0he OIlyrtstmaB lioust (Harden 
l 9 • t * 2. 
f> SNJ 
Reconsider! 
Is your new home to he 
permanently FIRE-SAFE ? 
thought to the paramount ques¬ 
tion of FIREPROOFING. 
Reconsider your specifications 
—if you have overlooked the 
most modern and most efficient of all building materials— 
NATCO-HOLLOW-TILE 
NATCO has extended the skyscraper standard of fire safety right down the 
building line, even to the shore bungalow. Same material, same principle, 
same methods, made and developed by this Company. 
To build your new home of NATCO throughout—walls, partitions, floors and roof — is to build it lOOfo 
fire safe. You get fire immunity, permanence, nominal maintenance and a gilt-edged form of investment 
Cost is relatively little more than for partial forms of NATCO con¬ 
struction or for those older forms now rapidly becoming obsolete. 
The NATCO house is perpetually modern. 
NATCO Hollow Tile is adaptable to any style of architecture and 
to either method of exterior finish — stucco or brick. 
Read this form of construction before you go ahead with your building 
specifications. Drop a line for our 64-page handbook, “ Fireproof 
Houses.’’ Contains 80 photographs of residences and other moderate 
sized buildings of NATCO construction at costs between $4,000 and 
$100,000, also complete drawings and floor plans. An invaluable 
guide to the prospective builder. Mailed anywhere for 20 cents 
in postage. Write for it today. 
NATIONAL FIRE PROOFING • COMPANY 
Dept. Y, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 
Organized 1889 Offices in All Principal Cities 
Warm & MacNeille, Architects, New York 
PARKER, PRESTON & CO.’S 
Art in Shingle Stains 
(Waterproof and Odorless) 
Hundreds of thousands of gallons used all over the United 
States testify to the high artistic character and remarkable 
durability of ART IN SIIINGLE STAINS, the highest class 
Shingle Stains made. 
Absolutely free from creosote and unpleasant odor. Made 
from Pure Linseed Oil and our own Waterproof Liquid 
; Combination. Shed water like a duck’s back, thereby keep¬ 
ing out dampness and increasing life of shingles fourfold. 
Write for cabinet of Artistic Colors, free. Paint dealers 
will fill orders. 
Adamant Cement Floor Coating, Adamant Cement, Brick 
and Plaster Coating, Waterproof Flat Brick 
Stains, Weatherproof Coating. 
PARKER, PRESTON & CO., Inc. 
Manufacturers Paint Specialties. Norwich, Conn. 
Branch, 501 Fifth Ave., New York. 
In writing to advertisers ptc'ase mention House and Garden, 
(390) 
floor coverings, for in working out a 
handicraft scheme at least, there is more 
possibility of using one’s original ideas 
in their decoration, without having to de¬ 
pend on what may be found in a shop. 
Here too the stencil plays an important 
part, and by its use decorative effects can 
be produced that will differ from the gen¬ 
eral run of decorations in other people’s 
houses, the amount of difference depend¬ 
ing on the originality and skill of the de¬ 
signer. 
If one does not care to have the bother 
of stenciling, the materials, colors and 
stencils may be selected, the scheme of 
decoration planned to suit one’s own taste, 
and the whole thing turned over to a 
handicrafter who will carry out the work 
according to directions. 
Materials in coarse weaves are most 
suitable for hangings and curtains whether 
they are to be stenciled or not. Fabrics 
like monk’s cloth which comes in good 
tones of green, old blue, tan and brown, 
and Russian crash are excellent for por¬ 
tieres and couch covers, and scrim in its 
various qualities for curtains. Russian 
crash is of course an old story, and has 
been popular ever since the first amateur 
stenciler took to the brush, but after all 
there is nothing more satisfactory, as it 
washes like the proverbial rag, and when 
stenciled in fast colors even the decorated 
pieces come back from the tub as good as 
new. A good quality in a hand woven 
Russian crash fourteen inches wide which 
may be had for twenty cents a yard, has 
rather a hard finish that makes it smoother 
than the ordinary hand woven stuff and 
therefore more suitable for stenciling. 
Monk’s cloth, the loose weave fabric so 
suggestive of handwork, is particularly 
satisfactory for portieres as it comes in a 
fiftv inch width and is onlv sixtv cents 
a yard, with a narrower width at forty- 
five cents : the colors are good, and it mav 
be decorated with either stenciling or 
coarse embroidery. Then of course for 
the nersons who carry the handicraft idea 
to the extreme limit there are the hand- 
woven old-fashioned coverlets made in 
certain rural districts that are the exact 
patterns of the bedcoverings of a hundred 
vears ago. These are to be had in com¬ 
binations of blue and white and several 
shades of brown, and are utilized both for 
couch covers and portieres. 
Scrim is without doubt the most satis¬ 
factory material for curtains that are to 
be stenciled, and it may be had in white, 
ivorv or ecru and in various degrees of 
Quality, a medium coarse piece costing 
thirty cents a yard, while for casement 
curtains there is a narrow kind, hem¬ 
stitched, which is also thirtv cents. Of 
thinner quality than scrim but of practical¬ 
ly the same appearance is an art linen that 
is thirty-three inches wide and costs thirty- 
five cents a yard. It is so fine as to be 
almost like gauze, and vet it too has a 
hard finish, so that it will take stenciling 
as well as a heavier material. 
The selection of suitable stencils should 
not be difficult, as there is an enormous 
