The National tribune., 1883-04-12
W0MANS WORK.
Aunt Helen'S Home Talks---Color in
DreSS---0ur Letter Box, &c.


reign The glad, warm sunshine was daily
| finding its way into all the corners the fire
| no longer burned in the library CRATE, the
windows were open and every Whit of wind
| brought to the occupants of the room the odor
of spring violets The faces and costumes of
the Atbertons suggested their sympathy with
| Natures returning warmth and brightness, as
! they sat grouped about the notwithstanding
| library table on another of the Tuesday even
! ings, now known in the little household as
| Aunt Helens evenings. Aunt Helen opened
| her scroll and read Il already have said
that every woman, in furnishing home,
! should strive not only TO make it an outlet for
| all that is highest in her own character, but
| that she should also strive to make it an un-
conscious education in all that is honest, noble
/ and courteous to each that may live within it.
| 1t is true that refinement and nobility may
exist where surroundings are coarse and inhar-
nlonious but such cases are exceptional, aud
in the subjects the tendency toward refine
ment and nobility must be SO firmly rooted as
to defy the influences of unfortunate surround
ings. Robertson has given an account of his
companionship with a Tyrolese chamoise-
/ hunter, among the crags and glaciers OF the
/ Tyrol Describing the dignity and polished
courtesy Of the hunter, he adds: The reason,
as it seems to me, was that his character had
been moulded by the sublimities of the forms
of the outward nature, amidst which he lived.
| It was impossible to walk, as we did sometimes,
an hour or two before sunrise, . without
feeling that these things had had their part in
making him what he was and that we were
in a country in which men were bound to be
polished bound to be refined, almost bound to
be better men than elsewhere And we re-
member how Wadsworth makes the sky, the
color of the hills the sound of the. waterfalls,
educate his country girl, It'll beauty, born of
murmuring sound, shall pass into her face So
great is the moral influence, unconscious
| Ia Of {ra into of
that home furnishing ought to be as strictly
part of school education as arithmetic, or
grammar or history In the mere matter of
furnishing there viii, perhaps always be some
what of arbitrariness, for fashion-than whom
no fckler ruler can preScribes here also,
and whimsicalites intrude themselves, just as
in the matter of dress. But these mainly affect
details and conventional arrangements which
may or may not be observed. Every nation
has its principles of taste, ard the cultivated
eye and mind will detach from these such as
are elemental and trustworthy. Given the
perception OF harmonious illnesses and there
will not be lacking the means for its enlarge
ment and exercise. To many people artistic
homes is but another expression for expensive
homes. But a homemay be beautiful and attract
i've and yet be quite inexpensive. Taste, judg-
ment, calculation and little trouble are much
truer beautifers than those accessories-gild-
ing, carving and the like-whose value is esti-
which they represent. 1t certainly would cost as
little to FIJI our homes with graceful forms and
harmonious colorS as it does to fill them with
the discordant colors and caricatured objects
which are SO often to be seen in houses. That
fitness and harmony are factors which are
usually ignored in the making of homes, few
thinking people will deny. But when so much
of our life is to be passed in companionship
with our walls and furniture, | greatly Won
der that in their selection we give no more
thought than we do to their harnoniousness.
WHY HARMONY Is OFTEN LACKING.
Tasteful decorators will sometimes encounter
in their work serious obstacles, and often one of
the most serious is the fashion Of the house it
self If an architect finely educated in his
profession, would superintend the details within
the interior of the heuse which he has designed,
the decorator would meet fewer perplexites.
Bat the mantels, the gas fixtures, the castings
and yof those ultimate points which go TO
make up the elegance of a house quite as much
as any feature of the exterior are left to differ
cnt workmen who hold counsel neither among
themselves nor with the architect concerning
their various commissions, and who, therefore,
can scarcely be expected to furnish work in
unity with the architects plan. A series of
recently published English books on House
Decoration and belonging to the Art at Home
Series, contains many excellent suggestions for
the house furnisher. Among the good things
which appear in the series are these iniunc-
tons: Have definite idea of the general
effect to be produced, then faithfully carry it
out. Do not employ any one to decorate unless
you have reason to trust his judgment. When
once you have so far trusted decorator as to
give him work, do not hamper him by your
own criticisms Remember that the effect is to
be judged as a whole. The effect of half COM
pleted arrangement will be wholly different
from one completed.' And here is a charge
which ought to be written in letters of gold
Never go out of your way to make a thing or
a material look like what it is not. If Chin
neypiece is of wood, do not paint it to make it
look like marble; if. your doors are made of
deal, do not grain them to initiate maple. Every
material has in itself beauty and suitability
which is lost or wasted if it is made to initiate
something else. 1t is better to have one thing
of frst-rate quality and everything else of the
utmost plainness, than to have a mixture OF
styles and degrees and TO have one thing good,
another poor, and third imitation In fur
nishing, it will be better to buy either genuine
old things or good new things, and to avoid
new things which profess to be in the style of
something new We cannot too highly value
this advice. Our homes will never be familiar
, and sincere until we Danish shams and make
believes from among the objects with which we
adorn them. Avoid extremes in furniture let
+ your selection be guided by comfort, durability,
and beauty, but remember that comfort for one
room is not comfort for another cautions our
|
tween furniture and the things it contains
SOME PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
This means, for instance, don't put trumpery
on handsome sideboard; don't fill up hand
some bookcase with shabby or insignificant
books; don't put cheap toys and meaningless
bric-G-brdc on handsome etagere. Avoid
overlooking rooms with ornaments. A museum
: like appearance of room wearies one. Have
a museum, if desirable but don't have it in a
room in which one must pass hour after hour
of each day. This admirable advice will touch
many housewife in very tender spot How
: often do We go into rooms which are positively
l oppressive to US because of the number and
variety of valueless and meaningless objects
3 which we behold. Some of these objects hang
! often inappropriately-on the walls, while
others are placed on brackets, arrayed on the
mantelshelf or the whatnot or displayed in cabi-
nets with glass doors. Vainly the eye wanders
: aboutin search of reposeful spot, and the mind
cannotfree itself from the thought, if the money
which has been spent in the purchase of all
. these trifes had been invested in one genuine
object of art, how different would be the infu-
{ ence and atmosphere of the room. 1t would
Q be well if we should take lesson from those
masters of the mysteries of beauty, the ancient
Q | Greeks. Simplicity was law which nodded
8 their habits of mind and body, and as became
q q nation whose leaders were sages, their value
| Of objects was in proportion to the symmetry
: or the symbolism of the latter. Much of the
I 4