MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 137 



hardly to be procured even at fabulous prices ; and the females who were 

 reproached with extravagance in dress and ornaments, retorted on their 

 husbands with the prices which their lords had paid for tables of citrus-wood. 

 Cicero gave the sum of a million of sesterces, equal to 250,000 francs, or 

 10,000, for one of them, and still larger prices are cited by Pliny, especially 

 for one table which had belonged to the Moorish king, Juba. The root, with 

 its knots, afforded the most prized portions ; and though it was generally used 

 for inlaying and veneering, the Emperor Commodus possessed also vases and 

 cups made of it. 



The peculiar qualities of this wood explain its value and fashion. None is 

 so full of spots, satiny luster, and variegated veins; it takes a lovely and per- 

 fect polish, and the hues pass from deep fiery red to those of the pinkest 

 mahoganj-; and these tints are permanent, not fading like rosewood, or 

 becoming black like mahogany. It combines so many elegant qualities, that 

 the Parisian cabinet-makers unanimously prefer the Thuja wood to every 

 other. 



The London Athenaeum, in commenting on the Great Industrial Exhibition 

 of Paiis, makes the following suggestive remarks in reference to the great 

 artistic effect so carefully studied in every production by the French people. 



" It would appear to many people that Art in France has been here culti- 

 vated, not in aid of, but at the expense of, all the solid qualities of manufac- 

 turing industry. In their haste to print the pattern they have neglected the 

 modest office of the loom. In their admiration of a brilliant dye they have 

 forgotten the uses of a solid thread. "We are told their furniture is splendid 

 with golden trellice-work, marvelous for the rich grouping of costly materials; 

 but as yet no Paris door swings fairly upon its hinges. In cotton cloth they 

 can not approach the inartistic genius of Manchester. English steel defies 

 the competition of the first Gallic manufacturers. We are reminded that we 

 might even carry the distinction from the salon where glows the furniture of 

 Jeauselme to the kitchen wherein the disciples of Brillat de Savarin preside. 

 Light as air daring to rashness gorgeous, till the eye aches and is fatigued 

 is the style of Art at which France has arrived in her workshops. The 

 draughtsman here knows no bounds. All that floats to the surface of his 

 brain goes direct, without a second thought, to the tip of his pencil. He 

 wants a handle to the jug upon which he is engaged : two crocodiles, one 

 with its hind-quarters in the ample jaws of the other, are not too formidable 

 for his purpose. A tailor gives him an order : the Obelisk of Luxor becomes 

 a stripe down the leg of a pair of trowsers. Hieroglyphics tell upon flounces. 

 Coins that would enrich any museum, are effectively strung together for a 

 lady's hair. A stack of arms, with Napoleon in a contemplative attitude 

 before them, are an apt combination for a tooth-pick stand. A chiffonier, 

 with his basket at his back and his lantern in his hand, stands in bronze, 

 with a load of lucifers behind and a spirit-burner in his lantern, at the con- 

 venience of the smoker. The marriage of the Emperor is not a composition 

 too complex for the embroiderer of shirt-fronts, as the reader may notice in 

 the French Gallery of the Universal Exhibition. Neither is the French 

 designer inconvenienced by 'Puritanic stays ;' as his designs, realized in sugar 



