[Illustration: Fig. 1.--RUG.--[See Figs. 2-4.]]
The pretty glove-case published in No. 2, November 11, was warmly
welcomed, and our young friends are eagerly clamoring for more holiday
gifts that they can make readily and cheaply. In compliance with their
wish we will occasionally furnish fancy articles that can be
manufactured by little hands. One of the most tasteful and useful
presents that we can suggest is a handsome canvas rug, which can be
easily made with the help of the accompanying pictures and description,
and which is sure to prove a successful Christmas gift. The rug is made
of écru linen Java canvas, which, with the border, can be bought cheaply
in any large fancy store. The centre of the rug is twenty-eight inches
long and nineteen inches wide, and is embroidered in loop stitch with
claret-colored worsted. The border is four inches wide, and is worked in
cross stitch with similar worsted. That useful periodical, _Harper's
Bazar_, gives full directions for working these and many other stitches.
Almost every little girl, however, knows how to make these simple
stitches, or can find some one to show her. The rug is lined with gray
drilling, and edged with fringe, of which the illustration Fig. 4 shows
a full-sized section.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.--REEL FOR RUG, FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--REEL FOR RUG, FIG. 1.]
To make the fringe first twist together threads of claret-colored
worsted. For this purpose use a wooden reel, the middle rod of which
forms a movable handle. One side of the reel is furnished with brass
hooks on the ends. Lay a thread of claret-colored worsted on the upper
hook as shown by Fig. 2; turn the reel quickly, holding the thread
double with the left hand and the handle of the reel with the right hand
until the thread has been twisted long enough to be wound on the reel,
with the hands in the position as shown by Fig. 3. When the threads have
been twisted of sufficient length, wind them tight on a long wooden
board four inches and seven-eighths in circumference (see Fig. 4), and
for the heading of the fringe crochet on each thread 1 sc. (single
crochet) with claret-colored worsted. Withdraw the board from the loops,
twist these, and on the sc. work a second round of sc. with similar
worsted, at the same time fastening in a chain stitch foundation worked
with écru cotton. In doing this, work alternately 2 sc. on the
foundation and 2 sc. without the foundation.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--MANNER OF MAKING FRINGE FOR RUG, FIG. 1.]
Another simple fringe is made by winding the worsted on a suitable-sized
book, then cutting it through on one end, and knotting strands of four
threads each into the edge of the rug.
* * * * *
=Electric Ornaments.=--Some curious trinkets, to which certain motions
can be given at will by means of electricity, have recently been devised
by an ingenious Frenchman, M. Trouvé. Two of these are scarf pins; one
has a death's-head, gold or enamel, with diamond eyes and lower
articulated jaw; the other has a rabbit seated upright on a box with a
little bell before it, to be struck with two rods held in the animal's
fore-paws. An invisible wire connects these objects with a small
hermetically closed battery, the ebonite case of which is about the size
of a cigarette. It is kept in the waistcoat pocket, and acts only when
turned horizontally or inverted. When a person looks at the pin, the
owner, slipping a finger into his pocket, moves the battery, whereupon
the death's-head rolls its eyes and grinds its teeth, or the little
rabbit beats the bell with its rods (through electro-magnetic action). A
third kind of ornament is a small bird set with diamonds, to be fixed in
a lady's hair, and the wings of which can be set in motion electrically.
* * * * *
=The Great Wall of China.=--An American engineer engaged in the
construction of a railway in China, gives the following account of this
wonderful work. The wall is 1728 miles long, 18 feet high, and 15 feet
thick at the top. The foundation throughout is of solid granite, the
remainder of compact masonry. At intervals of between two hundred and
three hundred yards towers rise up, twenty-five to thirty feet high, and
twenty-four feet in diameter. On the top of the wall and on both sides
of it are masonry parapets to enable the defenders to pass unseen from
one tower to another. The wall is carried from point to point in a
straight line, across valleys, plains, and hills, sometimes plunging
down into deep abysses. Rivers are bridged over by the wall, while on
both banks of large streams strong flanking towers are placed.