The San Francisco call., 1895-05-22

dictum of the architect. "Do not construct
decoration, but decorate construction" That's
up in every dressmaker's parlor in the world
D. construction"
1t ought also to be known and studied in our
about the decoration in the home. Mr..
Wendte spoke here of the lack of it in Greek
homes. 1t was not so much lack as you might
think. They didn't have a mountain of glass
and china, and silk and velvet, and all the
shiny things and ribbon things and plush
things that we have, but they had more beauty
TO the square inch than we have to the square
mile. They knew what beauty was Among
the Greeks table was frequently an object OF
decorated with statuette of one of the gods
Now, think of your tables at home.
The great and governing principle of Greek
artwas its simplicity, its severity, its restraint
The moment nation begins to decline its art
goes with it, always. 1t begins to lose that
and less beautiful.
There are three elements of beauty that are
always present in real beauty, in the living
body, any tool, or implement, OF vessel anV
organism or constructed thing. These prin-
ciples are: First, ease; second, use; third.
economy. Now apply these three principles to
your dress. We have an idea the more we can
put onto things in the way of DECORATION the
better they look, not knowing that decoration
means primarily that which belongs" We
put onto things that which does not belong
and we have 10 sew it on, or, if in the house or
on the furniture, we nail it on paste it on tie
it on, hang 1t on, anything to make it stay on
where 1t does not belong. the first element of
beauty in the house should be in the house
itself In the architecture of the holse as q
whole and of the rooms in part
There Is relation between what vou live in
ana what you are. We make our own houses
ana our houses make us, although il is very
much easier to alter the houses than to alter
the people. When we understand the real feel
ing OF artistic truth We can make better
houses by making better surroundings for
them.
We think of the home as a place to put
things up in that We make. We make them
with our own hands and we think they are
beautiful, and we have been told (this is one
OF the myths on which woman has been fed)
that we, as women, have special sense of the
beautiful We, as women, have not enough
sense OF beauty TO dress our own bodies beauti-
fully. We do not know beauty when we see
1t, we women.
Then, we are told we have natural taste in
decoration, and all our beautiful little novels
and stories tell about "the trace of q woman's
.hand'-'that you could tell in moment that
woman had been there Wen, so you can.
These traces OF 8 woman's hand usually con-
sist IN birdcage and a hower-pot and lace
curtain. That's in the short stories-they can't
go into details, but the bird in the cage and
the flower in the pot and the lace curtain in
the window prove there is a woman there. 1t
really does. You can always tell the woman
Tn tell you of beautiful, artistic thing I
saw in a house visited in this City. Anybody
can make one like ii. First you buy Japanese
doll-thats beauty for you; and you cut its
mead of-that's true art. Then you dig hole
in its neck and you put piece OF ribbon in it,
and you get feather duster and put the
handle through the hole in the neck till it
sticks out below and the feather duster sticks
up above, just like an Indian on the warpath !;
and then you hang that on the wall as
decoration. Then you know that upon your
wall is decoration-"that which belongs
No woman who has ever made one of those
things, or anything like that, or has
seen it in the haunts of her friends and
said, "Oh, how sweetp'-no such woman can
lay claim TO any sense OF beauty or anything
like it.
There is an absolute law governing pure
beauty. 1t is to be governed by the thing to
which it is applied. To understand how to
o. decorate home you must first feel, under
stand, what home is and in what way the
decoration is to carry out further the home
idea. You cannot do anything well in this
world without understanding it and loving it
and honestly and courageouslv living up to
what you understand and what you love.
Mrs. Foley of Stockton had a few re-
marks to make concerning the remarks
just made, in which she stated that artists,
in her opinion, in decoration, as well as
painting and music, were born and not
made.
''These things" she concluded, "win be
all right when we feel little easier about
where we are going to get bread to eat"
The congress then took recess until
evening.