October, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



255 



6 — A State D 



when she is engaged in the much higher pursuit of discussing 

 " over soul " or " under soul," it would be enough to bring 

 on a fit of demoniacal 

 fury. There may be 

 pursuits more edify- 

 ing and useful to man 

 than the ethics of the 

 dining-room, but I 

 know of none more 

 conducive to his wel- 

 fare; and considering 

 it is one of the first 

 instincts of creation I 

 do not think it would 

 be wise to neglect it 

 entirely. For my own 

 part, it has always j 

 seemed to me an evil 1 

 to be retained rather 

 than the means to an 

 end, and I have al- 

 w a y s thought o f 

 those people whose 

 wealth and servants, 

 like " Elizabeth of 

 the German garden," 

 for instance, created a 

 desiretocamp out, that 

 they should arrange 

 to camp out indefi- 

 nitely, and allow the 

 money thus saved to 

 buy as many comfort- 

 able, not to say ideal, 



dining-rooms for those who can appreciate what 

 the Lord seems not willing we should all enjoy. 

 These are the principles of the artistic dining- 

 room ethically expressed. Everybody wants to 

 express this philosophy without knowing it, per- 

 haps without believing it — that it is the keynote 

 of a dining-room design; even in dining-rooms 

 which are distinctly banal and tawdry, we recog- 

 nize what the owners wished to express very 

 well (see Fig. 1), only they had bad advice 

 about it, and didn't say it. What they did say 

 architecturally was really the opposite to what 

 was intended — artificiality, stuffiness, tawdriness, 

 lack of harmony, nouveaux riches, etc. Com- 

 pare, if you will, Fig. 1 with Fig. 9, and I think 

 further comment upon Fig. 1 by me will be 

 superfluous. 



Then, anything that departs from the Anglo- 

 Saxon dining-room is not to be recommended 

 in America. Teakwood screens, bisons' heads, 

 French window drapery and a certain heavy kind 

 of Flemish wood carving are all inimical to the 

 successful dining-room, albeit the bison is a dis- 

 tinctly American product. He goes better in the 

 hall (see Fig. 2), barring the Adirondacks cabin 

 chimney-piece, which is out with everything else 

 in the room. This dining-room might look ex- 

 tremely well in Berlin or Munich, but not, we 

 shall say, in New England — too much chance for 

 moths and microbes; besides, we want to open the 

 windows and breathe some air — some American 

 air, which has more vitality in a cubic inch than 

 they have in Europe in a cubic foot. The atmos- 

 phere all over Europe is what they would call in 

 England " relaxing " — dead and very unsalu- 

 brious for the average American, who is used to 

 our atomized champagne; at least, that is what Charles 

 Dickens said it was like. (Read his description of sailing into 



7 — An English Painted Dining- Room 



