The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-04
". THE HOME FURNISHING.

or decoration for each room Is not In
! the least likely to blunder when she
buys the furniture for it. The difficulty
will be 10 find in any mandatory tbs
thing she has learned 10 desire. In any
buying, however, what we get has 70
be modified by many considerations.
The mother of a family of growing
boys, for instance, does not lay in a
stock of spider-legged tables and in
/ sect chairs-those things that creak
when we sit down and fall over when
we get up.
Here. as elsewhere in our education,
We have to contend with inherited half
sight, as il were. That is, a thing may
seem beautiful that on consideration
we know not to be. Our national taste
| is improving but is not yet perfected.
and we need much honest study before
We can recognize at once what makes
beauty. That a given object conveys
pleasure to the eye is not a safe rule,
| yet We have our excuse. since the Az
rican admires abnormally fat women,
the Chinese prefer deformed feet and
civilized races deformed waists. What
we want and must learn TO demand
from the maker are grace and power
in the lines of the thing made, fine ma
teTial, perfect finish and true decora-
ton. And not one of these things is
to interfere at any point with the COM
Portable use or the article In question:
What Not to Do.
The background for all furniture
comes under the head of decoration,
and then follow three other points-the
size of the room in which the object is
10 be placed, the purpose of the room,
and the object of use of the articles
themselves. With these are included
the nature of the materials to be used,
mineral, animal or vegetable, and their
relative lasting quality or destructibil-
ity. With this thought in mind and its
points really settled, the young house
keeper is not likely TO experiment with
soap boxes and barrels. following popu-
lar directions for making all the furni-
ture at home. To certain extent, IN
summer furnishing of seaside cottages,
this is not impossible. But there was
an era CT cheesecloth and red flannel,
the first used for curtains, the second
for covers to soap boxes and for barrel
chairs. etc. which meant a few days
of effectiveness and long space for
repentance 1t is hardly likely to come
again. The hygienic bedroom, Tor IN
stance, banished at once all draperies
and the many dust-collecting arrange
ments we have come to think or as es-
sential. But the money spent on these
can well enter into better finish, finer
whole system of ornament that the
slightest gain in real knowledge of art
in furnishing banshes forever. With
this knowledge a common possession,
we shall not be likely to see any more
miniature coal scuttles doing duty as
salt cellars. or wheelbarrows and slip
pers holding flowers. This applies also
TO the innumerable Christmas produc-
tons. tawdry bits of glass and china,
and metal, cheaper year by year. and
destructive TO any real art sense.
Nov, nothing made by mans hand
can be Indifferent, but must be either
beautiful and elevating or ugly and de-
grading" This was William Morris
summary of the matter. and to remem-
Der this in buying will help us ALL
Construction and Its Meaning.
To illustrate this We may take the
construction of a perfect chair. And
to fix the idea. of what perfect may
stand for we may better turn to Rus
kin's definition of ornament in either
decoration or furnishing. The true
form OF conventional ornament consists
in bestowing as much beauty on the
object as shall be consistent with its
material, its place and its office"
Beauty and poor construction are in
compatible, and thus we are forced TO
Judge our chair by a new standard
Each part of it should be as thoroughly
united to the next as il it had grown in
its place. The Greeks and Romans I'M
derstood this, and their chairs in the
British museum are as perfect as II
made Yesterday This means well-sea-
sened wood. exactly cut lemons and
mortises, very hot glue of the best
quality and the right degree OF pres
sure in putting them together. Light
ness for ease in handling is another
essential. II carving is emploved II
should be absolutely subordinate TO the
outline and the comfort of the sitter
The dress must not be interfered with
nor must there be chance of breaka2e
from exposed ornaments or too salient
points. These laws apply equally TO
touches, beds and tables, and FORUM
ately furniture manufacturers are
learning them, in degree, at least.
Children's Furniture.
With our habi. of thinking of the |
child as a miniature man or woman. II
seldom occurs to us to provide any |
special furniture after the days of The |
high chair and cradle are over. Yet
the child whom we perpetually warn |
off the ground of our own possessions |
is surely entitled to his OWN. we are |
very apt to turn our houses into mu- |
seums and are astonished that the |
child does damage in them For this
reason IL no other, ii would be we'll to
insure the child his own place. and 1t |
Is now quite possible TO provide for |
him the furniture made especially for |
rhildren's use, from the little enameled |
beds in iron or brass-the most ration
al form of bed-to the small bureaus, /
tables. chairs and other fittings that so /
With them.
The Sum of the Whole Matter.
Lists of the absolutely necessary ar
ticles of furniture for a small house or
lat are now kept by many furniture
dealers ana are also found in household
magazines and newspapers which have
4 department of the home. The type
Of furnishing must vary with the
purse, but the simplest home, if taste
md understanding have worked to-
rerher, can carry an atmosphere of
.epcse and harmony that is the most
sssential feature of the home. For any
house. great or small. we want beds
hat are not too finely decorated to lie
mon: chairs that are not too frail to
lit on; tables that are not too shaky
md uncertain for comfortable writing
,r drawing. All accommodation
must be put away. In our own private
.oon.s, usually a bedroom for each. we
nav work our VIII. though even here,
IS before mentioned hygiene has al
.eady set the limits of adornment- But
he family room should mean full and
working space. and Morris
ong ago in his Lectures on Art laid
!own the law which. with modihca-
ions here and there, is still worth
,beying:
what the sitting room of a healthy
,erson should hold Is. first, book
ase with a great many books in it;
ext, a table that viii keep steady
vhen you write or work at it; then