After the design has been carefully cut out, take a smooth piece of white paper, fold it through the middle; now fold again, bringing the ends of the first crease together; fold once more, making the last crease to fall upon the same line as the other two, and your paper will be in shape like the letter V, Fig. 1. Be sure that b, in Fig. 1, forms a perfect point. Now lay the pattern on your folded paper, letting a, Fig. 2, fall upon b, Fig. 1, and taking care that the edges of the pattern fall evenly upon the folds of the paper. Cut the paper out, following the lines of the design. After the black portions have all been cut away, open your folded form, and you will have a very pretty stencil, which can be used in decorating your playthings, or for the various other purposes stencils are so extensively employed. One little friend of mine used to paste all his finest specimens on square pieces of black cloth, and after he had a good-sized collection, he had the pieces sewed together in the form of a book. On the cover he pasted the word “Stencil” and his initials, all cut from white paper; and it was a never-failing source of pleasure to him to show this little work, declaring proudly as he did so, “I did it all myself with my own little pair of scissors.” These stencils could be cut from variously colored papers and then pasted upon ordinary note; the whole being caught together with a piece of ribbon. A book would be the result, which, if not prettier, would be less cumbersome than my little friend’s, and would probably give full as much satisfaction, besides being much easier to make. If you will carefully examine the inside decorations of many of our fine public buildings, you will see that much of the work is put on with stencils; and by looking still more carefully, you can learn just how these stencils are made; and from them gain ideas for your own designs, which will aid you very materially in any decoration you may try. It is not expected that a boy has judgment or skill sufficient to decorate an important room, but if you would like to try the experiment, you may be able to persuade your parents to allow you to try your hand at something of the kind in an unused garret room. But even in this, do not begin at hap-hazard. Study all the designs you can find, and note the effect of the colors on each other and upon the color of the wall itself. Choose some simple, open pattern at first, and do not use more than two colors in putting it on the wall. The fresco paint, or kalsomine, comes in a powder, with full directions for using printed on each package. It is put on with a short, thick brush; and is patted on through the stencil. For stenciling, the paint or kalsomine must be mixed much thicker than for an ordinary wash, and it is best to have your stencil pattern, after it is perfected to your taste, cut from a piece of tin, if a tinman is near at hand. After the walls have received their share of decoration, it would be well to paint the door to match, using some appropriate oblong stencil for the panels, and applying it with oil paint. In such things it is very easy to overload the work, and by putting on too much spoil the effect; so care and judgment must be exercised to know at just what point to stop, as well as to avoid daubiness and an uneven character to your work.
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LIGHT PRODUCED BY FRICTION UNDER WATER.
If you should rub two squares of cut-loaf sugar together in a dark room, light would result from the friction; but the effect is produced in a much greater degree by two pieces of silex or quartz; and if two pieces of a fine quality of quartz be forcibly rubbed together, you may distinguish the time of night by a watch; but what is more surprising, the same effect is produced equally strong on rubbing the pieces together under water.
In olden times, before matches were invented, fire for all purposes was produced by means of friction; a piece of flint and one of steel being the substances used, and a tin box of charred linen rags, called tinder, received the sparks which fell from the steel.
Many years ago, when your great-grandmothers were children, in many New England communities a cow’s horn, sawed across the top, and fitted with a wooden stopper, was used to hold the tinder, but later, the more stylish and luxurious tinder-box took its place. This box, made of tin, and somewhat larger and deeper than a good-sized blacking-box of to-day was fitted with an inside cover, a simple disk of tin with a ring of wire in the top for a handle, and was filled with a quantity of cotton or linen rags, which were set on fire with a brand from the hearth. When this burning cloth had reached a black color, but before it was reduced to ashes, the inside cover was let down upon it, and the flames were extinguished. After this, another outside cover was put on the box to prevent dampness penetrating, and thus rendering the tinder worthless. To insure further protection against the intruding damp, the box, with its companions of flint and steel, were generally kept in the chimney closet beside the fire-place.
In those primitive days of our country, it was a very common thing for a farmer’s wife to run into a neighbor’s and borrow some one of these necessary articles, and it was usually the tinder, which she had neglected to prepare when fire was plenty, that was the thing needed. Occasionally, when two or three houses were near together and the inmates on friendly terms with each other, one set would answer the demands of the neighborhood, and would be used by all with equal freeness. Later on, each family made their own matches, by simply dipping bits of wood into melted sulphur, and allowing it to dry on the end. These matches were kept in another tin box, and when the spark had ignited the tinder, the sulphur end was touched to the smoldering fire, and would immediately burst into flame.
Before these matches were invented, however, when the housewife wished to make her fire (stoves were of course unknown), she would seat herself near the fire-place, and, grasping the uncovered horn or box between her knees, would hold her steel in her left hand just above it, and with the flint or quartz in her right, would strike upon the former, till two or three sparks fell upon the charred surface; the bit of glowing tinder would then be carefully taken from the box, wrapped around with a bit of rag, and blown upon with her breath until the cloth burst into flames. A candle was quickly lighted from this, to keep the flame till the fire was well under way.
Every boy has probably felt the inconvenience of being without matches, when a fire on the beach in summer, or near the skating-pond in winter, would have been such a luxury. The next time the emergency occurs, strike a piece of quartz or hard white stone upon the large blade of your jackknife, over any bit of dry cotton or thin paper you may have at hand, as a tinder-box would probably not form part even of the very miscellaneous collection of the average school-boy’s pockets.
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