The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-08-17
The UNDEvEL0PED FLOOR
A Protest Entered Against the Ia
blss, tho Chairs and tho
Wall Paper.
The Safety and Comfort to Be
Found In the Japanese
interior.
Unnecessary Furniture Cosdemnsd as
#E - .A --LE F
Unnecessary Furniture Condemned .,
Relies OF FcHdAl EarbarisM-MAn
Must TAX . Climb Down,

The capacity of the oomnon domestic
floor AZ an area of production. ~ . region
Of ornament, and . hsld Of rsoreatioz
seems to be entirely ignored in this 30.
called civilized century, remarks the Lon
don Globe. We have weighed and analysed
the stars, and sought after the secrets OF
life and death. with microscope and scalpel,
and meanwhile the 0oor had been forgot
ten.
Has q man . book or . china ornament
that he wishes to put whore it may delight
the eyes and be conveniently u hand in his
household? AL around him il the vacant
floor: and what does hs do2 Deliberately
raises mp another floor upon legs. . RAM
shaekls upper dock called = table, and de-
posits his treasure in its unstable keeping.
Or he hammers = vaoillasing nail into an
irrosponsive brick and hangs thereon a
clumsy timber bracket to await de-
~struction by the first earthquake shock OF
vibration Of heavy locomotive that strays
into his region. n@a *
His lamps and gas brackets hang down
from the overburdsnsd ceiling to threaten
The nervous and split the heads Of the IN
wary, or project rudsly from his walls into
the faces of his visitors. His hats are
poised like orouohina avalanohes along the
upper walls of the passages OF his homo.
and nightly he offers fortune his watch and
chain in 4 pendant bag Of fimsy texture.
Go into the kitchen and you will find the
plates and dishss poised for flight from q
row Of wooden perohes above the dresser.
Go into the great saloon Ind you will find q
costly Sevres vase thrust up by an unRsinly
cylinder Of variegated and polished marble.
10 high that its graceful curves become
partly in perspective. and waiting ~ the
touch of the domestic cat or servant to wing
that used to-be. Indeed, it Is not too much
to say that the entire household of a modern
European 10 in = state of unstable sQuili-
brium, . condition of vibration and drift,
a slow, inevitable progression toward ultl-
mate smash and extinction. And the floor
around his head spreads empty, or hidden
by tables and wbatnots, safe, convenient,
and altogether forgotten.
The chair and table straddle over and
darken our community; they hold the striv-
ing human AntBus from his victory. In
every other civilization except that which
has grown up in Europe, and which 10 now
spread moro or less thinly over most OF
the earth. the floor has been the natural
scat and resting place of men. Only po-
tentatss vsntursd upon the giddy summit
of extremely solid thrones INC sacrificed
comfort and culture to maRniaoenoe.
Our elevation upon table and chair legs
10 Q quite batbari remlniscence In
medieval Europe it was unfortunately the
fashion of the feudal lords and their re-
tainers to live in large halls. tho floors of
which were spread with decayinR vsQsta-
ton and picked bones, and shared by dogs.
Hence tbs necessity of q bench or chair
arose, and for the hardy men of those days,
accustomed to the sport of fitting, the
strain of balancing upon these things was
no great hardship.
But now we have surely got beyond the
state Of things that Brought about this
need. Our floors are reasonably clean,
and We may venture to climb down and as
sumo the attitude familiar to all other CIV
ilized races, to the cultivated Jap, the pen
festive Roman. The chair is ungainly; 1t
tires the body instead of resting it. 1t
cramps tho chest and rooks the spine, it is
costly and 4 relic of the fsudal system. A
weakly-constructsd chair, moreover, Is
dangerous to life and limb. It is the eleva-
ton Of the chair that has produced the
mushroom growth Of tables that stiles the
modern room. Tbs two things have been
evolved, and now they must disappear to-
gether.
Man must climb down. This is the next
order in tho itinerary OF human advance.
The eomm0n chair, with its implied fiction
of q rectangular hinge in humanity, must
cease to war against grace and ease. In
unholy alliance with the trousers and top
hat, this thing has pervaded our lives with
ugllness long enough. Let US sit on the
floor and have done with this absurd thing |
and with its. crooked spines, consumption,
round shoulders and all it other evil &C
compartments.
When this great discovery is appreciated.
when q regenerate man has. with all his
probable possessions, subsidized to his nat
I al level. a whole host of new possibilities
of decoration and enjoyment become evil
dent. At 81 esent a man artificialiy poised
at a height of four or five feet in a room
dares not look up for long together
lest he lose his balance and come
crashing down. he and his tables and
chairs and the whole card castle of furni-
ture. Consequently only his walls are dec
grated, and even in the case of the walls
the decorative scheme is marred by his in
sane habit of hanging all his movable
goods upon them. TIT ordinary ceiling is
in nine cases out of ten simply a bald white
place in the room surface. But once get
men OF the floor. the vertigo OF deadly
peril out of their heads, and with leisu. o to
lie back and look about them, and the
white waste of ceiling will no longer sat
ify the higher needs of their souls. They
will demand beauty, color. interest there,
and the human living room will be in
creased by u sixth side--R higher sids-de-
voted to art slone.