The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-10-12
The 8utland daily Globt.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1874.
Fashion i'm the Household.

Fashion i'm the Household.
simultaneously with the downfall of the
chignon comes a revolution in the art of
household furnishing. Of the first of these
events we must speak with extreme diff
dence. AS no mere man pretends to fathom
the mysteries of the female mind, none but
woman can give any possible explanation
of the change that has taken place in the
head gear of the faror (and better) portion
of humanity. Indeed, we confess with
much humility of spirit, that even a wo-
mans exposition of the circumstances of
this decline and fall of head pieces would
not be comprehended by the ordinary mas
culne mind. 1t is enough to say that even
men have discovered that the enormous
pile which the gentle sex ercwhilc loved to
rear upon their facinating heads is no long
err fashionable. We should not like to say
that this is a relief it would he casting
sort of Parthian arrow at the retiring
fashion, which no spirited woman would
do without indignant retort. AS impartial
chroniclers of passing events, we are sim
ply obliged to say that the chgnon has
gone out of fashion, and that people are be-
comng more simple and austere in the mat
ter of house furniture, Possibly these two
facts have no perceptible connection with
each other. They attract attention stimuli
taneousy and both seem to indicate a re-
turn 10 less artificial form of life. 1t
may be said, with due reserve, that both
these matters of reform are owing to
feminine influcnce-not to say caprice.
One of them, at least, is of foreign inspira-
ton; but we do know that furniture dealers
say that Paris upholstery is less ornate in
styles than in former years.
TInhOlstprprS and furniture dealers do
say, however, with some show of regret,
that the demand for cXtravagant and ford
goods for household use is gone. Soberer
styles and more substantial wares seem to
be the order of the day. Gilt. velvets,
satins, rare woods, and gay colors will be
no longer fashionable in the drawing room
and boudoir. That class of new-rch pco-
pie usually known as shoddy will insist
upon advertising their wealth and vulgar
ity, but people who "know what is what"
will confine themselves to quiet lucs and
useful patterns. This to the superficial
observer, may seem natural reaction from
the faring extravaganza and ostentation
that followed the financial prosperity of
our civil war. 1t isvery true that the sud-
denly rich people who came to the surface
of society when army contracts and oil
wells made Miss Flora McFlimsey and Coal
Oil Tommy possible, exhausted the pa
thence and resources of the upholsterers OF
New York and Paris. 1t is true that the
infection spread until most people
thought riches of little account unless
they bloomed in marqueterics. buhl, mo-
quette and bronzc-glt. 1t is also true that
people who could not afford ''the real
thing" bought the cheap limitations, and
that the honest visitor in fashionable
mansion was afraid to sit down, lest he
should crush the gilt gimcrack called a
chair, or move, lest he should bring down
in ruin the tawdry splendors of the draw
ing room. Perhaps some of the oil wells
have given out perhaps some of the stock
SPECTATORS have come to grief, and have
sent the costly knlck-knacks to the auction
room; but we prefer to believe the reform
of which we speak is the result of better
education, the sign of the dawning of {
more refined household taste.
We suppose that all honest people agre,
that ingenious home craft that make
plaster of Paris do for marble, and leather
and bead work take the place of carve(
oak and ormolu, is a pititul sham. Indeed
persons of correct taste and healthy in
stincts will be alike panied to stand in tn,
midst of the shabby-genteel and attemp
to keep up appearances or find themselves
in parlor show that, like thousand othel
parlor shows in New York. resembles moth
ing but the interior of a well-stocked fur
niture store. We cannot quite sympathlzt
with the shocked sensibility of Hood, who
sang the horrors of the things ''home made
by homes homely daughters but thu
patchwork, cheap imitation articles of do
nestle manufactures are just as pathetic il
their way as the more costly spendors o
the uniformed, who buy their pomp a
they do their libraries by the square yard
Whatever revolution there may be il
household taste, all true men would de
plore one that should revive the flimsy
decorations with which proud anC
painstaking housewives of the Garlic
part of this generation were won
to horrify their visitors. What
ever happens, let us have no more chrome
housekeeping. But it is true that a whole
some change in the matter of all home be
longings has been brought about by tn
diffusion of correct taste in art. And lie
no man snecr at the suggestion that Their
is no detail of household economy so small
that the true principles of art may not re
gulate its disposition. Happily our peopl
are slowly learning that form and colo
and the fitness OF things should not only b
considered in relation to their home SUI
roundings, but these may guide the fun
nishing of the home without entalling eX
ira cost. OF course the natural advice t
people fitting up their home should be
''Put something of yourself into it, BIT
suppose there is nothing in these people t
put into their dwelling place 2 Perhap
that has been too true Of many Of on
families. Thanks to higher education i
the aesthetics of life, that reproach is pas.
ing away People will no longer be salts
fed with furnishing house ito order" 5
that every mans drawing room looks lik
every other mans drawing room, with I'll
few unimportant variations of color an
motive. 1t is because barbaric pearl an
gold are not, after all, characteristic of L
that we are taking to soberer things no'
that we are quitting something of on
selves into our houses. 1t really looks {
if the age of gilt and veneering were pass
ing away. If this be so it is a good thin
both artstically and economically consiC
cred. We need to get back to genuine.
anu comfort and it is an suspicious sig
of the times that home may, unabashc,
offer its guest a splint-bottomed chair will
out either gold-leaf or dcusvc upholster
on it. With honesty in art and in ii
household will come contcntment and gre;
GAIN NGo Fork Times.
The Home of Jefferson.
correspondent of the WdShiAgtO