New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-02
A GREAT DESIDERATUM,

Strangers who visit our city and are
charmed with its beauty, its climate and
the cosmopolitan freedom Of manners
which distinguishes it from all other
cities in this country, seldom finish eu-
logy upon its many attractions without
commenting on the extraordinary
want of public spirit manifested
in one direction namely, the alb
senee Of q suitable public library and
of galleries of paintings and statuary.
The esthetic nature of people Graves
food as well as the animal, the social and
the spiritual and fer that want, as well
as for the others, provision should be
made by the community. Here, how
ever, no such provision is made We
have markets and schoolhouses and the
aires and dancing halls and churches;
but as regards large, well stocked, well
replenished, public library, where all
may be supplied with reading matter on
easy terms, We have no such thing; and as
for feasting our eyes upon beautiful
objects, these who long for such pleasures
must be satisfied with the beauties of ma
ture, as the sky, the trees, the flowers Of
our gardens, and the still fairer animated
flowers that faunt through our thorough
fares or bloom modestly in sequestered
hooks. As for works of art, what New
Orleans possesses in that line is in pri-
vate hands, to be enjoyed only by their
owners and the select few who may enjoy
the privilege Of their acquaintance. The
public in general must satisfy their hun
ger for paintings by staring into the win
dows Of picture stores, and their desire
for sculpture by gazing on the clumsy,
plowmanlike figure which presides over
the intersection of st. Charles and Canal
streets, or the miraculously posed eques-
TRAN which stands godfather to Jackson
square. Political statuary, however, though
pleasing from a partisan standpoint
does not serve to crafty taste for beauty;
and the two illustrious individuals ''done
in stone" and bronze, and set up in con-
spicuous portions of our city, however
well they may serve to point political
harangue, are not gifted with such graces
of person as to merit being copied in
miniature and placed upon our chamber
mantels as works Of art, to feast the eyes
of our wives, and affect beneciallv the
taste of the rising, and the physique of
the coming generation.
These two standing deficiencies
want of public library and the want of
a public gallery of painting and statuary-
are disgrace to our city, and we do trust |
that some of our philosophical citizens
will take the matter earnestly in hand,
and set about the needed reform. For |
the first, we have a nucleus in the miscel- |
laneous collection of odd volumes called,
par compIGisance, the public school
library and as for the establish
ment of public gallery of paintings,
some Of those now in private hands
might be offered by their owners for the
purpose, if only temporarily; a suitable
room or rooms be engaged, and, if the
natter was promptly placed in the hands
If competent persons, by next winter we
night be able to make a decent begin
hing. The first thing to be done in the
natter, however, is to make our people in
general sensible of the want, and to this
md we now call the attention of our citi-
;ens to it. To be sure this has been fire.
luently done before, both by ourselves
md our contemporaries, but, SO far, to no
purpose. We therefore propose to keep at