WITH THE CORRESPONDING EDITOR

MISS S. M. W.-The colors and varieties of silks for waists and dresses that are shown in the shops this autumn are so numerous that it is difficult to make a choice. You ask about the shade; dark blue-green is seen, and also the lighter apple green. The burnt bread is the favorite shade in brown, although all shades in brown will be used. Purple is the dominating autumn color, but there is so much of it now it will scarcely be a winter color. For a dressy waist the white nets with lace trimmings make up as effectively as anything. But white silk covered with dotted black net, or a light-weight mousseline, makes an attractive waist, especially when piped about the neck and sleeves with some light-colored silk such as buff, mauve, or even scarlet. As to waists to be worn with your dark blue suit, it would be well to have one match in color the cloth of your suit. The silks used for waists, as well as dresses, are the soft silks such as liberty, peau de cygne, and surahs, and you would probably have no difficulty in matching your suit. A trimming of a contrasting color such as electric blue, or the new Louis XV. blue, would lighten the waist, and, at the same time, not make it too dressy for general wear. Herringbone cheviots are used for raincoats as well as the heavier cheviots, but the silk rubber coats are probably the most really rain-proof.

MRS. E. O. W.-The matter of iron rust on wash clothes is always a trying one, particularly as it may come from a number of causes not always easy to trace. It is quite possible that the well water you use, which you think has sulphur in it, may be responsible, especially if you are still using a copper boiler; there is a chemical effect of sulphur on copper which might produce the stain you speak of. It might be worth while to try a tin boiler and see if you do not get better results. If you write to the Domestic Science Department of the University of California, Berkeley, California, it would send you information in regard to putting some chemical in the water which would prevent the spots appearing. Of course the quick and sure way to remove all iron-rust stains is with salts of lemon, allowing the clothes to bleach in the sun for some time.

MISS L. A.-There are so many things suitable and attractive for engagement presents it is rather difficult to make a choice. But your own idea to embroider something for your brother's fiancée is an excellent one, and then, too, it is more personal. A pretty centrepiece for the table, with or without doilies to match, or a half-dozen or dozen hemstitched towels, embroidered with the initials of the fiancée, are very useful presents and make good ones for the wedding-chest. Engagement cups and saucers, and often a piece of silver such as an after-dinner coffee-pot or fruit-spoon, are given, but these are usually the gifts of more formal friends. There is no custom in the matter of the father and

mother making a present to their son's fiancée; it is rather a question of inclination and not necessary.

MISS I. P.-The BAZAR was glad to hear from you and is interested to know that you are making a collection of all the articles on handiwork that appear in the BAZAR, and I am sure it would be of interest to BAZAR readers to know what use you mean to make of your collection when it is completed. You ask for something to put into hard water to soften it; there is probably nothing so good as borax, and it makes the water pleasant to bathe in. The proportion is usually about a large tablespoonful of borax to a bowl of water, but it may be necessary to use more borax. Bran, too, softens water, and the most convenient way to use it is to make small cheese-cloth bags which will hold two teacupfuls of bran, and then put these into the bath. Bran is very soothing to the skin.

MRS. G. M.-In connection with the booth devoted exclusively to HARPER'S BAZAR, which you are to have at your fair, perhaps the following suggestions may be of use: For a year or more past the cover of each issue of the magazine has been a striking and effective picture. Why not mount a number of these covers on drawing-board, frame them in passe-partout, and sell them for posters? The cost of the materials would be very small, and the labor not great. They would make a good decoration for the booth too. Perhaps you have already arranged for this, but if not, why not have the letters H. B. made of evergreen, with a cluster of small electric-light bulbs on each, and from them long streamers of the same green, which would be looped back at either end of the table; then, if the back of the booth were hung with the evergreen, you would have a very effective background for the pretty young woman you will have there to take subscriptions. Copies of the magazine hung on the green streamers would lend a great deal of color and attract attention.

MRS. R. S. D.-And still the letters come in in regard to fairs where there are to be booths devoted exclusively to HARPER'S BAZAR! The BAZAR is, of course, much interested in this and glad to make suggestions. You will have thought of some good decorations, but one can never hear too often that any kind of evergreen is more helpful than anything else to produce a good effect. A very pretty little book could be made of scarlet blotting-paper cut into medium-sized squares, with cuts into which the edges of pictures could be slipped. One book could be filled with the pictures that have appeared in the BAZAR on household decoration, another with the pictures of dainty luncheon or dinner dishes, and so on. The covers of these books could be of blotting-paper, too, with a design on them done in gilt. These books would not be difficult to make and would certainly be inexpensive, and you could lure many a purchaser to your booth by their bright colors.

Good Form and
Entertainment

Letters cannot be answered in these columns sooner than two months from the time of their receipt. The BAZAR'S correspondence is too large to permit an earlier reply. Prompt answers by mail will be sent to correspondents who enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope in their letters. All questions should contain the name and address of the sender, though not for publication.

BELLINDA. Pretty stationery made expressly for the invitations to children's parties can be found at most book-shops, or at the large department shops where note-paper is kept. The form is printed, and only the names have to be filled in. If you do not get this, use stationery with some appropriate device to decorate it, and word the invitations as:

Alice Smith

requests the pleasure of
Master Walter Brown's

company on Tuesday, December the tenth,
from four until six o'clock.

It is better not to mention the fact that it will be a birthday-party, as this always seems rather a hint for presents. For children about four years old you should have a variety of entertainments, so that nothing lasts too long. Have a fish-pond where each child throws a line fastened to a stick over a screen and gets some little trifle tied to the end to pull back as a fish. Have the donkey game or some variety of itthis is always interesting-and have games with music. Have a peanut-hunt and let the little people hunt to find the peanuts, which have been hid before they come. The great event is the supper, and for this have one long table prettily decorated at which the children sit when they eat. The birthday-cake with lighted candles must be in the middle; there should be pretty place-cards and little favors-small boxes of simple candies tied with ribbons-and the menu may consist of sandwiches, cocoa, creamed chicken, ice-cream and cake, with milk for those who prefer it.

MAZIE. For your luncheon, for the soup, use plates if you have no cups. As a meat course for this time of year broilers are delicious, of the size which makes two portions. Potatoes can be served with them, and pease. Grapefruit salad with French dressing, and pineapple and bananas with cream dressing, are both good. The prettiest way to serve the cream cheese is to beat it up light with whipped cream and arrange it in a ring around a centre of Bar-le-duc jelly. Or it can be "riced," like potatoes, and made into a snowy mound. The jelly can be beaten into it with the cream, if preferred; but this makes it look rather too much like a sweetmeat. home-made wine can be served at any time during the luncheon, the glasses being set at the plates ready for it. You do not say what sort of wine; if it is a cordial it is best served after the coffee, in the drawing-room, in tiny glasses full of cracked ice on a tray.

Your

MRS. B. G. E.-For your first wedding anniversary have the decorations, flowers, etc., for your tables as much like your wedding ones as possible, only, of course, less elaborate. Use the same colors, flowers, etc., if you can. Small tables would be better for so many guests. For an inexpensive favor at each plate, get tiny white boxes such as are used for wedding-cake, fill them with sugar hearts with mottoes on them and cocoanut kisses, and tie them with white ribbon. White place-cards, small, with gilt or silver edge, and the name written on them, would be the most suitable. A good entertainment for your party would be to give each man a pencil and paper. Then allow ten minutes for each of them to write a description of his wife's wedding-dress, with no assistance from anybody. Let each man's wife read it aloud and correct it. The best description may receive a prize, if you choose. This has been tried on such occasions, and is always amusing and successful.

MRS. G.-For invitations to a reception use "at home" cards in this style:

Mrs. M. B. Brown

at home

on Thursday, December the twelfth,
from four to seven o'clock
10 Main Street

For a card - party, your visiting - card, with
"cards" in the lower left-hand corner and the
day and hour written beneath, would be suitable;
or you can write formal invitations if you pre-
fer: "Mrs. M. B. Brown requests the pleasure
of Miss Brown's company at cards on Thursday
evening, December the twelfth, at eight o'clock."
There is nothing new in receptions, unless you
choose to make it a Japanese one. In that case
you can decorate the house with paper blossoms,
wistaria, and snowballs, paper lanterns, Japanese
kakemonos, etc.; and serve tea with rice wafers,
biscuit, preserved ginger, preserved Japanese
oranges, with lobster stew and rice and shrimp
croquettes as substantials- all of which
Japanese. Over your table hang a large Japa-
nese parasol, stripping off the paper from the
ribs, and covering them with sprays of cherry
blossoms instead, till you get a floral parasol.

are

RUBY. All the bride's silver and linen, whether it is given by her own relatives or the groom's relatives, should be marked with the initials of her maiden name, not with the groom's initials. This is the American rule; I believe it is different in England, where the groom's family name is used.