House and Garden 
THE HOUSE AND ENTRANCE TO THE GROUNDS 
acquired, for they already lay secure in the 
museums of Europe. Italian reproductions 
of them are not proof against the severities 
of our climate. Besides the originals were 
of stone, often of a coarse variety to which 
terra cotta bears no resemblance (American 
terra cotta is vitrified to render it hard). 
Cement approaches nearest the quality of 
stone and it was this material to which Mr. 
Mercer turned his attention. 
To make a beautiful thing of an ugly 
material is not an easy task. And cement 
has the honor of being both the most useful 
and the ugliest building material known,— 
ugly because most sands have not sufficient 
color in themselves to affect that of cement 
when mixed with it. This shortcoming of 
cement has put it out of consideration for 
any but utilitarian purposes. Little has been 
done to overcome the objection. The color 
of cement mortar has been, it is true, occa¬ 
sionally modified by the addition of “ mortar 
color.” But then the cement is used in small 
quantities, not enough to make of itself an 
entire decorative object. Though a boon to 
the architect and the engineer, pliant to their 
needs under water or in air, cement still re¬ 
mains for the decorator a gray powder puff¬ 
ing itself into his face when barrel or bag is 
opened, becoming duller if not lugubrious 
when wet, and when dry, lo ! the coating of 
its ashy whitish surface is not the ghost of a 
beauty that has gone but one which it is to 
be hoped shall some day invest it. 
In the land of its invention, Portland ce¬ 
ment is now used for whole buildings, monu¬ 
ments, sea-walls, fountains and bridges. Kil¬ 
ometre posts measuring roads on the Con¬ 
tinent exhibit the material which went into 
building the highway itself. In France and 
England it is employed so cleverly at artifi¬ 
cial rock gardening as to undermine admira- 
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