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HOME DEPARTMENT. 



" Will you not have to draw on your imagination this year in 

 your report ?" This was an interrogatory to me at the Fair. 

 I replied b}' iiegation. The descry was made by masculine eye 

 which, at such times, encompasses with a sweep, and does not 

 pierce the penetralia. 



The steady decline of exhibits that offer but display of dim- 

 inutive skill, show how our taste is tending, though that effect 

 of mass and high color may be wanting. 



Never has our Fair held bits of finer sentiment than this 

 year. Mrs. Peters, of Pembroke, who embellished our tables 

 last year, again lent her talent — a needle picture on satin, in 

 black and gray. It was a night scene, of moon and star. The 

 radiance of pale Luna sheened still waters, and solemnly from 

 the edge of the land uprose a lonely spruce — weird and tall like 

 a spectre. The beholder realized a sense of awe as if in the 

 presence of the majesty of Nature. It delineated grandeur, 

 solitude and the witchery of the silvery splendor of the 

 empyrean. 



Miss Gifford, of Duxbury, had paintings on porcelain which 

 were studies. There were five, of diverse sentiment. One por- 

 trayed a castellated height, the sombre turrets and battlements 

 recalling the days of feudal barons, lordly and imperious. In 

 another, the frame and interior were blended, and separation 

 would mar the beauty of each. Plump little yellow-birds, with 



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