Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-04-14
THE cHEApNEss OF BEAUTY
ny HARRIET BEEcHER STOWE.


tba Tying-rooms of houses.
we hold the truth to be self-evi-
a..f,t that in the arrangements of
tifa things should be so disposed as
not merely to secure physical COM
fort. but also to produce the impress
sion of beauty.
Now. here we are met at the out
1T by people who tell us that OF
.ourse they want their houses hand
some. and that when they get
money enough they intend to have
them handsome, but thatat present
theyeare too poor, and because they
are poor they dismiss the subject
altogether apparently land live with
out any regard to 1t.
We have often seen people who
.,id that they could not afford to
make their houses beautiful, who
!tad spent upon them, outside or in
an amount of money which did not
produce either beauty or comfort,
and which, if judiciously applied,
might have made the house quite
charming.
We will instance one case. y
man, in building his house, takes u
plan of an architect. This plan in
cludes, on the outside, a number of
what Andrew Fa;rservice called
'seurly-wurIies" and "whigmaliries, I"
which make the house neither pretti-
er nor more comfortable, and which
take up good deal of money. We
would venture To say that we could
buy the chrome of Bierstadt's Sun
set in the Yo-Semite Valley" and
four others like it, for half the SUE!
that we have sometimes seen laid
out on very ugly porch that looked
nj. III ..ix T.
side of Il house The only use of this
porch was to cost money and to cause
everybody who looks at il to eXcialm
~ they go by: "What ever induced
that man To get thing like that on
the outside of his house?'
Then, again, in the inside ofhouses,
we have seen n dwelling looking
very bald and bare, when sufficient
SUM of money had been expended on
one article To have made the whole
very pretty. The thing has come
about in this way.
We will suppose the couple who
own the house to be in the condition
in which people generally are after
they have bniit Il house-having
spent more than they could afford on
the building itself, and yet feeling
themselves under the necessity of
getting some furniture.
"NOw,p says the housewife, Il
must at least have parlor carpet.
We must get that t@ begin with, and
other things as we go on" She goes
Ia a store To look ut carpets. The
clerks are smiling and obiiglng, and
sweeAy compiacent. The store
Keeper, perhaps, IS II ncighior or
friend, and, after exhibiting various
patterns. he tells her of Il Brussels
carpet nc is selling wonderfully
cheap-actually a dollar and quar-
ter less yard than the usual price
Of Rrussels, and the reason is ti2z'i i;
i an Questionable pattern, and he
has i good deal of il, and wishes To
close it of
She looks at II and thinks it is
not at all the kind of carpet she
meant to buy but then it is Brus-
sells, and 80 cheap And as she hes
ltates, her friend tells her that she
viii find ii ''cheanest in the end
that one Brussels carpet Will out
last three or four ingralns,' etc, etc.
The result ali this is that she buys
The BRUSSELS carpet which, with all
It's reduction in price, Il one-third
iearer than the ingram would have
been, and not half So pretty. When
she comes home she will find that she
has spent, we will say eighty dollars,
fer very honlely carpet, whose
greatest merit it is an aflliction to re-
nember-namely, that it viii outlast
5hree ordinary carpets. And now,
because she has bought this carpet,
she cannot afford to paper the walls
sag put up any window-curtains, and
cannot even begin To think of buy
ing any pictures.
Now, let rs seeWhat eighty dollars
could have done for that room. We
viii suppose, ia the first place, she
invests la thirtesn rolls of wall pa
per OF a lovely shade of buff, which
viii make the room look sunshlny
in the day time, and light up brill
lantly in the evening Thirteen rolls
of good satin paper, at thirty-seVeH
cents "A roll, eXpends four dollars and
eighty-one cents. \ maroon border
ing, made,in imitation of the choi-
cest French style, which cannot at a
distance be told from it, can be
bought forsiX cents a yard. This will
bring the paper To about five dollars
and Il half ami our friends will give
a day of their time to putting it on
The room already begins to loo k
furnished.
Now. let US cover the floor with,
say, thirty yards of good mating, lat
fifty cents yard. This gives us "A
carpet for fifteen dollars. We are here
stopped by the prejudice that mating
is not good economy, beeause it wears
out so soon. We humbly submit
that it is precisely the thing for 3
parlor, which * reserved for the re
ecption-room of friends, and for ouI
own dressed leisure hours. Mating
i not good economy in = dining
room or a hard-worn sitting-roofn
bnt such a parlor as We are deserlb-
ing IL precisely the place where II
answers To the very best advantage,
We have, in mind now one very
attractive parlor which has been,
both for summer and winter. the
daily sitting-room for the leisure
hours for husband and wife, and
family of children where plain
- hite straw mating has done ser
vice for seven years. That parloT
i in the habit of receiving visits from
people who live upon velNct and
Brussels ; but they prefer TO spend
the money which such carpets Wonld
cost on ether modes of embeliish-
nent and this parlor has often
been cited Ia Us as a very attractive
room.
And now our friends having Soi
thus far, are requested In select some
aHe tint or color which shall be the
@revailing one III the furniture ~ the
@"on. Shall It he green ? Small IL
a. blue > Shall il be crimson 10
carry IN our illustration. We VIII
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