The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-04-13
Continued from last week,

ionable dress, which completely masks
feminine personality under designs o.
pure convention, despoils it Of its pril-
cipal attraction. From this abuse il
comes about that many things which
women admire do as much wrong 10
their beauty as to the purses of their
husbands and fathers. What w3uid
you say of a young girl who expressed
her thoughts i'll terms very choice in
decd. but taken word for word from
phrase book: What charm could You
find in thi, borrowed language! The
effect of toilets we'll designed in them
selves. but seen again and again on
all women indiscriminatCly. is precise
ly the saGc
l cannot resist citing here a passage
from Camille Lemonnier that harmo-
nizes with my idea:
Mature has given to the fingers OF
woman charming art, which @ho
knows by instinct and which is perl,.
larly her own, as silk to the worm an
laccwork To the swift and subtle SD
der. She is the poet the Interpreter Of
her own grace and righteousness. the
spinner of the mystery in which he
wish to please arrays itself. All the
talent she eXpends in her effort TO equal
man in the other arts is never worth
the spirit and conception wrought OFT
through a bit of stuff in her skilIfu
hands
"Well, l wish that this art were more
oil, d
consist in thinking with ones mind.
feeling with ones heart. expressing the
little personalities of the iumOSt. inyiS-
ible (which, on the contrary. are
repressed, lcyeled down, by cont9"M.-
ty-I would that the young girl in he.
novitiatc of womanhood, the future
mother. might early become the little
exponent of this art of the toilet he
own dressmaker in short-she who or
day shall make the dresses Of her Oh -
dren. but with the taste ANA the G.Et
to improvise, to express herself in TIN.
masterpiece Of feminine persOnaiit;
and skill, gown, without which Il WO-
man is no more than Il bundle of rags.
The dress you have made for your
self is almost always the most he"O.l-
ing ana. however that may be, it is
the one that plcases you most Won
en- of leisure too often forget This,
working women also in city and c0aH-
try alike Since these last are COS
tumed by dressmakerS and millineYs
N very doubtful imitation of the mod
ish world. grace has almost diSapne9l-
cd from their dress. And has anythin"
more surely the gift to please than the
fresh apparition of Il young WORKING
y girl or a daughter of the fields Wearin
the costume of her country and beau
tiful from her simplicity alone:
These same reflections might be ap-
piled to the fashion of decorating and
arranging orr houses. If there are tot
lets which reveal an entire conceptions
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, I'M
der preteXt of decorating our homes,
do we destroy that personal character
which always has such value? WIZ
have our sleeping rooms conform to
those of hotels, our reception rooms to
waiting rooms, by making predomi-
nant Il uniform type of official beauty
What a pity to go through the
houses of a city. the cities of Il country
the countries of vast continent, and
encounter everywhere certain forms
identical, inevitable, exasperating by
their repetition! How aesthetics would
gain by more simplicity. Instead Of
this luxury in job lots, all these deco
rations. pretentiOus but vapid from
iteration. we should have an infinite
variety; happy improvisations would
strike our eyes, the unexpected i'll Il
thousand forms would rejoice our
hearts, and we should rediscover the
secret of impressing on Il drapery or
a piece of furniture that stamp of hu
man personality which makes certain
antiques priceless.
Let us pass at last to things simpler
still; mean the little details of house
keeping which many young people of
our day find so unpOetical. Their con
tempt for material things, for the hum
BILE cares a house demands. arises from
a confusion very common, but none III"
less unfortunate, which comes from
the belief that beauty and poetry are
within some things, while others larU
them that some occupations are dis
tinguished and agreeable. such as cu!ti-
waiting letters, playing the harp, az.
that others are mental and disagree
able, like backing shoes. sweeping AMI
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 that
moves 1t. Poetry is not in things; it
is in us. 1t must be impressed Oh OBJ
ects from without, as the sculptor inn
presses his dream on the marble. If
our life and our occupations remain
too often without charm in spite of any
outward distinction they may have it Is
because we have not known how to pat
anything 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 develop
ment of the truly feminine art of Civ
inp a aOuI tn tbinOS which havn nni,p