The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-09-28
WAR AGAINST CARPETS.
Celia Thatcher Thinks it
Cheaper and Healthier
to Stain Floors
and Use Rugs.
HOW TO GET AESTHETIC EFFECTS.
HideOus Combinations in Old Parlor
Coverings-A Plea for Fresh
Air and Sunshine.

Ii it were possible to Danish clrpess en-
tirely--I refer to thoss nailed to the fl Dor
I think it would be a distinct gain to
the world in comfort, cleanliness aud
health.
It is an easy matter 60 make q hand :
some floor on which rugs can be laid, and
these can be taken up and shaken out of
doors often enough to keep them fresh
aud free from dust.
1have a floor of hard Southern pine
hich is simply beautiful, and which
grows more and more so with every
years wear. 1t is vanished with a GER
tain make of wood finish, which is the
king of all substances that l know for a
floor finish. being nearly as nard as mar
BILE and deepening the rich dull golden
color of the wood till it fairly g lows. But
a floor q be laid at small exp nse OF
ordinary pine, smoothly planed. and
either colored with any OF the pretty, in
expensive stains for sale avery where or
yarnis he'd with the wood flush I nave
spoken ot-and there you have it, grow
ing handsomer all the time, easily kept
clean, and with no cumbrous carpet to
harbor bacterial germs of disease and
that inlay of dust rising impa1pably but
certainly with every footstep on IT,.
or course the ordinary piue will not
wear like the hard woods-the Southern
piue, ash. birch, chestnut, oak, and SO
forth. And as often as every other year
q new coat OF satin or varnish should bs
added. But the cost is very little, noth-
ing 10 comparison to a new carpet. and
the housekeeper will not feel obliged t.
shut out the delightful cheer of winter
sunshine for the purpose of preserving
the colors of a carpet.
One notices the closed blinds and
drawn curtains in large sections of al
most every house in country towns; room
after roon Theoretically sealed from the
sunshine and air. 'Jhere is a bad
case OF carpet in That house." is my COM
ment as ] drive by.
These wooden floors should have heavy
building paper laid between them and the
Joists and should be accurately jointel,
Then a few rugs here and there are all
that is necessary for comfort aud for
charming effect, provided the rugs are.
as Alma Tadema would say, exactly
beautiful"
Exactly beautiful" Il g they may be.
even with the resources OF a slender
purse. 1t Is more often thought than
money which brings beauty to our
homes.
The rich may have any number of
superb ugS for the choosing, exquisite
Morris patterns in delicious, subdued,
soft colors that are a luxury TO look upon,
and woven wonders of dull aud rlct de-
sign from Persia, Turkey, India, Japan
and other foreign lands.
KILLING UGLY PATTERNS WITH DYE.
But now to obtain lovely rug effects
with small expense mas been a considera-
tion with me. Looking about among che
shops l lave often found rugs of very
good weight and qualify, so htdeous in
color and design as to make them really
difficult 10 sell; "out Of style,' the sales
man will tell you, mot desirable pat
terms" and therefore cheap.
These undesirable rugs 1 buy and send
to some reliable dye house with a piece
OF stuff exactly the shade of warm rich
olive green that l wish to have them
dyed, and presently my rugs come back
to me exactly the color of the pattern /
send, transformed from a terror of dis
cord to a SOFT, warm. charming har-
mony OF tint and tone. For no matter
how manifold and Glarlng the coIors
may have been, all are blended together
now in differing shades OF dull, restful
green; the pattern also is generally lost
or else blurred into obscurity. Instead
OF an outrage to every sense of beauty,
the mat has become by this coloring pro-
cess a most attractive and agreeable OBJ
Ject, which makes you think Of the warm
gold-green moss of the woods,
Any old aud faded rugs that are yet
good in texture are quite as useful to dye
In this Way as new ones-better, indeed.
Entire carpets, too, may be treated in this
way, becoming any rich color desired,
The foor-if il is of Southern pine and
vanished with the finish I have spoken
ot-repeats the tlnts OF the pine needles
that carpet the ground in the forest; md,
II stained. it suggests the charming tones
OF fallen leaves and lichen-covered stones.
brown twIgs and all the delightful mosaic
nlturH sDrauGS b1uaafh our foat
1t Is really a matter of establishment to
reflect upon the ugliness which the hand
OF man has woven into the rugs and car
pets in general use; such ingenuity OF
discord, such msrvels of bad taste, such
herrors of color, with patterns winch
might have been Designed in a Iuna,ic
asylum. To 1--we and move and lave one,s
being in d room with some of these would
be punishment enough for u very grave
offense.
INCONGRUQUS EFFECTS.
doubtless many of us remember the
best parlors of our homes in childhood. |
OR in those of our n%eighbors; the won.
drous webs which were looked upon with
awe and reverence by all beholders.
wherein were woven astounding comblna-
.ttons of scrolls in cIaret and chocolate |
color, framing a woody tint of n Landscape
with a IurklSh mosque in the distance, or |
the Pyramids of Egypt. or the heights
OF the Htmalayas, or any other wildly
unexpected scenes; about this suddenly |
started groups of Gala lilies, combined
with crimson cabbage roses mixed with |
airy sprays of immense cobalt-bIue forget
me-not. an occasional palm tree TO vary
the prospect, with a bird-of-par adise in a
blaze of glory caught somewhere in the
medley. aud everything draped with fes-
toons of flowers in every Imaginable color |
the whole a spectacle to unsettle the
most perfectly balanced mind.
Though these things are long ago done
away with, and for tue wealthy, rs 1 satd |
before. there are most exquisite designs |
and colors to be had for the choosing
and he cheaper ones are not quite as |
impossibly ugly as of yore, still it ia as
tonishing 10 see how general is the re-
sistance of the human mind to quiet
and harmonious effects. how In
genious are its efforts to produce some
thing startling and unpleasant, and. how
at war it seems with what is restful aud
simple. peaceful and pure in form and
color. tint or tone.
Surely it is better. cheaper and pleas
anter TO dispense with a carpet altogether |
and substitute the pleasant uniform
color of stained or vanished floors, with
the quiet-hued rugs which give to Il room