embossed leather paper in its dark rich low, tan and cream, furnish appropriate tones. The cornice is of the redwood backgrounds for water - colors. Arrangement of Pine Branch. lavishly enriched with gold. The chimney piece is carried to the ceiling, where its concave hood is covered with gold. An Indian carpet with rich dark hues is on the floor, and the ceiling above is light red mingled with gold. Gold is the great solvent. Do not be afraid of a lavish use of gold, admirable in high lights, beautiful in shadow, and always delightful when mixed with color. Another room may have wood-work of mahogany or pine, painted dead black with a fine polish, and its mouldings lightened with gold. Many of the older houses are finished in walnut. Although walnut is a wood no longer in favor with architects on account of its dull tint, it must still be taken into consideration. The walls of a room done in any of these woods may be hung in deep red, solid in color, or, when designs of paper are used, in white and gold. The cornice will be of red and gold, or red, white and gold, and the ceiling reddish cream. For these nothing is better than ingrain papers. Oil paintings require deeper tints and will admit of bolder patterns. While we are speaking of that which may be, it is proper to allude to that which should not be, but is. The peripatetic lives of city people are made doubly unendurable by transferring their household goods, from one staring pattern of white and gold paper, to another staring paper of white and gold which wars during all their wretched stay with their humble but beloved pictures and ornaments. As we have premised, our surroundings may be fussy, irritable, and disturb unceasing Defective Arrangement of Another consideration must not be overlooked in connection with the color of a room. Oil paintings and water-color paintings require different. backgrounds. If one is refitting a house and possesses choice examples of either, it is proper that their appropriate relief should be considered. All the delicate shades of blue, green, yel ures. ly that air of mental repose that we have a right to expect from our homes. Such wall papers have been known to cultivate habits of gadding in women So, at least, they have pleaded. The case is not so hopeless. Here the stencil is valuable. With the landlord's consent the occupant of an apartment stencilled the white spaces of the offending paper with a small, inoffensive design. This gave the sense of a good background to the paper, and an agreeable relief to the pictIt may be remembered here that the chocolate pseudo- Japanese design in a back parlor was stencilled with a basket-weave design in gold, with happy results. The furniture should partake of the general character of the room, and provide for the comfort and entertainment of the varied people who Altered and Correct Arrangement of Iris. The Attributes of a Drawing-room. 119 are to enjoy its hospitality. A drawing- to us as Colonial are to be preferred room is not a show-place nor a museum. It is a place to move about in, to enjoy leisure and companionship. Whatever it contains should be beautiful. It should please the eye by its harmonious grouping and coloring. A cabinet or two will hold its smaller curios, the tables low for books of agreeable and entertaining character; the chairs should be graceful, easy and inviting; the works of art, vases, and bronzes few and choice. The Japanese have taught us much in this respect. In Japan a work of art or a thing of beauty is held in such esteem that everything is contrived to do it honor. A Japanese may possess a number of beautiful objects, but only one is shown at a time, and that is given the place of honor in a When thoroughly enjoyed, it is removed to give place to another. It is from the Japanese that the present fashion of solitaire vases for a single flower and its foliage is derived, and it is another illustration of the same principle. An accomplished Japanese in this country once said to me, "When I enter an American drawing-room crowded with objects of art, it seems to me as hopeless a waste as a desert." The custom of buying furniture in families, as it were, no longer obtains. A few pieces will show some relationships. A French drawing-room will require Louis XIV., XV., XVI., or Empire furniture enough to give it character. But the most of our drawing-rooms are eclectic in choice and arrangement. The furniture should be, first, that only which is absolutely needed and, secondly, good in form. Herbert Spencer has said that a chair which bears any satisfactory relation to the needs of the human back has yet to be made. The simplicity of the Louis XVI. forms, those of the Empire, and the modifications of those forms which are known over the upholstered ease of the later An Effective Touch. A valuable adviser, Robert Edis, has suggested that a lacquer cabinet is more appropriate for the showing of Oriental objects of art, such as Chinese vases and Japanese bronzes, ivory carvings, and the crystals and jade. On the same principle the modern French cabinets are better adapted for European curios and those modern objects of art, Venetian glass, and the small grotesqueries to which the pres- the room.. ent fashion runs. These cabinets should be simple in line with but little ornament, since they require only a framework to hold the glass which is to screen the contents from dust. The tables should be low and conveniently placed with reference to the Even in our own old Colo nial houses the mantel-pieces with their panels, ornamented with garlands and Greek vases, delicate flutes and carvings, show that the mantel-piece was held as the most important structural part of the room. mantel is spared seats. One is for books and magazines, with a lamp intended for use as well as for ornament. Another table now found in many well-appointed drawingrooms holds a tea-service which of itself makes an ornament. The mantel may be considered as part of the furniture of the room. Certainly nothing in the room furnishes it better. In the baronial show places abroad they make, with their rich panelling, secret recesses, portraits and crests, the most imposing decoration in The drawing-room much of the service demanded of the mantels in other rooms. If one has suitable work a of art it is interesting to make it part of the mantelbreast. Often a large water color will bring to a focus the color of the room or of the cornice. A plaster cast of some fine relief of Donatello or Luca della Robbia, tinted to correspond with the tones of the room, makes a desirable panel for the mantel-breast. In one house known this panel is a portrait relief of the children of the family. The drawingroom mantel is rather low. It is perhaps of the wood of the room either in hard or in enamelled wood, the best of all the cheap mantels. But, whatever the mantel be, it should be able to dispense with the abominations of drapery, gilt nails, fringes and tassels, which women have been accustomed to consider decoration, and against which there is everything, and in favor of which there is nothing, to be said. The facings of the fireplace in most light-tinted rooms are Mexican onyx Diffusion Instead of Concentration of Light. 121 brass, or wrought iron with its umbrella cover of lace and flowers; beneath is a low table with its novel or book of poetry. All this is picturesque and interesting, if somewhat studied. It should be added that it requires a hostess who can act up to such surroundings. or mottled glass tiles. Nothing surpasses them. Many women paint their own tiles, but painted disjointed tiles even from the best artists are spotty in effect compared with the lustrous surface of the tinted marbles, glass or faïence. The fire-back, fire-arms, grate, and fender are each separate opportunities for careful choice. Simple forms To speak of the lighting question: are preferable to those over-elaborated. A new principle in lighting has been Personally, I am fond of mirrors. They give a sense Door Light for Dining-room. The Design is Set in Clear Glass. Another thing must be alluded to-a fashion altogether modern. This is the arrangement of niches in points of vantage in which the hostess composes, for herself or for a guest as a central figure, a picturesque background. This is done by a grouping together of a graceful sofa with its silken pillows against a screen suitable in color and design. Behind the screen rises a foliage plant, a palm or rubber plant from its brass or colored faïence tub. At one side is a tall lamp of porcelain, introduced. This is diffusion instead of concentration of light. The central chandelier, that so long imposed its overwhelming presence, has at last yielded its place. In the sumptuous houses that are a feature of our time the electric light is introduced as flowers in festooned garlands around the frieze, thus surpassing every other form of decoration. Another mode is through opalescent disks set in the frieze, and making part of the decoration. Swinging lights within opalescent glass, hung in the four corners of the room, are substituted for the central chandelier. When the electric light is not used, |