The Washington herald., 1922-02-12
SNOWY ROOM HAS
LITTLE CHANCE TO
HOLD ATTRACTION
Atmosphere and Spacing
OF Furniture Appeals
To Occupants.
DEFINES GAUDINESS
Every House Should Be the
Proper Background for
Its Inmates.
DEFINES GAUDINESS

What Is that makes us love some
rooms. some very hideous rooms at
that. and equally hate some beau
tiful ones? II the answer to this
question should be natural per-
versIty." the answer would be
wrong. Not for that reason at all
% we like and dislike such places.
Something appeals to us in the
atmosphere. in the spacing of fur
niture. In the feeling that real
habit and character have grown up
in certain four-walled spaces be-
cause Of the behavior and occupa-
tions Of the people who inhabited
them.
This Is also the secret Of our dis
like. even more than of our liking:
the fact that certain other rooms
have had no chance to reflect the
habits and occupations which re-
suit. from character. because moth
ing Of especial importance to any
body has ever gone on in them.
An unused room may be finely
proportioned. may be beautiful In
color, stately in arrangement. and
about as interesting as a Drop
scene at the theater! What is vital
in a room is the life which is. OF
has been. lived in IL. That. and
always that. gives 1t its greatest
interest Every house should be
the proper background for Its in.
mates.
Many metropolitan Americans
who live in largish-sized houses. oil
as the newspapers gorgeously pro-
claim II. reside in elegant houses.
are accused Of having contracted
the second story habit" II is said
and with some justice. that theJ
leave very few signs of themselves
as selves. in the rooms to which
visitors are admitted: no favoritt
books, no easily taken up bit oil
work. no clew to their particular
kinship with the world.
Rooms House Individuality.
In some library, or boudoir. OIL
sitting room above are all the sym
bols Of individuality. APPARENT,
some of US are unable, or we d.
not think it seemly. to relax anC
show our every day characters II
the rooms where friends. &C
quaintances and strangers come q
partake Of our hospitality. Not tha
in. other countries there are NJ
rooms-whole floors indeed-se
aside for purposes of formal en-
tertainment; suites such as only
our most perfect dreams have eve
equalled; rooms of magnificent en-
semble and exquisite detail.
But these belong to the grea
houses and palaces where grandeur
has been of natural growth anC
grandees are at one with it: no
to the usual or even the unusua
city homes of democracy. whose
atmosphere should be one Of simple
friendliness and warm welcome
an atmosphere not always attained
by the rich rooms of rich person:
whose social habits have still few
generations to travel for ease.
Furniture May De Master.
No wonder that. having once lei
ourselves be thus dominated. We Greer
away like the towards We are anc
draw a breath of relief in the up
per stories. But how ridiculous il
all Is, How much more self-respect,
ing We should be either to live w
to our finest belongings. or to in
sist upon their coming down to our
everyday requirements. A man may
be no hero to his valet. but he should
at least be master of his own fur
niture, of the chair he sits in.
One might try to trace the atti'
tude back to that old-fashioned re-
spect for the best room so deeply
ingrained in New England ancestors
and conjure up homely pictures Of
its horsehair furniture. it's marble
topped tables and the fiuted or spot
ted shells upon its mantel shelf. But