The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-23

bough of balsam or a rose or a bit of fern is dipped into it. will emblam the plant, as it were, and preserve it for long time. The solution, of course, has to be mixed with a dye to preserve the color. Already one New York manufact- urer, who has flower store in Broad way, where every day people enter think ing his flowers are real has tried this solutions on plants that he used for the decoration of private houses, though it has not yet been tried on the stage The part of it is that the odor, at least of the fir tree, is preserved. He showed the other day a bough of New England fir, which had been embalmed more than a year ago, and it was still as fresh in fragrance as the day when it was picked, though the bottom of it. which, like Achil- les heel, had escaped immersion, was dried up and dead. A Christmas tree. so prepared, would last he sad, if 1t was treated carefully, a lifetime.
 This same store, which contains almost every flower imaginable, roses and wis., tarias and cherry blooms and violets, and the great red poinsettia blossoms, with their starlike petals and their yellow hearts. the coming Christmas flower, they say, besides oranges and apples and grapes and peaches does thriving bus mess in cut flowers. In the winter hun dred of punches of artificial violets are sold each week to women and one bunch will last all winter. There are roses made of a Japanese rice fibre, which are as soft to the touch almost as a real rose, and have a drop of altar -of-rose in their hearts to give them scent. These bring a good price, and are much in demand for table decoration Hundreds of little punches of flowers are sold, too. to the harness makers. who resell them for the adornment of the grooms and horses on tally-ho trips.
 For Farm Scenes in Ade Play.
 But a larger field is afforded by the big balls The decoration of a ball room with artificial flowers requires big staff of men and much labor. but any sort of an effect can be achieved. A Philip pine village was once made in Providence and at a recent ball given by a wealthy New York woman several hundred ca- naries concealed in small wooden cages behind a bank of foliage, sang merrily in tl;e trees while the guests moved be- heath. These canaries were rented from bird stores, and when the decorator came to remove them the next morning. he found that large number of them had been appropriated by the guests for sou venirs. He had to pay $3.50 for every bird that was lost.
 However, aside from the making of flowers for womens hats, which is an old and almost separate industry. the manufacture of artificial flowers for the stage will in all likelihood remain the chief branch of the business. The flower makers are busy this summer getting up the scenes which next winter will cause comment in the theatres.
 For instance. the new Ade play, '"The Bad Samaritan. which Mir. Savage will show in the fall is already in the hands of the flower men and the vegetable men, for in this case the big scenes are laid on a farm. The dominant feature of the landscape is going to be great fields of growing corn; partly on the stage, part lv painted into the distance on the hack drop, like the lettuce in Leah Klesehna." This corn has to be manu- factured to exactly resemble the real thing, and each stalk will be- lifesize. Then there are all sorts of garden veg etables to be made. and the grass, and the flowers of a farm door yard.
 And in the last act everything must be made over again, in exact replica Of the first set, only with every plant and bush changed to its autumn hues. and the corn cut down and piled into shocks. The labor on this play alone will keep many men and women busy all summer, and this is only one play out of many where artificial flowers and foliage will play an important part in helping to ere ate the illusion of life, which is one or the chief ends of the drama.