74 
House & Garden 
Inexpensive to Own and 
Easy to Operate 
If you know anything about an automobile you 
can climb right into the operator’s seat of the Mid¬ 
west Utilitor Mowing Unit and in a few minutes’ 
time cut your lawn as well as a professional gardener. 
Keen business men know that a product that 
bears the Midwest “Dependable Power” name plate 
is good enough to use on their country places. 
1 hese same men are today finding it a real means 
of pleasant outdoor relaxation to care for their lawns 
with the Utilitor. 
Big estate owners are selecting this equipment 
first for its dependability and second because it saves 
time and men. 
The story of mowing with this outfit is con¬ 
tained in a new booklet just issued. Your copy can 
be secured from our dealer or direct from us. 
Brief Specifications of the 
New Model Utilitor 
Variable Speed Governor. 
Flexible Mower Hitches. 
Water Air Cleaner. 
Double Clutch Control. 
Cutting width, 84 inches. 
2 1-3 draw bar h.p. 
midwest engine company 
171 Martindale Ave. 
INDIANAPOLIS, U. S. A. 
The Hall of Stars 
(Continued from page 72) 
hall from the street and to hide this twisting dragon and worn to a delight- 
unsightly iron work it was necessary to ful fadedness. Ordinarily I do not like 
devise some curtain to do decoration dragons in Chinese rugs because they 
duty only. The low ceding made two are usually inescapable in their obvious, 
sets of curtains absurd, so we designed brutal design, but this great blue fellow 
a plain, straight hanging curtain of very is so well drawn and is so subordinated 
heavy white Chinese silk, and finished to the rest of the pattern that he is 
it at the bottom with a ten-inch antique very pleasing. 
Chinese fringe of bright green and The furniture of the hall is a mixture 
bright red. This marvelous fringe was of French and Italian Empire. There is 
on one of those great temple curtains a set of extraordinary Italian chairs of 
of Chinese brocade, originally. The dark green and gold paint, with slip 
length of the old hanging was exactly seats of old blue-green faille held in 
right for the two curtains and proved place by the gilt wings of the strange 
again the providence that protects deco- birds that form the decoration of the 
rators. The gracious Chinese lady in chairs. Another lot of furniture—six 
the alcove having given us the lead, chairs and a long sofa—was in the dis- 
other Chinese treasures began to find card when we found it. In its first 
themselves, notably two ancient paint- state it was covered with ugly red silk, 
ings of Chinese ladies, rare portraits on its frames badly gilded. We had the 
silk, which were hung on large wall spaces, frames scraped and repainted old white 
The ceilings were so low and the and gold, and re-upholstered with a 
paintings so long that they hung like heavy Italian brocade of yellow and 
tapestries, almost from ceiling to floor, white and red. The two tables beside 
These portraits were entrancing, and in the fireplace have dark green and gilt 
the same almost-life-size scale as the pedestals, and are covered with round 
statue in the niche. One of the ladies silk covers finished with an old Empire 
wears an arrangement of blues and fringe. The objects on the mantel are 
greens, relieved by an extraordinary col- a pair of black vases of Pompeian de- 
lar of delicate, pointed white feathers, sign, and a bronze bust. There are also 
The exaggerated length of the hall such treasures as an old barometer and 
and the irregular placing of the fireplace a green and gold wall clock in the room, 
made it necessary to find a long, ornate The two dressing rooms and the ele- 
piece of furniture for the longest wall vator which open from the hall are all 
space. We solved this problem by tak- decorated in the Directoire manner, 
ing two Italian consoles of gilt and The elevator, which was decorated by 
greenish-blue, very Empire in feeling, Paul Thevenaz, is paneled with mirrors 
and making them into one. This ne- painted in grisaille, charming figures of 
cessitated a new top of green marble, women, and balloons, and kites and 
A large mirror was placed over this long parachutes. The dressing-room for men 
console, and against the walls, flanking is very long and narrow, its main piece 
the mirror, we used two sphinxes of of furniture being an extremely long 
carved and gilded wood. An amusing console upheld by two black sphinxes, 
object is the great vase on this console, the top of the console being green 
an old French pottery jardiniere repre- malachite. 
senting the head of one of Napoleon’s The general impression this hall gives 
soldiers. He is much too sombre for is of a great coolness and dignity, be- 
ordinary flowers, but great masses of cause despite its numerous objects of 
field flowers and thistles make a very different decorative values, unrelieved 
fine mass above his martial face. spaces of wall and floor are maintained. 
The length of the hall also invited One has a feeling, on entering it, of 
the use of an extraordinary blue and simplicity and serenity, and on leaving 
yellow Chinese rug, extremely long and it a pleasant memory of beguiling, 
rather narrow, patterned with a great though dissimilar, decorative effects. 
ON HOUSE & GARDEN’S BOOK SHELF 
CREATIVE CHEMISTRY 
By Edwin E. Slosson, 
The Century Co., New York City. 
H ERE is an unusual book, written 
in simple, non-technical terms 
of one of the most absorbing of 
subjects—chemistry. It is a book pri¬ 
marily for the layman, for it assumes no 
previous knowledge, on the part of the 
reader, of this science. It is not only a 
recital of the necessary facts in plain 
language but an exposition of the sub¬ 
ject done in so interesting a manner 
that the reader’s interest never flags. 
It is not a case of writing down to the 
uninitiated but of telling in a peculiarly 
vivid way, one of the most fascinating 
stories in the world. The part that 
chemistry plays in the lives of man¬ 
kind, its tremendous place in the recent 
war and its importance to the welfare 
of any nation, is shown in this book in 
language shorn of obscuring technical¬ 
ities. 
Mr. Slosson starts with the story of 
nitrogen, and very properly, for it was 
this element that won and lost the war. 
As the essential part of all explosives 
from gunpowder down, and as one of 
the thirteen necessary elements to the 
prevention of land starvation, it is truly 
“the preserver and destroyer of life.” 
The various subjects dealt with in¬ 
clude rubber, cellulose, sugar, cotton, 
corn, gases and metals. In each case is 
shown what creative chemistry can and 
does accomplish with all these materials 
and how a little knowledge of this 
science need not be a dangerous thing. 
The most interesting of all is the story 
of coal tar—its myriad uses from the 
oils and gases down to medicines, per¬ 
fumes and all the colors of the rainbow. 
From this we learn the tremendous value 
of the aniline dye industry and the great 
strides made by America in a very little 
time under the pressure of necessity. 
Mr. Slosson has two qualities rare in 
a scientist—imagination and a sense of 
humor. Both are apparent in this book 
which should please the scientist and 
layman alike, for it is packed to the 
brim with the wonders of the scientific 
world, told in so vivid and entertain¬ 
ing a manner that it has the interest of 
a brilliant modern novel and is readable 
from start to finish. 
AMONG ITALIAN PEASANTS. 
By Tony Cyriax. Illustrated. 
E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. 
S OMEONE has said that Englishmen 
all turn aristocrats when they cross 
the Alps. “Among Italian Peasants” 
clearly shows that whether this be true 
or not, its author, Tony Cyriax, holds 
heart-sympathy with the contadini of 
Italy and creates for us a remarkable 
picture, true in its very essence, of 
Italian peasant life. Muirhead Bone, a 
distinguished artist and a compatriot 
(Continued from page 76) 
