REPORTS. 



DEPARTMENT OE EANCY ARTICLES. 



The room for improvement is said to be the largest in the 

 world, but it is growing smaller every year, for the Marshfield 

 Agricultural Society. As we look at interior decorations of the 

 present day, or read descriptions of the houses of those who 

 wish to display their wealth, we wonder where this fashion will 

 atop, and if a re-action will take place, and the leaders of novel- 

 ties adopt the simplicity of other times, or the plain houses of 

 the Shaker Communities ; whose neatness we envy, whilst 

 raging war with our enemy — dirt. We certainly hope that this 

 fashioQ of making home attractive may not change, but the 

 beautiful and useful survive. How much pleasanter it is, to go 

 into a house where are pictures, decorated china, needle work 

 and flowers, than the " best room " described by the poet : 



" Bookless, pictureless. 

 Save the inevitable sampler hung 



Over the fireplace, or a mourning piece, 

 A green-haired woman, peony-cheeked, beneath 



Impossible willows." 



In the Department of Fancy Articles, we saw much that must 

 add to the beauty and comfort of the homes in this section of 

 the country. Mrs. F. V. R. Browne, of Hanover, exhibited a 

 gilt panel with the purple iris painted on it,— the flower whose 

 praises have been sung by Longfellow, as " Beautiful lily dwell- 



