The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-02

/ II enter Il drawing room without thread
ing a labyrinth-like confusion eff chairs,
| tables and so-calied artistic litter.
Whether the Colonial or Empire period
is followed, the result is somewhat SINH
| lar. There is an air of exquisite order
| and simplicity, alike refreshing to mind
and eye. The one-color carpet, with it's
| wide-garlanded border. and the dainty,
unobtrusive wall papering. with a fringe
| of garlands of Empire wreaths, repeating
the tones of the floor covering, make an
local background for furniture and pic
lures.
The beautiful Marie A~ntoinette striped
damask or the exquisite Colonial brocades
cover sofas and chairs, while a screen, a
cabinet and a curio table further embel-
lish the apartment. Rangings may be as
costly as the purse can buy, but they
must harmonic with the walls, and above
all, must be unobtrusive, while pictures.
whether in oils, water colors or black and
white, must be the best of their kind,
and, above all, mean something
And that brings us to the real secret
of artistic furnishing. A woman VINO
| understands decoration and who has the
| Unborn gift of good taste will not clutter
her drawing room with all sorts of fur
niture, ornaments and pictures, merely
because she has the opportunity of buy
ing an article at a bargain. She knows
that nothing is cheap unless it is in har-
mony with the surroundings, and SO,
with a true spirit of se~lf-denial, she
waits until she sees just the article need
ed, at just the price within her means.
Above all, the artistic woman is par
ticular in the choice of pictures. She
knows that carpets wear out, and that
furniture must occasionally be recovered,
but pictures are practically imp~erishable
and will last Indefinitely.
Therefore, she selects these tell-tale
accessories with the incest care<and dis
elimination. She never commits the mis-
take of buying an etching or an engraving
because it happens to be the right size for
a curtain wall space or because Ike frame
is just too lovelyi Instead she selects one
that she knows hat she has long admired,
and of which she is sure she will not tire.
Next to a bit of landscape or a charm
ing marine view which is beyond criticism
she values copies of great paintings by
great masters. Instead of buying an ideal
head of a pretty woman she selects one
of which she knows something; Reynolds
charming Mrs. Siddons, the exquisite por-
trait of Madame LIE Brun and her daugh-
ter; Gerard's Madame Recamier, or one of
Romney's wonderful studies of Lady
Hamilton. These she buys because she
loves them, and so the walls of her house
become the index of her mind, and even a
casual caller or an Indifferent acquaint-
ance cannot enter an apartment hum
NTH c,,ob piot1,rac without fpp1inO that
indefinable something which always sur
rounds the possessions, however simple,
of a woman of taste.
Florence Hull Winterburn. writing on
s.The Passing of Childhood in the Sep
ember 'Woman's Home Companion"
says
Baby learns that he can walk, that he
can reach things, that he can open and
close doors, that he can select from many
articles before him the particular one he
wants; and so soon as he is conscious of
his ability to act for himself he does it.
But birthdays come and go, and John
is thirteen, and alive in every nerve and
fibre, with the full-pulsed life of the
American temperament; he is ambitious,
and seeks ideals and models from the
great world outside the walls of home,
and he talks excitedly of what other
boys do, and finds precedent for the indi-
vidual liberty he is beginning to pant and
chafe after. Mary, with the first lustre
of life yet fresh on her brow, has shed
infantile docility like a garment, and has
haunting visions of the joys of indepen-
dence. 1t all seems sudden to the parent
and it is not quite pleasant. There is a
pretty sentiment in favor of prolonging
babyhood, and the world is brutal and
ugly. and innocence is precious. Besides,
the instant our fiedglings are out of our
sight untold anxieties begin for us. We
are inclined to put off the evil day.
This is the way a sentiment can make
us selfish, and fears for the future make
US unjust! We nave no right to choose
what is easy for ourselves, however,
rather than what is best for our children.
1t is the growing manhood and woman
hood in them that begins to assert itself
and claim recognition. The wings meant
for wide flight ere long are rapidly un-
folding, and the courage soon to be es-
sential is manifesting itself in the feeling
of pride and dignity which makes our boy
long to go and come as he pleases, and
our girl to make her own engagements
and decide upon her own affairs. This
looks alarming, but, after all, it is no
great matter, for what the children really
crave now is liberty to exercise their own
Judgment. 1t would be most inju-
dicious TO draw the lines closer when
youthful high spirits begin to pull upon
them. Liberty is to be retarded only for
a year or so at the most, and for every
restraint imposed there will be a CORE
spending excess. 1t is well known that
some of the widest youths, the friskiest
young women, were kept down to a strict
regimen as long as parental oversight
lasted. They came to regard restraint,
even when kindly meant, as an evil, to
like their own way just for its own sake;
and the result is anything but pleasant
when young persons with unframed wills
and judgment are turned loose upon the
community. If they are not willful they
are weak; and accustomed to yield to
stronger minds, they become the prey of
INSCRIPTIONS leaders"
In the September Ladies Home Jour-
nal' Edward w. Box notes the abuse of
the pretty custom of casting a small par
eel of rice or a dainty slipper after a de-
parting bride and groom-an unspoken
Godspeed. 1.-THE dainty slipper" he also
saws. .has been transformed into an old
shoe of doubtful origin, and thrown with
foroo and accuracy causing no end nf