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_ADVERTISEMENTS._


                         MITCHELL, VANCE & CO.
                          836 & 838 BROADWAY,
                    And 13th Street,      NEW YORK,

                  _Offer an Unequaled Assortment of_
                             GAS FIXTURES,
               IN CRYSTAL, GILT, BRONZE, AND DECORATIVE
                              PORCELAIN.

                    FINE BRONZE AND MARBLE CLOCKS.

                      MODERATOR AND OTHER LAMPS,
              IN BRONZE, GILT, PORCELAIN, CLOISONNÉ, ETC.

              Elegant in Styles and in Greatest Variety.

          _A Cordial Invitation to all to examine our Stock._


                           CHAS. E. BENTLEY,
                     (SUCCESSOR TO BENTLEY BROS.)

                            Manufacturer of
                       DECORATIVE ART-NEEDLEWORK
                      In Crewel, Silk, and Floss.
                      NOVELTIES IN EMBROIDERIES,

             With Work Commenced and Materials to Finish.
          Perforating Machines, Stamping Patterns, etc., etc.

                  _Wholesale, 39 & 41 EAST 13th ST.,_
                        _Retail, 854 BROADWAY._

  FULL LINE OF MATERIALS USED IN FANCY-WORK.

  ALL THE NEWEST STITCHES TAUGHT IN PRIVATE LESSONS BY THOROUGH EXPERTS.

  STAMPING AND DESIGNING TO ORDER.

                     _Send 3 cents for Catalogue._


                Gatherings from an Artist’s Portfolio.

                         By JAMES E. FREEMAN.

                _One volume, 16mo._      _Cloth $1.25._

“The gifted American artist, Mr. James E. Freeman, who has for many
years been a resident of Rome, has brought together in this tasteful
little volume a number of sketches of the noted men of letters,
painters, sculptors, models, and other interesting personages whom he
has had an opportunity to study during the practice of his profession
abroad. Anecdotes and reminiscences of Thackeray, Hans Christian
Andersen, John Gibson, Vernet, Delaroche, Ivanoff, Gordon, the Princess
Borghese, Crawford, Thorwaldsen, and a crowd of equally famous
characters, are mingled with romantic and amusing passages from the
history of representatives of the upper classes of Italian society,
or of the humble ranks from which artists secure the models for their
statues and pictures.”--_New York Tribune._

“‘An Artist’s Portfolio’ is a charming book. The writer has gathered
incidents and reminiscences of some of the master writers, painters,
and sculptors, and woven them into a golden thread of story upon
which to string beautiful descriptions and delightful conversations.
He talks about Leslie, John Gibson, Thackeray, and that inimitable
writer, Father Prout (Mahony), in an irresistible manner.”--_New York
Independent._

          New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.




                        Appletons’ Home Books.

                           HOME AMUSEMENTS.

                            By M. E. W. S.,
                  AUTHOR OF “AMENITIES OF HOME,” ETC.

    “There be some sports are painful; and their labour
    Delight in them sets off.”

    “Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves;
    And ye that on the sands with printless foot
    Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him,
    When he comes back!”

                          I do invoke ye all.

                               NEW YORK:
                       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
                       1, 3, and 5 BOND STREET.
                                 1881.




                             COPYRIGHT BY
                       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
                                 1881.




CONTENTS.


      PAGE

     I.--PREFATORY                                         5

    II.--THE GARRET                                        7

   III.--PRIVATE THEATRICALS, ETC.                         9

    IV.--TABLEAUX VIVANTS                                 20

     V.--BRAIN GAMES                                      25

    VI.--FORTUNE-TELLING                                  37

   VII.--AMUSEMENTS FOR A RAINY DAY                       45

  VIII.--EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS             50

    IX.--ETCHING                                          64

     X.--LAWN TENNIS                                      67

    XI.--GARDEN PARTIES                                   77

   XII.--DANCING                                          86

  XIII.--GARDENS AND FLOWER-STANDS                        93

   XIV.--CAGED BIRDS AND AVIARIES                        104

    XV.--PICNICS                                         112

   XVI.--PLAYING WITH FIRE. CERAMICS                     117

  XVII.--ARCHERY                                         124

 XVIII.--AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MIDDLE-AGED AND THE AGED     131

   XIX.--THE PARLOR                                      135

    XX.--THE KITCHEN                                     140

   XXI.--THE FAMILY HORSE AND OTHER PETS                 144

  XXII.--IN CONCLUSION                                   148




HOME AMUSEMENTS.




I.

PREFATORY.


Goethe, in “Wilhelm Meister,” struck the key-note of the universal
underlying dramatic instinct. The boy begins to play the drama of life
with his puppets, and afterward exploits the wild dreams of youth in
the company of the strolling players. We are, indeed, all actors. We
all know how early the strutting soldier-instinct crops out, and how
soon the little girl assumes the cares of the amateur nursery.

    “I have learned from neighbor Nelly
        What the girl’s doll-instinct means.”

We begin early to play at living, until Life becomes too strong for us,
and, seizing us in merciless and severe grip, returns our condescension
by making of us the puppets with which the passing tragedy or comedy is
presented. With this idea in mind we have begun our little book with
the play in the garret--the humblest attempt at histrionics--and so
going on, still endeavoring to help those more ambitious artists who,
in remote and secluded spots, may essay to amuse themselves and others
by attempting the _rôle_ of a Cushman, a Wallack, a Sothern, a Booth,
or a Gilbert.

Our subsequent task has been a more difficult one. To tell people how
to give all sorts of entertainments--in fact, to tell our intelligent
people how to do anything--is nearly as foolish a practice as to carry
coals to Newcastle, and implies that sort of conceit which Thackeray
so wittily suggests when, in his “Rebecca and Rowena,” he presents the
picture of a little imp painting the lily. It is hard to know where
to draw the line. It would be delightful to amuse--to help along with
the great business of making home happy--to tell a mother what to do
with her active young brood, and yet to avoid that dreadful bore of
mentioning to her something which she already knows a great deal better
than we do.

The Scylla of barrenness and the Charybdis of garrulity are before any
author who tries to speak upon a familiar theme. Let us hope that,
through the kindness of our readers, we may not have wrecked our little
bark on either.




II.

THE GARRET.


Happy the children who have inherited a garret! We mean the good
old country garret, wherein have been stowed away the accumulations
of many generations of careful housewives. The more worthless these
accumulations, the better for the children. An old aunt who saved all
the old bonnets, an old uncle who had a wardrobe of cast-off garments
to which he had appended the legend,

    “Too poor to wear, too good to give away--”

these are the purveyors to the histrionic talents of nations yet
unborn. Old garrets are really the factories of History, Poetry, and
the Drama.

Into such a garret