Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-01-24

. Books and pictures as holiday gifts have
this year given place TO bric-a-brac. Usually,
when purchaser in search Of a suitable pres
ent for young or old, was at loss in the mat
ter Of selection of the fttest, a book was final
ly bought, almost in despair There is such
an infinite variety of books, rs Of tastes and
degrees Of education, that that person is in
deed an anomaly who does not find pleasure
in book The range is without limit, from
Josh Billings to Goethe and from Eli Perkins
to George Eliot. And they who do not cnre
to read will find pleasure in illustrations and
gay bindings. The book stores this year have
held their own, but the bric-a- -brnc shops
have done great business. The invasion of
brio brac is shown most strikingly in the
designs of fancy goods. Elegance is not now
SO much sought for as oddity and it must be
confessed that much Of the holiday display is
inexpressbly ugly. 1t is the fashion. Even
the detestable pug-dogs are bred down." as
the fancers phrase it, so as TO be as ugly as
possible. The pugger the dog the more
swell he is. And one of these hapless
beasts, compelled against his will to stand up
and gaze from a carriage window, when he
wants to take his ease on the cushions, is
spectacle to move the pity Of mankind.
1t will be observed that we use the word
"bric-a-brac" in very liberal sense. The
popular idea of brica-brac is anything that is
quaint and ugly" In this sense, pug dogs
are certainly to be included in the general
classification. And when an average person
is at a loss to characterize an object which is
artistically hideous it is said to be quaint
Since the decorative art craze has turned our
homes topsy -turvy, we are consoled for the
banishment of our comforts by the quaint
ness of bric-a-brac furniture which has replac-
ed them. Drawing-rooms are curiosity shops,
and there are none so poor and mean but he
(or she) may furnish forth room adorned
with Japanese jugs on sawed wall brackets, at
the very least. This all l-devourng passion
for things unique and grotesque has filed the
shops with models of hideousuess. Carica-
lures in porcelain, biscuit and terra-cotta
crowd the shelves and windows. Vases are
no longer made in graceful forms, but COB
lins, dragons toads, and other monstrous
shapes do duty as fower-holders and orna-
ments Fancy runs riot among the products
of the potter's wheel, and toy makers seem to
be laboring under the influence of some such
nightmare as that which Fuseli was wont to
invite when he began work on one of his hor-
rible pictures.
The Japanese fever shows signs of abate-
ment Perhaps the Eastake, Queen Anne,
and renaissance disorders have driven it out.
These three great troubles have revolution
lied household art. Indeed, household art
hslN ItNOlNllbllLcu lLt nOuhtIOlu w udi VII
painting and patching glueing and morticing,
our homes are wholly given over to the demon
Of unrest. Her ladyship receives her friends
to-day in a bower of beauty made up of cabi-
net-maker's rubbish and Oriental pots and
pans from the bazaars Of PARKWAY Moses and
his tribe. But, on the whole, Queen Anne
and the rest of her period whelm the show
from Japan and China. The pleased export
ers of Canton and Yokohama must shortly
feel a rehuent tide. Already, it is said, the
commoner articles of Chinese and japanese
manufacture can be bought more cheaply
here than in the place of their origInation.
This is pity. if it indicates that the demand
for such goods is falling off Nothing could
be more thoroughly bric-a- brac in general eff
feet, if ugliness is -brac, than the Jap
anese wares made for the American market.
The cunning Asiatics gave native designs
corrspted by French trihing and English
clumsiness. The result was hybrid ugliness
quite wonderful to behold.
While the fashion for decorative art in its
various phases, endures we must expect that
real art and literature will suffer. Books on
household art sell readily when other books do
not. And these works, costly as skill and in
genuity can make them, are for rich people
only and, we may add, the preachers of
household art address themselves chiefly to
those who find in this art, as they do i'll polo,
a recreation and pastime. Meantime, pict-
ure-buyers are few, and some men begin to
think that they must give up their easels and
hire themselves to the prosperous cabinet-ma-
>kers. Young lovers improve on Cldude Mel
HOtte and say, I'VE will read no books but
those which tell of household art" Ltera-
ture has no place in society which dotes on
old armor, rugs, curios, and the cast-of cloth
ing of Egyptians, Turkomans, and Bengalese.
A few wears since there was n similar craze for
pictures. Many rich people bought in haste
and repented at leisure. But home industry
was encouraged, and though many very bad
pictures were produced, the effect was, on the
whole, good for American art. If the bric-a-
brac age, through which we are now passing,
develops anything-even taste for ethnology
and history-it will be surprising. Thus far
the outcome is chiefly costly rubbish.
-Ne,n York Times.