The instinct of self-expression is much stronger in us than in other races, and for that reason we cannot be contented with the utterances of any generation, race or country save our own.

We gather to ourselves what we personally enjoy or wish to enjoy, and will not take our domestic environment at second hand.

It follows that there is a certain difference and originality in our methods, which bids fair to acquire distinct character, and may in the future distinguish this art-loving period as a maker of style.
A successful foreign painter who has visited this country at intervals during the last ten years said, "There is no such uniformity of beautiful interiors anywhere else in the world.

There are palaces in France and Italy, and great country houses in England, to the embellishment of which generations of owners have devoted the best art of their own time; but in America there is something of it everywhere.
Many unpretentious houses have drawing-rooms possessing colour-decoration which would distinguish them as examples in England or France." To Americans this does not seem a remarkable fact.

We have come into a period which desires beauty, and each one secures it as best he can.