The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-03-03
Recent Publications.

A PLEA FOR ART IN THE House, ByW. j Lot
tie
HOUSE DECORATION. By Rhoda and Agnes Gar
rett. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates; Portland:
Loring, Short g. Harmon.
Household art and its relative and kindred
topics occupy much space in the literature of
the present time, and are naturally, of much
interest to all who appreciate the value of
pleasant, comfortable and beautiful surroun-
dings in the home, The more perfect the civ
iilzatlon OF country, the more keenly is the
need felt for tasteful aud even luxurious an
pSintnents of daily life, in the seclusion of
nome which after all strikes the keynote of
mans successes in the business and ambitions
OF the outer world. A noble and beautifully
written paragraph in Bulwer's 'Harold'' pays
suitable tribute to the immense power of
home happiness in concerns that seem most
disconnected from it, by the sense of security,
comfort and pose that it gives, almost uncon-
ciously, to mans mind 1t is slow AND diff
cult process to raise standards of taste; it ia
even impossible to lay down laws and canons
OF what is purely artistic and what is to be
scorned as bizarre or tasteless. Thanks to the
well-meant efforts of some men and women
who have devoted time and care to the sub.
ject, certain solid steps of advance have been
made; certain broad rules have been laid down;
among them the good instinct of using matsri-
ais for what they really are, calling oak, oak,
and pine, pine. Indeed we hear now of sincere
sofas, truthful tables and sideboards that can
not tell le-so decided is this element in the
present phase of household art. The danger of
this enthusiasm is apparent, that individuality
OF taste and suitableless to the special needs
and daily life of each family, will be disre-
garded in the zeal for bric-a-brac, for Eastlake
or Queen Anne furniture; and that the home,
under the guiding tasts of the professed artist
decorator will lose its finest quality of inward
fitness, and the familiar, gradual growth that
comes of supplying its requirements as they
occur. Japanese fans are good; they show a
remarkable senselof color and curious conyen-
tionalism and suggestiveness of treatment in
their designs that is very interesting; they are
light, cool and cheap-an excellent trio of quail
tiles. Yet as decorations they are quite inap-
propriate to our. New England homes. Weather
is the feature of New England-three months of
the year may be considered as summer, while
the remaining nine are quite pronouncedly
wintry. Accordingly, fans affixed and made
permanent upon our walls are unpleasantly
suggestive of draughts upon ones back during
most of the year, and tantalizing in their i'm
practicabilty during the cheated term"
collection of bric-a-brac-South American
water-pitchers looking with wonder upon Chi
nese bowls; vases modelled after those
that were set in temples of the Greek
gods, holding bouquets of colored immortelles
under photographs of ones beloved but not par
ticularly classic, kinsfolk-all this suggests the
unsuitableness of rendering the home mu-
scum of art. The wife's workbasket, as "sin-
cere' as bamboo, and as pretty as bright lining
and convenient equipments can make it; the
husbands slippers, newspapers and books
even the boys top or his slate and geography;
baby's much-loved and disjointed doll-have
actually more artistic value than vase of
antique pottery in emphasizing the daily life
IN suggesting to who sees the home,lts gracious
fitness and recognition of its needs, than the
most valuable piece of art which seems wholly
extraneous and out of place. So much for
few general views suggested, not by any con-
trary ones expressed in the two volumes under
consideration, but as the contribution which
each and every one who has an interest in the
subject feels impelled to offer. These volumes
byMr Loftie aud the Misses Garrett are sug-
gestive rather than dictatorial; they prescribe,
not so much what one shall place in his house,
as the way to arrive at individual appreciation.
They are well written, and add their testimony
very pleasantly to the many publications upon
the subject. After all the solution may lie
hid in nutshell, without much incommoding
the resident kernel; to make as beautiful as
may be, with color, with outlines, with needle
work or brush or gravers tool, in fashion old or
new so only it be suitable to the need and occa-
sion-everything that tends to the comfort and
someliness of home.
OEFENBAcH IN AMERICA. New York: G. W.
Carleton s. Co. Portland: Bailey g. Noyes.
This volume of the experiences of M. Often
bach is parallel work to his musical compost
tiors-that is to say, it is flippant, preposterous
and coarse. He eevinces an extraordinary power
of passing, unmoved and unappreciating, OBJ
Jects of real interest, and assmilatiDg whatever
is vulgar, shallow and disagresable. 1t is this
want of sense of the relative proportion Of
things that is really one of the striking effects
in his music, it is the ideal Of the impessibly
absurd. 1t is, however, surprising to see how
very little esprit and penetration the composer
possesses; for it is one of the chapters of acci-
dents from the Detroit Free Press wherein
after the models of journalism afforded by the
Danbury News-"horrors on horrors head &C.
cumulate" that alone was able to excite the fee
BILE emotions of NJ. Offenbach. how would he
not have wept over the accounts of wrestlings
with stovepipes, and contests with clotheslines-
which have afflicted the readers Of certain jour-
nals-if he takes these things so seriously. His
ways is very amusing-but that is unintentional
With NJ Offenbach; the hints of coarseness and
the shallow, excited and pointess sentences
that he Offers for wit-can afford no pleasure to
the reader. The preface, addressed to Nine.
Offenbach by Mr.. Albert Wolff, is not in the
best taste, and is quite in accordance with the
general woIthlessness of the volume.
New Novels.
The Shadow of the Sword By Robert
Buchanan. New York: d. Appleton s. Co
Portland: Bailey s. Noyesl This is very
remarkable romance, more poetic than most
of Mr.. Buchanan's verse, and displaying dra-
| matte and narrative strength in large deg rec.
| The scene is laid on the Breton coast, in the
| time of the great Napoleon; the action is
| wildly depicted and the spirit of the romantic
| country, with its sinister relics Of the worship
of the Druids, its semi-pagan faith, its wild sea
and its fiercer passions of man is transferred to
| the pages of Mr.. Buchanan's work with large
and noetic touch The fou undation ot history