114 
House Garden 
Do you ''Repeat” on your tires? 
Do you buy the same make of tire again? Most 
SILVERTOWN users do; and that’s the test of a 
tire. SILVERTOWN performance, of course, does 
it. Back of the performance is the sound manu¬ 
facturing principle of maintained quality. Skill, 
effort, and care are centered in SILVERTOWN. 
It comes out in performance and repeats. 
THE B. F. GOODRICH RUBBER COMPANY 
ESTABLISHED 1870 
In Canada—The B. F. Goodrich Rubber Company, Ltd. 
Toronto T Montreal r Winnipeg 
Goodrich 
SILVERTOWN Cord 
SOLD BY COODPcICH DEALERS THE WORLD OVEIC 
THE HOUSE r H A1' IS MINE 
{Continued from page 112) 
sought out the most hideous colors avail- feet of rough lumber, and several thou- 
able—chocolate, slate, fireproof red— sand lineal feet of 2 x 4’s. These stocks 
and with these deliberately obliterated were worth $30 to $40 per M. in the 
the otherwise beautiful intrinsic colors of market. On my place were a few dead 
the brick and timber. chestnuts, and on my neighbor’s place 
In every one of the great buildings adjoining, hundreds of these grim relics 
already mentioned, color is the crowning of the blight. I bought all I could at old 
glory. What would Venice be—what wood prices—$2 a cord on the stump, 
would any of those wonderful buildings I bought a mill, cut and sawed all the 
be—if, in accordance \vith New York rough lumber I needed at a total cost to 
tradition, they were black-leaded or me of $17 per M., then sold the mill at 
veneered with appalling brownstone? cost, having all the slabs and sawdust 
to the good. 
THE HUMAK TOUCH When it came to the roof, the tradition 
5th: The human touch with its conse- of red tile was strong, but I found it 
quent endless variation. The machine is would cost $30 a square (10' x lo')- So 
death to art. The wavering, erring, I went to a slate dealer and found best 
human touch consecrated the object red slate, $30; best green, $22; best pur- 
treated, by showing everywhere the pie, $18. .Vll too expensive, for the best 
gropings of a mind after some subtle cedar shingles were only $7 a square, 
charm. _ But I am deeply prejudiced against shin- 
If we take a Rembrandt etching wdth gles which are frightfully combustible, 
its many “feeling” lines and compare it and in anj^ case, will not last longer than 
with the same subject by a “perfect” ten years. So I said to the slate man: 
steel engraver, we shall have an exact “Show me the cheapest things you 
parallel of the hand-made house com- have.” He jminted to a pile of culls, all 
pared with the perfect machine stuff colors, shapes, sizes and thicknesses, and 
that contractors seek with such blind said: 
persistence. _ “You can have them at $3 a square if 
Hand-hewn beams are more beautiful you take a carload.” 
than sawn beams, a forged fire-dog than “How many squares in a carload?” 
a cast-iron dog, a hand-car\-ed picture I said. 
frame than one of pressed I'utty, because “One hundred,” he replied. I needed 
of their human touch, their constant but fifty squares, but thought I saw a 
variet}'. chance, and said: 
d'he modern working man, trained to “I’ll take the hundred squares if you 
imitate machine work, to eliminate abso- punch them” (that is, make two holes in 
lutely the human touch, is one of the each for the nails, a simple operation 
worst enemies of beauty in the house, when one has the punching machine). 
Anything that a machine does must be He accepted, and I got the most beautiful 
less beautiful than the same thing made lot of varied gray green slate imaginable 
by a loving human hand. on my roof. When the neighboring build- 
6th: Curvature. 'I'he ugliest line that ers saw how pleasing it was, they got new 
can be drawn is a long, unbroken, mathe- light. They came and bought the left- 
maticalh' correct, straight line. Because over fifty squares for $600 on the ground, 
it is so ugly, the modern builder tries This is an illustration of what I did all 
how much and how many of these he can through the work, reducing the cost and 
get in. Brickwork walls, roof shingles, enhancing its art beauties, 
weather boards, imitation tiles, etc., all W'hen it came to laying the slate, I 
attest this dreadful disease. In a famous had the usual battle with the trained 
and costly hotel I noted the other da}^ mechanics (from the Greek Mekane, a 
that the only attempt at architectural machine). But I took away their chalk 
ornament in each room was a cornice line, and made them lay the slate by eye, 
row of forty-seven knife-edge straight reasonably straight, but with constant 
lines in plaster, costly to make, appalling variations that effectively stopped any 
to look at, and the only beauty spot in long mathematical lines. In illustration 
the room was where a leakage of sewage of which, see the roof on the kitchen wing, 
from the bath above had stained and The outer coat of stucco was mixed in 
crumbled the terrible frieze. four lots with yellow ochre, red ochre, 
'I'here are no straight lines in Nature, white and lampblack gray. After a fight, 
not one; and whenever man contrives one, the mason consented to abandon the 
Nature speedil}' sets about bending it. “floating” tools and let it go just as it 
Straight lines are always ugly in propor- came from the trowel. By taking alter- 
tion to their length. Where roof or para- nate trowels of the different colors, I got 
pet seemed to impose them, as in the a lovely terra cotta color of endless subtle 
Doge’s Palace or the Parthenon, the variations. 
builder set up at intervals low ornaments .Cement with lime in it is so plastic at 
to take off the curse. this stage that one naturally models 
Floors, doors and windows must be of forms of animals and of symbols, etc., at 
straight lines or they will not function, salient points. Over each bedroom, I 
But in no other part of a building are they shaped the personal totem of the pro- 
necessar3t _ _ _ spective inhabitant, and rioted in the 
7th: My seventh principle is sim- sculpturesque finish of it all. 
plicity. “The more complicated, the .\mong the masons, the spirit of horror 
better” was the rule of the builders who and rebellion was gradually giving way 
spoiled New York. “Make it fancy” to one of comprehension and interest, 
was the command of a new millionaire “it don’t look so bad after all,” was a 
who was determined to have a house that new tjqie of remark. And one young 
would be talked about. The result was a man there became so possessed of the 
jumble of silly turrets, rope moldings idea that during mj^ absence he modeled 
nailed on, make-believe columns one inch a huge fly in the new stucco. He showed I 
thick; not one broad stretch of honest, it with pride, but alas! he had used wires 
smooth, dignified masonry. for legs and antennae. I pointed out the 
These are my principles, and these I unsculpturesqueness of this, saydng, ! 
have adhered to strictly in the building “We must deal onlj' with the big forms, ' 
of my house. and when it comes to wire-like legs, let 1 
THE ACTUAL WORK them rest on the flat wall and be merel}' 
The plans and specifications I drew' up suggested.” 
myself, and after getting several bids. Next day, he made a big caterpillar 
decided to do it by dav work. With the crawling up the wall. But it had no rela- 
result that I cut the price in half; a result tion to the structure of tie building. It 
that comes only through a consummate was exactW in the spirit of Bernard 
knowledge of the game and of materials, Palissy, true to nature but not true to 
and continued personal supervision. art. He was eager to learn, so I sketched 
To illustrate. I needed 20 000 or 25.000 {Continued on page 116) 
