ONE might as well admit at the start that we Americans are very stupid about our summer furnishings. Some of us carry over into the out-of-doors season the heavy and stuffy trappings of the indoor ones. Some of us have a wrong idea of rusticity and imagine that because Mission furniture is of simple design and construction it is, despite its ponderosity, ideal to help one live the simple life.

Let it be admitted that rough-tiled floors with Mission furniture and architecture make a pleasant background on a torrid day for groups of gayly dressed pleasure-seekers; it nevertheless remains that it is to the Chinese and Japanese, as well as to the French, that we must look for examples of the most comfortable and beautiful and appropriate hot-weather furnishing.

The French of the eighteenth century devoted much attention during the reigns of both Louis XV and Louis XVI to the art of polite rusticity. The paintings and prints of the period show us many examples of villas and furniture planned for summer use only, and most of them were largely copied from or influenced by Chinese and Hindoo rustic architecture - fantastic ki-osques and pavilions, across bridges that top marvelous waterfalls and mysterious rivers, with romantic forests and mountains in the background. And if we try eighteenth century England, we find summer furnishings also under the Chinese influence.

So that we might as well go to China and Japan first as last, and study a group of three rooms recently fitted up in a New York shop as examples of the best that can be done to utilize the delights and advantages while overcoming the discomforts of "close to nature." Room No. I had fascinating panels of wall paper in a stork pattern, with delicious peach-trees in blossom, lilies, chrysanthemums, etc. The wooden joists that framed the panels and the room had faces of dull ebony with sides of dull gold. The joints where the joists met near the ceiling were crowned with metal plates in Pompeian finish. The center of the room was occupied by a large, inverted paper umbrella in bright colors, about seven feet from the floor, with tiny lanterns dangling in a circle from the projecting ribs. The doorway that led into room No. 2 was framed on top and sides with a three-foot fret-work in ebony and dull red. The walls of rooms Nos. 2 and 3 were paneled in Japanese grasscloth, plain in the dado and figured above with a delightful stenciled gourd design. The draperies were in scrim with a simple stained-glass design printed in soft colors.

I. Prairie grass arm chair.

I. Prairie grass arm-chair.

2. Floor basket in wicker work.

2. Floor basket in wicker-work.

3. White willow.

3. White willow.

4. Prairie grass.

4. Prairie grass.

5. Rattan fan chair.

5. Rattan fan chair.

6. Chinese linen.

6. Chinese linen.

I must admit that to me personally the most fascinating summer furniture in the world is found in France, fashioned of cane and reed enameled in greens, blues, terra cottas, and whites. It has a gay vivacity that no other furniture seems to possess, not even the light maple or birch rustic chairs and tables and lattice work enameled in similar colors. However, there is much of our domestic enameled furniture, in French grays and blues as well as in white, that is very inexpensive though of fairly good construction. It should be used more than it is, and in thousands of chambers could be substituted for the present "golden oak" all the year around.

Among the illustrations accompanying this chapter, No. 3 is a white enameled willow settle with cretonne cushions for back and seat at $26.50; No. 7 is in leaf-green finish with matting seat at $6.

Particularly attractive and particularly summery are the Chinese linen and the prairie grass pieces. Both have a reputation for wearing well, and both "look cool." The former are made in China out of wild flax curiously twisted to bind and upholster the wooden frame. No. 6, a Chinese linen work-basket, with handle to lift it from the floor and standing about 30 inches high, sells for $9; No. 11, an armchair, for $ 10.75; tables, side chairs, tea wagons, settees, etc., in Chinese linen are priced proportionately.

No. 8, a side chair in American prairie grass, sells for $4.75; No. 4, a desk with imitation leather top, for $22; No. 1, an armchair for $ 12.25. The models - more than 400 of them - of this prairie grass furniture are uniformly excellent and the two finishes, "nature green" and "baronial brown," are soft and pleasing, the latter being preferable for cold-weather use, except in sun rooms, which I believe should always be kept as summery as possible. It may be of interest to note that this furniture is made on Long Island from grass that grows on the prairies of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The source of the materials used in wicker, rattan, reed, and cane furniture is Oriental, Singapore being the great world market. The reeds are used both full and split, the split reeds, of course, being proportionately less expensive.

7. Leaf green finish with matting seat.

7. Leaf-green finish with matting seat.

8. Prairie grass.

8. Prairie grass.

9. Swamp cedar.

9. Swamp cedar.

10. Wicker desk.

10. Wicker desk.

11. Chinese linen.

11. Chinese linen.

12. Rattan and linen tea wagon.

12. Rattan and linen tea-wagon.

No. 12, a tea wagon in brown rattan and Chinese linen, sells for $30. Other tea wagons for vacation use sell for $ 6, $ 8, $ 10, $ 18, and $ 20, in maple, reed and cane, and prairie grass. No. 10, a wicker desk in shellac finish, with glass top over cretonne, sells for $23.50. There is a very attractive chair to match. No. 2, a wicker work-basket, is priced at only $ 2.50 - not an imposing piece but well put together and serviceable.

No. 5, an imported fan chair in peeled rattan with ornament formed by interweaving of black with natural, is to me a fascinating piece of furniture, of beautiful shape and tenacious structure. The price is only $23.

Also from the Orient, as everybody knows, comes bamboo, which in combination with matting and cheap boards composes the bamboo furniture that is too cheap to be often good. You can buy a taboret in bamboo with matting top for only 35 cents. And the moment you are willing to spend two or three dollars you can have your choice of chairs, bookcases, tables, etc. You can furnish a whole room - of a New York apartment - for $ 25 or $ 30, unless you are so reckless as to select one of the very elaborate desks for $23. Furthermore, on some of the matting covers you will find a very pretty stenciled ornament in colors, while the wooden shelves of the bookcases are diaper-figured by pyrography.

The hickory and swamp-cedar rustic furniture brings us back to materials of American growth. The hickory furniture is made of hickory only - nothing but hickory - legs, arms, spindles, and stretches of the whole wood - bark, heart and all - seats and backs from woven strips of tough, but pliable and elastic inner bark. The prices range from $ 1.20 for a child's chair 23 inches high with seat 10 x 12, to $2.50 for a 40-inch armchair, $4.75 for a rocker with wide-swelling curved arms, $6 for grandfather's favorite, $5.50 for a settee 36 inches long and 36 inches high, $ 18 for a couch 6l/2 feet long, $ 12 for a rustic bench 7 feet long, $75 for a summer house 8 feet square, etc.

The swamp-cedar furniture I like particularly and regret that space does not allow me to show some of the pergolas costing from $ 50 to $ 150. A good idea of this furniture, however, can be got from illustration No. 9, showing the Klondike armchair at $7.