National Republican., 1883-12-01
THE SHOP WINDOWS.
Marvellous Combinations Of Color and Beauty
That Meet the Eye on Every Turn.
Gorgeous Displays OF Fancy Goods-Irrc-
sistibie Commercial AIIurcments.

Already have the streets of tho city put on
their holiday attire and are now gay in tho
warm bright colors that add such charm to
the winter atmosphere. For days past strong
symptoms of the approaching congress have
filed tho air in tho unusual hustle, in tho
crowded pages of tho hotel registers, in the
sudden energetic mien of the storekeopers
and in the increasing crowds that throng the
sunny side of the avenue. Washington life
has lost the listless air IL wears in tho early
fall aud has put on the air of one who knows
the season Of idloness is past and wo must
prepare for business. The winter hogira to
to the city of magnificent proportions has
fairly set in.
But the coming of congress, while IL is a
main factor in the change from idle loungiDg
to busy energy, is not tho only cause which
has transformed Pennsylvania avenue from
a homeward channel for government clerks
into live, bustling, crowded thoroughfare,
down which you must elbow your way
through the thronging multitude. There is
another reason for the holiday aspect of tho
store windows, for tho cheering movements
of tho crowd, for the glitter of goods, the flush
of colors, the stir in the pulses of trade.
1t is the coming event of Chritmass that
casts its rosy shadows before. Tho air
is full of the suppressed murmur of
gift secrets that will burst forth into full
bloom on Christmas morning. The store
windows are gay In their flush of colors and
beauty of fabrics Art has been called in to
supplement the attractions of Commerce, with
its potent temptations in hue and design.
All along Pennsylvania avenue and up Sow
enth and Ninth and f streets there is keen
and restless competition of trade to show Off
its wares to the best advantage and in the
most alluring FORM Never before in tho
history of Washington have the dry goods
stores glowed and glittered with such wealth
of color, such gloss and delicacy Of fabrics,
such mingled harmony of beauty and use.
The sheer of satin and the simmer of silk
are as common now as but little while ago
were the orinkle OF calico and the shrivei of
serge.
| There is positive pleasure, shared by the
| masculine as we'll as by the feminine taste, in
pausing before the window where brilliancy
| of color and delicacy of design lend to the
fabric there displayed charm which it never
wore before. There is not o little art dis
| played in the arrangement of these windows,
which speaks well for the peoples growing
| correctness of taste. Tho fancy stores are
even better than the dry goods establish
ments. One does not wonder at the quantity
of lace in daily use when he sees such i'm
| menso piles SO tastefully arranged in the
fancy store windows and on the fancy store
shelves. The glitter and glow of color are
striking innovations this winter upon the
somber browns and blacks of few years ago.
Nature is coming into the American home
life more and more every year. As the beau
tiful is the true, let the anchorites say what
they please, the change in fashion in this re-
spect is an elevating as we'll as an agreeable
| one.
The bookstores have begun tho holiday
season as early as the dry goods men and the
milliners, and they move on your attention
with charge that is irresistible, Who would
not willingly surrender TO the attack of blue,
and green, and gold, and purple robed vol
umes, bearing your favorite thoughts in such
attractive guise, and demanding such mod
crate toll from your pocketbook? Typog-
| raphy has become one of tho fine arts, and
the book, especially in the holiday season,
has grown to be microcosm of all the out
side beauty of form, color, and expression,
| compressed in reasonable limits, and sold fol
| triie. Nowhere does the spirit of modern
art show more brilliantly or acceptably than
in the holiday cards which adorn the holiday
booksellers windows.
So the stroller down our Washington streets
these sunny December days sees an unwonted
bustlc, greater stir more brilliancy of COM
| mercial decoration, q fuller, more gorgeous
display of goods, and more attractive and
| tasteful store windows than he may remem-
Der to have seen before in this city. The
poets tell us that the past fall was brown
autumn, the predominant hue of that foliage
having been that dull, warm tint which
promises mild and open winter But here
| and there the forests famed into crimson and
the woods grew scarlet with the hectic flush
of the dying year. And these bursts OF
exuberance in nature may have had their effect
upon business, for tho Washington streets
this season are flash and fame of color by
day, and glitter and glow of splendor by
night.
CoDoRUs, PA.-Rev. J. D. Zehring says: "a