104 AMERICAN 
An attic living-room with a motto carved in the mantel shelf 
‘Peace be within thy walls.” —Old Testament. 
LIVING-ROOM 
For a living-room the selections may be a little more 
intimate and quotations of many kinds are suitable. If the 
house is small and there is but one living-room, and the 
piano is in this room, verses pertaining to music are suitable, 
or fireside verses, if the room has an open fireplace. Under 
this heading are given only general verses, as verses for the 
music-room and for fireplaces are given under separate 
headings. 
This little verse of Lord Byron’s makes a charming 
motto for a living-room :-— 
‘All who joy would win, must share it— 
Happiness was born a twin.” 
‘Make it mine 
To feel amid the City’s jar 
That there abides a peace of Thine 
Man did not make and cannot mar.” 
—Matthew Arnold. 
“The first symptoms of a mind in health is rest of 
heart and pleasures felt at home.” 
‘Domestic happiness, thou only bliss 
Of Paradise that hast survived the fall!” 
Cowper. 
“Look up and not down, 
Look forward and not back, 
Look out and not in, and 
Lend a hand.” 
HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1911 
‘Poor and content is rich and rich enough.”’ 
—Shakespeare. 
DINING-ROOM 
The dining-room lends itself particularly well to motto 
treatment. One of the first houses I remember seeing with 
motto treatment was a summer home in North Wales, Great 
Britain. The walls of the dining-room were painted a 
pretty golden yellow up to an old-fashioned plate rail. The 
space above this and the ceiling were tinted white. The 
chairs were carved oak, quaint and beautiful in their de- 
sign. The curtains were of yellow linen, faced with white 
against the glass. Just below the pretty white plate rail 
was painted in brown in old English lettering the following: 
“‘Conversation is but carving, 
Give no more to every guest 
Than he’s able to digest. 
Give him always of the prime 
And but little at a time. 
Give to all but just enough, 
Let them neither starve nor stuff, 
And that each may have his due, 
Let your neighbor carve for you.” 
At first the impression received was of a design running 
below the plate rail, and it took careful reading to decipher 
the quotation. This, I think, is as it should be, for if the let- 
tering is too plain and too conspicuous the effect is rather 
bold, and suggests an advertisement; but with pretty lettering 
the motto forms a pleasing and at first, an indescribable 
effect. 
The following quotation from Owen Meredith, though 
