The record-union., 1897-11-28

ary drawing room by amateur actors,
and which have been gathered by the
Frederick A. Stokes company in a vol
ume entitled THE Charm with fifty
illustrations suggestive of costumes,
stage properties, etc. Casual examin-
alton of the plays indicates that they
are well fitted for their purpose. Three
of them call for four characters each,
two for five characters and one for
eight characters. The requirements for
the plays do not demand unusual stage
facilities or costumes, and little change
of scenery is needed. In four of them
a song is introduced and we think
that vocal and perhaps instrumental
music might be interpolated elsewhere
without difficulty. We think The
Charm" is book that would bring
satisfaction and entertainment to many
groups of young persons who have
liking for presenting plays.
New York Post: Thomas Moran has
located his workshop" on the quaint
old Main street of East Hampton, l.. l.,
a studio where he is spreading the sun
mosaic from fairyland with his brushes
dipped in dreams. The house stands
back some little distance from the elm
embowered road of a hundred genera
tions. "A broad lawn sweeps gracious
ly up. TO the artists porch. The path
that leads up to this porch is bordered
with flowers, tessellations of tone
bloom that give you already a hint
| of the pictures that you will see on
his easels.
The studio runs the whole width of
hn f111 no VT, 1oI h
opens directly into it. You stand in de-
lightful wonderment at first as you
look about you, and catch the general
bird s-eye or butterfly view of the
room in which are gathered together
in artistic confusion and charm relics
from rambles and vacations in every
part of this variform world of ours.
Across that dark, wood carven gallery
above are thrown the gorgeous vest
menrs, now dulled, now diamonded in
the shadows and the sunshine of the
studio, of prelates of Brittany. ecces-
iastical fragments from Hungary fra
grant moth-eaten robes from old Rome
dimmed but most divine with the sac
red smell of incense. Suspended from
this gallery" swings bulbous bronze
delights of mosque and seraglio lamps,
some of them glowing with Orient
crystals, deep-hued lustrous as the eyes
of a Sultan's favorite, or the jeweled
Splendors of her little sandaled feet
Here are rugs from Persia and Afgha-
nistan; but, more wonderful than all
of them a chef d'oeuvre, indeed, of
the Oriental weaver's art, who built
poems into the warp and woof of his
threading thought-here is an Egyptian
rug with the coat-of-arms, one might
say, OF the Pharoahs-the winged disk
of the sun from whose blood beat the
Egyptian ruler claimed descent, the
symbol that he sat in dynastic dignity
of carven splendor over the temple
entrance to his god Scarabei are
woven into the rugs Egyptian text
ure; and the flower of the Pharoahs,
the lotus that dictated to Greece the
motif for the columned entrance to her
temple of Diana at Ephesus. is the
administrator of the gorgeous tones.
Mr.. Moran prizes it as one of his choic-
est things
There are on the easels four pictures
from distinct fairyland. No other of
our artists is attempting these things
The first of the four is 'Bluebeard's
Castle" 1t is all lurid light of pur-
pie sunset that seems to have arisen
crimson vapor from wounds Across
the road that leads up to the dark
looming Of the stern storm battlements
off there there is one streak of lurid
light. a great wind is in the picture.
and skeleton tree shakes in the emo
ton of evening. Here in another pic
ture. is Sinbad the Sailors land. The
crystal egg that the old tar found
looks like a drop of morning dew, the
sweet rain that makes all the little elf
world grow in golden mist and music
of tripping feet
These fairy pictures that open to YOU
the lands of the ideal give one new
courageous hope that the cult Of real
ism is passing, that our artists in pig
ments, in stone, in letters, will in mercy
lay the problem novel" on the shelf.
The Only real value in any art work"
said one of England's greatest art crit
les, is the amount of the invisible. of
the ideal which it contains