CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

WHY is it that so much sameness is displayed in the furniture and general aspect of our College rooms? Is there so much similarity in men's tastes that they converge by some natural law towards red curtains, cheap prints (obtained we all know how), photographs of Soldene, Aimee, etc., etc.; or, is it merely because it is easier to fit up a room after the stereotyped pattern of one's neighbor's, than to exercise individual taste?

A great many men think that to exercise taste entails expense. This is a false impression. In the first place, cultivation is shown as much by a man's pictures as by any other one thing; and, if we cannot dive into original Jeromes, Meissoniers, Fortunys, etc., we can, at least, enjoy their presence in photographs or engravings such as are to be purchased in Boston for as little as the wretched and oft-repeated prints of Landseer, Ansdell, etc., that cover our walls. Again, a Turkish rug of good quality can be had for nearly the same sum as one which has for a subject a herd of enraged buffaloes tearing over it. And what shows aesthetic taste more than a Persian tapestry with a couple of odd plates, a cup and saucer or two, hung over one's chimney-piece? The question of curtains is perhaps a more difficult one. Here a man must consult his means. Anything Turkish or Moorish looks well; but if that involves too much expense, chintz or cretonne curtains are preferable to so many yards of red cloth.

I know one room in college that it is a delight to enter, because a certain discordant harmony exists in it that shows innate refinement. This room approaches more nearly than any other I am acquainted with, my idea of a tasteful, and at the same time thoroughly comfortable, study. Every one is struck with it, and exclaims, "How well you are fixed up!" But the conclusion is drawn that it must needs be very costly; yet there is nothing extravagant in it: on the contrary, the owner assures me that the amount he laid out is less than is spent on the typical Harvard room.

I have been led to these remarks by a feeling that the existing monotony comes quite as much from an erroneous idea of expense (which I wish to remove), and from laziness, as from the lack of taste or the depreciation of the artistic; and I for one should very much like to see more individuality displayed in our rooms.