CHAPTER II_The Library of Work and Play: Guide and Index

Transcriber's Note: This book is a summary and index to a series of

books that can also be found in the Project Gutenberg collection.

Details of these books can be found in the notes at the

end of this volume.

THE LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY GUIDE AND INDEX

THE LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY

CARPENTRY AND WOODWORK

By Edwin W. Foster

ELECTRICITY AND ITS EVERYDAY USES

By John F. Woodhull, Ph.D.

GARDENING AND FARMING

By Ellen Eddy Shaw

HOME DECORATION

By Charles Franklin Warner, Sc.D.

HOUSEKEEPING

By Elizabeth Hale Gilman

MECHANICS, INDOORS AND OUT

By Fred T. Hodgson.

NEEDLECRAFT

By Effie Archer Archer

OUTDOOR SPORTS, AND GAMES

By Claude H. Miller, Ph.B.

OUTDOOR WORK

By Mary Rogers Miller

WORKING IN METALS

By Charles Conrad Sleffel.

[Illustration: Wireless Station and Workroom of George Riches,

Montclair, N. J. George made most of the Apparatus at Home or in the

School Shop]

_The Library of Work and Play_

GUIDE AND INDEX

BY CHESHIRE L. BOONE

[Illustration]

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

1912

INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CRAFTS IN THE LIFE OF A PEOPLE 3

II. THE CULTIVATION OF TASTE AND DESIGN 16

III. THE REAL GIRL 28

IV. THAT BOY 47

V. A HOUSE AND LOT--ESPECIALLY THE LOT 67

VI. VACATIONS, ATHLETICS, SCOUTING, CAMPING, PHOTOGRAPHY 78

INDEX 85

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Wireless station and workroom of George Riches _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

An example of furniture such as boys like 4

Clay pots made for germination experiments 5

The work of children between ten and eleven years of age 5

Two examples of furniture grouping for the porch or outdoors 18

The numerous photographs suggest disorder and dust 19

An interesting curtain which might be duplicated by any girl 20

Since flowers are so beautiful in themselves, is it not worth

while to arrange them with judgment? 21

A school garden in Jordan Harbour, Ontario, Can. 28

Domestic science class 29

The work of girls in the public schools 30

A children's garden gives fresh air and sunshine 31

All children love to play at being "grown up" 32

Girls must sometime learn of the conventions and customs of

domestic arrangement 33

A boys' camp with Ernest Thompson Seton 48

The play idea very soon grows toward the representation of

primitive though adult customs and actions 49

A typical boy's workroom and shop 50

The kind of shop which one may have at home 51

The kite fever is an annual disease 52

Pump and waterwheel 53

Boat made by Percy Wilson and Donald Mather 54

These are the forerunners of numerous other electrical

constructions 55

A real derrick in miniature 56

Waterwheels and fan 57

A self-recording telegraph receiver 58

Wireless station and workroom of Donald Huxom 59

An electrical soldering iron and glue-pot 60

Waterwheel connected with model lathe 61

Excellent examples of high school work 62

A manual training shop 63

The machine shop 64

The study of aeroplane construction 65

A successful machine 64

Finished aeroplanes 65

The boy who does not love to camp is unique 68

This and other illustrations of homes, show such places as

people make when they care about appearance 69

Even the most beautiful house must have a background 70

One should build a house as one builds a reputation 71

Trees, shrubbery and lawn form the frame of the picture 72

There was a time not long since, when people built houses

according to style 73

A school garden 74

The Watchung School garden 75

There is a fascination about raising animals whether for sale

or as pets 76

Two more illustrations which will suggest plans for the future 77

Every child, and especially the boy, needs active outdoor

exercise 78

Organized play (woodcraft) under Ernest Thompson Seton 79

More woodcraft. Has the boy had a chance at this kind of

experience? 80

Even the technical process of photography has been

reduced to popular terms 81

In these days photography has become so simplified

that every child can use a camera to advantage 81

THE LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY GUIDE AND INDEX

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CRAFTS IN THE LIFE OF A PEOPLE

There was never a time in the history of the world when each race,

each nation, each community unit, each family almost, did not possess

its craftsmen and artists. In every instance, these so-called gifted

members were by no means the least important citizens; their names

appeared again and again in the stream of tradition as wonder workers

and idols of the people. This is still true in the very midst of a

materialistic age, when money and mechanics work hand in hand to

produce the most in the least time for economic reasons, and when the

individual worships "hand-made things." They may even be poorly made

or bizarre, but "handwork" satisfies the untutored. Now it is quite

possible for the machine to produce a bit of jewelry, textile, or

woodwork--even carving--quite as pleasing as any made by hand alone,

and it is being done every day. But the machine-made article must

be produced in large quantities (duplicates) for profit, whereas the

work of hand alone is unique. There lies the reason for reverence of

"handwork." It is always individual and characteristic of the workman

in style or technique and has no duplicate; it is aristocratic. Among

the primitives, the pot, necklace, or utensil was wrought by infinite

labor, and, being valuable because unique, was embellished with all

the wealth of current symbolism. It was preserved with care and became

more valuable to succeeding generations as a tangible record of race

culture and ideals. And so down to the present time, the handiwork

of the craftsman and skilled artisan has always stood as the one

imperishable record of racial development. The degree of finish, the

intricacy of design and nicety of construction are evidences of skill

and fine tools, well-organized processes, familiarity with material and

careful apprenticeship: the pattern, color, ornament, and symbolism

point to culture, learning, and standards of taste and beauty. A crude

domestic economy, rude utensils, coarse, garish costume and of simple

construction, are characteristic of an undeveloped social order. In

fact, all the arts of both construction and expression exhibit at a

given period the degree of civilization; art products are true

historical documents. Since then through their arts and crafts it

is possible for one to know a people, does it not follow that one

entrance to sympathy with the ideals and taste of the present time

is through practice in the arts? Of course a considerable mass of

information about them can be conveyed in words, especially to adults

who have passed the formative period in life and have not the same

_work_-incentive as have children. But even the adult never really

secretes much real knowledge of the arts unless he has worked in them.

He acquires rather a veneer or artistic polish which readily loses its

lustre in even a moderately critical atmosphere: he learns artistry

and the laws pertaining thereto as he would learn the length of the

Brooklyn Bridge or the population of El Paso. He merely learns to talk

about art. But children learn primarily and solely by _doing_, and the

foundations of taste and culture need to be put down early that they

may build upon them the best possible superstructure which time and

opportunity permit.

[Illustration:

An Example of Furniture such as Boys Like and which They Can Make Under

Direction]

[Illustration:

Clay Pots Made for Germination Experiments in Grade IV. of the Public

School. The Boys of this Grade Built a Small Kiln in which these Pots

were Fired]

[Illustration: The Work of Children between Ten and Eleven Years of Age]

The foregoing paragraphs will perhaps have opened the way for

questions: "What kind of knowledge is of most worth? Why do

children--practically all of them--try to make things, and what is

their choice?" And when these queries have been answered so far as may

be, do the answers possess immediate value?

At the outset it will be evident that no sort of knowledge will be of

much avail until it is put in such form that the student can use it to

advantage. Mere knowledge of any kind is inherently static--inert and

often seemingly indigestible, like green fruit and raw meat. One too

frequently meets college graduates, both men and women, equipped with

so-called education, who are economic failures. These people are full

of information, well up to date, but they seemingly cannot use it.

Their assortment of knowledge is apparently in odd mental sizes which

do not fit the machinery of practical thinking as applied to life: it

is like gold on a desert isle. What the boy and girl need and desire

is (1) a favorable introduction to the sources of information, and (2)

the key to its use. They will have to be shown simple facts and truths,

and have their mental relations and importance explained. By gradually

introducing new knowledge as occasion offers, the field of study is

sufficiently widened. Children profit little by books and tools alone:

they crave encouragement and some direct constructive criticism. In

such an atmosphere their endeavors become significant and profitable,

and the accumulated learning will be applied to business or economic

ideas which result in progressive thinking, which uses information as a

_tool_, not an end in itself.

If then the arts of a people stand as monuments to its beliefs and

ideals, an intimate understanding of some of the arts ought to

be provided for in every scheme of education both at home and in

school. The child is by nature interested in the attributes of things

associated with his life and upbringing. He wants to know about them,

how they are made, and learn their uses by means of experiment. The

elements of science, mechanics and natural phenomena, business and

household art, and finally play (which is often adult living in

miniature)--these comprise a large portion of the subject matter

which is of prime importance to children. It is just such material as

this which bids fair to serve in the future as the basis for public

school curricula, simply because of its strong appeal to youth and its

potential worth in forming the adult.

The boy makes a kite, a telegraph outfit, or sled in order to give to

his play a vestige of realism. He seeks to mold the physical world to

personal desires, as men do. Incidentally he taps the general mass of

scientific facts or data and extracts therefrom no small amount of

very real, fruitful information. The result possesses marvelously

suggestive and lasting qualities because it came through effort;

because the boy wanted above all things to see his machine or toy

_work_, _move_, or obey his guiding hand, he was willing to dig for

the necessary understanding of the problem. His study brought about

contact with numerous other lines of work which were not at the time,

perhaps, germain to the subject, but were suggestive and opened various

side lines of experiment to be considered later. Therein lies the lure

of mechanics and craft work, gardening, outdoor projects, camping,

etc.: the subject is never exhausted, the student can never "touch

bottom." There is always an unexplored path to follow up. The intensity

of interest in mechanical things and in nature is the one influence

which can hold the boy in line. Turn him loose among mechanical things

where nicety of fitting and accurate workmanship are essential and

he appreciates construction immediately, because it is clear that

_workmanship_ and _efficiency_ go hand in hand. It is very much the

same with the girl: she may not enjoy the tedium of mere sewing, but

when the sewing serves a personal end, when sewing is essential to her

greatest needs, these conditions provide the only, inevitable, sure

stimulus to ambition and effort.

The school of the past, and often that of the present, has sought to

produce the adult by fertilizing the child with arithmetic, grammar,

geography, and language. The process resulted in all kinds of crooked,

stunted, oblique growth, the greatest assortment of "sports" (to use

a horticultural term) the world has ever seen. It isn't intellectual

food the child needs most (though some is very necessary); the real

need is intensive cultivation. Within himself he possesses, like the

young plant, great potential strength and virility, enough to produce

a splendid being absolutely at one with his time and surroundings;

he simply requires the chance to use the knowledge and opportunities

which lie at hand. It is, then, the common subjects of every-day

interest--science, business, nature and the like--which are the sources

of knowledge which has greatest worth to children.[A] They are the

valuable ones because they are of the type which first attracts and

holds the child's attention; they are concrete. Through them one may

learn language and expression, because one has something worth saying.

The second question, "Why do children like to make things and what is

their choice?" in the light of what has been said practically answers

itself. Children work primarily in response to that law of nature

which urges the young to exercise their muscles, to become skilful and

accurate in movement, for the sake of self-preservation and survival.

It is another phase of the same law which makes one carry out in work,

in concrete form, the ideas which come tumbling in from all conceivable

sources. The child can only think and learn in terms of material

things. Finally, the child's interests, the things he desires to make

and do, are such as will minister to his individual or social needs,

his play and imitation, and such as will satisfy his desire to produce

articles of purpose. The need may be a temporary, minor one, but every

child is stubborn on this one point, that everything he does must lead

to utility of a sort; through such working with a purpose he in time

rises to an appreciation of beauty and other abstract qualities.

Now this complex condition of child and school and society, in

which there is seemingly so much waste--"lost motion"--has always

existed; the facts are not new ones by any means. It is a condition

where the child is always curious, inquisitive and ready to "hook

a ride" on the march of business, science and learning, but the

school sternly commands "learn these stated facts because they are

fundamental" (philosophically), while society, represented by the

parent, alternately abuses the school, which is collectively his own

institution, or spoils the child by withholding the tools for learning

easily. In the meantime the child, with the native adaptability and

hardiness of true need, thrives in barren, untoward surroundings,

and matures notwithstanding. In other words, the school and society

have always tended toward misunderstanding--toward a lack of mutual

interest. In this period of uncertainty, of educational groping, the

child is found in his leisure hours pushing along the paths which

connect most directly with life and action, shunning the beaten but

roundabout highways of custom and conservatism.

The deductions are evident and clear-cut. If one accepts the foregoing

statement of the case, and there is ample evidence in any community

of size, it will be clear that certain definite opportunities should

be opened to the boy or girl to make the most of native talent and

enthusiasm. Encourage the young business adventurer or artisan to make

the most of his chosen hobby (and to choose a hobby if he has not one

already), to systematize it, develop it, make it financially profitable

if that is the desire; but first, last and all the time to make it

a study which is intensive enough to satisfy his or her productive

ambitions. At this age (up to the high school period) the boy or girl

may not have been able to decide upon a profession or business, but

he is working toward decision, and he is the only one who can choose.

Instead of trying to select an occupation for him, father and mother

would do well to put the child at the mercy of his own resources for

amusement, recreation and business, merely lending a hand now and then

in their full development. It will preserve the freshness of youth

beyond the ordinary time of its absorption by a blasé attitude toward

the world, and lead toward a more healthy and critical kind of study

than the haphazard lonesomeness, or the destructive gang spirit of the

modern community.[B]

Perhaps it would not be amiss to indicate just how this unofficial

study may be promoted, and to name the resources of the parent for the

purpose. First of all, nine children out of ten will definitely choose

a hobby or recreation or indicate some preference, as photography,

animal pets, woodwork, electricity, drawing, sport, one or more of

the domestic arts, collecting coins, stamps, etc.; there are as many

tastes as children. The child may get his suggestion from the school

or companions. Any legitimate taste should be actively encouraged and

supplemented by books which really explain and by tools and materials

with which to use the books. If it is a shop he wants, try to give him

the use of some corner for the specific purpose so that the occupation

may be dignified according to its juvenile worth. Second, endeavor to

emphasize the economic and social significance of the work done and

urge right along some definite aim. If a boy wants a shop, or pets, see

that they are kept in condition, attended to, and if possible give some

measure of tangible return on the outlay of money and energy. Third,

connect the boy's or girl's chosen avocation with real living in every

possible manner. Girls are rather fond of those decorative arts which

contribute to artistic pleasure, and should they make experiments with

stenciling, block-printing, and the like, have them use them also in

embellishing their own rooms, the summer camp or club. Fourth, make

the child feel that a given hobby is not to be satisfied for the mere

asking. Put some limit on the money expenditure until it is clear that

the interest is genuine and honest, and that the child is either

producing results which are sincere, or acquiring real knowledge. Fifth

and last, but perhaps most important of all, support the school in its

effort to solve the problem of formal education, because the heavy

burden rests there. It is quite essential that the home give the boy

and girl every possible chance to develop along original and specific

lines at their own pace, to experiment with the world's activities in

miniature, and establish the probable trend of individual effort for

the future. But this can only supplement and point the way for the

formal training which the institution (school) gives. The school, being

democratic and dependent upon the general public for existence, takes

its cue therefrom, and creating ideals in consonance with public needs

perfects the method of reaching them. When father and mother believe

in a vigorous, efficient education, rooted deeply in the child's

fundamental attitude toward the world and its affairs, then will the

public approve and urge the proper kind of organized training. Even so,

the school cannot really educate the child--he educates himself through

the agents aforementioned--it simply organizes information and gives

the pupil access to methods of using facts and ideas.

In closing this chapter there is one more word to be said concerning

the main theme. The arts and crafts[C] of expression and construction

fulfil that precise function in the child's preliminary training

which they did in the early history of the race. They indicate just

that degree of manual skill and constructive ability of which both

the youthful individual and the young race are capable; they serve as

indices and guides to the development of design, taste and constructive

thinking. As the child matures he may elevate a given craft to an art

or science, but the early familiarity, the simple processes, he should

have, because they are essential to childhood. Hence, the large amount

of handwork in the kindergarten and primary school; it is the necessary

complement to academic work and balances the educational diet.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] For the elaboration of this question as it concerns girls see

Chapter IV.

[B] Both boys and girls have clubs, societies and organizations, which

are useless, enervating or merely harmless when they exist without

purpose. If, on the other hand, the aggregate energy can be collected

into profitable channels, these same gangs or societies are a real

source of education and training. Any organization without consistent,

sustained purpose is a waste of social energy. Baseball is worth while,

but the merits of high school fraternities are doubtful.

[C] It will be evident that the term _crafts_ as here used is a more

comprehensive term than when employed in connection with the arts and

crafts furore of the past few years. Any kind of manual occupation

may be a craft; if it involves a measure of art and science it may

become more than a craft. But with children the craft stage, which is

characteristic, includes many occupations which may not even be true

crafts as the term is ordinarily used.

CHAPTER II

THE CULTIVATION OF TASTE AND DESIGN

It will be evident to the thinking man or woman that art or any phase

of it is not to be taught successfully as a profession through books.

The very most that one can expect from reading is a knowledge about art

matters and acquaintance with the conventions and rules which obtain

therein. But even this slight result may be the precursor of a fuller,

more intimate familiarity with the principles of good taste and design.

One may be able to say "that is a beautiful room" or "a fine garden"

or "a charming gown" and yet be unable to produce any such things. How

is it possible then to _know_ if one cannot _do_? The answer is that,

_potentially_, every individual who really sees and appreciates beauty

can produce it through some form of artistic expression; the power to

execute and the power of invention are merely undeveloped. And as for

the artist or craftsman who can make beautiful things, but who cannot

explain how he does it--he is unique, like the mathematical genius;

he just sees the answer; it is a gift. Though there are born in every

generation a few with the divine spark of genius, the mass of men

and women has always learned by effort. In other words, it has been

possible to _teach_ the subjects which were found necessary to culture

and education; it is quite possible to present the ordinary phases of

art to the lay mind in such a way, even through books, that one may

have worthy ideals, and a healthy point of view. The present chapter

will be devoted to showing how books such as these[D] for boys and

girls can contribute to the development of taste.

Frankly, taste has much less to do with fine art than with the

arrangement and choice of the ordinary externals of living. Of course

fine art does in the last analysis pass judgment upon form, color

and design in clothes, furnishings and architecture, but the common

home variety of taste is derived directly from custom, comfort,

and convention, not from art at all. Only in the later stages of

refinement does the lay mind succumb to direct supervision by art.

On the other hand, all conventions and ideals are the result or sum

total of general experience, in which art has played its part, and

has left some impress on the individual, giving rise to belief in a

few principles so common as to be accepted by all. Principles of this

kind are not always serviceable or effective, because they are not

stated in precise language, and cannot therefore become standard. In

truth, so far as design is concerned, there are very few absolute rules

for guidance, and a book like "Home Decoration" cannot tell the child

or parent how to make a beautiful, inspiring home. Its mission is to

create the desire for fine surroundings, to suggest ways and means for

studying design, especially those phases of decoration associated with

the crafts, and above all such a book invites and helps to maintain a

_receptive attitude_ of mind toward artistic matters. In the effort

to produce work of merit, one becomes critical, and seeks reasons and

precedents for judgment. This is the beginning of design study: and the

fact that one has real interest in taste is indicative of the desire of

the cultured mind for ideals. If a child is allowed to grow up in the

"I know what I like" atmosphere, without reasonable contact with choice

things, and without the necessity for selection based upon reason,

there is small chance that such a child will ever acquire any sense of

fitness or taste in material surroundings.

[Illustration: Two Examples of Furniture Grouping for the Porch or

Outdoors. These Few Pieces Suggest Comfort, Cleanliness and Moderate

Expense]

[Illustration: The Numerous Photographs in the Upper Illustration

Suggest Disorder and Dust. They do not Decorate. Sometimes a lack of

Small, Insignificant Objects like these is the Secret of Successful

Decoration]

The aims of all practical books for boys and girls may be summarized

about as follows:

(_a_) To absorb the overflow of youthful energy and turn it into

profitable channels.

(_b_) To develop organized thinking and accomplishment, and eliminate

wasted, aimless, non-productive action. This is the complement to

the routine of formal training in academic subjects, which are in

themselves, normally un-useful.

(_c_) To explore the field of accomplishment in order to select

intelligently a future occupation.

(_d_) To develop and foster standards and ideals of efficiency,

comfort, enjoyment, beauty and social worth. This last purpose includes

taste and is the one of concern here.

The peculiar æsthetic standards which interest young people are of

the most practical kind. They apply every day and to everybody. And

they are fundamental. The illustrations given below will indicate the

common-sense way in which design should be approached:

_Color._ The tones of the color scale have not yet been systematized so

well as those of music, but each year students of design and artists

move a little toward agreement. Now, suppose one wishes to use two

or more tones in a room, how may harmonious effect be secured? The

very word "harmony" means _agreement_, and suggests _similarity_,

_likeness_, _relationship_. Therefore the tones one would use in the

embellishment of a room should possess some common _quality_ for the

harmonizing element. Each tone having that quality as characteristic is

similar in that one respect to all other tones having the same quality.

Hence they are related in a way. The relation may be made strong or

weak by the manipulation of the bond which holds the tones together.

For instance:

Red and green are not related at all. By mixing gray with each, red and

green become related through gray. By mixing yellow, orange or blue,

etc., with red and green, the relationship may be established in the

same way.

Yellow and green have a common quality--_yellow_, and in so far tend

toward harmony. But it may not be a pleasing one, and it will be

necessary to bring them still closer together by introducing other

bonds, as gray or a color. Yellow is very light and green is dark: they

will work together better if brought nearer together in value.

[Illustration: An Interesting Curtain which might be Duplicated by

almost any Girl--If She Wanted Curtains]

[Illustration: Since Flowers are so Beautiful in Themselves, is it not

Worth While to Arrange Them with Judgment?]

It is by such simple means that all color combinations are brought into

line and rendered satisfactory. No rule can be given for mixing or

choosing the actual colors, but it is a safe rule to select those of

a kind in some respect. The popular belief in low-toned (grayed) color

schemes is a sound one, and the principle can be used very comfortably

by the amateur decorator in furnishing a home. She can have any colors

she wishes, and make them pleasing, if she will unite them by some

harmonizing tone. Of course, all grays even are not rich and beautiful,

but they are better than unadulterated color. Mr. Irwin in one of his

breezy skits quotes the æsthete as saying: "Good taste should be like

the policeman at parade; he should permit the assembled colors to make

an orderly demonstration but not to start a riot." The moment the

unskilled amateur tries to use white woodwork, red wallpaper, and gilt

furniture in combination, he or she courts failure simply because the

choice lacks the pervading tone which would modify the three. There are

ways to secure harmony even under the most adverse conditions, but the

technical details are not pertinent here.

Another characteristic which stands in the way of harmony is

_emphasis_. The moment any one tone becomes greatly _different_ from

its neighbors in value or otherwise, it stands out, attracts attention,

just as in material objects, unusual, curious shapes and sizes invite

notice, often beyond their just dues. Hence a brilliant yellow house,

a bright green gown, large figured wallpaper, are over-emphatic.

Clothes, which by their color and style are loud in their clamor for

inspection, are out of key and bear the same relation to surroundings

which foreign, exotic manners and customs bear to domestic conventions.

And ordinarily one does not seek such prominence.

This question of taste is a vital one to children, and these books

about "Needlecraft," "Home Decoration," "Outdoor Work," "Gardening,"

etc., are indirectly most useful because they put the child in a

_position to choose_. The girl who sews and helps run the home is

bound to cross the path of design a dozen times a day. She is faced

with problems of arrangement, color and utility at every turn. Her own

clothes, her room, the porch and garden, whatever she touches, are

inert, lifeless things which await artistic treatment. It is when the

child is faced with the problem of personal interest and pleasure that

these elementary conceptions of design may be proposed.

_Form and Line._ Each year fashion decrees for both men and women

certain "correct" styles. At slightly longer intervals the shops offer

new models of furniture, hangings, jewelry, pottery, etc. Have these

new things been devised to meet a change in public taste? Not at all;

they are inventions to stimulate trade. Most of such productions are

out of place, incongruous, in company with present possessions. One

must have a pretty sound sense of fitness and selection in order to use

them to advantage or to resist their lure. As single examples, many of

the new things are beautiful in color and line, though they may have

nothing whatever in common with what one already owns.

One chooses a given pattern in furniture first, because of its

_utility_; second, because of its harmony in line and size with

other furniture already owned; and third, because of its intrinsic

beauty. It is much less difficult to furnish a house throughout than

to refurnish an old room in consonance with others already complete.

All the household things need not be of one kind, though the closer

one clings to a clear-cut conception of harmony (relationship of some

kind) the better the result. Hence clothes may either beautify or

exaggerate personal physique, and the garden may attach itself to the

house and grounds or stand in lonely, painful isolation. Down at bottom

design aims to assemble elements and parts into proper groups, and in

the common questions of home decorations and dress the student can

usually work on just that simple basis. It is usually the incongruous,

over-prominent, conspicuous, or isolated factor in decoration which

causes trouble.

This fragmentary discussion will perhaps suggest some of the benefit

which may come from the pursuit of crafts and occupations. The

illustrations here given are in some detail because it is so easy

to overlook design at home and in common things. Everything is so

familiar there, one is so accustomed to the furniture, rugs and their

arrangement, that it never comes to mind that the situation might be

improved. It must be remembered that, when children begin to apply

design to their own handicraft, their fundamental conceptions of beauty

originate in the home. Either the children must lose faith in home

taste, or, as they grow and learn, be allowed to bring their new-found

knowledge back into the home and "try it on." This is where the craft

does its real work. The true privilege conferred upon children by the

possession of such books as these on various special occupations is a

chance to obtain, first-hand, individual standards of perfection and

beauty. Before this they have merely accepted the home as it stood,

with no thought of what was choice or otherwise.

Since taste and design are merely implied, or indirectly included in

the several volumes, save "Home Decoration," the latter should be used

as a supplementary reference in connection with the others. As has

already been said, it is not possible or advisable to systematically

teach good taste. It will be better and more effective to just

_include_ taste in the several activities the child undertakes.

When the girl begins to make things for herself, help her to select

materials which are appropriate in every way. Have her seek materials

for the purpose. Have her _choose_ decoration and color rather than

take the first handy suggestion or copy the plans of another. She would

do well to experiment independently. The girl should create her own

room down to the last detail, not make everything herself, but plan

it, plan its arrangement, its color (tone) if possible, and make those

small decorative articles like pillows, runners, curtains, etc. But

before beginning such a comprehensive experiment in decoration have

her look about a bit and note the conditions imposed. The light and

exposure, size of the room, furniture which must be used, treatment of

hangings--these are all stubborn factors, but they respond to gradual

treatment. Then the room is hers in reality. The boy's attitude toward

taste is totally different. He cares less than the girl for the charm

of tone and arrangement; he is quite willing to despise the niceties of

decoration. He must approach the question obliquely through interest in

the efficiency of a given effort; he appreciates the utility phase of

design most of all. The boy will come to see gradually that his pets

and chickens should be decently housed, and that it is good business

to do so. He should not be allowed to impose upon his own family or

their neighbors a slovenly yard or garden. He will find that those

tools work best which are sharp and clean and always in place. His

final lesson in design grows out of association with his mates. When

he begins to go to parties, to enter the social world in a small way,

a new body of conventions in taste appear and he must be taught to

appreciate them if he would be well liked. But the real training in

design arises from manual work--the playthings, toys and utensils the

boy makes for _use_. They need not be beautiful nor is there excuse for

clumsiness in construction. One cannot expect even the mature child to

take much interest in design in the abstract, but when he meets the

subject on a common-sense basis, as a part of some personal problem,

design--even taste in color and form--acquires definite standing in his

esteem. It has earned the right. Hence a liberal contact with youthful

amusements and occupations encourages both boy and girl to build

ideals of working, and among these ideals taste is bound to appear

in some guise--usually unbidden. The book on design or decoration

is but a reference, an inspiration, a stimulant, never a text of

instruction. The ability to choose, to secure appropriate, beautiful,

accurate results, is largely a by-product of judicious reading combined

with persistent effort. It remains for the parent to skim off this

by-product as it appears and infuse a little of it into each problem

the child presents for inspection.

FOOTNOTE:

[D] Library of Work and Play.

[Illustration]