Will Durant Tells the Why ot Art
\
'mm
And How Cars and Steam Radiators
Reflect the New Beauty Urge
By WILL DURAiST.
Author of “The Story of l>hilotophy.,t
YES, art is decaying. From the
time that Galileo steered his
r telescope across tho sky, art
1 •withered and sciences was more and
more. Mathematics made, mechanics
and mechanics rriado industry and in
dustry made quantities and quality be
gan to die. Machines made things
cheaper—and made cheaper things;
every article was like a million others,
not individualized by an artist's hand,
not unique and precious in its use.
Who could love it now that it might
be so easily replaced?
Architecture began to die: homes
were poured out along the streets as
if by some bestial machine, in deadly
rows and miles ol' duplication; horrihlc
office buildings, built like prisons in
patterns geometrical, displaced cathe
drals whose every stone was carved
with patience into difference and
beauty.
Painting began to die: once it had
lived by catching a passing loveliness
and making it permanent with the
brush; once it had preserved the radi
ance of a dying day, or given immor
tality to Mona Lisa’s smile; but now
science came and made the camera,
made it cleverer than any brush, gave
it tho colors of rainbow and palette,
and taught it even to mako ugly faces
beautiful; the task of the painter wa3
taken from him, his art sickened into
bizarreries, into a chaos of novc.Itie3
as numerous as the nostrum that try
to keep off death.
Drama decayed, replaced by the mo
tion picture, duplicated in color and
sound, and confined to ideas that could
mppeal to vast majorities. Sculpture
decayed; how could a sculptor carve
rur universal pantaloon# into a thing
of beauty? Music decayed; the
rhythm of life had given way to the
fever of life, the grace and swing of
ancient dances yielded to the mechan
ical staccato of barbaric contortions,
MR. TELEVOX JOINS THE CHORUS
This Photo of a Modern Mechanical Maa with Eight Little Beautiea Emphasises
the Idea—Brought Out in the Accompanying Article bjr Mr. Durant—.That “the grace
and awing of ancient dances yielded to the staccato of barbaric contortions."
the quiet search for the beautiful was
forgotten in the neurotic passion for
tlie now.
Literature decayed. Men and
women wer« too busy to read, or they
had leisure and were tired; they wished
to be amused without the pain of
thought. Writers, too, syero drawn
into the convulsions of our hurried
life; they flung their ideas at us un
formed and never paused for style;
they did not know that language, to
be literature, must be built like arch
itecture, carved like sculpture, col
ored like paintings and composed like
music.
And then, while the pessimist sang
dirges, suddenly beauty appeared
again, growing out of the dark soil of
industry itself. Makers of radiators,
vendors of trifles, purveyors of insur
ance to His Majesty the People, reared
glorious buildings in the midst of bar
barism and chaos. Makar* of flash
lights and loudspeakers (O* democratic
term!) sent the symphonies of Bee
thoven, Tschaikowsky and Brahms mi
raculously into a million homes and
souls that had known only the chorus
of dance-hall music trembled at the
touch of genius.
Makers of a costly automobile once
clumsy and formless suddenly sensed
the new day and engaged-—lo and bo
^ MECHANICAL
PEDESTRIAN
Sketch from a
British Periodical,
Sktwhf the
Artict's Weird
and Complicated
Conception of the
Spirit of the
Machine Age.
hold!—an "artist” to design their cars,
to make them things of beauty as well
as of use and power. They paid him
better than their president; and now
every street shines with their glory.
The word goes forth throughout Amer
ica that it is beauty as well as use that
wlH win tomorrow's victories; and the
greatest standardizer of them all, that
tall gaunt worshiper of quantity, is
almost ruined by hearing the news
when it is already old.
These are beginnings, childish and
incomplete: Our architecture is hybrid
imitation, our music is made and played
by m e li whnu
names sound like a
list of rejected immi
grants; beauty is still
slave to utility, and
does not yet soein to
us an end in itaelf,
profuunder than wisdom and kindlier
than truth. Every ago must slowly
make its own arts, ditferent from thoso
of old, indigenous and individual, redo
lent of the race anil th$ soil we shall
not duplicate France, nor Ituly, nor
Greece.
We are like tba Pythagorean stu
dents who, when they joined that guild
of learners, were pledged to a modest
ilence for seven years; only then
r ight they question and dobata. We,
too, are listening in silence, for many
times seven years, calling every talent
of every land to comp and teaoh us,
that we may grow up from our youth.
.Soon we shall lmve listened enough.
Soon we, too, shall speak.
Ideas-hBackbone=Success
^/T'vON'T put all your eggs in
I 1 one basket,” says Charles J.
Eldridge, president of the Chi
cago Mercantile Exchange and head of
the Merrill-Eldridgc Butter and Egg
Produce Company-^which handles more
than $400,000,000 worth of butter and
aggs a year.
Mr. Eldridge was asked: ‘‘Suppose
you were starting from ‘scratch’ again
today. What would you do to succeed?
Would you go about your career in
much the same manner as you have,
or would you adopt different taotics?”
“One thing i«. «ure,” came the reply.
“I’d very my interests, I wouldn’t (ink
ell my hope and energy in nny one
project. It’a a bad idea to center
everything on too narrow a field.”
Forty years ago Eldridgo wa3 an
office boy in his father’s butter and
egg establishment. Looking back, he’»
pretty sure how he’d feel if he had to
etart over again. If he were on the
street now looking for a job be
wouldn’t feel at all depressed simply
because he needed work and had to
ask for it. He thinks no young man
ahould let that bother him.
“Asking for work it asking no favor.
The young man is offering something
of value in the open market. To find
some way of bringing together the
tnanlets job and the jobless man is one
• f the great current problems in busi
ness.
“What assets should he have? Cour
age, I’d say, courage of his convictions
and courage to fight a thing through
—Says This Big Batter and Egg Man
CHARLES J. ELDRIDGE.
t6 the finish. Ideas aren’t worth hav
ing if there isn’t ability with them,
those two qualities and I’ll show you
a person close to greatness.
“Competition in American business
is growing more and more intense.
The youngster has got to be on his toes
to stand the gaff and come out on top.
I think it’s a good thing for him to
bring all the force he’s got to the con
summation of one job—but it’s never a
bad idea to peg away along several
other channels. Plant your seed in
different fields and you’re likely to get
at least one good crop.”
Finally, when asked what sort of
young man had the best chanco of be
coming a power in modern business,
Mr. Eldrcdge grew grave and his eyes
flashed. He felt what he said:
"My admiration i* for tho young
man who knows how to tajr ‘no.’ It’s
surprising how that littla word can
tilt tha scales of success. But his judg
ments should be tempered with kind
ness. To be a tiy man in any lina of
endeavor you matt bo big in your
hoart first!”
Mr. Eldridge Has little uso for the
copy-book definitions of success. The
man who has reached the top—in his
eyes, at any rate—is the man who has
grown front within. Unless a man is
piling up breadth of vision and sym
pathy and understanding he is not suc
ceeding—no matter how his bank ac
count may pyramid.
“And my feeling about putting your
eggs in a number of baskets goes for
things othsr than business enterprises,”
he added,with feeling. “Tell the young
man to keep himself out of a rut, in
his diversions and contacts as well as
in his commercial ventures. Know all
sorts of people, and understand them;
keep one eye peeled for new richnesses
of experience, new insights into the
real selves of your associates.”
By Clare Murray, New Girl Poet-Artist
“The interacting chape of thoce treec on the bank
Ageinct the ctreight line of apartmenta."
RAMON LEGRAND.
• On the River Bank. |
There is always new beauty here in the park-*
Something to sketch, to see and interpret
An orgy of color.
The interesting shape of those trees on the bank j
Against the straight line of apartments—
Organism against mechanism— Jjl
Forms the basis of many a fine composition. j*
Those figures you see g
I've sketched them in action, caught on the fly, *
Notice the strength of the movement. i
The bend of that body
I saw in a beautiful girl. What e figure she had!
But the faces are the most fascinating subjects
Of study. I sometimes wish
I were a portrait painter.
The light is good in the mornings.
There are never the people to watch and disturb.
When a student, I flinched
From the stare of the curious.
Yet much as I feared and despised them
1 used to act my role, and slap on paint
For quick effects, to hear the ohs and ahs
.4s they recognized a rock or boat
Taking form on my canvas.
(One of those crude studies won a prize
At the exhibit. Amusing, wasn’t it?)
I still find that to expres the best
I have to he alone.
Then the colors spring to life, and I see
In the tints on the river
All the delicacy and subtlety of a Japanese print.
But 1 have never yet been able to do them, justice.
Sometime I will.
HOW TO DRESS WELL f
ty ANNE U. STILLMAN
Wife of tlie Millionaire Banker
N evening coat is sometimes a
pleasure ami sqnjetimes it is not.
And this is so important, for
whan you are dressed in your evening
clothes a look of annoyance or a feel
ing of being ill at ease often ruins
what might otherwise have been a most
perfect evening. For this time above
all should be play-time.
Ah evening coat is not a pleasure
when it does not “go” with your evening
dress. And, strangely enough, some
times it doesn’t. The evening wrap of
today completes the dress. It is part
of the entire costume.
You should choose your evening
wrap, if possible, when you are select
ing your dross. For it is no longer a
thing apart. It is just another piece
of the ensemble. This should make the
selection of the wrap very simple.
Often the coat is made of the same
material. If not, then it may be of a
complementary material in either the
same color or a shade which will blend
with the dress.
There are many beautifully designed
evening wraps. Some are artistic,
romantic. Some chic—and expensive
—usually most expensive. Iiut how
really few are comfortable or warm!
This is an important point to think
about wrhen buying a new evening coat.
For if the coat does not feel comforta
ble—if it is not well cut or is slimlv
lined—then no matter how beautiful
(he wrap is—you
have already lost
much of the mean
ing and worth of
the garment.
The riclily bril
liant c.qlors. of tho
new ensembles con
tribute in no small
part to their suc
cess. For sapphire
blue or glowing
prune can no more
bo ignored than
the season’s stun
ning new shades of
English reds, flame
and vivid greens.
The familly of yel
low, too, have rotno
into prominence—
in every tone from
the palest canary
to the deepest sul
phur. Marty have
taken on a green
ish cast, the greens
adopting the yel
low notes. Char
treuse is one of the
smartest of the
new shade's.
In many in
stances the gown
and wrap match in
color and material.
But this is not ab
solutely necessary.
If a harmonious
contrast is used,
the wrap lined, per
me same eolor or material as
the dress, then it may possibly be used
with one or two other dresses, especi
ally when economy is a factor.
Neutral colon are excellent choices
for tha evening coat, too, if you can
not plan a wrap for each gown. It is
in such instances that brocaded wraps
are a favored medium. Many of theso
brocaded wraps are lined in velvet.
Velvet is the most important fabric
for evening wear this season. It is
used by every Paris house, and seen
at every important function, "whether
.it be the opera, or some private party
of great social importance. It fa
made into coats which are quite plainly
designed without trimming or into the
most elaborately draped stylds, richly
collared in luxurious fur.
Speaking of fur, the white ermino
wrap is with us again in abundance.
The newest ones are trimmed in a fur
of dark brown color. Other white fur
wraps of the more inexpensive type
are of whit* caracul, galyak, which is
quite new this year—and cony, of
course, which is not ef fashion siginfi
cance at all.
There ia much to be said about the
silhouette of the evening wrap or coat
of the past season. For there are many
new details. The first thought is that
the coat haa been designed with par
ticular attention paid to the gown it
accompanies. And since most of the
dresses favor the dipping hemline with
the long back, a good many of the new
wraps have been designed with this
in mind. This subject of matching the
silhouette of the gown by dipping coats
i3 not the only style noto emphasized.
Inserted godets—swaying scarfs often
beginning at the neckline adding height
and slenderness and intricate cuts of
coats which are really voluminous but
appear slender—are all clever ways in
which the coat adopts the silhouette
of the gown beneath.
Remember, an evening wrap is a
covering—but it is also the outside
armor—and it often tells the story of
what is beneath. Who would suspect
a perfectly gowned woman under a
stupid coat—or smartness inside of a
misfit?
The coat i» the complement of the
dress—and should be harmonious ia
every respect.
A Lovely Evening Coat of an Off-White Velvet Mink
Collar and Cuff*. A Scarf Belt Knotted at the Beak
Trail* Long Ends. Deep Wine Red Velvet Fashions This
Voluminous Wrap. The Softly Crushed High Collar la
of Ermine. It, Too, Has a Trailing Uneven Hemline.
•ePTiUbt. 1»J*. httnuUtwl rntura Snrto*. In. Dtul Britils Klfhtt BnnrmL
-<*''VZ'v~. J3hS _ ... C>