Windows, although they seem to perform a subordinate part in the Furnishing of a room.

are, in fact, most important and ting.

Many of the practical difficulties of window furnishing are occasioned by some mistake in size, style or construction; the artistic problem generally turns upon the question of colour. The window shade is, naturally, the primary consideration. Of what material shall it be? What is the best colour? Where shall it be attached to the casement?

The shading of the home should not be attempted in too economical a spirit. Like hair mattresses, wire nettings and other movable but permanent furnishings, window shades that are well-made and of good material will give a very lasting satisfaction. If the casing of the window is deep enough to allow the fixture to be set within the frame, it is better to do this than to affix it to the outer edge, which should be left free for the curtains and their brackets.

There are many new mechanical devices that make the practical part of window treatment much easier in these days than it was a few years ago. Wooden rollers with the shades tacked upon them are still in existence, but a newer fashion is a tin roller that allows the material to be adjusted without tacks. Sometimes a shade becomes worn at the bottom, and with the tin roller it may be slipped on in a reverse position, first hemming it at the top end. There are extension rollers also that make a change of windows possible without buying new rollers.

The old-fashioned method of rolling a shade with a side cord is remembered by this generation with feelings of gratitude for the improvements that have made it obsolete. Side hems give strength to a window shade, but they are not always to be adopted, as they increase the hulk of the material when it winds around the roller.

The inferior qualities of Holland are likely to fade quickly, but certain makes are warranted to hold their colour. In some Southern homes a glazed chintz is bought by the yard and made up into window shades. The flowered patterns on a white ground make an attractive decoration with white paint and summer furniture.

The colour of the window shades should be thought of in connection with the outside paint of the house and the interior woodwork - two requirements that often clash. Sometimes the disagreement is so great that two pairs of shades are the only way out; or, a double-sided shade painted in opaque colours may answer the same purpose. When there are no shutters to a house two sets of shades, a light and a dark set, are necessary. The light shade is hung towards the street and the dark-coloured one towards the interior of the room.

Houses on the colonial order that are finished throughout with white-painted woodwork, and with the exterior painted lemon-colour, with green blinds and white trimmings, always look best with white shades. With dark trimmings on the exterior a linen colour is safe to use. The right results often take study and experiment and perhaps a radical change in some one feature already in existence.

Ardent followers of hygiene have declared against the use of window draperies, but they afford too much aesthetic enjoyment to be discarded in the majority of homes. The cur-tainless room has a barren, uninviting aspect that disappears as soon as the windows are attended to. On the other hand, a sensible treatment may not be understood and a window may be completely blocked up with draperies and fixtures so that its original intention of giving light and air is defeated.

In city houses a thin lace or net is essential at the windows as a screen during daylight hours. This is called a sash curtain, and is hung close to the glass from the inside of the casing at the top to the sill. It is little more than the width of the glass and hangs in wry scant folds. Or, a panel of lace is used with an ornament sewed in the centre and surrounded with insertion. In narrow windows one panel is used. Very wide sashes divided by a perpendicular strip of wood in the middle may have two panels. One sometimes sees a sash curtain caught back at the sides of the case-ment and not fulfilling the office for which it was intended.

In country and suburban homes the dressing of the windows does not exact the exterior uniformity of appearance required by the city residence, and in the former the inner effect alone may be considered.

In addition to the sash curtains of the city dwelling a second pair made of lace is sometimes added. The older way of plaiting the fullness at the top and fastening it to rings on a large pole has been superseded by a simpler fashion of running a one-inch brass rod through a loose hem at the top without a heading. With new curtains the extra length may be turned over at the top for twelve inches to allow for shrinking when the curtains are cleaned the first time.

When light is lacking in the room the long lace curtains may be caught back at the sides with cotton or silk loops that are made for the purpose. Hanging the curtains straight to the floor gives dignity to the lines of a room and softens an exposure that may be too bright and glaring. When hung in this manner one pair of curtains at a window act as a screen and also as a decoration.

If the vestibule door appears in line with the parlour windows it is wise to treat it with a panel made up in lace that corresponds with the sash or inner draperies of the front room. A thin silk curtain may then be hung over the lace to draw at night, choosing a colour that accords with the woodwork.

The least expensive lace curtain is one of plain bobbinet which may be bought by the yard and finished with an edge or insertion. White bobbinet may be selected to hang against white woodwork, and ecru-coloured net for dark woodwork. Fish nets in cream, white or brown may be bought by the yard and hung without a finish at the sides and bottom. These are more suited to the unconventional treat ment of the den, living room or sitting room than the formal rooms of the home.