of fish in the stewpan, and close the lid, gently stewing until cooked. Have ready a tumbler of good fish stock, and, when boiling, put the yolks of two beaten eggs to it, and the juice of a lemon. Stir well, and pour this over the fish in the stewpan; let it simmer for about five minutes, and serve very hot. This is very good eaten cold in hot weather. BOTTLE CLEANING.—It is surprising, says Dr. F. Sawyer, how many people persist in cleaning bottles with shot after the frequent cautions that have been given. Nothing cleans bottles so easily as a handful pf shot, which can be shaken into every corner until &ie glass fairly shines with cleanliness; but the iianer of lead poisoning is great, even when the bottle is rinsed out with clean water, and is doubly dangerous when there is no rinsing out at all, as is usually the case. Clean sand is a convenient and thorough bottle cleanser, especially as the particles of sand which adhere must be aftewards washed out to complete the process. When time is not an object, a bottle can be well cleansed by the aid of potato parings, but as they must be corked in and left to fer- ment the plan is not expeditious enough for general use.-Int-ention. CARE OF BOOTS AND SHORs.-When boots and shoes have become very muddy the worst of the mud should be knocked off with a thin strip of hard wood, which should be kept for the purpose. A very stiff brush will then take off the rest of the dirt. Now, apply a dressing made by mixing two drachms of sper- maceti oil, half a pint of vinegar, three ounces of treacle, and four ounces of finely-powdered ivory black. The vinegar should be added last. This will make the shoes look almost as well as they did before their rough treatment. When meditating a trip on a rainy day it is a wise plan to rub the shoes with a waterproof mixture, whieh will make them soft, pliable, and hardy. A very good recipe for this is an ounce of beeswax, an ounce of turpentine, a quarter of an ounce of burgundy pitch, melted over a slow fire with a half pint of oil. Be cautious with the turpentine. This mixture may be applied often, and will be found really excellent. To wear patent leathers in winter time, and to keep them bright and uncracked, re- quires care and eternal vigilance. Rub them when dull with a little milk, and when they are not in use keep them in a warm room. Always warm slightly before putting upon the feet. On very cold days it is a good plan to leave one's patent leathers at home, because a trip into the atmosphere of zero will almost assuredly cause them to crack. Stuffing the toes of patent leather shoes with cotton will keep them from bending and cracking. Keep your boots and shoes well oiled in damp weather, and if by any chance they become wet through, let them dry slowly or they will warp and shrink. Treat your shoes care- fully, because they are really important items in a woman's make-up. SPRING CLEANING.—Here we are well into March, and the time for our annual eruption draws nearer, ever nearer. Oh what a business it is, and bow the heart sinks at the prospect; but it has got to be done. The cleanest housekeeper knows it, as well as the one who allows things to slide as easily as possible until the grand turn-out. We know without looking indeed, we do not look, because we know what a fine lot of dust there is on the top of that half-tester and behind that wardrobe. So we will begin quietly to clean out our drawers and cupboards, putting in clean paper and sorting their contents, many of which will find their way to the old- clothes shop or rag bag or waste-paper bag. Then we must go and look after the servants, and see that they clean their kitchen drawers and cupboards, especially those nice dark ones so dear to the heart of the cockroach An extra dose of soft soap will be wanted here, as well as disinfecting powder spread about, and the doors left open to admit the light and air. Then up we mount to the top of the house—" Oh, what a getting up stairs !and take down all the curtains, shake them and brush them and put them away till next winter; then up come the carpets; and off they go to be beaten down come the pictures to be dusted and the glass washed and put out of harm's way. Then the blankets are taken off the beds and sent to the wash, if we have a sufficiently large supply to take their place; if not, they must go one by one to the weekly wash. Now is our opportunity to have dangerous sash- cords replaced with new ones, craoked window-panes ditto, new door handles or finger plates screwed on, boles at the back of the grate cemented or puttied in fact, all those odd jobs done which are so apt to accumulate in the best regulated households. Then comes that lovely sweep, whose unearthly noises give you a faint notion of the lower regions. Next the whitewashers, paperers, and painters, or, if they are not needed, the walls are rubbed down with a sfale loaf, and all the dust collected; and we must tug out that wardrobe if we die for it; and dust the bed- stead, and sweep the floor, and polish the grate, and wash the paint, and scour the floor with soft soap (not making it too wet, or the ceiling of the room below will be adorned with yellow patches), changing the water three or four times in the course of the proceedings. Then we clean the window with a newspaper or a damp chamois leather, polishing it with a hard linen cloth. And when the floor is quite dry, we put down the carpet, and put up the clean white bed-hangings and window curtains, hang the pictures, and polish the furniture, then shut that room up as cleaned. On we march triumphantly, cleaning each room to the basement until everything is as clean as a new pin. And, lastly, what a washing of dirty cloths and brushes, and what a pleased grin there is on every- one's face to think our spring cleaning is done and our neighbour's is not!-Qwen. SriNACH.—To prepare for the table, the vegetable must be washed thoroughly in several waters to free it from grit. To do this, lift it out of the water in both hands a small quantity at a time. The stalk must be pulled from each leaf before boiling. Put the prepared spinach into an empty saucepan, sprinkle a little salt over it, and stir it constantly to prevent burning. Boil the spinach till it becomes tender. Place the boiled spinach on a colander or sieve, press it, chop it on a clean board, put it into a saucepan, add butter and broth—taking care not to thin it too much with the broth-and taste whether it is salt enough. Stir it over the fire till the liquid is absorbed, pile on a hot dish and serve. Half an ounce of butter and one tablespoonful of cream or broth will be enough for one pound of spinach. If cream a day old is to be obtained, we may finally incorporate a little flour with it, and add the whole to the spinach. To embellish this dish, cut milk bread into slices, forming the crust into points, fry in butter till yellow, prepare poached eggs, and serve the spinach, placing round it first an egg and then a crust alternately, sprinkling bread-crumbs over the vegetable itself. LENTIL PUDDING.—Three ounces of lentil flour, one ounce of corn flour, a pint of milk, three eggs, and a pinch of salt; pour the milk, boiling, gradually on the flour, stirring it; when cool, add the eggs well beaten mix well, boil an hour in a buttered plain mould; serve with sweet sauce. WELSH RAREBIT.—Welsh rarebit is delicious when made after this rule Half a pound of cheese, three eggs, one small cup of bread crumbs, two tablespoons- ful of melted butter, mustard and salt to taste. After beating the cheese in an earthen dish add the other ingredients, then spread on the top of slices of bread toasted or not as you choose, and set in the oven to melt.

THE question as to who shall be speaker of the house has to be settled after each marriage. I CAME off with flying colours," as the painter said when he fell from the ladder with palette o'er his thumb.

THE WOMAN'S WORLD. IT is not every day (observes Veronica," writing in the Manchester if eekly Times) that a woman is in a position to arrange a room entirely in accordance with her own fancy. To take it over, in short, with nothing in it finished but the painting and decora- tions. Still, such occasions do offer themselves, and a few hints as to the arrangement of a small room less luxurious than what is usually called a boudoir" may not come amiss to some of my readers. We will suppose, then, a room the dimen- sions of which are about from nine to ten feet square. The following articles will be found to furnish it sufficiently. First, let us also suppose the floor to be of polished wood, in which case a white bearskin under the mantelpiece and a couple of small rugs will do away with the necessity of even a square of art carpet. A draped portrait over the chimney piece will look well, a glass also draped opposite, or on a side wall; underneath this a square table covered and draped with plush, and round two sides of the room a low divan. This, with an easy chair, a work basket, and plants, will fill the room sufficiently and make it look extremely well. Of course the choice of colours must be left to taste, which will be guided by the tone of the mural decorations, but if the draperies can be wholly, or even partly, of old silk or damask, the general effect will be much improved. IT seems scarcely necessary to say (remarks a writer in the New York Tribune) that women do not want crinoline, and are frightened and distressed at its approach. The newspapers are full of letters from them protesting against its introduction. The fashion papers, which are conducted by women, are filled with burning denunciation of crinoline, and pathetic con- fessions that the women of the country are already in its grasp. Earnest outcries by women against the article may also be heard on the street, in the elevated cars, in the stores-in fact, wherever two or three women are gathered together, there will the man who is base enough to listen hear crinoline objected to in trembling tones, always ending with the hope- less remark that nothing can be done. They stand, like Andromeda, chained to the rock, with the great French monster crinoline coming up out of the sea to devour them, and with no hope of a Perseus. Of course the occasion has not been lost by many ill- natured men flippantly to inquire why, if woman doesn't like crinoline, she is going to wear it. They have attempted to be funny by saying that there is no law compelling her to wear it, and some, we blush to say, have even gone so far as to assert that if she is as strong-minded as she always says she is at a suffrage convention, she would no more let the sub- ject of crinoline worry her than she would the pro- bable fashions in the planet Neptune. All of this sort of talk is born either of malico or of ignorance. It is true that there is no law on the statute books requiring women to wear crinoline, but there is a higher law than the statute books-if we may para- phrase a celebrated remark. There is no State or National law, or even municipal ordinance, so far as we can find, compelling birds of passage to flv away to the south at the approach of winter still, they go, impelled by a law they cannot resist. So with the wearing of crinoline. There comes a vague hint that it must be worn-the crinoline feeling is in the air, the crinoline itself is in the drygoods stores. Woman hates it, loathes the sight of it; still she can no more help putting it on than she can help noticing that another woman has powder on her nose. Right here is where law would come in. Woman knows in her calmer moments, and when away from the deadly presence of crinoline, that it is a blighting substance, and that she does not want it, and if she could vote she would see that there was a law passed prohibiting its importation or manufac- ture. By thus keeping it out of her sight she would be free from its baleful influence, and would have no desire for it. But with the accursed stuff tempting her from 10,000 shop windows she can only fly to it' and perish in its clutches. What is wanted is crino- line prohibition, absolute and uncompromising. But is there any hope of this with the present male legis- lators? None whatever. They are wholly in the power of the crinoline interests. THE spring weather is reviving an interest in window-boxes; yet many people still CliBg "to the dusty evergreens that have braved the storms of winter. Even the more enterprising are not always successful in their spring arrangements. Many, choose their boxes most injudiciously; and it was our unhappy lot, says the St. James's Gazette, to see the other day boxes decorated with raw blue tiles and full of yellow and purple crocuses. The con- fusion of colour was positively painful. Boxes should always be of neutral shades: and, indeed, the best way to succeed with them, as with mantel-pieces, is to have them built along with the house and be part of it. In Germany one can obtain very graceful little wooden balconies to fit single windows, and these form part of very successful window decora- tion. WEDDING breakfasts are not given so often as formerly, says the Princess, They have been almost superseded by -the less formal wedding tea. A breakfast is given if the wedding is a grand one, a stand-up breakfast being generally preferred, because it allows one to invite a greater number of guests. The invitations are sent out a fortnight before the wedding day. The invitation cards used to be invariably printed in silver, but gold is often used at present, and some- times there is a mixture of both styles. Sometimes the cards are folded, with the initials of bride and bride- groom printed in gold on either side, the invitation underneath being printed in silver. The bridegroom provides the bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids, which should be sent to them on the morning of the wedding. He also gives a present to each bridesmaid, such as a brooch or bracelet, which should be sent on the day before the wedding, or on the morning of the day itself. Brooches or lace-pins appear to be the favourite gifts at present, the design taking the form of a lucky slipper or true-lover's knot, the initials of the happy pair, or the crest of the bridegroom. Sometimes the year in which the marriage takes place is rendered in gold or diamonds, as a souvenir, but almost any form in which precious stones can be utilised is more graceful than numerals. IT is interesting to hear, on the authority of one who has the interests and progress of women at heart, that they are rapidly acquiring that contented and superior disposition which enables them not only to face spinsterhood with equanimity, but to accept it with joy. Whether it is the in- fluence of Ibsen in the land, or the awful examples they have had in their married friends; whether it is that love and romance, and all such old-fashioned nonsense, is being im- proved off the face of the earth, and the modern girl is beginning to think man absolutely too inferior a creature to occupy her thoughts, it is impossible to say but the time is evidently not far distant, says "Vera" in the lady's Pictorial, when the tables will be completely turned, and instead of charging our unmarried friends with being old maids," just as if maiden ladies were repre- hensible beings, it will presently be the married ones who will be regarded with derisive scorn and pity by their very superior sisters, who have come to the con- clusion that the honourable estate," after all, is that of spinsterhood. One cannot help feeling intensely inquisitive about the process that has been employed to bring about this admirable disposition in "the young women of this generation. But in an un- regenerated state it is not easy to convince one- self of its genuineness; and so base is the mind of 'I woman as yet foolish enough to believe in matrimony and man, that she cannot help doubting whether any of these superior young persons who are prepared to cheerfully forswear matrimony in order to enjoy the privilege of working for their living and obtaining lucrative employment would be proof against a good offer from a male creature, no matter how eligible he might be. A PRETTY conceit affected by women of fashion is to wear jewels typical of the month of the year. For January, pearls represent snow; rainy February has aquamarine; March has purple, crocus-coloured amethysts; April, daffodil-coloured topaz; the young green of May is represented by emeralds, and June r6ses by pink pearls; sunshiny July has diamonds, and deep blue sapphires represent the summer seas and cloudless skies of August; September's early changes are represented by cat's-eyes garnets typify October; the grey skies, cold-looking red sunsets, and wood fires of November are shown by opals; while the glowing red fires of December, with their Christmas cheer, have the ruby as the emblem of the I month.

LITERATURE AND ART. THE goodly company of artists who paint, primarily, for the spring exhibitions are congratulating them- selves upon the remarkable run of luck they have enjoyed this spring in the prevalence of clear sun- light and absence of fog. Who does not remember the dreadful year when the last three weeks before sending-in day to the Academy were, like the birth- place of Jeames, wropped in mistry," and almost Acheronian dimness ? Verily the sorrows of such as paint pictures in London are many, but so are the compensations, and it is merely a matter of choice. EMILE ZOLA, the well-known French novelist, writes in a most extraordinary fashion, holding the pen between the second and fourth fingers of the right hand, and the process is a very slow and laborious one. He is now 52; and the favourite recreations of his leisure are boating and gardening. His manner is very imperious, a fact which makes him many enemies. Zola began life as a clerk in Hachette's library in Paris at a salary of 80f. a month. He is now almost, if not quite, a millionaire. He lives in a tiny cottage of three rooms at Medan, where he fled in 1878 to avoid the crowds who went to Paris to visit the exhibition. The present aim of his life is to gain admission to the French Academy. He is not discouraged by numerous defeats, remem- bering that Victor Hugo had to present himself four times before he became one of the 40 Immortals." To the average citizen, art, like everything else, salmon fishing or coursing for the grown man m busi- ness, marbles or rounders for the urchin in the play- ing-fields, has its season. That season is at hand. From the end of March to the middle of May pictures are the subject of afternoon chatter and dinner-table gossip; and everything written, said, or ascertainable about art, and above all about artists, is eagerly seized and retailed. After that art goes out." That is to say, it is left to the artist and the man who finds in it the joy of life. SUNDAY is Show Sunday-the outsiders' Sunday a day when every struggling painter is a Raphael or a Rembrandt to an admiring Ci-owd in his own studio. Alas, it is often the only reward accorded to months of patient and sometimes well-directed toil. The Sunday after the more leisurely Associates and Academicians are at home," a week's grace being allowed them. HERB are some of the more important dates. The Academy opens on Monday, May 1 the Paris Salon on the same day and the Champs de Mars 10 days later. Friday was the Press view of the Royal Society of British Artists, Saturday the private view and on Monday the Suffolk-street Galleries were open to the public. On Tuesday, 22nd inst., Mr. Leonard Courtney will open the Whitechapel Academy," as it is called, the annual loan collection at St. Jude's, Whitechapel, which temains open from 10 to 10 until the 9th prox., and is so great a delight to the East-end poor. The Hogarth and Langham Sketching Clubs' Academy conversaziones, at which some of the Academy work is shown, and which bring together, full of hopes and spirits, such numbers of London and provincial members and painters, are for Friday, the 24th inst. The Burne-Jones Exhibition at the New Gallery closes on the 15th prox. THE names most. canvassed for the four Associate- ships, for which vacancies exist, or are about to be created, at Burlington House, are Mr. Arthur Hacker, the figure painter, Mr. Swan, the animalier, Mr. Alfred East, the iandscapist, and Mr. Pegram, or Mr. Frampton, the sculptors. Though all specula- tion is idle, the mode of election by successive eliminating ballots, presenting impromptu alterna- tives to the academic electorate which cannot be fore- seen, it is interesting to know that while Mr. Hacker, whose" Annunciation" was bought lost ytar by the Chantrey people, is very ambitious in his work, his Circe," especially aiming at the highest. Mr. J. M. Swan will not exhibit. Mr. East, who takes time by the forelock, has two beautiful landscapes, one flooded with golden light, the other, wet, grey, and tender. Mr. Yeend King has a large landscapes, taken from the most beautiful part of the little river Lid- a Devonshire stream in June, babbling, broad, and noisy, over emerald moss-grown stones, sure to com- mand at least as much attention as anything he has ever sent in. Mr. Frank Brangwyn, and Mr. Dudley Hardy, very much younger men, whose brilliant capacities and speculative audacities may at any time spring a great master work upon us, are both en- gaged on versions on The Adoration of the Magi." Mr. Solomon J. Solomon—whose Sacred and Pro- fane Love" of last year has since been cut into at least two different pictures, and is now being exhi- bited in Australia—has painted a dinner-party, with well-known people assembled at the table of a well- known London host. A SERIBS of important autograph letters and his- torical documents will come under the hammer in London on the 10th and 11th of next month. Ona lot alone is of sufficient importance to give the sale a unique interest. It is a valuable series of autograph letters of George Eliot; also of her husband, George Henry Lewes, on literary and other matters. The letters are addressed to, and are the property of. Mr. Alexander Main, the compiler of "The Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings of George Eliot" and The George Eliot Birthday Book." Several Tennysonian documents are included in the catalogue. There are the original autograph manuscripts of The Alcaics on Milton," and of the Hendecasyllabics," of his verses on Translations of Homer, and of his fragment of the Iliad," all of which vary from the published versions; there is also an autograph poem by the late Poet Lau reate, signed, entitled Isabel," which was given to the present owner's brother in 1838; and also a series of five letters of members of the Tennyson family. Among the other items are letters of Burns, two of Carlyle, and four from Emerson to the Chelsea sage. Charles Lamb is represented by an interesting series of eight letters to Thomas Manning, 1801--1834. There are also a series of 16 letters by Mr. Ruskin, un unpublished poem of nine stanzas by Robert Southey, and one of the original autograph letters to his son; an interesting series of letters from Edward Gibbon, the historian and quite a collection of Peter Pindar's poems in autograph. MADAME ADAM'S recollections of Georges Sand in the North American Review gives a lively picture of the great Frenchwoman in her old age. Here is a picture of her on an excursion at the age of 65: Nothing could give an idea of her youth or gaiety. She pitted us one against the other, and batted our ideas about like balls, her own serving as the racket. This used to amuse her to a great extent. She walked along-her cigarette in her mouth—notwith- standing her 65 years, that it was with difficulty that we kept up with her. Although she appeared to be entirely occupied with us and our jokes, she neverthe- less observed all that was going on about her. dis- covering, perhaps, in the distance some rare flower for her greenhouse, noting some effect of nature that she would afterwards write about, taking in the sky, the earth, and the vista with her large eyes. She could see out of the back of her head,' my daughter used to say." HOWEYER popular a novelist may be it is rarely that the collecting craze extends to the first editions of his three-volume novels. Dickens, Lever, and Thacke- ray are noteworthy exceptions George Eliot seems to be slowly coming into favour in thie direction, but very few of her books now realise more than the price at which they were originally published. Another exception has now to be added to the list, for an uncut copy of the first edition of "Tess of the D'Urbevilles," 1891, has just sold at auction for three guineas—or just double the original price. In the ordinary way these volumes would be now worth abont 3S, As three- volume novels go, Tess of the D'Lrbevilles'' is a very pretty book, but the prospect which this transaction opens up to collectors of first editions is too awful to contemplate, because a copy that has been in circulation at Smith's or Mudie's is valueless; to be cherished by the book-collector it must be quite fresh and in first-class condition. The cotes and exclamations on the margins, moreover, do not add to the value, unless they happen to be by a. Coleridge or a Lamb-or a Gladstone.

FRENCH CUSTARD (Creme a Choux),—Take a pint of milk, mix smoothly with a little of it one table- spoonful of potato flour, the yolks of six eggs, and pounded loaf sugar to taste then add the rest of the milk, and any flavouring yon may fancy. Cook it all bain marie; and never cease stirring till th., cream is done and quite thick. When cold it is ready for use.