Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1884 — Bar-Room Decoration. [ARTICLE]

Bar-Room Decoration.

With the flaunting bar-room and its pictorial nudities, theatrically lighted up under gorgeons satin canopies, the critic has nothing to do, except, perhaps, lament that art should be degraded by such surroundings. But another class than bar-room habitues may be expected to visit the restaurant, and one asks himself; Is it possible that any person of taste can more than once dine here, amid these gaudy surroundings and beneath that pretentiously painted ceiling, with its flyingf V) allegorical figures, which look as if at any moment they might drop upon the banqueters ? There is nowhere repose Aor the eye. One might suppose that the veriest tyro would see that with the comparatively low wails of the room such a heavily colored ceiling decoration is absurdly out of place Apparently the picture is not badly executed; but it is hard to say, for at no point in the room, or out of it, can it be seen as a whole. With such decorative nightmares as this as a warning, we shall probably find before long that a reaction has set ih, and rich simplicity will characterize future decorations that may be made in the-best hotels. There was a time ia Europe when gentlemen wore gayly colored silks and satins and much gold lace; but when the sumptuary laws were repealed, and the common people affected similar costumes and made them ridiculous by their unconscious travesties on them, the gentlemen took to plain broadcloth and relegated their finery to their servants, who to thus day wear it as a livery. Ladies have ceased to load their dresses with meaningless headings, buttons, and upholstery fringe, since the cook and the house-maid, by imitating them in cheaper materials, have shown them how vulgar these silly gewgaws really were. In the same way, before long, it will become the fashion, I hope, for hotels and restaurants which do not cater for the custom of gamblers and the swell mob to so furnish and decorate their rooms that nothing shall offend the eye or the senses of a person of taste. —The Art Amateur. <