Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-04-16
THE CHEAPNEsS OF BEAUTY.
nY uAnnIEr nEg.cnsR srowr.

ny HARRIET BEStCHsR STOWE.
We propose to write an article on the
subject of beauty as applied to the living
rooms of houses
We holj the truth TO be sclf.cvideut that
in the arrangements Of life, things should
be so disposed as not merely TO secure
physical comfort, but also to produce the
impression of beauty
Now, here we are met at tie outset by
people who tell u5 that OF course they
want their houses handsome and that
when they set money enough they in
tend to have them handsome, but that at
present they are too poor, and because
they are poor they dismiss the subject alto
gether apparently, and live without any
regard to it.
We have often seen people who said
that they couli not afford TO make their
houses beautiful, who had spent upon
them, outside OF in, an amount Of money
WHICH did not produce either beauty or
comfort and which, if judiciously applied,
might have made the house quite charm
ing.
We will instance one case. A man, in
building his house, takes plan OF an
architect. This plan includes, on the out
SIDE number of what Andrew Fairser-
vice called ourly.wurlies and "whig-
maliries," which make the house neither
prettier nor more comfortable, aud which
take up good deal of money. We would
venture to say that VIC could buy the
chrome of Bierstadts "Sunset in the Io'
Semitic Valley" and four others like it,
for half the sum that we have sometimes
seen laid ont on very ugly porch, that
looked like nightmare abortion, on the
outside of house. The only use of this
porch was to cost money, and to cause
everybody who looks at il to cxClaim as
they go by: "What ever induced that
man to get thing like that on the outside
OF his house9"
Then, again, in the inside OF houses, we
have seen a 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 tho condition in which
people generally are aftcr they have built
house having spent more than they
! could afford on the building itself, and yet
feeling themselves under the necessity Of
getting some furniture.
"NOw," says the housewife, 81 must at
least have parlor carpet. We must get
that to begin with, and other things as we
go on" She goes to a store to look at Cur.
pets The clerks are smiling and obliging,
and sweetly cOmplacent. The storelleepcr,
perhaps, is neighbor or friend, and, after
exhibiting various patterns, he tells her of
a Brussels carpet he is selling wonderfully
cheap actually dollar and a quarter
less yard than the usual price Of Brus-
sels, and the reason is that it is an uuflsh-
ionable pattern, and he has good deal Of
! it, and wishes to close it off, rt.
| She looks at 1t and thinks 1t Is not at all
| the kind of carpet she meant to buy but
then it is Brussels, and so cheap And as
she hesitates, her friend tells her that she
will find it " cheapest in the end-that one
| Brussels carpet will outlast three or four
| ingrains," etc, etc
The result of all this 10 that she buys the
| Brussels carpet, which, with all its reduc.
tion in price is one.third deaIer 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 for very homely carpet, whose
greatest merit it is an affection to remem-
ber-namely, that it will outlast three or
dinary carpets. And now, because she
has bought this carpet, she cannot afford
to paper the walls or put up any window
curtains, and cannot even begin TO think
of buying any pictures,
Now, let us sec what eighty dollars could
have done for that room. We will sup
pose, in the first place, she invests in thir
teen rolls Of wall paper of lovely shade
of buff, which will make the room look
sunshiny in the day time, and light up
brilliantly in the evening. Thirteen rolls
of good satin paper, at thirty-seven cents
a roll, eXpends four dollars and eighty.one
cents. A maroon bordering made in imi.
tation of the choicest French style, which
cannot at distance be told from It, can
be bought for six cents a yard. This viii
bring the paper to about five dollars and
a half; and our friends will give day Of
their time TO puttngit on. The room al
ready begins TO look furnished.
Now, let us cover the floor with, say,
thirty yards of good mating, at fifty cents
a yard. This gives us carpet for fifteen
dollars. We are here stopped by the PIE
judice that mating is not good economy
because it wears out 50 soon. We humbly
submit that it is precisely the thing for a
parlor, which is reserved for the reCep-
tion-room of friends, and for cur own
dressed leisure hours. Mating is not good
economy in dining room or a hard worn
sitliDg-TOOm, but such paTluT as we are
describing is precisely the place where II
answers TO the very best advantage
Wehave in mind now one very attractive
parlor which has been, both for summer
and winter, the daily sitting room for The
leisure hours ofa husbandand wife and fam.
lily of children, where plain white straw
mating has done service for seven years
That parlOr is in a city, and our friends are
in the habit OF receiving visits from peo
pie who live upon velvet and Brussels
but they prefer to spend the money which
such carpets would cost on other modes
of establishment; and this parlor hai
oiten.been cited 70 us as a very attractive
room.
And now our friends, having got thus
far, are requested 20 select some one tint
or color which shall be the epreVailing one
in the furniture of the TOpm. Shall 1t be
green? Shall II be bluep Shall 1t be
crimson To carry on our illustration,
we win choose green, and We now pro.
ceed with It to create furniture for the
room. Let as imagine that on one side OF
the fireplace there be, as there is often, a
recess about six feet long and three feet
deer. Filithis recess With rough frame,
one foot high, and upon the top of the
frame have an elastic rack Of Stats, make
a mattress for this, OF ifyou wish to avoid
/ this trouble, you can e.. a nice mattress
for the sum Of two dollars, made Of cane