The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-26
MORE own HOMES
Americans Make Much Progress
in Last Year.
Observations Made in Thirty
Cities by Ross Crane.
TELLS OF HOME FURNISHING
Demonstrates Maximum Com
fort at Minimum Cost.
Gives Audience Much Advice in
Buying Furniture.

Americans are establishing homes
of their own now more than they did
two years ago, yes even more than
they did twelve months ago. 1 have
observed it in some twenty-five or
thirty cities which 1 have visited"
said Ross Crane, who gave the last of
the home furnishing lectures in the
Better Homes institute this morning
at the auditorium.
Maximum in Beauty.
In the lecture this morning, the ar
tlst-lecturer demonstrated how to get
the maximum of comfort and beauty
in home furnishings at the minimum
OF cost. The room was furnished for
an imaginery couple who We're just
newly married and who had $500 to
spend and. as the lecturer added
thoughtfully "a little credit at the
stores"
Rug Is First.
The furnishings for the room, which
were restricted to those which the
young couple could afford and yet
those necessary for the comfort of the
room, included first rug on the floor
and curtains at the window. Crane
spoke of the ugliness of the lace cur
tains of former days. the kind that
were starched so stiffly they could
stand alone and quoted a saying of
some clever woman, by their lace
curtains We shall not know them
After the rug and the curtains should
come several things necessary to the
spiritual side of life, music and pic
lures. 'Of course" remarked the
speaker you can't eat a picture. you
can't sleep on it, neither can you sit
down and rest on it, yet we need them
in our homes
in the room and which are essential
in home, were couch or davenport,
a table (Gateleg if possible), lamps
and chairs.
Advice in Buying Furnishings.
The lecturer gave his audience a
| number of bits of advice in regard to
! buying furnishings. One of the things
which he impressed on his hearers
was that velvet mohair, as a daven-
| port, couch or chair covering is the
| ideal covering as it will wear a life
time. He also spoke of monks cloth
and everyday denim as good up
holsterings. Stickley bed couehes and
/ ed for the home which must neces-
sarily have comparatively Inexpensive
| furnishings in which one wishes to
combine beauty and utility.
| This evening the lecture in the
series will be given at o'clock at
the high school auditorium with Miss
| Evelyn D. Hansen discussing the Art
of dress. Living models will be used
lin the demonstration.
Everybody has an Aunt Matilda
| and some of us have an Uncle Ma
tiIda," declared Ross Crane, expert III
| harmony, last night to an amused au-
| dience at the auditorium as he begar
/ the ia SIX of making a home-like room
| out of what seemed to be a heterogene
| Gus collection of furniture, scarfs and
| "brac-a-bric'' as he called the numer-
| Gus vases and odds and ends scattered
1 over the room. The Aunt Matilda OF
| Cranes story was an elderly aunt who
| presented her relatives with hopelessly
| ugly furniture from which they suf-
| fered for years and finally declared
| their independence by burning a part
of it and placing the remainder in the
attic.
Introduced by James Troutman.
| Introduced by James Troutman az
| an architect and a designer of~real
| beauty in homes, Crane recalled tho
| days of long ago when art was repre-
| scented by a rolling pin swathed In
red plush surcingles, tied around the
| handle with blue ribbon and hung in
| the parlor for a pin cushion. when
| it come to manufacturing articles OF
| art that violate good taste, America
doesn't take second place for anyone
said Crane, picking UP from off the
| mantle an ugly blue elephant with q
clock imbedded in its interior. He
spoke of the tendency of the American
1 people to buy things, not because they
were works of beauty, but because