204 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1906 



I 



Your Store Room 



How Does It Look? 



IF it's old and dingy, let us suggest a 

 suitable steel ceiling for it. 

 We can make your store room artistic 

 and inviting. Give us the exact measure- 

 ments and we'll serve you promptly. 



Catalogue sent on applicaticn, showing 

 store room designs in detail. Write for 

 a copy. 



Mention American Homes and Gardens 



The Berger Manufacturing Company 

 Canton, Ohio 



■ A G. 1Q-B 



This Steel Vertical File 



is for YOUR office 



This is a special proposition o£ 

 great value to you. You must have 

 a letter-rile in your office. Wood 

 burns, sticks, shrinks, warps ; Steel 

 lasts forever. 



Capacity, 20,000 Letters 



Standard Size, !0x 12 inches 

 This size is sufficient for any ordi- 

 nary office. When you need more, 

 add them in units. The drawers are 

 fitted with suspension slides, and 

 every bit of room is availab'e. 

 Size: 51 inches high; 14'_- inches 

 wide ; 24 inches deep 



Made of Special 

 Annealed Steel 



PRICE 



$2? 



CASH 



FINISH: Maroon Enamel, Polished 

 Brass Trimmings, Cases Gold Striped 



Delivered free anywnere east of 

 the Rockies. Supplies not included. 

 Write for our t 'atalo^ue. 



THE BERGER MFG. CO., Canton, 0. 



$5* 



» m * i 



Wall coverings must be in perfect harmony 

 with the general color scheme of an interior to 

 produce a really artistic ensemble. If you go to 

 the expense of having high-grade wall coverings, you feel 

 a sense of satisfaction if the result is artistic. When walls are covered with 



■ FAB-RI-KO-NA — 



WOVEN WALL COVERINGS 



the most charming color schemes are possible, harmonizing perfectly with wood- 

 work, furnishings, and color influence of adjoining rooms. 



We offer you a special service if you are contemplating interior decoration. Our ex- 

 perts will suggest a color scheme adapted to your particular needs, whereby you may see 

 actual samples of FAB-RI-KO-NA in actual colors, contrasted with wood finishings — thus 

 showing on a small scale a reproduction of the actual wall effect. 



II you are interested, write lor lull information about this special and valuable service. 

 II . B. WIGGIN'S SONS CO., 12 Arch Street. Blooml Ul«l. N. J. 



ARTISTIC 

 MANTELS 



Our line embraces every- 

 thing needed for trie fire- 

 place, and our Mantels 

 range in price from $2.65 

 up. €J Catalogue free 



Zhe Geo. W. Clark Co. 



91 Dearborn Street, Chicago, 111. 

 306 Main St., Jacksonville, Fla. 



Factory : Knoxville, Tenn. 



cisely and is supplemented by many excellent 

 illustrations. The mechanical side, so called, 

 of gardening is developed at considerable 

 length, and the amateur in this science will 

 find the work extremely helpful in his horti- 

 cultural endeavors. 



CEMETERY ART 



CEMETERY art probably ranks as the 

 lowest form of public art. If there is 

 anything worse, or less artistic, it is not 

 yet generally known. It is singular that this 

 should be the case, for the cemetery should 

 call forth our tenderest emotions, be to us the 

 most sacred spot on earth. It is the final 

 resting-place of our loved ones, and as such de- 

 mands our most affectionate attentions and 

 should be the object of our most heart-felt re- 

 gard. 



Doubtless this is true, and painfully true; 

 yet our cemeteries, as a whole, are barren of 

 art effort and are depressing to visit, both 

 from their actual associations and the pitiful 

 efforts we have made to beautify and adorn 

 them. One may not care to visit cemeteries 

 because of their sad associations, but that any 

 one should refrain from entering them because 

 of the artistic horrors with which they abound 

 in is a singular comment on our artistic civil- 

 ization. 



There are two classes of objects used to 

 beautify cemeteries: Flowers and plants, and 

 monuments. The former are the single re- 

 deeming feature of these homes of the dead, 

 and their beautifying qualities are apparent at 

 every point. A cemetery is apt to be well 

 planted, both by the owning corporation and 

 by the individual lot owners. And not only 

 well planted, but very beautifully planted, 

 vying with our parks in beauty of coloring and 

 in arrangement. 



It is a pity, and more than a pity, that the 

 same can not be said of the monuments. Were 

 these to be taken as a guide to our artistic 

 status it would be necessary to rank us very 

 low indeed. And these monuments are not 

 bad from lack of money spent upon them; on 

 the contrary, a horrible pride characterizes 

 many of them, and a man never heard of in the 

 life will attract attention to his dead body 

 by a colossal granite shaft, by an expensive 

 marble tomb, or by some other pretentious 

 monument which is completely out of place in 

 the narrow quarters of the cemetery, and 

 which is quite needless as a memorial of the 

 late departed. 



There is obviously room for a very great 

 improvement in these matters. There is need 

 for a radical improvement that reaches to every 

 interest concerned in the erection of these 

 horrors. If a large and imposing monument 

 is desired it should be good in itself and be a 

 real work of art. This is neither too much 

 to ask nor too much to demand as a matter of 

 right. 



A good funeral monument is one of the 

 rarest of art works. Some of our leading 

 sculptors have received commissions for work 

 of this sort and some very notable achieve- 

 ments have been wrought by their hands. But 

 the number of good monuments is so few, and 

 the number of bad ones so prodigious, that the 

 good work hardly counts in the sum total of 

 all. 



Yet in the cemetery, it anywhere, there 

 should be good art. We may live in tawdry 

 houses, but we pay our dead a poor compli- 

 ment by giving them a tawdry monument. 

 The trouble is not with the monument, but 

 with the persons erecting it. It is very ap- 

 parent, from the many examples to the con- 

 trary, that few people know what good monu- 

 ments are, and have even less idea how to ob- 

 tain them. The field for betterment in this 

 particular is absolutely without limit. 



