The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-03-05
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
WOMAN'S TIME.

She II Forced to s2cuJyv it Largely In
Useless Employment Instead OF Helping
to solve Political ProblsIss.
The craze for decorative art has en-
tered almost every household in the
land, and such hoH has IL taken on
femininisy, writes Josephine X.
Henry. in Woman's Journal, that
large numbers of women are suf-
fering from disease whsch. for
lack of better name, might be call
ed decorative jim-jamsl" Throughout
the length and breadth of the land fe-
male America is busy decorating the in
terror of her domicile with sort vi art
istic erysipelas that is calculated to in
duce painters collie, or make one feel
that he is on journey through the
realms of art seated on a cyclone. One
has only to visit about twelve homes
out of fourteen to realize the extent of
this art epidemic, and the malignancy
of the disease. Ones stock of sympathy
can not fail to be reduced when it comes
in contact with the male members of the
household, whose endurance is at ut
most tension, and who give evidence
that a change of ocular diet is needfuL
No wonder we have so many club mem
in this day and generation, so many dis
gusted, sick and sorry, weary AMI worm
out masculines who have impaired their
eyesight by looking at the walls of their
homes decorated after the fashion of a,
Chinese junk, or the veritable "Old
Curiosity Shop The husband of an
artistic wife reads his paper seated
on chair upholstered after the man
ner of the oriental palanquin, his feet
resting on sheep-slin, with head-rest
of hand-painted, apoplectic roses and
consumptive Gala lilies. He sits be-
hind a tire-screen representing tableau
taken from "EIumpty Dumpty sat on
the wall" and the puzzle is to tell which
is II. ID. and which is the wall. This
same art-pursued husband takes his
after-dinner nap on a sofa-pillow of the
crazy pattern, which 80 adde's his brain
that Morpheus refuses to approach, and
he wiles away the time viewing the
gems Of art that surround him. Fans
and feathers, plaques and palettes rib
borrowed tambourines, with their
sheep-skin heads containing tableaux
of Faust and Marguerite which closely
resemble the historical figures of Jack
and Jill; or the allegory of MARY Had
Little Lamb" the lamb only distin.
guishable from Mary by possessing four
legs. Barnum in the museum business,
is not a circumstance to the parlor OF
the decorative crank. Spinning-wheels
in their holiday dress of paint and fur
bellows; banners which the Mikado him
self would envy, with designs as soul
stirring as those used in the crusades
churns converted into umbrella stands
decorated with flowers that resemble
the contents of chiropodist's show
case; pictorial puzzles on every article
of utility and ornamentation, from
Moses in the bulrushes to the dude
clad in rainbow attire, with his single
eye-glass
This decorative craze, il nothing else
is needed to pursue it, requires time
The great cry against the equal rights
women is that the sex have no time tt
devote to the solution of social or polit
zeal problems because the home anC
children would suffer from neglect. Tit
average American housewife can put he
house in order. and minister to tn,
needs of husband and children, read ;
dissertation on social reform or politica
economy, acquaint herself with the con
gressional and legislative news. and no
spend as much time as the art (?) decor
ator does in painting butterfly or
mermaid on the coalscuttle. Though
there may not be whole stocking il
the house, and the children remind on
of the little Jellabys, there is not a hin
of neglect in regard to such women. A
soon. however, as woman breaks tn
leading-string of social custom, and ask
the why and wherefore of the laws tina
are nude for her, and the methods q
President, Governor or Legislator, TIL
cry runs along the,line. "Unwomanly,
"Strong-minded," -Out of her sphere!
The work of the interior decorator find
its way to the attic or the cellar i'm du
time, but the work of the woman VIII
has force of character sufficient to- as
, fer civil and political liberty is helpin
to evolve the new civilization whic
viii eliminate every yestige of:injnstic
from its codes. and establish the law q
, ''human rights" that will usher in th
dawn of the millennium.