Built in shelves add an elegant touch to home libraries

The walls of the library should be hung with rich, dark colors, the latest style in wall paper being a black ground with old gold and olive-green designs. The carpet comes in Pompeiian red, with moss-green and peacock-blue patterns. Statuary and the best pictures should find a place in the library.

The library table should be massive and the top laid with crimson baize. There should be a few high-backed chairs, upholstered in leather, a reading-chair, soft rugs, foot-rests, a mantel mirror, a few mantel ornaments, and the piece de resistance—the bookcase. In large libraries the bookcases are built in the wall. It is quite in vogue to hang curtains on rods in front of bookcases instead of doors, but we think the old style is the best, inasmuch as the books may be seen and the glass doors exclude the dust. Heavy curtains of raw silk, Turcoman, and canton flannel, with a full valance at the top, are used for the window drapery.

Essense of anise is an effective ingredient in some homemade cough syrups

Cough Syrup Recipe #1

Take a good sized handful of each: Horehound herb, elecampane root, spikenard root, ginseng root, black cohosh, and skunk cabbage root.

Bruise and cover with spirits or whisky, and let stand ten days; then put all in a suitable vessel, add about four quarts of water and simmer slowly over a fire (but don’t boil) for twelve hours, or till reduced to about three pints. Read more »

Th blackberry root is one of various roots that can help heal the liver

Do you have—

• A frequent headache over the eyes?
• A susceptibility to chills and fever?
• A bitter or oily taste in the mouth?
• A sour stomach?
• A complexion inclined to be yellow?
• A great depression of spirits without known cause?
• Specks before the eyes, and flushed face?
• A done out, tired feeling?

Besides many other symptoms too numerous to mention? If you have you may be affected in your liver and kidneys, and should do something for it.

The following preparation, “Magic Kidney and Liver Restorer,” acts on these organs and, when diseased or out of order, restores them to a healthy state. Everyone should keep a bottle of this preparation in the house, as it is an invaluable medicine. Splendid to take in the spring to tone up the system:

MAGIC KIDNEY AND LIVER RESTORER

• Two ounces of alcohol;
• One and a half ounces of glycerine;
• One ounce of liverwort;
• Three hundred and twenty grains of saltpetre;
• Forty drops of wintergreen.

Steep the liverwort in a quart of water down to half the quantity, then throw in the other ingredients while hot.

Dose: One tablespoonful about four times a day.

HOP BITTERS

• One ounce mandrake root;
• One ounce gentian root;
• One ounce dandelion root;
• One ounce buchu leaf;
• One ounce sarsaparilla leaf;
• One ounce blackberry leaf;
• One ounce hops.

Infuse in cold water, three quarts, two or three days. Add a pint ofwhisky, and bottle.

Dose: A teaspoonful three times a day.

HEPATIC AND ALTERATIVE POWDER

Take equal parts, say of each half an ounce, of finely powdered blue flag root, bloodroot, May apple root, golden seal root, and bitterroot. Mix all together and pass through a fine sieve. Dose: As an alterative and to act on the liver and secretions, from two to five grains two or three times a day.

It is the time of year when getting sick is a possibility. Everyone’s body needs extra fluids and soups to help keep the system cleansed. Soup is one of the old fashioned remedies that can help comfort and restore your health.

Soup helps warm the insides of the sick to better health

Read on for recipes on soups. Read more »

Many people are ignorant of what constitutes good, nourishing, refreshing food and drink for sick people. The following dishes are all palatable and nourishing, and are very refreshing to an invalid. Every one should have these recipes for “Things for the sick room”.

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