The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-04-15
THE CHEAPNESS OF BEAUTY.
BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

rooms of houses.
We hold the truth to be selfevident 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 US that of course they
want their houses handsome, and that
when they get 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 could not afford to make their
houses beautiful, who had 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 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 curly-wurlies and "whig-
maliries," which make the house neither
prettier 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 "Sunset in the Yo-
Semitic Valley" and four others like it,
for half the sum that we have sometimes
seen laid out 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 it to exclaim as
they go by: "What ever induced that
man to get a thing like that on the outside
of his house7"
Then, again. in the inside of houses, we
have seen 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 built
a house-having spent more than they
could afford on the building itself, and yel
feeling themselves under the necessity OF
getting some furniture.
"NOw," says the housewife, 81 must al
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 car.
pets. The clerks are smiling and obliging
and sweetly complacent The storekeeper
perhaps, is a neighbor or friend, aud, after
exhibiting various patterns, he tells her OF
a Brussels carpet he is selling wonderfully
cheap-actIally dollar and a quarter
less a yard than the usual price of Brus-
sels, and the reason is that it is an unfash-
ionable pattern, and he has a good deal oil
I'D ,ola TO olr, q off
She looks at it and thinks it 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 fouI
ingrains," ETC., etc.
The result of all this is that she buys the
Brussels carpet, which, with all it's reduc
ti0n in price, is one-third deaTer than the
ingram would have been, and not half SC
pretty. When she comes home she will
find that she has spent, we will say eighty
dollars, for a very homely carpet, whose
greatest merit it is an affliction 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 see 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-on
cents. A maroon bordering, made in imi
tation of the choicest French style, which
cannot at a distance be told from it, can
be bought for six cents yard. This will
bring the paper to about five dollars and
a half; and our friends will give day OF
their time to putting it 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 pre-
judice that mating is not good economy
because it wears out so 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 our own
dressed leisure hours Mating is not good
economy in a dining room or hard-worr
sitting-room, but such a parlor as we are
describing is precisely the place where il
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 husband and wife and fam
lily of children, where a plain white straw
mating has done service for seven years
That parlor is in 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 mode:
of establishment; and this parlor has
often been cited to us as a very attractive
room.
And now our friends, having got thus
far, are requested to select some one tint
or color which shall be the prevailing one
in the furniture of the room. Shall it bt
green? Shall it be blue9 Shall it bt
crimson -? To carry on our illustration
we will choose green, and we now pro
ceed with it to create furniture for the
room. Let us imagine that on one side o.
the fireplace there be, as there is often, q
recess about six feet long and three fee
deep. Fill this recess with a rough frame
one foot high, and upon the top of the
frame have an elastic rack of Stats, make
a mattress for this, or if you wish to avoit
this trouble, you can get a nice mattress
for the sum Of two dollars, made of cane
shavings or husks Cover this with 8
green English furniture print The
glazed English comes at about twenty -fiv,
cents a yard, the glazed French at seven
y-fve cents yard, and nice article o
yard wide French twill (very stroug) Il
from seventy five to eighty cents yard.