Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-03
Written for TIE EVENING STAR
TOWN AIRS AND GRACES.
How to Furnish Summer Cottages Sim.
ply but Effectively.

THE CHANGE OF STYLES IN VENETIAN LINEN
sHADEs-TAPEsTRY AND WOOD woRK--THE BEsT
FLOORS FOR sUMMER-ANswERs TO coRRE-
sPoNDENrs-ADvIcE ABOUT HEALTH, ETC.
The evolution Of taste in window shades af-
fords the critic study. From the green paper
still seen well preserved in old farm houses
the next step was the buff holland, now sacred
to kitchen premises, the gray linen and the
dazzling white roller blind, which still puts
the eyes out with its high light in glaring
noon. Next fashion in the metropolis took a
daring fight. and red parlor blinds shone down
9th avenue for q season and then vanished to
quarters impossible to polite acquaintance.
They suited too well the tastes Of gambling dens
and fortune tellers. The sober elegance of the
soft natural holland embroidered in Byzantine
colors on the lower border was the best style,
and always will be good. This year the striped
linen blinds reflect foreign taste, and are very
pretty for country houses in the leaf green and
fax stripe, the cool, bright blue and white or
crimson and mixed white besides the twilled
tape stripes in unbleached gray and white.
The color stripes give a subdued liveliness to a
long, dim summer sitting room. or, as house
Keepers say, they finish room well.
SILK BINDING ON SHADES.
Instead OF hemming the sides narrow silk
binding is stitched on and pressed very fat,
which adds a finish and runs better on the
roller. Plain hens for the lower edge are pre-
Ierred to fringe, which curls and looks shabby.
These heavy linen blinds are not supposed to
need washing or renewal under eight or ten
years. A pair of unbleached linen which had
been hanging in windows for five years showed
no need OF refreshing. Practically, with the
attentive care due good furnishings, they never
call Tor renovating. soiled curtain or chair
or broken furniture is a witness against the
breeding of family In English country
houses suites OF furniture three hundred years
old are shown in good keeping. and pieces ex-
hlDlted at the centennial festival. quite as old.
were In better case than modern sets after six
years use. Perhaps, when we can afford things
IN really good finish and design, we will, per
Iorce, learn to preserve them.
THE TASTE FoR TAPESTRY
and luxurious wall hangings is upon this coun-
try-extravagant and unsanitary and unsatisfac-
tory as such things are. In one of those artist
dens of the bric-a-brac shops which educate
people into this sort of bastard luxury heard
an ambitious lad, looking at the veivet-lined
walls, say to his mother, "Why can't we have
our house like this?" Why indeed can't peo-
pie on $4,000 to $1,000 year cover their walls
with green or purple velvet at $13 yard!
what should they want it for if they could af-
FORD 1t! House decorators do not recommend
fabrics of any kind for walls on any ground ex-
cept that of expense and show. Velvet and
tapestry harbor no end of dust, and dust in
vltes insects. Heavy fabric deadens sound so
that 1t Is next to impossible to have good music
In these padded rooms, and it makes the air
stuffy, dead, and depressing.
COMMON HOUSES
are well nigh intolerable with their turcoman
curtains and portieres, which hold stale air of
yesterday in their folds and forbid the free
passage OF fresh breath. Fashion. by way of
compromise, hangs its walls with panels OF
bohemian tapestry, woven of dyed cotton in
the panels of old designs-hawking parties,
battles, or court scenes-very well represented
In rich dark coloring. which would drive a SEN
sltlve person to suicide with its somber effect,
however, after our cheerful home surroundings
Inc cotton tapestry is not prey to moths, does
not cost over $50 panel. or require man to
watch 1t all summer for fear of injury by damp,
mold, or buffalo bug, az wool or velvet does
In the large houses of New York trusty men
from the upholsterer go the rounds every week,
open the rugs, curtains, and tapestry, and lift
the chair covers to brush and beat for moth.
Your butler at $40 week and housekeeper at
$50 can't be expected to look after such mat
sers or see that any Of the twenty house
servants do it.
SIMPLE HOMES.
The new artistic sense rejects these cum
brous follies for simple homes. Tapestry would
do for facing coarse brick and mortar walls in
times when people of degree did not mind being
overrun with vermin under their magniicence.
Modern taste fills its panels with painted tapes
try, which closely resembles the woven and is
free from its disabilities The demand is for
washable surfaces on walls if not lincrusta
with its sprawly decorations, then the tile-fin-
ished paper, which washes with a sponge or
painted plaster in delicate cheerful Japan
esque designs OF fruit blossoms, reed sand flying
birds, or at least wall paper of quality which
will bear coat of white shellac varnish like
eggshell finish. The finest finish to any wall,
and most lasting, is given by white of egg, in
which the Italian masters painted their great
frescoes and found their own eggs when popes
and princes were too stingy to pay for them
Inc summer cottages are falling out with the
tesselated hardwood carpets, as they are
called. In our dry, hot air the blocks shrink.
warp and in dog days swell again till they are
out OF place. Then, Bridgets treatment does
not agree with wood and the general antique
effect OF grimy oak and butternut is depressing,
and 1T Is not always easy to get man from
town to do the floors every week. So, moderate.
sagacious folk fall back on
WELL LAID PAINTED FLOORS,
in oak-brown, chestnut, Vandyke brown, or
terra Gotta, done in oil, with a coating of thin
shellac after the last of paint for gloss. This
gives floor which will wear and look as well
as waxed floor, unless special pains are taken
with the latter. The check mating, in tef.
colors and terra Gotta or olive check are favored
rather than the large-fgured mattings. and
Bamboo. rattan, and splint, or rush furniture
supersedes all other for summer, though peo-
pie acquire q liking for these springy, clean.
light chairs and lounges through the year.
The gay Viennese tables and cabinets,
in light color, painted with bouquets
and vanished like lacquer, go well
with rattan, for of all inconvenient, 'swobbly''
things, the rattan and other woven tables are
the worst. Bright blue and red linen, twilled
or plain finish, is the material for cushions.
enriched with floss embroideries and short tas,
sci fringes of colors of the work Portieres
are of linen crash, gay with many-colored cross
stitches as q Bagdad hanging, and tasseled in
Spanish taste. But the bamboo fringe hang
let the air through and make picturesque va
riety. Then, everywhere you turn in the new
cottages the new pierced wood work confronts
you, much to the benefit Of free ventilation
Transoms over doors and windows wrought
screens in Railways and pierced doors
into passages, or open panels filed
with twisted wood work let the draught
between rooms In unexpected ways, BY
next year the houses will be pretty much
wood filigree, to the relief of stained glass.
which really tinges ones views Of life, there ia
so much of it, and that is so dreadful. The
portable Berlin iron freplaces, which are al
most as easy to move as the old sheet-iron air
tight stoves, are beautiful in their artistic
modelling, in contrast to the glitter and nickel
plate OF ''parlor stoves" and an open stove is
part OF every cottage equipment. For a week
and more fires have been needed here, near
the coast, night and morning, and have been
cheerful all day sometimes.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.