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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 (T-
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES KEELER 
 
 PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS, SAN FRANCISCO
 
 Copyright, 1904 
 by Paul Elder and Company 
 
 The Tomoye Press 
 San Francisco
 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 TO MY FRIEND AND COUNSELOR 
 
 BERNARD R. MAYBECK 
 
 839694
 
 PREFACE 
 
 ALL the arts are modes of expressing the One Ideal ; 
 but the ideal must be rooted in the soil of the real, 
 the practical, the utilitarian. Thus it happens 
 that architecture, the most utilitarian of the arts, 
 underlies all other expressions of the ideal ; and of all 
 architecture, the designing of the home brings the artist 
 into closest touch with the life of man. 
 
 A movement toward a simpler, a truer, a more vital art 
 expression, is now taking place in California. It is a 
 movement which involves painters and poets, composers 
 and sculptors, and only lacks co-ordination to give it a sig- 
 nificant influence upon modern life. One of the first steps 
 in this movement, it seems to me, should be to introduce 
 more widely the thought of the simple home — to emphasize 
 the gospel of the simple life, to scatter broadcast the faith 
 in simple beauty, to make prevalent the conviction that we 
 must live art before we can create it. 
 
 The following brief essays on ' ' The Simple Home' ' are 
 written from the standpoint of a layman in architecture, and 
 are mainly intended to present, as graphically and suggest- 
 ively as such slight treatment enables, certain types of the sim- 
 ple home which may be infused with an art spirit. From such 
 homes, I fondly believe, will come not only the artists of the 
 future, but the public, whose faith and support are essential 
 to the permanence of art life in a community. — C. K. 
 
 [v]
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Spirit of the Home ------- i 
 
 The Garden --------- 7 
 
 The Building of the Home - - - - - - - 17 
 
 The Furnishing of the Home ------ 38 
 
 Home Life ----- 52 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Shingled Home Adorned with Vines ... Frontispiece 
 
 Brick Home in Dutch Style Approached Over a Bridge - 8 
 
 In the Japanese Garden at Golden Gate Park - - - 14 
 
 Shingled Home of Northern Type of Architecture - - 20 
 
 New Zealand Maori House Showing Roof of Moderate Pitch 26 
 
 Hawaiian House Showing Steep-pitched Roof - - 30 
 
 Glimpse of a Spanish California Mission - - - - 34 
 
 Cottage of Wood with Exterior Open Timber Work - 38 
 
 Library of Wood with Interior Timber Work Exposed - 46 
 
 California Home in the Spirit of a Swiss Chalet - - 52 
 
 The photographs of California homes are by Sarah I. Keeler. 
 
 [vii]
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME 
 
 HOME life antedates the period of man by many 
 evolutionary cycles. The aerie of the eagle, 
 the woven cradle of the oriole, the tunneled re- 
 treat of the field mouse, all are homes in the 
 truest sense. They are shelters from the world, where 
 motherhood makes her eternal sacrifice, where family life 
 and love find full expression, and where offspring are 
 shielded and reared. The animal home differs primarily 
 from the human home in its transitoriness. A few weeks or 
 months suffice for the weaning of the litter or the fledging 
 of the brood, and then the family scatters to the four winds. 
 Even with primitive men the home is scarce more than a 
 shelter for a brief interval in their nomadic life ; but with 
 advancing culture, it becomes a more permanent affair. 
 Groups of huts are clustered in a village which is the 
 abiding-place of the tribe for years or generations. Then 
 for the first time is developed an architecture. 
 
 Native architecture, like civilized architecture, is a nat- 
 ural growth. The nearest available material is worked into 
 a shelter, and the tradition of form once established is 
 
 handed down through generations. Thus the plains Indians 
 of North America make their teepee in the form of a tent- 
 shaped frame of poles covered with buffalo or deer hide ; 
 the Pueblos of New Mexico build their fortified house of 
 
 [i]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 stone or adobe and enter it by the roof; the Eskimo 
 construct a topek of sods with frame of whale-bone and 
 roof of walrus skin, or, in the far North, build their igloo 
 of snow masonry with tunneled entrance ; the Tahitians 
 make beautiful bamboo fares like baskets or bird-cages 
 roofed with thatched pandanus leaves ; the whare of the 
 New Zealand Maori is of marvelously carved wooden slabs 
 with intervening panels of bound grass and with thatched 
 roof of flax leaves. So, wherever we may go among 
 native tribes, a new type of architecture presents itself with 
 every new race, each using the materials at hand in a natural 
 and direct fashion to produce the needed shelter. 
 
 In the matter of privacy, it may be noted, the native is 
 far less exacting than the civilized man. Nearly all so-called 
 savage races are communistic in their lives. There may be 
 distinctions of class or caste, but the stranger is made wel- 
 come in the home circle, and the family is apt to be a large 
 and elastic group, comprising many distant and doubtful 
 relations, who live under one roof and in one apartment. 
 It is perhaps not too much to say that the dominant idea of 
 the native home is hospitality. In Tahiti the customary 
 salutation to a stranger, after the universal greeting, 
 "Iorana," is, "Come in and have something to eat." A 
 savage shares his food and home with the stranger quite as 
 a matter of course, never as a benefaction. 
 
 Something of this native spontaneous hospitality has 
 persisted in the traditions of California, where the mission 
 and ranch life of the Mexicans had an almost savage naivete 
 
 [2]
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME 
 
 in the matter of entertaining guests. In those simple days 
 before the gringo came, a stranger could journey from San 
 Diego to Sonoma and be sure of a welcome and hospitality 
 wherever he chose to stop. Not only would a room and 
 food be provided him, but upon his table, covered with a 
 napkin, was a pile of uncounted silver known as guest 
 money, from which he was to take what he needed to speed 
 him on his way. We still have the tradition, but we have 
 grown sophisticated since the coming of the Argonauts. 
 
 The ideal home is one in which the family may be most 
 completely sheltered to develop in love, graciousness and 
 individuality, and which is at the same time most accessible 
 to friends, toward whom hospitality is as unconscious and 
 spontaneous as it is abundant. Emerson says that the orna- 
 ment of a house is the friends who frequent it. 
 
 In the conventional home, both the richness of family 
 intercourse and the freedom of hospitality is restrained. 
 A life hedged in with formality is like a plant stifled by sur- 
 rounding weeds. Many people mistake formality for polite- 
 ness, or even for good morals. There is a vast difference 
 between good etiquette and right conduct. How depressing 
 it is to go into a home where every act is punctuated with 
 the formalism of polite society ! 
 
 The home must suggest the life it is to encompass. 
 The mere architecture and furnishings of the house do not 
 make the man any more than do his clothes, but they cer- 
 tainly have an effect in modifying him. A large nature may 
 rise above his environment and live in a dream world of his 
 
 [3]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 own fashioning, but most of us are mollusks after all, and are 
 shaped and sized by the walls which we build about us. 
 When we enter a room and see tawdry furniture, sham 
 ornaments and vulgar daubs of pictures displayed, do we not 
 feel convinced that the occupants of the home have a tawdry 
 and vulgar streak in their natures? Or if all is cold and 
 formal in architecture and furnishings, do we not instinc- 
 tively nerve ourselves to meet the shock of a politely proper 
 reception ? 
 
 The average modern American home is a reflex in min- 
 iature of the life of the people. It is quickly made and 
 lightly abandoned. If it were constructed like the Japanese 
 house of bamboo and paper, or like a native hut of thatch, 
 it might charm from its simplicity and lack of ostentation ; 
 or if, like the homes of our ancestors, it were made of mor- 
 tised logs chinked with mud, it would have a rude dignity 
 and inevitableness which would put it in harmony with the 
 surrounding nature. But these things no longer satisfy. 
 We must all have palaces to house us — petty makeshifts, 
 to be sure, with imitation turrets, spires, porticos, corbels 
 and elaborate bracket- work excrescences — palaces of crum- 
 bling plaster, with walls papered in gaudy patterns and 
 carpets of insolent device — palaces furnished in cracking 
 veneer, with marble mantels and elaborate chandeliers. It 
 is a shoddy home, the makeshift of a shoddy age. It is the 
 natural outgrowth of our prosperous democracy. Machinery 
 has enabled us to manifold shams to a degree heretofore 
 undreamed. We ornament our persons with imitation pearls 
 
 [4]
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE HOME 
 
 and diamonds ; we dress in felt wadding that, for a week or 
 two, looks like wool ; we wear silk that tears at a touch, 
 and our homes are likewise adorned with imitations and 
 baubles. We botch our carpentering and trust to putty, 
 paint and paper to cover up the defects. On Sundays we 
 preach about the goodly apple rotten at the heart, and all 
 the week we make houses of veneer and stucco. Our 
 defense is that we do not expect to tarry long where we are 
 encamped, so why build for the grandchildren of the 
 stranger ? 
 
 Happily, a change is coming into our lives. Nowhere 
 in the country is it more marked than in California. From 
 small beginnings it has spread slowly at first, but soon with 
 added momentum. The thought of the simple life is being 
 worked out in the home. In the simple home all is quiet in 
 effect, restrained in tone, yet natural and joyous in its frank 
 use of unadorned material. Harmony of line and balance 
 of proportion is not obscured by meaningless ornamenta- 
 tion ; harmony of color is not marred by violent contrasts. 
 Much of the construction shows, and therefore good work- 
 manship is required and the craft of the carpenter is restored 
 to its old-time dignity. 
 
 Blessed is he who lives in such a home and who makes 
 life conform to his surroundings, — who is hospitable not 
 only to friends, but to the sweet ministration of the ele- 
 ments, who holds abundant intercourse with sun and air, 
 with bird voices sounding from the shrubbery without and 
 human voices within singing their answer ! In such a home, 
 
 [5]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 inspiring in its touch with art and books, glorified by mother 
 love and child sunshine, may the human spirit grow in 
 strength and grace to the fulness of years. 
 
 [6]
 
 I 
 
 THE GARDEN 
 
 °^HE garden is the touch of nature which mediates 
 between the seclusion of the home and the pub- 
 licity of the street. It is nature controlled by 
 art. In this assembling of trees, shrubbery, vines 
 and flowers about the home, in this massing of greensward or 
 beds of bloom, man is conjuring the beauties of nature into 
 being at his very doorstep, and compelling them to refresh 
 his soul with an ever-changing pageantry of life and color. 
 
 Unfortunately, in this workaday world, the possibility 
 of the householder to be also a gardener is regulated by 
 severe necessity. As men crowd together, the value of 
 land increases, and so it is that in the heart of a large city 
 only an enlightened public sentiment makes practicable the 
 setting apart of areas where all may enjoy the redeeming 
 grace of foliage and flowers. In proportion to the scat- 
 tering of men is the extension of the garden possible, until 
 the limit is reached in the lodge amid the wilderness, where 
 the overpowering presence of nature makes the intrusion of 
 an artificial garden an impertinence. In the village, then, 
 the opportunities of the garden seem to be greatest. 
 
 But even the city home need not be wholly without the 
 purifying influence of plants and flowers. Where houses 
 are most congested and there is no land about the walls, 
 one may resort to potted plants, and the streets may be deco- 
 
 [7]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 rated with palms or small trees in tubs or big terra-cotta 
 pots. Vines may be planted in long wooden boxes, or, 
 better still, in cement troughs against the sides of the house. 
 If one objects to growing flowers in the rooms, little bal- 
 conies or railed-in brackets may be built outside the windows 
 for holding rows of potted plants. Hanging baskets con- 
 taining vines or ferns are most effective on porches, while 
 boxes of earth may stand upon upper balconies from which 
 vines may grow and trail over the outer walls. A move- 
 ment for the decoration, with geraniums and other plants 
 and vines, of the residence district of the poor, would, I 
 firmly believe, yield immediate returns in the advancement 
 of culture. 
 
 Another expedient in the absence of land about the home 
 is the roof garden. If this were sheltered from the pre- 
 vailing wind with a wall or screen of glass, it would give the 
 urbanite a miniature park where he could enjoy fresh air in 
 seclusion. 
 
 But these devices are all makeshifts for the unfortunate 
 ones who must live in the heart of a city. When a home is 
 built in the town or country, the matter of a garden must 
 be taken into consideration. Indeed, this should be studied 
 even before the house is located on the land. Modern town 
 lots are commonly cut up in long, narrow strips, so that by 
 putting the house in the midst of a lot there will be a front 
 and a back yard. This conventional arrangement has its 
 advantages, although, as a rule, an unnecessary amount of 
 space is wasted on the back yard, the chief utility of which 
 
 [8]
 
 THE GARDEN 
 
 seems to be to afford room for the garbage barrel and for 
 drying clothes. If a hint is taken from the compact method 
 of clothes-drying practiced by the Chinese at their laun- 
 dries, the land so often set apart for this purpose can be 
 greatly restricted, thus correspondingly enlarging the gar- 
 den. Two alternatives then remain — to place the house far 
 back on the lot and have the garden all at the front, or to 
 bring the house forward and have a small open plot in front 
 and a retired garden in the rear. 
 
 Upon hillsides, if the streets are laid out in a rational 
 manner to conform with the contour of the land, winding 
 naturally up the slopes, the lots will of necessity be cut into 
 all sorts of irregular shapes. This gives endless latitude in 
 the placing of the houses upon the lots, so that unconven- 
 tional groups of buildings may be set upon the landscape in 
 the most picturesque fashion. But even when the lots are 
 of the usual rectangular shape, much ingenuity may be 
 exercised in the location of the house with reference to the 
 garden. I have in mind one corner lot with a stream 
 winding through it, shaded with venerable live-oaks. By 
 putting the rear of the house on the property line of the 
 side street, the front wall was close to the bank of the stream, 
 and was approached by a simple brick bridge which led to 
 the broad veranda about the entrance. This unusual loca- 
 tion gave the effect of a large front garden, and made the 
 stream the principal feature. A more conventional arrange- 
 ment would have relegated this charming little watercourse 
 to the back yard. 
 
 [9]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 Whenever an entire block of homes can be studied in 
 one plan, much more can be accomplished than by the cus- 
 tomary method of each man for himself, regardless of the 
 interests of his neighbors. For example, if the houses must 
 be crowded together on lots of fifty-feet width, the garden 
 space could be made to yield the utmost privacy by some 
 such arrangement as the following : Suppose the houses to 
 be set two or three feet back from the property line, leaving 
 just room enough to plant vines and bright flowers along 
 the front. If, then, a brick fire wall were erected on each 
 fifty-foot division line, the houses could be built touching 
 one another, and thus completely filling the block, save for 
 the margin of flowers. By planning each house on three 
 sides of a hollow square, with long, narrow rooms in wings 
 extending lengthwise on the lots, each home would have an 
 inner court, completely sheltered from neighbors, and with 
 ample space behind it for a back yard. Or this scheme 
 might be reversed by facing the hollow square to the street, 
 in which case the court might be sheltered by a hedge or 
 low wall. According to the former plan, the long front 
 wall would perhaps appear somewhat monotonous, but it 
 could be diversified by having generous passageways open- 
 ing directly through the houses into the courts, and by the 
 judicious use of open timber work and carving, if the houses 
 were of wood, or of ornamental terra-cotta, if of brick. The 
 continuous line of varied bloom next the sidewalk, with 
 shade trees on the street, would relieve this scheme of any 
 stiffness. I mention these devices merely to show that 
 
 [10]
 
 THE GARDEN 
 
 many interesting garden effects might be obtained by the 
 exercise of more thought in the placing of the house, and 
 especially by studying a group of structures in connection 
 with their surrounding land. 
 
 Now, as to the garden itself: In the matter of archi- 
 tecture, two leading types appear to be in vogue in Cali- 
 fornia, a northern and a southern, differentiated by an 
 extreme or slight roof pitch. In considering the garden, 
 two pronounced types are also encountered — the natural 
 and formal — each of which is subject to two modes of treat- 
 ment according to the character of vegetation used, whether 
 this be predominantly indigenous or predominantly exotic. 
 
 By a natural garden I understand one that simulates, as 
 nearly as may be, the charm of the wilderness, tamed and 
 diversified for convenience and accessibility. A treatment 
 of this sort demands very considerable stretches of land to 
 produce a satisfactory result. The English parks are prob- 
 ably the finest examples of this type, which can hardly be 
 successfully applied to town lots not over a hundred feet in 
 width at most. In a district where the lots are happily laid 
 out on a somewhat more generous plan, and especially 
 where nature has not been already despoiled of all her 
 charms, this form of garden may be developed to best 
 advantage. If situated in the California Coast region, within 
 the redwood belt, nothing could give greater sense of peace 
 and charm than a grove of these noble trees varied with live- 
 oaks, and with other native trees and shrubs growing in their 
 shade, such as madrono and manzanita, sweet-scented shrub, 
 
 En]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 wild currant, redbud and azalea, with wild-flowers peering 
 from the leafy covert — the hound's tongue, baby-blue-eyes, 
 shooting-star, fritillaria, eschscholtzia, and a host of others. 
 About such a garden as this there is a purer sentiment, a 
 more refined love of nature undefiled, than can be obtained 
 by more artificial means ; but such a garden needs room. 
 Big trees, and especially such native evergreens as the red- 
 wood and live-oak, take an unexpected amount of space, 
 and if crowded together make the surroundings too dark 
 and gloomy. On the California Coast there is need of all 
 the sunlight that heaven bestows. Then, too, many people 
 build their homes on the hillsides to enjoy the view. If num- 
 bers of large trees are set out about their homes, the outlook 
 is soon obliterated, and the charm of far sweeps of bay and 
 purple ranges is lost. It ma}' be suggested that there are 
 plenty of smaller native trees and shrubs that can be used, 
 which will be adapted to a restricted plot of ground. Prac- 
 tically it will be found, it seems to me, that a garden thus 
 limited to indigenous plants will prove rather dull in color 
 and lacking in character. Without the woodsy effect of light 
 and shadow, or the brilliance of cultivated flowers, the little 
 patch of green will be apt to seem rather commonplace. 
 
 This brings me to the second treatment of the natural 
 type of garden — the introduction of exotic plants into the 
 scheme. The coast of California, as far north as the San 
 Francisco Bay region, and the interior valleys for a hundred 
 miles and more farther to the northward, have a climate of 
 such temperateness that an extraordinary variety of exotics 
 
 [12]
 
 THE GARDEN 
 
 will thrive which, in less favored regions, would only live 
 under glass. Bamboo, palms, dracaenas, magnolias, oranges, 
 bananas, and innumerable other fragrant or showy plants of 
 New Zealand and Australia, of Africa, South America and 
 the Indies, grow with the hardihood of natives. Among 
 the trees most commonly introduced are such as the euca- 
 lypti, acacias, pittosporums, grevilias, and araucarias, but 
 the number of successfully growing exotics is bewildering. 
 Flowers which in colder climates must be carefully tended 
 in pots, grow here like rank weeds, while vines that in more 
 rugged localities develop a few timid sprays, shoot up here 
 like Jack's beanstalk. An entire house may be embowered 
 in a single rose vine. Geranium hedges may grow to a 
 height of eight feet or more. It is a common sight to see 
 hundreds of feet of stone wall so packed with the pink 
 blossoms of the ivy-geranium that it appears like a con- 
 tinuous mass of bloom. The calla sends up its broad leaves 
 and white cups as high as a man's head. The lemon ver- 
 bena grows into a tree. 
 
 In the old-fashioned California gardens, advantage was 
 taken of this prodigal growth, but without much study of 
 arrangement. They were natural gardens of exotics, with 
 curved paths, violet bordered, winding through the shrub- 
 bery. Often there was great incongruity in the assembling 
 of plant forms, and the charm lay in the individual plants 
 rather than in the ensemble. 
 
 Over against the natural garden, whether of indigenous 
 or exotic plants, may be set by way of contrast, the formal 
 
 [13]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 garden. The Italians are masters of this type of garden 
 architecture, and it is to them that Californians may well 
 turn for inspiration. A formal garden is one arranged 
 according to an architectural plan, with terraces, pools, 
 fountains and watercourses, out-of-door rooms, and some 
 suggestions of architectural or sculptural adornment. It 
 would be possible to design a formal garden exclusively or 
 mainly of indigenous plants, but this would unnecessarily 
 cramp the artist in his work. By having a choice of all the 
 plants of the temperate zone, the landscape gardener is 
 given limitless power of expression in his art. It is, of 
 course, a prime essential to consider the effects of massing 
 and grouping, the juxtaposition of plants that seem to belong 
 together, and a due regard for harmony in color scheme. 
 
 Another type which may be studied by the Californians 
 to great advantage is the Japanese garden. Conventional to 
 a degree with which the Western mind cannot be expected 
 to sympathize, it is, nevertheless, a miniature copy of 
 nature made with that consummate aesthetic taste character- 
 istic of the Japanese race. The garden as they conceive it 
 must have its mimic mountains and lakes, its rivulets 
 spanned by arching bridges, its special trees and stones, all 
 prescribed and named according to certain stereotyped 
 plans. But despite all this conservatism and conventionality, 
 the details are free and graceful, with a completeness and 
 subtlety of finish that makes the Western garden seem crude 
 and commonplace by comparison. Their carved gates, 
 patterned bamboo fences, stone lanterns, thatched summer- 
 
 [14]
 
 THE GARDEN 
 
 houses, and other ornamental accessories are original and 
 graceful in every detail. Like the Italians, the Japanese 
 make use of retired nooks and out-of-door rooms, while 
 artificial watercourses are features of their gardens. 
 
 My desire in calling especial attention to these two types 
 of gardens developed by races as widely sundered as the 
 Italian and the Japanese, is not that we in California should 
 imitate either, or make a vulgar mixture of the two, but, 
 rather, by a careful study of both, to select those features 
 which can be best adapted to our own life and landscape, so 
 that a new and distinctive type of garden may be evolved 
 here, based upon the best examples of foreign lands. As 
 to the precise form which this new garden ty*^e of California 
 should assume, it is perhaps premature to say, but one 
 thing is vital, that at least a portion of the space should be 
 sequestered from public view, forming a room walled in 
 with growing things and yet giving free access to light and 
 air. To accomplish this there must be hedges or vine- 
 covered walls or trellises, with rustic benches and tables to 
 make the garden habitable. If two or more of these bowers 
 are planned, connected by sheltered paths, a center of inter- 
 est for the development of the garden scheme will be at 
 once available. My own preference for a garden for the 
 simple home is a compromise between the natural and formal 
 types — a compromise in which the carefully studied plan is 
 concealed by a touch of careless grace that makes it appear 
 as if nature had unconsciously made bowers and paths and 
 sheltering hedges. 
 
 [15]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 In the selection of plants there is one point which may- 
 be well kept in mind — to strive for a mass of bloom at all 
 periods of the year. A little study of the seasons at which 
 various species flower will enable one to have his garden a 
 constant carnival of gay color. As the China lilies and 
 snowdrops wane in midwinter, the iris puts forth its royal 
 purple blossoms, followed by the tulips, the cannas, the 
 geraniums and the roses ( both of which latter are seldom en- 
 tirely devoid of blossoms). In midsummer there are esch- 
 scholtzias, poppies, hollyhocks, sweet peas and marigolds, 
 while chrysanthemums bloom in the autumn and early winter. 
 These are but the slightest hints of the way in which a study 
 of the floral procession of the seasons makes it possible to 
 keep the garden aglow with color at all seasons of the year. 
 
 Let us, then, by all means, make the most of our gar- 
 dens, studying them as an art, — the extension of archi- 
 tecture into the domain of life and light. Let us have 
 gardens wherein we can assemble for play or where we may 
 sit in seclusion at work ; gardens that will exhilarate our 
 souls by the harmony and glory of pure and brilliant color, 
 that will nourish our fancy with suggestions of romance as 
 we sit in the shadow of the palm and listen to the whisper 
 of rustling bamboo ; gardens that will bring nature to our 
 homes and chasten our lives by contact with the purity of 
 the great Earth Mother. 
 
 [16]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 HOME making is one of the sacred tasks of life, 
 for the home is the family temple, consecrated 
 to the service of parents and offspring. As 
 the strength of the state is founded upon family 
 life, so is the strength of society based upon the home. 
 The building of the home should be an event of profound 
 importance. It should be with man as it is with the birds, 
 the culminating event after courtship and marriage, upon 
 which all the loving thought and energy of the bridal pair 
 is bestowed. How often in our modern American life do_ 
 we find a far different procedure ! The real estate agent 
 and the investor confer, and as a result we have rows of 
 houses put up to sell to shiftless home seekers who are 
 too indifferent to think out their own needs, and helplessly 
 take what has been built for the trade. The taint of com- 
 mercialism is over these homes, and all too often the life 
 within them is shallow and artificial. 
 
 The building of houses is an art, not a trade, and there- 
 fore it is needful that when those who are to occupy the 
 home have thought out their needs, they should let an 
 artist create out of their disjointed ideas an artistic whole. 
 So apparent is this that it seems but an idle truism, yet 
 comparatively few realize its full significance. It is not 
 enough for a boss carpenter or a contractor to style himself 
 
 [17]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 an architect and hang out his shingle. We must demand 
 of our architect that he be a real creative artist — that 
 he understand form and proportion, that he be a man of 
 taste and originality, that he appreciate not merely the 
 general types, but the inner spirit of the architecture of 
 other peoples and other ideals of culture. Such a man will 
 sublimate our crude and imperfect conception of the home 
 and make of it a vital expression. Such a home will not 
 merely fit us, but will be like the clothes of a growing 
 child, loose enough to allow us to expand to its full idea, 
 and with seams which can be let out as the experience of 
 years enlarges our ideals. 
 
 It has often been pointed out that all sound art is an 
 expression springing from the nature which environs it. Its 
 principles may have been imported from afar, but the appli- 
 cation of those principles must be native. A home, for 
 example, must be adapted to the climate, the landscape and 
 the life in which it is to serve its part. In New England 
 we must have New England homes ; in Alabama, Alabama 
 homes, and in California, California homes. We cannot 
 import the one bodily into the other surroundings without 
 introducing jarring notes, although there is a certain quality 
 in architecture which is racial and temperamental rather than 
 climatic, — a quality not to be ignored or slighted. 
 
 Even such a designation as a California home is too 
 inclusive, for between the climate and scenery of San Diego 
 and Mendocino Counties there is as wide a diversity as 
 between New England and Alabama. In the following 
 
 [18]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 discussion, much will be of general application regardless 
 of climate or landscape, but those points in which environ- 
 ment enters will refer mainly to the region about San Fran- 
 cisco Bay. Here a quarter of the population of California is 
 concentrated, and it is with their homes that I am especially 
 concerned. 
 
 The style of the house is determined in no small degree 
 by the material of which it is constructed, and this in turn 
 is to a large measure regulated by cost or availability. Prim- 
 itive people in many lands have found reeds, grasses, or 
 leaves, thatched upon poles, the most readily obtainable 
 material for making a shelter. Even in the rural districts 
 of England the use of thatch may still be seen, but the 
 danger of fire and the comparative instability of such work 
 has caused it to be generally abandoned. 
 
 In all countries where forests of suitable timber are 
 accessible, we find wooden houses predominate. Even such 
 savages as the Thlingit Indians of Alaska and the New 
 Zealand Maoris, both living in lands abundantly forested, 
 abandoned the temporary huts of their ancestors for perma- 
 nent houses of wooden slabs. In desert countries, on the 
 contrary, where wood is scarce and difficult to obtain, we 
 find the first evidences of the use of stone or clay for build- 
 ing purposes. The Pueblo Indians of Arizona, the Aztecs 
 of Mexico and the early Egyptians are instances in point. 
 
 California is still in the period of wooden houses. With 
 great forest areas unexploited and the modern facilities for 
 converting trees into lumber, this is still by far the least 
 
 [19]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 expensive material available for building purposes. A brick 
 house costs today nearly twice as much as a wooden house, 
 and a structure of stone, or even of terra-cotta, is far more 
 expensive than one of brick. Since the average home builder 
 puts into his residence all he can afford, building of brick 
 would mean to shrink the house to half its dimensions in 
 wood. It therefore follows that brick and stone, for some 
 time to come, will be available chiefly for public or com- 
 mercial structures, except amongst the very rich, while the 
 man of average means must be content with wood. 
 
 In this there is no hardship if the one essential rule be 
 observed of using every material in the manner for which it 
 is structurally best adapted, and of handling it in a dignified 
 style. The failure to observe this rule is the great sin in 
 most of the domestic architecture of America. A few illus- 
 trations will emphasize the point. The arch of masonry is 
 the strongest structural use of stone or brick. An arch of 
 wood, on the contrary, has no structural value, and is a 
 mere imitation of a useful building form. It is generally 
 painted to imitate the effect of stone, and thus sins even 
 more seriously in becoming a sham. We feel that a woman 
 with painted lips and cheeks is vulgar because she is sham- 
 ming the beauty which only vigorous health can bestow ; so 
 also is woodwork vulgar when it is covered over to imitate 
 the architectural form of stone. 
 
 The rounded arch, although the most obvious type of 
 iaulty design in wood, is only one of many points in which 
 the effect of stone construction is unwarrantably imitated in 
 
 [20]
 
 X 
 
 o 
 3 
 w 
 
 o 
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 Z 
 
 o 
 
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 H 
 X 
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 x 
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 I
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 wood. The round tower, the curving bay window, and a 
 multitude of detachable ornaments are cheaply rendered in 
 wood when their very nature demands that they be built of 
 masonry. It is a good general rule in timber construction 
 to build in straight, angular lines, thus in a measure insuring 
 the effect of strength, dignity, and repose. 
 
 Having determined the general form of construction in 
 wood, it is next important to consider its right treatment 
 and handling. Wood is a good material if left in the 
 natural finish, but it is generally spoiled by the use of paint 
 or varnish. This is a matter which perhaps cannot be 
 entirely reasoned out. It must be seen and felt to be under- 
 stood ; and yet it is a point vital to artistic work. There is 
 a refinement and character about natural wood which is 
 entirely lost when the surface is altered by varnish and 
 polish. Oil paint is the most deadly foe of an artistic wood 
 treatment. It is hard and characterless, becoming dull and 
 grimy with time and imparting a cold severity to the walls. 
 
 Wood is treated with paint for two avowed reasons — to 
 protect it and to ornament it. Experience proves, however, 
 that the protection afforded by paint is quite unnecessary in 
 most climates. Shingles, if left to themselves, rot very 
 slowly and in a very clean manner. Since the grain of the 
 wood is in the direction of drainage, the rot is constantly 
 washed out instead of accumulating. With painted clap- 
 boards, in which the grain runs crosswise to the drainage, 
 on the contrary, dirt and grime are scrubbed into the wood, 
 and a renewal of paint is necessary after a very few years. 
 
 [21]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 Natural shingles last fully three times as long as a coat of 
 paint, and are thus in the end an economy. 
 
 As to the second reason for treating wood with paint, 
 ornamentation, let us consider for a moment wherein lies the 
 beauty of a house. We are too prone to forget that a 
 single house is but a detail in a landscape. In the country 
 it is a mere incident amongst the trees or fields ; in the city 
 it is but one of a street of houses. In either case its effect 
 should never be considered apart from the whole. The 
 exterior of a house should always be conceived so that it 
 will harmonize with its surroundings. The safest means of 
 effecting this is by leaving the natural material to the tender 
 care of the elements. Wood in time weathers to a soft 
 brown or gray in which the shadows are the chief marks of 
 accent. The tones are sufficiently neutral to accord with 
 any landscape, and the only criticism from an artistic point 
 of view which can be made upon the coloring of such a group 
 of houses is that they are rather sober and reserved. Califor- 
 nia has a remedy for this defect in the abundance of climbing 
 flowers. Banksia rose, ivy-geranium, Wistaria, clematis, 
 passion vine, Ampelopsis, and a joyous host of companion 
 vines are ready to enliven any sober wall. Wire-mesh screens 
 a foot from the house will protect the shingles from damp- 
 ness, and our houses can thus be decked as for a carnival in 
 a wealth of varying bloom. 
 
 A practice much in vogue of trimming shingle houses 
 with white is especially to be deprecated since the white 
 accent is utterly out of key with the rest of the house and 
 
 [22]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 attracts the attention out of all proportion to the importance 
 of the parts thus emphasized. If color must be used, a 
 creosote shingle stain for the roof, of dull red or a soft 
 warm green, is not apt to destroy the color harmony of the 
 house with reference to the surrounding landscape, but the 
 difficulty is that crude harsh colors are so often chosen, or, 
 if successfully avoided by the original colorist, may be 
 applied by some less discriminating successor. The colors 
 bestowed by nature always improve with time, and are 
 therefore by far the safest. 
 
 Our consideration of the home has progressed only so 
 far as the right use of one material. There are two other 
 matters of fundamental importance, the style of archi- 
 tecture and the plan. Our discussion to this point would 
 apply equally to any country or climate, but in the matters 
 now to be treated, the environment must be reckoned with. 
 A simple house need not, in an exact sense, be classed with 
 any style of architecture, yet there are certain distinguishing 
 features which seem to throw many of our recent homes into 
 either the Classic, the Gothic, or the so-called "Mission" 
 architecture of the Spanish. 
 
 With the California houses which pass under the name 
 of "Colonial" I have no sympathy whatever. In the 
 Eastern States the real colonial houses are genuinely beau- 
 tiful and appropriate, set amidst green lawns and shadowed 
 with venerable elms, but their charm lies more in the natural 
 use of good materials than in the introduction of classic 
 columns and other embellishments. The cheap imitations 
 
 [23]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 of such homes in California generally have no harmonious 
 setting and are characterized by the use of inappropriate 
 materials in an insincere way. I need instance but one 
 example, that of a large wooden house painted red to sug- 
 gest brick, with blocks of white trimming as a reminiscence 
 of marble or granite. In this there is no attempt at 
 deception, of course, but a mere copy of an effect produced 
 by more expensive materials. 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell at greater length on the inap- 
 propriateness of meaningless white-painted fluted columns of 
 hollow wood, which support nothing worthy of their pre- 
 tentiousness, of little balconies of turned posts, which are 
 too small or inaccessible to be used, and many other vulgar 
 accessories of ornament, made more glaring by a hard 
 surface of white paint. 
 
 I therefore pass next to the Gothic house. A real prob- 
 lem here presents itself for serious consideration, one, in 
 fact, concerning which our best architects are not fully in 
 accord. In brief, the question is : Shall we bar the pointed 
 roof from the valleys of California, and with it the Gothic 
 spirit, on the ground that our climate does not demand it? 
 Those who reply in the affirmative, point to the fact that we 
 live in a land without snow, and that the steep-pitched roof 
 is called for only as a means of shedding the heavy snow 
 of a northern climate. They contend that since our climatic 
 affinities are with the Mediterranean countries rather than 
 with Germany, Britain, and Scandinavia, our architecture 
 should follow the inspiration of the South rather than of the 
 
 [24]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 North. Those who make this contention find their ideal in 
 a masonry architecture with roofs of the slightest practicable 
 pitch. I have much sympathy with this point of view, and 
 yet the case does not seem quite so clear as some of its most 
 consistent advocates conceive it. The problem seems to 
 hinge, in part at least, on whether or not the steep-pitched 
 roof is to be regarded only in the light of a snow-shed. If 
 so, it is manifestly out of place in the valleys of Central and 
 Southern California. But is there not another element 
 involved in the pointed lines of Gothic architecture? Are 
 the pinnacles and spires of a Gothic cathedral intended 
 simply or mainly to carry off snow? It seems to me, on 
 the contrary, that the whole pointed effect of Gothic archi- 
 tecture is, in a measure at least, a means of expressing the 
 ideal of aspiration. A flattened roof naturally carries the 
 glance down to earth ; a pointed roof, on the other hand, 
 leads the eye upward to the sky. The two ideals are most 
 completely embodied in the Greek temple and the Gothic 
 cathedral, the one complete, finished, nobly crowning the 
 earth, the other beautiful in itself but pointing heavenward 
 toward spiritual things unrealized. 
 
 Even if the flatness of the Greek temple and the 
 pointedness of the Gothic cathedral were primarily the 
 result of the absence and presence of snow, these forms 
 have, in the course of ages, become the embodiments of 
 certain human ideals, the contented and the aspiring. The 
 horizontal line suggests repose ; the vertical line, action. 
 If the Gothic spirit is to be introduced and perpetuated in 
 
 [25]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 California, it will have a temperamental rather than a cli- 
 matic rationale. 
 
 That the pointed roof is not an essential in a country 
 with heavy winter snows is well exemplified by the Swiss 
 chalet. Those who disparage the pointed roof most strongly 
 as an importation from a land of snow are most ready to 
 follow the type of house characteristic of Switzerland, where 
 broad roofs of very slight pitch, supported by massive tim- 
 bers, hold the snow to serve as a warm blanket. 
 
 If we turn to savage architecture to discover the natural 
 genesis of roof lines, we find the Thlingit Indians in Alaska 
 and the Maoris of southern New Zealand, both living in 
 lands of winter snow, building houses with roof pitch but 
 little steeper than that characteristic of Italy and Greece, 
 while the Hawaiians, who dwell in the tropics and whose 
 ancestors lived there in the remote past, build grass houses 
 with roofs as steep as those of Norway. In the face of 
 such unconscious testimony as to the lack of necessary rela- 
 tion between roof pitch and snow, I fail to see how any 
 fair-minded student of architecture can continue to press 
 the point. 
 
 Personally I have no wish to argue in favor of either 
 roof pitch for California. It seems to me to be largely a 
 matter of individual taste, to be determined by the prefer- 
 ence of the builder for Gothic or Classic ideals. There is a 
 practical advantage in the roof of low pitch, in that it gives an 
 increase in attic room, but the steep roof, on the other hand, 
 is a more perfect water-shed, and therefore less liable to leak. 
 
 [26]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 The Mansard roof, with flat top enclosed with a railing, 
 need not be discussed in this connection, since it is happily 
 out of fashion and seems destined to remain so. Another 
 form of flat roof— that characteristic of Egypt and Pales- 
 tine — is, on the contrary, quite appropriate to California, 
 and especially to city houses. In this style of architecture 
 the outer walls of the house project above the roof level, 
 enclosing an open-air garden on the house-top. Buildings 
 thus designed are generally made of stone, brick, or plaster, 
 although wood also may be fitly employed for a house of 
 this description. 
 
 Our discussion of architectural styles has thus far been 
 restricted to roof lines, and the conclusion reached is that 
 taste and a feeling for simple, harmonious lines rather than 
 climate is the governing principle in determining these. In 
 the matter of windows, balconies, and the arrangement of 
 the walls, on the contrary, climate plays an important role. 
 Southern California is pre-eminently a land of sunshine, with 
 slight rainfall, little fog, mild winters, and hot, dry sum- 
 mers. An out-of-door life is possible much of the year, 
 and protection from the sun is a necessity to comfort. 
 Deep recessed verandas, windows with deep reveals, and 
 open rooms roofed over and with the sides protected by 
 screens upon which vines may be trained, — all these are 
 suitable to the climate of southern California, and to the 
 sheltered valleys in the interior of the central part of the 
 State. The Spanish architecture is especially appropriate 
 in these regions. Heavy walls of masonry, secluded courts, 
 
 [27]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 outside corridors sheltered from the sun, and houses set flat 
 upon the ground, are quite in keeping with a warm, arid 
 country. 
 
 The region about San Francisco Bay has a very different 
 climate. The proportion of sunny days is far less ; during 
 the winter there is an abundant rainfall, while in summer 
 much foggy weather is experienced. The winters are so 
 mild that furnace fires are seldom considered a necessity, 
 while the summers are so cool that there are only a few 
 days when sunlight is not welcome for its warmth. Thus it 
 follows that about San Francisco Bay we need to introduce 
 into our homes all the sunlight we can get. Here the deep 
 shadowing porches or outside corridors are out of place, as 
 are also deep-set windows of small dimensions. We need 
 plenty of glass on the south, east and west. A small glass 
 room on the south side of the house is a great luxury, as 
 well as an economy in the matter of heating the entire 
 home. 
 
 Furthermore, the bay climate is mild enough to enable 
 people to sit out of doors during two-thirds of the year if 
 shelter is provided against the prevailing sea breeze from 
 the west. Wide porches without roofing, on the east side 
 of the house, or on the south side with a wall of wood or 
 glass at the western end, are therefore the best means of 
 promoting an out-of-door life in the family. These porches 
 are most useful when large enough to accommodate a table 
 and chairs, and they may be protected from publicity by 
 . means of bamboo strip curtains or by a screen of vines. A 
 
 [28]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 movable awning or a large Japanese umbrella overhead 
 makes the porch into a livable open-air room. 
 
 The lighting of the home is greatly improved by massing 
 the windows, thus avoiding the strain on the eyes occa- 
 sioned by cross lights. Three or four windows side by side 
 give a far better light than the same number scattered about 
 the room, and the wall space can be utilized to better advan- 
 tage by this arrangement. The old-fashioned hinged win- 
 dows are more picturesque than the customary sort that slide 
 up and down with the aid of weights on pulleys concealed 
 between the walls ; and leaded glass, when it can be 
 afforded, not only lends decorative effect to the house, but 
 also breaks up the view in a charming manner. 
 
 While insisting on abundant sunlight in homes about 
 San Francisco Bay, I cannot overlook the fascination of 
 wide eaves. A house without eaves always seems to me 
 like a hat without a brim, or like a man who has lost his 
 eyebrows. The decorative value of shadows cannot well be 
 overestimated ; and the problem thus becomes one of making 
 the most of the eaves without losing too much sunlight from 
 the rooms. In this, so much depends on the location and 
 plan of the house that no general discussion would be of 
 much practical value. 
 
 The plan of the home, which, after all, is the great 
 factor in its convenience and livabifity, still remains for con- 
 sideration. If I were to make one suggestion only, it would 
 be to keep it large and simple in idea. A generous living 
 room of ample dimensions is preferable to several small 
 
 [29]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 rooms without distinctive character. The custom of having 
 a front and back parlor is relegated to the limbo of our 
 grandmothers, and in its stead one large living room suffices 
 for family gatherings and the entertainment of friends. 
 The dining-room may open off from this assembly room as 
 an annex or alcove, closed with heavy curtains or with a 
 large sliding door. Little surprises in the form of unex- 
 pected nooks or cabinets seen through long vistas, and 
 other elements of mystery lend charm when done by an 
 artist, but it is decidedly better for the inexpert to avoid all 
 but the simplest and most natural expression. 
 
 A high ceiling, with its wide expanse of unused wall 
 space, commonly gives a room a dreary effect which it is 
 almost impossible to remove, although an extremely high 
 ceiling, relieved by exposed rafters, is sometimes very 
 charming, effectively revealing the roof as in a barn or 
 chapel. In other respects the plan depends largely on the 
 life of the family, in which sanitation, comfort, convenience 
 and adaptability all must be well considered. No home is 
 truly beautiful which is not fitted to the needs of those who 
 dwell within its walls. A stairway upon which a tall man is 
 in danger of bumping his head is an example of bad art. 
 So, too, is a stairway with risers so high or a flight so long 
 that the mother of the family will be over-fatigued in going 
 up and down. 
 
 Too little attention is commonly paid to the interior finish. 
 Anything that tends to emphasize the constructive quality 
 of the work enhances its value. No ceiling ornament can 
 
 [3o]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 equal the charm of visible floor joists and girders, or of the 
 rafters. They are not there merely to break up the 
 monotony of a flat surface, but primarily to keep the upper 
 stories from falling on our heads. Incidentally, they are a 
 most effective decoration with their parallel lines and shadows. 
 My own preference for the interior walls of a wooden house 
 is wood. If an air space is left between the shingle wall and 
 the inner lining, the house will not be too susceptible to 
 changes of temperature without. It is only of late years 
 that the full charm of the natural California redwood has 
 been realized. Until recently it was treated with a stain 
 and then varnished, but now this practice has given way to 
 the use of surfaced wood, rubbed with a wax dressing to 
 preserve the natural color, or left to darken without any 
 preservative. 
 
 The redwood walls of the interior may be made by 
 nailing vertical slabs to the outside of the studding, thus 
 leaving the construction all exposed within, or by applying 
 simple vertical panels to the inside of the studding. A very 
 effective door is made of a single long, narrow panel of red- 
 wood, with the edges of the frame left square. 
 
 There are other satisfying interior finishes beside the 
 natural planed redwood. An extremely interesting result 
 can be obtained by taking rough-sawed boards or timbers, 
 and slightly charring the surface. On rubbing this down 
 with sand and an old broom, a soft brown color and an 
 interesting wavy texture is produced. Redwood treated with 
 sulphate of iron is turned a silver gray, like boards exposed 
 
 [3i]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 for years to the weather, and gives an interesting color 
 scheme to a room. Rough boards sawed and left without 
 planing may be colored with a soft green creosote stain, 
 which gives a peculiarly subdued and mossy effect. Other 
 stains, or even the application of Dutch leaf metal or of gold 
 paint on wood, may be used with caution by an experi- 
 enced artist, but should be avoided by the novice. Planks 
 or beams, surfaced with the adze, have a fascinating texture, 
 this finish being especially effective for exposed rafters. 
 
 A hard pine flooring answers very well in an inexpensive 
 house, although a harder wood is to be preferred if it can be 
 afforded. A coating of white shellac, followed by weekly 
 polishings with wax and a friction brush, leaves the floor in 
 good order. 
 
 I have thus far said nothing of ornament in describing 
 the construction of the home. It is far better to have no 
 ornament than to have it either badly designed or wrongly 
 placed. We sometimes see shingle houses with a square 
 piece of machine carving of commonplace design to relieve 
 the monotony of a plain wall surface. The bare wall would 
 have been inoffensive, but the ornament spoils the sim- 
 plicity and effectiveness of the entire house. Ornament 
 should grow out of the construction, and should always be 
 an individual expression adapted to the particular space it 
 is to fill. Thus all machine-turned moldings, sawed-out 
 brackets, or other mechanical devices for ornament, may 
 well be rigorously excluded. 
 
 As the life of the home centers about the fireplace, this 
 
 [32]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 may appropriately be the most beautiful feature of a room. 
 Let its ornamentation be wholly individual and hand wrought. 
 Carved corbels, supporting a plain shelf, or some good 
 conventional form done in terra-cotta or tiling, may be used 
 to advantage ; but if something cannot be made for that 
 particular spot, be content with a good, generous fireplace 
 of the rough, richly colored clinker brick or of pressed 
 brick, or big tiles. If good in form, the hearth will be a 
 beautiful corner, full of good cheer. 
 
 While on the subject of ornament, I cannot refrain from 
 a word on the lack of vitality in the decorative work of even 
 our best architects. This is due to the fact that instead of 
 making designs from the decorative forms of animals and 
 plants about them, they almost invariably copy, with more 
 or less exactness, the designs from architectural works of 
 Europe. How much easier to take books of details of 
 Italian chapels and Greek temples, than to go to that won- 
 derful book of nature and create from her treasure-house 
 new motives ! But until the latter method is followed, 
 decorative work will be feeble and imitative. 
 
 Thus far our discussion has been confined to houses 
 built, within and without, of wood. An outer covering of 
 bricks may be substituted for the shingles without materially 
 altering the design in other respects, and, if the construction 
 be sufficiently massive to warrant it, slate or tile may 
 replace the shingles of the roof, making the whole more 
 durable and substantial in effect. But it is a mistake to 
 suppose that a wooden structure is necessarily perishable in 
 
 [33]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 its nature. I am told that there are such houses in good 
 preservation in Continental Europe which antedate Columbus, 
 and we all know of the Anne Hathaway cottage and other 
 Shakespearean relics of Stratford. 
 
 The wooden house may be varied by the use of plaster, 
 either on the exterior or the interior. The point to be 
 emphasized is never to use plaster with wood as if the con- 
 struction were of masonry. The only safeguard is to show 
 the construction. Houses built in the old English style, 
 with exposed timbers between the plaster, are very pictur- 
 esque. It has been ascertained that plaster applied to 
 wooden laths will soon fall off, but when expanded metal is 
 used as a foundation, the plaster seems to stand indefinitely. 
 It may be toned to some soft, warm shade with a perma- 
 nent water-color paint. 
 
 There is another type of plaster house much in vogue in 
 California which is to be condemned as an unmitigated 
 sham. This is the style which masks under the name of 
 ' ' Mission ' ' architecture, and which imitates the externals 
 of the work of the old Spanish missionaries while missing 
 every vital element in their buildings. The modern struc- 
 ture in Mission style is built of wood, either completely 
 covered with plaster or with exposed wood painted to imitate 
 it. Many features of masonry construction, such as round 
 pillars covered with stucco, arches • and circular windows, 
 are introduced. The construction is generally slight, but 
 with a massive external appearance, and the roofing in most 
 cases is of tin tiles painted red. Such work as this will do 
 
 [34]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 well enough for a world's fair, which is confessedly but a 
 fleeting show, but it is utterly unworthy as the home of any 
 honest man. 
 
 The Spanish missionaries did their work in adobe, brick, 
 tile and stone. Much of it was covered with plaster and 
 whitewashed. The charm of the low, simple buildings sur- 
 rounding a court, with corridors supported by arches 
 extending both on the outside and inside, can only be 
 realized by one who has studied the lovely ruins of the 
 Spanish occupation, or better still, by one who has visited 
 Spanish countries. The glare of the whitewashed walls is 
 relieved by the deep shadows of the sheltering corridors or 
 porch roofs, the soft red tiles crown the work, and vines 
 and orchards, with fountains and palm trees in the court, 
 make a beautifully harmonious setting. There is a romantic 
 charm about such architecture and an historic association 
 which California needs to cherish, but to mimic it with 
 cheap imitations in wood is unworthy of us. If we are 
 unwilling to take the pains, or if we cannot afford to do the 
 work genuinely, let us not attempt it. We may carry out 
 the general form in wood if we choose, but let it then be 
 frankly a wooden house, or a structure of wood and plaster 
 worked out constructively as such. Furthermore, as I have 
 already pointed out, the climate of San Francisco Bay, with 
 its large percentage of cloudy days, is not suited to deep 
 recessed porches that cut the sun from the first story. 
 
 The use of plaster as an interior finish has been, until 
 the last few years in California, so much a matter of course 
 
 [35]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 that I should have mentioned it first were it not that I 
 wished to emphasize the superiority of the natural wood 
 interior for a wooden house. If plaster is used, however, 
 let it be with visible rafters. It may be toned or papered 
 in any soft, warm shade, but the use of a mechanically 
 printed wall-paper I should avoid under any and all circum- 
 stances. As this is a matter which concerns the furnishing 
 of the home more especially, a fuller discussion of the point 
 may be reserved for the following chapter. 
 
 If it seems to any that too much of this discussion has 
 been devoted to wood construction, my answer has already 
 been given — namely, that most people cannot afford, at 
 the present day, to build of any other material, and that 
 consequently a full consideration of the principles governing 
 the right use of wood is a matter of the greatest immediate 
 importance. At the same time, it is well to point out that 
 every advance in the building of masonry homes is a pro- 
 gressive step, since it makes for greater stability, lessens the 
 danger of fire, and saves our forests, which are so needful 
 to the prosperity of the State. In masonry architecture the 
 same fundamental idea should prevail, of using the material 
 in the manner which emphasizes its strength and constructive 
 value. Ornament should be studied with the same care and 
 used with the same restraint as in wood. 
 
 Now for a last word on home building : Let the work 
 be simple and genuine, with due regard to right proportion 
 and harmony of color ; let it be an individual expression of 
 the life which it is to environ, conceived with loving care 
 
 [36]
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE HOME 
 
 for the uses of the family. Eliminate in so far as possible 
 all factory-made accessories in order that your dwelling may 
 not be typical of American commercial supremacy, but 
 rather of your own fondness for things that have been cre- 
 ated as a response to your love of that which is good and 
 simple and fit for daily companionship. Far better that our 
 surroundings be rough and crude in detail, provided that 
 they are a vital expression conceived as part of an harmo- 
 nious scheme, than that they be finished with mechanical 
 precision and lacking in genuine character. Beware the 
 gloss that covers over a sham ! 
 
 [37]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 WHEN the home is built, it must be occupied. It 
 is to be used, lived in, made a part and ex- 
 pression of a family circle. First of all, it 
 must be furnished, and the taste and thought 
 revealed in this task determines in no small degree the char- 
 acter it will assume and impress upon its occupants. It is 
 therefore of the first importance that the furnishing be done 
 deliberately, step by step, piece by piece, so that it becomes 
 a growth and expression of the interests and ideals of the 
 family. The thoughts that I have endeavored to make 
 clear concerning the building of the home apply equally to 
 its furnishing. Simplicity, significance, utility, harmony — 
 these are the watchwords ! 
 
 Although the furnishment may better be a matter of 
 deliberate growth rather than of immediate completion, it 
 by no means follows that the work should be haphazard and 
 without plan. On the contrary, just as the painter in creat- 
 ing a picture may not know in advance all the details and 
 subtleties which he is to embody, but nevertheless has his 
 general composition and color scheme well in mind, so 
 should he who fits out a room consider in advance the 
 underlying idea of tone and form. YThe first object is to 
 create an atmosphere. How often we enter an apartment, 
 full of elegant and beautiful things, in which there is no 
 
 [38]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 continuity of idea, no central thought which dominates the 
 place ! And when we come upon some simple room about 
 which there is a sense of rest and harmony, we do not 
 always stop to analyze the effect to see how it is produced. 
 We feel that there is an intangible idea back of all the 
 detail, and it pleases us, although we know not why. 
 
 As a rule it will be found that the harmony of an apart- 
 ment is determined by its color scheme. An illustration of 
 a gross violation will serve to enforce the point. If the 
 window curtains were of so bizarre and unassorted a char- 
 acter that upon each window hung a drapery of a different 
 color, some figured, some striped and others plain, even the 
 most unobservant eye would detect that the room looked 
 absurdly ill furnished. Upon the substitution, for this 
 motley array of curtains, of some warm, quiet fabric with- 
 out ornamentation, an appearance of harmony would at 
 once seem dawning upon the room. But if the walls were 
 of white plaster or of some crude figured wall-paper, the 
 desired unity would be but dimly felt. What a change is 
 wrought by covering the entire wall-space with a good warm 
 color, either in harmony with or in judicious contrast to the 
 curtains ! It is the background of the picture, the dominant 
 note of the chord, the underlying idea of the room, which 
 needs only elaboration and accent to produce a finished 
 whole. 
 
 This matter of color scheme is so fundamental to any 
 successful results in furnishing that it may be well to consider 
 a little more in detail what colors to use and what to avoid. 
 
 [39]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 No definite and final rules can be formulated on this subject, 
 for in the last analysis taste is the only guide. In general, 
 however, I should begin by excluding white. A large mass 
 of white on the walls makes a glare which is extremely 
 fatiguing to the eyes. The light is too diffused and is far 
 more trying than a blaze of sunlight streaming through a 
 mass of windows. A similar effect may be noted out of 
 doors upon a hazy day when the sun is but thinly veiled 
 behind a white mist. On such occasions the glare is posi- 
 tively painful. While a large mass of white is thus to be 
 avoided for physiological reasons, even a small spot of it 
 will often be objectionable from an artistic point of view. The 
 eye as it ranges freely about the room is unduly arrested by 
 the bit of white which fails to fit into its proper relation with 
 the whole. How seldom does a painter venture to use 
 untoned white in a picture, and how carefully he leads up 
 to it when he does introduce it ! The same principle applies 
 to the color scheme of a room. A picture surrounded by a 
 white mat stands out of all relation to the environing walls. 
 Indeed, I should use white as part of a decorative scheme 
 only where the idea of great cleanliness needs emphasis, 
 or in making a human figure the culminating note in the 
 home picture. A white spread for the dinner table, setting 
 off the glint of silver and cut-glass or the color of patterned 
 dishes, has an appropriateness all its own, especially when 
 the room is artificially lighted. For breakfast and lunch, 
 during the daylight hours, the bare wood table, with dishes 
 upon mats, always seems to me more attractive. 
 
 [4o]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 The next guiding thought, although any such may have 
 its exceptions, is that cold colors are to be avoided and 
 warm tones used instead. Pale blues, grays or greens are 
 not as a rule cheerful, while buff, brown and red, or occa- 
 sionally deep blue or rich green, are full of warmth and 
 brightness. It is always safe to be conservative in the back- 
 ground color, and a neutral tone is therefore preferable to a 
 color aggressively pronounced. 
 
 It will now be apparent why a wood interior is so satis^ 
 factory. The color of the natural wood, and especially of 
 redwood, makes a warm, rich and yet sufficiently neutral 
 background for the furniture. Some of our lighter woods, 
 notably pine and cedar, may be stained or burned to a dark 
 tone as already specified in the preceding chapter, provided 
 that no glazed surface be put upon them with varnish or 
 polish. A slightly irregular texture is more interesting on 
 a wall than an absolutely uniform finish. Natural wood with 
 its varied graining is one of the most charmingly modulated 
 surfaces. Painted burlap glued to the wall makes an attrac- 
 tive finish on account of its coarse, irregular weave. Jap- 
 anese grass-cloth has a similar interest, and is very effective 
 in combination with gilding. I know of a plaster ceiling 
 painted with liquid gold which is beautifully harmonious and 
 elegant in combination with redwood paneled walls. Rough 
 plaster may be toned with calcimine to any appropriate 
 shade, while smooth plaster is better when covered with 
 cartridge paper or with some plain fabric. 
 
 Although many architects of admirable taste may not 
 
 [4i]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 agree, I venture to suggest the elimination of figured wall- 
 paper, and indeed of all machine-figured work about the 
 home. Most papers are undeniably bad ; a few are equally 
 undeniably beautiful in design. But if the contention for 
 which I am standing has any weight — namely, that orna- 
 ment should be used with reserve and be studied for the 
 particular space it is to fill — then even an unquestionably 
 good wall-paper is inappropriate for three reasons, — because 
 the ornament is used too lavishly and indiscriminately, be- 
 cause it cannot be turned out by machinery suited to the 
 particular wall upon which it is to be imposed, and, further- 
 more, because it detracts from any ornament which may be 
 put next it. A picture or a vase, for instance, is never so 
 effective when placed against a patterned background as 
 when surrounded by a plain tone of appropriate color. 
 
 But enough of walls and surfaces ! Let us assume that 
 a good color has been secured and in a soft, unobtrusive 
 texture. Attention may next be given to the draperies. 
 Many people insist on window shades that shoot up and 
 down on rollers — smooth, opaque, characterless things that 
 give a stiffness and mechanical rigidity to the windows. 
 Curtains hung by brass rings upon rods are all-sufficient to 
 cut out the sun by day and to exclude the view of out- 
 siders by night, and they are far more graceful and soft in 
 effect. The only difficulty is to get material that will not 
 fade when left in the steady glare of the sun. All the so- 
 called art denims and burlaps with which I have had experi- 
 ence are so badly dyed that a very short exposure bleaches 
 
 [42]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 them beyond recognition, but the coarse dark blue Chinese 
 denim is very serviceable. The satin-finish burlap, undyed, 
 is also satisfactory on account of its permanence. Linen 
 crash of an ecru color, Japanese grass-cloth, and some 
 coarse, simple ecru nets are most effective. Curtains made 
 of fine strips of bamboo lashed together give a soft, pleasing 
 light in the room, but do not completely cut out the sun. 
 They may be used to great advantage in combination with 
 some heavier material, such as colored ticking or corduroy. 
 Soft leather in the natural tan makes elegant and substantial 
 curtains, but is rather expensive. Pongee is good, although, 
 like all silks, it rots after long exposure to the sun. 
 
 In addition to window curtains, portieres are often useful 
 draperies, for giving privacy to an alcove, /Or between apart- 
 ments where a door is unnecessary. 1/Uriental hangings, 
 such as Bagdad curtains, if made with the old dyes, are 
 especially effective, but a plain chenille curtain, or even one 
 of such coarser material as burlap, is always safe if its color 
 harmonizes with the room. When hand-made Oriental 
 hangings cannot be afforded and some ornament is desired, 
 a conventional decoration in gold cord can be stitched to the 
 border, or a little color, preferably in dark rich tones, may 
 be cautiously added in embroidery or applique. 
 
 I assume that the floor of our home be of natural wood, 
 shellaced and waxed, and afterwards polished with a fric- 
 tion brush. Cleanliness, if not an aesthetic impulse, should 
 prompt this. One or two fine Oriental rugs — Bokharas, 
 Cashmeres, or Persians, for example — made with the old 
 
 [43]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 dyes, are a great addition to any room, but a rag carpet 
 serves as a passable substitute. It will hardly be necessary 
 after all that has been said about machine ornament, to urge 
 the exclusion of all modern patterned rugs and carpets. 
 These are generally characterized by hard, set designs, 
 mechanically precise, made in crude colors that fade ere 
 long to sorry-looking tones. Better far is a piece of plain 
 Brussels carpet of good color. 
 
 Having attended to the background, and the window- 
 curtains, portieres and rugs in harmonizing tones, with here 
 and there a note of accent or of contrast, if this be skilfully 
 managed, the atmosphere of the room is established. It 
 now remains to introduce the furniture. Much of this can 
 be built in to the special places designed for it. Still the 
 restraint in ornament should be kept steadily in mind. The 
 first essential of the furniture is good, simple design and 
 thorough-going workmanship, — no veneer, no paint or 
 varnish, no decorations stuck on to give the piece a finish, 
 but plain, honest, straightforward work ! 
 
 The kinds of furniture which most readily lend them- 
 selves to being built permanently into the house are window- 
 and fireplace-seats, book-shelves, and sideboards. The 
 seats can be made quite plain, and if hinged serve the addi- 
 tional purpose of store chests. Book-shelves call for" little 
 or no ornament, although the end boards may be massive 
 and carved if desired. There is much opportunityTor 
 making the sideboard picturesque, with paneled or leaded- 
 glass doors, attached with ornamental strap hinges of 
 
 [44]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 wrought iron or hammered brass. The arrangement of 
 shelves and cupboards in a sideboard gives great scope for 
 effective design. 
 
 With such pieces built in, and with a good tone to the 
 rooms accented by rugs, portieres and curtains, the home 
 begins to assume a furnished aspect, and it is easy now to 
 see what is needed and what will harmonize. Furniture 
 made to order by a cabinet-maker, or even by a good car- 
 penter, will be found of especial interest if simple models 
 are followed. In the furniture as in the house itself it is 
 well to emphasize the construction. Panels held together 
 with double dove-tailed blocks, joints secured with pegs, 
 and tenons let through mortises and held with wedges, are 
 always evidences of good honest workmanship. 
 
 As to the design of such furniture, straight lines express- 
 ing the construction and utility in the most natural manner 
 are safest, and only an experienced artist can safely deviate 
 from such. There are a few exceptions, however, which are 
 not only justifiable but often desirable. A round top for a 
 dining-table is very pleasing on account of the feeling of 
 equality of all who sit about it. It seems in a way more 
 sociable than a table with a head and foot. A small square 
 table can be made with two or more round tops of different 
 sizes which fit down upon it, to be used as occasion requires. 
 While a chair with square legs is massive and dignified in 
 effect, the rounded legs give lightness and grace. A light 
 and very inexpensive chair which might well be in more 
 general use in California is the simple form made with strips 
 
 [45]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 u 
 
 of rawhide for a seat. It is a relic of the mission days, I 
 believe, and is thoroughly appropriate to the style of house 
 we are contemplating. Rush-bottom square-post chairs are 
 substantial, comfortable and most harmonious in the simple 
 room. I A chair with the seat sloping backward and with 
 fThe back at right angles to the seat is more comfortable than 
 one with the seat parallel to the floor, which makes one sit 
 bolt upright. Italian chairs carved of black walnut have a 
 grace and elegance that give a touch of luxury to the most 
 unpretentious home. 
 
 ""It would be possible to consider furniture in endless 
 detail, but my object is rather to get at certain principles 
 and ideals that will form a basis for working out the minutics 
 according to individual taste. The chest is a good old- 
 fashioned piece of furniture that may well be revived. Any 
 good, well-made hinged boxes, and especially those of white 
 cedar and the Chinese camphor-wood chests, are useful and 
 attractive. The Chinese chests are covered with an ugly 
 varnish which can be removed with strong lye, carefully 
 rubbed on with a stout swab. Chests covered with leather 
 and bound in brass are very elegant when they can be 
 afforded. Wood-boxes near the fireplace may be left plain, 
 or stained, carved or burned in ornamental designs. In a 
 large room screens can be used to advantage. They may 
 be made of big simple panels of wood, or of leather, either 
 plain or ornamented with burning and coloring. 
 
 Chinese teak-wood furniture is generally good in design 
 and may be had very richly carved. Old-fashioned mahog- 
 
 [46]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 any bedsteads, bureaus and chairs are often beautifully- 
 simple in their lines and appropriate to the setting I have 
 endeavored to picture. Oak furniture is now obtainable 
 made in the ' ' old mission ' ' style, which is so good in form 
 and workmanship that it leaves nothing to be desired. 
 
 The various handicrafts are brought into play in the 
 furnishing of the home. Metal work is as indispensable as 
 wood work, and again the same general principles should 
 govern selection — good work, good form, simple design. 
 The plainest are the safest. Locks, catches and fixtures of 
 black iron, or of solid brass without ornament, are sure to 
 be unobjectionable. The andirons may also be plain, or 
 they may be ornamented as richly as taste suggests, pro- 
 vided the work be hand-wrought. 
 
 I have often been asked if the use of electric lights in a 
 house which thus emphasizes the handicrafts was not out of 
 harmony with the spirit of the place. Personally, I am 
 fond of candles in brass, bronze or silver candlesticks, but 
 the light is neither strong nor steady enough to satisfy the 
 practical needs. I have found the pleasantest results in 
 lighting to be attained by the use of electric lights subdued 
 by lanterns. If the electric bulbs are suspended some six 
 or eight inches from the wall on brackets, they may hang as 
 low as desired without being in the way. Various types of 
 Chinese, Japanese and Moorish lanterns can be found which 
 give a soft, pleasing light and are very decorative. Old 
 brass and bronze lanterns are the most beautiful, but many 
 simpler and less costly substitutes will be discovered by 
 
 [47]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 those who search in our Oriental bazaars. Good lamps with 
 artistic shades are hard to find, but there is an improvement 
 in these to be noted which promises better things ere long. 
 Covers for gas and oil-stoves made of sheet brass riveted 
 into cylinders and ornamented according to the skill and 
 ingenuity of the maker would be a most acceptable addition 
 to our furniture. 
 
 To write of vases and other pottery would call for one 
 or more separate chapters, but a hint or two may not be out 
 of place. At the risk of repetition I would say again that 
 unless the ornament be unquestionably fine, do with none 
 at all. Chinese ginger jars, earthenware pots, Italian wine 
 flasks with straw casings, are all better than showy vases 
 that are not good in color, form or workmanship. The 
 Japanese and Chinese are the master potters, and if the 
 detestable stuff which they manufacture for the American 
 trade be eliminated, their work is generally good and often 
 exquisitely beautiful. Much excellent pottery is now made 
 in our own country, and the number of genuinely refined 
 and simple wares is constantly increasing, showing a grad- 
 ual elevation of taste among our people. 
 
 Of other useful ornaments may be mentioned bellows, 
 South Sea Island fans, baskets, especially those of our own 
 misused Indians, and hanging Japanese baskets for plants. 
 Potted plants add a touch of life and color which cannot be 
 otherwise given to a room. Masses of books have an orna- 
 mental value which is heightened by the idea of culture of 
 which they are the embodiment. 
 
 [48]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 It remains now to consider only the purely non-utilitarian 
 ornament — statues, pictures and wall decorations. Since 
 most dwellers in simple homes cannot afford great works 
 of art, they must enjoy these in museums, and for their 
 homes content themselves with reproductions. Plaster casts 
 toned to a soft creamy shade and surfaced with wax are, if 
 well chosen, a most effective form of ornament. 
 
 The pictures a man selects to hang upon his wall are a 
 perpetual witness of his degree of culture. They are ever 
 present as an unconscious factor in shaping our lives and 
 thought. They serve no useful purpose and have no mean- 
 ing except as they bring before us something of the ideal. 
 The test of a good picture is its inexhaustible quality, both of 
 form and of content ; but time alone can make this test. When 
 the work of a master has been handed down through centu- 
 ries, when it has been copied and scrutinized and criticized by 
 generations and still holds its place, we may be sure that it 
 contains something that will enrich our lives. If the world 
 has lived with it for ages, it needs must profit us to dwell in 
 its sight. We cannot have the original picture, but a photo- 
 graph giving all but its color may be obtained for a mere 
 trifle. Thus our walls may be graced with the thought of 
 Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael and Michael Angelo, just as 
 readily as with the commonplace work that so often passes 
 current for genuine art. When' we have lived with the 
 masters for years, and have absorbed their message, then we 
 may trust ourselves to test the work of the moderns in the 
 light of the insight we have gained from their predecessors. 
 
 [49]
 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 It may be urged that we want color on our walls, and 
 that tinted casts and photographs of the masterpieces fail 
 to give this. In vain I point to the Oriental rugs, the 
 colored curtains, the green of the potted plants — still the 
 demand for colored pictures must be satisfied, and this with- 
 out great cost. If one really loves form and color for them- 
 selves, I know of but one means of satisfying this ade- 
 quately and inexpensively. Japanese prints are seldom 
 great in idea, and they therefore miss the highest quality of 
 art expression, but for delicacy and subtlety of coloring and 
 grace of form they are unexcelled. A few prints selected 
 with discrimination and simply framed will give just the 
 touch of accidental color which the room seems to require. 
 
 California has harbored a number of painters of excep- 
 tional ability, and those who can afford original paintings by 
 our best local artists need not go abroad for their pictures. 
 America has produced but one Keith, and his work has been 
 done in San Francisco. 
 
 Many of our artists are now looking toward decorative 
 work as a field of activity, instead of confining their attention 
 to easel pictures, and this is a most wholesome change. A 
 decorative frieze or a set piece designed to occupy a given 
 space in a room, and conceived in harmony with its setting, 
 is apt to be far more effective than a number of small 
 detached pictures scattered at random about the walls. 
 
 A word on framing pictures and our cursory survey of 
 house furnishing must come to an end. The old-fashioned 
 idea seemed to be that a picture was merely an excuse for 
 
 [5o]
 
 THE FURNISHING OF THE HOME 
 
 displaying an elaborate frame. Now people have come to 
 realize that the frame is nothing but the border of the pic- 
 ture. Here again a simple form is always safe. A plain, 
 finely finished surface without ornamentation is never out of 
 place. In choosing the color of a frame, the middle tone 
 of the picture is the best guide. Thus in framing a brown 
 photograph, a brown mat intermediate in tone between the 
 high lights and the deepest shadows will probably be found 
 most effective. The wood is least obtrusive if toned to 
 match the mat or just a shade darker. Photographs look 
 well framed in wood without a mat, but with a fine line of 
 gold next the picture. Gold frames are scarcely in keeping 
 with a simple home, but if used should be of the finest 
 workmanship and the most chaste design. They are, as 
 a rule, inappropriate except on oil paintings, although a gold 
 mat with simple gold border occasionally looks well on a 
 water-color. 
 
 I know it is not safe to lay down the law where matters 
 of taste are involved, but my excuse must be that it is better 
 to convey a definite impression, even though it be a narrow 
 one, rather than to be so broad that all concreteness vanishes 
 in glittering generalities. Many types of homes may be 
 good and beautiful which do not come within the compass of 
 this sketch. I have tried only to give some tangible expres- 
 sion of my own conception of the simple home, trusting that 
 the practical hints embodied may be the means of showing 
 some people who have felt the need of more artistic sur- 
 roundings a tolerably secure means of attaining them. 
 
 [5i]
 
 HOME LIFE 
 
 THE very planning, building, and furnishing of such 
 a home as I have endeavored to describe will 
 prove a powerful incentive toward a simpler and 
 more significant family life. Take the one item 
 of pictures, for example. If the selection of these involves 
 a preliminary study of the history of art, and an acquaint- 
 ance with the aims and ideals of the great masters, what a 
 step in culture will have been achieved ! And in surround- 
 ings of simple dignity, light and flippant music will soon 
 appear vulgar and inopportune. Ephemeral ragtime airs 
 will yield precedence to Schumann and Chopin, to Beethoven 
 and Bach. Poetry will be in keeping with the spirit of such 
 a home, and Keats and Shelley will not be forgotten. 
 
 A superficial liking for aesthetic things may be accompa- 
 nied with the most trifling of dilettantism, and have no effect 
 in deepening spiritual life, but a real understanding or even 
 a resolute effort to understand and sympathize with the ideal 
 of beauty must of necessity strengthen and enrich the soul 
 of man. Gradually the dweller in the simple home will 
 come to ponder upon the meaning of art, and will awaken 
 to that illuminating insight that all art is a form of service 
 inspired by love. It will then become apparent how truly 
 the home is the real art center. The great Christian 
 painters have chosen for the theme of their noblest works 
 
 [52]
 
 HOME LIFE 
 
 the divine mother looking with adoration upon her child. 
 And what mother has not the halo of divinity about her as 
 she bends with loving solicitude above the helpless life that 
 is to be made or marred by the power she exercises over it. 
 We hear much in these days of race suicide, but the menace 
 comes not from those who love their homes. It is only 
 amongst those for whom the feverish pleasures of the world 
 outweigh the simple joys of the hearthstone that this 
 danger exists. 
 
 j fe v 
 
 In the thought of service lies the salvation of the race 
 as of the individual, and in the simple home, service comes 
 so naturally. Service is love realized in activity. The very 
 mark which distinguishes love from lust is this same service 
 — this willingness to objectify faith in work, to share tasks, 
 to lighten the burdens of another. As love is the end of 
 life, so is service the test and sign of love. 
 
 What is the home but a temple consecrated to love, 
 where the form of worship is service? And the woman is 
 the high priestess, the one who makes the supreme sacrifice, 
 the one who has the supreme reward. The idea of woman's 
 rights becomes insignificant in the face of this great privi- 
 lege of service. But the woman must be fitted for the 
 service — the higher the service the more complete the 
 training. Higher education is a matter of course for the 
 woman of whom we are to expect higher service. And 
 what higher service does life afford than the molding of the 
 plastic mind of the child, the expanding of the soul's hori- 
 zon, the developing of character, the leading, by precept 
 
 [53] 

 
 THE SIMPLE HOME 
 
 and example, of the human spirit up the height of Sinai 
 where it may stand in the presence of its God. 
 
 Not alone in the relation of parents to offspring, but in 
 all the associations of family life is this touchstone of service 
 illuminating. The relations of children to one another and 
 to the home are exalted by it. The duties of the servant 
 are no longer those of a drudge when elevated to the dignity 
 of participation in family service and in the advancement 
 and joy of home life. And the mistress also has a duty of 
 service toward her helper which is not discharged by the 
 payment of certain sums of money — a duty to aid in light- 
 ening the tasks, in making the work more rational, more 
 interesting, more orderly, and in making the leisure more 
 joyous, more profitable toward attaining the ends of refine- 
 ment and humanity. 
 
 Of all reforms needed in the life of the home, that of the 
 relation of the man to his family is most pressing. Modern 
 materialism demands of far too many men an unworthy 
 sacrifice. That the wife and children may live in ostenta- 
 tion the man must be a slave to business, rushing and 
 jostling with the crowd in the scramble for wealth. A sim- 
 pler standard of living will give him more time for art and 
 culture, more time for his family, more time to live. 
 
 The day is ripe for the general adoption of this idea of 
 the simple home. People are growing weary of shams and 
 are longing for reality. They will never get it till they 
 learn that the ideal is the real, that beauty is truth, and that 
 love is the inspiration for beauty. Let those who would see 
 
 [54]
 
 HOME LIFE 
 
 a higher culture in California, a deeper life, a nobler 
 humanity, work for the adoption of the simple home among 
 all classes of people, trusting that the inspiration of its mute 
 walls will be a ceaseless challenge to all who dwell within 
 their shadow, for beauty and character. 
 
 [55]
 
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