*54 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1905 



amiable quality of temperament 

 that governs successful home 

 decoration generally, the dining- 

 room in particular. To those 

 that have not this temperament 

 it may seem incredible that a 

 dining-room could ever mean so 

 much to a man that, in default 

 of servants, he would enjoy 

 going to the trouble of prepar- 

 ing his own supper in the 

 kitchen — likewise presumably 

 an ideal one — serving it in the 

 dining-room, arranging the 

 table mats and doilies, his single 

 cover, and lighting the cadela- 

 bras just the same as for com- 

 pany, then to sit down all alone, 

 with the kind of pathetic grace 

 that Mr. Mansfield assumes in 

 the last act of " Beau Brum- 

 mel " — the attic at Caen — 

 where he bows across the table 

 impressively and soliloquizes: 

 " I thought — I thought I saw 

 the prince there." 



Yet that man has natural re- 

 finement in contradistinction to 

 the superficial gloss society re- 

 quires of every one, as there 



will be those who must confess to themselves that a supper 

 from an overturned packing box or while standing before a 

 quick lunch counter would be equally as enjoyable if there 

 was enough and it was palatable. It will be seen why the 

 pretentious dining-room is left to the decorator, or, if 

 one has not the means to do this, he is contented with about 

 the style of dining-room we have illustrated in Fig. 1. This 

 will be recognized as the typical dining-room of mediocre city 

 apartments and suburban houses, and I regret to say there 

 are more of this kind of dining-room than any other, a really 

 good dining-room (see Fig. 9) being the rarest exception. 

 The influence of cultivated women should help matters only, 



4 — Good Dining-Room Furniture in a Poor Architectural Setting 



way down deep, few women like housework. They often 

 pretend to like it, because it might seem unwomanly to con- 

 fess otherwise, as it would seem unmanly for a man to 

 confess he loathed work and preferred idleness to industry; 

 but, secretly, attractive as Fig. 9 is — I can fancy I hear a 

 woman exclaiming, "That window is positively dear!" — 

 they would not care to own it unless they had maids to keep 

 it up. And as for setting a table for herself alone, to say 

 nothing about the candelabras and the other graceful ac- 

 cessories, why there is scarcely one woman in a thousand 

 that would ever dream of doing such a thing. They would 

 sit upon the kitchen table or anywhere and munch a sandwich, 



drink a glass of 

 milk, and say it was 

 all theatrics in t h e 

 men. But the thou- 

 s a n d t h woman 

 knows it is not the- 

 atrics, but the secret 

 of all true art, the 

 expressed wish in 

 one's home sur- 

 roundings to make 

 the world a better 

 place than it really 

 is and a more char- 

 itable place than the 

 Lord intended. 



Strangely enough 

 there is nobody who 

 cares less about an 

 artistic dining-room 

 than the artistic wom- 

 an, that is, of course, 

 if she has totakecare 

 of it, prepare meals, 

 even her own meals ; 

 and should you men- 

 tion housework to 

 the artistic woman 



5 — The Dining-Room of Stanford White, Esq. 



