November, 1912 
— 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
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THE DECEMBER NUMBER 
HE December number of AMERICAN HOMES AND 
GARDENS will mark the completion of the ninth volume 
of this magazine, and the issue will be replete with articles 
sustaining the high standard which has made AMERICAN 
Homes AND GARDENS unsurpassed in its field. It also 
stands the foremost magazine of its class in the matter of 
illustrations, and the continued interest of its own friends 
augmented by the many new friends the magazine has made 
during the past year has been a source of gratification to 
the Editor and to the publishers. 
HE opening article of the December number will de- 
cbs. a beautiful Pennsylvania country house, one of 
unusual arrangement, design and picturesqueness. Such 
houses as the one which will be described in this article 
and in other articles in this issue, are in themselves suf- 
ficient to refute the statement recently attributed to Lord 
Claude John Hamilton, M.P., which was reported by a 
New York newspaper to be as follows: 
“Eyen in the country where there are no skyscrapers 
and apartment houses, house after house is stuck in the 
middle of a lot just like so many boxes. ‘There are no 
trellised fences, no gardens—not the slightest attempt to 
make the place attractive and beautiful. Why don’t you 
wake up to the sense of beauty and of the great outdoors? 
You would live longer and be far happier and healthier. 
America seems to lack this artistic, domestic sense.” 
T IS hardly probable that the author of the above state- 
ment has had the good fortune to be entertained in the 
home sections of the cities and country-side of America. 
However just, some years ago may have been the world’s 
reproach to us for the unhappy period of our architecture 
at that time, an architecture founded upon the deplor- 
able styles of the Victorian era, we have ever been a nation 
of home-makers, even when we were engaged in develop- 
ing some new section of the country. It is true that through- 
out the entire Jength and breadth of America our rural 
districts are lacking in the charm that enters the English 
landscape, and which appeals to our sense of the picturesque. 
There is something about the thatched roof cottages, the 
cobblestone huts and the half-timber houses of Great Britain, 
of the chalets of Switzerland and of the stucco houses of the 
Latin countries which is to be missed in the rural archi- 
tecture of America, and it is also true that in certain sec- 
tions of our country the interiors of our farmhouses re- 
ceive the keynote of their atmosphere from marble-top 
tables and haircloth sofas. However, these instances are in 
no way representative of American homes in general. 
HIS magazine has, at all times, found ample material 
for its pages, and if each number were to be increased 
to a thousand pages in size, the Editor believes there would 
be no difficulty in obtaining for each and every one of its is- 
sues, illustrations and descriptions of American homes as 
truly homelike as those of any other country in the world. It 
may be that there is some quarrel to be had with our land- 
scape, inasmuch as we have not been forced to give it the 
intensive cultivation which more limited territory would 
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make necessary, and it must be admitted that landscape is, 
in a sense, a part of the home. However, long ago, we 
ceased to neglect the home landscape, and although our 
gardens may be younger and newer, we have, if we leave 
out of consideration such spectacular features as thousand 
year old trees, yews groaning with their ancestery, box 
hedges that may have framed the labyrinths of Queen 
Elizabeth’s time, gardens nowadays that are as delectable 
as any to be found the world over. The Editor does not 
consider a defence of American home-making necessary, 
but as many copies of the magazine go to foreign readers 
who may have seen the statement credited to Lord Claude 
John Hamilton, this word anent the subject may be per- 
mitted to afhrm the existence of the home-making spirit 
of Americans for which each number of AMERICAN Homes 
AND GARDENS may stand in confirmation. 
HE December number will contain a description of a 
delightful forest bungalow in Vermont, an ideal bache- 
lor home. This article will be followed by one on “‘Antique 
Ship Models,” in which the writer has described interesting 
models of the sort which have been placed in public build- 
ings and in private houses from very early times. ‘This, as 
well as each of the other articles in this issue, will be beauti- 
fully illustrated from half-tones from photographs specially 
taken for AMERICAN HoMEs AND GARDENS. One often 
comes across descriptions of remodeled houses, but the 
December number of the magazine will contain an article 
on an old washhouse in New York which was artistically 
transformed into a studio by a clever artist. The center 
page feature of the December number will concern itself 
with the subject of “Exterior Aspects of Chimneys.” 
N attractive concrete house will be described and ac- 
companied by floor plans and an authoritative article 
on mushrooms and mushroom culture will shed much light 
on this interesting phase of home gardening. An article 
on “Domestic Rugs” will show the reader what is being 
done by domestic manufacturers of rugs in competition with 
Oriental rug-makers. This article will be especially note- 
worthy and its illustrations will give the reader an adequate 
idea of the advance in the making of domestic rugs in the 
last few years. The usual departments ‘‘Within the House,”’ 
‘Around the Garden” and “Helps to the Housewife” will 
be continued in the December number, which will contain, 
in addition to the features mentioned, other articles of value 
and interest, including one on ‘‘Feeding for Winter Eggs,” 
by E. I. Farrington. 
BEAUTIFYING STATE PROPERTIES 
ITH the hope of making each State institution an 
example of scientific care and beauty for the surround- 
ing country, Dennis McCarthy, Fiscal Supervisor of State 
Charities, is codperating with the department of rural art 
of Cornell University in plans to beautify the grounds of 
the institutions in his department. This is a step forward 
in the right direction. With State interest in such matters 
civic betterment societies will have precedent before them 
in their more local endeavors, and the cities and towns 
throughout the country will become more fit localities for 
the American home, its adornment and_ surroundings. 
