60 
American Agriculturist, July 26, 1924 
Aunt Janet Talks of Several Things 
< That Question about Pictures—A Worried Mother Answered 
W HAT pictures shall we hang on our 
walls? 
I asked this question recently apd some 
very thoughtful (and thought-inspiring) 
letters reached me. As in the case of the 
Don’t you always shudder when you 
see a copy of ‘Sheep in a Storm’? Whist¬ 
ler’s Mother is 
Children like the 
Landseer. Very 
* ‘My songs will never die while mothers sing and babies 
cry,” says the legend under this delightful picture of no 
less person than good old Mother Goose herself. An 
imaginative Jessie Wilcox Smith print which would add 
charm to any child’s room. 
choice of an ideal book-shelf, tastes varied 
greatly, but every letter showed that the 
writer had carefully thought out the 
reason for her preferences. 
The three illustrations on this page 
have been chosen for definite reasons. 
All may be obtained at a reasonable price, 
within the reach of the average farm 
family. In colors they are of course 
much more attractive. 
Mother Goose by Jessie Wilcox Smith 
is an excellent print for nursery or small 
child’s bedroom. For even very young 
children take a surprising amount of 
notice of the pictures on the walls, 
especially if, like this picture, the subject 
is within their grasp. Sometimes we 
relegate to the children’s rooms ugly or 
marred old pictures which we are not 
quite ready to throw away. I remember 
to this day the huge oak-framed picture 
of a great stag attacked by savage 
hunting dogs which disfigured the walls 
of a nursery to which I used to be taken 
as a child to visit. Much better bare 
clean walls than depressing pictures in 
gloomy and antiquated settings! 
Then there is the Harp of the Winds, 
painted with imagination which in its 
turn stimulates the imagination of the 
person who sees it. It is admirably 
simple, without crowding detail to tire 
the eye. Even in a sepia print the effect 
is of real water, sky and foliage. An 
American artist painted The Harp of the 
Winds, which would hang well in living 
room, hall or even a bedroom. 
Child Subjects are Attractive 
The Shepherd Boy, painted by an 
Austrian, is the type of dreaming, teen¬ 
age boy the world over. This is an 
example of the picture that you see with 
“the inward eye,’’ for though I had not 
seen a copy for some time, it followed me 
about as I thought over my answer to 
“Mother G’s” letter, printed on this 
page. This reproduces beautifully in 
colors, and like the other pictures can 
be obtained in excellent prints at moderate 
prices. 
I think all who w r rote me about their 
favorites will agree that these three 
modern paintings would add to the dec¬ 
oration of any home, for they fulfil the 
different requirements my readers have 
mentioned—subject-matter, the way the 
artist handles the subject and the quality 
of the reproduction, for instance. 
“L. L. ” makes a good point about the 
subject-matter. 
“The most important thing,” she says, 
“is to have pleasant pictures. I am glad 
the pictures I knew in my childhood 
home were joyful ones. 
a wonderful picture, 
animals of Sir Edward 
few Bible pictures are 
happy. Our dreams 
and ideals are fairer 
than the sacred pic¬ 
tures of many of the 
old masters. I re¬ 
member with joy a 
little picture I saw at 
Vassar College years 
ago of New York City 
at night. One cannot 
select pictures for 
others very well, but 
do have pictures that 
make one happy— 
a beautiful land¬ 
scape, happy chil¬ 
dren, some Wallace 
Nutting photos. Dis¬ 
card the old family 
portraits — no one 
cares about them but 
the relatives.” (And 
not always the rela¬ 
tives, if the truth 
were known!) 
Mrs. E. M. Ander¬ 
son speaks first for religious subjects and 
praises the Atigelvs as an inspiring in¬ 
fluence. She also urges historical pictures 
and votes against any war picture of any 
sort, particularly if there are children 
in the home. 
Frames Should Not Fight for Notice t 
“Special care should be taken in the 
selection of our frames,” says Mrs. 
George Gray. “We should remember 
they are used to contain the picture that ’ 
we may be able to look at it; so they ' 
should be plain and neat, harmonizing 
with the colors in the picture. Wood 
moldings of a tone a trifle lighter than 
the darkest tones in the picture are best. 
The width of the frame depends some¬ 
what on the subject of the picture. i 
“The simpler the frame used for a 
masterpiece, the better. They need 
nothing to set off their greatness; they 
are great in themselves. It has been said 
that the cheaper the picture the richer 
the frame needed and the reverse is just 
as true. A collector of valuable pictures 
framed one of his best very effectively 
from a pine board left in the rough and 
darkened with lamp black.” 
* * * 
What of the “Dreamy” Child ? 
D ear aunt janet: 
I have hesitated to bring my troubles 
to you, because they seem so dull and ordinary 
and I feel as if I should solve the problems 
myself. 
But there’s one I do need help on, and you 
seemed to me the best person to give advice. 
I have two children, a boy and a girl, and 
except for this one thing, both are as fine 
children as any woman could wish. But lately 
I have grown more and more discouraged over 
a big defect they both seem to have—they just 
have a terribly lazy streak and I can’t get 
rid of it! 
We have a good-sized farm, not very large, 
but in a nice section and if I do say it myself, 
their father and I have made a fine thing of it. 
We bought it when we were married and 
worked like beavers to put it in good shape and 
make it pay. We still have to work hard, 
though now we can afford to have some help. 
Ever since they were little I have trained my 
children to help us with the work, as much for 
their own sake as for ours, and now they are 
into their teens, I think it only fair they should 
take on more responsibility. They are dutiful 
about the work I ask them to do, but I cannot 
say they seem to want to help out—and so often 
I find the boy idling when his father set him a 
task he ought to do, or come upon the girl 
dreaming away time when I need her so much. 
So Much Good Time Wasted 
Somehow I’d hardly blame them so much if 
I caught them actually doing something, 
whether it was wrong or not, but this lazy way 
of doing nothing sets me simply crazy. I have 
talked to them about how wasteful it is, and 
they’ve both promised to try to make better use 
of their time. Yet I still find them mooning 
about when they might be at a dozen different 
things. My patience broke yesterday when I 
asked my fourteen-year-old son how he’d spent 
an afternoon when we needed him and couldn’t 
find him, and he an¬ 
swered “just doing noth¬ 
ing.” What can I do with 
my children to teach 
them the value of time? 
It seems to me that the 
farm is the place to learn 
that, if any place is. 
I don’t want them to 
grow up lazy, dilatory, 
do-nolhing humans. 
Boys and girls, it seems 
to me, have a much easier 
time now than when 
my husband and I were 
young. 
What would you sug¬ 
gest, Aunt Janet, that 
has been wrong in my 
training and what should 
I do to cure them of the 
lazy streak? 
, Your devoted reader. 
Mother G. 
home. I must confess I do think boys 
and girls have an easier time now than 
their parents did, but—wait till those 
fledgelings of yours start making their 
own homes! You’ll probably see them 
“work like beavers” then, for after all 
there’s no thrill like that of starting the 
new home with the right person. 
Do you remember that in a recent 
article in the American Agriculturist, 
a well-known psychologist, himself born 
and raised on a farm, stated that farm 
children often have to be taught to play? 
It was a sentence that stayed in my mind, 
and when I read your letter, dear trou¬ 
bled, hard-working mother G., I thought 
of what this wise man said and it gave me 
the cue as to how I should answer your 
puzzled query. 
Every Day Brings Its Duties 
First, I want to remind you of some¬ 
thing that not all parents take into con¬ 
sideration. The farm boy or girl is an 
asset to the family long before the city 
youngster is anything but an expense. 
It is usual—and only fair—to expect 
children and young people on the farm to 
do their share of the constant round of 
duties which make up the daily tasks of 
the home life. 
But when labor is free, there is a con¬ 
stant temptation to overlook the right of 
the laborer, young or old, to a certain 
amount of unquestioned liberty from 
) Reinthal & Newman, N. Y. 
Dear Mother G.: 
Such a perplexed, 
conscientious mother! 
I can just see you 
worrying over those 
’teen-aged youngsters whose “lazy 
streak” doesn’t seem to have been inher¬ 
ited from their mother, or their father 
either, from what you tell me of your 
early struggles to make and keep your 
“The Harp of the Winds,” by Homer Martin, hangs 
in the great Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 
This striking picture of water, sky and trees contrives 
to be at once stimulating and restful. 
supervision. Especially does the growing 
boy or girl need time for “doing nothing,” 
as many an exasperated mother or father 
has expressed it. 
“The thoughts of youth are long, long 
thoughts.” When the boy lies on his 
back, chewing a piece of grass and watch¬ 
ing the clouds drift across the sky, what 
tremendous, half-formed thoughts of 
deeds of valor, of some great future 
achievement, drift as slowly through his 
mind! Roused by a sudden demand for 
his services in barnyard or woodpile, he 
mumbles “nuthin”’ when sharply asked 
what he is doing. He himself hardly 
knows; he is often embarrassed at his own 
soaring thoughts when brought back to 
the work-a-day world. He certainly 
cannot tell his critics that the future man 
is in the making, there in the sunny daisy 
field, when things are so quiet and peace¬ 
ful that a fellow just naturally gets to 
thinking. 
Or the girl “dawdles” over the dishes, 
falls suddenly idle and dreamy just when 
the work seems heaviest and her help is 
most needed. A brisk reminder brings her 
back with a start and usually she turns 
© Reintha’l & Newman, N. Y 
‘The Thoughts of Youth are Long, Long Thoughts.” The Shepherd Boy, 
dreaming on the grassy hill-top, suggests all the peaceful magic of summer. 
Though a European picture it represents ‘-‘just boy”—the same the world over! 
(The 'prices of the pictures reproduced, on this page 
range from, 50c up, 'according to Ihe r he of the print. All 
are sold in small to ions as well as the la rger cities but if you 
can not find them. Aunt Janet will be glad to see that you 
get the name of a dealer who can supply you. Just address 
her in care of th. e American Agriculturist and enclose 
a stamp or stav^ped envelope for her reply.) 
I 
