860





The   Record  and   Guide.





March 19, 1887





as in times past it subserved the interests of priests, nobles and

kings.

.----------e--------—

Concerning Men and Things.

* **

There was quite a notable gathering at Mrs. Sargent's, at the " Albert"
on University place, on Sunday evening last, to hear Bronson Howard read
an essay on " How to Construct a Play." Among those who discussed the
topic subsequently wei-e Frank Stockton, Richard Stoddard, Louise Chand-
lier Moulton, Daniel Frohman, and a number of other well-known literary
people and theatrical managers. Curiously enough no reporfc was made of
this meeting, though the remarks as to how a play should be constructed
would have been eagerly read.

***

The evening edition of the Sun will be a well-written paper. Bufc if it is
to be successful it ought to eschew politics, and indeed all discussions
involving the expression of opinion. In the afternoon people wanfc news,
briefly and pointedly given. The morning Sun is wrong in aboufc every
position it takes. Its politics and general opinions belong to the beginning
and not to tbe close of the nineteenth century. Being a cheap penny paper
the evening Sun ought to show some sympathy with the working classes.
The morning Sun is out of all relations with that mosfc numerous class of
the community.   It antagonizes their aspirations all the time.

***

"Nero "is a magnificent spectacle, but it will never be popular as a
musical work. If the American National Opera Company wishes to advance
lyric art, why does ifc pa> so much attention to spectacle and tho ballet.
The lafcfcer cosfcs a great deal of money which surely would be better spent
on music rather than on the coryphees. Rubenstein is a great pianist and
is the author of many showy pieces of music, bufc he is nofc a Wagner nor a
Meyerbeer; indeed, ifc is plain he will never compose an opera which will
be popular, because of his lack of creative genius. But he would have been
pleased had lie seen the magnificent manner in which " Nero " was pufc
upon the stage in America. Why, by the way, does the management
change the bill ? The spectacle ought to have drawn seven or eight great
houses in succession.

* * *
The evening Leader, the labor organ, is wretchedly managed.   It has

three editorial writers and pay-t no attention to news; hence its readers get
essays instead of information. Then the foreign Socialists have more to
do with it than the English-speaking labor paople. No paper can succeed
that is run by a committee.

***

The Evening Post and Mail and Express make something of a feature
of European news. They mighfc anticipate our morning papers in almosfc
everything, as the business day in Europe closes before our aftei-noon
papers are published. The Evening Post correspondent is too sensational.
He tried to get up a war scare lasfc Tuesday, at a time when consols were
four rentes higher and grain weak. War talk is absurd unless the foreign
money markets show signs of grave disturbance. The holders of foreign
government securities know what is going on in the Cabinets of the various
nations long before the newspaper correspondents get wind of possible
warlike complications. A new evening paper of the right sort would pay,
for the News is a worthless sheet and the Telegram is published upon the
theory thafc newspaper readers prefer trash to good matter.

* ' i

The New York Lyceum Dramatic School gave its annual exhibition on
Wednesday afternoon last. People who are curious as to the methods of
the famous Conservatoire of Paris could thus get an idea of how histrionic
neophytes are drilled into becoming good dramatic artists. Franklin H.
Sargent, fche director of the school, shows how the young ladies and
gentlemen are trained in elocution, action, pantomime, posing and' the
expression of all the passions and emotions. There is an ignoranfc preju¬
dice among some old actors against any preliminary schools. They cliim
that the stage is the only training school, bufc the results in the way of
famous artists who had been educated id the Parisian Conservatoire, tells
an entirely different story. Preliminary instruction is of more value in
fhe dramatic art than in an.v of the professions, for every faculty of mind
and body is necessarily called into play on the part of those who aim to
personate a character or express an emotion on the stage. The New York
Dramatic School is as yefc too young to produce Rachels, Ristoris or
Salvinis, bufc in the few years of its existence it has already supplied quite
a number of very competenfc artists to the American boards. Next
Wednesday affcernoou, afc the Lyceum Theatre, the pupils of this dramatic
school will show what they can do in the way of acfcing. There will he a
variety of performances, fche mosfc notable of which will be one of Moliere's
most famous comedies—done into English, of course.

***
A book jusfc published, relating to the general subjecfc of invention, has,
for the heading of ifcs firsfc division, "The Marfcyrs of Invention," but that
class really includes almosfc all who have done earnest work in this line,
even of the minorifcy whose ideas have been fchoroughly useful, practical,
and well worked oufc. So many of them have been forgotten and are
unknown that ifc is impossible to be sure who is fche firsfc invenfcor of any¬
thing. The multitude of people who overwhelm the Patent Office with
their appUcatious do nofc begin to understand whafc is necessai'y to success.
They musfc be nofc merely invenfcors, bufc musfc have rare qualities besides.
They musfc be able to afcfcracfc and fix the attention of manufacturers,
merchants or capitalists, of men whose minutes are worth money; and
they must have tho patience and the means to wait for months, years,
or decades, as the besfc invenfcors have waited, for fcheir ideas to be accepted
as of any value. If a new article is a success from the start, ifc is usually
some toy or trifle of little use, or a medical or ofcher humbug, backed by
the mercantile skill and capital which mosfc inventors do not possess.





Home Decorative Notes.

—The following suggestion will prove worthy of remembrance, and
trial as well, to those who use matting as a floor covering; In a gallon of
water boil a small bag of bran, and when the wafcer has become nearly
cold wash the matting with it and wipe carefully with a clean dry cloth.

—Gauze fans are very popular, and come in a variety of mountings. They
serve pleasantly for hand screens as well as ornamental fans.

—The old-fashioned crane is now brought oufc in open fire-places, and
made to hold a gorgeous tea-kettle of polished brass or copper.

—Orange is one of the best possible colors for the decorations of a
room.   Ifc is rich, and people look well againsfc ifc.

—Anofcher social flafc has gone forth, and the removal of our chandeliers
from the centre of the ceiling is the latest command. Sconces are very
popular, and mosfc charming effects are produced by their proper use; a
fine example in silver bronze shows an oblong mirror finely bevelled and
framed in massive silver bronze; across the face of the mirror, thrown
diagonally, is a branch of misfclefcoe in fuU. relief bronze, fche flowers form¬
ing candle sockets with pink candles and finely fluted small pink glass
globes.   At the head of a dark stairway this would produce a blaze of lighfc.

—The carriage purses, which are exfcremely convenienfc for carrying small
parcels, are about a yard and a-half in length, and are made of bright
colored cashmere, lined with surah silk, aud are ornamented with sprays of
flowers scattered here and there.   The wings are of brass or ivory.

—Papered walls may be wiped free of dust with a soft piece of clean dry
flannel.

—An important achievement in the field of electrical invention has re¬
cently been effected in the production of an electrical matting, a device by
the way which serves as an excellent trap for burglars. It consists of a
carpet hning so arranged thafc the pressure of the foot will close the circuit
and set off an alarm bell, which rings continuously, this electrical appliance
will give many comfort and peace to disturbed and anxious households.

—Elaborately decorated dinner cards thafc were long-time favorites have
been supplanted by very plain and simple ones, with only a bevelled and
gilt edge.

—Lustra paintings are suited to chair coverings. The pattei-ns are
generally outlined in gold.

—The effectiveness and beauty of metal in the decoration of furniture and
interiors has of late excited general interest. Interior decorators have
pufc to good accounfc for newels and balusfcrades, fire gilfc brass, easfc
and rolled, the dead and burnished gilfc surface being afc times further
varied with oxydized silver and iridescent bronze. Brass may be also used
with very fine effect in the decoration of ceilings ; as an example, the wall
is composed of panels of Indian carved work, and displays through the in¬
terstices of the carving a background of sheet brass ; the effect of light
upon this, whether from an open fire or gas, is most admirable.





Death of John H. Sherwood.

A remarkable man in his way was John Hinman Sherwood, who
died on Thursday last after a lingering illness, his disease being catarrh
of the bladder. He was born in Greene, Chenango county, N. Y., in 1816.
He, early in life, commencei hia business career as a storekeeper; 1856
found him in New York, where he engaged in the wholesale boot and
shoe business, the firm being Westly & Sherwood. He musfc have made
money quickly, as the Register's office soon contained records made by him
as a buyer of real estate in Warren streefc. He afterwards devoted
himself entirely to the buying and selling of real estate. With rare
sagacity he confined his operations to the greafc business thoroughfares
and to the high-priced residential quarters of the city. Hence he boughfc
along the line of Broadway and was the owner of realty in Canal street
when the large dry-goods stores were located in thafc loealifcy. Subse-
quenfcly he invested in Murray Hill property when ifc was low-priced,
always continuing along the backbone of the island. He never, however,
believed in Fifth avenue property jusfc easfc of the Park, bufc was a heavy
buyer, when lofcs were cheap, north of the Central Park. He did much
to improve this region, and his estate will cover a large amount of
ground north of One Hundred and Tenth street, and between Fifth and
and Eighth avenues. To the writer of this notice Mr. Sherwood told
why he prefeiTed this property north of the Park to investments else
where. He did not think it would be troubled with street cars, while
trucks and business wagons would never vex the residents, and then the
ground was gravelly and wholesome,

Mr. Sherwood was something more than a mere buyer and seller of land.
He was a d irector of the Washington Life Insurance Company and a
leading hiember of the directory of the Mutual Life Insurance Company.
He was chairman of the Finance Committee of the lafcfcer, and had a
controlling voice in granting loans on real estate. He was the organizer
of the Fifth Avenue Bank, which under his oversight became an exceed¬
ingly prosperous corporation. Ifc was he who gofc the law enacted astab-
lishing an Assessment Commission to relieve up-town property holders from
the consequences of the " jobs" legalized by our corrupt cifcy officials.
Mr. Sherwood was nofc a believer in the gigantic apartment buildings whieh
have been such a feature in New York architecture dui'ing the last few
years. He never believed they would pay, bufc curiously enough he was
the first to build a large apartment house, the Artists' Studio building, at
the corner of Sixth avenue and Fifty-seventh streefc, which has always paid
handsomely. He was also the owner of smaller apartment houses in the
lower part of the cifcy. Ifc is esfcimated that his estate is worth $2,000,000.
A widow and one daughter, the widow of J. H. A. Blodgett, survive him,
and a brother and other relatives are living in and near his birthplace.
Mr. Sherwood took an active part in reducing the price of gas, and ifc was
thi'ough his efforts that the laws on that subject were passed by the Legis¬
lature of last year.   The deceased was a strong man iu every way, and