Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-05
GIRLS AND H E ROOMS
Tawdry Observation-Disclosures Effects
COnsistent with EeonOmy.

Tawdry Observation-Disclosures Effects
Consistent with Eeonomy.
An observant instructor In one of the
large colleges for women comments wisely
and we'll on the decoration Of college rooms
and the comment applies also with equal
force to the room Of the average girl to-
day. Some valiant spirit should start a
league for the improvement Of decoration"
writes the observer in the New York
Tribune, with the aim by example and
precept and ceaseless effort to Danish from
rooms posters, fish nets full Of photo
graphs, 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 the apprecia-
tion which the Japanese, with their finer
aesthetic standards, have OF bringing into
relief a single beautiful object or flower
by letting 1t stand In significant isolation.
II matters not how little we have in our
rooms, provided that little has excellence
and distinction. 1t Is to be expected, in a
certain sense, that our college women
shall form part Of the cultivated claNs in
America, that they shall set standards for
others who have not had the liberal train
ing and refining Of Intellectual and spiritual
hber which advanced education is supposed
to give. But IL the rooms OF our college
Students are at all an index to the aesthetic
feeling our our educated class, then they
reveal-wa must be honest with ourselves
a barbarie delight In gewgaws, in clashing
coiors, in wild profusion of detail.
Someone demonstrates, Many girls cam
not 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-rsspeet 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 allowance the exer-
else of a little judgment would show that
beautiful effects are consistent with coon
omy. Every girl can decide on q color
scheme and keep her purchases in harmony
with that-couch cover, screen and cush-
ions. Every girl can Danish all but three
or. at most, four photographs of friends. or
put out different photographs In rotation,
since any considerable array is fatal to g
room. Every girl can apply the most ele-
mentary principles Of interior decoration
that a rug should run parallel to the four
lines Of the floor space. and should never
70 PAoONA " NAOAa GNDAg Gil
can make a couch, ugly or shapeless with
a p~rodigal heap Of cushions, into something
that shall have beauty through it's re-
straint and severity OF outline. Severity
Of hue-that 10 the wstchword for those
who care to give their rooms distinction.
"our rooms are. In 4 way, the outward
vesture Of our lives, and should be made to
express the things we hold dear. In dress
we make q stand for certain things; We will
not take up the silly fashions OF the street
Why take up the fashions Of tbs street in
our rooms? Why not put our personal im-
press with fastidious care and selection or
that which forms the background Of ouI
life? II always seems as II really beautl-
full pictures help one to live on a higher
plane, as II It were less easy to have NEAR
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 ad-
monish US at our need. II we are poor and
can ave but one thing, let 1t stand in the
enlarged dignity II will have by its refusal
its unqualified refusal. to mate with com
monRSss and tawdriness."