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FANCY ARTICLES. 



Committee.— Jabez Fisher, C. J. Billings, L. H. Bradford, John Upton, 

 Fttchburg, — Mrs. C. Wilder, Mrs. Artemas R. Smith, Mrs. E. Torrey, 

 Mrs. Stephen Shepley, Filchburg. 



The Committee on Fancy Articles, have attended to the 

 duty assigned to them, and herewith present their Report : 



In examining articles of this description, as must be well 

 known from the very nature of the case, a Committee can- 

 not avail themselves of all the agencies that may be em- 

 ployed in judging of the merits of those of a different char- 

 acter. They are to be governed in a great measure, in de- 

 termining upon the comparative merits of the productions of 

 the various competitors, by that same kind of taste which 

 was exercised and displayed by them in preparing the goods 

 for exhibition. 



It is an old saying, the truth of which we see exemplified 

 before us every day, that " tastes differ." For instance, 

 two men of equal means set about building, each for him- 

 self, a residence. The one constucts an upright, square, com- 

 pact house, with every thing about it symetrical. The oth- 

 er arranges his in such a manner that no two sides are equal, 

 and the whole shows a studied irregularity of form. The 

 one lays out his grounds in squares, parallelograms, circles, 

 and other geometrical figures, while the other carefully avoids 

 everything of the sort. None of his lines are straight, cir- 

 cular, or of any regular form, but he studiously endeavors 

 to give to everything what he calls an air of naturalness. 

 The one might have studied geometry in his younger days, 

 while the other, perhaps, exercised himself in landscape 

 drawing from nature. Be that as it may, the tastes of the 

 two certainly differ, and notwithstanding this disagreement 

 of opinion, each would have his admirers, who would stand 

 ready to condemn the taste of the other; while really, each, 

 perhaps, would be in equally good taste, and equally worthy 

 of imitation. 

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