Show STUDENT LIFE standing above them Does not the nature and contour of a country stamp its impress on the dispositions and even on the faces of its people? Could the characteristic face of the Irishman for example come from any place in the world but the Emerald Isle? Could the character of the Swiss from his rugged alpine home be other than strong and free and noble? Is not the strenuous life of this western land inspired by its pure free air and its majestic mountain scenery? We are largely the creatures of circumstances and the disposition of every individual partakes of his immediate surroundings Is it not important therefore that our homes should be just as attractive and as beautiful as our tastes and our means can make them? Very few of us can live in homes of wealth but all may live in homes of beauty Not infrequently a palatial mansion lacks the cozy home-lik- e cotappearance of a little vine-cla- d tage The first step towards beautifying a home is to draft out on paper a plan of the whole indicating the location of every building tree and shrub This will avoid many mistakes in the working out of a plan which once completed cannot be changed without labor and loss Unless we can garden well on paper we are not apt to do well in practice If we are started on new ground we have free scope But perhaps we are not the first who have undertaken to beautify that home and some tenant or ancestor 130 remote may have left his impress upon it If so we shall not begin with too ruthless a hand We should destroy no feature of the old until we have something better to put in its place Perhaps there is some landmark some huge historic rock or venerable tree which it would be almost sacrilegious to remove The venerable beauties of the old should be worked into the modern beauties of the new In planning the arrangement of a home it can be considered from three standpoints (i) Healthfulness (2) Convenience (3) Beauty As far as possible these features should be harmonized From the standpoint of healthfulness all and particularly the buildings dwelling house should be located high and dry The drainage should be from and never to the buildings It would be unwise to locate near where water settles and stagnates nor should the house be too near to barns or corrals or in a direction so tjiat prevailing winds can bring the offensive odor of stock As to convenience this feature must be worked out individually depending on the nature of the location and the occupation of the owner However extremes should be avoided and if possible a dwelling house should not be away back in a field where the highway cannot be seen nor yet so close to the street that the privacy of the home is lost As to beauty some points might be noted The house should be nearest the road or street and all other buildings should be in the rear of the |