New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-04
LIE STYLES OF SEPTENBER.

Just at this season hOusehOldcrs in town and
country are altering or repairing their dwell
ings for the coming Winter, each with the
avowed motive of making himself or his fam
ily more comfortable. Yet it is safe to say
that one in ten follows his own real taste or
needs in building, painting or furnishing, and
the other nine follow " the fashion," trying to
outyie their neighbors on the other side
of Madison Avenue or the village com
mon. 1t would be worth the while
of each house builder or decorator to stop and
cooly consider two or three maXims so self
evident as to be platitudes. First, mans
absolute needs ought to control the shape,
size, and cost of his house. 1t is he who has
to eat sleep, live in it-nOt his neighbors 1t
is his own comfort convenience, and even
whims, which should be first served before
even the requirements of good taste and GER
tainly before any vague, vulgar demands or
so-caled Style. lie may remember, too, that
absolute utility without any varnish OF pre-
tense is never wholly unbeautiful ; pig-pen
strictly meant to accommodate pigs and put out
of sight from consideration to humanity, is a
pig-pcn in better taste than if made to ill a
foreground in the disguise of Grecian temple.
Nothing can be more depressing than to view
the frantic efforts of our population from sea
to sea to convert their wooden farm-houses
into Italian villas or Swiss chalets, their stables
into Turkish mosques, and memories into min
iature chateaus. \ man can never fall into
fatal mistakes Of this kind if he makes the
comfort of the inmates of a house his motive
idea in building, rather than the effect upon
chance passcrs-by After he has planned the
house to suit himself, however, he does owe
it to mankind hat it should not offend the
public eve. He may reconcile the two objects
by brief study of the rules of architecture,
but he assllredly will not reconcile them by
initiating the last fine house which is the adj
miration of the village. Even il his imitation
be exact he will find the zest and beauty of
the original is dulled even to his own eyes.
When the house is built the usual course is to
furnish it according to the far-off rumors of
the --latest thing out" which uphosterer and
paper-hangcr arc so anxious to impart. The
rational home-maker will adopt n totally diff
ferent course, and examine into the condition
of his own taste and critical Judgment rather
than that of the fashion. The more he finds
himself inclined to bizarre effects, the
more he needs to doubt his own
eye-to study and abide rigidly by the
fixed rules of color, and to avoid any ventures
outside of them. AS long as he does this he
can make no glaring errors. The field of
study in architecture and house decoration is
a boundless one, but we would recommend
every man who is making himself a home to
enter upon il far enough to comprehend its
general outlines, even the farmer, who usually
concerns himself no more about the color of
his house and walls than Of his hay-wagon.
In the matter of furniture much real utility
and beauty is sacrificed by the rage in rural
and INLAND districts to keep pace with the
fashion. Substantial, solid, old mahogany and
cherry furniture are banished to make room
for the cheap, snowy, machine-made sets which
flood the country from inferior manufactures.
Quaint old secretaries, clocks, and chairs,
which would be eagerly bought at ten times
their first cost if brought to the seabOard
cities, are turned into auction shops and gar
rets in villages to give place to this tawdry
splendor. Ii our housekeeper has piece OF
furniture which thoroughly answers its purpose
and is not al apnoyauce to the eye. let her