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most noticeable one being a wreath of oak leaves and acorns, the centre being formed by the "bird of Jove," finely poised, with outstretched wings. One is almost bewildered among the many beautiful styles for window curtains, now one combining grace and lightness, and the next page has all the simple yet regal magnificence of heavy crimson draperies, and still weightier golden fringes, loops, and tassels. A rich purple velvet lambrequin throws out in fine contrast the delicate wreaths of lace embroidery beneath, or we come upon the fresh and many-tinted bouquets of a brocade in pale green centre, on which the flowers seem to live. The varieties of cornices and lambrequins are infinite. But of these we must confine ourselves and our description to those Mr. Carryl has chosen to be engraved for our readers.

Bed curtains are a nice question in our northern latitude, but they become indispensable as we go further south. The high posts, or frames, stand up gaunt and ungraceful when not draped, yet are

needful supports for the also indispensable mosquito bars. Or there is the low bedstead, with the canopy answering the same purpose. But either requires drapery.

Of the window draperies, No. 1 has a heavy architectural cornice, with a lambrequin of purple velvet, from which depends a graceful fall of cords and tassels, breaking the otherwise harsh outline. The brocatelle drapery is of blue and wood colors, with a rich border of purple gimp and fringe.

In No. 2, the cornice is richly gilded of an unique and beautiful pattern. The lambrequin is also of a novel shape, and more than usually graceful. It is of the same material as the drapery, a rich crimson damask, of a shade like the finest ruby in the sunlight. This is bordered by an embroidery of gimp, pale green, and contrasting beautifully with the rich crimson of the curtain. Cords and a heavy fringe of the same complete the rich effect.

The under curtain is of lace, with a rich pattern of embroidery, and is draped from the cornice to the floor.

KNITTED ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.

MICHAELMAS DAISY.

THIS flower may be knitted, with two stitches for the width of the row, but it is much quicker to work it in a chain of crotchet; it is generally variegated, either in two shades of red, or two shades of violet. The variegation is produced by working with two threads of Berlin wool, one of a deep, the other of a light shade, of the same color.

Make a chain of simple crotchet, about a yard in length, then cover a piece of thin wire, as long as you can conveniently manage, with one thread of Berlin wool, and begin to sew this wire along one edge of the chain, leaving about an inch of the wire at the beginning; when you have sewn about an inch, cut the chain, pull the thread through the last stitch, bring your wire round, sew half the second edge, then bring round the wire that you left at the beginning, sew it to meet the other, letting the wires cross each other, twist them and the wool together tightly, to form a stalk, and turn up the two little petals, first cutting away one of the wires close to the twist, to prevent the stalk being too thick when finished.

Wind a piece of yellow wool on the end of one of your fingers, pull it out thus doubled, and twist a bit of rather strong wire over it, twist the wire very tight, and make with this wool a kind of little ball, which must be covered with a piece of common net (dyed yellow, if possible), tie the net as tight as possible over the wool. This forms the daisy.

When you have made a sufficient number of petals to form two or three rows, each row being made rather larger than the first, you must sew them all round the little heart, and proceed to make the calyx as follows:

Make a chain of twelve stitches with the crotchet needle, using green wool, not split, work two rows in double crotchet, increasing two stitches in the second row. Sew this calyx under the petals, fasten up the open side, and gather the stitches of the lower extremity, cover the stem with green split wool.

BUD.

Make a small ball of any color, then take fifteen or twenty bits of split wool, the same colors as used for the flower, each about an inch long, tie them tightly as a little bundle; fasten this on the top of the little ball, to which you must first fix a wire, bring down the ends of wool in alternate stripes of dark and light shades, tie all these ends round the wire, and cut them close. Wind a bit of green wool, as a very small ball, immediately under the bud, then with green wool, not split, make a row of herring-bone stitches, from the little bud, to about half way up the colored one. This makes a very pretty bud, looking as if just ready to bloom.

LEAF.

Like that of the Heart's-ease.*

* Directions for knitting the Heart's-ease will be given in a future number of the "Lady's Book."

PATTERNS FOR SILK EMBROIDERY.

This pattern may be wrought in silk on merino or flannel, or in cotton on muslin. It makes a rich border.

KNITTED BERRIES AND FRUIT.

STRAWBERRY AND ITS LEAF.

Four needles (No. 20) are required. The strawberry may be knitted in two different ways;* in plain rounds, or in the following manner, more exactly conformable to nature:

Cast on an even number of stitches, from thirty to

It may also be shaded, or all scarlet, according to the variety which you have selected for model.

forty, in scarlet Berlin wool, not split; or, better, in purse twist, rather coarse, of a bright shade. First round.-Knit one, purl one, throughout the round.

Second round.-Purl one, knit one, throughout the round.

Continue in this manner, beginning alternately with the plain and with the purled stitch, till you have worked about half the length of the strawberry. Then decrease one stitch on each needle every other round. When three stitches only remain on each needle, gather these, and fasten off. Fill the strawberry with emery, and fasten off tight the second aperture, after having inserted it in a stem made of double wire, covered with green wool or silk.

The next piece is the calyx: two needles only are used:

Cast on six stitches with a bright shade of green wool or silk.

First row.-Make one, knit one, throughout the

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Next row.-Make one, knit two, turn back, purl the same stitches. Repeat the two last rows three times, then decrease one stitch, knit one, purl together the two last, break the wool or silk a yard at least from the work; thread with it a rug needle; pass the needle through the loop of the last stitch, and bring it to the next stitches on the needle, by sewing neatly with it the left edge of the little leaf just made. Work the next two stitches in the same manner, and repeat the same operation till all the stitches are worked in small leaves, united at their base. Edge them with wire covered with green wool or silk; place your strawberry in the middle; fasten together strawberry and calyx, and, if you like, add a leaf made as follows:

LEAF.

Cast on one stitch.
First row.-Make one, knit one.
Second row.-Make one, purl two.
Third row.-)
-Make one, knit three.
Fourth row.-Make one, purl four.

Fifth row.-Knit two, make one, knit one, make one, knit the remainder of the row, and continue in alternate purled and knitted rows, making one stitch before and one after the middle stitch in every plain row till you have seventeen or nineteen stitches; then purl one row, knit one row, without increase; purl the next row, and at the beginning of the following row knit together the first two stitches; break the wool about a yard from the work; pass the nee

dle through the loop of the last stitch, bring it to the next stitches on the needle, by sewing neatly with it a stitch or two on the left edge of the little scallop just made; knit plain the remainder of the row. Purl together the first two stitches of the next row; pass the rug needle through the loop just made; bring the wool along the edge of the little scallop to the next stitches on the needle; purl the remainder of the row, and continue the same process till all the stitches, except the three middle ones, are worked in small scallops. Then slip one stitch, knit one, turn

the slipped stitch over the knitted one; purl together the two remaining stitches; fasten off; cover a wire with green wool, sew it neatly round the leaf, making the little scallops as sharply pointed as possible. As the strawberry leaf is composed of three, make this the middle one, and work two more in the same manner, but a little smaller, say with two stitches less, and place them on each side of the first. N. B. The little seeds on the strawberry are embroidered with golden-colored floss silk when the strawberry is finished.

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Materials.-Black velvet ribbon, one inch wide; rich purple merino or silk, of two shades, which must approximate; gold-colored ditto, and a skein of narrow Russian silk braiding to match exactly with the gold and the lighter purple; 12 yards of gold-colored chain gimp, and 4 tassels to match.

The diagrams being given of the full size, for every part, no difficulty can occur in cutting out the different sections. The octagons are formed alternately of stars, made in the purple material, and formed into the proper shape by means of goldcolored diamonds, which fit in between the points, and octagons of gold-color, braided with purple, and edged with black velvet ribbon braided in gold. Purple diamonds, braided with gold, or vice versa, fill up the spaces between the octagons; and sections of the same (halves and quarters) are used to form the whole into a square.

In choosing the purple merino, take care that it is of a bright tint, and that there is no great difference between the two shades, as they are intended merely to give the effect of light and shadow. The star consists of sixteen pieces, namely, eight of each shade, and the same number of gold-colored diamonds. The yellow octagon may be either in one piece or in eight, the braiding being in four parts; meeting in the centre, as represented in the engraving.

In running on silk braid, it is often so difficult to obtain sewing silk to match, that it is very convenient to cut off a length of braid, and draw out the threads for sewing it on: this saves a great deal of trouble.

Braid patterns are marked, like those for embroidery, by being first pricked on stout paper, laid over the material, and pounced.

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EDITORS' TABLE.

A GRAND missionary jubilee was celebrated in London on the 16th of June, as the completion of the third cycle of fifty years since the first Protestant missions to the heathen were begun. One hundred and fifty years! thus long have British Christians been engaged in disseminating the Gospel. It is only forty years since the first missionaries from our American churches were sent forth. Marked success has attended these efforts, particularly in the schools established for heathen children; these are chiefly instructed by the wives of missionaries, or other female teachers sent out for this purpose.

Throughout the heathen world the apparatus of Christianity, so to speak, is prepared. The Bible has been translated into the languages of the greater portion of the nations and tribes of Asia and Africa. Tracts and other books are translated; printing-presses are established; what is needed is to reach the fountain of life in those lands, and bring the healing stream of God's Word to purify the stagnant pools and sweeten the bitter waters of sin and ignorance that now diffuse only death to the souls of the people. This fountain of life is the mothers of the land: through female aid in teaching these and their children, daughters particularly, the truth only can be rendered effective. Good men, American Protestant Christians even, have hardly yet conceived what influence pious educated women might wield in this work. Yet, when we turn to the earliest annals of the true Church, we find this agency not only used, but openly acknowledged and commended. In St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans-his first on recordsent by Phebe, who certainly held an office in the church at Cenchrea, he names eight other female "laborers" as among his best helpers-Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Julia, the mother of Rufus, and the sister of Nereus. "Phebe was a succorer of many:" so might missionary female physicians now become, and, through their agency, reach those whose conversion would, with Heaven's blessing, insure the speedy success of Christian missions.

In the "Medical Department" at Siam, as we learn from a late Report of the Presbyterian mission, much good had been effected. "Six days in the week, Dr. House spends two hours a day at the floating house, used as a dispensary, except when absent on missionary tours in the interior, and during the prevalence of the cholera. New cases only were recorded, amounting to 1371, making, in two and a half years since his arrival, 4488 patients." Very few of these were females; such cannot be reached by male practitioners, and must therefore suffer the agonies of bodily disease one of their own sex, if properly qualified, might relieve, in addition to all other miseries and deprivations imposed on women in the East. In Calcutta, so long ruled by the British, where their physicians are employed freely by rich Hindoo men, it is only in cases of extremity among the women that one is called to their aid, and then only permitted to see the patient, so covered and concealed, that only the tongue and wrist are exposed to view. As a measure of humanity only, the sending out qualified female physicians to those countries would be a great charity; but the aid such pious, intelligent ladies might give to the mission cause is incalculable. Very few men in this profession are willing to go out-very few have the faith and VOL. XLV.-25

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COLPORTEURS IN AMERICA.-There is an important field of missionary labor in our own land, where women might be employed to great advantage, namely, as colporteurs, or distributors of tracts and books. The Boards of Publication now employ men only, whose services must be paid at a much higher rate than women would require. Except in the thinly settled portions of our country, where much travelling to reach the insulated settlers is necessary, the work of distributing publications might be done, and well done, by pious women, to whom a small stipend would be of much importance. There are widows who need this employment for support, and single women who need employment for health, and many women would like this way of doing good. Let a suitable number of such women be appointed in this city-say, by the Presbyterian Board of Publication (we name this because we have heard it was greatly in need of colporteurs or distributors, and could not obtain them) to visit throughout Philadelphia, and dispose of their publications as the Board directs; and extend the same arrangement to every city, town, and village throughout our land. In every place women would be found suitable and willing to undertake this profession. It is one exactly suited to them. It enters into their domestic circle of feelings and pursuits; and "honorable women, not a few," would be found ready to engage in the work. A number of men would be needed to penetrate the wild places of our land; but, throughout all the settied portions, women would be the most effective agents. By this arrangement a double gain would be secured. The talents of pious women, now allowed to be wasted on trifles, would be employed in the cause of moral improvement, and those men who now give up their time, often at a great pecuniary sacrifice, to the colporteur's duty, would be at liberty to enter on other pursuits more beneficial to themselves and to society.

We do not propose any innovation on domestic life by this arrangement. The duties of HOME will ever be the great profession of woman; the most sacred, the most happy, the most honorable she can perform. But there is a large proportion of time now unemployed by the sex, or worse, devoted to novel-reading or frivolous pursuits. Such waste of time is severely censured by Christian moralists-men who teach what should not be done. But till these men provide suitable employments for the talents and time of their daughters as well as for their sons, the former will, of necessity, fall into indolence or frivolity. A greater diversity of honorable employments for women are needed. This, of distributing useful publications, augmenting good and preventing evil, would be in unison with their nature. Try the experiment, Christian men, you who have the power to order and arrange. We believe that success, almost beyond calculation, would crown the enterprise.

COMMON SCHOOLS IN OHIO." The system of public schools is rapidly spreading all over the country. The prosperous

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