26 
House & Garden 
Whitewash is advisable 
for garden work because 
it intensifies the values 
of the texture beneath it, 
because, as in this per¬ 
gola, it forms an excel¬ 
lent background against 
which green growing 
things can be silhouetted 
and finally because in the 
cool dampness of the 
garden, it is tractable 
and patient of all condi¬ 
tions and is readily re¬ 
newed 
A WORD IN PRAISE of WHITEWASH 
Its Application to Walls Indoors and Out — The Color 
Value and Texture of a Wash 
COSTEN FITZ-GIBBON 
Since it is inexpensive whitewash can be generously used on 
garden walls. Moreover, it gives color contrast to the flowers 
medium for high lights and shadows, partly for 
the varied colors of the shadows and the tones 
of the manifold reflections. Analyze a simple 
and commonplace example and you will see 
L ET us now praise—not famous men, but 
j —whitewash. 
And whitewash needs some praise, not mere¬ 
ly because it is praiseworthy, but because of 
our fatal habit of condemning what 
we do not understand and ofttimes 
do not take the trouble to under¬ 
stand, and likewise our equally fatal 
habit of despising the inexpensive 
as “cheap” and unworthy irrespec¬ 
tive of its intrinsic merit. 
First let us remove the fallacy 
that whitewash rubs off and leaves 
upon the clothing an annoying evi¬ 
dence of contact. It is perfectly pos- 
$ible to make whitewash stick as fast 
as paint, if it is mixed and applied 
in the proper way. 
Lighthouse Mixture 
To ensure this there is no better 
recipe to follow than the Govern¬ 
ment’s formula known as “light¬ 
house mixture”: 
Slake a half bushel of lime with boil¬ 
ing water, cover during the process to 
keep in steam. Strain the liquid through 
a fine sieve or strainer and add to it a 
peck of salt, previously dissolved in warm 
water, three pounds of ground rice boiled 
to a thin paste and stirred in while hot, 
half a pound of Spanish whiting and one 
pound of clear glue, previously dissolved 
by soaking in cold water, and then hang¬ 
ing over a slow fire in a small pot hung 
in a larger one filled with water. Add five 
gallons of hot water to the mixture, stir 
well and let it stand a few days, covered 
from dirt. To be applied hot. 
An eminent artist, who had a keen 
sense for architectural and decora¬ 
tive values, once told the writer that 
he cherished the hope one day to 
build himself a house in which he 
would have rough-textured white¬ 
washed walls. This purely for the 
value thereof, partly as a foil for 
objects set against them, partly as a 
what the artist was driving at. A white 
Swiss or muslin or cambric curtain is white 
only on the parts where a strong light strikes 
it directly; within the folds the shadows 
are blue or purple or pink or some 
other color, according to the quality 
and intensity of the light ■ in the 
room and the direction from which 
it falls. Precisely the same thing 
is true of the whitewashed 1 wall. 
There is a constant and ever chang¬ 
ing play of color in it from shadows 
and reflections, and it is white only 
where the light strikes it directly 
so that it is, in reality, a many-hued 
feature of decoration. 
Whitewash and Paint 
Some one may ask, “Why not use 
white paint instead of whitewash?” 
Because white paint will not have 
at all the same result. The body 
of paint is perceptibly thicker and 
heavier and largely obliterates the 
texture of the underlying surface, 
whatever it may be in the second 
place, unless there is a glaze added 
—which would only thicken the 
body still further—the surface lacks 
the sensitive reflecting quality of 
whitewash. The body of whitewash 
is so thin and wellnigh impalpable 
that the texture value of the material 
beneath it is in no way obscured. 
The merit of this quality can easily 
be understood if the wall is of such 
a material as sand-finished plaster 
or drag-dashed irregular stone. 
Walls of this character white¬ 
washed are not cold and cheerless 
in their effect but supply great inter¬ 
est and variety of light and shadow, 
and not a little warmth of color in 
their reflections. The proper notes 
of color, judiciously introduced, can 
