XIV AMERICAN 
HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1909 
THE GREENHOUSE ORNAMENTAL 
You will certainly admit that this one is attractive, and a long call between it and the 
uninteresting looking hot house of a few years back. f ; ; ; 
But there is a danger that in making greenhouses ornamental, their practical growing points 
will be sacrificed. 
Our experience, covering some twenty-five years or more, exclusively 
devoted to greenhouse designing and building is a guarantee that your house will be every 
way practical, yet still have the pleasing effect so indispensable for the private grounds. Send 
for our illustrated matter. 
HITCHINGS & COMPANY 
1170 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY 
Which Do You Do In Your House— 
PACK DIRT IN? OR LIFT IT OUT? 
When you use broom or carpet-sweeper, you 
scatter a large part of the dirt over a wider area, to be 
rehandled again and again; but that is not all of the evil. 
Another large part of the dirt you work deep down 
into the carpet, there to decompose and putrify, to 
become the breeding place of germs and insects and 
to fill the house with musty and sour odors. 
With such primitive implements, you simply can’t 
help it; for that is their constant tendency, the abso- 
lutely necessary result of the downward pressure 
exerted by their every stroke. 
Every time you use broom or carpet-sweeper, your 
every effort drives dirt down into the carpet deeper 
and deeper, and steadily adds new layers, until the 
fabric is packed. 
And that is why you have to renovate. 
It is true that the Vacuum System of cleaning is 
the only absolutely dustless system; but a large par. 
of its remarkable efficiency is due to the fact that its 
constant tendency is exactly opposite to that of 
broom and carpet-sweeper. 
Whereas broom and carpet-sweeper pack in the 
dirt even more solidly, the Idea] Vacuum Cleaner lifts 
out, by its suction force, more and more dirt from 
lower and lower depths. This it does constantly and 
always. 
In other words, Ideal Vacuum Cleaning removes 
all the dirt that has been ground into the fabric as well as 
that which lies loosely on the surface, undoing with 
every application the evil of broom and carpet-sweeper. 
And that is why the Ideal Vacuum Cleaner 
renovates every time it cleans. 
The Ideal Vacuum Cleaner 
OPERATED BY 
) HAND 
(FULLY PROTECTED BY PATENTS) 
“IT EATS UP THE DIRT” 
The IDEAL VACUUM CLEANER is the great Vacuum Cleaning principle brought to its ideal state of 
economy and efficiency and made practical and possible for all. Weighing only 20 pounds, it is easily 
carried about. 
Operated either by hand or little motor connected with any electric light fixture, it requires 
neither skill nor strength. Compared with sweeping it is no work at all. 
There in your home the IDEAL VACUUM CLEANER stands working for you, raising absolutely no dust, 
scarcely making a sound. And yet, under the magic of its work, carpets, rugs, curtains, upholstery, etc., are 
made clean, wholesome and sweet through and through. Mysterious odors disappear, the breeding places of 
pests are removed, the destruction of 
fabrics is arrested, and the causes of 
disease are banished. 
So tremendous is the saving effected 
by the IDEAL VACUUM 
CLEANER—in money, time, labor, 
health and strength—that it quickly 
pays for itself many times over. It is 
absurd to think that you cannot afford 
its small price. How can you afford 
to be without it? Try it and you 
will be ashamed of the conditions 
you have been living in. 
Every machine is guaranteed. 
Send today for our Free Illustrated Booklet. It 
tells a remarkable story that will mean a New 
era in your home. 
The American Vacuum 
Cleaning Company 
225 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
Le 
¥ PRICES55e236 
ou 
0. 
PROBLEMS IN HOME FURNISHING 
(Continued from page xt) 
twenty to twenty-five dollars, a hem-stitched 
linen spread is recommended. In some rooms 
the white spread is too colorless, and figured 
cretonne, linen-taffeta, or linen is preferable to 
the plain color. Some of these materials may 
be had in fifty-inch widths, and fewer seams 
will then be necessary. It is better to place 
one width in the center of the spread, and add 
enough each side (matching the pattern, of 
course) to give the correct width. If a val- 
ance is to be attached to the bedstead, the 
spread need not hang as far over the sides as 
if there were no valance. The spread may 
have a cotton fringe of pointed braid, but the 
valance requires only a hem. 
If the spread is made long enough it may be 
carried over the pillow, laid flat, and tucked 
down at the back. A piece of the cretonne of 
the same width as the spread, and put together 
in the same way, may be laid over the pillow as 
a separate cover. ‘This gives better lines to the 
bed drapery than the spread and pillow cover 
combined. 
For a very simple bed spread the dress 
dimities in white or in colors may be used. As 
these are not opaque, a lining of sateen or 
muslin will need to be laid under the material. 
If it is thought best to do without a valance, 
the dimity may be gathered around the edges 
of the top piece, making it deep enough to 
reach to the floor. 
HALL DOORS AND SIDE LIGHTS 
How to screen the hall from outside obser- 
vation and yet make a good interior effect, is 
a problem that comes up nearly every month 
from one or more correspondents. “The con- 
ditions vary in different homes. ‘“The plate 
glass that is set in my front hall door,” writes 
a suburban friend, H. G., “is so long that I 
despair of every being able to clothe it properly. 
This is the only lighting given to the hall, and 
I cannot keep the glass entirely covered ; but it 
is too high to use a curtain shirred on a rod. 
At night, I want the protection of an opaque 
curtain. What would you suggest?” 
In this particular instance an ecru net, 
shirred top and bottom on a small brass rod, 
will allow enough light to enter the hall, yet 
cover up the glaring expanse of glass during 
the daytime. Over this curtain a buff colored 
Holland shade may be put up and, at night, 
drawn down as a screen. ‘This meets the 
utilitarian need as well as it can be done under 
the circumstances. When only a small door 
window is to be screened, a double set of vesti- 
bule rods may be fastened to the door on which 
a net and a silk curtain may be fastened. The 
silk should be in tone with the woodwork and 
the walls when this plan is followed. 
Side lights require the same general treat- 
ment as the glass that is set in the door. Ifa 
single material is desired a plain colored silk 
will best serve the purpose, or a silk in which 
both sides are alike. Some of the Japanese 
silks in conventional patterns are double-faced. 
The new sun-fast gauzes are economical for 
the glass in hall doors and side windows, as 
the exposure to the light quickly fades an ordi- 
nary silk. 
NAME FOR A SUMMER COTTAGE 
F. T. I. writes: “This may not be in line 
with your regular queries, but I would be glad 
to have some names suggested for my new 
cottage in the mountains. ‘The family has 
thought of everything, but nothing seems quite 
to suit the place. Will you help us in this 
matter?” 
Only a limited list can be given to this cor- 
respondent, as so little clue is given in the 
letter to the situation of the cottage. Perhaps 
something in the following names may be 
