There are, in fact, numbers on numbers of enthusiastic
young people--they are nearly all of them young--who from sunrise to
sunset spend their lives in adding to the sum of beauty that there is
on earth.
The making of box furniture, for instance, sounds commonplace enough, but
it is really fascinating. There are places in the Village,--notably one
on Greenwich Avenue,--where these clever craftsmen make wonderful things
from cubic forms of wood, from boxes and sticks and laths and blocks.
They can make anything from a desk to a tall candlestick, and, softly
coloured, the square, wooden objects make a highly decorative effect. It
is a simple art but a striking one, and the aesthetic sense, the instinct
for balance and proportion and ultimate beauty of line and composition,
has a splendid outlet.
There is, too, the trade of the designer of garments: the word is
advisedly substituted for dresses. The real designer plans and
executes pictures, mood-expressions, character settings. She dreams
herself into the personalities of her clients, also the necessities
and the limitations! Do you think all the artistic costume-creating is
done in the Rue de la Paix? Try the Village!
And the florists! The flower shops of the Village are truly lovely,
one in particular, the Peculiar Flower Shop, which does not look at
all like a shop but like the corner of a country garden.
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