House and Garden 
good constructor burning with the inspiration 
of art—of the ideal architect, let us say— 
into a purely pictorial designer working 
in cooperation with as many kinds of unin¬ 
spired practical constructors as the charac¬ 
ter of the business necessitates—say a 
structural engineer, an electrical engineer, 
a sanitary engineer, a highway engineer, 
and a gardener, all more or less com¬ 
pletely and successfully marshalled by a 
business man. Whether the business man 
“ hires the designers,” as the head of one 
very busy designing firm put it to me, or 
whether the personality of the artist bulks 
more largely in the combination, the principle 
involved is the same. It means that the en¬ 
joyment and appreciation of beauty is an ex¬ 
otic thing, applied here and there upon the 
structure of our buildings, upon our land¬ 
scape, and to our lives. 
If constructive art must be subdivided and 
specialized—a condition from which we can 
see no escape—let us have men trained, as 
our engineers are trained, so that each is 
thorough in the practical grasp of his special 
subject even though it be but a narrow one, 
but all feeling the common bond of highly 
developed artistic appreciation and training. 
Let them be a company of artists working 
in cooperation toward ends which all can 
appreciate, and which all can help to form 
and develop, although dominated in each 
case by that one of their number in whose 
special province the kernel of the problem 
lies. Whether such cooperation be perma¬ 
nently organized, as in a firm, or be a matter 
of temporary alliance, like the companies of 
artists that have created the world’s fairs, 
and the familiar instance of architect and land¬ 
scape architect when dealing with a country 
dwelling place — this method holds far 
more of promise for the future of art than 
any specious exaltation of the artist to 
guide a wide range of technical assistants, 
the conditions of whose work he can but im¬ 
perfectly comprehend and who are them¬ 
selves artistically undeveloped. That way 
lies superficiality, and the final domination 
of the artist by the business organizer, either 
in his own person or in that of a master. 
MY HOUSE BOAT “THE CONCH SHELI 
By George Porter Fernald 
A MAN who has his business in one of the 
large cities near the sea, and who travels 
on the trolley and steam cars to the suburbs 
for rest and recreation in his quiet home and 
garden will find it delightful to live in a 
floating bungalow during the summer as I 
did the last season. One can anchor one’s 
house in the harbor in a locality set apart for 
this purpose, among the yachts and moorings 
of larger craft, and be within rowing distance 
of the wharf, where one can glide in at 
morning to business and walk to the office 
without the annoyances of clanging trolley 
cars and hot steam trains. A more delightful 
summer can hardly be imagined than sitting 
on the calm waters of an interesting bay 
with the many ocean steamers always passing, 
the fishing fleet of Newfoundland returning 
with their catch, and something new and 
entertaining continually going on. 
It has been my delight to secure an old 
flat-bottom barge and build upon it several 
rooms, where I could have my books and 
friends, and float in the very heart of some 
interesting city, where I could be within easy 
access of my business and have plenty of 
exercise in rowing, canoeing and bathing. 
I then conceived the idea of adapting one 
of the old gundelows of the Piscataqua, the 
flat-bottomed boat so much in use on the 
inland rivers fifty years ago; hence a visit to 
Portsmouth and the mouth of the Piscataqua 
to lie in wait for any that might appear. 
We are sure to see a few of this famous 
flock when the high tide returns to the sea, 
bringing every sort of floating craft on the 
Piscataqua that has been patiently waiting 
for the ever-faithful returning waters, to start 
up this bevy of inland birds that used to 
join in the flapping wings of the East Indian 
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