The Craftsman - 1902 - 08 - August

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THE
Vol.
CRAFTSMAN
No. 5 FOR AUGUST, MDCCCCII.
11. CONTENTS
I. II. III. IV. IV. VI.
Private
Simplicity
as a Promoter -
of Public Art Irene Sargent Rabbijoseph Lkser
Simplicity,
A Law of Nature
The Higher Education _ _ A House and Home Possibilities The
of the Breadwinners _ _ l7ioma.s W. Davidson Ikenc Sargent for the Artist - Samuel Howe Charles Wagner. CA Book Review
of Craftsmanship Life, by
Simple
ANNQUNCEMENT BQ
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PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED N. Y.
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CRAFTS
EASTWOOD.
Copyright. Entered at the Postoffice 1902 Eastwood. bu
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CRAFTSMAN T HEa series of papers life ; for it is felt by all living for the individual education of youth, for works and amusements of national life,
FOREWORD
offers for the current month advocating simplicity in private persons of good-will that plain makes for citizen virtue, for the the beauty and refinement of public : in a word, that it is the keystone
The first article discusses private simplicity as a promoter of public art, and is intended, in a certain sense, as a sequence and complement to the The Beautifying of our Cities, which was ~iZcK?The Craftsman i; July. Simplicity, a Law of Nature, the Rabbi Joseph Leiser shows that aptitude for scientific thought which is a modern Hebrew characteristic. And here and there in his writing there will also be detected a note of sarcasm such as issued from Heines mattress grave, or mingled with the philosophy of Spinoza, the lens-maker. Later, Mr. Leiser will present a study of Th e J ew as a Craftsman, which will be of great interest as a story of restriction and persecution, and as a record of the sorrows of the Ghetto. The paper of Professor Thomas W, Davidson, The Higher Education of the Breadwinners, was read some two or three years since, before an educational body. It is printed in The Craftsman as a proposal of excellent means for increasing the intelligence and well-being of the laboring classes, on lines parallel to those which have been followed in France with such marked success by the pastors Wagner and Allier and their provincial disciples. Mr. Samuel Howe, who will be remembered from his enthusiastic and original writings upon metals and enamels, offers a practical suggestion to unsuccessful painters ; bidding them turn to some form of industrlal art ; since in the possession of technical trainin , manual dexterity and refined taste, they hold the essentia Ys of good craftsmanship.
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An illustrated article, A House and Home, purposes to convey an idea of the working principles of the United Crafts, as they seek to further a household art which shall substitute the luxury of taste for the luxury of cost, and unite beauty with utility and simplicity, Finally, a review of Charles Wagners collection of essays, The Simple Life is added, in the hope to spread yet more widely among the people the beautiful thought of a rare and exalted mindid In the September issue of The Craftsman, articles will be presented upon color, considered as to its effects upon the eye and the mind; also a paper upon a New England village industry, and another of antiquarian interest upon Chests, Chairs and Settles, In addition to these ori inal articles there will be a reprint of an interesting Englis a illustrated monograph upon The Ruskin Cross at Coniston, which was erected in 190 I, to mark the rave of the great apostle of the % he article will be reproduced Doctrine of Work. in grateful memory of Ruskins generous contribution, of genius and energy to the Arts and Crafts Movement, Beginning with the October and first anniversary issue, The Craftsman will be enlarged, and on that occasion contributions of deep interest will be offered by both foreign and American writers, The best known resources of typography and illustration will also be employed to further the production of a memorable and beautiful book.
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PRIVATE SIMPLICITY AS A PROMO;;I?JX~;N;UBLIC ART Q BY IRENE m @ Q Q & HE modern city is ever changing, loose in organiza-
tion, casual in form. In the newer countries, like our own, it rows up within a generation, sometimes within a sing pi e decade. Its inhabitants come and go, pass on, and are wholly renewed every few years, thus contrastin with the citizens of ancient or mediaeval towns, in which families dwelt in the same city for twenty generations, Ideas of patriotism, art, culture, social organization, as identified with the city, as arising from it and stimulated by it, are beyond the conception of the selfcentered individual for whom the place of his actual residence is but a convenient workshop or market-place. Civic patriotism and municipal life, once so vigorous, so productive of beauty, so rich in sources of real and elevated pleasure, have suffered, declined, nay, almost died out in an age of industrialism; leaving in the old world certain survivals to witness their educative effect, as in Paris, the Italian towns, Hamburg and Berne ; and in the new world vitalizing perhaps a single city-Boston, Four or five millions of souls do not of necessity make a body of fellow-citizens; an unstable population can have no interest in one anothers lives, no impulse toward concerted action, no common sympathies, enjoyments and pride. A city, in order to be an effective agent of civilization and culture, must have the consciousness of organic life. Such was the power of London town,- that limited but famous area extending between the Tower and Temple Bar; such the force of old Paris whose coat-of-arms picturing a tempest-tossed galley is commented upon by the significant inscription: It rocks but it does not sink ; such, also, was the strength of the Commune of Florence, whose gilds of Arts and Crafts ruled for a not inconsiderable period the finances and even The organic city has everythe politics of the world. where left its marks upon the pages of history. But not so mere aggregations of individuals, like the great indus-
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trial towns of England and the United States, which have no corporate consciousness. In them beau , dignity, culture and society are left largely to care for % t emselves, while the masses are almost cut off from physical comfort and means of moral elevation. There, the factory system, the clouding soot, the pollution of air and water reduce Iife to a mere enforced, dismaI, and hopeless existence. How far behind and above these towns lies the City, and the which was, so to speak, the germ-celI, the measure, of antique civilization I How mucxpe freer and higher the life of the ancient slave than that of the modern operative, even though the first was bound to the body of his master and dependent upon the wiIl of his superior! What needs and lack oppress the inhabitant of our strongholds of industrialism, in which everything is made by machinery, except beauty and happiness. Not that it would be well, even were it possible, to recall any obsolete type of so& life. culiar strength, it But as each organic age has its own ties which have in is instructive to compare the civic qu a!? times past-ancient and mediaeval-produced durable beneficent results, in that they have developed society by successive and ascending stages. . Among these fertile ualities one stands prominent and alone ; that is : simp 1city in private life. The citizens of Athens who lived among supreme works of art, listened habituaIIy to lofty tragedies, and mingled in the most impressive ceremonies ever devised, were men whose food, garments and dwellings The bur hers were plain even to the verge of rudeness. of the Middle Ages, who created the Iabyrinthine ric a ness and vastness of the Gothic cathedrals, passed their lives cribbed, cabined and confined in narrow, darkened streets, while their brain and hands were set to willing, fruitful labor, and their souls satisfied with the religion of beauty. Indeed, it may be asserted,-since it is proven by history-that simplicity in private Iife is at once the
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first essential and the source of public strength, morality and art ; that the ostentatious extravagance and display of the individual are the agents of rapid degeneration and decay in all that stands for good overnment and civilization. To that simplicity, which a as differed in form but not in nature, as it has animated the lives of all sorts and conditions of men, society must return, if it is to develop a new and higher type of life for the ages to follow. The effects of the moral earthquake wrought by modern industrialism must be obliterated, the gulfs separating capitalist from laborer must be closed through the operation of the civic spirit, of good-will, of culture and of art. And in order that this work may be accomplished, lessons must be taken from the past and the present,-from the ancient, the mediaevaf and the modern city. Then, by such process of selection, assimilation and development, the Ideal City may become a fact accomplished and a living actuality. For our instruction and profit, let us study, one by one, the three types : the first two according to the records of them preserved from the past, the third according to our own knowledge. The ancient city, in its very conception and constitution, necessitated the subordination of the individual. It was the object of a cult, a religion. It stood for Country, Church, school, university, gild and club. The very legends which told the story of its origin bespoke the awe and reverence in which it was held by the people. Its founder was supposedly a god or a hero, himself an ideal of some admirable human quality, some form of culture, useful craft or commerce, or of some divine art. The city was then the permanent home of the citizen, and not, as now, a chance place of residence fixed by business affairs of which the center of operations may change with every decade or twelve-month, ..The ancient city bestowed upon the citizen legal rights and religious privileges which were lost outside its limits,
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while it granted to the foreigner and sojourner only an undesirable status, something between the condition of a citizen and that of a slave, Banishment from the city was a kind of civil death, a moral and spiritual degradation comparable with what in a later a e was known as excommunication from the Church, + he ancient city, it can not be too often repeated, was the cherished Country, Church and home of the citizen. The private hearth was secondary to that ideal public altar of sacrifice whereon were offered the most precious sentiments and the loftiest aspirations. For the Greek or the Roman, the idea of the City was inseparably connected with the worship of the gods, since the ritual consisted in a constant succession of public ceremonies which combined artistic display with civic festival. Thereby the love of splendor, innate in every human being, was satisfied, and did not seek superfluous expression in private life with those disastrous ef. fects upon individual simplicity and modesty which,+it exerts throughout modern society. These ceremonies were They were free like the art public in the broadest sense. privileges of modern Paris, and they combined divine serAII forms of art were reprevice with patriotic function, sented in the open squares and colonnades, where statues, pictures and processions were displayed with quasi-sacramental intent and effect. Piety and public spirit filled each market-place with a shrine, the image of a god, a And thus the emulative and imifountain, or a portico, tative luxury of rich nobles and commoners educated public taste and increased public pleasure and comfort, instead of declining to the lower level today manifest in illIt was indeed a civil obli aadvised private expenditure. tion of the rich and well-born Greeks and Romans to o H fer to their fellow-citizens these artistic displays and these means of worship ; it was even a part of the inheritance which they derived from their ancestors, or, to say better, it was a tribute which they paid to the State, to the patron gods of their family, and to the souls of their forefathers.
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And being thus intent upon a public service suited to the type and point of the existing civilization and to the racial temperament of their fellow-citizens, they dignified their own existence. For themselves they Maintained a fixed purpose, which is the source of individual simplicity and austerity. By their wealth and culture, they created pubIic splendor and brightened public life, And whatever brightens life tends toward happiness and virtue. In the ancient cities, intercourse among the citizens was free and uninterrupted, since the temples, colonnades and g&dens constituted a kind of open-air clubs at which political affairs and questions of art and literature were discussed from varied, individual points of view. Thus, all the higher pleasures being pursued in common, the idea of personal possession was subordinate in the minds of the opulent, and not intense among the poor. Oftentimes, private estates, mansions, villas or pleasure-grounds were bequeathed by their owners to the citizens, as we remember JuIius Caesar to have done. And by this common ownership, beauty, splendor and wealth were assigned their proper parts and functions in civilized life. Another consideration most important in the government of ancient cities was that of public health, Indeed, it was a matter of religion ; while cleanliness and sanitary discipIine were sacred duties, as weII as affairs of personal pride. And since every open place was consecrated to some god or hero, every fountain to some triton or nymph, it was sacrile e to defile the earth with litter or to poIIute the water wit a refuse. A Greek or Roman who should have sub mitted to live in the midst of conditions as uncIeanIy and unsanitary as those to which we now condemn the masses of our laboring people, would have felt himself a rebel to the gods and an outcast from the society of reputable citizens. Summing up now the characteristics of the ancient city, we find it to have been a close civic aristocracy, which, within its own order, gave fine
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examples of quality, simplicity~ sociability and public devotion. It would be neither possible nor desirable to restore it, since Christian ideals have substituted for its veneration and worship a broader patriotism and a deeper sense of human duty. But the contrasts which it offers with the present form of society and in which it holds the advantage are : the profusion of art to which our industrial age prefers material production; a common system of education and culture which we have replaced by a specialization dividing interests and acting as a barrier to congeniality ; lastly, a public splendor satisfying, civilizing and refining, which finds its opposite in modern private luxuriousness, exclusive and selfish, In the decay of the first organic form of society-that of the ancient city-republics-in the development, by means of Teutonic individualism, of the mediaeval fortress-town, patriotism, culture and the ideal of companionship suffered no diminution or essential change, Th ey were simply subjected to the laws of evolution. Necessarily too, as their resultant and adjunct, simplicity prevailed in the private life of the bur hers. It became, as it had been in the ancient city, t a e prolific source of beauty, culture and high standards of life, Kings and nobles were made to acknowledge the superior force -intellectual and material-of the plain people, until at the end of the Middle Ages, the greatest sovereigns trembled before the commoners who were craftsmen and merchants, exercising constantly and simultaneously their brains and their hands, finding extreme pleasure in their work and pursuits, and buikling up by their zeal and industry the body politic which was attacked in its vital parts by the corruption, the idleness and the selfishness of the high-born, Before this civic power generated by private simplicity, Francis First of France dared not flaunt the extravagance of his vicious court, lest the honest, laborious burghers of Paris would not suffer the resence among them of the white-handed, frivolous cava P iers and
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ladies, for whose occupation and pleasure were afterward created the unique castles of the Loire region. Nor did Queen Elizabeth acknowledge to a less degree the burgher spirit of her own capital, when she issued her mandate that no houses be built b the citizens of London to the westward, within three mJ es of the Tudor palace. It was the same steadfast, whole-hearted simplicity of life that created the might of the Commune of Florence, and made its citizens the trustees of the peace of Europe. The burgher of the Middle Ages, as full as the citizen of antiquity, possessed the love of splen Bor, and, like his predecessor, exerted it unselfishly, in a corporate spirit, and to the furtherance of the power and the beauty of his tit . His type is found in Hans Sachs, Adam Kraft, an J the Italian, French, Flemish or English contemporaries and similars of these forthright craftsmen, who sat at their benches or looms singing from the very joy of their work, and absorbed in realizing with their hands the perfection which their brains had conceived. They adorned their cathedrals and their town-halls with the richest and most varied works of art; making these edifices, not only the citadels of faith and ood government, but adding to them as well the attriutes of the school, the art-museum and the workshop. i; The burgher condition was, in all points, adapted to pro mote simplicity of life. Every mediaeval town was first a fortress, and secondarily a place of residence. S ace was too valuable to permit of extensive ground pE ns, Homes were narrow and dark, rel ing for area upon superposed storeys, and for light an J air upon windows cut in the roof, as in the German Hanse towns, or upon the open log ia, as in the Italian cities. From these dwellings, w &ch were, as we have before seen, also studios and workshops, superfluous objects were excluded. These did not, as with us, dispute with the inmates for room and gain the master . There were then practically none of those useless artic res from the acquisition and dis-
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play of which the middle classes of to-day seek to acquire the reputation for refinement and good taste, But, as with the modern Japanese who offer excellent examples of the simple, artistic life, the objects of daily use were They were the respected and beloved things of beauty. companions of human life; not, as now, chance possessions chosen in obedience to the caprice of an hour, and with the reservation that they should be discarded with the establishment of new standards of taste, or upon the possession of ampler means. The chair, the chest, the tankard, the table-knife, were adorned in obedience to the laws of design and often with the most minute elaboration, yet never to the detriment of their qualities of use and service, Their value both material and aestheticsince they represented honest material, skilled labor, and often genius,- made them precious in the sight of their owners, as did their permanent occupancy of the home, and their association with the domestic dramas to which they served as background and accessories. In summing up the conditions which made for simple citizen-life during the Middle A es, first place must be given to the existence of the gi B ds which diffused throughout Europe a strong corporate spirit. And since the common enjoyment of objects and pleasures weakens equally the love and the envy of possession, it is plain that the influence of the gilds was to maintain private simplicity and to further public art. The celebrations which formed so large a part of the outward manifestations of the life of these companies, satisfied the love of splendor which advances with civilization. The beauty produced by large numbers of artists and craftsmen working toward a sin le end, was in itself an inspiration and incentive to yet L gher accomplishment. Imitative luxury was not, as now, an issue rudely joined between man and man, but a strife involvin the creation of beauty, ceaselessly maintained among ta e gilds and between city and city. If we consider for a moment what
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intellectual force and what artistic skill were required for the building of a cathedral, an important church, or a town hall-and every mediaeval town contained a fine specimens of one or the other of these edifices-we shall find that all classes of the towns-people were concerned therein, either as donors, builders, sculptors, or decorative artists, Therefore, the minds of all being fixed upon an important porpose to which were attached most desirable results, slight occasion arose for the private strife which we see to-day manifesting itself among the middle classes in the display of those articles of extreme Iuxur whose possession should be reserved for the richest J one, In such communities, the portion of the burghers who were devoted to the arts and crafts were met by grave difficulties, since science had not come among them with her rapid means and her accurate processes. Long calculations, vigorous effort, remarkable patience were the cost of those miracles of art whose creators wrought with no intent to exalt or even preserve their individual names, but simply to make their gild famous and their city beautiful above its rivals. The careless tourist of our own time who admires because he must, little values the study, the deep understanding of natural laws, the genius, the citizenspirit which created the great Gothic structures. The mathematics involved in the vaulting of the nave of Amiens cathedral, the knowledge of chemistry and mineralogy possessed by the mediaeval artists in stained lass and mosaic, the craftsmanship displayed in the textf es of the Florentines and Flemings all speak eloquently of long successions of lives devoted to a single master principle : the devotion to some science or art. In the days when art was still religion, paintings, frescoes, statues, gold and silver vessels, bronzes, ivories, embroideries, beautiful books, rare musical instruments-all lovely and delightful things-were not, as now, the jealously guarded treasures of the few, or the transplanted, exotic ornaments of museums, They were the sincere spontaneous
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expression of an art created by the people, for the people, as a reciprocal joy for the artist and the layman. The art and social organization of the Middle Ages lie far behind us. We cannot galvanize the one into a semblance of life without affectation or falsity. We can not revert to a form of political existence preceding our own in natural development. For all growth proceeds by fixed laws, and what at first seems degeneration may in truth be progression. Nay, even, to quote the words of Robert Browning, Decay is richer life. The principles of the French Revolution, the great inventions of the late eighteenth andof the entire ninteenth centuries, industrialism, the problems of labor and capital stand between the mediaeval and the modern world, constituting impassable barriers as inexorable as time itself. It matters not that a portion of these events, facts, principles and issues are negations: destructive, rather than upbuilding agents and forces. They are a11integral parts of a scheme which humanity, society, civilization must follow, and to which each successive age and generation must yield, without hopelessly deploring what of value appears to be lost, and without excessive pride in what would seem to be unqualified good. The strongly organized city or town of the Middle Ages exists no more. The ilds with their lusty fife and vigorous corporate spirit are orms too primitive to exist under the complex conditions B of modern finance, industry, commerce, transit and communication. The sentiment of the infinite, felt to an overpowering degree, which engendered mediaeval art, has given place to a spirit which battles with the invisible wers of nature and makes man their master. Both p oss and ain are attached to the modern system of life as compare f with the two phases which have preceded it. But the increased ease of all accomplishment, whether mental or material, should outweigh existing disadvanta es and make for such progress as to render the age next f8 o owing our own incontestably superior in all points to
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any earlier form of social organization. And in certain essentials we have already attained the most signal advantages over the civilization of the Middle Ages. In the matter of physical culture and sanitation we have reverted to Greek ideals, if we have not put in practice Greek methods. We prize the value, if not the beauty of cleanliness. In spite of steam, smoke, factories and the other accompaniments of our industrial existence, many of our modern cities by zealous sanitary science and by the passion for combating disease which marks our age, have reduced the death-rate to one-half the figures achieved in mediaeval and Oriental towns; London, with allowance being made for special conditions, standing as the city of the world least noxious to human life. Such care for cleanliness and sanitation is in itself a step toward the simple life. For the demands made in these interests for free space and the consequent employment of few articles of daily use lead toward plain living, and this, in its turn, advances the cause of the religion of beauty. Instances of these successive steps, or it may be, of the inversion of these ste s, frequently occur in the experience of Universit Set tpement visitors to the tenements of the city ievre Tie gift of a plant, the loan of a picture, often ac K what years of teaching and preaching fail to accomplish. Beauty brings its own blessing, and the need of preparing for it a fit home is apparent even to those confined in the meanest and most sordid surroundin s. The doctrines of the simple life should be no more Porceful among the rich than among the poor. To eliminate from the laboring classes, above all, from the poor of the large centers, that same imitative luxury differing in de ree, not in kind, from the infectious poison which saps t a e social life of the rich, is a present and pressin duty of the modAnd with the two sBa rply defined diviern philanthropist. sions of the people similar means must be employed. Beauty must be substituted for ugliness in public places Education, or rather culture, by means of a national art,
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must be made general, that the poor may be led through the promise of real enjoyment away from the tavern and the gaming-table, just as, by the same means, the rich must be deflected from an excessive indulgence in modish sports, The simple, the free life, as opposed to a complex, slave-like existence, is necessary to the happiness and salvation of both high and low. Practical results toward the advancement of health, morali , culture and pleasure -the elements of the simple life- Kave already been attained among the unfortunate classes in London, and the larger American cities by trained students and lovers of their kind. And there is no less a movement among the favored classes toward the use of their wealth for the highest good of the peo le. We indeed lack the spirit of civic life and energy, tKe ever-present love for art, the zeal for good work and the deep sense of social duty which characterized the Middle Ages : a state of affairs which constituted what has been called a pafriofism of duty t the highest form of secular life-in ideal, although not in practice-that society has yet reached. This sense of obligation in industry was recognized between master and man, rich and poor, wise and ignorant. It was lost in the age of negation known as the Renascence, and to restore it the world is now seeking with eagerness and persistence. In the City of the Future this bond will be renewed, and the sense of mutual obligation will become keener and more delicate than ever before. The workshop, as the Russian Kropotkin advocates, will be elevated to a place beside the school, or rather, the training of the hand and the brain will be carried on within the same walls. The power to produce material and serviceable objects,-which we know under the name of industry,-the power to market those objects with the greatest reciprocal advantage to the maker and the user, -which we call commerce :-these two powers will be equally honored with the human faculties brought
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into play in the exercise of those means of livelihood which, with an echo of mediaevalism, we name the learned professions. The segregation of classes will be done away with, when the simple life shall have proven its value to all citizens; to the poor by the removal of the tawdry from their dwellings and persons, and the introduction of high aims and honest purposes into their lives; to the rich by the elimination of imitative, competitive luxury from the corn lex problem of their existence. The ancient rule to E ve in simple lodgings, to have ever in view beautiful and stately public buildings will prevail in the City of the Future. The people will rejoice in the common possession of objects to enjo and by which to be educated and elevated. The mo cr els of Paris and Berne, Munich and Berlin will be surpassed in beauty, civic organization, fresh air, pure water supplies, and whatever best that each of these municipalities contributes to the cause of civilization. The City of the Future will realize the prophecies and conceptions of the Golden Age, which have allured and encouraged humanity throughout the course of history, and which have witnessed their essential truth by their persistence and by their varied form suited to successive periods and differing civilizations. As we look about us and read the signs of the times, we see provision everywhere making for the founding and upbuilding of the Ideal City, for the living of the Simple Life. These signs and provisions reside in the love of nature which increases among the people year by year; in the world-wide interest in physical development ; in the revival of the long disused handicrafts; in the work of municipal art societies ; in the bestowal of great gifts for the maintenance of libraries and museums ; all of which manifestations merge into one migh impulse toward the corporate life, to be lived more broad Py and grandly than in its former period of activity,
a cordial welcome and assistance for movements in which we believe, we should recognize the limitations in the greatest reform. The sober lesson of history is that there can be no sudden dawning of the golden age, Fanatical support has done more harm to great movements than bitter opposition, It is true, the world could not spare its fanatics, but it might well spare their fanaticism. Their greatness was the greatness of their positive belief, not of its narrowness and limitations. Had they believed, not less in their particular reform, but more in other and compensating truths, their service to the world might have been even greater, and a vast waste of destructive reaction might have been saved. Noble narrowness has often given priceless service to the world, but because it was noble, not because it was narrow; and its results include deplorable tendencies beside those which are helpful, Evolution is more quiet and less startling than revolution, and narrow, destructive tendencies catch the eye more quickly than broad constructive ones. But the narrow movements are as negatively wasteful as they are definite and clear in their positive value ; and broad constructive movements are as unhampered in their helpfulness, as they are free from striking and costly reactions.
EDWARD ETHICS of 46 ITH w those
HOWARD GRIGGS IN THE SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION*
Were we to attain a saner view of life, how inevitable would be a change in our social conditions Were a higher value placed upon such learning as was feverishly sought in the Renascence, or upon the negative spiritual life after which the mediaeval world aspired, how widely different would inevitably be the external conditions of society, Without returnin to such standards, a change in our ideal which would 7ead
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us to desire more earnestly to realize the highest possibilities of our lives, would result in the most helpful changes in our social conditions. The struggle for mere wealth would grow less intense. Culture and science would seek smaller places, as we came to appreciate the value of a life of peace, and of close relation to nature, The overcrowding of the cities would be lessened. A greater social justice would be attained in our human relations,
I What has been accomplished by past schemes and reforms throws Ii ht upon what we should expect from those most wide H y heralded in the present. Of the reforms advocated today, probably no other has the measure of significance which belongs to those athered together under the general head of socialism. Whet a er one be in favor of these reforms or opposed to them, no one can read the literature of socialism without being impressed with the nobility of the ideals held by the leaders of this movement. Yet when we are told by socialists that with certain institutional changes, such as placing the control of industries in the hands of the State, we shall have at once the golden age, that poverty and idleness will disappear, and all those who are now greedy and selfish will then be earnest and generous seekers of the public welfare, we may answer that history upon every page tells distinctly the contrary. However much or little might be the social amelioration resulting from these institutional changes, it would be but a slight step in the wide area that must be traversed by the human spirit ~~z.f~~,~ttains more than a dream of the kingdom of
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SIMPLICITY: A LAW OF NATURE BY THE RABBI JOSEPH LEISER & m

VOLUTION is a law of elimination: the eIimination of the useless. Nature tends to rid itself of the things which it does not need. What survives is the fittest, and being the fittest, it is also the simplest, Cumbersome languages, such as the Chinese and the older Semitic tongues, are no longer spoken. Rites and ccremonies, elaborate and involved, are becoming obsolete. Nature seeks the Iine of least resistance, and man tries to find the easiest and simplest way to do a thing. The trend of evolution is toward simplicity, This fact I recently saw illustrated in a street pageant, which was headed by a drove of elephants, a herd of cameIs following in the middle section, and the procession ending with a Iine of fleet and splendid horses. This succession of animal species showed the Iaw of elimination in the evolutionary process. EIephants precede both the camel and the horse in creation. At one time, they and their bulky kin, the mastodon and the mammoth, infested tro cal jungles ; but their very strength made them unwie F dy and, like the Great Eastern, they were too big to manage; hence they were eliminated, The camel is useful, more useful by far than the elephant, but not so useful as the horse. The camel is not fIeet footed, He is evolved for one purpose-to traverse the sandy wastes ; while the horse is universal, and bein the most useful, he is the simplest in form, structure, an 8 organism. The horse has no needless flesh. He is self-sufficient, containing in himself all necessary functions. The point of the contention is obvious-nature seeks the fittest way to do a thing, and so does man. Social institutions illustrate this reat law. The caste system of ancient Egypt, mediaeval feudalism, aristocracy, were the precursors of modern democracy. Members of a caste are not so useful as members of a democracy. They are not independent, and hence the system that curtaiIs mans freedom gives way to liberty, wider
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liberty. In other words, we are always seeking the simplest way to do a thing ; be it in reli ion, in politics, or commerce. Civilization is itself the a liaptation of the simple, and when religions are ridding themselves of their priests and ministers and utting man in touch with the divine forces, one can we 3 understand the truth and It is written in our own force of this law of elimination. We are ever trying life and we are under its dominion, to seek the simplest way, in language, in action, in thought, and conduct. The simple remains. Like art, it is the everlasting truth and hence it fives. It is not only a cosmic law but we are becoming more conscious of it in our daily life. The trend of thought in our day is toward simplicity. The cry for simplicity has gone forth from many quarters of the globe, We are weary of our burdens, our luxuries, All these superour indulgences, and our amusements. fluities are stale, and now we know better than ever, that We the things which we once craved, are un rofitable. are demanding something more rationa. P Are we not livin more rationally, eating simpler foods, wearing simper H clothes, going back to the eternalities, to those things that are most excellent? Read the tendency as you will, it is none the less evident that our demand for healthy bodies, freedom from ailments, mastery of mind over body, the insistence on the part of all intelligent people for light and more sunshine and fresh air, is all a part of a great wave of modern thought : the demand for simplicity. It is yet a far off divine event, a great ideal as yet glowing on the horizon, where mans hopes rise and fall; but the ideal is there, and earnest people are seeking it. Men are grappling with themselves, retiring to some retreat, and there making an inventory They are asking, What is necesof their necessities. sary in life? At one time, this was readily
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answered. Save thy soul I In substance it is the answer we return even unto this day, but we have put a new content into the soul of man. Saving the soul for some future world does not appeal to modern man as it consoled his forefathers. If we have any answer to the eternal question, it is this : We want to live our life and we want to live it in our way. Our inalienable rights as human beings are the right to live and the right to exWe are sent into the world that we press ourselves. may live our life. No one can live his life unless he be free, economically free, politically free, religiously free. He can not be dependent. He must be independent. No one can be free who is anothers slave, or dependent on another for his bread, and the most desirable state is that in which every one is master of his means of livelihood, Dependency is parasitical. The law of elimination is the Simplicity demands freedom, abolishment of dependency. and when we earn a wa e by serving another, we are neither livin our own s e, nor are we expressing our own self. 6 e are the hireling and the underling of another. Our soul is the most vital thing in the world to us, and to save our souls we must be free. Dependency breeds luxuries and luxuries, are the canker worms of civI fear the ilization. I fear not wealth nor its corruption. idleness of the wealthy, Idleness must be pampered and amused. It rears the helots, the parasites of modern society. The simple life is a working life. The trouble is, not every one can work as he wishes. He works when some one tells him to work. He is not free, and there can be no simplicity in life until we are free men. Were we to pause and ask ourselves what we need in order to live, we might arrive at some universal truths. We should certainly find the fundamentals, the minimums, and these are again the simplest things in the world. But even the simplest
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things have now become luxuries. We can not live a second without air. We can abstain from food for a while; we can starve ourselves, hunger, and thirst; we But millions of our can not live without air an instant. fellow creatures have never breathed fresh air. There are people living in New York City and in Chicago, not to mention European cities, who know not the refreshing fragrance of a dewy morning. Air is a luxury in the Ghetto of New York. We must legislate, and by the coercion of law, compel some men to furnish fresh air to their working people. So far are we from freedom that the first dire necessity of life has become a luxury. Life must be sustained. We need food. Most of our energies are directed to this one end,-that we may not starve, It ought not to be a difficult thing to obtain the necessary amount of food to sustain our bodies. The earth is wide and, were we free, As Ion as the earth is not there would be no problem. tilled, as long as men do not use the !a nd they own and Aniprevent others from using it, men will go hungry. mals left to forage for themselves, even the herds pasturing in winter on the prairies, do not hunger, and there is There is enough to eat for no need for men to hunger. all, but we do not provide that each may have his portion. With an obsolete, barbaric notion of property rights, we slice off a section of earth and call it mine. And not only is it unused, but it is walled in to prevent others from using it. Therefore, men starve and we have our slums, our poverty and the brood of modern ailments We solve these questions known as the social questions. when we return to a simple life, when we are free, and being free, work and live our own life, expressing the best that is in us. Air and food are primary. We Beside, we must be clothed. can not live without them. Every garment worn means that some one has more
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than is needed. In our day, with all our machinery, with intensive farming, with all our boasted processes and methods, there is no need for men to be naked, To learn what to wear is as essentialas to know what to eat, with this exception: we do not know what to eat or what to wear. We do not eat, nor do we wear what we require. We eat what some one tells us to eat, and wear, what some enterprising merchant be uiles us to wear. We are not free. We are slaves, an f as long as we are slaves, we are dependent. Silks and satins, and all the frills and laces of fashion are hindrances to simplicity, as they are obstacles in the wa of clothing the masses. The simplicity that is essentia r for sane people will soon select some sensible garb that shall meet all requirements. As it is, we wear today our clothes as a badge. Silks mean that we have somewhere a few thousand dollars and that we belong to a certain set. Our social aspirations are so strong that we bend every muscle, waste our life, destroy nerve fibre and good blood to reach a circle of people who wear silks on state occasions, and wear these silks, remember, not so much for comfort as for show. Every oneknows it, but the jest is so good that it is perpetuated indefinitely lest the mockery and sham of it all lose its relish. It is really a good jest-yes, indeed, and every time I see a shiverin creature asking alms in the street, I think of the jest an f laugh. Society can be divided into three great classes : wash goods society, whose garments are always fitting ; silk society, in which silks are worn on state occasions, and, lastly, the noble order of the satin, who wear their garments once and then throw them away. When men row sane, they will demolish this perversity and adopt t1 e simple, As long as we are not free, we shall fret our life away in shams. To know where to live is as important as knowing how to live, We do not live where we choose, but where fashion directs; usually
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among the rich. With the purpose of entering what is known as Society, we encroach on the preserve of the moneyed classes, fancying that such an encroachment enhances our own standing. But this is folly. There is only one kind of society-that of kindred spirits-and those we are seeking are seekin us. The summons we send forth is answered by those w5 o hear us, and they are those who think and feel alike. There is no other society, and the members of that society are not qualified by the dollars which they make, or which their fathers gave them. There is only one class of people whose company we ought to seek, and they are the men and women who are soul of our soul and heart of our heart; who go hand in hand, throu h the world. That society is not based on clothes, an f bank accounts ; it is the simplest in the world, requiring no dues except the offerin of fellowship-the society of the free, the brotherh J of kindred generous spirits. Our house ought to offer us shelter and the means of cleanliness, and when we build it for ourselves and our uses, when we are free and not dependent, it will become a home, and being our own home, it will express ourselves and our thoughts. And it will be built in a simple way, possessing essentials only. The free need no fashionable appurtenances, huge, bulky, ugly structures of brick and stone. The home that we shall build will be simple, because it will answer our needs. As yet, we do not know what to put into a home, We do not choose a few useful things. But we have needless bric-a-brac, and the dust and germs gather on objects which are supposed to be pretty, when in fact they are most detestable. When we shall live the simple life, we shall provide that those things which we are to have constantly about us be useful and also pretty. We love the pleasing face, the low tender voice so sweet in woman. We shall de-
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mand that our home equipments be useful and beautiful, substantial and good. We are coming to see that the simple is the best, and that the end of life is not only to raise our Maker, but so to live that our life shall not La ve been erased as we walk through earth. We hardly know how to live. We know something of microscopic Iants, of cellular pathology and of the psychic life. We Know how to feed a horse and a dog, but we, paragons of wisdom, do not know how to live! There is withal a hopeful si n, ople have seen the folly of their way. 5j oo Too many many peopff e realize that a few good things are more desirable than many needless ones. We are going back to a simpler method of living and of earning our living. We have worshiped machines so long that we are tired of the iron gods, and begin to respect the work of our hands. We have the machines, we have our hands, we have the vast, overwhelming knowledge of nature and our mastery of it. We can with ease adopt the simple, because our simplest things contain in themselves all the toil and travail of thea es. This is our heritage : to go back now, aye, to go forward indeed, to the things that are most excellent, to re ain our soul, to live our life, to be again simple, happy c El Idren of God who is our Father.
I bearings, nor to inquire whether the consumption of champagne and the purchase of diamonds increase or diminish our national wealth, I leave all such problems to those bold bad men who haunt the Political Economy Club-to the sophisters, economists and calculators whom Burke so rightly abhorred. I range myself with my uninstructed neighbors-the tradesmen of Piccadilly and the lodging-house keepers of Pin&co-and I rest assured that the presence of a court at Buckingham Palace, with its gilt coaches and scarlet footmen, will in some undefined way increase our material prosperity. Just now I am thinking of luxury merely in its moral bearings. Let us hold by, or get back to some regard for simplicity of life was said by Mr. Gladstone. If simplicity of life means spending less on ourselves and more on our neighbors, we can not have too much of it. But if it is only to be a plausible excuse for parsimony, away with it to the limbo of detected hypocrisies! The love of splendor, even when we can not share it, seems to be an instinct of our nature. To quote only the salient illustrations of the moment, it is manifested each time that the King and Queen appear in public. William IV. once threatened to o down to the House of Lords in a hackney-coach, if ta e state-carriage could not be gotten ready in time ; but it would not have been a popular move. King Edward VII. might have validly and constitutionally opened Parliament in a billycock hat and a pea-jacket, with his Queen in the waterproof-cloak of a district visitor; but they would have been hissed in the streets. We love barbaric pearl and gold, plumes and diamonds, rich A judges scarlet gown and a color and martial music. life-guardsmans cuirass give us real though transient pleasure. We are already beginning to anticipate the joy of a truly magnificent coronation, and a political economist who should venture, as in I83 1, to su gest that the august rite was a waste of money would fa ii a victim to
LUXURY AND SIMPLICITY * FROM AN ONLOOKERS NOTE-BOOK 00 6 DO not propose to consider luxury in its economic
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No ; if simplicity of life means the fury of the populace. the abolition of public splendor, we will have none of it. But there is a simplicity of another kind-the simplicity that maintains great pomps for public uses and recognizes the quasi-sacramental value of spectacular effect-but is personally frugal, personally It was the disclosure temperate, personally unostentatious. of this spirit that made Queen Victorias books of Journals Things always and Leaves so extraordinarily popular. taste so much better in small houses was the Prince It is this idea of simplicity conConsorts wisest saying. cealed by splendor which creates all the eternally popular fables about kings who sleep in iron bedsteads, and queens who knit stockings, and emperors who dine off a single dish. The national instinct feels that simplicity of life is Like the austerity of poetry, an essentially private virtue. though real it should be concealed. A robe of sackcloth next the smooth white skin, Radiant, adornd outside; a hidden ground Of thought and of austerity within.
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are backward In no country is so much money expended upon schools and colleges as in the United States. And yet our people are very far from being educated as they ought to be. Ignorance is still wide-spread, and not only the ignorant, but the whole nation suffers in consequence. In spite of our magnificent system of public schools, and our numerous colleges and universities-over five hundred in all-the great body of our citizens lack the education necessary to ive dignity and meaning to their individual lives, and to f it them for the worthy performance of their duties as members of the institutions under which they live. Our public schools stop short too soon, while our colleges do not reach more than one in a thousand of our population. Moreover, neither school nor college imparts that education which our citizens, as such, require-domestic, social and civic culture. What is imparted, is defective both in kind and in extent, There are three kinds of education, which ought to be distinguished, but which at present we do not distinguish with sufficient care. ( 1) Culture, that is, the education necessary for every human being, in order that he may be able worthily to fulfil duties as a member of social institutions; (2) Professional Training, necessary for the earning of a livelihood ; (3) Erudition, demanded by those who would advance science, or give instruction in it, It is regrettable that both in our schools and in our colleges, these are hopelessly confused, and that the first receives but scanty attention. Even more regrettable is the fact that our schools and colleges for the most part, confine their attention to persons who have nothing to do but study, who are not enga ed in any kind of useful or productive labor. This resu H ts in two evils : (I) Education, for the great body of the people, must stop at an early
cannot be said of our people that they IT or miserly in the matter of education.
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age, since the children of all but wealthy families must go to work as soon as possible, few of them reaching the High School, fewer yet the University, or Professional Training School ; (2) education is withheld just from those who are in the best position to profit by it; for every teacher with sufficient experience knows that people who have a knowledge of practical life and its duties are far better and more encouraging pupils than those who have not, It thus appears that social and civic culture is, for the most part, neglected in our educational institutions, and that it altogether fails to reach those who are best fitted to profit by it. In a word, the culture calculated to make the wise and good citizen is almost not-existent. We have good merchants, ood doctors, good lawyers, etc. in abundance, but we a ave rsons of liberal culture, and still fewer who can few wort R iIy fill important offices in society and state, or even cast an intelligent vote for such. Fewest of all those who understand how their lives affect the general welfare, whence the money they earn comes, and whether or not it is an equivalent for benefits conferred upon society. Thus it comes to pass that the lives of the great mass of our citizens are unintelligent, narrow, sordid, envious, and unhappy, and that we are constantly threatened with popular uprisings and the overthrow of our free institutions. Thus too it comes that our politics are base, and our politicians venal and selfish. The laboring classes are, through want of education, easily cozened or bribed to vote in opposition to their own best interests, and so to condemn themselves to continued slavish toil and poverty, which means exclusion from all share in the spiritual wealth of the race. There is, at the present time, perhaps no individual problem in our country so pressing as that of the higher education-the intellectual, moral and social culture-of that great body of men and women,
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who, from a an early age, have to spend the larger portion of their time in earning a livelihood. These include not onI the working classes so-called-the skilled and the unskJ ed laborers-but also the great majority of the wageearners of every sort, and not a few of the wage-givers. All these need a larger world, a more ideal outlook, such as education alone can give, not only to impart meaning and dignity to their life of toil, but also to enable them to contribute their share to the well-being of society, and prevent it from falling back into violence and barbarism. It is true that, in the last few years, considerable efforts have been made to provide the breadwinners with opportunities both for professional training and higher culture. In our larger cities, university extension has been introduced, training schools have been opened, and evenin schools and lectures, on a large scale, established. Of t a ese efforts there is nothing but good to say. They are, however, a promise rather than a fulfilment, a beginnin and little more. They must be greatly extended an dg systematized before they can meet the needs of the breadwinners. The trainin schools are, of course, an unmixed good, and we o 3 y require more of them; but the university extension, to a large extent, im arts a sort of education that is not demanded, and fa H to give much that is demanded, while both it and the evening classes and lectures are deficient in system and unity of plan. Neither has a distinct aim, and neither sufficiently controls the work of the pupils. Worst of all, both exclude from their programmes some of the very subjects which it is most essential for the breadwinners to be acquainted with-economics, sociology, politics, religion, etc. Of the three kinds of education, the breadwinners need only two, (I) technical training, (2) intellectual and moral, or social training. The breadwinner, if his work is to be effective, and equivalent to a decent livelihood, earnable with a moderate expenditure of
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time and energy, must have skill, otherwise he will have neither time nor energy left for any other sort of education. Spare time and energy are prime elements in the whole question. In any just order of society, each member will receive from society a just e uivalent for what he contributes to it. If he is so unski 9 ed that his work is not equivalent to a livelihood, he has no right to complain, when he suffers want. It must therefore, be the aim of every one who would humanize and elevate the breadwinners,. to see that they have skill enough to earn their daily bread without depriving themselves of free time and energy to devote to living and spiritual culture. Supposing now, that all the breadwinners were in the condition that, being able to earn a living in, say, eight hours a day, they had considerable free time ; they might still remain uncultured and They might still sordid, their tastes vulgar or depraved. have little rest and joy in life, little inspiring outlook. They might still not be valuable members of society, We have not done our whole duty by the breadwinners ; when we have made them comfortable, we must go further and make them cultured and wise. Now, what must be the nature of such culture and wisdom ? We may answer: such as shall enable their recipients to play worthy and generous part in all the relations of life and to enjoy those high satisfactions that come of such worthiness. We may express this otherwise, by saying that they must be such as to enable a man to know and understand his environment; to take an intelligent interest in all that goes on, or has gone on in the world ; to enter into lofty personal relations, and to live clean, tasteful, useful, self-respecting lives, The relations for which culture should prepare are, (1) personal, (2) domestic, (3) social including economic), (4) political. It would be possib I e to arrange a system of education on the basis of this classification; but it is not necessary to do so. The different relations, however, ought
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to be kept in view in arranging any course of culturestudies. Perhaps the following curricuthree or four years, might meet the lum, extending over needs of the breadwinners in the present condition. 1. Evolution, its Theory and History. 2. History of Civilization. 3. The System of the Sciences. 4, Sociolo 5. Politica Vy Theory and History. 6, History of Industry and Commerce. 7. History of Education (Psychology). 8, History of Science and Philosophy. 9, History of Ethical Theory, IO. Comparative Religion. 11. Comparative Literature. 12. History and Theory of the Fine Arts. In following out this curriculum, the greatest care should be taken to avoid any imposing of any special theory or doctrine, religious, political, economical, etc., upon the pupils. All theories should be freely discussed without bias, party-spirit, or passion, and every effort made to elicit the truth from the pupils themThe important thing is that they should learn to selves. think for themselves, and thus become morally free. With a view to this, the work of the teacher should conThe less he sist mostly in direction and encouragement. does himself, and the more he makes his pupils do, the better, Lecturing should be resorted to on1 b way of s g ou rd be folintroduction, then the seminary-method lowed, As a rule, some handy, compact, epoch-making book should be made the basis of work,-for example, and History Aristotles Politics for Political Theo then a list of books should be given 7 or the pupils to analyze, epitomize and criticize, in written essays, to be read and discussed before the class, Then, when difficult points come up, or deeper researches have to be made, these
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In this should be assigned as subjects for special essays. way, a wide knowledge of each subject and of its literature will be gained, and a deep interest aroused. The curriculum, as a whole, will impart just the unitary views of the world, and its agencies, which will give meaning and zest to the individual life and make the good citizen. At the close of each study, the pupils should be asked to sum up, in a brief essay, of not more than five hundred words, what they have learned from it. This will take the place of examination. Having settled what kind of culture is necessary for the breadwinners, we must next consider how it may be best brought within their reach. ( 1) That For this, two things, above all, are necessary. they should know what is proposed, and recognize its value; (2) that they should have spare time, energy and convenience for continued study. The former of these aims may be reached through the public press,-newspapers, ma azines, etc.- and throu h lectures, which are here in or f er. It is needless to dwe H on the efficiency of the press in bringing things before the public; but a few words may It would be of the utmost moment be said about lectures. to arrange for a course of ten lectures, covering as many weeks, and given on some convenient evening when most of the breadwinners of the neighborhood could attend. Th e fo ll owing are suggested as titles for such lectures :(S) The Present State of Education among the Breadwinners, and their Opportunities for obtaining What they should do, Higher Education. (2) The Education needed by the Breadwinners, and how it must differ from School and College Education, (3) The Education needed by the Individual, in order to lift him above narrow, sordid ends.
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(4) The education needed for the Ends of the Family. (5) The Education needed for the Ends of Civil Society, for the Tradesman, the Merchant, etc.-l. Technical Education. 2. Moral Training. 6 The Education needed by the Citizen. 7 The need of Unity, System and Aim in Edut1 The Defects of our Present Education in this cation, Respect. How can Education be carried into the Home? (; 1 The States Duty in Regard to the Culture of the Breadwinners. (IO) A Scheme for a Breadwinners Culture Institute, to be established in every Township, and in every City Ward, to supplement our Public Schools. I cannot but think that, if such a course of lectures were given, at a convenient time, by competent persons, carefully reported in the daily newspapers, and afterwards printed in the form of a cheap book, it would meet with a hearty response from the breadwinners. It is necessary, not only that Breadwinners should be brought to desire higher culture, but also that they should have the time, energy, and convenience to acquire it. How this is to be done, is one of the great social questions of the day, and one that I do not propose to answer here, but of two things I am morally certain : (I) that it cannot effectually be done by any legislation in favor of an ei ht-hour working day, or anything of that sort; and r 2) that, if the Breadwinners made it evident that they desired free time, in order to devote it to self-culture, from which they are debarred by long hours of labor, public sentiment would soon insist that such time shouId be accorded them, and provisions One main reason why the demade for such culture. mand for shorter hours meets with comparatively little response from the public is the prevalent belief that a very
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large number of breadwinners would make a bad use of the spare time, spending it in saloons and other coarse Labor, it is said, is better, or more profitable than resorts. idleness and saloon life. And there is some reason in this. Spare time demanded for culture would most certainly be accorded, and it will, I think, hardly ever be obtained on any other plea. I need hardly add that spare time would bring with it spare energy; for it is the long hours that exhaust the energies. Along with time and energy, the breadwinners must have home conveniences for stud . Many, of course, have these, but many have not. k crowded rooms or appartments in tenement houses, it is hard to find a quiet corner for study, and the public libraries and reading rooms offer conveniences for but a small number. This state of things must be remedied, and, I think, would be remedied as soon as there was any genuine desire for culture. Persons inspired by this would refuse to live where they could not have convenience to study, and would thus be brought to demand a higher standard of living, a thing altogether desirable. At the same time, public reading rooms would doubtless increase, At the present time, we hear a great deal about saloon-politics, and the corruption that results from them; and manifold efforts are being made to start rivals to the saloon, which a very reverend bishop has told us, is the poor mans club room. It is sad to think that the bishop is right, and that the poor man has not been able, thus far, to establish any other sort of clubroom, It is my firm belief that the successful rival of the saloon will not be the coffee-room, the reading-room, the pool-room, or the concert-room, but the lecture-room and the school-room, with their various appurtenances and opportunities. I believe that we shall never be able to put a stop to the deleterious effects of the saloon upon individual, social and political fife, untif we establish in
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ever city ward, and in every village, a culture institute for tL e great body of the people, who are engaged in business during the day-an institute composed of three parts: (I) a technical school, (2) a civic-culture school, and (3) a gymnasium. Such institutions must sooner or later be established by the State, and supported by public funds, as a part of the system of public education; but at present, it is well that the should be undertaken by private effort, and their uti kty, yea, their necessity clearly shown. The Educational Alliance is in a position to take an important step in this direction, and it can do so, by establishing a system of evening classes with a pro gramme such as I have sketched, and appealing to the breadwinners by a course of lectures of the nature I have indicated.
Only the other evenin I was lamenting that the sick poor are sent out of the E ospital while convalescent, and, hopeless and helpless, are compelled to battle with the world, and I awoke the very next morning to read in my paper that millions of dollars had been given to establish homes for just such sufferers. It would seem as though the world had at last set out to work with God for his children. The great need of the times is for men and women of power and influence.
Jacob Riis in New York Tdbune ofjuly II, 1902.
A HOUSE SARGENT
HOUSE designed to be at once simple, convenient and beautiful, is presented in a number of drawings and plans from the workshops of The United Crafts, Everythin entering into the composition of this dwellin is admitte ii because it plays a constructive part, while a fi superfluous or applied ornament is excluded from the work. The exterior plainly indicates the character of the interior, which is the first artistic essential of all buildings from the simplest to the most elaborate and important. The setting of the house is first of all considered. Its supposed environment is a lawn with trees. So, in summer, as against a green background, or in winter in the ayness of its midst of light reflected from snow, the materials will offer a pleasing contrast to tYe eye, suggestive of rest and quiet, Plaster is to be used in the lower storey, and shingles in the upper, the roof-line projecting considerably over the sides; the gable end being closed with a modeled plaster pediment, and the side windows of the lower storey bein provided with short hoods, shingled like the roof: a 8 evice employed constructively as a protection from storm, and decoratively to repeat the roof-line on a small scale, and to continue the use of the shingles; thus breaking what would be otherwise a too abrupt and sharp line of division between the storeys, The quaintness of effect in the exterior is further accented by broad, low mullioned windows of leaded glass. At the front, the two storey veranda or Zoggia is used with the simplest form of columnar supports and balustrades. The ground plan is a long rectangle, with the principal entrance at the extreme right of the front. This door leads into a vestibule, paved with red brick, thence into a la e living-room, and stands opposite a broad staircase, w?l ch originates in the same room. Fastened to the wall of the staircase is a manifold screen which may be extended at will for a considerable distance across the width of the house, in order to form a At will, also, the screen may be temporary diningroom.
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folded closely to the wall. Two notable seats are found in the living room : one fixed, and extending from the vestibule wall, across the entire front ; the other set against the staircase wall, lengthwise of the house, within the screened portion of the living room, and abutting upon a solidly built chimney, This latter essential is so treated that while constructively its masonry serves for both living-room and kitchen, it also becomes one of the strongest factors in the interior decoration. Connected with the kitchen are pantries, lockers and sinks, devised according to the most modern and scientific idea of arrangement and sanitation, The bedrooms, three in number, are located in the upper story; the southern frontage of the house making the largest of the three especially delightful as a place in which to study or work during the autumn and winter months. The middle chamber is long, rather than wide, since the staircase and the hall are taken from one of its sides. The third chamber, with its full north-light, is equally as attractive as the first, and might serve as a studio. The color-schemes in the various divisions of the house complete the union of beauty with comfort which should characterize every home, however simple and humble it may be. Beginning again with the living room, its colors, tints and shades are no less to be noted than are its skilfully adapted features of construction. Here, the floor is laid in broad boards with wide joints filled with black cement. The wood-work is chestnut of a deep, rich brown ; wall-panels in dull blue burlap, or similar material, appearing above and harmony of color the wainscoting : a combination which was used with great effect by the old masters of painting. Above the panels runs a plaster frieze in Naples fellow; while the ceilin between the open chestnut beams shows a much lig1 ter and paler shade of
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yellow, creamy and soft. The chimney is built in Harvard brick with raked-out joints in black. The firedogs are in hand-wrought iron ; the cabinet work is of fumed oak: the rugs show designs traced in brown, blue and yellow; the draperies are in raw silks of yellowish tones, and the cushions of similar effects in washable textiles. In the upper storey, a new color scheme meets the eye in each room, lending itself to the character of light admitted by the northern, southern, or midway situation, Here, all the floors are stained green, with a strip of the same color extending upward three inches from the floor-line and offering a curve slightly concave : a device used for the protection of the woodwork from stains and marring, and a preventive against the gathering of dust which can not be easily removed. All the woodwork is painted ivory white, with the portable pieces of cabinet-making differing in each room. The last named are few in number, as the fitments or immovable receptacles here f&l the uses of our more usual wardrobes, armoires, dressing tables, cupboards and bookcases. For example, a triangle is taken from one corner of the large chamber; double doors, each divided into two unequal sections, are fitted across the base of the figure ; the lower section being of wmd, the upper in leaded glass. Again, in the same room, a closet is built, utilizing a space above the staircase; while a third immovable piece gives a large armoire with attached dressing-case, the whole advancing from the line of the rear wall, But the most ingenious perhaps of all these constructions is an armoire joined to a chest of drawers with an inset mirror and upper cupboard, the two pieces making an even line with the open fire-place. The portable pieces in the furnishings of the chambers differ in material as the walls and textiles differ in color: the front chamber with its southern exposure containing a bed, table and chairs in
HOUSE
AND
HOME
245
green ash, while its walls, draperies and ru s are held cool and restrained in tone. In contrast wi tE this treatment, and to offset the situation, we find the third chamber showing strong yellow walls brilliant in the north light: a color effect which is refined and softened by the use of furnishings in a species of gray oak known under the name of driftwood. Lastly, the middle chamber offers a scheme of green and blue, the former color occurring in the beautiful Grueby tiling of the fire-place. From this somewhat detailed description it will be seen that, as it was at first asserted, our house is most simple in both construction and ornament; elementary principles only being involved in the building, and three colors at the most composing the color-chord of a room. In such a home as this, the storm and stress of life would be under the rule of simplicity. Simplicity of effect would meet the eye, and through the eye, work its soothing influence upon the brain, which would be induced to a healthy and normal action never to be attained in a complex, crowded environment of fantastic forms and of intricate color combinations. Simplicity of wants would be enforced by the arrangement of plan and by the small number of objects admitted into the service of the rooms. Simplicity and definiteness of occupation would be encouraged by what must be named the frankness of the appointments, since here no error can be made as to the function or use of a given object; each being made by its maker to tell the plain story of its creation. In such a home as this, the question would be to work or not to work ;n for no litter of things could confuse, distress or annoy the mind of its inmates, no compromise would be possible between a productive activity and a restless state or mood, captivated by aggressive externals and obedient to no clear cause or direct aim. If then, simplicity is to give us peace and quief in exchange for anxiety and wasted effort, we can not welcome it too quickly, or too warmly.
POSSIBILITIES OF CRAFTSMANSHIP FOR THE UNSUCCESSFUL ARTIST BY SAMUEL HOWE Q & D r~

PROBLEM before us is how to turn the thoughts and hands of the great mass of American art students from the persistent manufacture of unsalable pictures and designs to some branch of craftsmanship which, from a financial standpoint, wiIl prove to be a paying venture. Painters make exceI.Ient craftsmen for the reason that they have mental endowment far above the average, as weII as technical &II and the advantages which come from technical training. But to become practicaIly efficient they must be transported from the country of dreams to the more invigorating atmosphere of the workshop. The belief prevails that the future belongs to the students of science. For these are days of liquefied air and acetylene gas, of electric furnaces, of houses built of glass, of compressed air and storage batteries, of the rescue of kerosene oiI from the despised refuse of rivers and harbors. But science is not always to the fore. Re-discoveries have been made in the old and lost arts of lass-making and enameling. Improvements have been ei! ected in the arts of printing, book-illustration and photography, And many of these discoveries are directly attributable to painters. Such successes justify us in expressing the hope that means may be found to tempt the painters of pictures and the designers of decorations which rarely sell, to adopt some other work which shall pay : some work which is not foreign to the instincts of the craftsman and which shall express his own personality. Artists are dreamers, engineers are workers, say some, and in proof of their assertion, they point to an illustration ins recent issue of a popular magazine, in which the overall-clad sons of our industrial millionaires are seen Such engineers in embryo, not astride a locomotive. satisfied with the solutions of problems on paper, spend
CRAFTSMANSHIP
FOR
THE
ARTIST
247
three or four years of their lives amid the dirt, din, and turmoil of machine shops, working like Trojans to master the rudiments of their craft, It has been asserted that the general practice of the engineer invites him to that mode of procedure ; that for him, unhampered by academic rule or classic precedent, with no philosophy to live up to,-for science is a measurement, while art is a power which is expected to crystallize thought-success is assured. However that may be, the engineer generally succeeds in securing financial assistance, while the artist only too freuentiy joins the great throng of those who are known to % e world as failures, Is there no help for this ? Are means provided whereby our artists can acquire the practical experience in craftsmanship which is given to their brothers in the engineering field ? Thousands of dollars have been freely spent to found and uipplants for carryin on the most obtuse and campIicated experiments, w Kl Ie on the other hand, the art-student is housed in indifferent quarters, which are wholly inadequate to his requirements ; his only aid to the study of his art being mediocre collections, if any, of books, photographs and mod&. Understanding these conditions, France, Germany, Austria and England have established technical schools and museums of industrial and decorative arts, housing them after the most approved plans and completely equipping them with models and with bodies of Germany has established such competent instructors, schools in every capital; there are a number of them in Austria, France and England, but not one in America. True, there is something of the type of work known as manual training in the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, the Teachers College of Columbia University, the art schools of St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, PhiIadeIphia and Boston ; but with the exception of one or two departments headed by energetic hard-working enthusiasts,
248
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CRAFTSMAN
Broadly speaking, it serves this work is but elementary. to connect the hand with the eye in a sort of kindergarten, which we are glad to see, but about which much cannot be said because it does not o far enough for the purpose. + urnin again to the practical sciences, we find that Columbia & niversity has almost every known type of engine for steam, electricity, hot air, gas : machines for gauging weights and bearings, and for Pratt Institute, in addition to testing building materials. most of these, has a blast furnace for smelting iron, as well as furnaces for melting brass and other metals. The New York Trade schoofs have complete equipments for the practical study of electricity, plumbing and plastering, The universities of the entire country are amply supplied with those manufacturing and testing stations so essential to the engineer for the understanding of his rudimentary problems. Art has been left to care for itself. The most active art organizations in this country, the Art Students League of New York and the Art Institution of Chicago, which send out far more painters and sculptors than any other schools in America, are again engaged in enlarging their premises. The Art League has so far extended its work as to bring it face to face with the problem of adding crafts to art, while the Chicago Institution is making additions to its building for the housing of new classes,-possibly with the same end in view. The Art Students League was established in 1875 by a handful of enthusiasts who desired greater facilities for the study of art than then existed It is a self-governing body, electing its in this country. own lecturers and instructors, and directing its own policy; having no resources other than the tuition fees of At its students, who come from all parts of the country. the time the League was founded, there was a crying need for practical training in the art of illustrating, as un-
CRAFTSMANSHIP
FOR THE
ARTIST
249
derstood by a book-loving community. Authors were able to write a graphic description of their scenes, but it required a strength of drawing which few possessed to interpret those scenes in such a form as to be readily assimilated by the average intellect. It was to qualify the students for such work that the League made evety effort ; and the phenomenal success which has marked book and magazine illustration is obvious to all. To-day stories are well, strongly, graphically illustrated. The story of the writer is given to the public by the illustrator in such vivid, pertinent, terse, and accurate form that anyone who has eyes to see can readily grasp the situation. The Art League is very largely responsible for this improvement, This work entailed the study of the figure, both nude and draped, at rest and in movement, grotesque and natural, Life classes were formed, figures posed, costumes studied, libraries consulted for historical authorities, while classes were formed for the study of landscape and for trips to foreign countries. The wide range of subject sometimes required the study of life in the frozen North, among the icebergs, or in the far West on the hunting trail, the ranch, or among the Indians; the illustrators often living in their tepees that they mi ht portray the life, thoughts, and movements of their su t jects by faithful rendering of actual observations. Passive and resigned, submitting without revolt to the essential changes of the ever varying conditions, the illustrator has enjoyed this search for material, in his efforts to serve an exacting and fickle public. Were this all that the League had accomplished, it would surely merit the dignified position assigned it by all who have intelligently studied its workings. But it is not all. Two years ago, a class for the study of architecture was formed under the able leadership of a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. This class was designed to give the students such principles of architecture as are
250
THE
CRAFTSMAN
essential to their correct rather than in buildings.
use in pictures
and sculpture
On the 16th of A riI of the present year, the same brisk, liberal, far-sig Kted policy prompted the directors of the League to make the boldest step in their career, by adding to their curriculum industrial art as represented by the Evelyn Nordhoff Bindery. The students will now have an opportunity to acquire knowledge of the delicate art of sewing and colIating books, designing and making book covers, and all the technical detail essential to the fascinating craft of binding. Craftsmen are much needed. We have now too many iuustrators, and far too many socalIed decorators ; too many workers who depend simply upon their abiIity to portray a thought, an idea, a theme on paper, but who wholly depend upon the workman to carry out their scheme. By changing these conditions, the artist-student wilI be his own workman, carve his own wood, form his own metal, weave his own tapestries and rugs. Sculptors are shrewd, clever, adaptable, uncomplaining workers, who are forever astonishing us by the facility with which they acquire practical knowledge at every turn of their difficult work. Their success as craftsmen has been as decided as that of Gstrators. Basing our hopes u n these successes, we look for an improved condition, w P en our young painters and designers shall. join the crafts, and because of the good that is in them, no chance should be neglected to enlist their interest. And yet, all the students in the League are not workers; for there are the fashionable young women of the school to whom time is a jest ; who go carelessly through League life, with half their interest given to dancing lessons and society. Misguided philosophers are they, payers of fees, young, clever, witty, beautiful, to whom Art with a capital A is a wekome
CRAFTSMANSHIP
FOR
THE
ARTIST
251
re-action from the whirl of fashion; who leave the school as soon as they recover their senses, saluting their instructors as erratic, although charming theorists. The League with all that it stands for is regarded as a de&&t. time-killing experience in the kingdom of
, .
The galleries, expositions and studios of our young friends, the real students, are eloquent witnesses to a deep knowled e of the rinciples underlying the study of nature and oH art. TRe oil studies water color sketches, and wash drawings there showd frequently betray a broad, liberal handling of mass not We often find crisp, suggestive devoid of education. sketches, sparkling with bits of direct, related detail; rhythm and harmony, as well as thoughtful consideration showing the full understanding of values. The careful notes upon color relation and the truthful drawing show a quality dignified, restful, simple, at times remarkable, which justifies the conclusion given at the head of this paper that painters make splendid craftsmen. At least, this is found to be true in Europe. Why not in America ?
Through a too common illusion, simplicity and beauty are considered as rivals. But simple is not synonymous with ugly, any more than sumptuous, stylish and costly are synonymous with beautiful. Our contemporary art suffers as much from the want of simplicity as does our literature-too much in it that is irrelevant, over-wrought, falsely imagined. Rarely is it iven us to contemplate in line form or color, that rfection which commands the eyes simp ii city allied to as evidence does t lY e mind.
Charles Wagner, in The Simple Life.
THE SIMPLE LIFE BY CHARLES WAGNER & A REVIEW D e o 66 spirit of simplicity is a great magician. It
bridges chasms, draws together hands and hearts. The forms which it takes in the world are infinite in number ; but never does it seem to us more admirable than when it shows itself across the fatal barriers of position, interest, or prejudice, overcoming the greatest obstacles, permitting those whom everything seems to separate to understand one another, esteem one another, love one another. This is the true social cement, that goes into the building of a people. Such is the concludin paragraph of a little book which, written from the fu H ness of knowledge and experience, has been sent out b its author upon a sacred mission to encourage and up lz t, to warn and to teach. In the reading rooms of our public libraries, the book may be seen in the hands of earnest men and women whose faces brighten and grow youn as they come upon some truth or sentiment which they t a emselves have long and deeply felt, but have lacked the power to formulate. The book in both thought and expression is of that quality which the French characterize as intimate. Therefore, it grows precious as one reads it. Its utterances echo in the mind like those of some cherished voice. rfit;dms almost to have assumed the personality of a
, .
T HE softens asperities,
The introduction to The Simple Life, sympathetically written, contrasts the volume of essays with the city of Paris, from which it was sent forth. It declares that a limpid, bubblin spring, fresh and cool from its forest source, running dg own one of the boulevards, would hardly appear more miraculous to the eye, or more refreshing to the senses. The statement is forceful and true to a de ree. Yet the connection of the reat complex city wit a the simple life is quite explicab H e, natural, and even usual. For it is well established that aversion for the beauties of nature and hatred of simplicity most often embitter the lives of tillers of the
THE
SIMPLE
LIFE
253
soil and cottagers; while the true lover of the great realities may as easil be a sovereign as a peasant. It must be remembered ti$ t the most exquisite pastorals, barring the Hebrew, have been composed at courts, or in crowded cities, and that the greatest modern inheritor of the classic nature-spirit was a Frenchwoman, a participator in the most complex phases of Parisian life, Furthermore it was a child of the Latin Quarter who, from the heights and depths of his rapid experiences, cried : The soul can open wings wide as heaven in a dungeon narrow as the hand. Certain it is that the French, although taxed with bein artificial and vain, yet bear away the crown in art an dgliterature for the most complete and most delicate expression of simplicity; as it is amply proven by Millet and Breton, LHermitte and Bonheur in modern painting, and by George Sand, Loti and Bazin in modern The book of The Simple Life is no prose-writing. anomaly. It is clearly the product of a rational intellect trained and alert, polished by attrition with the argumentative minds of the French middle-classes, and reaching in intent and aspiration above and beyond all barriers of time and space, The author of The Simple Life is an Alsatian, a shepherd from that hill country which, together with the fertile Lorraine, was lost to France by the war of 1870. The writer is a Lutheran pastor who was educated in both French and German universities and is now established over a congregation in Paris which includes almost every intellectual and social element in modern France: a body, therefore well qualified to partici ate in the work of reli ous and moral unification whit K Wagner regards as tEie great issue of the age+ It is said that this teacher and writer is at best in his pulpit; that his sermons rouse and startle like a call to arms, losing no force from the fact that they are not pleas for individual salvation, but gain-
254
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in in breadth and significance by their demand for human soH idarity against injustice, the relief of misfortune, and the spiritualization of life, The Pastor Wagners work He has of instruction does not end with formal sermons. of oung men enrolled from his congregation a socie and another of young women with wz om Ke discusses the questions of the day which are to him matters of religion. Then, outside his pastoral duties, he labors in behalf of the working men of Paris, for whom he organizes meetings and whom he serves in other ways ; working always in the belief that the morality of the reater number is the only resource by which liberty can 7ive in a democracy ; seeking to effect an alliance of effort for moral action, a union and brotherhood based upon convictions of patriotic and civic duty. Unlike many reformers, the Pastor Wa ner has a thoroughly ractical genius, as is roven by El s fruitful activity and % rge share in the estab E shment of the so-calIed popular universities, which are courses of instruction designed to educate working men in the rudiments of economics, history, art and ethics; the number of these institutions having increased from one opened in 1898, in that hot-bed of insurrection, the Faubourg Saint Antoine, to twenty that are now flourishing in various quarters of Paris, and more than one hundred in France. It is this practical genius which vitalizes the words of The Simple Life, and sends them upon an effective mission to alI sorts and conditions of men, without raising questions of creed, race or class, and awakening in ever touched heart a sentiment responsive to that impulse un cr er whose mastery Wagner himself confesses to write : 1 am a man and nothing that is human is indifferent to me. The book is, like all other writings of its author, the outcome of his lectures, sermons and daily experiences of life, and a glance at its table of
THE
SIMPLE
LIFE
255
chapters shows that genius for analysis and order which minds of French training aIone possess. In clear concepts, crystaIIized in exquisite form, reminding one of the jewelIike style of La Rochefoucauld, the Lutheran pastor discusses our corn lex life; the essence of simplicity; simpricity of spee ci , simple duties, needs, pleasures and zc;ty ; the world and the life of home; pride and simI , in the intercourse of men ; and the education for 1: simp city. Judged by his words, M. Wagner is no radical, revolutionist or reversionist. He proposes no hard or fast rules to be observed by those who would reform society and save the world. He simply offers individual ideaIs which to foIlow would be to ensure for ourselves and others the possession of beauty, comfort and happiness such as we do not now know. In taking his point of view, he expresses his belief that simphcity does not belong to special social or economic phases : rather that it is a spirit, able to vivify and modify lives of very different sorts. In his own words : AII of mens agitations for greater ustice and more light have also been movements towar d a simpler Iife ; and the simplicity of olden times, in manners, art and ideas, stiI1 keeps its incom rable value, only because it achieved the setting forth in K igh relief of certain essentiaI sentiments and It is a simplicity to cherish certain permanent truths. and reverence ; but he little comprehends it who thinks its peculiar virtue Iies in its outward manifestation. In brief, if it is impossible for us to be simple in the forms our fathers used, we may remain simple, or return to simplicity in their spiritrf While it is the first principle of M. Wagner that materiaI prosperity without an offset, diminishes ca acity for happiness and debases character, he says plain P y that, in his view, simplici does not reside in externals, but is a sfate of mind; that p ivery counts for nothing, the heart alone being the index and measure of
256
THE
CRAFTSMAN
character. And here he writes: A man is simple when his chief care is the wish to be what he ought to be ; that is : honestly and naturally human. We may compare existence to raw material. What it is, matters less than what is made of it, as the value of a work of art lies in the flowering of a workmans skill. True life is possible in social conditions the most diverse, and with natural gifts the most unequal. It is not fortune, or personal advantage, but our turning them to account, that constitutes the value of life. Fame adds no more than does length of days : quality is the thing. Under the head of simple needs, Mr. Wagner emphasizes certain truths which we all more or less strongly feel, but which few of us have courage to exemplify in our lives. He insists that our wants should be our servants, rather than the turburants which they have become lent, seditious legion of in our complex life. T x s thought is not a new one. It was even more strongly expressed by Plato, when, in his Ideal Republic, he compared the natural passions and impulses of man with the artisan-classes of the State, who work incessantly upon raw material, which they convert into useful articles, or else utterly and wickedly waste and destroy. But the words of Mr. Wagner are such as quickly captivate the ear and mind of the modern man, He thus speaks of the results of the re$gn of need: After us the deluge! To raze the forests in order to get gold, to squander your patrimony in youth, destroying in a day the fruit of long years ; to warm your house by burning your furniture, to burden the future with debts for the sake of present pleasure ; to live by expedients and sow for the morrow trouble, sickness, ruin, envy and hatethe enumeration of all the misdeeds of this fatal regime Then, having offered this picture of chaos, has no end, he reasons in that spirit of thrift and contentment so characteristic of the French provincial: The more simply you live, the
THE
SlMPLE
Ll%-E
257
more secure is your future; you are less at the mercy of Having simple needs, you find surprises and reverses. it less painful to accustom yourself to the hazards of forYou remain a man, though you lose your office tune. or your income, because the foundation on which your life rests is not your table, your cellar, your horses, your goods and chattels, or your money. In adversity you will not act like a nursling deprived of its bottle and rattle. Stronger, better armed for the struggle, presenting, like those with shaven heads, less advantage to the enemy, Less you will also be of more profit to your neighbor, absorbed in your own comfort, you will find the means of working for that of theirs. Such is the sentiment of selfrestraint and altruism, therefore of true Christianity, which pervades and perfumes the volume of The Simple Life. It announces that France has arrived at a parting of the ways, and that she is even now entering upon a work of regeneration in letters, art, religion and national life : in a word, that she is passing from a critical into an organic period.
THE AND
Boston T HE successfully
BOSTON CRAFTS
SOCIETY D Q
OF ARTS m m ro
Society of Arts and Crafts is steadily and pursuing its work, The breadth and soundness of its principles will best be understood through a quotation from its constitution: This Society was incorporated for the purpose of promoting artistic work in all It hopes to bring Designers and branches of handicraft. Workmen into mutually helpful relations, and to encourage workmen to execute designs of their own. It endeavors to stimulate in workmen an appreciation of the dignity and the value of good design ; to counteract the popular impatience of Law and Form, and the desire for over ornamentation and specious originality. It will insist upon the necessity of sobriety and restraint, of ordered arrangement, of due regard for the relation between the form of its object and its use, and of harmony and fitness in the decorations put upon it. The membership of the Society is divided into three classes: Craftsmen, Masters and Associates -The grade of Craftsmen is held to include desi ers, as well as those practising some branch of a ie plie lidecorative art. The title and privilege of Master P within the grant of the Council alone, and are conferred only upon a person previously admitted to membership as a Craftsman, who shall have clearly established by contributions to the Societys exhibitions, or otherwise, a Finally, standard of excellence approved by the Council. persons interested in the aims of the Society, but not hab itually employed as designers or craftsmen, may join the Society as Associates. The rooms of the organization, at number 14,Somerset Street, Boston, are open to the public dail from nine until five oclock, for the exhibition and sale o r such work, designed or executed by members, as has been approved by a jury elected by a council, A number of productions now shown call for especial notice, Among these are speci-
BOSTON
SOCIETY
OF ARTS
AND
CRAFTS
259
mens of ceramics from the Grueby Faience Company, from Dedham, Newburyport, and the student-craftsmen of Tulane University. The Merrimac (Newburyport) pottery is characterized by a firm, hard glaze which adapts it to useful purposes, while it lacks the fine color and beautiful opa ue surface of the Grueby and the Dedham TX e ar t IC Ies sent from Tulane are simple in products. form and admirable in color. They are also interesting as illustratin an industrial experiment, which, begun Fir scale, is rapidly acquiring importance. ??Fy trtg work of raduate women students from the art department of the B niversity. Another fine exhibit is made by William R, Mercer (Doyle&own, Pa.) of tiles in soft and pleasing tones, similar to those from the same workshops which have been largely used by Mrs. John L. Gardner in her palace in the Fens. In book-binding, there are many beautiful examples from the Merrymount Press, some of which are so costly as to place them beyond the reach of the many, while others, equally remarkable for their workmanship, and good taste, are simple and inexpensive, In the latter class may be mentioned the two thin volumes of Robert Louis Stevensons Aes Triplex, which are noticeable by their fine paper, clear type, well adjusted margins and refined covers. These are the work of Mr. Opdyke whose sense of simplicity, proportion and fitness leads him to results as happy as those which are obtained in more expensive books by means of rich elaboration. As a whole the permanent exhibition of the Society of Arts and Crafts justifies its reso lution to offer only such products as are the results of healthy and ennobling labor.

The Craftsman - 1902 - 08 - August

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www.historicalworks.

I. II. III. IV. IV. VI.

of Public Art Irene Sargent Rabbijoseph Lkser

The Higher Education _ _ A House and Home Possibilities The

Ground and second stoy plans of one-room house.

EDWARD ETHICS of 46 ITH w those

HOWARD GRIGGS IN THE SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION*

SIMPLICITY: A LAW OF NATURE BY THE RABBI JOSEPH LEISER & m

THE HIGHER BREADWINNERS DAVIDSON 0

EDUCATION OF THE D BY THOMAS W. Q & D Q Q Q

POSSIBILITIES OF CRAFTSMANSHIP FOR THE UNSUCCESSFUL ARTIST BY SAMUEL HOWE Q & D r~

essential to their correct rather than in buildings.

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