House and Garden 
back is finished quite as beautifully as the 
front. I recently was examining a pendant 
of hers of turquoise matrix and silver, the 
back of which was engraved with a most 
charming old-fashioned nosegay of flowers, 
so charming, in fact, that the young girl to 
whom it belonged stated she proposed wear¬ 
ing it some time wrong side out. 
This work of Mrs. Kdapp’s seems to me 
to be true art, thorough art, and, above all, 
sane art. It is not that she cannot evolve 
erratic curves, queer waving masses of lines, 
with here and there a female figure writhing 
in seeming torture; but that she scorns to do 
so. Restraint and fitness, these should be the 
watchwords of all critics, and these qualities 
1 think her work exhibits in a marked degree. 
Mrs. Klapp exhibited in the Paris Exhi¬ 
bition of 1900, and was awarded an honor¬ 
able mention, a recognition that meant much, 
coming whence it did, for, judging from 
modern French jewelry designs, she certainly 
was “ in the enemy’s country.” She also 
was awarded a bronze medal at Buffalo. 
WHAT CAN BE DONE IN TEN YEARS 
AT MAKING A COUNTRY HOME 
By MARY C. ROBBINS 
V ERY many people who would like to 
beautify the place where they live, are 
deterred from undertaking the task by the 
fear of expense, and the idea that it is too 
long and tedious a business to be attempted 
with any hope of seeing the result soon 
enough to make the effort worth while. 
To such, the experience of two people of 
moderate means in making a home in a 
country village near Boston, amid very 
unpromising surroundings, may give encour¬ 
agement and suggestion, and the story of 
the simple and inexpensive means by which 
a good result was obtained, may help some 
one else to the pleasure given by outdoor 
work in the endeavor to replace shabbiness 
by thrift and disorder by picturesque ar¬ 
rangement. 
Fifteen years ago, in a village on the 
shores of Massachusetts Bay, my husband 
and i undertook the pleasant task of ren¬ 
ovating an old place which had stood for 
ten years without a purchaser. Except 
for the great beauty of the view it was a 
hopeless looking spot, with a long stretch of 
tumble-down fence, rows of dilapidated fruit 
trees, and an old house which had been a 
good one in its time, falling to decay. This 
house was too far gone to be worth repair¬ 
ing. It could have been made picturesquely 
successful perhaps, but never comfortable, 
nor adapted to modern needs for an all-the- 
year-round dwelling. Moreover its situation, 
in spite of some fine old trees near it, was 
undesirable on account of the nearness of 
two dusty country roads ; so it was removed, 
and a new one built elsewhere. 
The surface of the place, four acres in 
extent, was much diversified, and one-half 
of our friends remonstrated because we did 
not set our house upon a windy hill which 
commanded an extended view, and the 
others were divided between the old site, 
on account of the noble branching elms 
which overhung it, and some level ground 
below a knoll ,where there would have been 
room to extend the building on a level with 
a garden space about it. 
Mindful of advancing years and chill 
northeasters, we eschewed the hill, and with 
an eye to a dry cellar and good drainage we 
avoided the garden level, and thus perched 
our dwelling on a slight elevation where we 
had a good view and ground which fell away 
on all sides from the house. Landscape 
architecture we had very little knowledge 
of, and with the fearlessness of ignorance 
we made our own plans, secured a com¬ 
petent and faithful builder, and constructed 
our abode and its surroundings in a hit-or-miss 
style, which we are far from recommending 
to any one else, though the results in our 
case were perhaps better than we deserved. 
The irregular dwelling looked bare and 
bald enough when it was completed. There 
was not a tree or shrub or vine to hide its 
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