The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-25


moyitiate of womanhOod. the future
mother. might early become the little
exponent of this art OF the toilet, her
own cressmaker in short-she who one
day shall make the dresses of her chill
dren But with the taste and the gift
TO improvise, to express herself in that
masterpiece of feminine personality
and skill-a gown, without which a
woman is no more than "a bundle of
rags"
The dress YOU have made for your
self is almost always the most becom-
ing, and, however that may be, it is the
one that pleases you most Women Of
leisure too often forget this; working
women, also, in city and country alike
Since these last are costumed by dress
makers and milliners, in very doubtful
imitation of the mOdish world. grace
has almost disappeared from their
dress And has anything more surely
the gift to please than the fresh APP
partition of young working girl or
daughter of the fields. wearing the
costume Of her country, and beautiful
from her simplicity alone?
These same reflections might be APP
piled to the fashion of decorating and
arranging our houses. If there are toll
lettes which reveal an entire cOncep-
tiCn OF life, hats that are poems, knots
of ribbon that are Veritable works OF
art so there are interiors which after
their manner speak to the mind. Why
under pretext of decorating our homes,
do We destroy that personal character
which always has such value? Why
have our sleeping-rOOmS conform to
those of hotels, our ecepton-roomS
20 waiting-room by making predOmin-
ant q uniform type of official beauty: :
What a pity 10 go through the houses
of a city. the cities of a country the
countries Of a vast continent, and en-
counter everywhere certain forms,
identical inevitable. eXaSperating by
their repetition, How esthetics would
gain by more simplicity! Instead Of
this luxury in JOB lots, all these decora-
tiOns, pretensiOns but Vapid from tier
alton we should have an infinite Varl-
ct: happy improvisations would strike
our eyes. the unexpected in thousand
forms would rejoice our hearts, and we
should re-discoveT the secret of i'm
pressing on a drapeTy or piece OF fur
nituTe that stamp Of human personality
which makes certain antiques price
less.
Let US pass at last to things simpler
stnl, I mean the little details OF house
keeping which many young people of
our day ind so unpOetical- Their con-
tempt for material things for the hum
Bile cares 4 house demands. arises from
a confusion very common but none the
less unfortunate, which comes from the
belief that beauty and poetry are with
i'm some things. while others lack them;
that some occupations are distinguished
and agreeable. such as cultivating let
tiers. playing the harp: and that others
are mental and diSagreeable, like black
ing shoes, sweeping. and watching the
pot boil. Childish error! Neither harp
nor broom has anything TO do with it;
all depends on the hand in which they
rest and the spirit thef moves it, PO-
etTy is not i'm things. it is in Us, II
must be impressed on objects from
without. as the sculptor impresses his
dream on the marble. If our life and
our occupations remain too often with
out charm, in spite Of any outward dis
tinction they may have. Il is because
we have not known how to put any
thing into them. The height Of art is
to make the inert live. and TO tame the
savage. | would have our young girls
apply themselves to the development
Of the truly feminine art of giving
soul to things which have none. The tri-
umph of WOman's charm is in that
work Only "A woman knows how to
put into a home that. indefinable some
thing whose virtue has made the poet
say. THE housetop rejoices and Is
glad" They say their is no such thing
as fairies. or that there are ftiries no
longer but they know. not what they
say. The original of the fairies sung by
poets was found. and is still, among
those amiable mortals who knead bread
with energy. mend rents with cheer
fullness. nurse the sick with smiles put
witchery into a ribbon and genius into
a stew.
EFT is indisputable that the cui-
Il ture of the fine arts Mas
something refining about it. and
that our thoughts and acts are
in the end impregnated with
that which takes our eyes. But the
exercise of the arts and the contempla-
ton of their products is a restricted
privilege. 1t Is not given to everyone
TO possess, to comprehend or 10 create
fine things. Yet there is a kind of min
istering beauty which may make its
way eveTyWhere-the beauty which
springs from the hands Of our wives
and daughters. Without it. what is the
most richly decorated house? A dead
dwelling-piace. with il the barest
home has life and brightness. Among
the forces capable Of transforming the
viii and increasing happiness, there is
perhaps none in more universal use
than this beauty. IT knows how to
shape itself by means Of the crudest
tools, in the midst Of the greatest diff
fiCUities. When the DWELLING is
cramped, the purse limited, the table
modest, a woman who has the gift,
fines a way to make order, fitness and
convenience reign i'm her house. She
puts care and art into everything she
undertakes. To do well what she has
to do is not in her eyes the privilege of
the rich, but the rights OF all. That is
her aim, and she knows how to give her
home a dignity and an attractiveness
that the dwellings of princes If every
, thing is left TO mercenaries. cannot
possess.
Thus understood. life quickly shows
itse'f rich in hidden beauties i'm at
fractions and satisfactions close at
hand. To he ones self, TO realize In
ones natural place the kind of beauty
which is fitting there-ths is the ideal.
How the mission of woman broadens
and deepens in significance when. it is
summed up in this: to put soul into
the inanimate. and to give 10 this gra-
cioUs spirit Of things those subtle and
wi1somc outward manifestations to
which the most british of human be-
ingii is sensible. Is not this better than TO
coVet what one has not and 10 give
ones self up to longing for a poor imi-
tation of others finery
XII
PRIDE AND SIMPLICITY IN THE
INTERCOURSE OF MEN.
TT WOULD perhaps be difficult to
Il find a more convincing example
than pride to SHOW that the obstacles
10 a better. stronger. serener life are
rather in us than in circumstances.
The diversity. and more than that the
contrasts i'm social conditions give rise