is drying, and you must have a soft, flat brush (called camel's-hair), about two and a half inches wide, and those are best when the brush-part is only about one and a half inch long. Examine well to see that there are no loose hairs in it that will come out while painting. The surface of the body is now smooth and level, and the object is to get two coats of paint on for finishing, without leaving brush-marks, or any thing to destroy this smooth, level surface; therefore be sure and have your paint mixed so that it will run off from the brush easy, and be spread without bearing hard on the brush. It is best to try the paint before you commence laying it on the body, and when you are sure it will work easy, lay it on the body as briskly as you can, and do it well, finishing it up with light brushing. After it has got dry enough for the second coat, rub it over with curled hair, so that it takes off all the specks; and it will have a tendency to flatten down the brush-marks which are hardly perceptible. One more coat in the same way finishes the body, ready for striping.

After putting on the second coat of color, and it has become sufficiently dry, take curled hair and rub it enough so as to flatten down any brush marks which your fine brush may have made. This will be a sufficient body for a medium good job, providing care has been taken to mix the paint according to the directions, and you have had no bad luck in putting it on. If you wish to have an extra good job, you must add more coats of the color, or finishing coats, being sure to give it time to dry, so that you have body enough to smooth it down and take out the brush marks with rotten-stone. This rubbing-down is done with pulverized rotten-stone,

laid on a wet woollen rag, or felt, and then rubbed on the painted body until you have polished off all the brush marks. The most that there is about this operation is -carefulness not to rub too much in one place so as to rub through the color, and, at the same time, polish over every part evenly, so that it is as smooth as a mirror If, by accident, you have rubbed through the paint, it sometimes can be remedied by putting on the injured spot a little more of the color with a soft brush; but this kind of patching cannot be carried on to any very great extent on a first class job. While you are rubbing down the paint, use a sponge and water frequently, and wash it off so that you know just how much it has been rubbed.

After the body has been thoroughly polished, wash it well with water, until you have removed every particle of the rotten-stone. All this requires the utmost care, and the workman should not have any other business on his mind to divert his attention from his work. Having got a sufficient coat of paint on the body, the next thing will be to prepare it for ornamenting. Painters differ about this. Some stripe on the paint, and others put on a coat of varnish and stripe on that. I prefer the last way, because the striping runs on to the varnish easier than on the paint; therefore, I should put on a coat of good varnish-and by good, I mean the very best American to be had-for that is the cheapest for the work nan, in order to produce the same effect in looks.

For varnishing, it is absolutely necessary to have the room free from dust; and it must be kept at a temperature about as warm as a workman can comfortably bear to work in. If you are not sure that your varnish is free

from specks, it will be better to filter it through cottor factory cloth; sometimes there are small particles of gum in the varnish, which are transparent, so that you cannot see them until after the varnish has been laid on to the work, when they show themselves in small specks which we sometimes take for specks worked out of the brush. Lay on the varnishes with a good fine bristle brush, even and with straight brush marks, drawn very lightly for the finish. Sometimes, on a very smooth fin ished job, the varnish will dry leaving little pit-marks, where the varnish seems to crawl off from the paint, making it look as though it had had the small-pox. I believe this is a defect in the varnish, and I never saw it do so but once; yet a painter, who had used a large quantity from the same lot of varnish, told me that it was a frequent occurrence with him. It is a frequent occurrence for striping and varnish to crawl off from where it has been laid, and I think the preventive of the latter difficulty will answer for the former.

To prevent paint or varnish from crawling, take a flannel rag and rub it over the work previous to varnish. ing, striping, or painting; this will prevent any difficulty about its crawling. Of a great many ways for preventing paint or varnish from crawling, which I have seen practiced, this, I think, is far the best and cheapest. In varnishing, always be careful not to put the varnish on the corners of the work and leave it to run down Always examine these places carefully before leaving the work; and, as a general thing, you must commence on the inside panels of a body, and work to the outer edge the last thing. Another general rule is, to commence the work that is the highest up first, and finish

that which is the lowest last; this prevents dirt from falling on and sticking to the paint while you are working on it. When the work is varnished, close the room *ight and leave it to dry, without opening the doors or doing any thing to get dust on the work, until it gets so that it will not stick. After taking all these precautions to prevent specks, if you should still be unfortunate and get some on, they must be removed with fine sandpaper before the striping or ornamenting is commenced.

In ornamenting and striping a carriage, it requires considerable taste and judgment. If the painter takes hold of his work as an artist does the canvas, and tries to see how much of his skill he can display on the sur face he has to work, he will be very likely not to please himself, or any one else. He should be contented, not particularly to show off his own skill, but to preserve and show in the most graceful manner the workmanship of the builder. If the builder has not got gracefulness in his work, then the painter has still to try, by striping, to give it that appearance. It is very often the case that we see good made to look like very ordinary work, merely from a bad taste in the striping, so that it does not preserve the gracefulness which the builder intended it to have, and no one seems to know exactly where the fault is, for he cannot point out any particular defect in the painting. On the other hand, I have seen very illshaped work, particularly in that kind called market wagons, or wagons of that grade, put into such shape by the painter, that no objection was made to their ill-proportions. There is a certain curved line which enters into the form of things having beauty and gracefulness, and if that line is wanting, there are but few who can

point out the particular defect, but every one knɔw there is something wrong.

In large panels of carriages, and particularly on the backs of sleighs, it is frequently necessary to put in a centre ornament, which relieves the large and clumsy look which it otherwise would have. This often gives painters a great deal of trouble, because they do not know how to get up an ornament; and yet the thing is very simple when understood, requiring no uncommon skill.

I will now give the process of putting the ornament on the panel of a carriage, as it will be necessary to dc so before the body is striped, and I shall not revert to the subject again, although I expect the painter, without any very great stretch of ingenuity, will make the same process answer to paint landscapes on the inside of omnibuses, put borders on sleighs, or, in fact, do any kind of ornamenting.

After selecting an ornament, take a piece of thin transparent wrapping paper and oil it over with linseed oil until it has become saturated, then rub off all super fluous oil, and afterward lay the paper over any one of the ornaments which you may select, and with a lead pencil trace neatly all of the ornament, not leaving out any of the shades, just as it is in the engraving; then turn the paper over on to a piece of white paper, and on the other side trace the same engraving, which wil appear very distinct on the other side of the oiled paper The panel which you wish to put the ornament on must be dusted over lightly with whiting, if you intend to put any gilt in it, to prevent it from sticking to other parts of the work where it is not wanted; then have the panel