Curtains should not repeat the color of the walls, nor should portières be of the same material and color as the curtains. Woodwork, however, when painted should repeat the wall color, though it should be somewhat lighter in shade. There lacks but little to make our home parlor complete. A piano, if practice thereon will not interfere with the occupancy of the room by the household; otherwise let the piano be kept where music lessons given and studied will not disturb the family serenity; for many reasons the drawing room is the best place for the piano, it is more likely to be treated with respect by mischievous fingers there than in the living room; and a clock, the plainer the better—no little French fanciful affair, but something substantial, that can last like the tall, ancestral eight-day time piece. Should the clock stand on the mantel it is not essential to have balancing ornaments on either side. The choicest treasures of the house should indeed adorn the mantel piece, but it is never necessary to have two of a kind standing at equal distances from the center. This is the room in which all things should seem to grow into a likeness to the household, and to grow old with it. Here no changes should be made but for good cause, and always for the better, never by the wholesale. Nor should furniture be introduced that is so staringly new and gay as to put the rest out of countenance and make it look shabby by comparison. There are plenty of good stuffs subdued enough in color to harmonize with any long used parlor, no matter how old the carpet nor how faded the chair seats. Whatever is good and old, though worn, let us respect, preserve, and repair. NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. BY GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN, U. S. Senator from Illinois. To bring to light and expose to public gaze our national defects or social deformities is an unpleasant and generally thankless task, but so long as we shirk it, just so long will they remain to our national detriment and disgrace. To be conscious of disease, to locate and properly diagnose it, is to be half-way on the road to good health. It is not necessary in this age of enlightenment to dwell upon the manifest and manifold advantages to a people and to a nation, of education. They are palpable, and conceded by all men. Illiteracy, then, must as plainly be a disadvantage to a nation, a hindrance to the advancement and welfare of its people, and an evil which should be eradicated.