cient stamps upon a letter to make sure of no extra
postage falling to the lot of your correspondent.

Do put your address plainly in all letters. This ensures a prompt
answer and, in case of miscarriage, a speedy return from the
Dead-Letter Office.

Do, if a business man or woman, have your address on the outside of
your envelope. This will make sure of your uncalled-for letters
returning to you immediately. It is well to do this in any case where
a little uncertain as to the exact address of your correspondent.

Do read your letters over carefully before sending, that no errors may
be overlooked.

Do give every subject a separate paragraph instead of running the
whole letter, social items and sentiment, all into one indistinguishable
whole.

Do begin the first line of each paragraph, at least, one inch from the
margin, of the page.

[Illustration]

Artistic Home Decorations.

[Illustration]

The greatest art work the individual has to do is the building of a
home. "A small and inexpensive house may be the House Beautiful," says
Edmund Russell. A famous architect once wrote that he could furnish a
plan for a house of a given size and cost without knowing whether the
owner was a millionaire or a day laborer. But if he wanted a _home_
the case was different. "I desire then to know his antecedents, how he
made his money, the size of his family, the number of his servants,
and how his daughters spend their time: whether they are domestic,
musical, literary or stylish. I want to know the number and quality of
his guests, whether he drinks wine with his dinner, and his views on
sanitary questions; for this home-building is not mere spending, it is
the shaping of human destiny."

In a home things must be beautiful and true and good, and as a
celebrated art critic says, "related to us, belonging to us,
expressing us at our best; our taste and culture, our personal
likings, our comforts and needs, and not merely the high-tide mark of
our purses."

Fireplaces and Windows.

We are all of us by nature fire worshipers and the altar of every home
is, or should be, the glowing, open fire. Next to this are the great,
clear windows meant to admit the glorious glances of the fire
worshiper's sun.

As to the first, "if you can have but one, the house or the fireplace,
give up the house and keep the fire. If you wish to test the soundness
of this advice, build a house, furnish it extravagantly and supply
furn