S8 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Plaster statuary, we are told from reliable authority, gives lucra- 

 tive employment in our large cities, to those who are adept in geo- 

 metrical figures and drawing. Inventive talent finds a ready field 

 for exercise, while the study of architectural ornaments and books 

 is a great advantage to an expert with a pencil. Designers are em- 

 ployed in all glass companies, in carpet factories and calico mills. 

 In these departments a person of lively fancy and nice powers of 

 discrimination succeeds best. Gay, rich, dark colors are not suitable 

 for summer, nor light, delicate shades for winter. Designers of quick 

 perception originate the most tasteful dress goods. In the Report 

 of the Philadelphia School of Design it is stated that one of the 

 ladies of that school received S6o for a design for wall-paper ; they 

 seldom bring so much, however, the usual price being from ^12 to $20. 

 This is almost entirely monopolized by the French. One leading 

 manufactory gets its patterns from the School of Design in Paris, and 

 another New York firm pays a Frenchman ^1,000 a year, the same 

 man receiving $3,000 per annum for designing in another manufac- 

 tory. 



China decorators and porcelain painters are finding employment 

 in the United States, though for want of cultivated and imaginative 

 designers the European work still excels in beauty and elegance. 

 The porcelain of Japan is most durable, that of France most orna- 

 mental. The delicate lace-work in Dresden china is executed by 

 women. In all these departments the demand is not so much for 

 mere mechanical skill as for highly cultivated ideas and refined 

 tastes that give back their own image; as "Nature is the glass re- 

 flecting God." 



Fresco painting is becoming a steady employment in our larger 

 cities, and requires a wide range of culture, as well as a vivid con- 

 ception for the artist to become eminent in the profession. Land- 

 scape gardeners are loudly called for. These can only distinguish 

 themselves by being in harmony with nature and diversity of climate 

 — a field as vast as the globe, embracing a knowledge of both vege- 

 table and animal kingdom, without which most egregious blunders 

 ■ will occur. Mr. Demas " Ignoramus " paid a fabulous sum for one 

 of God's master-pieces on College Hill, Cincinnati. The creator 

 had terraced its slopes with His own hand, planted the red-bud and 

 hung the scarlet bitter-sweet, which are unsurpassed in beauty in 

 Ohio. Nothing was wanting, save a few statues of native, wild ani- 

 mals artistically interspersed, to keep the landscape intact. What 

 does the barbarian do, but order his gardener (a man of far more 

 culture than himself) to cut down his most valuable trees and fill up 

 the ravine to a dead level. 



