IV 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1913 



fc^ $& 



H 



OW would you feel after paying a 

 $1,000, or more for a player-piano to 

 find that your neighbor's $450 instrument 

 contained exactly the same kind of a playing 

 mechanism? 



Wouldn't it seem strange that your expensive piano should contain such 

 a cheap player — something like a torpedo boat with a tow boat engine in it. 



There are many grades and makes of player-pianos — but only a very few 

 different playing actions. Most player-pianos, except the Kranich & Bach, 

 contain a sort of ready-made playing mechanism, suitable for cheap instru- 

 ments, and "Tinkered" into many different makes of pianos, irrespective of 

 quality or individual requirements. 



Kranich & Bach 

 player-pianos 



contain a playing mechanism that is too good to install in any other than 

 Kranich & Bach pianos. // is 

 designed expressly and exclusively 

 for this instrument and cannot he 

 had in any other make of piano. 



Its relationship to the piano 

 is perfect — it is as much a part 

 of the instrument as is the key- 

 board, or the piano action, all of 

 which are made completely in the 

 Kranich & Bach factory. 



Artistic tone production is 

 produced most satisfactorily in 

 Kranich & Bach unit constructed 

 Player-pianos. 



Write for catalog. 



Kranich & Bach 



237 East 23rd Street 

 New York City 



«T 



12 of the Prettiest 



TULIPS for 25c 



Or 30 for 50c 



DE your garden large or small, its beauty 

 will be greatly enhanced by this col- 

 lection of Tulips. The Bulbs are first size 

 and have just been received from our 

 growers in Holland. 

 Their colors lend pleasing contrast to each other 

 and clearly show the careful thought we have 

 devoted to their selection. 



12 Thorburn's Tulip Bulbs (our selection) for 

 25c — or send 50c for 30 — postage paid. 



have been justly popular for over 1 1 1 years — not only by reason 

 of their low prices, but principally on account of their excep- 

 tionally high quality. 



When ordering this collection, remember that we will also 

 send you our 191 3 Bulb Catalog. It is unusually comprehensive 

 and contains many helpful suggestions. 



J. M. THORBURN & CO. 



Established 1802 — 111 years ago 

 53 P Barclay Street New York 



THE PASSING OF THE GARRET 



By BERWYN CONVERSE 



ONE more of our cherished domestic 

 institutions is threatened with com- 

 plete extermination if, indeed, it has not 

 already passed far beyond recall upon the 

 road which leads to oblivion. This is the 

 institution, famous in the annals of poetry 

 and romance, known as the garret. 



Sometimes it is called an attic, but re- 

 ferred to by either name it is, of course, 

 the space directly beneath the high pitched 

 roof of the average house. In cities or in 

 the larger towns the garret shares with the 

 hall room the function of housing youthful 

 or impecunious genius, but whether in city 

 or country its wider mission has always 

 been the supplying of a sort of middle or 

 intermediate state to which may be con- 

 signed various and sundry articles of house- 

 hold furnishing or of domestic or personal 

 adornment which are considered to have 

 passed the period of their usefulness. If 

 a thing be sent to the garret there is, pre- 

 sumably, some hope of its being called into 

 use at a later time — it may even return to 

 fashion. Or, again, there may exist some 

 sentiment sufficiently strong to save it from 

 the speedy destruction which awaits objects 

 which are completely despaired of or which 

 are safeguarded by no tender associations. 

 Few places are more fascinating than 

 the garret of large old-fashioned country 

 homes, particularly the garret of a house 

 which has been, for generations, in the 

 possession of a single family during whose 

 long tenure its contents have probably 

 waxed fat and varied. The existence of 

 these old storerooms, and the habit of 

 using them as receptacles for all varieties 

 of cast-off belongings has unquestionably 

 been the means of preserving to these later 

 days all manner of quaint and picturesque 

 possessions of a former age which, after a 

 prostrated period of eclipse, are now found 

 by a later generation to have sufficient 

 beauty or interest to justify their appear- 

 ance upon the scene of domestic life. What 

 would have become of the old mahogany 

 furniture, mirrors, spinning-wheels and 

 fine old bandboxes of fifty years ago had 

 there been no garrets to receive them until 

 a more enlightened day should witness a 

 revival of their glory? Where should we 

 turn off authentic costumes for a fancy 

 dress ball had not nn old garret preserved 

 for ages a trunk of black horse hair, studded 

 with brass nails, where the wedding raiment 

 of our great-grandparents has been safely 

 packed away for all these years ? The name 

 of garret is one to conjure with and has a 

 decided commercial or advertising value, 

 for who could fail to be impressed by even 

 the most unblushing of dealers in spurious 

 antiques should he claim to have gathered 

 his wares from garrets in remote country 

 places? 



Then, closely connected with its use as a 

 place for storing old things, is the garret's 

 charm as a play-room. No one who has 

 ever experienced the delight could forget 

 the fascination of a rainy day spent in the 

 garret of an old house. The pleasure of 

 making discoveries, of opening certain 

 strictly forbidden trunks or cupboards and 

 the thrill of looking surreptitiously into pro- 

 hibited books was a pleasure which cannot 

 be forgotten. 



There are several causes which have con- 

 tributed to the growing disappearance of 

 the garret and among them are the dis- 

 covery that space so used may be put to a 

 purpose much more practical, and also the 

 high value placed upon sanitary housekeep- 

 ing which is finding increasing vogue with 

 American women. One could easily see 



