Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-07
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
When Mother and Daughter Com
blned to Decorate the House the
Result Was What Neither
OF Them Expected
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

|
and she had the tcmcrity and the gcncr
osity 10 call to her aid her young daughter
when the matter Of color and arrangement
for rooms and for furnishings came up for
| decision. The house was built in 1883 by
| my friends parents and furnished without
any taste except general taste for comfort
and utility. 1t was so little changed since
| that day that the very homcliness had about
It certain Quaintness that was its charm.
Twenty five more years and it might be al
most too quaint to change.
However. my friend had no conscience
about changing II today, and to make sure
| that nothing Of the old could be left to donli-
nate the rooms. they were swept clean of
furniture paper. original flooring and. in
some cases, original lighting and dimensions.
1t was practically new house with some
few contours reminiscent Of the old one.
Having thus cut herself adrift from the
old. my friend very deliberately tied herself
up. with the future yby summoning to her
aid her very modern and somewhat acqusi-
lively futurst daughter That is. the girl IS
not quite original in her decorative sense
and who is. for the matter of that?-but
decidedly influenced by the surface cnthusi-
asms for clash in color and for the frankly
decorative in fabrics. She il still vague
about periods and very skctchy as to the
science Of patterns. That is. she does not
!et think or pattern rs ''rcstless' or rs
rhythmic, nor does she know except in
stinctively why one differs from another in
glory or why one adds to the effect that the
other confuses. In short. she has a 'rcccnt"
taste and real feeling for decoration with
out the experience of observation and cor
tainy without being able to give n reason
for the faith that is in her beyond that old
one of
II do not love thee. DR.. Fell,
The reason why cannot tell;
But this | know and know full we'll
mot 1nNpt thnn LNAhf
HER mother frankly says. on the other
IL hand. that She. in her turn. does not
oven 'fecl' anything about color or ar.
rangement. She does not know tho Sonsa-
tion. She knows when a chair is comfort
able and when material is good and when
shades match approximately. She knows
very well, too. how much things cost-not
only American things, but European and
even Asiatic-fOr she has bought many
things. She knows also what pale co,ors are
and what dark cOlors are and what bright
colorS arc; She prefers bluc--a collection of
blues. She likes plenty of light but whether
or not thr light is becoming to her. or if it
is why il Is. does not occur to her. She likes
furniture that is easily moved. few heavy
pieces and tn" rest mobile; little flights Of
chairs that can go here or there in a room
once it is plain where the persons who are
to sit down prefer to congrcgate.
She has am quite sure. not only no
instinct for patterns being mutually be-
coming in their contrasts or in their same
nesses; she would feel sort of scorn over
such sensitiven"Ss. Her interest would be
rather TO vary the types Of fabrics and pat
terms because Of their historical value,
RenaisSanc" and primitive Italian. Vcnc-
tian. Florcntine, French, Scandinavian,
Madeira and Egypt held together by spaces
of pattern!c%s fabrics of neutral coiors
II She is gathering possessions already at
hand or purChasable for Il yellow ROOM
Ia t.. A.
to the pen wiper. and of any yellow from
straw color to burnt orange. She differs in
her turn from her own mother. who was
heterogeneous. even haphazard, in her choice
OF furnishings twenty-five years ago. She
is thoughtfully specific and very detailed
But she could furnish her rooms without
seeing them or without ever assembling the
objects to go into them until the last moment
with view to their effect upon one another
T DWELL thus analytcally on tho habits
of mind Of these two representatives Of
two generations. with n "Reminiscences Of the
one that preceded. because the interest of
their attempting to furnish a house together
lies in the fact that they are SO different in
taSt" and so intrinsiCally alike in temper
amrnt.
Neither is plably adaptable through sym.
pathy with tn" others standpoint: neither
has definite theory nor an authoritative OK
perencc that both value. Each is moved by
the cnthusiasms of her contemporaries and
IL the Younger one prOCraStin mates n is hc-
cause she belongs to a prurruS mating gem
Grafton. just as her mother decides iInun-
tirntly because she belongs To Il decisive gen
Grafton.
think the sacrifice to her habit Of man.
aging her own affairs the mother made when
she generously took counsel with her dauph-
ter was fully cqualcd by the daughters sac.
riticc Of her plcasur" in her last minute de.
cisOnS. The mother cunidcd 10 mo tha, .bo
hal ,.i,, min tl,n ri,l l..