The times., 1899-04-09
how TO CHOOSE
an ORIENTAL RUG
If You Are Rich You Don't
Need to Read This.
Purchasers With Moderate Incomes
Will Find 1t Helpful.
Rugs Are Cheaper Than Carpct-,
More stylish. and Last
Lifetime.

| The easiest way to get a rug TO suit you
IL you have the money-is to go out and
buy one, without heed to the cost 1t isn't
the usual way. but eminently satisfactory
to those lucky enough to be able to humor
their whims. When you have to consider
dollars and cents the choosing OF a rug be-
comes serious undertaking that is not
to be trified with in any shape or way
| Take, for instance, the case of Miss De
Flat, who gives her experience in the
Fort Worth Register" She was one OF a
! family who lived in house with polished
| floors and who decided to partially coat
| them over with Oriental rugs and furs
rather than hide them entirely with car
pets. The young woman was intrusted
with the family purse and started out on
mission for an upper room, and in case
OF failure it was decided that she was TO
consider herself failure and the response
bility of purchasing the remainder Of the
rugs was to be endowed on younger sis
ter. So she started out.
| Her first efforts were among the second
rate stores. She thought that the great
carpet and art stores would be too expen-
/! sive. In the first store she invaded a fire
sale was going On-that is, an alleged fre
sale. Miss De Flat quickly decided from
the style of business which the lively mer-
chants were carrying on that the only sort
OF fire with which the sale was allied was
the prospective fire and birthstone TO which
| some OF their enormous fakes made them
eligible.
| Next door she found another shop, but
she was merely stepping out of the fire
| into the frying pan, for the Machiavelian
system OF trading going on there was only
grade above that OF the fire sale.
In eha ha otttHs Of
woman artist with whom she had some ac-
quaintance. She took 1t for granted that
4 the woman artist knew about rugs. be-
cause she had so many of them in her
ninth-story den.
| And she did know.
| Bless you said the lady of palettes
! and paints as she put the last artistic touch
to the halo OF a purple angel, there's
nothing enjoy better than hunt through
| the shops for rugs, especially when don't
have TO pay the bill See that beautiful
Iran in the corner? Real eamels hair. you
know! Aunt Angelina sent me the price
| of new gown as present and added
| little to it, fixed over last seasons shirt
waist and skirt and got that beauty. I'm
| glad you are taking TO rugs. They are
cheaper than carpets. anyway For in
stance good brussels or marquette car
| pet would cost you all told s10o to $3.50.
very fair rug can be bought for $50 or
s15 and will last lifetime. Rugs wear a
| lot better than carpets ever do because
they are not tackled down. II rugs were
stretched out and tackled upon the floor,
| they, too. would wear badly. The stretch
| ing makes the carpet offer the same taut
surface to be trodden upon instead OF slid
ing about so that all parts of the material
are equally worn. Besides. il is very easy
to repair or have repaired tear or worn
place In rug At the frst-class shops
they can take the rug and weave in a new
piece, so that the rug is quite as good
as new-in fact, better. for time tones down
the colors into more artistic shades and
shadows.
Why. bless you. in the East merchants
go about like the genii in the Arabian
Nights crying old (rugsl for new! These
merchants get the old rugs cheap and fix
them up. Clean them? Oh. what a Phil
istine you arei No They only darn Up the
rents and weave in a bit here or there
where they are worn Why, don't you know
artists are Just crazy to- get those old
rugs whose shades have been mellowed by
time? Why. I've bought a lovely Persian
rug for IS that was worth $50 merely be-
cause 1t was not new and damaged. Yes,
got most of my rugs that way
Oh, OF course, one must be an expert to
know how TO buy rugs that way. How do
| tell the real rugs from the limitations
so cleverly manufactured in this country?
bS Nhc " Dc sure Inc W NeSteTn
world has not the color secrets of the East
They dye their rugs with aniline dyes,
while the Fasteners use vegetable dyes.
You can tell the imitation from the real
by taking the material between the fingers
and trying whether the color will come Off
II it does come OF. the rug is an imitation
and should be Stunned. because the colors
will fade or rub off. The colors of the real
Oriental rug never fade
Il suppose you have noticed the beau
tiful gloss on some of the best oriental
rugs. The homemade rug never has IT,
No freeborn American would take off his
shoes and stockings as the Oriental does
and tramp the pile of the rug down with
perspiring feet. 1t is the perspiration and
the pressing that are to be thanked for
the gloss
"Oh. save me from glossy rugs" ex-
claimed Miss De Flat. Mother would not
have one of the nasty things in the house,"
"Pshaw," commented the studio young
woman, with all an artists contempt for
the scruples and qualms of the Philistine.
The rugs at an exhibition included mar
velous rugs in which were woven coup.ets
and quatrains from Sadi. from Omar Khay-
yam, and from all the favorite poets of the
Persians Stories from the Arabian
Nights" were pictured on other rugs and
whole tales from the mythology OF Persia.
One rug. in the centre of which was woven
picture OF the virgin ana tne enid, the
Virgin with pale green hair against a ro-
seate background. and the Child clad in
blue froek. had been woven to commem-
crate the escape of the weayers from a
fierce man eating tiger. They happened
to be native Christians. On the border of
the rug, which was bright blue, the ef-
forts of the tiger TO make a meal of the
industrious Orientals was feelingly pic
tured. In another rug of Kirmian was
woven the history of twelve rulers of the
province. This rug was an immense affair.
and was doubtless intended to adorn the
palace OF their successors. That the sue
cessors had no room for any praise but
their own was shown by the fact that after
a hundred years the rug had been disposed
of to the Christians by an old junk man.
And the rug that Miss De Flat bought in
this soulful and interesting shop, Well. it
had subdued ground of red and was done
in .geometrical design in rather conven-
tional colors. She paid S75 for 1t. and when
the De Flats calculated that it would last
a lifetime the gargain was obvious TO even
their intelligences.
To Clean Leather Belts.
Leather belts are worn on numerous oe-