February, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



51 



liant color. The 

 dining-room is op- 

 posite, and is one 

 of the most sump- 

 tuous apartments in 

 the house. The 

 walls are paneled 

 in dark oak to the 

 broad tapestry 

 frieze, a fine old 

 piece of unusual 

 beauty. The ceil- 

 ing is cream color 

 with decorated 

 beams forming 

 small square pan- 

 els. The woodwork 

 of the doors is en- 

 riched with carv- 

 ing, and there are 

 elaborately carved 

 tympanums in the 

 a r c h ed doorways 

 on the side. The 

 fireplace is en- 

 cased within a huge slab of mottled-green marble, to which 

 a shelf of the same rich material is applied. The sideboard, 

 on the opposite side of the room, is built in, and is designed 

 in harmony with the decorative woodwork of the doors and 

 mantel. The hardwood floor is covered with a green rug, 

 and the curtains are of green velvet with gold braid bands. 

 The oak furniture is very elaborately carved. The room is 

 lighted by gilt sidelights applied to the panels of the walls. 



The iVlassing of Foliage Plants and Trees is Admirable 



One end of the 

 house, the nearest 

 end as it is ap- 

 proached by the en- 

 trance driveway, is 

 wholly given up to 

 the service. The 

 planting here, as 

 has been stated, 

 consists of ever- 

 greens, arranged in 

 picturesque masses. 

 At the farther end 

 is a small formal 

 garden, the chief 

 ornament of which 

 is a marble foun- 

 tain, placed exactly 

 in the center, and 

 formed of a charm- 

 ing group of chil- 

 dren playing in a 

 small marble basin. 

 Concentric beds of 

 circular segments 



are planted around the fountain, until the corners are filled 

 out in squares. The planting is chiefly annuals, arranged in 

 brilliant masses of color. The whole is enclosed within a 

 hedge. At the farther extremity beyond the fountain the land 

 dips suddenly, but the ravine is partly screened by the garden 

 hedge. Beyond are hills, with trees and woods, a beautiful 

 outlook over the many beautiful spots within and without the 

 estate grounds. 



Public Cleanliness 



jUBLIC cleanliness is the most practical form 

 of civic embellishment. It may not be too 

 much to say that it is the most important 

 form; for public health is always to be 

 counted as of greater value than public en- 

 joyment, and it is surely better and wiser to 

 live in a thoroughly clean city, one in which 

 public sanitation has been brought to a high degree of devel- 

 opment, than in one that may be outwardly beautiful but in- 

 wardly unsound and unhealthy. 



Health and beauty do not seem always to have gone to- 

 gether, although there is nothing opposed to joint develop- 

 ment in either. Most moderns suppose, and with every rea- 

 son, that the medieval cities were places of strange and won- 

 derful beauty. The little old houses which have survived 

 from the Middle Ages in various places on the Continent of 

 Europe are very convincing and very fascinating testimony 

 to this effect. But it is also very clear that they are now 

 atrocious houses to live in, and the results of investigations 

 into the sanitary conditions of the Middle Ages show that 

 this has always been their state. In other words, the beautiful 

 and fascinating cities of the past were enormously unhealthy 

 and quite unsafe to live in. 



Modern investigation has opened up an entirely new sub- 

 ject in the science of sanitation. So rapid have been the ad- 

 vances of sanitary science that one almost wonders how life 

 was supported while its tenets were unknown. But sanita- 

 tion occasions no discomforts when properly applied to the 



conditions of modern life, and in this sense It becomes one 

 of the most important handmaidens of civic betterment. 

 This, however, Is a matter for the specialist. The average 

 citizen Is not a specialist in sanitation. His personal Influence 

 Is limited to doing what he can, or In refraining from settling 

 in a place that is not properly equipped with sanitary appli- 

 ances. The latter move Is often highly effective; for It is 

 the highest ambition of every community to attract residents 

 to It. The town that has good sanitation will Invariably 

 attract more people, and be itself more prosperous, than the 

 town In which these conditions are bad. 



But there Is work for the private citizen to do under this 

 head, and work he should not avoid. He can at least keep his 

 house and surroundings clean and do his share toward main- 

 taining his street in a clean condition. This duty is just 

 as imperative when the municipality undertakes this work as 

 when It does not. The most effective system of waste col- 

 lection will fall down at times, and even if daily collections 

 be made the daily accumulations will often be unsightly 

 before the collecting wagon comes around again. 



No dirt or waste of any sort should be permitted to remain 

 In the streets after it has been seen. It may not be your 

 business nor mine to remove It, but if It happens to be close 

 to our homes It is simply public duty that should not be 

 evaded. A good deal of volunteer work needs to be done in 

 this direction, and the doing of It entails no disgrace and 

 works no hardship. We can not safely spare any effort to be 

 apparently clean. 



