Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-10
WALL DECORATIONS
Indian Finery is Just Now
the Rage.
EVERY SORT OF ARTICLE
BLANKETS, TOTEM POLES AND
MOCCASINS
Make the Gayest Fixing for the Den
of the Head of tho
House.


Written for The Evening Star.
Each succeeding season witnesses new
impetus in the fad for decorating rooms
with Indian ornaments, weapons and uten-
sis of and beauty. Nearly everything
Indian is considered decorative by the per-
son affected with the craze for collecting
objects made by the American aboriSines.
The most innocuous- looking individual will
brighten her best friend nearly into fits by
ushering her into a room from whose walls
Indian medicine masks grin or scowl gro
tesquely. Nor are these always innocent
of a scalplock taken in ways best left to
the ina gina lion.
The fad for Indian decorations began
in sumptuous log cabins in mountain
sorts, where splendidly coored blankets of
great thickness and infinite warmth fur
nish vivid contrast to the rich bark-covered
walls and polished floors. In these camps
a Winnebago curtain drapes an ample door
way, an lioquo.s blanket stains Inc wall
with brilliant. color. and one of Navajo
weave conceals a couch. No effort is made
to contine Indian decorations to objects
made by any tribal family. pair of
Apache bead mcccISins hangs next to
Winnebago pipe bag, whose rich bead and
leather ornamentation contrasts, in turn,
with Choctaw waste basket, an Aztec clay
water jar and magnificent Haidd hat or
basket and an Eskimo totem pole from
ALASKA.
To Americans, ignorant for the most part
of Indian signs and superstitions, this
tumble of Indian decorations is truly de-
lightful Those who have learned the
beauty and decorative value of Indian
works of art on the Pacific slope. in the
luxurious summer cabins of millionares in
the AdirOndacks, have brought their newly
acquired tastes for ornamental wooden
pipes, bead jackets and head ornaments,
gorgeous bead and leather regalia and pc
turesque Announcements of war and the
chase back with them to city walls. They
have made Indian shrines of their "dens,"
their halls and their smoking rooms
Plenty of Variety.
This fancy for Indian decorations has
grown to such an extent that whereas two
or three years ago these attractive objects
could only be picked up here and there,
every shop of Importance now has de-
partment set aside for the sale of Indian
wares. Shops devoted to them exclusively
are literally patroniZed.
During the rush season, when women
swarm into the shops to buy whatever
strikes the eye by way of a useful present
for their loved ones, the Indian department
of one shop employs Indian clerk.
Around him the women gather. refusing the
services of other clerks, and hanging upon
his explanations of the curiosities he han
dies.
No American shirt could be said to have
decorative qualities upon anything but a
clothesline in a picture, but a Sioux shirt.
on the contrary, with its eXQuiSitcly worked
bead designs upon finely dressed buckskin
is highly decorative. Apache decorations
wrought in beads of many colors, for wear
on a chiefs back or his squaw's waist add
much to the beauty of a wall.
Pipes of Peace.
Every one who pretends to collect Indian
ornaments has peace pipes, leather pieces
painted with Indian heads. birch bark and
basket umbrella and golfstck holders gaily
adorned quivers of many kinds mats bowls
and baskets. But few possess whole otter
skins, decorated down the sides with five
round-looking glasses as large as the palm
of the hand: whole buckskn suits magnifi-
Gently embroidered in beads. or the rare
and exquisite work of the Haida Indians Of
the Pacific coast of Alaska.
They Come High.
Navajo baskets, and those made by the
sixty odd tribes of Indians of the southwest
are Immensely popular. even when their
cost runs over 500. The old ones are prac-
tically indestructibIe.
One New York matron who secured sew
eral rare water baskets and Jars from Cali
fornia planned to give her friends great
surprise at n afternoon funct.o on by serving
punch in them. When the guests began TO
arrive, the beautiful baskets with their
legends woven in rich shades of brown
We're ostentatiously displayed and greatly
admired. When the punch was brought
forth and poured into them it Immediate
distributed itself upon everything within
reach, greatly to the chagrin of the d'sap-
pointed hostess. She had not considered
that her baskets had not been put to their
natural uses for many years, and REQUIRED
special treatment to make them water
tight once more.
EN1of brio h,,A
shallow, richly wrought grain bowls of the
Pueblos and Navajos, together with queer
fan decorations. are particular admired
as wall ornaments. Most of the large bead
embroidered shirts and quivers are used az
bags, into which are dropped golf sticks,
fishing tackle and other such articles. unless
they are considered too decorative for prac-
teal uses.
The Little Extras.
Crossed upon the walls may be found bril-
liantly stained Mexican hand-carved sticks
and feather-adorned arrows, and fancy
little bark paddles of pipes of many lengths
and colors.
Less decorative but perhaps more inter-
esting, the implements Of warfare
tomahawks and hatchets; heavy, uneven
balls of stone held firmly in rawhide straps
and attached to plated rawhide handles;
ne-headed arrows and strangely wrought
and carved sticks whose former uses were
as implements of death. These grim re-
minders of frontier massacres afford strik-
ing contrast to the gay hues in feather
headGress or an exquisite Winnebago bead
regalia once worn upon the head with its
long bead bands hanging down the sides of
the face and about the chest.
Upon the tables Of a properly furnished
Indian room are to be found gracefully
shaped and wonderfully tinted pieces Of In
dian pottery On the mantel shelf the pot
terry shares honors with rare totems of
greater or less ugliness, and with marvel
ously shaped and carved norm spoons,
which are as rare as they are beautiful.
Some of these spoons so large that the
beholder wonders whether the carver meas
ured their size by that of his appetite, and
at the same time he understands whence
comes the olden voyager's pet oath: by the
great horn spoon"
Coiffures of the Hour