October, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



253 



Principles of Home Decoration 



III — Dining-Rooms — Good and Bad 



By Joy Wheeler Dow 



1 — The Architect's Bad Advice Led the Well-intentioned Owner Astray 



2 — A Dining-Hall That Might Look Well in Berlin or Munich 



IS dining-room is the touchstone of a man's 

 refinement. I do not mean its decoration 

 alone, but the intimate philosophy which 

 the architecture and decoration together ex- 

 press. And yet a man may belie his phi- 

 losophy, too, by a sufficient amount of cun- 

 ning and trickery in art matters. For instance, a really bad 

 man morally can produce a very creditable dining-room if 



Satan helps him, but he is usually actuated by the sentiment 

 of the following cynical lines, I know not from what source : 



" The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If 

 all but myself were blind, I should never want a fine house 

 nor fine furniture." 



And it is thus in certain details of his environment do we 

 come across the vanity of it. 



Now, it is not the eyes of other people at all, but a certain 



3 — A Dining- Room with Much that is Praiseworthy 



