42 
House & G ar d e n 
THE 
CONNOISSEUR 
TASTE 
In The Building And Furnishing Of A Home Only The 
High Standard Of Quality Will Bring Ultimate Satisfaction 
A CER I AIN poet (none other than the one whose verses 
grace this page) tells in a recent book how he wandered 
about this country and the seven seas carrying one lone 
treasure with him—a copy of Keats’ poems. It is the sort of thing 
a poet would do. It represents a fine spirit of the connoisseur. 
Rather than stay home and possess a hundred books, he chose to 
become a vagabond and possess one—the very best one he could 
select. 
Contrasting with him is a certain man, married, father of child¬ 
ren, an owner of a house and grounds, tied therefore in one spot 
and never to become a vagabond, whose eccentricity is that he 
would rather smoke one good cigar a day than three mediocre ones, 
would rather raise a dozen perfect dahlias than a score of question¬ 
able varieties, and who on building and furnishing his home, 
applied this same strict rule. 
Both of these men are connoisseurs. They command respect 
for the high standards of their selections. When the one speaks of 
Keats, you feel that he knows what he’s talking about; when the 
other talks of dahlias and cigars and chairs, you listen with 
respect. The standard of quality dominates their judgement. 
S OME of this same spirit of the connoisseur must dominate 
our selections in choosing the design for a house and select¬ 
ing its furniture. If ever the American home is to rise above 
the mediocre. On all sides we see people swayed by the demand 
for quantity. Houses are built and furnished in the same manner 
as Fords are made. 
Step into the average living room of a well-to-do, cultured 
family. At one glance you can see that half the furniture is lack¬ 
ing in beauty and in reason for existing. There is too much furni¬ 
ture, and much too much of it is medicore. Apply the standard of 
the connoisseur, and you would send half of it to the Salvation 
Army. 
It were far better if that room appeared 
barren for a time. It were far better if the 
family were put to inconvenience. Have a 
few pieces and have them good. Select 
them slowly, acquire them with effort. 
Thus should the house be furnished. 
I N his recent report Roger Babson 
figures that the residential build¬ 
ing this year will exceed two and a 
half billions in cost. An appalling num¬ 
ber of houses can be built for two and a 
half billions. One wonders how much of 
that expenditures the high standards of 
quality will dominate! Perhaps very little 
of it. The demands of a meticulous taste 
are exacting and exasperating. Workmen 
do not understand them. Builders are an¬ 
noyed by them. Even some architects 
chafe under their restrictions. 
This detail may be out of scale. Dis¬ 
card it and insist on one of proper scale. 
TREE-DOOM 
To draw sweet sustenance from the earth 
Without devouring meat that’s slain; 
With casing bark to fit one’s girth 
And stand unhoused in wind, sun, rain ,— 
To have waved leaves instead of hair 
And a green color for a face; 
Never to move through life elsewhere 
But root forever in one placet 
O, what a strange life there must be 
In a broad, earth-rooted treel 
And yet, mem say, when stricken sore 
Trees shiver a space just as they’re felled; 
A sentience sweeps their inmost core 
That by their downward rush is quelled, 
As if, from base to crown, they tried 
To walk but once before they died! 
Harry Kemp. 
This piece of molding may be unsuitable. Refuse it and demand 
the one that is suitable. It is so easy in the confusion and 
delay of building to let well enough alone, to accept what is of¬ 
fered, to be satisfied if only the work goes ahead. The home build¬ 
er is in precisely the position of the connoisseur who chose be¬ 
tween one good cigar and three cheap ones. Perhaps you would 
rather have the three. Perhaps you would choose the easier road 
to building. Well, then you are that sort of person. 
But say you have fought your way with builders and carpen¬ 
ters, insisted on applying the principle of quality—alas, the bat¬ 
tle is only a third won! There is still the furnishing of that 
house and the making of the garden. 
Of course, the easier way is to go out and buy the furniture 
at one fell swoop. The more difficult, and more satisfying 
course, is to purchase it piece by piece, following a precon¬ 
ceived scheme for each room. Here, if you are in doubt, you 
will solicit the aid of a decorator who is trained in such mat¬ 
ters. But the room will not be finished over night. The proper 
making of curtains, the desirable upholstering of furniture, the 
lamps, the shades, the rugs, the paper or paint on the wall, all 
of these require time. In each process there is an amazing and 
exasperating amount of delay. 
The making of a good garden demands the same slow de¬ 
velopment. Gardens cannot be grown in a day. The process 
of choosing the right shrub for this place and that, the busi¬ 
ness of selecting trees and herbaceous perennials and making 
lawns cannot be done without a definite plan or without the 
exercise of infinite patience. 
HERE are two ways by which you can judge a connois¬ 
seur: he has a definite, well-thought-out philosophy of 
life by which his standards are guided, and he is ca¬ 
pable of a patience that would pale Job 
into insignificance. His insistence on 
getting what he wants is colossal. 
The reason why so many of us are not 
connoisseurs in the building of our houses, 
the furnishing of our houses and the mak¬ 
ing of our gardens is that we lack the 
philosophy of life which demands the 
standard of quality and we chafe under 
the delays that naturally accompany the 
accomplishment of good work. 
Just how can these be acquired? 
Well, very few people are born con¬ 
noisseurs and, considering the habits of 
the average babe, very few of us are born 
patient. These habits are acquired. They 
are not animal traits; they are habits 
which man, in his arduous ascent from the 
beast, has had to develop by slow and 
laborous processes. When he has achieved 
patience, discrimination, and the courage 
of his convictions, he is apt to have be¬ 
come a connoisseur. 
T 
