The entrance to a house, the first impression it gives, may indicate the nature of its occupants; indeed, one's habitat of necessity takes on a certain air of personality. This is less a question of outlay than of individuality.

A homelike atmosphere is suggested, even amid the plainest surroundings, by subtle, artistic touches, that cannot be effected by the most lavish display when there is no guiding spirit of culture. The effect of expenditure at hazard never equals the exercise of refinement and taste; and therefore the simplest home which has been made thoughtfully is more homelike than a fine house fitted up by a tradesman.

Thanks to the work of such household artists as Mrs. Holmes and the Wheelers, every young housewife now has it in her power to impress her own taste upon her home, always providing she possesses that invaluable quality which New England people call "faculty." She can materialize every beauty of artistic needlework upon the hangings, scarfs, and draperies which form so important a part of the furnishing of the modern house ; her spare moments cannot be better employed than in the embellishing of her home.