The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-09-22
HOUSEHOLD DECORATION.
An Art Finding Great Favor with
Feminine Bread Winners.

suitable professions thatin these days
of women's work a attract the time
and talent of the SCI To transform
barren, often ugly, rooms into at
Effectiveness is q truly feminine task.
All women are supposed to have some
aesthetic taste, or at least to love
beauty even if~they are so unfort-
innate as to lack all power of creating
it tor themselves. Who. indeed, does
not admire the talent that changes o
graceless corner into all ''early En-
glish'' ~conceit, or transforms a barren
fireplace into an Eastlakean dream?
The little house that was so poor and
bare has become a paradise OF rest to
eye and heart, and tired steps grow
lighter with the joy of being there.
Such tasks belong in some degree to
all home making, and are not con-
fined TO professional decorators, but 1t
is nevertheless true that training is
needed to make one an artist n this
respect. But training alone will not
do it.
The decorator should be born an
artist. So important has this art OF
decoration become that even the
housekeeper's skill is measured less by
her ability to buy roasts than by her
faculty for metamorphosing garrett
furniture into art studies, or with an
inexpensive bit of cheesecloth or Gre
tonne evolving beauty out of insight
ly walls or windows. In recent years
most of our dry goods stores have
added what are called art depart
ments, where are displayed all sorts
of aesthetic fancies for home adorn-
ment. At first a corner or an upper
floor was all that was needed to show
these goods. Now what a change!
Not only must there be wide spaces
for cases and counters, but a window
or two on h main floor must be de-
voted to the display of newest de-
signs. There must be a designer, too,
to preside over the department, sug-
gest ideas to buyers aud make suitable
selections. These places are often
filled by women who are thorough
artists in their way and who are we'll
paid for their interesting work.
A woman who stands at the head of
her profession in this line is Mrs. Lii
liam Bentley. Her fame extends all the
way from New York to Denver. She
does not believe in sitting down and
weeping because the world is so large
and women are oppressed. Her motto
has been to look on the bright side Of
things, and if the sombre, unfinished
side will persist in turning toward
her. we'll, let it turn, and with a strip
of velvet, q bit of ribbon, a few KEN
sington stitches and a touch of the
stencil here and there, take away the
gloomy aspect. 1t is because of her
natural aptitude for this that she can
draw a salary of 1920 q year, and
that Inn Keeper Southgate, of the
Auditorium Hotel, gave her carte
blanche to furnish his private parlors.
Her w parlors on the south side are
said to be faithful copies of the fam
u Moorish room in the Hoffman
House, New York.
Mrs. Bentley talks entertainingly
about decorative effects and how they
are produced. She says:-"When |
enter a room to plan its decoration
and furnishing [ look first at its pre-
yailing color, for of course this is to
be my background. My ideas must
be regulated by it.
Next / look around for desirable
bases of decoration. A mantel is one,
the bare wall opposite another. Then
follow corners, and last of all furni-
ture. NV chief effort will likely be
the mantel. In selecting material my
greatest care must be not to take any
thing which has become passe or out
of style, for a woman will quickly de-
tect old ideas. Itynay be a charming
bit, but if it has been used the season
before no one will have it. A trifling
blunder in this respect will be as oh
jectionable as if my work were out of
tone. When the mantel suits me 1
attack a corner. So few women know
how to treat a nook. 1t is the easiest
thing in the world to overdo here. If
handled perfectly when finished it
will be as beautiful as a painting.
Sin treating materials avoid m
broidery as much as possible. Too
much embroidery detracts from a
high art finish. Turkish goods, with
ali their oriental coloring and designs,
can almost always be substituted.
However, there is nothing to equal a
simple figure in m~agnified wheat or
clover, done with orange colored rope
linen on Roman red portieres.
Draperies in solid colors, as a rule,
are not hurt when illuminated with
we'll chosen ~needlework. Although
my sample card contains over ahun-
bred stitches-and l think there is not
q stitch in the world that | am not
familiar With do not encourage a
stampede toward that sort OF work.
.'The work of supplying furniture
for a room is an afterthought. Cush-
ions and pillows consisting OF odd de-
signs may be picked up anywhere.
For the latter use those queer little
pieces collected from stocks of Eastern
importers, making it a rule never TO