A Cottage on the Wissahickon Hills 
—i 
* 
From the Cornfield 
time and all of it in the manner of that old 
time; the fireplace’s uneven hearth of red 
brick and the acorn-topped andirons take you 
hack, too, but furthest take you, if you notice 
them, the hardware of the doors—latches, 
turn-buckles and knobs—and the broad pine 
boards in door-jambs and closets. Some of 
th ese boards are twenty inches wide—a rarity 
of rarities in white pine to-day. If you begin 
to tinker with the old hinges you will find 
them fastened on with pointless screws for 
which holes had to be bored out at their exact 
length. The very hangings are of old- 
looking silks, of such red stuff's as our 
ancestors were wont to get their seafar¬ 
ing associates to bring home to them 
from China. Only the pictures and 
some of the books and rugs are new. 
The general effect of the room is 
simple comfort and harmony. 1 he 
mahogany reds of the furniture long, 
plain sofa with straight lines, Sheraton 
tables, chairs from Nantucket rocker 
to Windsor, secretary bookcase with 
scroll top and twisted flames—stand 
out against the ivory-tinted walls, with 
which the white painted book shelves 
built in between the three front win¬ 
dows, the mantelpiece and the wood¬ 
work generally, are in keeping. 1 he 
hangings are old red, the coverings 
old red and green, the dominant tone 
of the rugs on the mattinged floor old 
red. 1 he other prominent colors in 
the room are found in the gilt of the 
picture frames and mirror and in the 
brass of the candlesticks and lamps. 
1 he general effect of the many books, 
despite a considerable quota of old 
calf and red, is a dark blue, which is 
as unobtrusive as the old blue in the 
rugs. So many of the pictures are 
reproductions of black and white that 
they in themselves add little of color 
to the room while they tell you their 
owners care much for out of doors 
and things Irish, but what color they 
do add is again blue. And in so far 
as the many pieces of bric-a-brac, old 
plates and vases, add anything of 
color, that too is blue. On enteiing 
the room you would scarcely notice the 
blue, and perhaps for a little while 
the only impression would be that of ivory- 
white and mahogany red. 
The particular effect that the room makes 
is that it is the expression of the lives of the 
people that live here. Old furniture shops 
have been ransacked, literally from store¬ 
room in cellar to workshop in roof, or family 
treasures pilfered to get this furniture; these 
books have been bought to read and they are 
“books that are books,” embodied dreams 
and thoughts and experiences of men, books 
made out of living; these pictures all have 
Another Glimpse 
244 
