Furniture is one of the chief requisites in our lives, promoting, as it does, health and happiness. Few have wealth, but all must have a home. Do we realize what a factor the furnishing of a home is, in the scheme of modern civilization ? We have as much a duty in educating the home-maker in the selection of furniture as in preaching civic beauty. To create harmony in a home is to raise the average of culture and intelligence.

The home life is influenced by its furnishing, and in the home the nation is moulded.

Without pleasant surroundings the child will seek outside amusements, thence the street corners and the attractive and well-furnished saloons. If one desires a well-furnished house, one should make house furnishing a study. Homes are brought up to the standard in ratio to the study which is put upon them, it being impossible to build higher than one's ideals.

The writer has been associated with the home-furnishing business all of his business life, from clerk to buyer, and then manager of one of the largest concerns in house-furnishings. He has kept in touch with the furniture markets by visiting them semiannually for many years, as well as familiarizing himself daily with the demands and needs of the consumer, and has been closely affiliated with the State and National Furniture Association work. Such intimate, inside connection with the house furnishing business has convinced the writer that the average purchaser lacks so much in preparation and experience that he is prone to make purchases which are not, in the long run, satisfactory. He falls an easy prey to the unscrupulous dealer and incompetent clerk. He also fails to consider that house furnishings arc things with which he UN every day, that they should be selected with critical care, and chosen so that they may become dearer with each year's association, and of a quality to be handed from generation to generation with increasing pride and love.

Thousands of people each year arc duped into buying poorly constructed, unattractive and unserviceable home furnishings, and not until they experience their second or third purchasing trip do they learn to economize by buying quality goods.

There are many hooks on the market which give a great deal of information about certain essentials in furnishing the home, but there seem- to he lacking, in most of these works, the specific directions which one needs in selecting the furnishings which have the combined qualities of attractiveness and service. Many books relative to period furniture may he had, and though period furniture is growing rapidly in demand, the average layman does not care so much about the style of furniture which was used centeries ago, and little does he consider the value of modern furniture. Numerous manufacturer- of various kinds of commodities place practical and instructive matter in the hands of those inquiring, but that matter, as instructive as it usually is, naturally favors the particular line designated.

There are just as many points to be considered and looked for in buying an inexpensive rocking chair as in selecting a period suite which must carry with it carvings and other lines which were in vogue at the time of its conception.

Lack of knowledge in selecting home furnishings is false economy. A poor selection usually results, in time, in a better and wiser purchase, and a knowledge of how to select carefully and wisely at first will prove a great saving.

People of today live too fast and usually do not take time enough in studying and selecting furnishings for their house - furnishings that must last perhaps a lifetime. Owing to the carelessness of some purchasers, complete outfits have been sold in a very few minutes. It takes time to go through a large stock and make comparisons and the best selections. If time is limited, it is policy to wait until one can use the required time for this very important work.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to qualify the house furnisher to discriminate between worth-the-money goods and shoddy or poorly constructed articles, which are calculated to deceive the novice; to make him an independent judge of qualities; to tell why and how; to place the experience of years at his command and enable him, while freely exercising his individual taste, to buy knowingly and make the spending of his house furnishing appropriation yield an asset insead of an expense.

For courtesies shown in supplying special information which has helped to make this book more practical, grateful indebtedness is due to the following manufacturers, trade journals, and periodicals: Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Co., chas. P. Limbert co. Stickley Bros. Co., Gustave Stickley, Simmons Manufacturing Co., Kimball and Chappell Co., Karpen Bros., Century Furniture Co., Grand Rapids Furniture Record, Carpel and Upholstery Trade Re-view, Furniture Retailer and House Furnisher, and Veneers.

The Author.