Evening star., 1932-08-29

! changed, as to the proper sort of fur
| nishing for home, this good old StuH
was still mighty good
Too good to throw away.
Mixed with memories, too good to
! give away.
Nobody else would want it, anyway.
There it stands, stanch as the Rock
of Gibraltar, unwilling and apparently
unable to wear out!
There stands Templeton Jones, pro-
greSsive American, who would like to
refurnish his home, but doesn't know
where or how to begin.
The years have beat one idea solidly
| into his head, in regard to furniture
| styles. Perhaps two ideas.
One, that there is no period" quite
so safe for the average home as the So
called Colonial.
| The other, that there is no wood
| quite so desirable as mahogany.
| He is alert to the fact, however, that
| the best modern decorators have a
flair for combining periods, as well as
woods.
He sees, at least as far as his tastes
are concerned, that he would have done
better. in that legendary past of his, to
have needed the admonition of the ex-
perts, and to have confined his pur-
chases to Colonial furnishings.
| What stubborn young cub he had
been, Jones thought to himself, with
some satisfaction.
He knew what he liked, then, or at
least he thought he did, which was the
same thing, wasn't it?
! Nobody could tell him he ought to
confine his furniture selections to
things Colonial. He would leave that
| to Mount Vernon.
He wanted to get away from dark
/ furniture. He was modern. he was,
and he liked lght-colored objects,
things with color to them.
He recalled, with some satisfaction,
| that he had been far ahead of the
sense in that, in realizing that one had
preferred color years before the mass
of the populace arrived at the same
! liking.
He had achieved it, however, by
groupings of unrelated pieces of furni-
| ture, without any definite style.
Perhaps a better way to put it would
/ be to say that they lacked period. They
were Just American. They didn't be
long" to this period or that period.
Now Jones was beginning to see. what
the wise ones tried to make him see
long ago, that the past ages do. in
deed relate themselves to all of us.
Out of the past came the present
and helped build it up. While setting
up in house keeping is new to every
human being, when the time arrives
it is very very old, after ALL
Since the cave days, mankind has
been setting up at housekeeping.
Certain periods of furnishings were
the culminations of centuries of expert
ence with all the objects which go to
make the living quarters of humanity
Related styles gave a certain sense
of satisfaction which is pleasing to the
esthetic tastes of man. They give it
now as always.
Only the ineXperience Of youth can
afford to throw away the culminative
information and experience of man
kind In regard to furniture styles, it
may be said that the best experiments
of the centuries have been held onto.
and the mere experiments dropped. But
what will be needed still is the artistic
mind, and 1t is questionable whether
every young person has it.
Templeton Jones looked around at
his comfortable home The effect was
pleasing, and not without evidences of
real taste. But if he had to do it
all over again, he could see many
changes he would make.
That old chair. there. with it's stout
side pieces. would be in existence. in
the year 2032 without a doubt. No
body could wear it out, it was that
tough. The only trouble with it, Jones
thought. was that it had been made too
good in the first place.