July, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



35 



Principles of Home Decoration 



By Joy Wheeler Dow 



perseded by new is- 

 sues of the Post 

 Office, none of 

 which can compare 

 with its excellence, 

 either inherent ex- 

 cellence or that ac- 

 quired by personal 

 association. The 

 Western Union 

 Telegraph Co., al- 



UT what has the one-penny, English 



postage stamp, and the Western Union 



Telegraph Co.'s blank to do with home 



decoration, is what the reader of these 



notes will first wish to know. Well, in 



reality, it has to be confessed that these 



two illustrations have nothing to do 

 with home decoration. But as the principles which have gov- 

 erned their long use and the principles of home decoration 

 are identical, the postage stamp and the telegraph blank have 

 direct relation with a subject upon which we have read much 

 superficial observation and comment which goes from our 

 memory as quickly 

 as the most ephem- 

 eral fiction. Like 

 the genders o f 

 French substan- 

 tives — w h y some 

 should be mascu- 

 line and other fem- 

 i n i n e — the whys 

 and wherefores of 

 good home decora- 

 tion are never 

 clearly explained, 

 but left to an intui- 

 t i o n usually not 

 sufficiently sensitive 

 in the neophyte to 

 act and tell him. 

 Let us see, then, if 

 there be no rudi- 

 mentary A B C's 

 which we may dis- 

 cover to lead us in 

 the right line of in- 

 vestigation. 



After years of 



service, in which the -n rx .1 ,„ 1 , r>- ■ r» 



,, ,,, 1 he Decorators Last Word on the Dining- Koom 



one-penny red — 



a faultless postage stamp design— had connected itself insep 



arably with the history and people of Great Britain, it was su 



THE 



23,0 



WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH 



OO OFFICES IN AMERICA. CABLE SERVICE TO AL 



COMPANY. 



"""'••" 



~ 



i 



' 



SEND in. 





™"! 









ion 









































though in nowise committed to sentiment, knows better than 



to change its orig- 

 inal blanks, which 

 always proved to 

 be good blanks, 

 and to which we 

 are so accustomed. 

 In the art of home 

 decoration the 

 same deductions 

 are the true ones. 

 Whatever has been 

 historically devel- 

 oped and was ar- 

 tistically good at 

 the beginning o f 

 i t s manufacture, 

 that is the article 

 which will always 

 be good and which 

 can not be im- 

 proved upon by 

 modern invention. 

 Fully three- 

 quarters of the 

 household furni- 

 ture that is offered 

 for sale in the 

 huge furniture 

 warerooms and department stores of this city is hopelessly 

 bad in design, whatever may be said a« to the merit of its con- 



Oriental Cosey-Corner ; or, The Microbes' Delight 



The Department Store Atmosphere vs. That of the Home 



