By
FRANK ALVAH PARSONS
President, New York School of Fine and Applied Art
Author of “Interior Decoration—Its Principles and Practice,” Etc.
PUBLISHED BY
Armstrong Cork Company
Linoleum Department
Lancaster, Penna., U. S. A.
SECOND EDITION
Copyright 1921 by
Armstrong Cork Company
Linoleum Department
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Frank Alvah Parsons, President of the New York School of Fine andApplied Art, is a leading American authority on interior decoration.He long since has amply demonstrated his wonderful faculty for turninghis knowledge to the common good. We know of no man who, with voiceand pen, has fought harder or more unceasingly for better taste, forricher, fuller home life.
Mr. Parsons hardly can seem a stranger to the average reader of thisbook. Indeed, through his writings and lectures, he has become guideand counsellor and the personal friend of thousands of refined men andwomen, who have accepted the idea so well developed by Mr. Parsons inthe following pages, that “Man is what he lives in;” that, generallyspeaking, man can be no greater or no less than the daily environmentin which he works, thinks, and lives.
We take great satisfaction and pleasure in announcing Mr. Parsons asthe author of that section of this book which is entitled “The Artof Home Furnishing and Decoration.” It is written in Mr. Parson’stypically intimate and forceful style, and every paragraph is repletewith information and suggestions of great value. We are sure that thisbook will hold your interest from the first to the last word, and thatin the end you will look on the possibilities of your home and yourlife within it in a fresh and considerably enlarged perspective.
After you have spent an hour with Mr. Parsons on the general theme ofhome furnishing and decoration, we believe that it will profit you toread what is written by ourselves in the latter part of the book on thespecific subject of linoleum and its relation to the principles thatMr. Parsons has laid down.
Armstrong Cork Company
[Pg 5]
FRANK ALVAH PARSONS
Man is exactly what he lives in, for environment is the strongestpossible factor in man’s development. One may be so long among loudnoises, bad odors, inharmonious colors and wrong arrangements ofthings that one doesn’t mind them, because one has let them becomean integral part of one’s self. They are there, and they are as badas they were at first, but one has become immune to them. This beingadmitted, it follows, of course, that concordant sounds, agreeableodors, harmonious colors and pleasin