Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-02-08
ANTIQUE FURNITURE
KNOWLEDGE OF OLD CHINA AND
 MAHOGANY IS A CULT.
Reverence for Ones Family Heirlooms Now Fashionable e- Some Women Have an Indiscriminate Longing for Anything old-Essentials for the Well-Furnished House.
BY MARGARET F. sANGsTER.

A.
 Copyright, 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
 One summer day friend and were driving over the hills in the deep green solitudes of New England parish, where abandoned farms were numer- ous and neighbors scattered.
 Suddenly my companion uttered a rapturous exclamation.
 Look, oh! look; see that quilt spread on the rail fence near those hen GOODS! wonder if that woman would sell it! Oh, what beauty"
 Appreciation of old quilts, old chi na, old mahogany and all the rest is a cult. I have not mastered it, but I never quarrel with those who have. held the horse while my friend inter- viewed the quilts owner. Presently I was called from the doorstep.
 Come in, do. There is a sugar bowl here in the loveliest copper luster! Leave the pony. He will stand"
 He did stand. until the bargaining for quilt and sugar bowl was com pleted.
 As I have said, knowledge of old china and mahogany is a cult! Some have learned it. Some have not. But, owing to it's hold on the feminine pub lie It has created a Few trade. and the old farmsteads of the country have been searched and gleaned and too often their treasures have been bought for . song and sold for a fortune.
 can understand love and reverence for furniture and dishes which have been in ones family for generations, handed down from mother to daugh- ter, and from father to son. An old clock which has ticked faithfully and steadily in one household during the changes of 200 years IS an heirloom to be prized, no matter how ugly an arti- cle it may be in itself,
 A mahogany table at which ones great-great-grandmo.her poured tea is possession to be tenderly cherished. So with china, if it be Crowned Derby or Wedgewood. or copper luster, and women of the same blood and lineage have owned it since colonial days, they are not to blame for considering it as thing of which they may boast.
 Apart from family associations, am enough of a Phillistine to prefer examining elegant survivals which have a large commercial value when they are safe behind glass doors in g museum, or when they stand about Tn halls where historical collections are in the custody of curator. I don't want them in my home, however we'll they are insured. For chairs and ta- bles that are simply cid I do not care. If they have belonged to somebody else they areanothing tonne. I would be quite as contented with a good copy of something antique as with the antique thing itself, were I given the choice, principally for the reason that everyday home life brings burdens and cares enough without stupidly adding to them responsibilities which one need not carry.
 What we really want of a chair is responsibility and comfort Perish the thought of spider-legged chairs and tottering sofas and jim cracks of every kind that are traps for the unwary. A table should be large enough to hold papers. books. a lamp or what-not; should have a fiat sur face and good legs of its own. If it be carved it will need time and pains to keep it in decent order, for while carving is beautiful when 1t is not beautiful when clogged with dust and dirt Whether a table be of oak. pioe. walnut or ma hogany is a matter of indifference if it harmonize with the rest of ones fur niture and meet the uses of a table. The peculiar beauty of mahogany is in it's deep wine-color and its capability of retaining polish. The older it is and the more polish it has had the more pleasing it is to the eye Of the notable housekeeper.
 In the south in snte-bellum days there was a good deal of old mahogany that had come down in families. some of it imported from the old home be- yond the sea. and it was kept in per feet condition by the daily rubbing of he house servants. The air of stabili- ty. comfort and leisure in those lovely southern homes was in entire contrast with that of a clutteTed modern draw ing room. where there is a chaotic medley of all sorts Of articles. some of one period. some of another. many of hem purchased without the least view to the general effect. It must be admitted that the taste of he average householder is a little or else that the ideal of house furnishing misses the point of simplicity and utility.
 
 A house to be well furnished must lave had one of two advantages. Either its old china and mahogany. rith it's old hangings and rugs must lave been an inheritance melloved and ubdued and enriched by time and lov- ng labor. or else the furniture from lttie to cellar mus: have been selected nd arranged according to good color eheme. by somebody vho knew vhat 0 buy and how to arrange what was