Don’t attempt to use alfalfa as a decoration for mirror- and picture-frames. I know that this has been widely attempted, but the effect is never good. Alfalfa has no place in the best interiors. Its place is out-of-doors and it should be kept there. This is a point upon which I have the strongest convictions, and what I usually say to beginning decorators who insist upon using alfalfa in the home is answer sufficient, I am sure. “Do you expect your client to entertain horses?” I inquire. “If not, then the place for alfalfa is where it will be convenient for the horse, but not in the living-room and not in the reception-room. No, not even in the _entresol_.” I admit that there was a charm in the customs of our ancestors under Garfield and Arthur, when cat-tails and sumach were thus employed, and I find the tendency to return to them rather intriguing; but alfalfa produces an effect too stringy and tends to clutter. Let us have no more of it. Finally, don’t paint your front hall water-cooler with floral scenes. Go to some good marine painter and instruct him to make a decoration in keeping with the purpose of the cooler. There is water inside the vessel, is there not? Then let him paint water outside. Better still, coat your cooler with mucilage and lightly spray powdered mica upon it. But _don’t_, whatever you do, attempt to ornament your cooler with festoons of gilt tassels. Your cooler is not the place for tassels. I know it is done, but my last and only word on the subject is, Don’t. Tassels of _any_ kind are absolutely out of key on your cooler. They should be kept for your umbrella, where they will give that personal touch that is distinctive. These constitute most of what dear old General X used frolicsomely to call my “little Don’ties,” and if they prove of some inspiration to the beginning decorator or even to the commencing householder, this work will not have been written in vain. [Illustration] ———— OTHER BOOKS FOR THE ANTIQUE-LOVER BY OSRO T. NEWDLEHAM THE HAIR-CLOTH ERA _A Book of Furniture-Study for Young People_ Containing 16 full-page Illustrations in color, also 114 Reproductions in color of hair-cloth seats, as well as numerous Illustrations in the text. _Large crown 8vo., bound in hair-cloth_ =By Post, 3/10= =PRICE 3/6 NET= =By Post, 3/10= _Some Press Opinions_