For colored prints, the frame may be similar in value and color to the predominating hue of the picture. Often, when the color is rich and strong, a dull gold frame is suitable. It is not difficult to stain a natural wood frame to suit any color by mixing oil paints with turpentine. The expense is reduced to a minimum when small cans of paint are obtained or when paint in tubes is used. Easy dyes and even water colors may be tried, and the color held by an application of ordinary floor wax carefully rubbed over the color or into the grain.

Oftentimes old mirrors or discarded picture frames may be scraped, restained, and used acceptably, thus saving the cost of having a frame made. Such frames should never be used without being refinished unless they are adapted in color. A good picture may be made poor by the character of its frame. This applies, also, to any decoration in a frame. Brass or other metal, glass, putty, and other sham applications, are to be spurned under all conditions.

Some color prints may be enriched by simple, carved gold frames, but for the average print the frame should present a plain or slightly molded surface, a "little space of silence" about the picture.

The width of the frame depends on the size and the character of the picture. Naturally, large pictures demand wider frames than do small ones. Unmatted pictures with plenty of margin do not need as wide frames as do those in which the detail comes nearly to the edge. If mats are used, the frame should nearly always be narrow. Often a small picture of strong contrasts of value or color may be emphasized by a very wide mat and a narrow frame. Under no circumstances, however, should the frame be of extreme width, for if the frame is too wide it overpowers and destroys the general effect of the picture.

Few people are able to estimate the exact width and the proper value of a frame or a mat at once, and therefore hasty choosing should be discouraged. It is largely a matter of trying one effect after another until the decision "comes"; as when, in solving a good puzzle, a person knows when he obtains the correct result. Careful and thoughtful consideration of all the points of good framing will prevent serious blunders, but two or three trials are usually necessary before a wise selection is made. The time spent on the extra trials is always justified by the final result.

Casts. Too few casts are displayed in the modern schoolroom. At the present time good casts are no more expensive than good prints, and in some respects they are vastly superior. They suggest or actually present the third dimension, the actual feeling of form and line, which a picture cannot give. One or two good casts and a few good pictures make a good combination.

The best casts for school purposes are cream in color and have been so

treated that they may be carefully dusted with a damp cloth from time to time.

Suitable subjects for school use do not include the usual busts of great men, unless the original is a work of recognized worth. Reliefs are never good if made from some historic or other painting. "The Spirit of '76 " is often seen in the relief cast. As a work of art this painting was of fair but not great merit, and it was executed on a perfectly flat surface. Its effect depended on light and shade and color handling. To reproduce this in three dimensions is not only artistically bad, but quite impossible,

for the cast demands peculiar lighting conditions and does not depend on color. The result, therefore, is a poor symbol of the original and suggests misplaced enthusiasm.

Casts from originals by the master Greeks and the greater Renaissance masters are excellent both in relief and in the round. Such works include: Victory of Samothrace

Venus de Milo

Apollo

Frieze of the Parthenon

Casts should never be placed in front of windows, but should be seen against a neutral background. The effects of various lightings should be noted, and the position that best defines the cast should be retained if possible. Casts in the round may be placed on simple, unobtrusive pedestals, wall brackets, or bookcases, and turned to receive the best lighting. Reliefs may be framed like pictures, and, if heavy, should at least rest on a firm molding and be firmly secured to the wall at the back. The frame may be a simple piece of heavy wood, thick enough to receive the full depth of the relief and tinted a harmonizing color, or it may be covered with burlap or other textile in order to soften the contrast between the cast and the wall.

Vases, flowers, and plants.- No room need go without flowers in spring and fall. They are a constant source of delight and serve as an effective means of decoration. Vases for flowers should be unobtrusive and particularly adapted to their use. Vases of variegated colors or serrated edges are not in accord with this principle. Those with projecting figures and sandpaper surfaces are likewise bad. A plain glass tumbler is excellent for many flowers, and other simple forms of plain glass are equally suitable. They allow the stems of flowers to be visible and do not in any way detract from the beauty of nature. Other forms of glazed pottery, grayed in color and simple in line, are good. In any case the vase should be stable and should stand squarely on its base.

Flowers gathered thoughtlessly, and heedlessly thrust into any receptacle, may prove far from being beautiful. Blossoms of a kind should be kept together and all others weeded out. Their shape should determine the vase to be used. Buttercups would require a less bulky shape of vase than would a mass of lilac blossoms, and the pansy looks better in a shallow vase than does the daisy. A common earthen crock is an excellent receptacle for great armfuls of daisies, and a delicate, flaring-shaped vase may suitably contain the violets. Often one single flower, such as a spray of goldenrod, will look well springing from a tall, narrow-necked vase.

In arranging flowers, some definite scheme should be kept in mind. Either a rhythmic series of blossoms of varying heights, or simple massed effects, are desirable. In the first instance the composition is usually best seen from one point, and in placing the decoration in the room this should be taken into account. Stems should not be of the same length, and flowers should never be tightly bunched together. The illustration makes clear a number of ways of arranging flowers. Careful judgment may well be expended in all arrangements.

Plants, also, are an excellent means of decoration in the schoolroom. Long, narrow boxes, of the width of the windows, may be made from packing boxes and, if possible, should be lined with zinc. Stained to match the

Suggestive arrangements of flowers

interior woodwork, they become a permanent decorative feature of no little value.

cans.

Single plants may be placed in flowerpots or in receptacles made of The usual red flowerpots may be beautifully decorated by means of a brush and india ink or black paint. Bands and stripes may be relieved by spotted borders in manifold variety. Such decoration is preferable to an attempt to disguise the fired clay material by means of crepe paper or colored paints. For old flowerpots, discolored by repeated use, paint is perhaps the only satisfactory covering. Ordinary tomato cans may be colored; when the paint is dry, stripes or spotted designs may be added. When using a color, the general scheme of the room should be taken into consideration.

A word may be said here for the vase that exists for its own sake. All vases may be classed under two heads: those that serve as receptacles for beautiful objects, and those that are objects of beauty in themselves. The first have been discussed, the latter may receive some attention.