The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-01

enue Mrs. Cline and Miss Ruth
Locke will be hostesses.
Mr.. Robert c. March, of Chicago, is
visiting Mrs. March, and will return to
Chicago at the end of the week. Mrs
March and her baby daughter, Har-
riet, will go to Chicago to join him in
a permanent residence in few weeks.
Mr.. Charles S. Gleed has left for
business trip to New York City.
Mrs. c. NJ. Beal, of San francisco;
who is visiting Mrs. Lucia o. Case, has
gone to Kansas City to spend a few
days with friends, and will return to
Topeka to resume her visit to Mrs
Case.
Mrs. Chauncey Dewey, of Junction
City, spent the last of the week with
Mrs. Don Mulvane.
Mr. and Mrs. j. NJ. Brown have gone
to Chicago to make their home. Their
daughter, Miss Juliette Brown, VINO is
teaching in the high school at Silver
/, Lake, expects to finish out the school
year.
Mr. Augustus Barnes, of Blooming
ton, Ill, is a guest at the w. S. Lind
say home.
Mr. and Mrs. Nat Black will return
this week from California.
Mr. and Mrs Theodore Saxton have
returned from Emmett, Kan, where
they were called by the death of their
grandchild, Dorothy Esther Saxon, the
little daughter of Mr.. and Mrs. War
rem T. Saxon. The child was Ill tor
about a week with meningitis.
Mrs. w. H. Wood has returned from
Hiawat4a, where she visited her sister,
Mrs. c. D. Lamme She is with her
son, Mr.. Carl Wood. and will leave
soon to return to Los Angeles Cal-
Mrs. Katherine Hand, a member OF
the art faculty of Washburn college.
gave an address on the principles OF
house decoration at the regular
monthly meeting of the Topeka Art
Guild, which was held at the FRANCIS
& Hodge studio Saturday evening.
Mrs. Hands speciality is the interior
decoration of houses, but she strongly
asserts that the need of display or
good taste by no means stops with the
consideration of the interior OF the
edifice. House decoration has much
more than one phase. This truth is
especially emphasized by the head of
the Parsons school of applied art, in
New York, one of the leading institu-
/ tons of its kind in the United States,
at which Mrs. Hand was a student
Said Mrs. Hand: "a highly de-
veloped artistic sense is quality of
long settled and established communi-
ties and commonwealth. The United
States is a comparatively new country
and the western part of it is newest OF
all. The first thing in a new country
is to acquire the necessities of eXis-
tence; the luXuries, the adornments,
the refinements of life, come later.
We. have but little more than reached
the place where the desire for the
beauties of life are beginning to be
felt While the United States has
already produced works of art and
architecture of the highest merit, still
there is as yet no distinct, individual
national style, one which expresses the
environment and the temperament of
our people. Most, tho not all. we have
done is to copy the art of other ma
lions without considering the ap-
propriateness of the setting of the
work.
I'm architecture and the applied
arts this fact is most particularly
noticeable. A Swiss chalet may be
beautiful in itself, but it has no place
in the middle of a flat prairie, and a
French chateau or a Gothic cathedral
with it's big windows and steep roof,
is not exactly appropriate to coun-
try of brilliant sunshine, warm
weather and light snowfall, and the
style of a house that looks we'll in
the middle of a sixteen-acre park may
not do at all for a corner lot in a
crowded cityis s's7fE7si q
when a house is to be built, fur
nished and decorated, many impor-
tant things besides cost and ostenta-
ton should be considered in order to
exhibit good taste. Among these are
climate; Surroundings, both natural
and artificial; utility; correctness of
TIC oASA ~SlOoChs COlOI anu
also the owners importance, wealth
and private tastes.
Then, too, city planning with re-
gard to establishing rules tor regulat-
ing height and uniformity in the build
ings along the streets has hitherto
been much neglected. The cities of
America are decidedly behind those OF
the old world in this respect"
Mrs Hand said further that in her
association with her pupils. she has
been much impressed by peoples
widespread ignorance of even the rud-
iments of color harmony. She ven
tured that not more than two in a
dozen persons know the primary col
ors- curious fact that she also no.
ticed is the affinity of tall persons for
long, vertical lines and of short per-
sons for short horizontal lines. both
in their drawing and in their dressing.
In dressing. this is exactly opposite to
the rules of good taste.
The practical and educational value
OF the lectures and discussions carried
on at the Topeka Art Guilds meetings
should be factor in attracting mem
berships. The guild is endeavoring to
have addresses by competent persons
of local or national prominence at
every monthly meeting thruout the
year. and the people of Topeka should
feel that they are being accorded a
real privilege and valuable oppor-
tunity when invited to join that or
ganiza ton.