Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1919 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME TOWN HELPS

BUILD WITH IDEA OF BEAUTY House Should Never Be Planned Solely Along Lines of Economy and Practical Utility. An earnest plea for more beauty in building is submitted by a writer in the magazine Touchstone, who says in part: “Building a home should be approached with reverence as well as joyous enthusiasm. There is no adventure in life more fraught with romance than the creating of a home. We are apt to turn to the past for precedent in architectural styles, whereas we should concern ourselves chiefly with the honest expression of our needs and surroundings. “Love of beauty was almost a religion with the Greeks., To build an ugly thing was a misdemeanor punishable with ostracism. Our country would be a much more delightful and much more agreeable place to live in if our home builders were guided by wise architects who took as much thought for beauty as they do for economy and profit. Every home is an investment, and a beautiful home returns far more interest on the money expended than does an ugly one. “Would it not be well for us, now that we are facing an era of home building such as the world has seldom known, to pause a little and approach our task with greater carefulness? We should remember that we are building for the future as well as for present delight and that our descendants may turn to our work with respect, as we look into the past and bow before the genius of the ancient master builders.”