The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-05

by Mr.. George Howe Before the New York
Society OF Architects will be found Of interest
and value by house-bullders and painters:
''It is possible that often in despair 1t is said
Let the decoration--ssye the mark-be
cream white for this gives the least trouble,
is clean, and, unfortunately, at the present
moment is fashionable. Can color, or sur
faces void OF color, be fashionable! Impossi-
BILE. The painting and decorative treatment
of every house should be, and can be, dealt
with on its own merits, either according to
situation or to the feeling of the client, which
should be guided and brought into shape by
the expert, be he architect, artist, or painter.
l cannot forbear deprecating the manner In
which wall and other furniture is purchased
in the 'universal-provider' style, because
this or that is fashionable, this or that is sell
ing largely Everything should be selected
with view to adaptabilty and interestedness
of collection. Every piece of furniture and
every picture should have history, pleasant
reminiscence, associated with It, and all deco
ration must be thought out with determine
ton to emphasize the things SO collected;
then houses Of all classes would be homes in
deed.
81 have said that unfortunately cream white
is fashionable. l am not prescribing tones of
white-I use them with pleasure to emphasize
decorative scheme, and / go further and say
that as finish it is in part neceseary-but do
contend that the present rage for what i
known as white is as detrimental to true art
as it is unsatisfactory TO the color-loving in
stinct within us. It is cheerless, meaningless,
and apt to give one the idea that something
else is more considered than the intention Of
giving pleasure to the sensitiveness of our
emotions. ] am not sure but would prefer
to revert to the imitation days. The work
man then had something to learn, there was
something to excite emulation; in white there
is nothing to interest him or call out his ar
tistic capabilities. He is a mere mechanical
hand, and will remain SO. / maintain that
our houses should be full Of clear, clean, lumi-
nous, and bright coloring, such as nature gives
us at all seasons except, perhaps, when we
are having, as we have been having this win
ter, over fifty days of continuous frost and
snow; even then, outside our fog-clad city,
there was the lovely glow of sunset full of
color to charm and excite all lovers of the
beautiful.
m #
''I deal first with the common modes OF
treatment, such as must be used for economy
and indeed OF necessity. In my former paper
had occasion to point out the more than
desirability OF thorough removal of all old
distempers and papers. This, am sure you
will say, is commonplace with vengeance.
II it is so even in these enlightened days, up
and down the land you will find it disregarded
largely, and this disregard is from every point
of view to be condemned. 1t cannot be too
often reiterated and re-reiterated, so that
say, as a sanitarian, the first thing that should
be insisted upon is that every particle of old
distemper and every scrap of paper must be
removed-why? Because of their porosity-
no matter how difficult that may be, even il
the paper has been coated with varnish. The
animalcula and vegetable growths, which are
created and, 1t may be, chrysalzed for q
period under the varnish, will sooner or later
come to the fore, and when this is the case
are certainly not conducive to health
81 regret that distemper, which Is largely
used, is so Objectionable, made, as it is, on
such poor base as whiting, and bound with
the size which, as now made, soon decom-
poses. What is more Objectionable than
the animal denominations sold and used
as 'size,' frequently prepared from positive
offal, laid on thickly coat after coat, making
the plaster surface spongy and more spongy,
absorbent and more absorbent / do not ex-
aggerate in this, and / say that 1t takes in
everything floating in the air, which, more
frequently than otherwise, terminates even
when new, breeds disease, and leads to. DEATH
and We wonder why, when the house has been
recently decorated. ] would Danish all such
absorbent and destructive materials. Many
say that distemper has the advantage of being
easily washed off; true, but can a room or
house be turned topsy-turVy at pleasure and
often to wash off what has so recently been
laid on? l would therefore, use only ma
terials that may be sponged frequently, and
this, too, with Slight disinfectant, with as
little trouble to the housemaid as is the every
day work of the house.
u know it is impossible to coat everything
with an enamel and yamish. For one thing,
such surfaces are costly, and another, obiec-
tionable for the sheen, though they certainly
are the cleanest; but, | would repeat, coat
even the commonest parts of the house with
the thinnest and least absorbent material OBJ
tainable Whiting is simply washed chalk,
and has no cohesive properties of itself
absorbent surfaces are inadyisable and
should be avoided as much as possible, but
where 1t is determined that paper shall be
used and must be, then in all cases the paper
hangings should have the color OF the ground
in the paper and not on 1t. The print should
be of pigment that is comparatively wash
able, and am glad to notice that the manu-
facturers of rhangings are more and more
embodying this form of work in their manu-
factures, as opposed to the heavy dstemper-
coated hangings of the past. Where it is nee
essary to ground aud print in distempers a
washable solution can be applied, and indeed
should be- You have only TO ask oftener and
oftener for this, and, depend upon it, what was
once the universal paper-stainer's treatment
will give way to perfect hygienic wallpaper,
non-arsenical, non-absorbent, and soft in
colonng. There will then be all that is re-
quired for a complete and simply y-decorated
wall-surface in the cheapest and most costly
wallpaper.
s'When a deep rich tone is required for plain
monotone wall surface there is open TO us a
variety of methods Of treatment at q cOmDara-