e, as all furniture should, but are
beautiful in themselves. Many of the small tables of walnut and mahogany
that are sold as dressing-tables might be used as writing-tables in
formal rooms, if the mirrors were eliminated.

[Illustration: THE FINE FORMALITY OF WELL-PLACED PANELING]

There is a great difference in opinion as to the placing of the piano in
the drawing-room. I think it belongs in the living-room, if it is in
constant use, though of course it is very convenient to have it near by
the one big room, be it drawing-room or dining-room, when a small dance
is planned. I am going to admit that in my opinion there is nothing more
abused than the piano, I have no piano in my own house in New York. I
love music--but I am not a musician, and so I do not expose myself to
the merciless banging of chance callers. Besides, my house is quite
small and a good piano would dwarf the other furnishings of my rooms. I
think pianos are for musicians, not strummers, who spoil all chance for
any real conversation. If you are fortunate enough to have a musician in
your family, that is different. Go ahead and give him a music room.
Musicians are not born every day, but lovers of music are everywhere,
and I for one am heartily in favor of doing away with the old custom of
teaching every child to bang a little, and instead, teaching him to
_listen_ to music. Oh, the crimes that are committed against music in
American parlors! I prefer the good mechanical cabinet that offers us
"canned" music to the manual exercise of people who insist on playing
wherever they see an open piano. Of course the mechanical instrument is
new, and therefore, subject to much criticism from a decorative
standpoint, but the music is much better than the amateur's. We are
still turning up our noses a little at the mechanical piano players, but
if we will use our common sense we must admit that a new order of things
has come to pass, and the new "canned" music is not to be despised.
Certainly if the instrument displeases you, you can say so, but if a
misguided friend elects to strum on your piano you are helpless. So I
have no piano in my New York house. I have a cabinet of "canned" music
that can be turned on for small dances when need be, and that can be
hidden in a closet between times. Why not?

But suppose you have a piano, or need one: do give it a chance! Its very
size makes it tremendously important, and if you load it with senseless
fringed scarfs and