34Q 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1906 



FOR THE HOME 

 FOR THE CHURCH 

 FOR THE STORE 



IN ALL CLASSIC AND 

 cTM O D E R N STYLES 



T I 'HE beauty of the Berger designs and the perfect-nfting Berg?r joints 



■*■ make these the ceilings par excellence for rooms in which appearance 



is an important consideration. Compare the price with the cost or plaster ! 



WRITE FOR CATALOGUE 



So1t°o r K THE BERGER MFG. CO., CANTON, 0. PHILADA 



ST. LOUIS 



MAKERS OF SHEET-STEEL AND IRON, ARCHITECTURAL SHEET-METAL WORK. STEEL WINDOW- 

 FRAMES AND SASH, FIREPROOFING, METAL OFFICE FURNITURE, CONCRETE REINFORCING, C&.C. 



Where Varnish 



Quality Tells 



Perfect floor finishing' may be accomplished 

 more easily than many imagine if a little inore 

 care is used in selecting the finish. 

 A finish that not only looks well at the start but re- 

 tains its beauty anil lustre under continued use, is 

 not an odinary varnish. It is a product of study and 

 experience — of experts in their line. 



I.X.L Floor Finish 



sn of seventy-nine years' careful study and 

 arnish making and represents the very 

 hat can be produced. It is beautiful when 

 its beauty until old. 

 : inish has no equal for 

 icy, durability. Dries 

 ml is not readily marred. 

 ■ more than ordinary pro- 

 that dealer furnishes it. 

 il interior wood work 

 ; best results are desired, 

 insist ou 



PRESERVATIVE COATINGS 



Send for "Rules for the Pre- 

 servation of Hardwood 

 Floors," free if you men- 

 m dealer's name. 



Edward Smith & Company 

 45 Broadway 

 New York 



79 YEARS' EXPERIENCE 

 IN EVERY CAN" 



lis* 



ARTISTIC 

 MANTELS 



Our line embraces every- 

 thing needed for the fire- 

 place, and our Mantels 

 range in price from $2.65 

 up. €]] Catalogue free 



Ike Geo. W. Clark Co. 



91 Dearborn Street, Chicago, 111. 

 306 Main St., Jacksonville. Fla. 



Factory : Knoxville, Tenn. 



summed up in a very few words. They must, 

 in the first place, meet ordinary sanitary re- 

 quirements. They must be well built, and 

 cheaply built; by cheapness is meant built 

 without undue cost; for cheapness is becoming 

 such a comparative quality that its original 

 meaning is rapidly going out of date. And 

 then, finally, and perhaps as important as any, 

 the dwelling must be self supporting if a 

 municipal enterprise, or yield a fair and honest 

 percentage if erected by private capital. All 

 these requirements have been successfully real- 

 ized time and time again in England and 

 America, and in this country it has been for- 

 tunately demonstrated that private capital is 

 sufficiently compensated in such ventures. 



Mr. Cornes's book is an ample survey of 

 recent English achievements in this matter. 

 He describes and illustrates many working- 

 men's dwellings and buildings in all parts of 

 England, illustrating his examples with photo- 

 graphs, and supplementing his descriptions with 

 statements of expenditures. He treats of 

 groups of houses, of tenement houses, of 

 isolated dwellings and cottages, and of houses 

 for the city and country. He covers every 

 aspect of his subject with ample fulness, and 

 concludes his book with an extended descrip- 

 tion of the Cheap Cottages Exhibition held at 

 Letchworth last summer. As a study in mu- 

 nicipal betterment his book has unusual value, 

 and as a record of what has been accomplished 

 in England in building betterment it has re- 

 markable significance. While the living qual- 

 ities, that is to say, the sanitary significance 

 and the convenience of these buildings has 

 been their first consideration, it is a most in- 

 teresting fact that, architecturally, very many 

 of them are of extraordinary interest in the 

 matter of design. 



How to Study a Picture. By Charles H. 

 Caffin. New York. The Century Co. 

 Price $2.00 net. 



The preparation of guides for picture lovers 

 is a quite new undertaking in the literary pro- 

 fession. It is an industry that has arisen none 

 too soon, for books of this sort have long been 

 needed. The notion that the understanding, 

 appreciation, comprehension and love for pic- 

 tures is innate in the human mind is no longer 

 recognized as sound. As a matter of fact it 

 never had any basis in reason, and was only 

 upheld while the cultivated few held supreme 

 control in the picture world. But in these 

 prolific days of artistic reproductions, of glib 

 art lecturers, of art magazines and other means 

 for popularizing art, some standards of judg- 

 ment are essential and a safe authoritative 

 guide to pictures and their art has a definite 

 purpose and meets a definite need. 



In plain words, it is absolutely essential to 

 know what pictures to admire and why they 

 should be admired. One needs to be told 

 what is good in medicine or best in foods. 

 Hence the production of books like Mr. Caf- 

 fin's, which is a more than usually helpful 

 one. It is sanely written, and while it does 

 not profess to be a history of art as a whole, 

 it so well covers the field of painting that it 

 may admirably serve as a guide to the whole 

 subject. 



Mr. Caffin has selected fifty-six painters, 

 who are the pivotal ones by reason of what 

 these artists have accomplished or of their in- 

 fluence upon others. He has not attempted to 

 pick out a list of the most famous names in art, 

 but to unfold the gradual progress of painting, 

 to show how various motives have from time 

 to time influenced artists, and how the scene of 

 vital progress has sifted from country to coun- 

 try. He wisely points out that while the stud- 

 ent is buried in the history of one school it is 

 difficult for him to bear in mind what is being 

 done by contemporary artists in other schools. 

 He has, accordingly, as often as possible, 



