The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-20

"NO many people it is rather hard
 to understand why, in spite of
 the multitude of text books
 A now published on art and taught Tn the elementary schools, there IS still such an amazing amount of ugI- ness in the home. Various foolish req sons are given, such as Hack of time" l" too busy" and sometimes "can't afford 2 1t" Those are very easily knocked on . the head by pointing out that rooms which are a perfect marvel of hideous- ness have been brought to that state by a great deal of pains-far more than would have been necessary to make the place really ornamental. As for "can't afford it," I have stood Tn department stores and watched people deliberately -scorn really nice looking furniture and pay more for things that were regular eyesore-
 The truth is, that many people are still rather afraid of the word "artis- tic" And those who aren't don't know what 1t really means, consequently 1t comes to mean a lot of bewildering clap trap.
 It is not generally appreciated that beautiful surroundings have distinct moral value. Especially Is this true of children. You will find that people of trivial tastes nearly always live in homes cluttered up with cheap bric-a-brac, with furniture intended to be showy and succeeding in being vulgar. It Is ob- vious that children brought up in places where everything has been bought &nd arranged with sole view to making fictitious display of more money than the family possesses will irnbibe the idea that pretending IS the chief object of ex- istence and that the worthiest person is the most successful liar. And the most pitiful part of it all Is that you can buy really good furniture and decorations for less money than you pay for the gro tesque- You can have home that is really harmonious, pleasant and restful for less money than you pay for one that IS only storehouse for conglom- crate testimonials to foolishness.
 Generally speaking, there are four kinds of furniture. There Is the kind m which the construction IS poor, ma merely showy. There IS that of good design but poor materials and construc- ton. There IS that of good materials and execution but no real beauty, and there IS the fourth kind, of good mate rials, execution and design. All these kinds are made in America; 1t is not necessary to buy imported furniture to secure substantial make or real beauty
 Towards the end of summer this be- comes serious question for many peo- pie who have given up their old house at the beginning of the summer, intend ing to choose a new home after the long vacation. Difficult IS the task of those who already have furniture and have decided on new or remodeled house, for then they have to try to reconcile old furniture swith new woodwork, com pared with which the job of putting old wine into new bottles sounds easy. The best thing to do is to stipulate with the agent of your new home that the wood1 work be painted over to suit you-then you can have it match your furniture. Sometimes, however, this becomes im- possible. In this case, remember that 1t Is comparatively easy to have your old furniture done over Some of 1t can be remodeled and, if 1t is badly scratched, It can be scraped and revarnished or stained. In any case, 1t should match the woodwork Tn shade. For half-tim- bcred houses, with the interior finished the same way as the exterior, oak fur niture is best. Mission style is also suitable, while for plaster walls old oak forms pleasing contrast. Above all, avoid such solecisms as mahogany fur