The Utility and Beauty of Mosaic 
Floors 
By KARL LANGENBECK 
T O-DAY we are spread over a much greater 
portion of the surface of the earth than were 
those great builders of country houses, the 
Romans, and we therefore are required in our build¬ 
ings to meet more varying conditions of climate 
which affect the comfort and convenience of those who 
occupy them. This is particularly the case in America, 
where houses must be built to meet extremes of 
weather conditions in one and the same latitude. 
This difficulty was never encountered by the Romans 
in their building, even in their most outlying prov¬ 
inces. 
Then, too, apart from the mere comfort of home 
living, our ideas have advanced in so many ways that 
we naturally are making greater claims along the line 
of luxury at home, to accord with the conveniences 
with which we are surrounded in business life and in 
travel. The Romans were an eminently practical, 
and also a luxurious people as far as the material 
conditions of their day and degree of their inventions 
allowed; in fact they pushed their ingenuity into the 
service of comfort more rapidly than in any other 
direction; as, for instance, in their extensive appli¬ 
ances for bringing pure water into the cities and into 
the individual homes, as well as their provision for 
sewage disposal. These both show that our most 
modern ideas of sanitary plumbing are not greatly 
in advance of theirs save in little points of mechani¬ 
cal perfection. The allusions found in literature to 
the engineering and sanitary work done by the 
MOSAIC FLOOR OF ROMAN VILLA 
74 
