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Show ARTISTIC HOME -BUILDING AND FURNISHING. By Mrs-. Ro'and P. Murdock, Wichita, Kansas. I. In the past few years there has been a great change in the iden of what goes toward the making of an artistic home When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "Whatever keeps a man in the front garden, whatever checks wandering wan-dering fancy and all inordinate ambition, ambi-tion, whatever makes for lounging and contentment, makes just so surely for domestic happiness," he gave explosion explo-sion of the spirit which I wish to make manifest to you, as I seek to emphasize the value of simple, honest and artistic environment on our lives and on the lives of our children. That we use the words "house" and "home" intcrchangcab'y is of itself proof of the ideal spirit of domestic architecture, and so wo build homes' instead of just building houses; for whether it be a mansion or a cottage, every house means a home to the man or woman who cherishes the true ideals and understands the real responsibilities of life. Houses arc made for protection, for refuge from the contact of life, and to give us an opportunity for" better preparation to meet tho problems which confront us. When contemp'ating the making of a home we shou'd throw away prcju- i dice and tradition; then we will be ! able to reach a spontaneous cxpros- i sion, which is always possible when we can. discriminate between that which is meretricious in building; for a man who has full confidence in ' his own ideas ceases to imitate and , becomes the exponent of his own indi- v viduality, provided he is equipped co make plain this evidence. The gos- j pel of the American revival is founded j on the teachings of Ruskin, Morris, and the others who taught that what ' is really useful must -also be beautiful, and what is really beautiful must be useful too. Out of this has grown the arts-and-crafts movement and the democratic effort to hasten the day of the artistic perception of the whole people. In America the artis-an has i not usually been an artist. We have n been too duM to ' perceive this and have accepted his work, which has had no meaning, until in our lethargy we well-nigh lost our artistic discem-nicnt. discem-nicnt. The work of our best architects denotes that there is a tendency toward to-ward an American style in architecture, architec-ture, and it is in our domestic buildings build-ings that this national sty'c is developing; devel-oping; also, its best manifestation 's i in the moderate class, semi-rural I house, the class which I judge is of most interest to us. It has been written, "As you arc, so arc your buildings; and as your build ings, so are you; you. and your architecture archi-tecture are the same." Tn all the phases of our art we seem to have a direct way of saying what we want to express, which is an assertion of a national characteristic; and this is shown in the simple, straight forwart1 planning of our houses. As we grow aesthetic we arc more mindful of the settings of our houses, and the study of the "advantages which nature so bounteously offers becomes one of the inspirations of life. As we arc but two generations removed re-moved fromi the tunc when the Indian was the only inhabitant of these great p'ains and the wigwam and tepee were the style in architecture, we arc free from the thraldom of local precedents pre-cedents "and traditions; so we are at liberty to adapt our buildings to the climate, the conditions and environ ments, if we heed the three essentials essen-tials in all good building strength, simplicity and honesty. Our houses should be designed n suit our lives and decorated in relation rela-tion to their uses. In domestic architecture arch-itecture it is a constant study to design de-sign a building that will be'ong to the landscape, serve its real purpose, and combine t1 practical, the economical and the artistic, which is not easy of accomplishment. As our point of view is our life, so usually the limitations under which we chafe are the outcome of the bon dage of the point of view which , .' have fostered. If we have not grdwn in our souls, we have robbed ourselves- of just so much of the joy of living. In the evolution of the various: naf tional periods, tetnpora'nicnt 1ms shown itself a grca1- factor; for given the same motive, either in music fr design, each nation works out its own temperamental composition; nonce we may understand the dissimilarity dissim-ilarity in various forms of architecture architect-ure and decoration, and probably wc, in our evolution of taste, arc an clement cle-ment in the forming of another .period .peri-od in the artistic progress. "It is not the individua' but the community which creates works jf art," nnd our architecture should show this communal awakening with an honesty of presentation and sincerity sin-cerity of expression. There arc three important oensidcrations in the planning plan-ning of every home: what wc want, what wc need, and what wc can have. When these arc decided, we can give our imagination full "scope in the composing of an alluring picture, which first of all must have a background. back-ground. In this prairie country we must grow our landscapes; thus fancy must be restrained if wc achieve th. results. Whenever possible we must take advantage of every natural help to any landscape effect; the value of a spreading oak or elm cannot be c-timatcd, c-timatcd, and these or a stream or pond must be preserved, if the entire .plan -nuiust be remade to do it; for landscape architecture and garden-craft garden-craft depend much on fu'1-grown trees and water gardens for results. Landscape planting has as certain fixed principles as any other form of art; so wc must plan that here arc the masses of light, shade and halftone; half-tone; there are the sharp contrast: and that no lines arc allowed to disturb dis-turb the eye by the branching off crosswise of paths and drives. No trees are a'lowcd to cut off the vistas, though they may be planted to break the sky-line, but always in just the -ight place. The artictic st 'cess cf the picture depends so largely on th background that one cannot prV'd i) neglect a thorough study of the trees to be planted; the tal'cst tree. are. to be the farthest away, and then as wc GQms nearer the foreground T we., should .plant, thq 4allor shrubs, I then 'those plants and crccipmV vinrs I yNiich serve to unite the grass and 1 ; . t i the trees in simplified harmony. , I |