42 A MER TECAIN 
for carved wood which now depress 
people with taste. Observing how 
eagerly people buy old carved 
wooden picture frames it is not hard 
to see the coming of a time when 
for the worthy and exactly appro- 
priate surrounding of a picture am 
other work of art in wood will be re- 
quired and suitably paid for. Muir- 
rors also will not have conventional, 
meaningless frames, but beautiful 
settings in sympathy with the interior 
where they stand. 
There is a style of modern carv- 
ing, chiefly produced by Italian and 
German workmen, which does per- 
haps more than any one thing to 
prevent the development of wood 
carving as an art. It is a showy, 
meaningless style, following prece- 
dents scrabbled together from past epochs and applied to 
purposes entirely different from those for which the early 
A straining after very high relief, 
a senseless elaboration, a woful neglect of composition and 
originals were carved. 
relative scale make these carvings detestable 
to people of taste. Better no carving at all 
than the grotesque travesties of art one sees 
in Rome, Florence and Venice, in Vienna, 
Munich and Berlin, laid out to entrap the 
ignorant but not impecunious tourist! This 
country, with its wealth of trees and extraor- 
dinary variety of woods proper for cary- 
ing, should be the home of carvers. In New 
York the Museum of Natural History has 
made a specialty of woods and only recently 
has opened a gallery full of the woods found 
in the Philippines. ‘The public schools are 
giving attention to wood carving and cabinet 
work, seeking to attract the attention of 
young people who feel a bent toward the arts 
and crafts. The Pratt Institute in Brooklyn 
and the Cooper Art School in Manhattan do 
something in this line and are ready to ex- 
tend their classes as the demand grows. But i* must be said 
EE@ MGES 
Pilaster Carved by Mrs. Varick for the 
Living-Room of Her Home 
AND GARDENS 
January, 1906 
ill equipped for the training of 
cabinet makers and carvers. 
HOvusEHOLD cares, while unques- 
tionably often seriously vexatious, 
should never be matters of serious 
concern. If the “don’t worry clubs” 
have place for work anywhere it is 
surely within the household, and 
especially among the women who, 
tired to death with too many cares, 
do not know how to conduct their 
household operations in a careful or 
economical manner. The fact is, the 
work of the household needs to be 
systematized and arranged exactly as 
every other useful kind of work does. 
Nothing is ever done in a haphazard 
way that gives satisfaction to any 
one. On the other hand, rigid rules 
must be kept out of vision or they will fail to create the ends 
their establishment seeks. 
found an immense aid in dispensing with worrisome cares. 
Its quality is essentially that of peace and quiet. And 
System in the household will be 
Capitals for Pilasters Carved by Mrs. Varick 
that, considering the field hereabouts and the great need of 
diversifying industries and affording opportunities to young 
people to earn their livelihood, New York city is singularly time. 
A Seat Carved by Karl von Rydingsvard 
there is nothing required in the household more than this. 
THE good looking house captures the enthusiast every 
It wins admiration; it absorbs attention; it excites 
interest. All of these matters 
may not be equally helpful 
or desirable in a house, but 
they count in the long run 
in establishing excellent con- 
ditions, which, after all, is 
what most house owners 
desire. Good looksin houses 
are, of course, but a matter 
of fact expression of ele- 
mentary beauty. It may be 
more or less pronounced; it 
may be developed in various 
ways; it may seem better in 
one house than in another; 
but every little counts, and 
sometimes quite a little in 
the way of beauty will go 
a long way in a house. It 
is something one can not 
have too much of. It may 
be structural, or it may be 
decorative, or both. 
