and finished at the top with a row of brass-headed nails, which serve to fasten it. On this foundation a border cut in some geometrical design from the same material, but in a contrasting color, is applied, and the bottom of the drapery is then cut in points.

A pretty combination of colors is to make the foundation of maroon and the applied work oldgold. Tassels formed of both shades are then sewed to the bottom of each point, and between

centre, which is finished with three knotted stitches. The lines uniting the stitches are worked in chainstitch with pale-green silk, and a twisted fringe seven inches deep surrounds the cover. The color of the plush used for the foundation can, of course, be varied to suit the furniture of the room where it is to be placed.

FELT TABLE-COVER.

A very handsome table-cover, which yet required little expenditure of time. and labor, was displayed among the fall novelties at an art store in a New England city.

The foundation consisted of a piece of maroon felt, one yard and a quarter square, whose edge was cut in wide, moderately shallow curves. Beneath this edge was placed a border one-quarter of a yard wide, of old-gold felt, cut at the bottom in points, so arranged that the deepest part of the scalloped edge of the centre fell about half an inch above the division between the points, the bottom of said points being very slightly rounded. The old-gold border, after being basted to the proper position beneath the centre, was held in place by a band of old-gold felt, about an eighth of a yard wide, laid on the maroon centre about an inch above the scallops, and feather-stitched on both edges. A second row of feather-stitching ran through the edge of the band.

every two points. If Canton flannel is selected for the fabric, it will probably require a stout lining.

COVER FOR SMALL FANCY TABLE.

The variety of designs for table-cover seems almost endless, yet the demand keeps ever a little in advance of the supply, and the beautiful pattern illustrated in Fig. 3 will doubtless be eagerly welcomed. It is certainly exceptionally quaint and pretty, and has been handed down from the last century. The material is dark-green plush, embroidered with two lighter shades of green filoselle silk, the figures being edged with fine gold cord. They are filled out with long stitches of paler silk, shaded into darker tones toward the

Spite of the small amount of labor involved, the effect of this table-cover, owing to the contrast of color, was elaborate, and might easily be made more so by substituting some pretty design in colored silk for the feather-stitching in the centre of the band.

An old-gold centre with border and band of blue, a dark-green centre with border and band of apple-green, a blue centre with border and band of olive-green, were all handsome combinations.

EMBROIDERED MUMMY-CLOTH TABLE-COVER.

A beautiful table-cover, imported from England, and specially intended for five-o'clock teas, was recently shown the writer. The foundation was écru mummy-cloth, on which was embroidered in Kensington outline-stitch designs of cups, saucers, bowls, pitchers, etc., each corner consisting of a waiter containing a tête-à-tête set. These designs were embroidered around the edges with very dark-blue silk, the lines within being light-blue. Between the blue embroidery and the edge of the cloth ran a drawn-work border about one inch in width, and handsome écru lace two inches and a

FIG. 4.-EMBROIDERED FOOT-WARMER.

half wide finished the cover. Any of the designs of cups, saucers, and bowls used for stamping doylies can be employed for the border around the cloth.

EMBROIDERED FOOT-WARMER.

Fig. 4 illustrates a very comfortable and extremely pretty article for the use of an invalid or elderly lady, and may be recommended as a most desirable Christmas gift. It is made of blue velvet, embroidered with an initial or monogram in the centre and sprays of flowers scattered over the surface. Gold or silver thread, or white silk, can be used for the initial. Pink and olive filoselle silk are chosen for the flowers. The remainder of the work must be intrusted to the furrier.

CLOTH FOOT-WARMER.

A plainer style of foot-warmer, or foot-muff, as these articles are frequently called, can be made

of cloth, lined either with fur or Canton flannel, bordered with fur around the top, and finished at the bottom with enamel cloth. Paper patterns can be procured at the establishments where patterns of dresses are furnished, if the maker is doubtful of her own skill in shaping. A handsome one could be made of dark-blue cloth, lined with chinchilla or gray squirrel fur, and edged with blue and gray cord. A monogram of applied work in some contrasting color could be added by way of further ornament.

PAINTED FIRE-SCREENS.

Among the beautiful articles displayed in the show-rooms of the New York Society of Decorative Art are fire-screens of plush, painted in oil-colors. Various are the designs, which, of course, must be chosen to suit the maker's taste and skill; but those readers of the MONTHLY who can use a brush as well as a needle will not be disappointed if they essay a branch of flowering dog-wood on a background of Damascus red plush, taking care, however, to use only the smallest possible quantity of pure white paint. Set in a frame of ebonized wood, this would be an exquisite bridal or holiday gift.

PAINTED CARD-CASE.

Another very charming gift, to be executed with both brush and needle, is a card-case ornamented with some floral design.

To make this little article, cut from pasteboard two oblong pieces, somewhat longer and wider than an ordinary visiting-card. Cover them on the outside with silk of any color preferred, and line with satin of a contrasting shade in such a manner that both silk and satin are in one piece, thereby forming a sort of hinge, by which the two sides of the case close like a book. Next add within a satin pocket on each side, running lengthwise of the case, to hold the cards. The outside of one-half the case should then be painted in some floral design harmonizing with the color of the silk, the other half being left plain.

Black silk, with a bunch of violets painted upon it, and lined with violet satin, is a very pretty combination. Cardinal color, with a cluster of daisies, lined with old-gold satin and pale-blue silk, with pink moss-rose-buds and pink satin lining, also please many tastes.

If painting is beyond the maker's skill, decalco

manie designs may be substituted, or a spray of flowers can be embroidered in Kensington stitch upon one side of the case.

BRUSH-CASE.

A recent novelty, which will doubtless be in demand for a Christmas gift, because inexpensive, easily made, and appropriate for either a lady or gentleman, is a brush-case, to be hung on the wall beside a bureau. It is usually of either brown or écru linen, oblong in shape, with the corners rounded off, and cut somewhat longer than an ordinary hair-brush. A piece sufficiently deep to cover the brush part is then added to form a pocket, in the same way that a watch-case is made, and the whole case is bound with very narrow crimson, scarlet, or blue silk ribbon. On the pocket part of the case two hair-brushes crossed are embroidered in Kensington outline-stitch, surrounded by an arabesque border executed in the same stitch. A loop, concealed by a bow of ribbon matching the binding, is added at the top, to suspend the case.

which the strip may be drawn in. The puffs in the middle of the upper part of the covering are formed by gathering the satin in several rows. This central part is edged by a narrow border of embroidered flannel with pinked vandykes. A pleating of satin ribbon will complete the sachet. The pattern for the embroidered border is clearly illustrated in Fig. 5. This border would also be a most charming finish for a small table-cover, and will doubtless be found useful for many other purposes. If employed for a table-cover, the square or oblong centre might be a different color from the embroidered border, which in that case, to improve its appearance somewhat, may be applied with some fancy stitch.

Two straight pieces of the linen, about an inch and a half wide, are inserted between the side of the pocket and the side of the back, to give the pocket sufficient fullness to permit the insertion of the brush. These pieces should of course be the length of the pocket, and the seams formed by sewing them in are bound with ribbon like the rest of the case.

SACHET IN COLORED EMBROIDERY.

A sachet both novel and beautiful in design may be made as follows. Cut two pieces of cardboard eight inches square. The bottom part slightly wad, strew with perfumed powder, and cover on both sides with satin of any shade the maker may select. A bias strip of satin five inches wide and sixty-six inches long will form the puffed portion, whose lower edge is gathered and fastened to the bottom part. The upper edge has a narrow seam for the passing of a silk cord, by means of VOL. XVII.-36

EMBROIDERED BLANKET.

Little people are not forgotten in the general fancy for decorating articles of every description, and Kensington embroidery is now applied to the purpose of ornamenting infants' blankets. An exquisite one recently displayed was of the finest white flannel, bordered to the depth of an inch with pink satin, feather-stitched on the inner edge with white silk. A band of pink satin passed diagonally across the blanket, and in one of the triangles thus formed was embroidered a spray of moss-rose-buds and green leaves. The effect was dainty and delicate enough for a baby princess.

Another blanket, similar in general design, but differing in color, was finished with blue satin of an exquisite shade. The diagonal band crossing it was also of blue satin, but instead of the spray of rose-buds, small clusters of forget-me-nots were embroidered in the triangular space, as if scattered there by some careless hand.

Gold and Silver Production. It is said that well-nigh five thousand millions of gold and silver have been extracted from the earth since the world was startled by the discovery of gold mines in the distant and unknown region of California, and, immediately afterward, on the plains of Ballarat. The period is past when gold-finding yielded its peerless and romantic harvests of wealth, and presented, both in California and Australia, its socially and economically peculiar features. In some of the newer States the discovery of remarkable silver mines has had a potent effect in developing the State, but not as widespread as the world's two great gold fields. But, for all this, the annual yield of precious metals has not greatly diminished, because the falling off in the gold product has been in part compensated for by the rapid increase in the production of silver. Thus, for example, in the United States, while the yield of gold has remained about the same during the last ten years, the silver product has more than doubled, and now exceeds the gold in value. Bradstreet's lately published a summary of the report of the Director of the Mint, in which he estimates the total production of silver for the fiscal year 1880 at $39,200,000, and gold at $36,000,000.

The Newark Bank Failure. It seems that nothing in the way of a lesson is seriously considered or taken advantage of by our modern bank director. With the many defalcations that have been taking place of late years throughout the United States, the average director still persists in neglecting his trust, only to waken up to the fact that his cashier has been neatly swindling the institution to the tune of thousands of dollars. This has been the case with the directors of the Newark bank, and they now are brought to realize the fearful responsibility which rested upon them, and which they so gravely disregarded in the very face of the every-day lessons brought to their attention. Their neglect of duty was of the grossest character, and they are at least morally, if not legally, responsible for the beginning and end of the failure. They afford but another example of the terrible mistake of allowing men on whom great reliance is placed to continue business from month to month, and from year to year, without adequate checks upon their faithlessness.

Cashier Baldwin was probably neither better nor worse than many other men similarly situated. His directors withdrew from him the advisory supervision which was justly his due. No man indeed would wish to be subjected to such a character test as goes with the unchecked direction of a great bank. Happily, it is an open question whether the directors are not civilly liable for negligence in allowing their cashier to embezzle some two million dollars of other people's funds.

In business morals the point to be always insisted upon is that the severest penalties should immediately follow upon wrong-doing. The bank director is in the position of trustee, and, if unfaithful to his trust, he should not escape

in any degree responsibility therefor, under the rules of law and equity. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the directors of the Mechanics' Bank, of Newark, will be held by those who have been wronged through their negligence to the utmost of responsibility under existing law, as declared by the statutes and the decisions of the courts.

The Assassin Guiteau.-If there is one thing which to the nostrils of the American people of the present day is tainted with the rankest treason, it is to lift a voice in behalf of the wretched assassin of our late chief Executive. The literature of the past quarter is a curious mess, stewed expressly to pander to the perverted tastes of a nation which in its intoxication of grief has suddenly turned into a beastly glutton voracious of only the vile and the filthy. Is it really so very edifying to read of the abject terror with which the crime-stained man watches every strange face and starts affrighted at even the innocent pranks of the prison mouse? or can the sensational, highly-colored daub of a picture pretending to portray the culprit as he stood at the bar to plead to the indictment afford relief for a single pang his deed caused the people? We greatly misread the character of our people if within a twelvemonth they blush not with sincere shame at the atrocities, the shameless brutality, they have shown in dealing with a fallen—and, for the honor of the race, let us hope a demented-brother. A twelvemonth? Aye, we hoped after the issue of his vile work we should see humanity assert itself. But there has not been one single moment when the people have not drank in deeply the potions full of gall and bitterness dipped from the very caldron of iniquity. Anything to prove the knave an incarnate fiend, anything portraying vividly the utter depravity of the abandoned creature, anything and everything that can be said to deprive him even of that recognition which his kinship with us demands, is a delectable viand, and adds a flavor to our breakfasts.

If common decency and the sufferance a fraternal sympathy claims cannot evoke respectful regard for ourselves in this reference, must the sense of justice also be numbed that would plead for a just hearing of the criminal? Shall we allow ourselves to become so infused with the spirit of retribution that every nerve shall tingle with the desire of revenge? Is it treasonable to plead for justice were even his Satanic majesty at the bar? Cannot justice be outraged equally as atrociously by denying Guiteau a fair and impartial trial and punishing him unduly if found guilty, as by conniving at his escape from a just sentence? The people of the United States are, to say the least, as much interested in furnishing the friendless, resourceless, helpless wretch with the means to secure a defense, as they are interested in the manner and thoroughness and righteousness of the prosecution.

If there is one man who would have had the moral courage to lift his voice in favor of the defenseless in the moment of his despair; if our country ever has produced one soul

heroic enough to stand single-handed on the side of justice, keeping at bay a merciless pack of vindictive persecutors thirsting for the life of their victim; if there ever lived on our soil one man who breathed the same air we do, yet was not infected by the innocuous malaria of misguided public opinion; if there ever was one man who, could he be heard from beyond the narrow river, from the Elysian realms of peace, would raise his hand to calm this tumultuous tempest against a miscreant's life with his Master's "Peace! be still!" it was the martyred President himself.

And shall we who mourn his loss-how deeply we cannot say--who counted him our model-and who of present men so worthy as he?-forsake his steps at the very moment they lead to the greatest glory? Is there glory in the sabre thrust that sets free the soul of a vanquished foe? Is there glory in the conviction of a prejudged culprit? Is there anything of glory in a trial where the accused stands bound and speechless? If there is, it is a glory of a different kind from that which radiated from the banks of the Potomac, or flooded us with its light, and comforted our stricken hearts from the cottage by the sea.

It must be the glory that blights the memory of a Mrs. Surratt, or that causes men to repeat to their sons the State proceedings following the martyred Lincoln's fate with a shudder and a whisper.

No; in these days, when men's minds need be calm, let us not demit the prerogative of dealing justly even with the man who aimed at the nation's life. "Let justice be done" is the demand. Let it be done, whether it send the man to the gallows, or lets him pine in prison, or sets him free.

Commercial Speculation. The word "corner" bears a significant import in commercial circles. To corner or sap an individual or an entire commercial community means a piece of speculative engineering ingenious, clandestine, and destructively effective.

The axiom that speculation is the soul of trade may be perfectly defensible. In the ordinary acceptation, and such as our commercial forefathers understood and practiced, it was justifiable enterprise, based upon substantial capital and founded on natural fluctuations in prices. But there was always something tangible to it. The speculator embarked on his venture and waited on the return of the actual stuff, or he bought and held the actual goods. If the article hap pened to be in curtailed production, he realized his profit on the enterprise. If the supply was superabundant, he lost. But in either case he was a benefactor to the community. First, he prevented possible scarcity and famine; secondly, he brought abundance when barren supplies threatened a scarcity.

But at the present day commercial speculations have degenerated into mere transfers of "paper contracts." There is no necessity that the seller should actually hold the goods he transfers; it is not even requisite that any one hold the article bought or sold. "Futures" are considered as legitimate objects of trade as present stock.

No matter whether the seed has not yet been sown for the new crop of cotton, purchases can be made early in the year of a winter delivery of that cotton; wheat you shall have for any month named; pork, bacon, or lard will be sold for

delivery when the very pig has not yet been slaughtered, and, may be, is but a suckling; or iron when the rough ore has not even been extracted from the vein! It has even been recorded that one dealer, bolder than the rest, sold the catch of a certain salmon-river in Oregon two years ahead, when probably the salmon whose capture was concerned had not obtained the dignity of a grilse!

Though all such enterprises may properly be characterized as unconscionable and iniquitous, yet from an ethical point of view there is none whose practice requires more of the qualities that go to make up the heartless, unfeeling, supremely selfish being than the speculation in breadstuffs. If there is one transgression of that moral law imposing brotherly treatment and fraternal recognition between man and man which partakes of the essence of the arch enemy of mankind, it is the withholding of the means of subsistence for the low purpose of amassing wealth. The fluctuations in prices consequent on the economic law of supply and demand depending upon or resulting from natural fertility or barrenness furnish ample opportunity for the exercise of legitimate enterprise on the part of far-seeing merchants. There is not even one trait of mercantile ability visible in the manipulations of grain speculators. It is but a contest between shrewd and cunning Shylocks--not even that. It is rather a self-conversion into the Alpine avalanche which, impelled by its own rude massiveness, crushes and buries all lesser and weaker masses beneath its ruins. Yet this phenomenon is bound by nature's law; but the speculating vampires that feed upon the very blood of the humble ones of the earth are the originators of their own unfeeling ruin.

You that have adopted the name of the nation's abhorrence as the synonym of infamy-a distinction far too honorable even for that-reflect one moment and judge which is the more guilty: the man who, in one fell act, aimed at the life of the nation's chief, or the man who, in cold-blooded calculation, with calm, collected brow, plans the pinching hunger of millions of the nation's children? The first languishes in a place of public safety; the second riots in sumptuous privacy undisturbed by the bitter cry for bread that ascends from his very gate.

For less crimes than this men have suffered social ostracism, and in the old times, when sincerity was alive, bore the brand that their diabolism merited. Or is it so laudable an occupation that when now and then the triumphs of eternal justice assert superiority and miscarry the plottings of speculators, and they fail, we must appoint a day of general mourning, and proclaim a universal sympathy and confidence in the integrity of the firm whose avariciousness and wholesale greed has for once been reaping what it sowed? The history of our race shows that men have worshiped even the devil to the end that he would bring no evil upon them.

It is not a sufficient justification for these mischiefmakers in trade to say that public apathy tolerates or even encourages their iniquity, or that there are no commercial principles which they transgress. So much the worse for commerce that allows the greed for gain to become the determining law of life, and so much the worse for the people who, as insects attracted by the light that burns them, are forever the fawning patrons of these enterprising blights.