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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



March, 1908 



The Formal Garden Is a Spacious Enclosed Space Below the Drawing-room Porch 



is a large one, comprising two hundred and thirty acres. It are on the hillside at some distance below the house, and in 

 consists of charming rolling country, much of which is left in no way connected with it. Everywhere there is a quiet and 

 its natural state of grass and woods. The farm buildings serenity that seems wholly natural to this elevated situation. 



The Disposal of Bric-a-brac 



By Nellie Smithers 



EFORE any question concerning the dis- 

 posal of bric-a-brac can be considered, it is 

 just as well to take stock of what one has. 

 The less the better, in many cases; indeed 

 I may go further and say in most cases. 

 For of course there is bric-a-brac and brac- 

 a-brac. In reality there are only two kinds: 

 good and bad. This actually sums up the whole situation, 

 and perhaps reduces the problem of disposition to reasonable 

 limits. For surely one has only room in one's house for the 

 good bric-a-brac, and the bad is forthwith to be thrown out 

 and cast away. 



I tried this once. I gathered together all the bric-a-brac 

 I had accumulated during a gift period of several years. I 

 placed them in a row and looked them over. They did not 

 look so interesting then as when scattered about my various 

 rooms. Piece by piece each one was considered and its 

 merits carefully weighed. And the more they were weighed 

 the less I liked them. But they indisposably and indisput- 

 ably belonged to me. I fetched a great sigh and put them 

 all back where I had had them. There was really no help 

 for it. I simply could not offend the friends who had given 

 me these tokens of their regard. 



The trouble with much modern bric-a-brac is that it has 



no real merit, no artistic merit, that is. Another funda- 

 mental misfortune is that few people can appreciate the art 

 value of such things. Showy pieces, somehow, are considered 

 more available for presentation than real objects of art that, 

 while thoroughly artistic, are actually quite modest in ap- 

 pearance. And when one has these things given one, they 

 become as much part of oneself as unsaleable real estate. 



Bric-a-brac of a good kind has a real value in the house; 

 it will enliven and adorn many a dull corner, and give char- 

 acter and interest to rooms that otherwise may be quite 

 mediocre. But the ornaments must be good, the pictures of 

 the best, to yield such desirable results. And to get such 

 results one must, in nine cases out of ten, select one's own 

 bric-a-brac, and that one rarely does. Such articles are most 

 apt to be expression of some friend's good will and regard, 

 and such tokens have a peculiar holiness that forbids their 

 destruction. 



Seriously I have no solution to offer other than to suggest 

 the utmost care in the making of gifts of this kind. There 

 are hosts of beautiful objects to be had which, being good in 

 themselves, are always available as household ornaments. 

 These are the things to buy and the things to give. Novelty, 

 eccentricity, price, display — all are elements to be discarded 

 in the purchase of ornamental objects. 



