DECORATIVE MATERIAL 



alone for appearance' but for endurance' sake. 

 Cement has its uses, as in the casing of the pool, 

 but the making of gravestones, urns and statu- 

 ary from this material is forbidden by the law 

 of esthetics. Have you ever looked upon a 

 statue of cement? If so, it is too solemn a spec- 

 tacle to forget. Don't have anything in the gar- 

 den that is molded by machinery, unless it may be 

 drain-pipes. Let the work show the touch of 

 the human hand, and let it be a duplicate of 

 nothing that exists elsewhere. Yet, if there were 

 a city ordinance that compelled me to have a 

 statue in the yard, and I found after a search 

 through my garments that I had not the price of 

 a Venus of Milo in marble — a discovery sure to 

 fill me with astonishment — I would doubtless 

 buy a figure of plaster; for the Italians make 

 faithful and artistic copies in this cheap medium. 

 They are good enough for our museums and art 

 schools, and ought, by that token, to be good 

 enough for gardens. Hm ! They are not rained 

 on, in the art schools. But if you do set up a 

 plaster image, paint it first, just to take off its 

 raw whiteness. Use a cream-colored or yellow- 

 brown pigment, or even a pale green, and if the 

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