THE CITY YARD 



or marigolds will make a really pretty episode 

 in the scene. In town the water will be low, 

 just when you want to use It; then you may feel 

 bashful about having your neighbors discover 

 the fountain when they have trouble in getting 

 enough to wash the dishes ; so in that case, there 

 remain the other adornments : a vase of bronze, 

 for example, to be filled with pansles or nas- 

 turtiums, or a jardiniere, preferably of Chinese 

 or Japanese make, and of celadon, blue and 

 white, or pale-green porcelain, in which may 

 stand a rubber-plant or palm; or, a box with or- 

 namental handles, or a painted tub. Avoid the 

 tawdry French and German china; not that all 

 the china from the modern potteries Is tawdry, 

 by any means, for the Orientals are now doing 

 some deplorable work; but there is a refinement, 

 delicacy, purity in the best Chinese porcelains 

 that you will find in no other. Of course, the 

 finest single colors in these fictiles are not for ex- 

 posure to the breakage and the weathering of the 

 garden. They are to be housed as preciously as 

 Raphaels and Oriental rugs — works of art that 

 the world may be doomed to see no more, now 

 that commercialism has invaded the studios and 

 47 



