Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1882 — Useful and Beautiful. [ARTICLE]

Useful and Beautiful.

If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: “ Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ” And if we apply that rule strictly we shall in the first place show the builders and such like servants of the public what we really want; we shall create a demand for real art, as the phrase goes; and in the second place, we shall surely have more money to pay for decent houses. - Perhaps it will not try your patience too much if I lay before you my idea of the fittings necessary to the sitting-room of a healthy person—a room, I mean, which he would not have to cook in much or sleep in generally, or in which he would not have to do any very litter making manual work. First a book case, with a great many books in it; next a table that will keep steady when you write or work at it; then several chairs that you can move and a bench that you can sit or lie upon; next a cupboard, with drawers; next unless either the cupboard or book case be very beautiful with paintings or carving, you will want pictures or engravings, such as you can afford, only not stop gaps, but real works of art, on the wall; or else the wall itself must be ornamented with some beautiful and restful pattern; we shall also want a vase or two to put flowers in, which latter you must have sometimes, especially if you live in a town. Then there will be the fireplace, of course, which in our climate is bound to be the chief object in the room. This is all we shall want, especially if the floor be good; if it be not, as by the way, it is pretty certain not to be, I admit that a small carpet which can be bundled out of the room in two minutes will be useful, and we must also take care that it is beautiful, or it may annoy us terribly.