The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-06-30 00:00:00

THE GLORIES OF POTYIPEII
REVIVED.

IN these days of increasing activity, rapid change,
and - wondrous developments, all things are
brought into kinship, more 'or less. Art no longer
looks down on utility, science asserts its magic power
over the most ordinary affairs of life, and beauty
breaks its old bonds of exclusiveness and unveils
itself to the whole world. Nowhere is this more
apparent than in the streets of London. Sentiment,
it is true still gathers round the ghosts of a dead
past, and would fain revivify them, but little by little,
new forms arise, superseding ugliness by beauty,
and creating fresh landmarks that speak to present
times with far greater eloquence than did the now
displaeed eyidencos of a bygone day. -
The artistic spirit is abroad, and affects the aspect
of all mundane matters, and here and there some
leading power exerts its influence with special force
and application, lifting into the serene atmosphere
of eternal art things which had previously been
hidden away in the obscurity of every-day surround-
ings. A touch of art, like a touch of nature—for
art is but reflected Nature-4' makes the whole
world hit."

Such a touch of art has recently been given to a
portion of Oxford Street, by the enterprising firia of-
Aessrs. A. & F. Pears, who have erected a veritable
palace of art there, dedicated to the service of soap.
At the first blush, the relationship between soap and
art may not appear altogether of the strongest; but
a moment's reflection will suffice to demonstrate
that soap is a very fundamental element of art.
Soap suggests purity, and the lesson of purity is
taught by all the highest art. How much the world
is indebted to soap could only be estimated, indeed,
if we were able to realise what a world it would be
without soap Be that as it may, Messrs. Pears
have, in the building of their new palace, displayed
an artistic instinct which cannot fail to produce a
corresponding artistic appreciation on the part of the
public They have presouted the thousands who
daily pass up and down Oxford Street with a
perpetual vision of delight—a dreamland of fancy
reduced to fact—a glimpse of the antique world,
with the added brightness of a modern setting.
The imposing frontage, with its striking architec-
tural feat arc*, its spacious windows and noble door-
way, is enough in itself t,9 command wonder and,
attention, but it is the intenor view that constitutes'
the great attraction. The by-passer, as he saunters
'up 'Oxford street, becomes suddenly aware of a
brightness and a glow shining through the windows
of this pdatial edifice, and stops and looks, an.l
looks again, and if he can by any means obtain per-
mission to enter the palace he is not likely to neglect
the opportunity. What he would see when he
found himself within we will endeavour briefly to
describe.

Havitar passed the portals and the watchful corn-
mis.sionaire on duty there, he would set foot within a
/mile hall which would remind him of one of Alma
Tadema's
..pictures. Whether or not that distin-
guished artist has had anything to do with suggest-
ing the form and leading features of this magnificent
interior is more than we can tell, but certainly it
might be so. The scene is a reproduction of a
Pompeian Court, and although some of the details
may not be in strict accordance with Pompeian
decoration, nothing has been introduced that would
mar the general harmony of the picture. The floor
is inlaid with mosaic in quaint and curiously
wrought designs the walls repeat the glories of the
buried city in all their pristine freshness, columns of
the rarest marbles stretch from floor to ceiling, and
a broad marble staircase, veined with many dainty
markings, winds off at the western corner to the
mysteries of loftier regions, suggesting endless
vistas of marble delights beyond. At the foot of
these steps a rectangular bath is carved, as it were,
out of the mosaic, and with its luminous ground, its
lc-aping fountain, and its marble borderings forms a
very bealitiful feature. At the head of the bath, in
a niche whesa dark background throws- the white
marble Lao charming relief, stands the statue of
Venus- -a replica of Thorwaldsen's famous master-
piece—as the emblem of purity and beauty. This
however is only temporary, we believe, a more
ehtborata pieae of sculpture—a group- more sugges-
tive of abletions—being in course of execution for
this prominent position. Suspended by chains from
the delicately-eraemented ceiling, with its white
.larton-piare enrichments, are several exquisite repro-
d action, of the old boat -shaped Roman lamps, which,
at the touch of a spring or the turn of a tap, burst
into electric radiance, tilling the marble hall with a
flood of light, and suffusing the stately columns, the
snow-white qataies, and the crystal floor with
myriads of magic hues and scintillations.
The visitor almost seems to profane such an in-
terim with 11'3 nineteenth oentury • costume and
nineteenth century manners. Here surely we should
have maidens in sandals, and garmants of clinging
draperies, and fillet bands; youths with flowing
locks and robes of dainty worlmanship, not ladies
wearing modern bonnets and mantles, and gentle-
men with chimney-pot hats and suits of shining
shoddy. One feels abashed and humiliated in the
precanee of so much that is chaste and beautiful—
so touch that recall fairer climes and a more poetic
people. The sculptured marbles are in keeping and
harmony with the scene, however, if the every-day
visitor is not. Venus looks placidly down upon it ;
"Time Bather," to whom Ali.. Laws has given
stony embodiment and ideality, seems at home there ;-
d even those happily contrasted statues, "The
Dirty By " and "The Clean Hoy," known as they
are to all the world by their manifold artistic repro-
duetiOrts; do not appear out of place, for white
marble always conveys the idea of purity, no matter
what the stela, may be that it has to tell.
After having taken the measure of these various
objects a art and beauty, the visitor, bent on ex-
ploring further, will be conducted up the marble
stairease to the floor above, where he will find other
matters of moment to engage his mind. If he he
desirous of seeing Mr. Thirratt, who is the wonder-
worker of this place if many ramnifica•tions, the
probability is be may ve to wait a while, for the
demands upon the of the master-mind of a
business whose range • the universe arc endless.
The tedium of waitisg is usually an infliction that
a business man greatly resents, but in the waiting-
room provided by Messrs. Pears there is a danger
that, instead of weariness' a luxurious forgetfulness
will be experienced, and tfrat when the tune comes
for the visitor to be ushered forward into Mr. Barratt's
sanctum he will he reluctant to leave. Such will
assuredly be tle • esse if he be a lover of art, for on
the -walls of t.;, is elegant room, with its exquisitely
decorated cart,n-pierre ceiling of classical design,
hang works of art by celebrs ed 7,,nl^,rt masters to
the value of many thousands of pais, a.. Of course,
they all illustrate one text, and testify indirectly to '
the honour and glory of Pears' Soap; but they are
works of great merit nevertheless,•and would be an
ors a-,ent to any art gallery in the Kingdom. lii
stadying el: emming "Bubbles," or its com-
panion picture, "More Bubbles," by Edouard Frere,
the soap connection is not thrust upon you; for,
• although in the millions of reproductions of thesa
paintings
the
he
in
is
or gallery
ileulea:p\teansk't:i'licliieilit:eloxtt'su'un,leeld:t:cteeatitLeilotett:sto:trmeaNdo' iteoeth3i:ifutibloeietaa:irerreat 'ykrmyonsifedo
purposesisr
read, the
rg tsteitut,yoe•reoestrsiityfliacl:ieit
rstlfp.s.re
emphatically
samnostgtttipc-ozhivalalreylerl
they
they are
conspicuously printed, if, 0 that those who run may ,
as works of art. The same may be said of the pie-tumccs •
urtits
.tvmwsFeeleai,zully:ssi:etbkeemm;onftosuehivemelitldian,.
Thus the
to go soaring on the wings of art to all the ends of
the warth. The artists represented in this room may_
Inuietookaisses.•

t -re

When the signal is even, the visitor passes info
Mr. Barratt's office, and while the interview proceeds .
has the privilege of 'observing not only a further
display of artistic objects, but certain business ac-
cessories of a very notable character. A series of
speaking-tubes and electric bells at Mr. Barratt's
elbow, labelled according* to countries and depart-
ments, places him within conversing distance of
the different departments and divisions, and whether..
he wants to know the latest transactions with a par-
tieular customer in Melbourne, the quantity of stock
in New York, how a certain advertising contract is
being fulfilled in or how many coolies •
have been put on duty in California.,alcutta for diurnal per-
ambulation with pasteboard effigies of "The Dirty
Boy," he has only got to whistle and ask, and the
answer will be immediately forthcoming. Here Mr.
Barratt is in touch with every part of the world!
here he retains a sort of bird's-eye view of the whole
of the arm's operations, from the busy labours
constantly in progress at their huge factories at
ieleworth to the acknowledging of the most recent
report. from some public analyst who has bought his
sample of temp for himself in his own locality and
repatted thereon. Here, if you, press the point, you
can have shown to you advertisements emanating
from thie firm so far back as the beginning of the
pre.;ent 'century, including one in the Times of the
Waterloo year. Then, if you happen to be of an
inquisitive turn, and ask Mr. Barratt whether all the
taking id • 115 which they put forth are, like their soap,
of their o,a manufacture, he will perhaps send word
through Ttu. •if the tubes for the "notions" that have
come by I it morning's post to be breught to him.
"What aLe •i!ey they present Ideas for puzzles, .
suggesti‘,., . for pictures, verses by John Jones eased
thirteen, e: map of the world showing Pears' Soap
.;
cleansing • veiy continent, and offers of various kinds
from pool piinters, lithographers, newspaper pro-
prietors, sadies of fashion, sculptors chemists, doe-
tors, and what not. But Mr. Barratt is compelled
to confess that out of the hundreds of thousands of
suggestions which an industrious public sends to the
firm there is vs rely one to be found that could be
utilised. Sonic self-confident notion-mongers
will
coolly ask a tbousaiAl pounds for the right of using
an idea that is only worths, of Bedlam. If you are
fortunate enough to get Sir. Barratt to talk of the ,
firm's operations generally, you will hear much that
will astonish you. How could it be otherwise with
an annual expenditure in advertising of nearly
X 100,000? Orders are given out from this room
for tons of this and millions of that, for when
once the firm has decided upon doing a thing they
do it thoroughly; and if a printer or a lithographer
gets an order for ten or twenty millions of copies of
a certain pictorial sheet, it may surprise him greatly,
and cause him to reflect that the world is very wide,
and that Messrs. Pears' business is a gigantic one;
but the transaction will only be an ordinary one as
far as Messrs. Pears are concerned.
From Mr. Barratt's ogles the inspection nifty be
continued to loftier heights and lower depths, from
room to room and floor to floor; but from this point
the evidences are all of a business character. In the
large counting-house, with its rows of mahogany
desks, its • gleaming electric lights, and its busy
clerks and ponderous ledger!, there is an air of
prosperity that is deo'dedly exhilarating and the
constant click-click of a row of type-writers trans-
ferring to perfect legibility the letters which have
been taken down in shorthand from Mr. Barratt's
dictation is a sound that is mush) to the business
ear. The telephone-room adjoining is, of its kind,
perfect. It might. be appropriately called the
"Boom of Silence," since, when once you are within
it, you are completely shut off from all Outer sounds,
its double windows and double walls presenting. a
barrier that noise cannot easily penetrate. A
clerks'-room, where the clerks of the establishment
are free to spend their leisure moments with a friend
or a cigar, is a rather unique provision. Then, on
the top floor, looking out across Oxford Street, with
a capacious plate-glass window all in one immense
sheet, is the magic-lantern room where are kept two
large lanterns which once upon a time did service at
the Polytechnic Institution. These powerful instru-
ments era now used for throwing on to the white
canvas fran se which by night covers the window, a
series of soap pictures many of which are of the
movable order, and show the Dirty Boy being
scrubbed, the optical illusion of the strobic circles
in active operation, the function of . the baby's bath
in progress and so forth. How popular this depart-
ment is with the public is nightly manifested by the
crowds which gather "on the other side of the way"
to witness the passing of the pictures. - The various
store-rooins, upstairs and down, are full to over-
flowing of stock of many kinds—mountains of litho-
graphed sheets, pictures, show cards, photographs,
and circulars are passed in review, ranging from the
small magazine interleaf, to the wall canvas 'en-
largement of the " Bubbles " and other pictures,
some of which measure eleven feet by nine: Here
are deposited the thousands and the millions of
which we have previously spoken, the piles being for
ever lessening sand replenishing. Then there are
rooms in which lie stored and claseified walls and
walls of blocks and electros, enclosed in cupboards,
ready- Rir-d-espeteNWith adirortisement orders, here,
there, and everywhere. The warehouse on the
ground floor is another extensive department and at
the point where the loading and unloading of goods
takes place—where the Soap comes in from Isleworth,
and goes out again to all parts of the universe;
where the waggons can enter and depart in fours,
if need require—the scene is one of great activity.
A peep into the engine-house, where the gas engines
are hard at work supplying the electric force for the
illumination of the building and the working of the
lift, is also necessary; and, if one desires to have a
proper appreciation of safety and strength, a walk
into the strong-room, in which a dozen men might
dint easily, will produce the required effect, and the
flashing up of the eleotric light with the opening of
the door -will add interest to the proceeding.
'lt would be easy to enlarge upon these features of
a vast establishinent, and to enumerate the many
other matters that attract and astonish the visitor—
the difficulty is to know where to leave off--,but
sufficient has been said to indicate if only vaguely,
what an important addition has been made to the
sights of London by the princely manner in which
Messrs. Pears have acted in erecting their new
business pelage. It forms a striking monument tc
their commercial enterprise, 'as well as to their
artistic taste and public-spirited liberality.
SAUNTERER. ,

To SOFTEN HAUD WATER, for washing, drinkiag te
making. gardening, for kettles and boilers. &c . and
to it (some time bebre use) MAIGNEN'S Patent
CALCAIRE Powder' " quite harmless and inexpensive
The QUEEN. "Nothing present to cause any inju:y to the
skin or to clothes "—J. NAPIER, Public Analyst, Ipswich.
International t alth Exhibition. Two medals, one for
preventing incrustation in hollers, au(' the other for
economising, soap. Sold in Tins witb priated directions,
at 2d., 6d., La, 25., 3s 6d., and 75., each, (a 6d. tin
softens 300 gallons) Ask your Chemist, Ir.,nmonger,
Grocer, or Oilman, if von cannot obtain it send 5 stamps
bra Samp.e Tin and the Pamphlet," Water, Preventable
Disease and Fdtration." to P. A. Maignen, Contractor
to 11. M. 'a Gove.rrinirm... 32. St. Mary-st-Elill, P_:astcheap,
E.•:., and 15, Pall Mat% S. W., London

VALUABLR DIB0OVE:17 FOR THE HAIR.— if your hair
a turning grey or whi'e, or falling off, use ' rne
MEXICAN HAIR. R R." for it will positively
restore in every case Greg or White hair to its origival
colour, with..nt leaviog the disagreeable smell of most
"Restorers." It waists the hair charmingly be •utiful,
as well as promoting the growtU of the hair on bal.'
spots where the glan.is are not decayed. Ask your
Chemist for "The Mexican Hair ltenewer," sold by
Chemists as d Perfumers everywhere at 3s 6d per
bottle. W uolesale aepot rem we,' to 33, Farringdou
Road, Lou.fon.

FLOUILINE 1— FoR TRH TEETH AND BREATEI —A few
drops of the liquid "Floriline" sprinkled on a wet tooth
brush reduces a pleasant lather, which thoroughly
causes the teeth from all parasites or impur.ties,
Utrciens the gums, prevents tartar, stone decay, give
be te,th a eJaliar psarly-whitues. and a delightful
fragrance to the bri:at:i. It remov.ia all unpleasant odour
arising from decaye i teeth or tobacco smoke. "Thy
Fragrant Fiorilitie." t;eing composed in part of it onee
stud sweet herbs, is rieliciona to the taste, and the
greatest tout disc, , yof the age.
Ch.•uniats ad Pen i .•!,ra, Wholesa
33, Farringdon P.o London

TaeoAT &FFECT..: 'AND HoArtszNESs.—All suffer
ing from irritation of he throat a,ryt hoarse.aes will
be ivaeeably surprised 3t tild almost immediate relief
afforded by the use of "Brown's Bronchial Troches '
These titnous "lozenges" are now sold by most respect-
able chemists in tuts c 'unto, at is lid per box. People
troubled wu ti a •incking cough." a "slight cold " or
bronchical lections, cannot try them too soon as
trn'i des, if allowed to progress, consult in
serious Pui :mar), and Asthmatic affections. See that
the words :irown's Bronchial Troches" are on the
Governme:.i Stamp -,round each box.—Prepared by
JOHN I. 11; iwN SoNa. Boston, U.S. European depot,
33, Farrin6 ion Boa, Loud ni

NERVOUSNESS LOSS OF ENERGY
and 1717CAT4 POWFIR..
Boralting from whatever cause, not as treated by Quacks
with mineral poisons and coloured water, but effectually
cured bye NOVEL AND HIGHLY SUM r;SSFUL MODE
TRSATMEN T, discovered by the advertiser, who
or many years of extreme suffering, was completelyre-
rod to sound health.
rromped by feelings of humanity, he thus makes known
'mew s by which EVERY SUFFERRE ENABLED TO
CURE HIMSELF PERFECTLY as the LEAST
POSSIBLE COST, without having roco re J advertising
nmoirict. )r their vaunted nostrums.
lie be happv to forward the partiesaars to asy sofferse•
reoeie: of a stamwed and directed onvel :19 e.
rid e,_t J.T. sEW or

ADVIC3 TO MOTHERS I—Are you broken in your rest
by a sick child saffering with the pain of cutting teeth?
Go at once to a chemist and get a bottle of MSS.
WINSLOW'S SOOTHING SYRUP. It will relieve ths
poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless
and pleasant to taste, it produces natural, quiet sleep
by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub
awakes "as bright as a button." It soothes the child,
it soften the gums, allays all pain, relieves wind,
regulates the bowels, and is the best known remedy
for dysentery and diarrhoaa, whether arising from teeth.
ing or other causes. Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup
ia sold by Medicine dealass am/whore at le. 114,
SA Mai.