Year: 1869

THE CHEAPNEss OF BEAUTY


BY HARRIET BEECuER STOWE.
We propose now to write an article on the
subject of beauty as applied to the living
rooms of houses.


We hold the truth to be self evident that,
in the arrangements of life, things should be
so disposed as not merely to secure physical
comfort, but also to produce the impression
of beauty.


Now, here VIC are met at the outset by
people who tell US that Of course they want
their houses handsome, and that when they
get money enough, they intend to have them
handsome, but at present they are too poor,
and because they are poor they dismiss the
subject altogether apparently, and live with
out any regard to It.


We have often seen people VINO said that
they could not afford to make their houses
beautiful, who had spent upon them, outside
or in, an amount of money which did not
produce either beauty or comfort, and which,
ifjudicjously applied, might have made the
house quite charming.


We will instance one case. A man, il
building his house, takes plan of an archi
tect This plan includes, on the outside, .
number of what Andrew Fairservice called
''curly wurlies' and 'whigmaIiries, which
make the house neither prettier nor more
comfortable, aud which take up a good deal
of money. We would venture to say thai
we could buy the chrome Of Bierstadt'
Sunset in the Yo Semitic Valley, and fout
others like it, for half the sum that we hav,
sometimes seen laid out on a very ugly porch
that locked ike nightmare abortion, OIL
the outside Of house. The only use o
this porch was to cost money, and to causr
every body who looks at it to excIaim: ''yyha
e-~- i..2~-a@1 flos mo-, ct tLi~s EL,
that on the outside Of his house ?"


Then, again, in the inside of houses, ",
have seen a dwelling looking very bald an,
bare, when a sufficient sum Of money hat
/ been expended on one article to have mad
the whole very pretty The thing has com,
about in this way.


We will suppose the couple who own tn
house to be in the condition in which peopl
generally are after they have built house
having spent more than they could afford Oh
the building ITSELF and yet feeling them
selves under the necessity of getting som
furniture


Now, says the housewife, II must a
least have a parlor-carpet. We must ge
that to begin with, and other things as we g
on. She goes to a store to look at carpets
The clerks are smiling and obliging, an
sweetly complacent The storekeeper, per
haps, Is a neighbor or friend, and after ex
hibiting various patterns, he tells her of
Brussels carpet he Is selling wonderful
cheap-actually a dollar and a quarter less
yard than the usual price of Brussels, an
/ the reason is that it is an untashionable pat
tern and he has 4 good deal of it, and wishe
to close it of.


She looks at it and thinks it is not at a
the kind of carpet she meant to buy, bu
then it is Brussels, and so cheap! And a
she hesitates, her friend tells her that sh
Will find it cheapest in the end-that on
Brussels carpet will outlast three or four il
grains, etc, etc.


The result of all this is that she buys tn
Brussels carpet, which, with all its reduetio
in price, is one third dearer than the ingrai
would have been, aud not half so pretty
When she comes home she will find that sh
has spent, We will say eighty dollars for
/ very homely carpet whose greatest merit
is an affection to remember-namely, ths
it will outlast three ordinary carpets. An
no. because she has bought this carpet sh
cannot afford to paper the walls or put u
any window-eurtains, and cannot even begi
to think of buying any pictures


Now, let US see what eighty dollars coul
have done for that room. We will suppose
in the first place, she invests in thirlec
rolls Of wallpaper Of a lovely shade of buff
which viii make the room look sunshine i
the day time, and light up brilliantly in th
evening. Thirteen rolls of good satin paper
at thirty y-seven cents roll, expends four dol
lars and eighty-one cents. A maroon bon
dering, made in imitation of the choices
French style, which cannot at a distance
told from it, can be bought for six cents
a yard This win bring the paper to abou
five dollars and half and our friends wi