y a
poor man's cheerless home would be made much more comfortable and
endurable if a few shilling's worth of good pictures were posted or
hung round its bare walls. If houses were universally decorated with
true speaking pictures what an immense influence for good it would
bring them. What intellectual and refined tastes it would create and
nurture. One most important thing in selecting pictures to cover the
walls it to always choose good subjects. A poor picture takes up as
much room as a good one, and generally costs as much. Always choose
live speaking pictures that will interest and instruct. There is an
immense multitude of poor, tame, an uninteresting pictures produced
in the world, and which in millions of instances keep out the good
ones. If these poor ones could be kept back or destroyed, and the
best ones only take their place, the world would be better for it.
In choosing materials to build up a bright, happy home, always select
the best--the best books--the best music--the best pictures. In
conclusion, there is one more suggestion I would make on the picture
question, and I think it is the most important of all; it is that a
good clear map of the world should be hung in every house in the
world, to give every person an idea of the world they live in. For it
is a most deplorable fact that ninety-nine out of every hundred of
the inhabitants, even of the civilized world, have a very poor
conception of the geography and ethnology of the world. And this
should not be, for every person ought to have a clear idea of their
world-fatherland, and of their fellow creatures, and a knowledge of
the map of the world is the first lesson to be learned in that most
desirable direction.

E W COLE, Book Arcade, Melbourne.

[Illustration: A Single Picture Often Conveys More Than Volumes.]

[Page 97--Drawing Land]

[Illustration: Drawing Doggy's Likeness.]

The New Slate

See my slate. I dot it new
Cos I b'oke the other,
Put my 'ittle foot right froo,
Runnin' after modder.

I tan make you lots of sings,
Fass as you tan tell 'em,
T's and B's and O rings,
Only I tan't spell 'em

I tan make an elephant,
Wid his trunk a hangin';
An' a boy--who says I tan't?
Wid his dun a bangin'

An' the smoke a tummin' out;
(Wid my t'umb I do it,
Rubbin' all the white about,)
Sparks a flying froo it.

I tan make a pretty house,
Wid a tree behind it,
And a '