The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-12-23
WHERE DOES THE CHRISTMAS CARD GROW?
The Makers of Holiday Pasteboard Greetings Enemies
OF the Gift Givng-Aborn Grand Opera
Company Sings in English.
~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

~ ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
Where Is the Christmas-card factory
located?
cluded spot to avoid the dynamiting il
knows 1t richly deserves.
Everywhere you see disheveled per
sons. with wildly rolling eyes, dartint
thither and yOn on the still hunt fol
an attractive Christmas-card.
Disgustedly they burrow through
the piles OF velvet roses moored to q
postcard background, bloody sunse
landscapes peeping through an am
bush of supposed holly, floral atrocitie.
wreathing the sort of sweet girl face
seen at the burlesque, mystic charac
ters in rainbow hues surrounding 6
Sunday school aphorism, and Other
pictorial and typographical night
mares.
II you find a card half way toler
able, it's sentiment is SO banal anC
Teeking that you give it up.
II you find wording that is apro
pos. its decorative aspect sets YOU
teeth on edge.
There is a microscopic minority Of
cards both good to look at and appro
pirate in sentiment-but they are
often prohibitive in price-that is, il
you want to send out lot.
For it is the postcard, the one an(
two center, which is the worst. AnC
many and tracked with the most unre
1enting vigor.
Sometimes the so-called "artistic'
card Is as cabalistic as the plebian one
Is Grass.
few seasons ago one was current
which represented some scene in the
arts and crafts country far away. one
particularly long leafed plant rearing
its length slantwise till it's top was
Preached, then, with sudden and dis
concerting bend, slumping down into
more than giraffe drinking out OF
Its native bog.
This may have been artful but not
:crafty.
What, also. has become of the celc
DRAFTED arts and crafts.
Shops" with weird sgn-posts
sprang up as mushrooms all over the
land few years since, and every
body was engaged in making things
with the hands.
A chair wasn't worth a whoop that
had no nails in it.
II nails were driven in it wasn't a
Handmade" chair.
1t was scorned of the art and crafty
If it wasn't joined in some occult man
ner otherwise. II you ventured to
remark that nails couldn't be driven
in without the use of the hands you
were derided.
You were referred to Gustav Stick.
ley.
Gustav, editor Of 1.-The Craftsman
whose slogan was ever
Lead the higher life and buy my
furniture"
1t wasn't printed that way, to be
sure. but this was the irresistible con.
clusion forced upon the cleaner Of his
magazine pages.
Just because things are hand.
made it doesn't necessarily mean
that they are artistic" Nor if they
are machine made that they are artis.
tically worthless.
The truth is that there is a great
mess Of the Handmade" that should
be banished to the brush-heap and
the wood-pile to say nothing of the
imerry junk-man's chaise.
! People, lots of 'em, don't really
think its pretty.
They think it's frankly ugly but are
afraid to say SO.
| Therefore they rave over dun-color.
! ed pots that they wouldn't. under or.
Urinary circumstances, keep, in the eel
liar rs q recepticle tor lard, and
strange looking objects whose use is
lost in vagueness and whose orna.
Pmentation is not only negligible but
pon.existent.
Jugs and pots and kettles are for the
kitchen. not the parlor. whether hand.
made or q product of the factory.
There are certain ornamental values to
he maintained in house-furnishing.
because a thing looks rusty, jagged
land axe.chopped. it does not follow
that it Is fit object for the drawing.
room cabinet even IL it was made
with the hands"
Handmade" things are only beauti-
full and Of superior artistic merit
when produced by artists.
Wonderful. marvellous and exquisite
ny beautiful jewelry and objets dart
were the Handmade" product of