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22 chapters
ADVERTISEMENTS.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
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HOME AMUSEMENTS. I. PREFATORY.
HOME AMUSEMENTS. I. PREFATORY.
Goethe, in “Wilhelm Meister,” struck the key-note of the universal underlying dramatic instinct. The boy begins to play the drama of life with his puppets, and afterward exploits the wild dreams of youth in the company of the strolling players. We are, indeed, all actors. We all know how early the strutting soldier-instinct crops out, and how soon the little girl assumes the cares of the amateur nursery. We begin early to play at living, until Life becomes too strong for us, and, seizing us in m
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II. THE GARRET.
II. THE GARRET.
Happy the children who have inherited a garret! We mean the good old country garret, wherein have been stowed away the accumulations of many generations of careful housewives. The more worthless these accumulations, the better for the children. An old aunt who saved all the old bonnets, an old uncle who had a wardrobe of cast-off garments to which he had appended the legend, “Too poor to wear, too good to give away—” these are the purveyors to the histrionic talents of nations yet unborn. Old ga
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III. PRIVATE THEATRICALS; ACTING PROVERBS AND CHARADES.
III. PRIVATE THEATRICALS; ACTING PROVERBS AND CHARADES.
Wherever the amateur actor pitches his tent or erects his stage, he must consider wisely the extraneous space behind the acting arena necessary for his exits and entrances, and his theatrical properties. In an ordinary house the back parlor, with two doors opening into the dining-room, makes an ideal theatre; for the exits can be masked, and the space is specially useful. One door opening into a large hall is absolutely necessary, if no better arrangement can be made. The best stage is, of cours
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IV. TABLEAUX VIVANTS.
IV. TABLEAUX VIVANTS.
We now come to one of the most artistic of all Home Amusements—the Tableau vivant . Lady Hamilton amused the people of her age, all over Europe, by playing in a parlor very striking living pictures. All she asked was a corner of the room, a heavy curtain behind her, and a few shawls and turbans. Being a beautiful and graceful woman, with the dramatic instinct, she gave imitations of celebrated statues and pictures, and was no doubt aided by some very ingenious painting, which she knew how to app
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“AFTER BYRON, WITH A POKER; ALSO AFTER DRINKING FLIP.
“AFTER BYRON, WITH A POKER; ALSO AFTER DRINKING FLIP.
To this class of Home Amusements belongs also the famous game of “Twenty Questions,” which was played so much at one time by the Cambridge professors that they declared that any subject should be reached in ten questions. The proper formula for this very intellectual game is this: Two parties are formed, the questioners and the answerers, the first having the privilege, after the word has been chosen, to inquire— “Is your subject animal, vegetable, or mineral?” “What is its size?” “To what age d
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VI. FORTUNE-TELLING.
VI. FORTUNE-TELLING.
We now come to that game which interests old and young. None are so apathetic but that they relish a look behind the dark curtain. The apple-paring in the fire, the roasted chestnut and the raisin, the fire-back and the stars, have been interrogated since time began. The pack of cards, the tea-cup, the dream-book, the board with the mystic numbers, and the Bible and Key, have been consulted from time immemorial. The makers of games have given in their statistics, and they declare that there are
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VII. AMUSEMENTS FOR A RAINY DAY.
VII. AMUSEMENTS FOR A RAINY DAY.
It may seem an impeachment of the taste of our readers to have lingered so long on the lesser lights of games and fortune-telling as “Home Amusements,” when we have before us the great world of decorative art: æsthetic embroidery, dinner-card designing, china painting, the making of screens, and the thousand and one devices by which the modern family can amuse itself. The making of screens is an amusement which occupies the whole family most profitably for a rainy day, even if it is to be only t
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VIII. EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS.
VIII. EMBROIDERY AND OTHER DECORATIVE ARTS.
Let us return to our three legitimate decorations—our fan-painting, our screen-painting, and our embroideries. Of Embroidery the world is full, and at its best estate. The foolish old German wool-worsted work has gone out, and in its place we have the very elaborate church needle-work of the Middle Ages, and, better still, its tapestry. Some ingenious lady discovered that a plain piece of carpet made a very good background for a rich curtain, after a few stitches of embroidery were added; and it
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IX. ETCHING.
IX. ETCHING.
“Good etching is the poetry of drawing, written down rapidly in short-hand.” No doubt many a very orderly mamma, who has had a son or daughter afflicted with a mania for etching, as so many young people are now, has a vision of bath-tubs misappropriated to mixtures of what looked very unlike clear water for cleansing purposes, and which turned out to have plates of copper inside waiting for a bite of acid. Such mammas will blame us for calling this a Home Amusement; they call it—it is to be fear
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X. LAWN TENNIS.
X. LAWN TENNIS.
And now we come to what, perhaps, our readers may imagine we might have come to before—the out-of-door Games and Amusements which radiate from Home. Lawn Tennis is so preëminently the game of the present moment that we must give it a central place in our volume. It has great antiquity, of course. What fashionable game has not? Did not Agrippina play at croquet, and Cleopatra institute “Les Graces”? We know that Diana started archery, for isn’t she always drawn with a bow? And yet she died an old
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XI. GARDEN PARTIES.
XI. GARDEN PARTIES.
A Garden Party is a scene of enchantment, to which the lawn-tennis net lends an additional grace and variety. A lady, living near a city, who chooses to inaugurate the season with a garden party, sends her invitations a week in advance, and carefully incloses a card telling her guests by what roads, railway trains, and boats she may be reached. There must be no confusion or lack of carriages at the end of the route. This hospitality must cover everything. If the weather is fine and the distance
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XII. DANCING.
XII. DANCING.
Dancing is so well known to all young people as a Home Amusement that it seems perhaps banale to describe it. A glance at the dances now fashionable may, however, not be out of place. From the Virginia Reel to the German Cotillon is indeed a bound. Our grandfathers were taught to dance the Pirouette, the delicate Pigeon-wing—indeed, all the paces of the dance such as it was when Vestris bounded before Louis XVI. When commanded to dance before him, the dancer loftily replied: “The House of Vestri
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XIII. GARDENS AND FLOWER-STANDS.
XIII. GARDENS AND FLOWER-STANDS.
The making of gardens is decidedly and judiciously conceded to be a Home Amusement, and it is a pity that the new fashion of bedding-out plants, which is so beautiful in our public parks and in the pleasure grounds of the rich, should have seemed to so utterly do away with a taste for the old-fashioned gardens of early English poetry—of Miss Mitford, of every sweet New England dame of the early days, who had her garden, with its “pretty posies,” and its bed of sweet marjoram, lavender, and sage.
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XIV. CAGED BIRDS AND AVIARIES.
XIV. CAGED BIRDS AND AVIARIES.
From flowers to birds is a natural transition, and we enter upon that part of Home Amusement which centers around a cage of singing-birds. It is a dreadful thing to snare and to imprison an innocent bird; therefore we begin with that bird which seems to take most kindly to captivity—the canary. Travelers tell us that this yellow darling has gray plumage at home; but as we know them they are generally yellow, white, green, or brown. Climate, food, and intermixture of breeds has, no doubt, to do w
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XV. PICNICS.
XV. PICNICS.
Perhaps it is not well to class among Home Amusements a series of entertainments which imply, at first sight, the getting away from home. But, as the basket of luncheon has to be packed at home, and the best part of a picnic is the getting home again, we must be permitted a divergence. It is curious to see how emphatically fond of picnics the Americans are. A universal national hunger seems to seize the tired cit as the first warm day of May beams upon us. They “babble of green fields.” Best of
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XVI. PLAYING WITH FIRE. CERAMICS.
XVI. PLAYING WITH FIRE. CERAMICS.
Now let us ascend from these trivialities to the consideration of the great subject which has been more talked of and dabbled in for the last seven years than any accomplishment ever was, before or since. The splendid display of Ceramic Art at our great Exposition of 1876 no doubt had its share in creating that intense interest in the subject which has been felt everywhere. How it came into the category of Home Amusements we hardly know, unless the art schools stimulated the pursuit. But now we
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XVII. ARCHERY.
XVII. ARCHERY.
Fashion has again brought round as one of the Home Amusements this pretty and romantic pastime, which has filled the early ballads with many a picturesque figure. Now on many a lawn may be seen the target and the group in Lincoln green. Indeed, it looks as if Archery were to prove a very formidable rival to Lawn Tennis. The requirements of Archery are these: First, a bow; secondly, arrows; thirdly, a quiver, pouch, and belt; fourthly, a grease-pot, an arm-guard or brace, a shooting glove, a targ
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XVIII. AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MIDDLE-AGED AND THE AGED.
XVIII. AMUSEMENTS FOR THE MIDDLE-AGED AND THE AGED.
We can not but notice, as people go on in life—when, as Lord Mansfield said, “The absence of pain is pleasure, just as in youth the absence of pleasure is pain”—that the quiet corner by the fire, or the seat at the library-table with the shaded lamp, and a quiet game or two when reading has fatigued the eyes, becomes almost necessary. Of all the means of cheating a succession of dull evenings of their tedium, perhaps that little invention called a “Solitaire” board—which is simply a board pierce
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XIX. THE PARLOR.
XIX. THE PARLOR.
That is a poorly-furnished parlor, think some people, which has not a chess-table in one corner, a whist-table in the middle, and a little solitaire-table at the other end near the fire, for grandma. People who are fond of games stock their table drawers with cribbage boards and backgammon, cards of every variety, bézique counters and packs, and the red and white champions of the hard-fought battlefield of chess. Mrs. Frances Anne Kemble, one of the most gifted of women—whose recollections would
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XX. THE KITCHEN.
XX. THE KITCHEN.
We began at the garret, and we are now at the kitchen. So our readers may learn that we are on the home-stretch, and shall be through very soon. If we have wearied them, let them bear with us but a little longer, and then, on our faithful steed, whom they shall find at the kitchen door, they shall ride off and never be troubled with us any more. A model kitchen is every housekeeper’s delight. In these days of tiles and modern improvement, what pretty things kitchens are! The modern dairy, with i
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XXI. THE FAMILY HORSE, AND OTHER PETS.
XXI. THE FAMILY HORSE, AND OTHER PETS.
Standing at the kitchen door, all ready for the most timorous to drive, is the most important minister to the Home Amusements—the family horse. He is a beast of burden, no doubt. There is but little Arab steed left in him, if, indeed, there ever was much. He is a plodder, a patient, much put-upon beast. The boys can harness him, the girls can drive him. He is allowed to take out grandma—when she consents to be driven, and isn’t afraid of the railroad train, and does not think that it is going to
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