The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-03-02
Art FOR THE HOUSEHOLD.
Every Day Esthetics for Every.
b0dy's Use-COmmOn Sense i'm
Domestic DecoratiOn-GOOd
Taste at Home-House-
wives and Help
And a SavOry
Receipt or
Two.


While the revival of art in the
sense of q return to knee-Dreechei
and ancient costumes will doubtless
fail to commend itself to the com
mon sense of the age, people of taste
will find many hints and sugges.
tlons tor practical use in the move.
ment of which Mr.. Wilde regards
himself the exponent. Art may not
be the highest form of happiness
and yet there can be DO doubt that
beauty adds to human enjoyment
in everything, and that it NAV be
made to contribute essentially to
the comfort and pleasure of almost
every phase of our daily lives.
The time will probably never arrive
in this world when men and women
can deal only with art subjects, or
employ themselves merely in the
contemplation of objects which do
not offend or CRATE upon delicate
susceptibilities. But to certain ex-
tent we can follow out the aesthetic
principle. Even in departments of
effort where it might seem incom-
patible and impracticable, and in
the place to which the English heart
has always done greatest reverence,
and'which we call by the almost sa-
cred title home, it is possible to de
velop the theory of the beautiful in
a practical way to an almost un-
limited extent. Decorative art So
cieties in general have already done
| @Ios
field of usefulness and influence Is
widening and may be widened al
most indefinitely. Still one need
not go to a decorative art school,
though such schools will help even
the ablest pupils to learn some
of the simpler secrets of house beau
t;fication and decoration. 1t is not
every one who can afford to paint
pretty china ornaments, or work
embroidered hangings or deal in
plaques and pretty knick-knacks, ,and
with all Difference to our schools of
household art, there would seem to
be too much tendency on their part
to make domestic decoration too
expensive for the ordinary run OF
people.
The rich can buy their art at so
much a yard, as they buy their silk,
and can purchase beauty as the
poorer classes purchase beans but
the great majority of humanity
must depend to large extent upon
their own skill and contrivance for
their little articles of vertu, and
must supplement slim purses with
clever ingenuity. 1t is surprising
how far good taste will go in such
matters as these, and how much it
will accomplish towards relieving
the harshness and barrenness
of Strengthened household.
Specifications are unnecessary and
useless, for female instinct of good
taste in such things is generally the
best guide but those who have not
looked into the subject would be
astonished to learn how even the
simplest articles of household use
may be made to take on an aspect
of attractiveness, if not of positive
loveliness, under a careful, skillful
hand. A flour barrel or q candle
box might seem impossible subjects
for aesthetic treatment, and yet we
have seen them transformed into
things of positive beauty, as well as
of unquestionable use, by thrifty
and clever housewife. So with al
most everything in the modern
house, which, under the tendency OF
practical art renaissance, is growing
into something less of the old-time
castle of which our English fore
fathers boasted, and into something
more of home.
For the most part out of doors
and in the hard conflicts of business
life art may find it difficult to main
tain itself, but in the home it may
find a eongenial soil where it can be
cultivated even in the slightest de.
tails, and may flourish without lei
or hindrance, Frightening and beau.
tifyiug even the humblest habita.
tions. There is no telling how great
is the moral and physical effect of 6
bright and cheerful home, where
everything is done not only reg
ularly and in order, but where good
taste suffices the lack of the almighty
dollar. Even the humblest fare, the
dinner of herbs,- becomes more at
tractive when the dining room il
sweet and cleanly, and where the
dinner service and viands are ar
ranged with some regard to the in
tellectual as well as the physical
cravings = not merely dumping
upon the table in Saxon confusion
as if one were giving the stock theil
midday meal.
Speaking of dinners suggests the
importance of art, not exactly o.
that sublimated sort which il
taught by sunhower apostles, i'll the
preparation of what we eat anC
drink. And in reaching this enc
those housekeepers who canno
cook (and more the pity there
should be any who can't) must de
pend upon securing efficient anC
trustworthy help; for after all il
said and done, and decorative ar
has accomplished its best, what il
home without a good cook? Th,
servant girl problem is one of tn,
great live issues of the day for tn,
female head of the house, and vari
Gus are the ways in which wives anC
mothers seek to solve it. Som,
housekeepers have q prediction
for this nationality ana others TO
that, in selecting their domestic as
sistants, but it is scarcely possible
to lay down any general rule TO
guidance in the solution of thi
vexed problem. AS has beel
pointed out:
"There is q mistaken idea tha
English servants are always the mos
desirable in the world, as good a
they may be in the mann; that Eng
lish housekeepers have fewer diff
culties to contend with than an
others, and that there is, in fact,
sort of feudal feeling between mis-
tress and servant which is not foun,
elsewhere. But this IDEA, like goo,
many other popular notions, is de
lusion. Fifty years ago it was tru
in q measure; to-day il is almos
wholly untrue. The British matro
has a good deal to put up with
more than she is even willing to a
low, because there Is q certain prid
in Keeping well regulated hous,
, and in spite of much conversatio
! and free discussion on the subject c
servants generally, it is only 10 tn
friend of her bosom that she can col
fde the constant irritation and al
noyance she suffers from the vags
: ries, of the cook. The reall
: enviable person in England is sh
whose income allows of her keepin
!, a housekeeper, and whose soul
: never troubled with everyday MAJ