Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-02-08

"Dame Liones counseled Sir Gareth to
sleep in none other place but in the
hall9" In modern times things were
exactly reversed, and the hall was re-
duced to comparative insignifcance, as
something hardly better than a pass
ageway to the dining-room, drawing
room and other familiar chambers.
This cycle began TO show signs of end
ing not many years back, and. the hall
once more plays leading part in social
life. It's return to its original purpose
of a sitting-room has brought back
many delightful features of domestic
architecture. The great fireplace, with
andirons and blazing logs, is one of
them. A fireplace of this sort needs
plenty of 'unincumbered space about it,
so that the members of the home circle
can move their chairs near to the
flames or away from them as the heat
rises or falls under the fluctuations of
the winter wind In a country house
of ordinary dimensions no other cham
Der can give quite so much space to the
chairs as the hall can. Then there is
the window-seat, which, with pretty
cushions and a loaded glass window
inst above the Level Of ones should eFS,
IS ia summer Or winter as c6mf6ftable
lounging place as it is artistic.
But there Is no feature 81 the most
modern country hall which is more in-
'teresting than the staircase, or, more
particularly, the first steps OF the stair
case. The special treatment OF this
detail in small houses is in fact peehl-
Jar to recent architecture. Until q
very late day architects rarely took as
much pains as they do now to start
their stsirnayWith some touch of dec
orative originality that would intro
duce an artistic aA1 useful factor into
their scheme for TIE hall A broad
platform raised ono or two steps
above the floor, and VIA h window
seat, lends charming picA uresqueness
to the effect of an evening" gathering
when group of young hople Is
formed about it, At other tim % IL -
the best of all places for stately PUB
Der plant or vase of hydrangeas. In
some houses the designers have speA
themselves in building a screen of delJ
icate spindles around the stairs, plac-
ing seat against the former ON the
hall floor, and this screen, of course,
has counted In the decoration of the
hall. The newell post has gone through
all sorts of transformations. In one
house 1t remains the strictly indie
pendent member which our colonial
grandfatbers made 1t, and is attrac-
tive simply as a marvel of scroll work
and of tops" which look like Ossa
piled upon Pelion. In another it serves
as a pedestal for either lamp or a
flower Jar, and in this last guise 1t has
been possibly most often strug-
gled with by the ambitious deco
rator, who has given 1t all manner of
shapes. In the sketch which accompa-
mics this, picture of an English in
terror, there is seen the natural out
come of the evolutionary process
through which the hall newell post has
passed. 1t has been developed-out of
existence. In it's place, on the wide
platform provided by the first or sec
ond step, there stands a porcelain
flower vase. 1t will not be long before
other objects are substituted for this
and statues are put in position at the
beginning of the stairs. This may
look like return to the permanent
newell post, but it viii reilly have the
advantage of leaving the staircase
clear at this point if for any special
occasion the hostess wishes to remove
her work of art. The flower jar is
perhaps best adapted to the corner. It
gives Just the required emphs.sis and
it is free from the aggressiveness and
occasional inconvenience which be-
longs to she newell post that is immova-
ble.-N. Y. Tribune.