Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-07-09
ART MAD.
THE RAGE FOR DECORATION IN SAN
FRANCISCO.
High Art In Drsss-A Visit to the Cottage
Of the Decorative Art Associa-
tion-Eotes.
SAY FRANCISCO. July 6. 1851.

blOu-NOtSS.
SAN Francisco. July 6, 1851.
When a workman comes into your par
lor and expends two hours of thought and
labor upon the arrangement of the hang
ings about a couple of moderate-sized
windows, you naturally conclude that
drapery is an art of some Importance.
Where every negligent fold wears know
ing air, every gather prominent careless
ness, and every fall and loop studied
grace, the observer feels guiltily that
really tho subject is one she should be in
formed upon. Then the mere carpet
layer talks SO knowingly of blendings, of
lights and shadows, of the new and the
old, that here again the poor mortal who
thought she had done her whole duty to
man by bakings, and washings, and sew
ings, is confused and bewiidered. The
paper-h hanger is the worst of all, with his
dados, his friezes, his old reds, his dull
COLDS, and
THE NICE WAY
He has of crushing an ignoramus quite.
The very dry-goods man who sells calico
at 81 the twelve yards talks art so glibly
across the counter that he persuades the
same little woman into buying and all the
art washes out of the calico in the first
suds. Captain Juliet Corson and the regi-
ment of professors in cooking who have
sprung into publicity and print during this
reign destroy all pride one may have had
in kitchen achievements, and this is the
most unkindest cut of all, " for it sets at
naught the experiences of the long ap-
premiership to recipes and ovens and pots
and pans. These are. indeed, trying times
to the soul of the woman who would be
up with them. The only thing to do, my
sister, is to 60 mad on art and be like the
rest of folks. Half of them don't know
what they are admiring and talking of,
and they'll never find you out if you do the
same. A woman passed me ON the street
to day in a gray dress and parasol to match.
HOW SIMPLE AND MODEST
And unassuming that seems, to read it.
How different in reality. The skirt was
finished in a narrow box pleating and
three small tucks; an overskirt was
punched up on either hip like a pair of
balloons and fell in ends that Topped
hither and yon in the winds; and the
back at the waist was puckered and shirred,
the fullness at the bottom giving width
of skirt that was something appalling. 1t
may have been high art in dress, but it
was awfully, hideously ugly. But under.
meath all the rubbish of talk and make.be
lieves, there is an earnest interest and an
advance in that real art which lifts this
generation step higher than the last in
the fineness of the five senses, which are
Just the material we all have to work upon.
The large majority are gaining an idea, and
one idea drilled into whole people is
great thing to have done. There
are numbers of learners just now, women
anxious to cultivate their taste-let us not
hesitate to acknowledge ourselves among
them. As for me, | have not waited for
the drapery man and the carpet man and
the other etceteras to come to me. | have
been to each, humbling myself and con-
Tossing my ignorance and while | haven't
yet the language of it on my tongue, have
feeling somehow that 1 understand a little
better than l did-in short, that Pm keep
ing up with the populace and getting an
"idea" 1t was this ravenous appetite
which brought me to full stop on the
street the other day. "See these win
dows I cried j; "here we have
DECORATIVE ART!"
My companion allowed her gaze to
rest upon me then, as if she would not
wound me too deeply, slowly took: it
away again. Decorative? Oh, no."
she said gently. "In New York we al
ways say decorative. Do not fail to re-
member the new pronunciation. | looked
at her in my turn, and then / succumbed.
How could / help it +? She was dressed in
an odd new way, with straw belt about
her waist, and she had such an air of art
about her, yes, such decorative air, that
she awed me. I felt that she pitied the
interest with which l regarded the articles
in the two show windows, and yet she
must have looked at things, too, and been
interested before she reached her present
condition The windows were really worth
looking at, filled with oddities and curl
Gus and pretty things as they were. 1t
was Japanese, and all quite fantastic. Al
most everything that is Chinese and Japan
ese in art is extremely lovely, / find, but it
seems like caricature on loveliness to
me. By the way, it is pronouced ca-ric-a-
ture. Everything that is Egyptian, too, is
of value, and when you arrive at the Pom
peiian, why you have reached the summit.
| entered between the two show windows
and long narrow store opened before me,
its walls hung with banners and fans and
screens and all manner of grotesqueness.
1t was a marvel of bright grotesqueness,
and made me think of the little piquant
bits and darts of conversation Henry
James and VIM. D. Howells put in their
stories-sort of feathery, arrowy, shaft
like thoughts, that are SO pretty and yet
have ludicrous touch. A great parasol,
with bamboo stem the size of
an arm, stood open above the
aisle, and it was decorated with
all manner of fancies. Very much jointed
birds and grinning apes in miniature hung
by threads from every rib, and swung
about, swayed by breath. dozen
monkeys climbed one string, and on the
left stood case of dogs each and all
meant as ornaments. Rushes covered the
floors, and fat, puffy pincushions, in shapes
of bird and fish, stood about Odd bamboo
banners, painted brightly, depended be-
hind the counters, and the ever-popular
fan lay everywhere in sight. of all kinds
and sizes, five, ten, and any number of
cents apiece two bits box forty cents
per dozen, with groups on the walls to
show
STYLE OF ARRANGEMENT.
Fans, like huge pansies, half fans, handled
fans, pivoted fans red, yellow, green,
purple, figured, gold, silver, spangled and
plaques wherever the eye turned. Little
books with dozen leaves, all Joined, were
opened out and spread along the wall
like section of border done in outlandish
Japanese figures. People were continually
coming and going staring about like my
self, but nobody made any noise, and the
pale, sweet violet young men at the