The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-11
v. ARTISTIC FURNISHING.

Houses and their furnishings do not ex-
ist for themselves, but as background
for the people who live in them. Just as
the trees, rocks, fields animals have for
their setting the green earth and the
blue sky; just as pictures have back
ground, middle distance and FORE
ground, so human beings have their set
tings. If the setting be more striking or
more elegant than the people for whom
1t exists, they are made insignificant and
uncomfortable by it.. How many houses
there are whose furnishings are much
more attractive than their inha bitants
A woman of superficial education and
trivial character prides herself on having
the most beautiful library in her State
rows on rows of the best books in beau
tiful bindings, in a room of the most
artistic design, and nobody to read them!
John Burroughs says that "every mans
house is in some sort an eftigy of him
self" When you build and furnish a
house you make public proclamation OF
your taste, your manners, your sincerity.
If you wish others to think you richer,
more fashionable, more cultivated than
you really are you may fill your house
with exquisite things. Yet the contrast
between the environment and the owner
will be only the more evident and the
more pitiful.
The house and its contents should be
the outgrowth of the tastes, habits and
occupations of its owners. Farm life in
It's best aspects Is suggestive of breadth,
generosity, simplicity; Of cleanliness,
abundance Of sunlight, fresh air and good
food; of the beauty Of nature and free
dom from stiff formality. These are the
things which the city dweller envies the
country man. The furnishing and decora-
ton of the farmers home should express
the breadth, beauty and freedom of his
life. It follows that some pieces of fur
niture and some kinds of decoration
which are offered in the shops are quite
out of place in q farmers home.
On the other hand, city life is charac-
terized by extreme limitations so far as
nature is concerned; and yet it is rich in
opportunities for culture and complicated
with every kind of mechanical con-
venience and device. Space, air, sunlight,
pure water are precious commodities. The
whole interior of the house must be
adapted to the different aspect of human
life. However varied the tastes and hab-
its Of city and country dwellers, however
limited or abundant the income, however
rough or dainty the occupation one fact
pervades every kind of life and must
therefore be the basis of all principles of
decoration-"the domestic spirit is quiet.
informal. unceremonious; loves ease, pri-
vacy, low tones, loves the chimney cor
ner, the old armchair, the undress ga-b,
homely cares, children, simple pleasures"
Whenever the home becomes a show
place, a museum of bric-a-brac and Gu
rios, it violates the first and most i'm
portant requirements of the family. Ex-
pensive and elaborate houses may provide
for both the domestic life and the public,
| ceremonious life, but the average house
| of the majority Of Americans, which
costs from $1,000 to $4,000, can devote
never more than a few rooms, and some
| times only one, to formal entertainments.
| The first principle of house furnishing is
! therefore TO have nothing which does not
| contribute to the use, the comfort and the
refinement of family life. After these
have been taken into account those VINO
! have the means may add elegance, lux
ury and stateliness to their establish
ments The demands of formal hospital
ity must always be subordinate to those
| of family comfort.
In earlier times, when class distinctions
and occupations were definitely marked
people inherited not only houses but fur
niture as well. There was consequently
| no temptation for them to initiate those
! who were richer than themselves. Much
! of the hdeous taste displayed in America
|
| Everybody in this country is trying to
J rise, yet those who have risen are not
! necessarily the cultivated in taste. Since
money can buy both real and sham ele-
gance those who wish to appear elegant
initiate their superiors in clothes and fur
| niture, often with disastrous effect. Imi-
tation becomes, therefore, a dangerous
motive, for it is likely to lead to the
choice of articles which, however suit
| able for some other family and however
! pretty in themselves, are quite inappro-
pirate in the situation of the purchaser.
Taste is matter Of cultivation as much
! as is efficiency or honesty; skilled work
men are those who have learned their
trade we'll and practiced it faithfully;
! honorable people are those who have
| formed the habit of truth-telling. Taste
can be cultivated by seeing beautiful
| things and by Analysing the principles
by which they have been developed; still
further by the habitual application of
those principles in ones own household.
| Man obtained his first conception of
| form and beauty from the form and color
which he saw in the world about him. We
have only to apply the principles which