Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1903-02-27
A sIcNBoARD DISPLAY.
Curious Exhibition Made at Paris
competitive Designs offered.

imuse Paris, says London Truth. This
exhibition has been got up by NJ. De-
taille, who is tired, he protests, of the
uniformity Of modern Paris, and i'm
AGNES that if shopkeepers could be
induced TO hang out signs, as an
former times, there would be less
cause for complaint Would there?
We have already Part de l'afiche,
which IS charming when reduced to
the proportions Of the quarto volume,
but frightful when spread out 10 che
size Of American placards on board
ings.
The old-fashioned signboard arose
out Of the general conditions Of the
time in which it fourished. If one
then sent a servant fresh from the
country on an errand to NJ. Dupont,
the silk mercer, or 10 Mile. Mallarmee,
the modiste, in such or such a street,
the messenger could not find the
shop because unable to read; but if
the mistress said: Go to the sign of
la Belle Arlesienne,'" or TO that of
''le Chapeau Fleuri," there would be
ne danger Of not being able 10 deliver
the message
Only persons of good means knew
how to read and write, though in
Paris schools Of design were so nu-
merous that nearly all the working
class people,knew how to draw, and to
draw well. The milliner's assistant
could sketch the head of a lady set
ting up to fashion with hat or bon
net placed on it such as the former
proposed TO furnish 1t was Of the
greatest importance to make clever
sketches Of this kind. The French are
still visual people, but must have
been so to an extraordinary degree
in the eighteenth century. What
spoke to the eyes carried away gentle
and simple, but especially the latter.
Signboards to accomplish the OBJ
jects Of those who hung them out had
to catch the eye and hold it, to be SIM
pie, clear, striking and to answer ex-
actly to their names. There could
be no mistake about belle mar
chande de poisson, or a la peche mi
raculeuse, or lie carpe ct lie lapin, or la
Gle dor, or Rours blanc, or lie renard ct
la poule. Houses in front of which
the pictorial signs swung seldom rose
higher than first floor and an attic.
The ground was low, the streets were
narrow, and had bends which greatly
added to their picturesqueness, and if
the houses devoted to commercial
purposes were often mean-looking,
their great variety gave them kind
of charm which the signboard en-
HANGED
The eye is now surfeited with Part
de faffiehe, Illuminated advertise
ments, advertising vanishing pic
lures, advertisement vans, and pla-
cards, to take in a sign of old-fash-
Toned proportions and character. The
three best at the Hotel de Vile ex-
hibition would, if hung out over shop
doors, be scarcely noticed. They are:
eau Fin Gourmet" by Trucet; "a
Pane Rouge" by Willette, and 90
PIT Cien," by Gerome eau Petit
Mousquetaire," by Detaille, is too
complex, too subtle, too overladen
with details. The eye has to take in
rose bushes, a stone vase and a stone
balustrade, on which the Petit Nous
quetaire is seated in a coquettish at
titude. 1t has to take in the white
outspread wings that, sprouting from
his shoulders, form a background.
and the tree behind them. Nothing
hits the eye OF amuses. eau Fin
Gourmet" on the other hand, strikes,
is easy to remember, and is very anus
ing. We see a flock of white geese
that have just come to a copper
stewpan. The utensils excite the Gu
riosity of some, alarms others, and
gives rise to an anserous conclave,
There is an intuitiye idea among
them that it is their fate to be stewed
in that saucepan which is funnily
conveyed" The Red Donkey" is mere
| ly a donkey's head looking out
through round aperture and bray
ing. 80 PIT Glen" represents dear
little white dog that represents the
image of misery as il fait lie beau, or
''begs." a pair of spring eyeglasses
are over the dogs head. This sign is
for an opticians shop.
Spiders and Wasps.