The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-11-30
GARDHRHD SUNSHINE
High Decorative Value of
Books as Furni-
ture.
SIGNS OF REFINE MBNT. TOO.
Their Purchase Never an ExlraVa-
gance-Hints to Amateur
Painters.
SIGNS OF REFINE MENT. TOO.

Regarded purely from a utilitarian
stand point, with no reference whatever
to their contents, but simply looked at as
furniture. the value of books can hardly
be overestimatel. Although popularity
sup Iosel to be dear. books, considered as
investments, are amazingly cheap. In no
other direction does SO small an expendi-
ture go SO far in returning good value
for money spent.
To say nothing of the obvious fact that
the presence of books in assemblages, so
to speak, at once sets a stamp of cultiva-
ton on a household, giving it a certificate
of refinement which neither costly brio "a
prac nor beautiful upholstery can confer.
books are decorative. They lend them
Selves to the furnishing of alcoves II
corners. They are beautiful in shape
and charming i'll color, and marshalied in
rows in bookcases tall and stately. or
bookcases-lo low and coy, they form agree
able points on which the eye can rest. A
bright red book makes a spot from which
other colors radiate pleasantly. 1t is gar
nered sunshine in a permanent form.
Books lying about on tables, or placed
in quantity carved RACKS. or standing on
brackets. take away from The baroness of
"a ROOM, and impar6 to it an exquisite
living quality, a quality of life.
This Is inseDaraole from the idea of a
book. which Is really a bit of embalmed
personality. the emulation of q human
soul saved to an earthly immortality.
Women always love their things in a
cliuging Way to Which men are usually
strangers. But a man loves his DO oks,
loves 10 see them around him, loves To sit
surrounded by them as by friends while
he enjoys the ease of slippers and the
homely luxury of an evening pipe.
Let nobody fancy herself extravaganza
when she buys a book. Books are TO be
owned, not to be borrowed. Is there
lacking to your best room the nameless
distinction which you have soughtin vain
in rugs of price, in family toned and
glimmeriug draperies, III billowy chairs
and pillowy divans? Let the carpenter
construct for you a set of shelves, of
pine, If you do not desire a ~costlier wood.
Pine is a fragrant, close grained wood.
beautiful in itself, and easily stained, if a
deeper tone is required. Have your
shelves low. On the upper one leave
space for a royal Worcester or Lowestoft,
for a statuette or a candlestick. AR
range your books below-B1ack and Be-
SAINT. Hardy, Dickens. Scout, and others
who have given you of
their intellectual wealth. Your
Shakespeare is of course a many
volumed. annotated set-Rolfe's probably
-lor you must gave a shakespeare you
can hold in your hand and slip under the
pillow on your lounge. You need a
Shelf for Shakespeare. Aud when the book
shelves are made and filled, your room is
no longer bare; it is well furnished.
In a little hamlet among the hills, re-
mote from a railroad, in u region where
the good wife still sews her rags into
great many eolored balls, and weaVes her
WI carpet at her own hand loom, there
stands a house most simple, yet most
luXuriously furnished. No curtains to
hide the hills that go to sleep daily oppo-
site the windows, and wake in the morn
ing flushed and rosy like children open
.lR sweet eyes to the new day. No rugs
but. everywhere books-in the mothers
chamber, in the boys room, in the
fathers study. And the house is abund-
antly furnished.-Mdguret SangSter IN
Hdrper'S Bdzar.