The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-29
RULES FOR BEAUTY
 IN THE NURSERY
Surroundings of Greatest I'm.
 portance in Education
TO AID THE CHILDREN
Room That Would Not Be Per- mitted in Other Parts
 of the House

E. w. Mitchell in the New Bedford
 Standard.
 In spite of the emphatic persistence of the cry, Art is one of the most pow erful factors in civilization" 1t is remark any practical application of the maxim. more particularly can the truth of this be perceived when entering the average school room and nursery. The senti- mentalist and the sermonizer spend many words in proclaiming the wonder full influence of the nursery in producing fine men and women. And yet there is comparatively little attempt to educate the child indirectly by means of his sur roundings.
 Of course, many improvements in this direction have been noticeable lately. Most nurseries now are at least more sanitary than they were, and the infiu- ence of the Froebel doctrines has been felt to considerable advantage. But in far too many houses one can still see ev- idences of the tendency to send to school room and nursery whatever furniture Is too old and too ugly to be used in any other part of the house. Presumably we are still far from the day when class rooms in the public schools will be any thing else than hideous and uninspiring of aught but disgust and weariness. The fact has not yet fitted into the minds of the boards of education that the child s whole view of what he Is set to learn, indeed. of the necessity of learning any thing at all, is tinged by the appearance of the surroundings in which the actual studying is done.
 But there is no reason why this should not be counteracted in the home. In fact, as most people realize, the home must be relied upon to counteract good deal of the influence of the school, espe- cially in the matter of manners, gram mar and pronunciation of the mother tongue.
 It is a fact that the esthetc sensibili- ties wake early in some children and the importance of having harmonious sur roundings cannot be exaggerated. Who does not remember the associations be- tween the appearance of certain rooms and the daily occupations connected with them? And who has not felt return of the weary feeling so often engendered by
  ternal home?
 HI Chosen Ornaments
 The daily intercourse with poor pie lures, trashy ornaments and cheap look ing furniture is just as bad for the child as a course of dime novels And yet parents who guard their young most carefully from the influence of Dead wood Dick" and Nick Carter" think nothing of letting them decorate" the walls of the nursery with chromos from illustrated papers and "comic'' supple ments. They may be quite scrupulous in not letting friends and realtives spoil young stomachs with a mass of indiges- tible food, but they do not protect young eyes and minds from the effects of a room cluttered up with i'll chosen and un- admirable Ornaments. And the worst of 1t Is that the money so spent would buy good things-and a few good things are far better than multitude of even mediocre stun. This, by the way, ap- plies just as much to the rest of the house as to the juvenile quarters. A good print can frequently be obtained for the same price as a fiashy chomo. The freak things that fond and foolish relatives sometimes buy for children, ap- parently under the idea that they are fun ny, cost just as much as a plaster repro- duction of good statuary. Tanagra statue or an Italian bust. People who would not think of putting pink monkey riding on a purple COW anywhere in sieir dining room or parlor allow such mon- strosities quite complacently in the nur- sery. And then they wonder why their children are bored when they are dragged to museums. An entire article could be written on the unliness, even the harm of the number of ill-chosen presents young ones receive. Just as harmful is the crowded, cluttered condition of tho nursery. in which they have to pass their early days, which, in many estab-