But the brown Rookwood will overshadow the Copenhagen, and the multicolored Cloisonne will kill the Iris, and so each piece must have a congenial companion if any. And above all, don't crowd! Bric-a-brac needs breathing room, and individual beauty is lost in the jumbling together of many pieces in a heterogeneous maze of color, which confuses and wearies the eye. All the fine-art product asks is to be let alone--a small boon to grant to so great worth. "Tip-overable" flower holders defeat their own ends--utility--but there are many which are well balanced and beautiful, too: tall, wide-mouthed cut, Bohemian, or more simple glass for long-stemmed roses, carnations, or daisies; brown Van Briggle, Grueby, or Rookwood bowls for nasturtiums, golden rod, and black-eyed Susans; green for hollyhocks, dull red for dahlias, gladioli, etc., flowers and receptacles thus forming a true color symphony. Parian and Carrara marble, immortally beautiful, we can but gaze at from afar, but masterpieces of the sculptor's chisel are ours at small cost in ivory-tinted plaster reproductions of the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, busts and medallions of famous personages, etc., which may with truth be called "art for art's sake." Dining-room bric-a-brac generally consists of whatever occupies the plate rail--an interesting array of plates, pitchers, bowls, jars, cups and saucers, steins, cider mugs, and tankards. And here our cherished ancestral china finds a safe haven from which it surveys its young, modern descendants with benignant toleration. BOOKS A spirit of friendliness and companionship radiates from a good book--a geniality to be not only felt, but cultivated and enjoyed. The friendship of man is sometimes short-lived and evanescent, but the friendship of books abideth ever. Paraphrasing "Thanatopsis": "For our gayer hours They have a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and they glide Into our darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere we are aware." Truly, a book for every mood, and a mood for every book, THEIR SELECTION