124 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
April, 1909 
Monthly Comment 
A Promise for 
HE comparatively inexpensive and small 
house dominates the April number of 
AMERICAN HoMES AND GARDENS. _ Its 
supreme utility looks out in every page in 
the engravings, and the text offers many 
helpful suggestions for the owners and oc- 
cupants of homes of moderate cost. Both 
editor and publisher believe that in this issue the true key- 
note of this magazine has been struck, and henceforth it is 
proposed that dwellings of this kind shall predominate in the 
illustrations, and that the text shall be expressly prepared to 
offer helpful advice and suggestion particularly adapted to 
the needs of the wide public for whom such houses are built. 
The plans laid down for the carrying out of this idea are of 
the most comprehensive kind, and the next few months will 
present many notable changes and betterments in the make-up 
of the magazine, changes which will render it more indis- 
pensable than ever to the home builder and the home creator. 
G a) 
THE house of moderate cost is the most numerously 
erected dwelling in America. It is the home of the people, 
and its beauty and arrangement, its decoration and utility are 
alike an expression of a national condition and a national 
taste. It is a type of dwelling that abounds everywhere, and 
the home-makers who live in it constitute by far the larger 
part of our population. It would seem as though a monthly 
magazine especially conducted in the interest of this great 
body of people must be of especial helpfulness and have a 
national character of the widest possible scope. 
THE magazine that helps its subscribers performs a public 
work of the utmost utility. This work can be accomplished 
in two ways—first, by leading and stimulating public opinion, 
and, secondly, by offering practical suggestions in response 
to personal appeals for aid. These are the true functions 
of a magazine of this character, and according to this plan 
the future of AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS will be de- 
veloped, precisely as these ends have been its chief goal in 
the past. But the future holds promises of larger and 
broader work, for the magazine stands at the threshold of 
a new era of usefulness for the reader, and work on these 
lines—the leading lines of the magazine—will be greatly 
expanded and developed. 
THE great need of the day in houses is the convenient 
house. It is the house expressly adapted to the needs of the 
people who live in it. It is the well built, economically 
planned and designed house that everyone wants to have. 
It is the house which abounds with aids to housekeeping, 
and which, in the arrangement of the rooms and the shape 
and form of the walls, offers structural conveniences and ad- 
vantages to the occupant. It is the well-equipped house, the 
house that contains everything and ministers to everything, 
and does this in a helpful, economic way. This is the house 
of the future, even more than it has been:the house of the 
past, and the newest and best examples of this type of 
dwelling may be confidently looked for in each succeeding 
issue of AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS. 
IT 1s quite as much the province of the house to be orna- 
mental as to be convenient. [he two terms are not at 
variance, but are simply complements of each other. Nor 
is the ornamental house necessarily an expensive one, adorned 
with all sorts of costly devices, ministering to costly needs, 
the 
Future 
gorgeously furnished, and expensive to maintain. The orna- 
mental house is frequently as modest as you please, and its 
gracious exterior and pleasing form is but an outward ex- 
pression of the gentle, kindly life that goes on within it. The 
ornamental house—once the real meaning of the word is 
explained and understood—has as true a place in the eco- 
nomics of house-building as the convenient dwelling that 
offers a stern utility without a single redeeming grace of line 
or structure. In a very true sense the ornamental house is 
a useful house, and many interesting examples of this type 
are awaiting their turn for publication in our pages. 
THE modern house is a type of its own. It is the dwell- 
ing that is at once progressive as well as up to date. If in 
exterior design it does not necessarily illustrate the most 
advanced ideas, it is at least equipped with the most recent 
of household helps, and is especially designed in every way 
to meet the somewhat complicated conditions of modern life. 
The study of houses of this kind reveals many a practical 
idea and offers a host of useful suggestions, many of which 
are available for every householder. Watch the pages of 
the magazine for houses of this character, and see how much 
you may learn from them. 
THE creating of a home—which is a much broader theme 
than housekeeping alone—is not a natural gift, but a matter 
of development and study. Some develop the home more 
readily than others, but one must know both the hew and 
the why in order to avail oneself of the vast store of modern 
knowledge and experience in home making. The garner- 
ing of this rich store of knowledge has been placed in compe- 
tent hands, and the best results of the most comprehensive 
survey will be presented in a new and attractive way that 
will prove of the utmost value to every home maker. 
Tue house is the mere shell in which human life is lived. 
It represents the material side of existence, and is of no value 
unless it is occupied and used. Human life in relation to the 
house expresses the personal aspect of home making. The 
personal life within, around and about the house will make or 
mar it as a dwelling, and render the most beautiful architec- 
ture and the most skilful planning of little avail. A special 
series of articles will, from time to time, offer advice and 
suggestion from the best authorities on this most important 
aspect of the house and home. 
THE garden is the natural accessory of the house, the 
home beautifier, the crown and adornment of the dwelling. 
It is as necessary to a house as a roof, and more beautiful 
than the most sumptuous architecture. A series of articles 
will treat of the garden in its most practical aspects, will 
tell what to plant in it, what will grow under certain condi- 
tions and what will not, how the plants, trees and flowers 
should be cultivated, and what to do at all seasons of the 
year with the most available plants. 
A PAtTcH of vegetables is a source of great gratification 
to the small country place. Nearly everyone wants to have 
such a garden, and very many try to develop these humble 
sources of food supply. But vegetable culture needs to be 
known and understood, and the articles in hand and in 
preparation dealing with this subject have an unusual prac- 
ticability that the amateur gardener will find immensely 
helpful. 
