vi AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
February, 1912 
From a Photograph Showing the Last Step in Locating the Exact Center of Population of the United States. 
“The Center of Population” 
A Title that Fits Every Bell Telephone 
From the census of 1910 it is found that the center of population is in Bloomington, Indiana, latitude 
39 degrees 10 minutes 12 seconds north, and longitude 86 degrees 32 minutes 20 seconds west. 
“Tf all the people in the United States 
were to be assembled in one place, the 
center of population would be the point 
which they could reach with the mini- 
mum aggregate travel, assuming that 
they all traveled in direct lines from their 
residence to the meeting place.” 
—U. 8S. Census Bulletin. 
This description gives a word picture 
of every telephone in the Bell system. 
Every Bell telephone is the center of 
the system. 
It is the point which can be reached 
with “the minimum aggregate travel,” 
by all the people living within the range 
of telephone transmission and having 
access to Bell telephones. 
Wherever it may be on the map, each 
Bell telephone is a center for purposes 
of intercommunication. 
To make each telephone the center 
of communication for the largest number 
of people, there must be One System, 
One Policy and Universal Service for a 
country of more than ninety million. 
AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY 
AND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES 
One Policy 
One System 
Universal Service 
Send for catalogue A 27 of pergolas, sun dials and garden 
furniture or A 40 of wood columns. 
i/Hartmann-Sanders Co. | 
Exclusive Manufacturers of 
KOLL’S PATENT LOCK JOINT COLUMNS 
Suitable for 
PERGOLAS, PORCHES or 
INTERIOR USE 
ELSTON and WEBSTER AVES. 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
Eastern Office: F 
1123 Broadway, New York City | 
FRANCIS HOWARD 
5 W. 28th St.. N, Y. C. 
Benches. Pedestals, 
Fonts, Vases, Busts. 
GARDEN EXPERTS 
Send 15c. for Booklet 
Mantels Entrances 
A Beautiful Illustrated Book- 
let, ‘WHERE SUN DIALS 
ARE MADE,” sent upon re- 
quest. Estimates furnished. 
DIALS 
Any Latitude 
E. B. MEYROWITZ, 108 East 23d St., New York 
Branches: New York, Minneapolis, St. Paul, London, Paris 
The Schilling Press 
Job PRINTERS _Fine 
Book Art 
and San Press 
Catalog Vv; Work 
Work A Specialty 
137-139 E, 25th St., New York 
Printers of AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
ARCHITECTURE AND THE LAYMAN 
By MIRA EDSON 
T is said that the average layman looks 
upon architecture as a mystery only to 
be comprehended by the learned or experi- 
enced, and hence he leaves architectural 
journals quite out of his reading. Perhaps 
it is true also that he knows so little of the 
subject because until lately the popular 
magazines have given it so little attention, 
and it has been, as a matter of fact, easily 
open only to those with some professional 
or student interest to begin with. There 
is no lack at present, however, of popular 
literature upon the subject. 
As a matter of fact, architecture, and 
those subjects intimately connected with it, 
is the art which may be best and most easily 
apprehended by the layman, because hav- 
ing a basis in use certain of its values are 
at once perceived and may form a beginning 
for further development of it. Architecture 
stands, as one may say, at the center of the 
arts from which they move out either 
toward abstract beauty or toward the prac- 
tical and constructive. Architecture is so 
closely concerned, too, with our civic life 
that it could not only prove, to those per- 
sons who may take a vital interest in it, 
an avenue of unsuspected imaginative 
wealth for them, but it would do much to 
forward a general art development among 
us. “Ifa little more interest were taken by 
laymen in simple architectural problems,” it 
is claimed by professionals, “these would 
certainly be better solved.” The layman 
therefore does well to consider articles in 
architectural as well as popular journals, 
and for the interest the subject itself can 
give outside of any personal immediate 
practical application. 
Early American ideals were sound here. 
“Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought 
and quaint expression are as near to us 
as to any, and if the American artist will 
study with hope and love the precise thing 
to be done by him, considering the climate, 
the soil, the length of the day, the wants 
of the people, the habit and form of the 
government, he will create a house in which 
all these will find themselves fitted, and 
taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.” 
So spake the sage of New England at a 
time when we are wont to consider the 
arts less “progressive” than to-day. They 
were less self-conscious, certainly, but not 
less true because of that, and they have 
left us remains which are, in their way, so 
eminently suitable and fine that we rejoice 
in The Colonial even to the point of imi- 
tation. 
There are numerous books put out to-day 
for the purpose of introducing the people to 
this subject, and which present it in an 
interesting and simple way; books which 
illustrate their points by reference to con- 
crete examples which are to be seen in the 
streets of New York city and elsewhere; 
buildings which illustrate the styles of the 
past and also the tendencies in modern 
building and the opportunity these offer for 
beauty. There are also lectures upon these 
subjects which are given free in all the 
large cities, and there are societies which 
one can join which make it their aim to 
stimulate and to further study and to sug- 
gest practical helps to those desirous of 
learning. If the nation is to make any real 
advance in Civic beauty and in the develop-. 
ment of architectural style the whole people 
must be initiated. Those who would acquire 
some knowledge of styles, however little, 
learning something of their history and 
their influence to-day, will find that it amply 
repays any time or trouble spent therein. 
