The Red Cloud chief., 1878-01-17

arts themselves in which formerly men
have won some Of their most signal
triumphs. Take. for instance. the sew
ing machine. undoubtedly great ben.
efsctor of the hardest worked part OF
the race. 1t has been in ne scarcely
half . generation, and yet 1t has already
DESTROYED one Of the most beautiful.
one of the most humanizing Of arts
the art Of needle work, in which our
mothers and 4rand-mOthen excelled,
and from which they had comforts -
well - occupation. To our childrea
this urbsne art will be entirely lost TO
the present generation it 10 siread .
puzzle and smystery. The band and
gusset and seam Of poor Hood were
Indeed evils and tortures Of professf0s-
al workwomen ; but many . little hand
that nowl lies idle In the lap or iszsuzned
to less fruitful employment, would be
glad I have occasion for exercising
.back-stitch." What will women find
to supply the essential void caused by
the lost art, needle work.
The planning, turning and moricing
machines, again. with their various aP-
plications, have converted the skillful
carpenter Of forty years back into .
commonplace joiner and Trainer. There
are no carpenters any more-monopo-
lized machinery; the long apprentice-
ships are of no use. and the journey.
mans chest Of tools 10 confined now 70
his Ratchet and nail pocket, his glue
pot and Jaws. All that delicate work
which 20 exercised his eye and hand.
which created grades in his meter. and
made the skilful carpenter really .
man of accomplishments-all this II
now transferred from his hand to the
jaws of the u~nreasoning memorable
brute machine, which needs little edu-
cation to serve and tend it, and which
no human arms ~ contend against,
and must therefore submit to. This Il
not merely . sentimental matter.
Wherever machinery plays . large part
in any trade there is necessarily . dimi-
connected with it, 90 far forth. . trans
ference of intelligence from that trade
to some other walk where intelligence
is in better demand and in higher ap-
probation. Unskilled labor suits with
machinery, and unskilled labor works
for less wages; hence machinery will
always prefer il, and win consequently
always discriminate agsinst intslli-
gence.
The moving and resping machines
have made those beautiful Arts Of form
er times, moving with the scythe and
reaping with the grain cradle, to be
almost absolutely lost arts. The farm
work which As yet cannot be vicarious-
~ performed and still demands skill OF
q higher order, is that of ploughing.
The plough. too, is beginning to make
way for the steam engine, the fail long
ago yielded to the horsepower thresher,
and that to the steam thresher. Here
are more lost arts, and intelligence and
skill are being gradually pushed out of
the most necessary and universal of all
occupations. thrust forward to seek
work on . higher plane. by the compe-
tition of the priced labor with which
machinery is content to operate.
Return again to society, and the arts
which have contributed to cement to-
and harmoeize its elements. |
The penny post, the daily newspaper. |
the postal card and the telegraph have
combined to dismiss forever |
cheering art of lettertwriting which
has dropped out of existence as COM
as if De Levigne, and Cowper.
and Bussey, and SOuthey never had
been. Who gets . letter nowadays?
II . man has anything pleasant to say,
he shapes it up (Anglice buffers it
over with affectiOns) for publication.
L. the chuf card, the instantaneous tel
the scrap enveloped 'if not
called for in ten days return to John
Smiths this scrawny chip-work a
for those delightful amenities
Of graceful correspondence which our
enjoyed? De Quincy used to
say that the well of idomatic English
pure and undefled was to be sought
md would be preserved in the every
lay domestic correspondence of Eng
ish women. The girl of the period
scratches you twenty words on the
,ack Of . card, and ten of them are
lang caught from the last play or the
newest agony" of the race course!
With photography and its develop
nents must come the destruction of
'ainting. POrtraiture is alread almost
lost art, landscape will follow, and
he higher forms of historical COMPOSE
must Dol die, because IL will b
impossible for them to stand alone, and
a the presence of . taste which Is grad.
ally becoming educated to be satisfied
nth sun pictures. When the artist is
xpelled from art, he will not be con. !,
ent to seek his subsistence BY phosoefa-
is . higher, more sintelligent
kill which machinery enables tho lesser +
Intelligence to compete with and drive
ut. The plastic arts and Gchitecture G
AUST in the same way yield 70 Imachin- z
~, just - inevitably - the Geneva I
'atchmaker must give way before more !
improved works. When IN artist can !
lst you . thousand copies Of . mould. 4
g, cornice or frieze q once and Of tie =
sme pattern, the chiSel win not dare I
tempt 70 compete. z $50 {
Surveying Ill the arts In this Hshs Z
Id We see that . revolution b going /
4, now, befoF0 our eyes. This rev0- {
'tion l. favorable TO human progress, .
10 itself progress, since The eAect Il % 4
vert the most intelligent persons con. b
.cted with any art from employment .
It, and to drive them 70 besk employ. J
ent in connection with some higher :
l. It is progress too in that it con- q
aually frees . larger number Of per- q
M from exhausfing toll. and gives 10
EN- Increasing time to seek culture. q
nevertheless, tAe individual suffers =
bile the class improves. Thought =
pandA. but James," in this regard - p
% many others. Self-reliance h d. s.
inished; the jscks-at-all-trades disap- =
No StokeY aboard amodesn oreen :