Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-02-20
Correspondence of THE HERALD
Art Matters at Home.

Editor Rutland Herald Taste, both
for music and pictures, is becoming more
generally diffused, besides being great
er source of study and improvement in
almost all our country towns.
The late introduction of cheese fac
tories into our enterprising communities
greatly relieves the households of farm
ers of toll and the more laborious work,
affording the members more time and
better opportunities for self-culture and
refinement. Cottage organs and various
instruments are now becoming an impor-
tant feature in the home circle, even in
the more rural districts, giving an infiu
ence and refining the tastes of many who
otherwise would go on in the old ruts
contented with mere negro melodies and
comic songs. In all societies the refine
ment Of taste, the truly cultured, affects
greatly the manners of individuals, as
all observers must see who have mingled
in ''better society" thus forminga pleas
ing element in the grace and intercourse
of life. Hence culture and education
for pictures and statuary is perhaps as
elevating in the standard of good taste
as is the cultivation obtained from the
sources of music or poetry. It's source
of great pleasure to look at the medal
lions of our friends, especially when
they are wrought by themselves, either
from plaster or alabaster, always the re-
suit of study and days of toll and labor.
Pictures, not immoral or false in the OBJ
jects they represent, hung in any of our
rooms, are silent monitors or mission
aries, instructing the eyes that daily see
them, filing the minds of those who are
critically inclined for desire for some
thing better. The time has come when
the old flaming lithograph, inharmonious
in color, false in prospective, and merely
sensational, can no longer hold place
on our parlor or study walls. Who
among us cannot remember in days gone
by. of seeing a picture once popular and
sensational 10 the fingers end, though
full of faults, of the apple on the boys
head, to be shot at as a mark by his
father, William Tell, at a limited num-
ber of PAGES A class of the like erron-
eous pictures left their impressions, but
the minds and tastes of people at the
present time are being influenced from
different standpoint. Modern chromOs,
many of which are fine specimens of art,
are now in their turn taking the place of
the former rude lithograph, while many
are becoming sort of hopeful epidemic
in the art line among people. Among
those of only moderate means, we now
often see pictures or chrom0s adOrning
their walls, while they impart and in
spire feeling 0t admiration and taste
for beautiful surroundings, aid to form
the character and individual minds. But
there are many chromos annually after
ed as gifts and incentives to subscribers
to various papers, that fall short of being
perfect, and as they are becoming inn
portant mediums of forming opinions of
the majority of the people, who are not
ttsar,,ealTes artistic. it is TO be regretted
tnat many Of tuen come TO us glaring in
fault6, often too highly coloTed 10 ue
true to nature, wanting in proper mar
gins, as well as the finer shades and tints
in all the details of the picture.
Aside from the mercenary end striven
for among editors orproprietors of many
journals, who are now flooding the coun-
try with merely cheap and imperfect
chromos, they are giving impressions to
communities, true or false, for which
they are responsible, as giving tone and
influence in a line against which the
critical have right to rebel in view of
impOsitiOns and mere caricatures, which
are becoming a big humbug of the day.
II. /. G..
Charlotte, VT, Feb. ID, 1872