stockings, as well as in silk or cotton gloves, knitted petticoats,
&c., and so rapidly forms a long ladder of open bars that we can here
almost literally apply the maxim, “A stitch in time saves nine.” No
better remedy seems to be devised by careless workers than passing
the needle under and over the bars, which, being wider than the space
left for them, cannot be properly stretched, and the result is an
unsightly and puckered darn, especially when the mischief extends to
two or three adjacent rows. The following mode is undoubtedly the
right one: Take up a dropped or slipped stitch, as in knitting, by
inserting a fine crochet hook into the first loop below, and draw
through it the first rung or bar of the ladder. Then continue to
pass each succeeding row into the loop left on the crochet needle
till all are raised, when the last remaining loop is fastened firmly
and neatly by a needle threaded with cotton, silk, or wool. A chain
stitch is thus formed, very similar to the web.
[Illustration: 178. Grafting.]
_Grafting._--To graft means to join one thing so that it receives
support from another. In the mending of stockings, &c., the term
signifies joining two pieces together, or strengthening a thin
part. The joining consists of seaming, patching, and refooting. In
stockings, vests, sleeves, &c., where the worn part can be taken
off all round, a fresh piece is put in by means of a seam perfectly
invisible, provided the cotton or silk match precisely in colour and
quality. Cut off the decayed portion, and prepare the edges of the
piece to be united. Rest the work on the first and second fingers
of the left hand, keeping it flat by the pressure of the thumb; or
hold it as for sewing, in which case graft rather loosely to avoid
any ridge. Take up on the needle two loops parallel to each other
(Fig. 178), pass the thread through these, drawing two webs together.
Repeat on the opposite side, and continue thus to the end of the row;
the needle at each time enters a loop already picked up and a fresh
one. Fasten off as for web stitch.
[Illustration: 179. Detail of Patch. 180. Patch set in.]
_Patching_ is a neat and expeditious method of filling up large
holes, specially valuable for weak sight, or in repairing silk and
thread stockings; or, in short, any fine material with loops so small
as to render the raising up of each stitch a very tedious task. It is
very similar to the linen buttonhole patch. Method of working: Cut
out the unsound part straight to a thread, and prepare a patch of
the same material to fit the gap exactly. Border with rather close
buttonhole stitch the perpendicular edges of both hole and patch
(Fig. 179). Attach lightly the 4 corners, graft the upper and lower
edge, and sew the buttonholed by drawing together the opposite loops
of each stitch (Fig. 180).
_Refooting._--This process comprises herringboning, and the three
different stocking, seams--grafting, buttonholing, and stitching.
When the foot of a stocking is apparently past mending, separate
it from the sound part of the leg, and rip up the 4 seams, thus
detaching the sole from the upper part with the heel. Pin or tack
each part on brown paper, outline the shape in chalk, then cut out,
allowing nearly ¼ in. for turnings. Unpick the leg seam of any old
stockings, spread them flat, and upon them place the paper pattern,
the lines of which are followed precisely in the cutting out. The
two pieces being ready, unite by buttonholing the side seams of the
foot, and the centre seam of the leg. Method of working: Leave ¼
in. turnings, and buttonhole each folded edge. Then holding the
work as for sewing, join the rows, either by a buttonhole stitch
taken in each of the opposite loops, or by neat sewing. In most
cases, however, a single buttonholed or sewn seam may suffice.
When completed flatten the seam, and secure each turning by tiny
herringbone stitches, carefully avoiding puckering. If preferred, a
tiny ribbon sewn over the seam, can replace the turnings, though it
will not be equally lasting. The toes and the two parts of the heel
are united by stitching on the right side. Ravel out the edge loops,
and lay the pieces opposite each other as for sewing, with the loops
of the back in exact correspondence with the front ones. Insert the
needle in the first loop, and bring it out in the next one, pass
it back to the hole it first entered and bring it out again; thus
each stitch occupies two bars. The joining of the sole and heel is
accomplished on the wrong side. The ravelled-out loops of the sole
are stitched on the ⅛ in. turning of the heel, which is fastened
down on the latter itself by an almost imperceptible herringbone.
This stitched seam is also occasionally used in stockings reheeled
by knitting. The new foot is lastly grafted to the leg. It is almost
useless to make any remarks on the most advantageous way of cutting
out the pieces, as this depends so much on the size and condition of
old legs at command. Nevertheless it may be advisable to suggest that
if the width is insufficient to manage the instep and heel in one
single piece, the latter can be slit up at the clocks, thus making
two heel parts, to be connected with the front by the buttonhole
seam, scarcely visible on the right side, especially when hidden
by an embroidered spray. Such refooting may be considered rather
long and complicated, but is most important for the elaborate and
expensive hose now worn.
SUPPLEMENTARY LITERATURE.
Misses S. F. A. Caulfield and B. C. Saward: ‘The Dictionary of
Needlework; an Encyclopædia of artistic, plain, and fancy needlework;
with over 800 illustrations.’ London, 1882. 21_s._
Beeton’s ‘Book of Needlework; including tatting, crochet, knitting,
netting, embroidery, point lace, guipure d’art, Berlin work,
monograms, initials, names, crewel work, pillow lace, and lace
stitches.’ London. Latest edition. 7_s._ 6_d._
_THE LIBRARY._
The library in a house is a haven to which the unlucky wight, kept
indoors by a steady rain overhead and a slushy mire underfoot, may,
or ought to be able to, seek retreat and pass many hours of quiet and
thorough enjoyment, instead of wandering aimlessly about the house,
and looking out of the windows with an idiotic expression on his face
at the dim and misty landscape. But how can it be a peaceful, restful
refuge, when the would-be reader finds a vast number of volumes,
treating of all manner of subjects, intermixed in a most marvellous
fashion; flighty romantists, witty memoir writers, heavy theologians,
enigmatic scientists, and deep-thinking philosophers elbowing each
other and almost crushing the unlucky poets out of sight? Dismay
seizes the daring explorer of the wonders of a country-house library;
the book he wants is not to be found, and what is more he does not
know where to look for it, great names stare at him from all sides,
and seem to sneer at him for being so foolish as not to read them;
but then he wants a particular book, and in despair, rather than face
the long row of books which seem to jeer at his unsuccessful attempt
to get what he is in search of, he composes himself down to read
_Punch_, or stare out at the drip, drip, dripping rain.
Let us see if this can be avoided. Of course it can; the way to
change the whole aspect of affairs is so to arrange the books on
their shelves that the veriest stranger, after he has been in the
library a couple of minutes, should know where to look for what he
wants, and put his hand on the book if it be in the collection.
The twelve essential rules for the management of the library are:
1. Arrange your books on their shelves into classes, according to the
subjects they treat of.
2. Put everything in its proper place.
3. Always keep directories, peerages, gazetteers, atlases, county
maps, and lexicons in convenient and easily got at places. It will
often save much time and trouble to keep them in book slides on the
table, or in a separate bookcase.
4. Write your name and address in a large bold handwriting on the
fly-leaf of every volume.
5. If you have your books specially bound, let the same style and
colour of binding be used for one class of books.
6. Never allow animals in a library. They are apt to do serious
mischief to MSS. and books, while chasing some imaginary rat. Newton
had the results of many years of hard brain work completely destroyed
through the pranks of his favourite little dog.
7. Keep servants out of the library, except at stated intervals, and,
when admitted, let them be under your personal supervision. Everybody
will remember that the first part of Carlyle’s ‘History of the French
Revolution,’ while yet in MS., was used by a servant to light a fire.
8. Avoid _dampness_ or _excessive heat_; books require _warm dry
air_, in order to preserve their bindings. Thus it will be seen that
the more the books are read the better it will be for the books.
9. On no account let the library be turned into a refreshment room
for a juvenile party.
10. Never allow MS. notes, letters, &c., to litter the tables and the
room. MS. notes should be kept in folding pads, or in drawers, and
letters carefully filed and put away.
11. No book should be left open and placed face downwards, in order
to mark the place where the reader has left off; no other practice so
speedily spoils books as this.
12. _Always have a good index or catalogue of the contents of your
library._
The last is as important a rule as any. A library without a
catalogue is, as Thomas Carlyle expresses it, “A Polyphemus without
an eye in his head.” Isaac D’Israeli, who has left us such a vast
treasure-house of book lore, says that the man who possesses a fine
library cannot be “more animated than a leaden Mercury who does not
aspire to make some small addition to his library, were it only by a
critical catalogue. He must be as indolent as that animal called the
sloth, who perishes on the tree he climbs, after he has eaten all its
leaves.”
The task of cataloguing must not dismay the amateur; the task is a
most useful one, and can easily be managed. The best catalogue would
be this:
Let it be divided into three primary divisions: The body, containing
the titles, authors’ names, date, and place of publication, and the
size and description may be added if considered necessary; index of
authors’ names, with the number of the pages of the catalogue on
which their works will be found, and an index of subjects.
The body should be divided into thirteen divisions, which are: 1,
Theology; 2, history and biography; 3, science and philosophy; 4,
art; 5, bibliography; 6, antiquities; 7, political and commercial;
8, poetry; 9, travels; 10, MSS.; 11, novels; 12, miscellaneous;
13, periodical literature. These may be subdivided, if necessary.
The subdivisions are: History into (1) national, (2) local, (3)
biography, and (4) genealogy; science into (1) medicine, surgery, and
chemistry, (2) natural history, (3) geology, and (4) mechanics; art
into (1) painting, sculpture, &c., (2) music; antiquities into (1)
chronicles, ballads, and other ancient literature, (2) history of
antiquities; political into (1) standard works, (2) pamphlets, &c.;
travels into (1) ancient, (2) modern; miscellaneous into (1) law, (2)
drama, (3) educational, (4) miscellaneous.
The books in the body should be entered under the authors’ names,
alphabetically arranged, under each division, the full titles,
description, &c., following. A very good plan is to tack to each
entry in the catalogue _finding symbols_, as “Bookcase A, shelf 3,”
which denotes where the book is to be found.
Now as to the actual mode of taking the census of the books to be
catalogued. A large number of sheets of paper, about the size of
ordinary writing paper, must be procured, each sheet being divided
into three columns. The centre column (the largest of the three) is
reserved for the full description of the book as it is to stand in
the body of the catalogue; the column on the left is reserved for
the exact account of the subject treated of by the book; that on the
right for the author’s name, as in the following example:
--------------------+-------------------------+--------------------
Subject Index. | Travels. | Author’s Index.
--------------------+-------------------------+--------------------
Columbus, Life and | Irving, Washington. | Irving, Washington.
Voyages. | |
| The Life and Voyages of |
Page* | Christopher Columbus. | Page*
| 3 vols. Crown 8vo. One |
| vignette. London, 1850. |
--------------------+-------------------------+--------------------
* Of course, the number of the page which should follow these
entries cannot be filled in until the body of the catalogue is
properly written out, when, as each entry is made in the
catalogue, the number of the page in which the entry is made is
placed both in the left and right columns.
The slips, when duly filled up, should be set aside in packets
under their respective divisions. As soon as every book has been
noted down, there remains nothing more to be done but to transcribe
alphabetically the various slips on sheets of foolscap, and the task
is completed.
Any works which are published anonymously should be entered in the
third primary division under the heading “Anonymous,” and have the
abbreviation “Anon.” added in the body or first primary division.
Supplements may be from time to time prepared, carefully pursuing
the same method as observed in forming the original catalogue. The
supplement is then attached to the catalogue, the first page having a
piece of parchment gummed on, with about an inch protruding from the
cover; on this the words “Supplement of 188-” should be written.
The ancient learned Greeks and Romans had their book-shelves, or
rather rows of niches, in which the parchment rolls were placed,
made of cedar wood, encrusted with precious metals. Although this
would, perhaps, be impracticable in our days, still the bookcases
should be solid and massive, yet elegant. In some libraries the
bookcases run right round the room, but no higher than 3 ft. to 4
ft., the tops forming a resting-place for various curiosities. This
method, of course, leaves the upper part of the wall clear, whereon
to hang pictures, trophies of arms, armorial shields, or other mural
decorations. Other libraries have cupboards, or rather bookcases,
with wooden panelled doors of 2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in. high, the regular
bookcases being placed on the top of these. This is a very good
plan, for the lower part of the bookcase may serve as a convenient
resting-place for magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, and drawings.
One great point to be observed is to have the books protected by good
glass; it gives a better appearance to the whole room when the glass
is really good, and, above all, the books are safe from the injurious
effect of dust or damp.
Magazines and periodicals are generally bound, and, therefore,
may be placed on the shelves. A number of pamphlets relating to a
certain subject may be cheaply, neatly and easily bound at home. Each
pamphlet should be taken and opened at the middle; then, with the aid
of a needle and some strong twine, it should be sewn in such a manner
as to leave two loops, occupying about two-thirds of the length, on
the outside at the back. When each pamphlet has been treated in a
like way, taking especial care that each loop is of equal size, two
strips of coarse canvas must be cut, long enough to wrap entirely
round the whole set of pamphlets. Two pieces of pasteboard, of the
exact size you wish the volume to be, must be procured; then, having
previously passed the canvas strips under the loops of twine, you
carefully paste or glue the canvas, and place them on the boards.
Two pieces of clean paper, well gummed, are placed inside the cover
over the canvas strips. A piece of canvas, or, better still, leather,
of about double the thickness of the back of your volume, and the
exact height of the pasteboard cover, is glued on to the back, a good
piece overlapping on each side of the cover. Now nothing remains to
be done but to glue a piece of parchment behind, writing on it the
description of the contents. The whole is placed under a substantial
weight, and in a couple of days you have a neat volume instead of a
collection of stray sheets of printed paper.
Dabblers in literature, and the searchers after general knowledge,
frequently cut out from papers and periodicals articles and
paragraphs which interest them. These accumulate and soon encumber
the writing-table, library-table, and the mantelpiece, and ultimately
find their way into the fire or the waste-paper basket. This may
be obviated and a more orderly appearance be given to the room,
by collecting these newspaper scraps in a box or drawer, and at
convenient intervals pasting them, in alphabetical order, into a
large book formed of cheap paper. The cartridge paper should be
folded twice; thus each sheet gives eight pages, and the printed
scraps pasted in in two rows or three columns, leaving a good margin,
whereon the subject treated of in the newspaper scraps should be
legibly written, the date and name of the paper whence the scrap has
been cut being written at the end of each cutting.
The foregoing notes are due to the late E. C. Rye, Librarian of the
Royal Geographical Society.
Books placed in a library should be thoroughly dusted two or three
times a year, not only to keep them in all their freshness, but
also to prevent any development of insects and to disclose signs
of dampness. The interior of a book also asks that care, which
unfortunately is neglected very often. After having taken a book from
the shelves, it should not be opened before ascertaining that the top
edge is not covered with dust. If it is a book that has had the edge
cut, it should be dusted with a soft duster, or the dust simply blown
off. If it is a book which has uncut edges it should be brushed with
rather a hard brush. By this method in opening the volume, one need
not be afraid that the dust will enter between the leaves and soil
them.
A library has generally three kinds of enemies to be guarded against,
viz. insects, damp, and rats or mice. Every one knows how to guard
against damp and rats or mice. Several means are adopted to keep
insects at a distance. The first consists in the proper choice of
woods: these are cedar, cypress, mahogany, sandal, or very dry and
sound oak. All these are compact or of very strong aroma, and are
such as insects do not like to pierce. Another source of safety is
the use of astringent or poisonous chemicals in the binding of books.
The insects that make ravages in books multiply very rapidly; and
very few libraries are free from them. The microscopic eggs, that are
left by the female, give birth to a small grub, which pierces the
leather boards and book for its nourishment, and to get to the air.
These are familiarly called bookworms, but by the scientific world
they are known as _Hypothenemus eruditus_ which eats the leather, and
_Anobium striatum_ which bores through the paper. The larvæ of the
_Dermestes_ also attack wood as well as books.
Alum, as employed in the paste used by binders, is not an absolute
preventive, although it contributes greatly to the preservation of
the leather. Resin as used by shoe-makers is preferable, and in
effect works in the same way; but oil of turpentine has a greater
effect. Anything of strong odour, like aniseed or bergamot, mixed
perfectly but in small quantities, preserves the paste during an
unlimited time.
_THE FARMYARD._
This chapter will embrace the ordinary domestic animals, birds, &c.,
usually kept at a country-house.
=Horse.=--_Choosing and Buying._--The weak points of a horse can be
better discovered while standing than while moving. If sound, he
will stand firmly and squarely in his limbs without moving any of
them, the feet flat upon the ground, with legs plump and naturally
poised; if a foot is lifted from the ground, or the weight taken
from it, disease may be suspected, or at least tenderness, which is
a precursor of disease. If the horse stands with his feet spread
apart, or straddles with his hind legs, there is a weakness in the
loins, and the kidneys are disordered. Heavy pulling bends the knees.
Bluish, milky cast eyes in horses indicate moon blindness. A bad
tempered horse keeps his ears thrown back. A kicking horse is apt to
have scarred legs. A stumbling horse has blemished knees. When the
skin is rough and harsh, and does not move easily to the touch, the
horse is a heavy eater, and digestion is bad. Never buy a horse whose
breathing organs are at all impaired. Place your ear at the side of
the heart, and if a wheezing sound is heard it is an indication of
trouble. (_Rural Record._)
Examine the eyes in the stable, then in the light; if they are in
any degree defective, reject. Examine the teeth to determine the
age. Examine the poll or crown of the head, and the withers, or top
of the shoulders, as the former is the seat of poll evil, and the
latter that of fistula. Examine the front feet; and if the frog has
fallen, or settled down between the heels of the shoes, and the heels
are contracted, reject him, as, if not already lame, he is liable
to become so at any moment. Observe the knees and ankles, and, if
cocked, you may be sure that it is the result of the displacement
of the internal organs of the foot, a consequence of neglect of the
form of the foot, and injudicious shoeing. Examine for interfering,
from the ankle to the knees, and if it proves that he cuts the knee,
or the leg between the knee and the ankle, or the latter badly,
reject. “Speedy cuts” of the knee and leg are most serious in their
effects. Many trotting horses, which would be of great value were it
not for this single defect, are by it rendered valueless. Carefully
examine the hoofs for cracks, as jockeys have acquired great skill
in concealing cracks in the hoofs. If cracks are observable in any
degree, reject. Also both look and feel for ringbones, which are
callosities on the bones of the pastern near the foot; if apparent,
reject. Examine the hind feet for the same defects of the foot and
ankle named in connection with the front feet. Then proceed to the
hock, which is the seat of curb, and both bone and blood spavins. The
former is a bony enlargement of the posterior and lower portion of
the hock-joint; the second a bony excrescence on the lower, inner,
and rather anterior portion of the hock; and the last is a soft
enlargement of the synovial membrane on the inner and upper portion
of the hock. Either is sufficient reason for rejecting. See that the
horse stands with the front feet well under him, and observe both the
heels of the feet and shoes to see if he “forges” or overreaches;
and in case he does, and the toes of the front feet are low, the
heels high, and the heels of the front shoes a good thickness, and
the toes of the hind feet are of no proper length, reject him; for
if he still overreaches with his feet in the condition described,
he is incurable. If he props out both front feet, or points them
alternately, reject. In testing the driving qualities, take the reins
while on the ground, invite the owner to get in the vehicle first,
then drive yourself. Avoid the display or the use of the whip; and
if he has not sufficient spirit to exhibit his best speed without
it, reject. Should he drive satisfactorily without, it will then be
proper to test his amiability and the extent of his training in the
use of the whip. Thoroughly test his walking qualities first, as that
gait is more important in the horse of all work than great trotting
speed. The value of a horse, safe for all purposes without blinds, is
greatly enhanced thereby. Purchase of the breeder, if practicable.