The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-12-02

hands to your sides lest you should knock down
some rickety table laden with brittle objects of
surprising rarity, or holding your hand away
from the walls for fear you should bring down an
etdgere full of costly ceramics. What Ceadon
suffered down at ''the LauTes," where the carpets
have patterns of flowers on them, and everything
is contrary for all know about them-which is
nOthng) to the great principles of art, cannot
tell. | only remember his complaining of "the
vain luXuriancen of certain ''dssolute parallelo-
gram' upon our dining-rOOm wallpaper in terms
which would have been severe if they had been
evoked by the drunkenness of the maid-servant
we had left i'm charge.
On the other hand had something to put up
with in HendOn street, where progression in the
drawing-roOm was like an egg-dance i'm which the
eggs We're worth fifty guineas apiece at the very
least The whole house, indeed, was one gigantic
china shop; and so stung to fury was | by the
constant appeals made to me by my wife to be
careful of this, that and the other bit of jim
crackery, that / felt very like the bull i'm it. l
would have given good round sum-thOugh GER
tainly not Oae-teuth of what it would have cost
to have gone through those rooms of Celadon's
with big stick and the privilege of hitting out
right and left 1t is certain that no hero of rO-
nance would ever have destroyed more monsters ;
and whatever ugliest seemed TO be most
priced by its proprietor. If the reader has never
seen ky-lin, for example "a cross between the
lion and the dog Of Chinal he may consider him
self Fortunate and there were half a dozen ky-ln
between the drawing-rOOm door and the hearth
rug. The walls, as il seemed TO me, were deco
rated economically enough by the simple means
couple Of dinner services, taken from the kitchen
dresser. But | was assured that they were in
reality priceless specimens of Early Worcester,
Ornamented in ''blue salmon scale,n and that what
made them so extremely valuable was a certain
square mark on their backs-which, OF course, you
could not see.
Celadon is an excellent fellow, but on the sub
iect of china do not hesitate to saw aS mad as
halter. | have heard him speak Of Biscuits and
Butchers-Or what sounded like them-with a
/ reverent hush in his tone such as | have never
noticed in his responses in church; and when
/ upon the subject of "PompadOuT pink YOU would
/ have thought him anything but respectable
married man with proper horror of the gongs-
on OF king like Louis Nv. He made me pres
ent of a sort of china Bible-that Is a book on
china-which he regarded with reverence second
only To that in which ne held the Scriptures-in
order that / should duly estimate these things
! but when ] had read il, thought less of them
/ than ever. One hint, however, did derive from
/ that most interesting treatise. 1t said that the
real china could always be known from the imita-
tion by giving ii gentle tap with coin or other
hard substance: in one case the object always re-
turned a certain ring; I'm the other il only emitted
a dull thud. But when, having provided myself
/ with penny-piece, ] endeavored 10 carry this
into effect with Celadon's art treasures, he was
/ quite put ont about il, and declined to submit
them to any such ordeal
We had good many arguments upon his favor
| ite subject; and on a recent occasion, when We
/ had met at common friends in town, and hC
[ was talking about 1.-THE craze IAN appearance re-
sembling the cracking Of roast pig in old Chel
sea-" could not help dropping sly remark about
/ the craze not being peculiar 10 Old Chelsea, bui
extending TO every description Of china, old anC
new, and especially 10 its collectors Every one
knows how q man resents being accused Of a folly
when he is secretly conscious Of having deserved
it; and the fact Is little GOODNESS had sprung NJ
between Us Though actually living in
each others houses), which Celadon the frs
to put an end 10 in very graceful way. He SEN
my little daughter charming service of dolls
house china, with a mOck-seriOUs letter with il
describing the pieces one by one as if they wer,
of priceless rarity, and vindicating his own cera
mic weaknesses in most good-natured way.
On the very afternoon received the present
/ was going out at the street door, when whom
should meet on the doorstep, coming TO call OF
Celadon loi course not me-, nut my quondam ac
qUaintance, Mr.. BarabbaS Earl lie was dressed
in the height Of fashion, and had just descende,
from an admirably appointed mail phaeton; bu
these advantages altogether failed him, so far a
dcmeanoT went, when he who stood befOr
him. 1t is very bad to cheat man out of 1907.
but it is even Ito some people, to find them
selves afterwards in the company Of those the!
have dcfrauded He stammered out somethin,
about how long it had been since he had had TIN
pleasure Of seeing me; and-fOreseeing how eX
quisitely miserable il would make him-I aske,
him to walk in; and ne did so.
"You come to call on CeladOn, / conclude ,"
"Yes,n he said eagerly, like a man who seldom
finds himself speaking the truth, and is delighte
with the novelty of the situation "CeladOn AM
| are great friends.n Here he was more com
posed, for he was lying 1--WE have one delight
ful taste i'm common passion for art"
The notion Of this scoundrel's having passion
, for anything, except getting out of his debts q
honor, tickled me very much.
Like him." said ], 81 suppose you are fond q
/ china ~
81 dote upon it - exclaimed Barabbas DON
2 you?"
| said didn't know much about it; TO whic
he replied that our friend Celadon, of all men i
e the world, was most competent to teach me. The
. he fell to expressing eXt9vagant admiration fo
, this and that monstrosty on the way upstairs
for all the walls were ornamcnted with plates an
. dishes, as though one was going to dine there a
/ right angles. I'm the drawing-room-wher / dom
I think he had been above once before (and ther
most probably, on false pTetences: / could nc
! imagine that even morbid passion for cracke
/ china could have cemented C.ladon to a man iill
D him)-he was still more pToflsc i'm his Iaudatio
; of the crockery. No doubt il was as much to pre-
|, vent the conversaliona turning mpon lhe Tic!