December, 1912 
up with the warm glint of the copper and brass jars and 
bowls, which were everywhere, many of them filled with 
flowers or bright leaves in their season; and the candle- 
sticks, some standing on available shelves and tables and 
some, Russian sconces, fixed to the walls. And at night, 
when the red firelight vied with paler candle frames, the 
dark corners held their warm shadows stoutly and gave 
back dark spots for bright, in a warm, ever-changing play 
of light and shade. 
The larger room upstairs was the studio or workroom 
proper, since it was the best lighted, and the artist practiced 
her craft at the long table which stretched in front of the 
three windows. Here the spaces beside the narrowed chim- 
ney were filled on the one side with shelves and on the other 
with a cupboard, so that there was ample space for tools 
and materials and safe housing for finished work. 
All the woodwork and repairing was done in three days 
by a carpenter, and with a woman to give the place a 
thorough cleaning, paints, oils and stains, the total expense 
of putting the house in condition was about sixteen dollars. 
The water connection was not taken up. Had it been, 
this would have materially increased the cost. Of course, 
the artist personally oversaw the work, saving the carpenter 
much time by determining heights of shelves and other 
measurements, and designing herself the shape of supports 
and the curved edged cover of the window seat. 
The place did not need much furniture. There was th 
couch and a few chairs and a small table below, with an old 
mahogany “‘secretary,’’ which seemed just to fit the place. 
And upstairs, the large work table, some chairs and the little 
a A MDDS SLE is EE Sas I BUELL NEALE DEED 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The furnishings that transformed the old wash-house were simple but well chosen 
425 
desk. All were quaint old pieces picked up in the course of 
rambles in the forgotten corners of the town. The little 
artist had long been hiding them in friendly store-rooms and 
cellars, for none of them suited her dainty living apartment. 
But she had known this place existed somewhere, just the 
place to dream beautiful dreams and work them into beau- 
tiful things for daily use, and then dream beautiful dreams 
again. 
Almost anyone may have a “house of dreams” like this, 
for in the older parts of any city many such places lie all un- 
suspected, waiting only the seeing eye, and the magic touch 
that will redeem them from their grime, and show them 
forth, the places of charm and individuality that they are. 
And what places they are for work, these queer nooks and 
corners. ‘The creative artist is always peculiarly affected by 
his surroundings, and to the worker who must live at least 
part of the year in the city, the finding of congenial quarters 
is not an easy task. In some parts of New York the sculp- 
tors have seized upon the old private stables, now largely 
superseded by the public garage, and utilized their high spac- 
1ousness. 
Let the craftsmen and workers with pen or brush investi- 
gate the backyards and inner courts and many a charming lit- 
tle old world building they will find, sometimes in use, more 
often not, because as a rule, they are not fitted for use as 
dwellings even under the easy standards of the slum. 
Quite the best part of this little house was the garden, as 
an Irishman might say: ‘““Was the garden there, perhaps you 
ask? No, again the artist’s seeing eye pre-visaged the whole 
(Continued on page 439) 
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