Ways and Meand for Mothers.

Southland Times, Issue 4897, 25 March 1884, Page 3

Ways and Meand for Mothers.

(From the Queen.) The following suggestions respecting alterations necessary to allow for growth in the wardrobes of of six, or thereabouts,may be of use to mothers of large families with small mean?. Supposing there are some dark navy blue serge frocks cut in one from last year, with gauged bodices and sleeves, which naturally look too short, and are probably too scanty in the skirt, proceed as follows : Take off the gathered flounce round the edge of the skirt, damp it well, and press with a hot iron. Cut the floance in two, make it up into a kiitinjr about two inches deep to trim, all iound. Open the skirt a little way at the sides and in'roduce a small gore or threeCDrnered piece of material so as to allow a lttle more width. Lengthen the sleeves, which are probably found to be too short ether with a gatheiei piece, of serge put on as a cuff, or with a puff at the top, if the length requires it, both at wrist and shoulder. Plait up the little sort of drapery, that before hung nearly plain, as a kind of tunic with even folds, and tack it round the skirt, just above the knees, quite straight to the back, where it should finish off with loops and ends. The skirt at ihe sides must be drawn up with plaits in order to give the serge top the appearance of a polonaise. To modernise the dress still further, and to make it long enough, ai range a kilted or box-plaited crim- ' son cashmere skirt (for which purpose one yard is required) as an under petticoat, the red being half a yard deep, with the exception of a strip taken off to face up the lining gkirt under the flounce. This must be yrAl fastened down wiih at least three tapes, and made the proper length by the addition at the top of a piece of black material. For using as a ski tfor w aring with navy blue nothing looks so well as the deep crimson now fashionable. The advantage of a little merino skirt like this is that it is useful for wearing with a light brown or holiand polonaise ?.t any other time. The red kilted flounce should have a plain piece of material added on to the top, and then put in a band, •which can be tacked into the serge dress iound the waist. A black velveteen dress, cut all in one for a child of six years old or so, can be treated as follows, if not shabby, although outgrown in every way. Obtain two yards of rich blue cashmere, and add a kilt of the same two inches deep all round the edge of the skirt. Lengthen the sleeves with blue pointer! cuffs, piped, and add a blue jailor collar. Cm the sfcirt part of the dress in two all round, and inssrt a piece of black material the necessary depth to make it the proper length. Arrange all that is left of the casbmere into a drapery to go round the tkirt, being opened about six inches in no if, aLd the a the rest of the depth of material being tightly gauged, wbila ihe raw edge is run closely all round the dress, and tamed over, just above the piece added for increase ot length ; or a sort of deeply folded sa-h'csn be made to hide the inserted piece. Thi* should be finished off at the neck with bo *. s and short ends, stitched all round ®n tbe right side wiih a broad hem. Black felt bats of the year before can have the color revived by sponging with ammonia, and if trimmed with blue velvet puffed on to match the cashmere, with a few gold pins inBerted and With a feather, a gojd effect can be produced A little coffee colored jacket outgrown by its small owner, can be opened up the centre seam at tLe b ick, te allow sufficient play, and at the top of the opening, a bow and ends of brown watered silk or brown satin ribbon can be placed, with a corresponding bow of ribbon of a narrower width at the neck. The sleeves and jacket all rouud can be lengthened hy either letting down the piece turned up (if there is any) or by neatly joining on a piece of material and trimming, to hide the addition, with raccoon fur, continuing it in a double row up the front, and fastening with hooks and eyes, instead of buttons and buttonholes, if the jacket is too narrow across the cbest. Old worn scarlet flannel petticoats can be made warm and serviceable for a small child by tucking closely so as to let the tucks meet each other, which converts a comparatively useless garment into a desirable wardrobe appendage It is desirable not to carry the tucks up to the waist, as they would be clumsy ; but a piece of plain material, a few inches deep, should be added all round the top, and sewn into a band at the waist.

Ladies are wearing waistcoats precisely like gentlemen's this winter. This causes fearful trouble. For instance, when a married man goes to bed, he has to put a chalkmark on his waistcoat, or next morning he puts on his wife's, and does not discover his mistake until he inserts his thumb and forefinger into his right-hand pocket for that • half-crown,' and finds a bent hair-pin or a dress button. Then, no doubt, he will suddenly remember there was a sovereign in the left-hand pocket of his waistcoat, and a fivepound note in his watch-pocket, and then you will see him ' do ' a mile in about one minute and fifty Beconds. hoi remainder of reading matter see fourth pag

i*BMH

The Bad Boy's Pa Skates 1 Ah, here you are at last,' said the 'grocery man to the bad boy. ' I was afraid the change in the standard of time would mix you up so you would cot come.' ' J ou needn't ever be afraid that I will "get left,' said the boy, as he used the can opener to open some peanuts. •' I would have been sooner, "only pa met with a serious accident, and I had to go after a plumber for him.' \ 'Had to go after a plumber 1 " said the grocery man in amazement. ' Are you out of your -head ? Why didn't you call a doctor % What has a plumber got to do with the practice of medicine V ' Well, 1 proposed to call a doctor, but pa wouldn't have a doctor. He told ms to get a - plumber to the house ; as qflidk as possible. You see we have ( Jbeen troubled with rats at our house, ; and w& tried poison, but they got fat, on if* We tried cats and the rats drove the cats away. So pa went down and got some steel traps and. set them around on the floor of the basement. The floor is cement, and just as smooth as can be, and me and my clium go. down there and skate with our roller skates, This morning pa came down and wanted to put on my skates. : I told him he couldn't skate, and that I should think after his ex.perience at the rink last winter, when "he pulled a girl all to pieces grabbing at her to keep from falling, that he would try some other amusement, but he said he knew all about it, and he didn't: want no fool boy to try to tell him anything. When a man gets old and thinks he knows it all there is no use trying to argue with him, and so I unbuckled my skates and pulled them off and he put them on. Well, he wabbled around for a few minutes, like a fellow that has been drinking gin, and held on to things till he thought he had got his bearings, when he struck out for the back end of the basement. As he came along by the furnace one leg began to go over towards the neighbors',- ani he grabbed hold of the corner of the furnace, swung around behind it, out of sight, and we heird an earthquake, and something snapped like a steel trap, and pa yelled "By crimus," and ma came down after some sassidge for breakfast, and when she saw pa she said ' Merciful gooiness,' and by that time me and my chum had got there. Well, you'd & dide to see pa. He had come down like a ton of coal, right on that steel trap, and it had sprung and caught a whole mouthful of pa's pants and aboft a pound and a half or two pounds of meat, and pa was grating Ms teeth to try and stand it. O, it was the most ridiculous position I ever see pa into, and he got mad and told me to unsprung the trap. We turned him over and me and my chum tried our best to open the trap, but it was one of the traps with a strong spring and we couldn't. Pa was the only one that could unspring the trap, and he couldn't go around behind iiisself to get at it, so I told him I would go after a doctor, but he said this was a case where a doctor was no good, and he wanted a plumber, or a blacksmith. Pa wanted to go up in parlor to sit on the sofa while I was gone after a plumber, but the trap was chained to tne furnace, and we couldn't get it loose, so pa had to lay there on the cement floor till the plumber came. The plumber laughed at pa. and said he had done all kinds ] of plumbing before, but he never had a *. call like that. Well, he let pa out, and I don't suppose there is a madder man in this town than pa, but there was nobody to blame but himself. Say, do yon. see how I can be blamed about it?' 'Naw, they can't blame you,' said the grocery man, as he lit a clay pipe, c . But this ought to be a lesson to you, that life is one contiauous rat-trap alway* set and baited with cheese to cakh the unwary. The business man goes about his business unconscious that the rat-trap is set where he can get into it* He extends his business, gives creci; and gets credit himself, everything is booming, he is sailing along as nice as jour pa was on the roller skates, when all at once there is a slack up in business, he can't collect what is owing he clutches and claws at friends for help to keep him from failing, but friends have j.oj all they can attend to to keep on their feet, and they do not rea°h out to help him, and sucdenly his feet go from under him and he strikes something hard, and he finds that he is in life's great rat-trap, atcl his creditors do not hu-ry to unspring the trap, and he waits for the plumber as your pa did, and thinks what a fool he has made of himself. A boy gets a situation in a store at five dollars a week, and in three months he thinks he owns the store. He is promoted and bas his salary raised, and then he begins to dress better than the proprietor, play billiards till the saloon closes, goes to his cheap boarding place with beer enough to start a new saloon, gets to buying wine and hiring livery rigs, and some day a plain, looking man calls on him and takes him up to the police station, where he is told that his cash account 13 six hundred dollars short, and as he hears the key turn in the door of his cell he realises that he has dropped into life's great rat-trap, which he knew was there all baited for him, but he did not have sense enough to keep away " from. Ah, boy, beware of the rat trap. Here, take your hand out of that barrel of dried apples. How do you know but there is a trap set there V 1 That's what I want to find cait,' said the boy. as he removed his hand "- and looked in the barrel to see if it was j really loaded for him. ' Well, sir, 7 your .sermon on. the infallibility of tie rat-trap, has done me good, and I only wish you could preach it to pa. He more trouble than any .man I ever saw. You heard about his iotiirg near being lynched in the Fourth -ward? It was all on account of his ■nrowling around trying to save something. You know the alley over there where they -have! a 1 so. many incendiary fires ? Wei], they have detectives all around there to try and catch tLe fire bug. Ma gent pa ove- there t/O hire a : coiore •■ woman who lives in the alley to do the washing, and the detectives watched pa. When he came '-trttt rf the -woman's hefutfe and! Wmr

saw some shingles and shaving by the side of a new building, and he picked up : a bundle to take home for kindling. The detectives caught him, with the bundle in his arms, and they said they had got the. fire bug, and the people were looking for a rope for pa, when I came up and told them he was all right. My, how scared pa was, but when I got him home 1 didn't think it was right for him to tell ma that he cleaned out the whole police force.' *N"o, he ought not to have done that. But that kindling story should be a lesson t6 us to avoid even the appearance of evil. In such a moment as ye think not.' 4 Oh, give us rest,' said the boy, 1 When you talk so confounded good I always watch you, because .you are either mixing cheap flour with backwheat flour, or whittling the lead out of the weights, or charging half » pound more butter than you send to a house. lam on to you,' and the bad; boy went out to help an old man carry a heavy basket home, and the grocery man charged a pound of dried apples to the boy's father, and everybody was; happy. _____

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