The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-25

An obServant instructor in one Of
the large colleges for women comments
wisely and well on the decoration of
college rooms, and the comment applies
also with equal force to the room of
the average girl today. Some valiant
spirit should start a league for the i'm
provement of decoration" writes the
observer, with the aim by example
and precept and ceaseless effort to
haniSh from rooms posters, fish nets
! full or photographs, unframed casual
pictures, second rate Madonnas and
tawdry decorations of all kinds. We
need some among us to teach us the
beauty and value of open spaces on
walls, to help us to have the apprecia-
ton which the Japanese, with their
finer aesthetic standards, have of
bringing into relief a single beautiful
object or flower, by letting it stand in
significant isolation. 1t matters not
how little we have In our rooms, pro-
vided that little has excellence and dis
tinction. 1t is to be expected, in a Ger
tain sense, that our college women
shall form part of the cultivated class
in America, that they shall set stand
ards for others who have not had the
liberal training and refining of intel
lectual and spiritual fiber which ad-
Vanced education is supposed to give.
But if the rooms of our college students
ing Of our educated class, then they
reveal-we must be honest with our
| selves-a barbaric delight in gewgaws,
in clashing colors, in wild profusion of
detail.
Some one demonstrates, Many girls
cannot afford to spend money on their
rooms Such people can at least keep
their rooms from being glutted with
| cheap things. There is something
! commanding in the self-respect of a
! girl whose room remains frankly bare
| or who has In it only the few good
| pictures she can afford. For the girls
who have fairly ample allowances the
exercise of a little judgment would
| show that beautiful effects are consist
| ent with economy. Every girl can de-
| eide on color scheme and keep her
| purchases in harmony with that
! couch cover, screen and cushions.
Every girl can Danish all but three or,
at most, four photographs of friends
| or put out different photographs in ro-
! tation, since any considerable array is
| fatal to a room. Every girl can apply
the most elementary principles of in
| terror decoration-that rug should
| run parallel to the four lines of the
! floor space, and should never be placed
! crosSwiSe to them. Every girl can make
couch, ugly or shapeless with prodi-
| gal heap of cushions, into something
| IIletC SIldlI nave DcdUlS OllSl us re-
| Straint and severity of outline. Severity
of hue-that is the watchword for those
who care to give their rooms distinc-
ton.
Our rooms are, in a way, the out
ward VeSture of our lives, and should
be made to express the things we hold
dear. In dress we make a stand for
certain things; we will not take up
the silly fashions of the street Why
| take up the fashions of the street IN
our rooms? Why not put our personal
impress with fastidious care and selec-
ton on that which forms the back
ground of our life2 It always seems
as if really beautiful pictures help one
to live on a higher plane, as if it were
less easy to have mean and sordid
thoughts in their presence. We ought
to bear testimony to our faith in the
beautiful by having at least one visible
symbol of it in our room to solace or
admonish us at our need. If we are
poor and can have but one thing, let