SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MONTH 
‘OR THE HOUSE AND GARDE! 
THE HOUSE 
HIS is the month in which the drawing-room 
of a city house will have the most use, and so 
with propriety attention may be especially 
directed to it. There are drawing-rooms and draw¬ 
ing-rooms, as every one knows, the kind which pro¬ 
mote sociability and the kind which induce every 
occupant to feel ill at ease. The diff erence is gen¬ 
erally to be discovered in the arrangement of the fur¬ 
niture and the adjustment of light, but not necessarily 
in the character or quality of either. Even in a 
formal apartment chairs should be placed con¬ 
veniently and to an extent arranged in groups so that 
two or more persons seated can carry on an easy 
conversation. How often one is stranded hopelessly 
upon a sofa which is as isolated as a throne and no 
more ease inducing! Make the drawing-room look 
livable. Leave the entrance unobstructed, place 
tables where they can be used, and utilize bronzes, 
plants and bric-a-brac primarily as decorations. The 
pictorial plays a large part in social gatherings and it 
should be carefully studied in the arrangement of 
household ornament. A palm, or a piece of sculpture, 
may be highly ornamental or merely an obstacle, 
according to the way it is placed. Keep the group 
plan in mind and have the furnishings simple. The 
more formal the room the less it should contain. 
Strive for harmonious and not pronounced coloring, 
an abundance of good light, and general air of digni¬ 
fied geniality. An architect once said that his great 
desire upon entering the majority of houses was to 
sweep most of the things off of the mantel, and 
undoubtedly if he had been permitted to do so it 
would have been well. From the old days of the 
gruesome “best parlor” to the present time, these 
rooms have been too much regarded as show places. 
Though differing vastly in style of exhibits, some 
drawing-rooms in the handsomest urban houses are 
not unlike the sea captain’s parlor. 
The hall too, may well be considered. This 
should be even more formal than the drawing-room 
but in appearance not inhospitable. It is a mistake 
to furnish a hall as a room though it should afford a 
seat for serving-men and messengers and a table for 
card tray and the like. The many branched hat- 
rack which was thought at one time an indispensable 
piece of hall furniture is now held in ill repute, and a 
chest seat, with perhaps a wall mirror, has completely 
taken its place. If there is no closet in the hall such 
a chest for rubbers is indeed invaluable. 
This is the time of sleet-covered steps and walks, 
so it may be suggested that sawdust or crumbled cork 
are quite as apt to insure safe walking as sand or 
ashes and are much cleaner and better. Both of the 
latter, in fact, are sure to injure painted surfaces and 
have been known to mar stone. Lay in a supply of 
the former, and keep it ready for use. 
Even with this precaution the hard wood floors are 
apt to get scratched and marred more frequently in 
winter than in the spring or fall and will need more 
frequent repolishing. A saturated solution of paraf¬ 
fine and gasoline applied with a cloth is excellent for 
restoring the polish, but should be used with the ut¬ 
most caution, and only by daylight when there is no 
fire or flame. 
In January the house is usually exempt from 
w’orkmen, unless an untoward accident makes neces¬ 
sary some repair, so it is at this time that the house¬ 
holder turns most naturally to the acquisition of 
those pleasant, unnecessary things which bring most 
joy and least real comfort; that is when compared 
with good roofs, kitchen ranges, and sanitary plumb¬ 
ing all of which are luxuries ofttimes painfully en¬ 
forced. Pictures are being sold, rare etchings and 
prints being offered, there are Persian rugs and Jap¬ 
anese pottery to be had for a small fortune or a 
mere pittance. The question is how to choose, and 
the only answer which can be briefly given is to 
avoid anything obviously cheap unless you are a 
connoisseur. Pictures mean much in the home and 
never were good ones to be had for less, but great care 
should be taken in the selection. A simple water- 
color, a photograph, or even a print, is more 
acceptable than a commercial painting or a bogus 
“old master.” Native work to-day is of a high 
standard and the astute buyer will do better when he 
acquires a picture by a living artist than if on hearsay 
he procures an alleged work of a foreign celebrity. 
The person who says “ I don’t know what is good but 
I know what I like” is often criticised, but in the long 
run the person who buys a picture because it makes 
to him direct appeal will display more wisdom than 
the one who merely seeks a name. 
Pictures and w’orks in sculpture expressing action 
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