The herald., 1895-10-10

combs in point OF interesting YOU In
what have to say. The newspaper re-
porters, and, in fact. many of our literary
folks, have had much to say lately on the
subject OF the decadence of the home.
They have written sadly of the gradual
disappearance of the home idea. and, in
dee1. If there is just cause for these lam
enations all women have reason to weep.
But may 1t not Oe poSsib BILE that instead
OF having deserted us entirely (having
set sail, as it were, for Altrura, that
country for which we have to stand such
odious oomparisons) this home idea has
merely shifted its bearings and is with US
yet?
In its new guise there are many old
fashioned people who DO not recognize 1t.
10 them homo means place to live in.
10 thoseswho are in touch with the times,
it means a beautified place to live IN.
There was time few generations back
when to many of the men and women
who have since become the leading spir-
its of our commonwealth. the word home
brought vision of rooms fitted with ugly
horse-hair furniture, of hideOsities in
the shape, of three ply carpets tacke d
snugly down at the base of the
wash .board-of such pictures on the
papered wall as gloomy print OF
John Wesley being rescued from burn
ing house. or, perhaps, even a weeping
willow and tomb done in human hair
and framed against the wall.
This last is spectre which doubtless
haunts the memory of many middle-aged
citizen Of these United States. To the
mother or grandmother who stood spon.
sor for all of this household decoration it
would never have occurred that pictures
(even prints that suggested Foxes book
OF martyrs) would show to much bettor
advantage against wall of plain color,
or one on which the mammoth flowers
which scrambled over the vail paper
were m ore subdued IN form and tint. 1t
would have been hard to convince her
that polished or painted floors, with here
and there soft and deep-toned rug,
meant better housekeeping and better
taste in her simple household than TIE
three-ply horrors which were then put
upon the market. Undoubtedly, accord
ing to the standards of today, these moth
ers and grandmothers lacked t.ste. AS
We see it now they failed to minister to
our perception of the beautiful.
Why is 1t then that the man or woman
who recalls this home of MS childhood
does SO with glow OF tender affection.
ate feeling?
Why does he bear no grudge towards
the woman who surrounded his youth
with hard, incorporating ugliness? l
think it is because she succeeded in i'm
pressing d spirit of dom esticlty into TIE
homo which rendered each homely object
well beloved. and which ideallZed the
meanest detail of the old fashioned home
stead.
In this material age we have to depore
our lack OF imagination-we no longer
idealiZe.
Objects must be really beautiful to give
pleasure, and if we can in the perfect
modern home (Which Is creation OF art)
infuse the domestic spirit which animal
ed our grandmothers, we will have
thing Of beauty which is a joy forever.
Inc modern home may be o Tat where
two or three bachelor women nave COM
mon sitting room which they have beau
titled and rendered charming by their
combined taste, or it may be an apart
ment which bachelor men have decorated
and adorned with their combined purses
and that unerrlng Judgment as to color
and effect which seems to be one of the
outcroppings OF our modern civilization.
Or it may he family hearth stone in the
good old homely sense. The point |
wish to make here is that the home idea
has now much wider significance than
formerly, and what L wish to consider is
how, with means and without means, to
make it most artistic and charming in
| effect.
To you who have long purses. 1 would
| first address ySelf. You for whom the
possibilities OF this enchanting climate
| present endless vistas of delight. Fur
| whom the Roman villa of Luculs. with
| its marble fountains and baths, It's pill
| Jared balconies, its peristye and its
atrium, Its conservatories and botanical
gardens of tropical bloom, may be not
merely historical "reminiscences, but can
at any moment crystalline into an ex
quisite reality. Or, for whom a verita Bile
chateau d espagne may rise with almost
the celebrity of Aladdin's palace. In this
land, where the palm tree grows. there
are constant enticing suggestions of Sc
questered Spanish courts with bubbllng
fountains IN their midst-of tree ferns
and broad-leaved water plants, of
tesselated portcos where palms and
f1uted pillars alternate-and in these sur
roundings, in these courts Of old Spain.
in the classic villa of the luxurious
Roman place, the modern tea table with
its dainty paraphernalia, its aCcompani
ment of refined good cheer; and you will
realize that the possibilities of our
boosted modern civilization can no fur
Their go, our environments are all that the
warmest imagination could wish.
Yet, Notwithstanding the means at
| command. u climate to order, d lively,
| healthy love for the beautiful which is
rapidly growing among our people, l
| realize that there are many STUN bling
blocks In this pathway towards an artistic
| and aesthetic perfection. l realize that
when we attempt to be artistic we are
| often grotesuue, that the mistakes of our
ambitious neighbor who has perhaps
rendered himself ridiculous by some
glaring anachronism in his architecture
| or his furniture, sends US back into the
beaten path of conventienalism. 1t may
be ugly and unattractive, but 1t is safe,
and an American fears ridicule as he
| fears nothing out his God.
10 mention an evil and to omit to sug.
| gest remedy Is, l am aware, the height
Of bad taste, and the remedy that | would
offer as correction of any possible mis-
take in building or furnishing is to cling
to our model in detail as well as in gem
eral effect. Plainly. if one should be dar-
ing enough to build Roman villa in vi
entity of our semi-troplc Los Angeles. the
only possible way to avoid mistakes
would be to adhere as to form in every
particular to the model which has excited
| our admiration and which has stood the
test of ages.
| Most attempts to modify or convention
| alize thoroughly picturesque object end
| in confusion and EN- barrassment, and we
must realize taht the reproduction of ore
| of the architectural triumphs of an
| tiquity, shorn of all its picturesque ac-
com paniments, would give us pointless,
| perhaps Iepulsive, result.
When. therefore, we have decided on
our Italian, our Spanish or our Provencal
| villa. when we have planted our cypress
and myrtle, our palms and pomegranates,
| 1t behooves us to consider most critically
| our scneme of interior decorations. In
| this first select your scheme of color and
| adhere to it and the tones which har-
| monte with it rigidly.
= From my own point of view, which
should like to give you the benefit of.
without presuming to lay down "a law,
| there are three I'm portant points to he re-