Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-23
Copyright, 1885,,

| Copyright 1882,
Let all The other work and all the complain
ing and the scolding be done in the other
rooms Of the house; but let the music, the art,
the conversation. all be kept for the parlor.
Let that be the apotheosis' of home. The par
lor needs a hostess who has cheerful smile
and a neat taste in dress. Into that room she
should carry nothing but hopeful words, warm
welcome, pretty needlework Flowers growing
in the windows of the modern parlor are the
highest delight, and an ivy trained to grow
around picture or more graceful nasturtium.
| what wild grace it throws around the old
| fashioned wooden mantel-piece! How well it
| harmonizes with an old engravingi IL possible,
| nave copy Of some piece of antique art in
your parlor. The LAGOON, the Medicean
| Venus, the Apollo, the Marble Fawn, the Venus
OF Milo, or the ever beautiful head of Daphne,
even IN plaster, better in bronze These ele-
vate the sense. Nothing is SO good for preser-
walton Of health and cheerfulness as the pres
ence OF beauty and really artistic objects. r
| AGREEMENTS.
/ Your parlor should be the expression of
highest degree to which your nature has
reached, the spirit should aim at beauty as
well as use. Some finer spirits command BOTH
as Michael Angelo hung his throne at Florence,
high in art But while YOU make your parior
full and beautiful, avoida tumble" Remem-
Der that china, even on q table, must have
some ceramic and historic connection to be
valuable. and do not put spinning wheels, imi-
tatlon dog-carts, useless clocks aud fans about
without motive. Let your parlor be individ-
| ual; let 1t express you. Do not copy your
neighbours parlor.
1t Is thousand pities that the shape of
parlor Is universally square or oblong. In Eu-
| rope they have corner" curtain hung
across the corner Of a large room to make
little room of ITSELF to break up this regularity.
Ii the architects would only give us some orig
NAL rooms. We all know how pretty are the
altered houses. where woman s permitted to
push out bow window, or to alter door or
cut down an already too high easement. These
irreguiM, jutting. and original rooms are very
delightful to furnish and to1ive in. They are
| expressions OF thought. and the conscious ut
terance OF thought by speech or action to any
end Is art
MODERN TASTE.
parlor can be made very artistic now at
small expense. Thanks to the pretty and
cheerful cretonnes, the cheap eastern stuffs,
the Madras muslins. and the discoveries of the
Decorative Art society, the parlor of to-day
can be made gem for very little money Wall
Papers are SO exquisitely pretty and so very
cheap that now one can have the ceiling as
well as the walls papered with an ornamental
frleze. The cotton-cloth curtains. with pieces
OF flannel across, Stimulating the Roman scarf
are very pretty and effective: soft low chairs
anu Coucnes, mfue Dy the carpenter, with
high backs, and upholstered by the lady
herself; long. low bookcases, plaques on
the wall, all in good TASTE make parlor look
cheerful and cultivated. We use the word ad-
vlsedly for this full room, this disorder
which is order, this fullness which is not
Jumole, Is the modern taste. Our ancestors
preferred long empty rooms, with stiff chairs
horseha1r sofas and here and there an empty
table. The American parlor of forty years ago
was something terrible.
nur
some things. Nothing is SO good as old mahog-
any furniture with brass fittings. The stiff
grandoles, high old clock, mirror with a thin
frame, and brass and silver candlesticks, were
all very handsome and are eagerly sought for
Dy the modern housewife.
oLD-FAsHIoNED TREASURES
Nothing is SO pretty as a long. low old
fashioned continental parlor. furnished with
modern taste. The quaint carving, the fine old
woodwork, the pretty affected inches, the mantel
pieces nearly up to the ceiling, brackets and
baskets and three-legged tables for tea and
prints by Baetolozzi, rocking chair or two.
The modern hostess can reconstruct the at
mosphere OF those days when the bellies of New
port fascinated the French officers. 1t was the
most romantic moment of American history
the moment Of Rochambeau and the beautiful
hostess.
Women now are the slaves Of the lamp and
OF the lamp shade. There is no end to this
species Of ia ad .p The lamp is pleasant
dies, is very dangerous. The piano is always
an awkward fixture. II square, it takes up one
corner Of the room, and if the lady who owns
1t Is singer she wishes it to face the company
The little upright piano is much prettier. The
opulent have a MUSHROOM WITHOUT a carpet,
which Is much better for music, but in the ay-
erage household the piano is in the parlor.
WHAT THE ROOM SHOULD CONTAIN.
One table should be given to the modern
magazines, and plenty Of paper knives should
lie about. The tusk Of the walrus the ivory of
the elephant the tooth OF the alligator, all d.
verted from their original purposes of prey
now serve the peaceful purposes of cutting the
leaves of the latest magazines, saving them from
the abomination of being torn by clumsy fore
finger. There should be an open fireplace a
wood fire. and the brass fender and fire-irons
should be brilliant. The cleanliness should be
perfect. In a country parlor dogs may come
and go, if well bred; and gentlemen may come
In IN lawn tennis suits, flannel shirts, shooting
jackets. knlckerbockers and other garments of
ease; but dirty boots--never. The city parlor,
of course, is a more pretentious place. and is
almost always beautiful; but the parlor of the
people without taste is the worst place in the
world; faring carpets, discordant colors and
bad oil paintings, what could be worse?
THE WHOLE TONE
of modern decorative art, began by Eastlake
anu carrleu on Dy thousand sklllful hands
by VIM. Morris in his wall papers and by So
ciety in every city-leaves little to be said on
this subject. One has but to stop in at any
carpenters to find something artistic, and the
various fashions for cheap decoration have
given rise to much fun and some good Jokes.
1t has been overdone. For instance, a few
years ago the Japanese idea had hold Of every
mind. and plea was sent forth ..for
that stork who had stood on one leg so long to
be allowed to put down the other leg;" fans
came and went, ladies gave up German worsted
work, but now are taking it all up again and
covering their chairs and tables. Turkey and
Persian rugs are made by ladies who buy the
burlaps and the worsted, and knit in the wool
themselves. These are very handsome, par
ticularly as the sensible fashion of stained
wood floors has come in. Rugs are. much
cleaner than carpets.
A very pretty tent parlor may be made BY
buying striped stuff and draping it from the
ceiling. The same stuff should also be put on
the chairs and sofas. Ingenious women can
make frames and brackets for pictures, and
there is no end to the cheap curtains, fringes,
and stuffs.
As FOR THE MODERN PARLoR
in an opulent house, what dream it is! Velvet
panels let in the wall; the most superbly
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