Living, and Other Rooms 



155 



accessories of far-off Oriental tradition, has gradually evolved itself into the 

 modern "den." There are those to whom the parent in all its richness and 

 luxurious ease appeals more strongly than its more modern descendant. The 

 Orient has given us much that is good in art, both in fabric and in metal work; 

 the wonder is that it has given us so little bad. 



The true Oriental smoking room is a delight, if it be carried out with some 

 thought as to sim- 

 plicity and taste. 

 The most beautiful 

 materials may be 

 combined into a 

 most hideous whole 

 with an ease that is 

 annoying. Its en- 

 tire feeling should 

 suggest the ease of 

 the reclining Turk; 

 get that effect in 

 any way, it does not 

 matter h o w b u t 

 get it. A bit of 

 Louis XV. furniture 

 would kill the whole 

 arrangement. A 

 Colonial table will 

 do the same thing. 



It is the One iarrinP" Living room at Fall River, Mass., showing an effective and pleasing treatment of the Japanese. 

 J & Cram, Wentworth & Goodhue, architects 



note in any compo- 

 sition that is so easy to get and so hard to avoid. The style of architectural 

 embellishment could hardly be Gothic; if not candidly Oriental it should be 

 nothing at all. The room or passage adjoining this style should not be of a dis- 

 tinctly conflicting treatment, so as to ruin the effect of either. No arrangement 

 that permits of two such conflicting styles being seen at the same time should be 

 permitted; it is the very worst of bad taste. 



A certain half effeminate quality in the Oriental smoking room has led 

 some moderns to accept the rough, bold treatment of the den with satisfaction. 

 This informal type is still a smoking room and answers the same general pur- 

 pose of the Oriental original. The average American has lost, in a measure, perhaps, 

 the old habit of the smoking jacket and slippers, much more of the long dressing 

 gown. He prefers to sit with his chair tilted back and his feet on the table or 

 mantel and talk shop, rather than to lose himself in the dreamland of Oriental 

 laziness. As such things are not allowable in the drawing room he withdraws to 

 the den, where "solid comfort" is possible. 



As a general thing the den is apt to be the most homelike room in the house. 

 There is really no good reason why this should be so, but perhaps it may be 

 accounted for in the fact that the man is apt to select furniture with a view to its 



