1892.] ESSAYS. 135 



sanitary standpoint. It may be trenching upon the province of 

 the ladies for me to say a word about interior decoration, but 

 perhaps some of them would like to know what one of the un- 

 couth sex thinks of their art in house decoration. The markets 

 of to-day ai-e full of l)eautiful furniture and artistic furnishings 

 of all sorts, and housekeepers of good taste are able to make 

 their homes, as many of them do, beautiful and enchanting. 

 They succeed best who have a sense of the harmony of colors 

 and materials, a proper regard for comfort as well as effect, and 

 a love of simplicity surpassing their love for adornment. 



The tendency of the times is towards over-decoration and the 

 crowding of our houses with useless and inartistic bric-d-brac 

 and vulgar and meaningless knickknacks of every shape and 

 color. The trouble arises from the fact that most women think 

 they are blessed with the artistic instinct, and are natural-born 

 decorators and upholsterers. They accordingly are fond of 

 household art and enter with zeal into every new decorative 

 craze. They place screens where there is nothing to screen, 

 and lamps where they are not needed, furbelowed with flowers 

 and ruffles and shrouded with lace and ribbons. They cover 

 chairs with senseless bags and tidies, and tie up the arms and 

 legs of chairs with bows of ribbon. They scatter cushions of 

 every form and color everywhere, on window-stools, floors, 

 chairs and lounges, until a plain, old-fashioned man questions 

 whether there is any place left for him to sit without crush- 

 ing some so-called artistic creation of the mistress or her 

 friends. They exclude the daylight from their rooms by dress- 

 ing up the windows with curtains and draperies three or four 

 deep. They pile the tables, shelves and stands with vases, jars, 

 trays, pictures, photographs, shells, scarfs, books, bonbon boxes, 

 baskets, lamps, potted plants, statuary, painted dishes, sachet 

 bags and other vexatious trumpery until there is not room 

 enough left for a postal-card or a newspaper. They even bury 

 the picture and mirror-frames with fans, cards, photographs, 

 chromos, souvenirs, sashes, frills, frou-frou and the rag-tag and 

 bobtail of home decorations. It is self-evident to all sensib'e 

 persons that this craze for stufling and littering the house has 

 been carried to a ridiculous excess, and it is time for house- 



