Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-31

Sometimes one is inclined to think
that there is too much stress placed
upon beauty, especially in houses.
Comfort, after all, is something.
There are thousands Of ugly but COM
Portable homes in the United States.
They are houses that have sheltered
many generations. comprising millions
Of people.
Their essential duty, that Of protec-
ton, they have fulfilled. Who would
dare sneer at them because they are not
In line with the latest trend in home
construction?
On the other hand, no one would
speak against as much of loneliness as
can be incorporated in the houses we
live in. Beauty has its place in dwell
ings. But at times there comes the
wonder II the talk OF beauty has not
been overdone. OVERRIDING seems to be
q modern vice, but perhaps 1t was al
ways so-only in the past the OVERRIDING
came in other departments OF life. AS
one reads back in the annals OF four
teenth century life he may feel that
religion was stressed too much.
In our day the cult Of beauty has
invaded every walk Of life. Color is its
most prominent manifestation. But
color Is merely an attempt to bring
more beauty in the daily life. Often
the attempt Is a failure. Who has not
seen a kitchen, for instance, which so
reeks Of color that one longs for the
quiet peace Of the white sanitary"
Kitchens of yesterday? We have seen
new" bath rooms so garnished that
one fees to the sanctity of white tile,
glistening and immaculate. What APP
pears "snappy" and "chic" today may
strike the beholder as stuffy and ugly
tomorrow. Beauty, like morals, Is
relative thing; that is why no one can
be quite sure that he has achieved
either; that is why too much stress
sometimes Is placed upon beauty In
homes, to the exclusion of considera-
ton Of more solid characteristics.
Beauty is well enough, but it is not all.
Comfort is something. Comfort is In
some senses all, especially when the
wind blows and the rain falls and the
snow piles around the foundations.
Perhaps the reader was brought up
in an ugly but comfortable home. Then
he will recall q great many delightful
things. Perhaps 1t was one OF the
grotesoue ornate frame houses which
sprang up all over the country in the
eighties and nineties. They were boxes
ornamented with little towers, cupolas,
crazy jigsaw ornamentations every
where. 1Iley Ilhu pdy WlLluONS ia VIC
flance of all law and order. Surely
ancient Greece would not have owned
them.
Yet life surely went on in them as
we'll as If they had been built according
to the best specifications of q modern
house beautiful" AS one looks back
over that era of absurd construction,
one wonders how the builders happened
to overlook the. stately beauty OF the
typical Concord colonial or failed to
note the simple charm Of the Dutch
colonial or Of the Cape Cod cottage.
Yet overlook them they did. Show
and ornamentation for themselves
usurped the village scene. A likely ex-
PLANTATION Is that the carpenters. who
built them, being simple men, without
training In art, found them easy to
construct So and also pleasing to their
sense Of craftsmanship. Certainly many
of them were marvellous to behold. The
writer here as a child lived in just such
house. All that he remembers OF 1t
was the tower. There was no reason
for the tower at all, but 1t was con-
sidered right smart in those days. The
one ambition of the children was to be
allowed to go up in 1t. About the only
thing the tower did was to offer period
ical amusement to the little ones and