The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-01-15
The Cheapness Of Beauty.
BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

Q
ing -reoms of houses.
We hold the truth to be selfevident that,
in the arrangement of life, things should
be so disposed as not merely to secure phys
ical comfort, but also to produce the i'm
preston of beauty.
Now, here we are met at the outset by
people who tell us that Of course they want
their houses handsome. and that when they
get money enough, they intend to have
them handsome, but that at present they
are too poor, and because they are poor,
they dismiss the subject altogether appar
emily, 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, out
side 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 ore case. A man, in
building his house, takes plan of an ar
chitect. This plan includes, on the outside,
number of what Andrew Fairservice
called curly-wurlics and "whigmali-
ries," which make the house neither pref
tier nor mere comfortable, and which take
up good deal of money. We would ven
turo to say that we could buy the chrome
of Bierstadt's "Sunset in the 70 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
4 nightmare abortion. on the outside of a
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 thing like
that on the outside of his houss?'
Then, again, in the inside houses, we
have seen dwelling looking very bald and
bare, when a 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 peo-
pie generally are after 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 store to look at
carpets. The clerks are smiling and oblig-
ipo op6 cuaoflu cnrnplacapt Tho etoro
keeper, perhaps, is a neighbor or friend
and after exhibiting various patterns, he
tells her of Brussels carpet he is selling
wonderfully cheap-actually dollar and a
quarter less yard than the usual price of
Brussels, and the reason is that it is an
questionable pattern, and he has a good
deal of it, and wishes to close it off.
She looks at it and thinks it is not at all
the kiud 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 our four
ingrains,' etc, etc.
The result of all this is that she buys the
Brussels carpet, which, with all its reduc-
ton in price, is one-third dearer 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 af1liction to remenl-
ber-namely, that it will outlast three Or
| H.
bought this carpet she cannot afford to
paper the walls or put up any window cur
tains, 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 suppose,
| in the first place, she invests in thirteen
rolls Of wall paper of lovely shade of
buff, which will make the room look sun
shiny in the daytime, and light up bril-
liantly 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 iH,i-
tation of the choicest French style, which
cannot at distance be told from it, can be
bought for six cents 4 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-
iudice that mating is not good economy,
because it wears out SO soon. We humbly
submit that it is precisely the thing for 4
parlor, which is reserved for the reception
room of friends, and for our own dressed
leisure hours. Mating is not good econ
omy in dining room, but such parlor as
we are describing is precisely the place
where it 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 of husband and wife, and
family of children, where plain white,
straw mating has done service for seven
years. That parlor is in a city, and oul
| 1rlenQS are III the ndDlU Oh receiving VlSlts
from people who live upon velvet and
Brussels; but they prefer to spend the
money which such carpets would cost or
other modes of establishment and thi.
parlor has often been cited to lis as a very
attractive room.
Aud now our friends having got thus far
are requested to select some one tint Of
color win ch shall be the prevailing one in
the furniture of the room. Shall it b,
greene Sha.'lit be blue9 Shall it be Grim
SOM To carry on our illustration, we will
choose green an we now proceed with i
to create furniture for our room. Let L.
imagine that on one side of the firs-plac
there be, as there is often, recess abou
six feet long and three feet deep. Fill thi
recess with rough frame one foot high
and upon the top of the frame nave a
elastic rack of Stats, make mattress 10
this, or if you wish to avoid this trouble