BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1929, Page 24 (Supplement)

BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

MAKING A LETTER RACK. (By the Hut Carpenter.) To make this useful letter rack, you will require two thin pieces of wood — one piece eleven inches long, the other six inches long, and both four inches wide. What is known as three-ply will do nicely, or any other w’ood about three-sixteenths of an inch thick.

Take the longer piece and carefully mark out the positions of the dotted lines in pencil; then with your compasses scribe a circle three quarters of an inch in diameter near each corner. You will now want a brace and centre-bit to make the holes — a, three-quarter inch bit is the size required. After cutting the holes half way through on one side of the wood, turii it over and finish them from the other Jde. The email hole A for hanging up the letter rack, can be made with a quarter-inch bit. Now, with your tenon saw, cut

through the dotted lines at the top and bottom; then rub over the edges and the back and front of the wood with a piece of fine glasspaper. With your pencil and compasses mark out the shapes of the two parts B on the other piece of wood, end cut out the holes with the brace and bit in the same way that you made the other holes. Saw each part to shape and rub over with glasspaper. For the parts C obtain a strip of wood half an inch by a quarter of an inch and a little over eight inches long. Plane away one corner along the whole length of the strip, so as to leave a wedge-shaped piece as shown in the diagrams. Saw off two pieces four inches long and then with a little glue stick them in place between the dotted lines D.D. When quite dry, screw each part B in place with three five-eighth inch brass screws, and give your finished letter rack a coating of light oak varnish stain. THE WHITE KING. Charles I. was called the White King because he wore white robes at his coronation. He refused to put on the usual purple and scarlet robes of ceremony, and, much against the wishes of his ministers and friends, white ones were made for him. They were not quite finished when the coronation day arrived, but the king wore them as they were, and his splendid white-clad figure made a great impression on all who beheld him.

In those days it was considered very unlucky to be crowned in white, and the highest and the lowest in the land declared that terrible calamity would overtake the White King. No doubt it was merely coincidence, but when we think of Charles I. walking calmly to the scaffold at Whitehall we can imagine the people nodding their heads and reminding each other of those white robes. Charles died nobly, and his last words were: “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown.” SWEETS WITHOUT COOKING! DATE DELIGHT. Stone some dates, chop them up finely, and work them into a compact mass with icing sugar. If the mixture breaks apart, add a very little hot water, but it should not be sticky; use sufficient icing sugar to mould the dates well together. Shape the mixture into flat slab and cut it into cubes with a sharp knife. Press each sweet into desiccated coconut till nicely coated, and leave to dry. A TROOP OF NATIONS. An interesting proof of the cosmopolitan character of Cardiff as a seaport is seen in the company of Scouts connected with St. Mary’s Church there. The troop has 40 members, belonging to 14 nationalities. Among them are included French, Italians, Spaniards Portuguese, Chinese, Arabs and Negroes. All speak English fluently, and they also speak, their own languages.-