The invitations, gay with the national colors, stated that Miss Blank, in order to encourage patriotism in her native town, had made a museum collection of curios connected with noted Americans, and bade a choice selection of her fellow-townsmen to meet and view the rare objects.

The booklets passed around among the guests upon their arrival were attractive enough, a tiny flag being painted in one corner of the cover, which also contained the legend:

The Fourth of July Museum
At Miss Blank's
July the Fourth
Nineteen hundred and blank.

A red, white and blue ribbon held the booklet together, and at the end of this was a small white pencil.

We found it best to pair off the players, for two heads are so much better than one, and it is a great satisfaction to give help to one's neighbor without fear and without reproach. Each of the booklets contained a date or an event in United States history, and the man who drew the booklet containing "1492" became the partner of the girl who held "Discovery of America."

The museum specimens were arranged on tables or mounted on cards, and each one was numbered conspicuously. The following list of twenty-two names was used. It can be lengthened, or the celebrities may be otherwise represented, according to the resources of the hostess. Magazine pictures of the articles may be substituted for the real thing, to simplify preparations. Here is the list, which may be greatly extended:

• Paul Revere—a toy horse with rider, labeled "The Horse Travels Best by Night."
• Abraham Lincoln—two small darkies, labeled "All Free."
• Washington—a bunch of cherries, labeled "Our National Fruit."
• Carrie Nation—a toy hatchet, labeled "You Think You Know. Guess Again."
• General Grant—a chocolate cigar.
• Theodore Roosevelt—a doll's Rough Rider hat.
• Richmond Hobson—a confectioner's "kiss."
• Barbara Frietchie—the national flag.
• Theodore Thomas—a bar of music and a street-car conductor's cap.
• Benjamin Harrison—his grandfather's hat.
• Mark Twain—Two pencil-marks.
• P. T. Barnum—a hippopotamus, labeled "The Greatest Show on Earth."
• Harriet Beecher Stowe—"Uncle Tom's Cabin," represented by a toy negro cabin.
• Priscilla Alden—a picture of a Puritan at a spinning-wheel.
• Jefferson Davis—a Confederate dollar bill.
• William J. Bryan—a silver dollar (number sixteen in the collection).
• Miss Stone—the stone figure of a woman, labeled "Kidnapped," or a copy of Stevenson's "Kidnapped."
• Joseph Jefferson—a little dog, labeled "My Dog Schneider."
• Nathaniel Hawthorne—"The Scarlet Letter," represented by a medium-size red envelope.
• Eli Whitney—a cotton-gin, represented by a branch of cotton, and a bottle, labeled "Pure Holland Gin."
• Robert Fulton—a toy steamboat.
• Benjamin Franklin—a kite and a key.

The national colors may be used effectively in the decorations of the rooms or of the table, and the prizes for the winners may be silk flags, photographs of historic places or other souvenirs suggestive of the day.

Appropriate place-cards for a Fourth of July luncheon or dinner may be made by covering small glass bottles about the size of a firecracker with red tissue paper, and filling them with little candies. By cutting the corks even with the bottles and drawing a small piece of twine through for a fuse, a clever imitation of a cracker is made. The names of the guests may be put vertically on the bottles.