The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-04-25
DECORATIVE ART.
Great Alt-Around Progress Made During
the Past Twenty-Five Years.

Great Alt-Around Progress Made During
the Past Twenty-Five Years.
Art that Is essentially decorative has
q natural analogy with essentially Tyr
ical poetry. A form Of versiacation
once chosen. the necessary conditions
OF meter and rhyme become to the
poet, as the qualities Of his material
to the artist opportunities, not re-
strictions; not only opportunities for
beauty OF meter and rhyme. but for an
emphasis on the utterauce Of his
thought not attalnable outside that
form OF verse. He is no poet who finds
rhyme and meter hamper his imagin-
alton, nor is he who is not inspired by
the conditions OF his material a deco
rator. From the exalted position as
sumed today by realistic painting.
decorative art seems to run some risk
OF being shouldered into an altogether
secondary and Insignificant place. 1t
can only be saved by its material, as
poetry by its lyrical qualities from the
assumptions of re ,listic prose. We
must sing, and have fresh words to
sing; and as song may touch our
hearts as nearly as a novel, we shall
not care to think OF it as on lower
artistic level than the stories we get
from the circulating library. Less
deliberately initiative of the details OF
reality it will certainly be. but there
il ronro in ,,,nah ~ ~ nd
perhaps. in more highly-distilled
form. for as much of nature too. And
50 with the adornment OF our rooms
and the windows that we I'LL with color
in our churches; we should not, II we
can help it, wish that, though different
from. they should be intellectually be-
Meath, the pictures that we pay shill.
ings to look at now and then. Art,
then, can express itself not only In the
completely flexible media that admit
the so-called realism Of representation,
but in materials that impose their own
limits. In art. as in life, there is no.
bility in. and compensation for. self-re-
straint as we'll as for the wise acknowl-
edgment Of external restraining neces-
sites. The actor, for instance, who
reveals too soon the whole compass
of his emotional resources has lost his
hold over us. the really impressive
man showing us that only at the cul.
minating instant-perhaps not the
whole of it even then. Many human
interests cling close to the productions
of the decorative arts OF the home and
fireside, which enshrine memories OF
happiness or sorrow. crafty innocent
vanities, recall pleasant Inequalities,
and TEEN with homely everyday asso-
Citations. 1t Is to their advantage. as
well as to their possessors', IL, beyond
this. the art in them is Of u vital and
ar-speaking nature that is intelligi-
BILE, not only after death. as it were. to
the connoisseur who entombs them in
Il collection, but during their lifetime
to the people who possess and live with
them. In this direction we have made
great all-round progress Ia the last
twenty-five years, having struggled
pretty clear of the worst period Of dec
Grafton that ever existed. A comparison
of the furniture. curtains, carpets, and
the like in g neral use now with
those of quarter OF century ago has
been too often made to need repeti-
ton here. but one vital p,int in the
change is we'll worth noting People
not only use better colors than they
did, and more graceful furniture, but
they appreciate them, taking real
pleasure in the soft colOrs OF their
curtains and dress materials. The
artistic revival has run its course,
gained its mic lnamo, been taken up by
society. satirized and dropped; but the
preference for delicate color over
crude survives it and remains per-
nanent possession. Not now, in the
'ost out-of-the-way country place, do
10 least sophisticated natives walk to
church clad In those CHASTITY aniliue
colors that once shocked the land
cape, abasLing the sober tints Of
nature. Cont mnorary Review.
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disease, liver complaint, wasting affections,
colds, rheumatism, dyspepsia, overws K
and nervous debility are chief causes.
When thus ailing seek prompt relief. 1t
can be found best In Browns Iron Bitters.
1t builds up from tie foundation by making
the blood rih and pure leading physi-
clans and ministers use and recommend it.
1t has cured many, aud if you are sufferer,
tryit.
THERE are 693 newspapers and periodicals
published in foreign languages in this Re-
public.