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fiascos made by the average home worker may well, it seems to me, be given here for the benefit of others. The conversation took its impulse from a photograph which showed a very ingenious covering for a mantelpiece which, for some reason, was thought to be undesirable in its original state, and for which a clever young woman had designed the cover before mentioned. The draping was of burlap, neatly fitted like a sheath over the marble mantel, and completely concealing it and the fireplace below. Over this a frieze of prints was hung; yet, neat and original as the arrangement was, something appeared to be awry; something about it declared it to be the work of the amateur. There was a lack of precision of workmanship somewhere which stamped it as "home-made."

EXT in importance to brushes and brooms, sweepers, polishers, and the various dusters, to say nothing of the noble army of devices for the putting into practice of up-to-date domestic science, there is no accessory to the household furnishings more important to the well-keeping of the house than a good tool-box; and, it may be added, there is no knowledge more necessary on the part of the housekeeper than how to use it. For the American housekeeper is often peculiarly venturesome in mechanical lines, daring to undertake all sorts of small renovations (and innovations, too, for that matter) which a man, no better equipped, would shirk. In many instances this is unfortunate, for manual training has seldom been included in her education; until her need arose, she may never have considered what driving in a tack or a nail might mean; hence, her ventures into such lines as upholstery and carpentry, as a rule, are both costly and unsatisfactory, resulting in work which only the untrained eye could look upon complacently.

I talked recently with an observant carpenter, whose deduction as to the reasons for the

REPEATED BLOWS WEAKEN THE NAIL.

The carpenter who examined it, modestly denying any ability as an upholsterer or draper, soon pointed out the blemish. "It is one," he remarked,," which eight women out of ten would make. Naturally they have no training in the work and, as a rule, they don't know how to go about it, nor what tools to get, nor how to use them. Now, this lady," he continued, "has had the wooden top carefully sawed to fit the mantelpiece; she has measured and fitted her burlap faultlessly, but where the skirt is attached to the top board she has used large brass-headed nails, a very conspicuous finish, and has failed to measure the distance between them. These uneven spaces stamp the work from the beginning as that of the novice, which every trained eye will light upon the first thing.

"Then, too," he added, continuing to scrutinize the print, "this tack and this one are not driven in straight, and there is another which has been flattened in hammering, both of which defects may probably be traced to the use of a wrong style of hammer. The whole trouble lies in this, the amateurs who wish to do little things about the house' seldom provide themselves with a proper toolbox. They don't know how to select their tools wisely, and, never having the right ones, are apt to rely upon their ingenuity in adapt

'ing any implement they may happen to have at hand to a purpose for which it was never designed, and for which it should never be made to serve. Usually this is very costly, and an experienced workman would never do it. He couldn't afford to! The average toolbox out of which the amateur attempts to fix up' his or her place contains a few nails of odd sizes, a few screws, a little 'ladylike' hammer, a poor screw-driver such as comes with sewing-machines, and possibly a saw. As a rule the saw is not often used, so of course it is less likely to get out of repair; but the household hammer is generally so poorly adapted to the uses to which it is put, that before it has been used a half-dozen times it begins to fly off the handle' at the slightest provocation." As the speaker showed a willingness to enter into details, I encouraged him to proceed, and, afterward, having proved the worth of his conclusions, I found myself entering into an investigation of tools and their uses which was highly interesting.

There are five principal tools with which the household box should be supplied, and with which almost any kind of work such as women undertake may be done in a neat and satisfactory manner. The entire cost of these amounts to less than one and a half dollars, for tools are cheap, though the substitutes one often makes use of are exceedingly dear. The first in importance is the hammer, "the universal implement," as some one has called it, for it ranges from the weighty sledge of the iron-worker to the delicate toy of the goldsmith. Even those forms of the hammer that are intended for household use alone are legion, though a description of them at length must be omitted. In buying, the first principle is to select a hammer with a stoutly made and secured head that will not come off. Cast-iron hammers in any style are useless, as, being exceedingly brittle, they break easily. A good steel instrument costing twice as much will last a lifetime, though a dozen renewals must be made of the cheaper one. Nor is a small hammer serviceable, since a light implement and repeated blows therefrom weaken the nail and often bend it in the wood before it has been struck home. In this way half the purchase is lost before the nail is driven well in. The only satisfactory tool is one of medium weight, which, with two or three blows may drive the nail fully to its home. Where but one hammer is found in the family tool-box, this, preferably, should be a

double-headed article, in two sizes, so that nails inaccessible to the larger end may be reached by the smaller.

Carpenters and teachers of manual training, as well as builders and constructors, all agree that a nail should never be driven in where it is possible to use a screw. The latter has all the advantages of the nail besides many superior qualities. The screw holds better, seldom splits wood, may be easily removed and replaced, and is much stronger. It appears, however, that the correct putting in of the screw and its taking out again are operations requiring care and precision if the novice undertaking them wishes to have her work appear well done. It calls into play two instruments, neither costly, but both necessary. The first is an awl, often forgotten in the furnishing of the amateur's tool-box, but an instrument of infinite uses and necessary wherever home carpentry is undertaken, even of the simplest kind. A nail driven carelessly into hard wood is likely to split it, and a screw, under some conditions, will act the same. By preparing the place for nail or screw, by first drilling a small hole to receive it, the probability of splitting the wood in this disfiguring

way is obviated. Holes for very large nails or screws occasionally may require to be started by a gimlet, but even here the awl is likely to be required to prepare the point for the gimlet. This little instrument in carpentry answers to the pointer in embroidery, and is sometimes seen as an adjunct to the writing-table, being used there for punching holes in which paper-fasteners are to be inserted. For this purpose it is incomparably superior to the penknife, which may slip and cut the fingers. The awl, therefore, may be ranked fairly with the important tools that surely should be included in the family tool-box. The awl hole, the work of a second, saves many a mashed finger-tip; for, once it has been made, the nail or screw to be driven in may be pushed into position and, unassisted, will hold there ready for the final blow or turn that will send it home. Even in the placing of the longer carpet tacks, the awl hole first should be made in order to expedite the work and to obviate unnecessary noise in hammering.

Wire nails of all sizes are so generally known that to recommend them is unnecessary, but the value of the screw is less commonly understood by the novice. Builders adopt it in every practicable place, and the makers of fine furniture, for it is an axiom with good craftsmen, that work put together

THE SCISSORS ARE CAUGHT UP HASTILY.

must be so well done that it may be taken apart (not ripped) whenever necessary. The taking out and replacing of nails being seldom feasible, it follows that the screw is the one agent to be relied upon. In the making of bookshelves, built-in seats, putting up shelves, making shirt-waist boxes, etc., the screw is infinitely to be preferred to the nail. IIowever, the screw itself may suffer a deterioration if wrongly manipulated, and this, besides its slightly higher cost, is the reason why women workers at home do not more gen-. erally resort to it. In putting in a screw care is necessary that the face or cleft of the top be not injured. If an attempt be made to turn it in the desired place with the end of a tableknife, as many handy persons do who depend upon makeshifts in the way of tools, the ruin of the screw is assured. Good screw-drivers are cheap, though cheap ones are seldom good; but the best cost one-fifth as much as knife or scissors, cuticle-knife or letter-opener, all of which have been known to serve, in their turn, the purposes of the unprovided workman. For household purposes a screwdriver having a three-eighths-inch end and at nine-inch handle is a good size. Where desired, a screw may be sunk below the surface, and the hole filled in with putty or other filler, the finish being put on over all.

Next in importance to the awl, hammer, and screw-driver comes the tack-lifter, which should always be a separate instrument and not part of the hammer-head. The tax upon hammer-heads of this kind is great, and quickly results in a straining from the handle and a loosening which means the early destruction of the implement. The forked end of the separate tack-lifter being directed from a straight handle, is much stronger than that extending sidewise from the head of the hammer, and, under ordinary circumstances, cannot become loosened by the usual demands made upon it. For this reason, such seductive combinations as the hammer and tack-lifter should be avoided, and separate tools should be purchased.

The utility of the plier is perhaps less known to women than that of almost any other implement in the tool-box. Belonging to the same family of implements as the small tweezers and the large pincers, they are distinctive in shape and in the uses to which they may be put. For general usefulness, pliers rank next to the hammer. They serve to tighten rivets, nuts, bolts, and gas-jets, and,