Colonial Chairs and Tables 199 



peries are only to be tolerated where there is a 

 retmue of maids to keep them clean. 



The facility and cheapness of mill- work and 

 lathe -work in wood has vitiated the taste of 

 Americans to a terrible degree. Nearly all ready- 

 made furniture is grooved, machine -carved, 

 and ornamented in a way to violate not only 

 the princii3les of beauty, but of strength and 

 cleanliness as well. Ornament that does not 

 mean anything is not merely commonplace but 

 ugly. There are four chairs of different patterns, 

 and costing from $1.50 to $15, in the room 

 where I sit; all of them have legs. Now, legs are 

 intended as a support, yet all these are grooved 

 and beaded and hollowed out in spots, so that 

 twice as much material as is necessary has been 

 used to insure support. The ornamentation is 

 not pretty, the hollows are inevitably full of 

 dust, and they mean absolutely nothing to any- 

 body who sees them. On the front crosspiece of 

 one large chair is glued a design of leaves in 

 oak, by way of ornament. If these had been 

 carved out upon a beautiful strip of wood by the 

 hand of a cunning workman, they would at least 

 have meant a man's thought and skill. As they 

 are, they suggest merely a machine and a glue 

 pot, and thousands of others as hideous as they. 

 Contrast with this gingerbread furniture the 

 plain, substantial colonial chairs and tables and 



