December, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



Vll 



THE JANUARY NUMBER 



WITH the next issue of American Homes and Gar- 

 dens this magazine enters its eleventh year, having 

 completed a decade, attended with the success which its pub- 

 lishers believe it has deserved. Much of this success has 

 been due to the personal interest which so many readers 

 and subscribers of the magazine have shown. The Editor 

 appreciates the many kindly letters and suggestions, which 

 have come from members of homes and gardens, and looks 

 forward to a continuance of the close relationship between 

 readers and the magazine. The January number of Ameri- 

 can Homes and Gardens, Number One, Volume Eleven, 

 will give special attention to the subject of home furnishings. 

 Esther Singleton, one of the best known authorities on in- 

 terior decoration in America, will contribute an article on 

 Furnishing the House at Moderate Cost. The Choice of 

 Wall Papers, will be the subject of an article by Ida J. 

 Burgess, whose excellent work is familiar to all readers of 

 American Homes and Gardens. Both these articles will 

 be fully illustrated with half-tone reproductions of photo- 

 graphs from subjects particularly pertinent to the text. Al- 

 though American Homes and Gardens has devoted much 

 space to the house for the man of moderate means, a more 

 elaborate subject will be the occasion for the opening article 

 of the January issue, which will be the superbly illustrated 

 article describing the New York town house of Mrs. Bel- 

 mont. An attractive brick house of the Pennsylvania Co- 

 lonial type, illustrated and described, and a good house of 

 the Italian Villa type will also be included in the contents 

 of this issue. A California Bungalow, most ingenious in 

 arrangement and attractive in design, will be illustrated and 

 described, accompanied by floor plans. The Collectors' De- 

 partment for the January issue will be of particular value, 

 inasmuch as it will contain a finely illustrated article on old 

 engraved and lithographed music covers by Marie Eliza- 

 beth Camp. Antique door-knockers will also be described 

 and Harold D. Eberlein will contribute an article on the 

 subject of Tulip-ware, one of the early Colonial pottery 

 wares, of America. The usual departments, Within the 

 House; Around the Garden; and Helps to the Housewife 

 will be included in this issue as well as numerous other ar- 

 ticles, Collectors' Notes and Queries and the Collectors' 

 Mart. 



STAMP COLLECTING AS AN EDUCATIONAL PASTIME 



THE recent International Stamp Exhibition held in New 

 York awakened an unusual interest in a subject that 

 too often is relegated to the belief that it only deserves con- 

 sideration as a mere schoolboy's hobby, instead of receiving 

 the attention it deserves of being a pastime possessing a 

 potent educational merit. The true collector, whether he be 

 a collector of china or of coins is more than a mere gatherer 

 of objects. So, too, the true postage-stamp collector is one 

 who collects issues of the world's postal franks because 

 the pastime is a natural and inductive method of acquiring 

 a knowledge of modern history from the middle of the 

 nineteenth century through the present era. The study of 

 stamps is dignified by the term "Philately." The Brooklyn 



Academy of Arts and Sciences has a Philatelic Section and 

 in England the Royal Philatelic Society has its "Fellows" 

 as well as the other Royal Societies, the King of England 

 being a philatelic enthusiast and authority. Not only the 

 designs upon the stamps themselves are interesting and 

 worth study, but the incidents connected with issues cannot 

 help but prove broadening and instructive. With the mania 

 for collecting stamps of an issue, different one from another 

 by reason of a trifling measurement of a letter here or the 

 misplacement of a line there, we have no sympathy, but 

 the sane collecting of stamps whose possession serves to 

 introduce us to the main movements in recent and contem- 

 porary history deserves encouragement and as a home edu- 

 cational pastime is one well worth the following. 



The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has 

 just had bequeathed to it the collection of stamps of a 

 St. Louis collector. The Metropolitan Museum has not as 

 yet accepted the bequest, although it is interesting to note 

 that the British Museum possesses one of the finest, if not 

 the most extensive philatelic collection in the world. The 

 collection bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum is 

 valued at fully $250,000, and it would require some six 

 hundred glass cases to display it properly. As the artistic 

 side of engraved stamps is important and interesting as well 

 as their historical quality, it is to be hoped that the collec- 

 tion will come to New York, if not to the Metropolitan 

 Museum. 



A WORLD CITY 



PRESIDENT POINCARE, of France, and other dis- 

 tinguished men have signified their intention of being 

 present at a conference to be held at the Sorbonne to discuss 

 the feasibility of the plan to build a monumental interna- 

 tional city devoted to all forms of human progress, the idea 

 of which originated with Hendrik Christian Andersen, an 

 American sculptor of note now living in Rome. 



"The American State Department has manifested a keen 

 interest in the idea," says a recent report of the matter, 

 "and an executive order has been placed in the hands of 

 all the American Ambassadors directing them to aid Mr. 

 Andersen in every way that is feasible. Special audiences 

 with the Kaiser and the King of England are being ar- 

 ranged on his behalf by the American Ambassadors in 

 Berlin and London. Seventy-nine international societies, 

 including the leading, pacificist and philanthropic organiza- 

 tions, have signified their support, as also have private indi- 

 viduals, of many nationalities." 



The probable cost of the city is estimated at $100,000,- 

 000. Mr. Andersen is reported as saying that he has 

 already refused an offer of financiers to build the city on 

 speculation, believing that the nations will co-operate spon- 

 taneously when they become acquainted with the idea. Pos- 

 sible sites have been studied on the New Jersey coast, the 

 Dutch coast, near The Hague; the Riviera, near Cannes; 

 Tervueren, near Brussels; the shore of Lake Neuchatel, 

 near Bern; St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris; the Marmora 

 coast, near Constantinople, and the Mediterranean coast, 

 near Rome. Several other sites are under consideration. 



