152 
House & Garden 
Years may mellow but will not weaken the slate-roojed 
buildings and slate-capped walls on Charles M. Schwab’s 
estate at Loretta, Pa. [Murphy Dana, Architects') 
Beauty Without 
Depreciation 
' I ''IME gives increasing charm to 
buildings roofed with slate. The 
years develop rather than destroy its 
virtues. When homes are roofed with 
slate, maintenance costs are microscopic 
and depreciation figures are lost in the 
mists of time. 
The uses of slate are manifold and its 
diversity of coloring lends itself particu¬ 
larly well to artistic elfects m and about 
the home. 
Slate should be considered for its uses 
both indoors and out, from roofs to 
walks, from vestibule to kitchen, as 
well as for sinks, laundry tubs and 
showers, septic tanks and other struc¬ 
tural and sanitary uses. 
From homes and public buildings to 
factories, the uses of slate are innumer¬ 
able and range from school slates and 
black boards to fuse blocks and switch¬ 
boards. 
booklet devoted to the uses of slate will be 
mailed on request. 
Roofs 
Re-roofin6 
Chimney Tops 
Hearths 
Mantels 
Thresholds 
Sills 
Wainscotin}* 
Bases & Plinths 
Stairs 
Risers 
Landings 
Vestibules 
Porch Floors 
.\reaways 
Garden Walks 
Fountains 
Benches 
Coping 
Bathrooms 
Laundry Tubs 
Laundry Slates 
Sinks 
Work Benches 
Dough Boards 
Electric Bases 
Kitchen Slates 
Range Bases 
Shelving 
Filters 
Table Tops 
Ice Box Shelves 
Drain Boards 
NATIONAL SLATE ASSOCIATION 
757 DKEXEL BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA 
A portion of the French paper known as Vues 
de Londres; a paper exceedingly popular in the 
early years of the igth Century 
CARING FOR OLD WALL PAPERS 
{Continuedfrom page 150) 
and had them pasted directly on the plas¬ 
ter of the walls. Their short-sightedness 
in this respect is one of the most serious 
obstacles to be overcome in the work of 
care and preservation. Walls may crack, 
faulty plaster may disintegrate, dampness 
in the wall may do incalculable damage 
either directly to the body of the paper or 
by setting up chemical reactions that 
cause discolorings. Finally, it may be 
desirable, for a variety of reasons, to 
have the paper in some other place. Under 
any of these conditions it becomes neces¬ 
sary to remove the paper from the walls. 
The work of removal is a troublesome 
task and requires the nicest care as well 
as boundless patience in order to preserve 
the paper intact. It can be done, how¬ 
ever, by soaking it off with starch paste. 
This starch paste should be made in the 
following proportions: An ounce and a 
half of ordinary white starch dissolved 
in one cj^uart of cold water. This will 
give the right consistency. Apply the 
starch paste with a thick, long-haired 
soft brush, and in squares, passing over 
the surface of the paper lightly, and 
several times, but waiting a few minutes 
between each coat. When the paper has 
become thoroughly soaked it may be 
detached gently from the wall, a little at 
a time, handling it delicately so as not to 
tear it. When the pieces or strips of paper 
thus detached are dry, they should be 
backed on canvas or strong linen. W’hen 
the paper is fully dry, after it has been 
backed, any remaining traces of the 
starch paste may be brushed or gently 
wiped from the surface. The paper is 
then ready to apply again. 
The paper backed on canvas or strong 
linen may be pasted directly on the walls, 
for the backing makes it always possible 
to remove it without serious difficulty. It 
is much better, however, to mount or 
stretch the strongly backed paper on a 
firm wooden frame that will keep the. 
paper itself about a charter of an inch 
from the plaster surface of the wall. 
This arrangement obviates all danger 
from dampness or from any chemical 
action, trouble from cracks or faulty 
plaster, and renders removal, when neces¬ 
sary, a comparatively simple matter. 
^^Ten old wall pajier is soiled, it may 
some times be cleaned by rubbing gently 
with bread crumbs or with art gum. 
There is another method of cleaning by 
going over the soiled surface with the 
half of a fresh-cut potato, but there is 
great risk attached to this process for the 
juice of a potato contains strong acids 
that may ruin the paper if it has origin- 
all}^ been printed by certain methods. 
Potato cleaning ought to be entrusted 
only to an expert who knows exactly how 
the particular paper to be cleaned has 
been made in all the processes of its 
manufacture. 
If old paper is in danger of disintegra¬ 
tion from dampness in the walls, from 
chemical action or from fault}' plaster, 
the thing to do is to remove it from the 
wall, back it and mount it on a frame, and 
then put it up in a place where its exis¬ 
tence will not be further endangered. It 
sometimes happens that dampness in the 
wall causes the pigment on the paper to 
flake off here and there in patches. When 
the paper has been removed and the 
dampness peril eliminated, the flaked 
spots may be carefully restored with 
paint. In some instances, where a large 
section of the paper has been irreparable' 
damaged, a new section of plain paper 
may be set in and a reproduction of the 
design carefully painted on the plain sur¬ 
face. This restoration, of course, will 
have to be mellowed and “antiqued” to 
make it harmonize with the original. The 
method of antic^uing will depend on the 
tone and general condition of the original 
and upon the ingenuity of the antiquer. 
After the underneath conditions of con¬ 
tact with the wall have been seen to, it 
is sometimes desirable to give the surface 
a coat of varnish. The varnish or shellac 
acts as a preservative to the surface and 
facilitates cleaning. There are certain 
papers, however, whose appearance would 
not be improved by varnish. If these are 
well cared for in the other respects men¬ 
tioned, the surface may go unvarnished 
with reasonable freedom from anxiety. 
