Evening star., 1898-05-28
SHADOWS.
Their Display IL More Artistic Than
the Repetition of q Design.

s"C 0tP<tttIou q DESIGN.
From Golfers Weekly.
One OF several good reasons for lcavias
blank. unvexed. and unincumbered with
paper patterns. the ceiling and walls OF
simple house is that the plain surface may
DC visited by the unique designs OF shad-
ows. The opportunity is so fine a thing
that 1t ought oftener 10 be offered to the
light and 10 yonder handful OF long sedyes
and rushss in a vase. Their slender gray
eesign of shadows upon your white walls
Is better than a tedious trivial. or anxious
repetition Of diaper or flower in coIors
The shadow has all intricacies of per.
spective simply translated into line and in
tersecting curve and pictorially presented
IN the eyes. rot to the mind. The shad-
ow knows nothing except its fat designs
IL Is single: IL draws decoration that
ras never seen Lerore. and will never be
seen again. and that, untouched varies
with the journey OF the sun. shifts the m
terrelauon OF a score OF delicate lines at
the mere passing of time, though all the
room be motionless. There Is, after all.
a dreadful fixify in other drawings Why
Will art insist upon its importunate inn
mohiity? Wiser Is the drama and wiser
tne dance. that do not pause upon an al
tltude But these walk with passion or
pleasure. while the shadow walks with the
earth. IL alters as the hours wheel
Moreover. while the habit Of your sun
ward thoughts is still flowing southwsyd
after the winter and the spring il sur
Pr1ses you In the sudden g.eam Of a north
westerly sun. Ii Gecks a new wan. IL is
shcd Dy late sunset through a window
unVisited Tor a year past; il betrays the
hitting OF the sun into unwonted skies-a
sun that takes the midsummer world in the
rear. anu is able to alght on an unused
horizon So does the gray drawing with
which you have allowed tine sun and your
pot OF rushes to adorn your room play
the stealthy game of the year
But the luxury. the extravagance Of
shadows. Is for iamplight. With the ten
DER designs OF lamplight shadows YOU can
H Hake your plain room ready for q gala
night. III Is festival OF leaves and lines.
ana you can let your fancy go wild, as the
London hoIseholder's does IN the ordering
OF upholsteries of a more solid kind and
paintings out OF the exhibitions. You need
not stint yourself Of shadows for an oc-
caston.
These. too. the lamps cast upon your
ceiling. which the sun shadows leave un-
visited. And IL il the best field for this
manner of decoration. inasmuch as how
ever plain your surfaces may be, the CELL
ing is generally still the plainest These
two lamps make OF one palm-brancn a
symmetrical counterchange OF shadows
and here two palm-branches close with
ore another I'm shadow their arches flow
ing together. and their paler grays darSen-
Ing. 1t is hard to believe that there is an
enormous majority OF people who prefer a
repeating pattern.
In fact, IT is difficult to persuade a world
so persistently busy In the work of spoil
ing the simplicity Of surfaces that shadows
are in any sense a sufficient decoration.
Nay. II does not see them. II will speak
of blank wall. and apparently will see Il
as blank, even when the warm white is
hut the ground of wavering, various and
sensitive impression of shades. We are
often told that the artist should learn to
leave cut; but II would seem that il is the
absolutely unpictorial man who habitu-
ally leaves out. who is unaware of things
that would be conspicuous to a simple eye
but who has trick of seeing local color
for instance, without its thousand acct
dents of air. of climate and of light.
Nevertheless. one must grant to him that
a gray day robs of their decoration the
walls that should be sprinkled with shad-
ows. But why should not a plaque a
picture he kept for hanging on shadowless
days? To dress a room once for all, and
to give IL no more heed, is to neglect the
units OF the days.