THE REMODELED | 'HE words "old homestead " and 
J/QUSE manse" have long been 
magic talismans to the sentimentally 
inclined. They have seduced many a man from the comparative 
comfort of a seat by his apartment house steam radiator and led 
him to absolute misery in the "Revolutionary mansion ideal for 
remodeling'."’ iMany a man has found the rapid-fire artillery of 
the steampipe preferable to the insidious miasma of acrid smoke 
that bleared his eyes and choked his nostrils as he tried with vain 
shivers to produce some feeble flame in the cavernous mouth of 
his remodeled house fireplace. A cellar, alternately a skating 
pond and a quagmire, dampened his enthusiasm, and ceilings 
that despite replastering depended still more threateningly than 
the sword of Damocles, finally knocked it entirely from his mind. 
That is enthusiasm's one fault; it creeps in where wisdom 
would be chary to have the cat walk. The experiences of mis- 
ap])lied enthusiasm are so unfortunate that pessimism of the deep¬ 
est stamp results. So if you came to the man who had gaily set 
out to make a home out of an old farmhouse and had gone about 
it with no experience and little knowledge, and presenting ]\Ir. 
blooper’s articles, asked "Why not remodel a house?" you would 
do little more than develop an assassin. 
Rut the rest of the good old-fashioned enthusiasts who indulge 
their passion in no more harmless fields than collecting china or 
furniture in a state of trembling senectitude may still be directed 
to the delights of remodeling. They may rea]) the pleasures of 
a home about which there is a garment of romance and whose 
environs boast grand rows of patriarch trees that no builder of 
a new house can ever hope for. 
The one consideration is that it requires definite understanding 
of conditions and is as nice an undertaking in some cases as build¬ 
ing from tbe foundations. The Colonial builders were in most 
cases sincere and painstaking; the state of their handiwork at 
present proves this. But there were certain tricks that are neces¬ 
sary to be known before we make changes — the turn of flues, 
the run of beams, and so forth. There are also certain essential 
precautions to be taken and certain preventive measures due. 
before we get satisfaction. To this end the series of articles by 
Air. Hooper is directed, and for the first time the general propo¬ 
sition of making over the old house is presented and a line of 
procedure mapped out. It demands more experience than is at 
the hand of the local carpenter or mason. 
Even if one is successful in getting a solid, watertight struc¬ 
ture, the results of necessary changes are often unpleasing in that 
the house is a conglomeration of styles — a modern wing is grafted 
on, or dormers placed where the conventions of an earlier time 
forbade them. The changed building must radiate the spirit of 
the original. Its new ornamentation and detail should not be 
anacbronisms. These things must be planned out beforehand. 
If thev are not, the undertaking fails; if they are, there is per¬ 
manent satisfaction. If, then, you think of remodeling, banish 
the thought that a little timber and a little plaster are the only 
essentials. The proposition is one demanding expert knowledge, 
but gone about rightly has all the rewards that the imagination 
of the enthusiast pictures it to have. 
KNEE DEEP 
JUNEi 
IN \I/ithin a comparatively recent 
» » period there has been a great 
discussion about the rearing of chil¬ 
dren. \Ye are told that many an ambush is laid for them. 
"What are your child’s companions telling him?" "With what 
whispers does your 
daughter’s 
chum fill her ears?" Questions 
such as these are rhetorically asked of parents; statistics and 
experiences fill the pages of books, magazines and newsi)apers, 
showing what wickedness blocks the pathway of the young. You 
might have avoided becoming a criminal or an outcast vourself, 
but. being a parent, you cannot sit by and trust luck. It is much 
the same as the feeling you have when watching some one close 
to you lean over a dizzy height. When you did it yourself it 
caused you no tremor, but with that other one your apprehension 
made it a grave danger. 
But what are you to do about it ? The anxious guardianship 
that questions and spies hardly answers. The thing to do is to 
create a suitable environment. Education and afifectionate regard 
will, of course, do much, but there is a force for good that lies 
outside your threshold. It is the decency of nature, the whole¬ 
some recreative spirit that works always and everywhere even 
though parent minds are oblivious of it. It makes no difiference 
how you reason it—with the philosophy of Wordsworth, or sim- 
ply as an automatic effect of healthy surroundings—the fact 
remains ; the ideals that grow from an early acquaintance and 
knowledge of plants and flowers, both in the garden and the 
fields, will fight with you in keeping out the mean and nasty. 
Our frontisjffece carries this message much better than is 
granted the poor power of language. When you look at it— 
those of you who scan the children’s faces with anxiety—remem¬ 
ber, there lies your ally. If your little ones cannot run knee deep 
in June, at least give them some of it, be it only an ankle’s depth. 
SPRING ^ HERE is one shadow that over- 
CLEANING clouds the joy ,and brightness 
of the spring days, and that is the vis¬ 
ion of spring house cleaning. Its attendant imps seem to drive 
away all wonted comfort and make inroads on the very founda¬ 
tions of our domestic hapjffness. In the days of chaos we grope 
ill-tempered for this or that object no longer in its .accustomed 
place. There are acbing backs and ailing dispositions. To what 
end ? Some say that the spring house cleaning should be done 
every day of the year, little by little, but were we never so careful 
cleaners, we must still change winter’s dress for that of summer. 
WT believe that the spring upheaval will always be an institution 
and would cling to it with all its discomforts. 
It’s much the same heroic treatment as the sulphur and treacle 
that some of us have a vivid recollection of as the one horror of 
springtime. If there is doubt of its beneficial effect on our bodies, 
it certainly was a stimulation to the mind and .a Spartan discipline. 
So with our house cleaning. Even if we are so diligent that there 
is no speck of dust found in these animal upheavals, still there is 
a mental cleaning that they accomplish. It keeps us out of the 
rut of indifference. 
They say that time can gradually inure us to any abomina¬ 
tions. Little by little, if there is no change, we become entirely 
oblivious of our surroundings, whether good or bad. AVe sink 
into a state of dull perception and just exist. But a change make.s 
all the difference in the world — and behind the spring upheaval 
there are generally changes. We realize the shoddy, worn ap¬ 
pearance of this chair, and the tawdry look of that picture. We 
are stimulated to make improvements, or at least to aim toward 
them. Without some such mental sulphur then, we do not ap¬ 
preciate what is good about us and become unmindful of the bad, 
so let us cling to spring house cleaning which produces the 
spirit of criticism, without which there is no advancement, only 
retrogression. 
( 4 (^) 
