The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-10

than Shakespeare was7 Of course you would in
stantly resent it as next to blasphemy; but Why's
Surely If or anyone else should chance TO pre-
fer the new poet to tho old you need not feel
aggrieved. You do however, take offense in
stantly You know you do. So If should say
that some contemporaneous painter is a greater
artist than Raphael was | should expect to see
some of the art students here grow pale with
contempt of me- So with musicians and scup-
tors. The past has done everything. Men
delssohn and Mozart, and Beethoven are incom-
parable and unapproachable" say teachers
and critics. mo statuary like that modelled by
Pra3itiles and Phidias can possibly be wrought
by the sculptors of to-day
Now this was not the spirit with which the
Greeks met their artists When they discov-
cred genius they fostered it. Nicomedes of
fered to pay the entire public debt of the enid
ians if they would let him have the statue of
Venus by Praxities But the people of Cnidos
stood up and said no. They honored their own
day. Why shall we not do lkewisel
My meaning IS plain to you ALL I object to
this deadline that has been drawn in literature,
science and art. Thou shalt have no god but
Shakespeare, or Beethoven or Isaac Newton is
doctrine far too narrow for the young school.
1t is time for us to rebel against the domination
of the old, the thread bare, the well-thumbed
volume of the past. Why shall we have it for
ever diEned in ears: "Ali the best things
have been done; all the big fish have been
caught" Why shall the ghost Of Demosthenes
and Cicero forever haunt the minds of cal
low oratorsl Why must all our painters go
study the works of men dead three or four hun
dred years2 Why is Shakespeare made the incu-
bus of every young poetl Are Mozart and Bee
thoven never to quit imposing their hold on the
threats of young musicans2 How inconsistent
we are! We are quite willing to admit that
Vanderbilt is richer than Crosus was; that
Cunard steamer is far better than a Roman gal
ley; that Calling gun is better than sling or
catapult; that linen paper and gold pen are
preferable to a cake of wax and stylus: but
who OF us dare to go further? Why shall not
say to you that prefer Mr.. Voorhees, and Mr..
Harrison to Demosthenes and Cicero? ] do say
that If one of the speeches of Gen. Tom Browne,
of Indiana, had been delivered by Demosthe-
mes. and had come down to us clothed in Greek,
it would have gladdened all the classical schools
of the world. Henry S. Lane, from
the rostram in this very town, has flooded the
ears and thrilled the hearts of mu.titudes with a
nobler eloquence than that of any heather of
Greece or Rome flanagan, and Hendricks
and silver-.ongued Dick Thompson have shaken
the forum yonder with power that did not be-
long to Cicero
But it is not my purpose to institute or to pro
woke comparison. My tune is served when get
you to take the proper stand point--when / get
your eyes directed toward the future and your
ears to listening to what music the spheres
now making. This is the brightest age the world
has ever had-now is the golden moment, but to-
morrow will be more golden This is the grand
Ii Greek art is higher and purer, and better
than Roman art, it is because Greece took greater
interest in its home talent than did Rome; it
was spirit like the American spirit that con-
trolled the Romans. They looked abroad for
their chief means of high culture. They looked
to Greece as we look to Europe, as we still look
to Greece Why shall we not paint American
landscapes. sing American songs, carve Ameri-
standard and perfect it, would not be under.
stood as setting low estimate on the classics
| do not mean to say they are not
worthy of all the praise they have received.
There IS no danger that they will be
neglected. Nor would / overstate the value of
contemporaneous achievements. Still I must
say that Edison impresses me more sensibly than
does Archimedes. | would rather read Longfel-
lows or Whittier's poems than Homer's cata-.
logue of the ships. l think we could better af-
ford to keep the best of our literature, art and
inventions than to have national debt can
celed. Rome had the Colosseum, but we have
the public schools Is it not better to study bj.
ology under Prof. Coulter to-day than to have
sat at the feet of Pythagorasl Darwin, and
Huxley, and Tyndal, and Agassiz are more to
my mind than Plato and Aristotle, and dog
enes. l think it is necessary to strength and
sanity that we should give the dead past no more
than it's due-that We should train with the
young school a while. We need rejuvenaton-
we thirst for it. We want fresh, sweet juicy
viands for mental FEAST we don't want cold
hash made of stale history and warmed-over
Shakespeare We must have air that has never
been breathed. The fiber of our nature must
be renewed day by day. Nectar and ambrosia
were good enough for the gods, but we demand
the juice of the last grape that has ripened; we
want our viands cooked after the latest recipe,
our drinks brewed in the newest watts. We
choose to commune with the angels of the future
rather than with the mummies of the past.
Whenever find some simple and sincere express
sion OF the spirit of our age-a note of the very
latest song, though blown from never so slight
1C4A I'D hlya~ 41n~ e,n,a
would rather hear feeble song, if cheerful, and
courageous, and wholesome, and hopeful, than
chorus of heather madness from hundred
threats. / would rather have one passing watt
of freedoms breath, as we Americans view free
dom, than to have plethora of Romes grand
eur, or of Grecian glory. / shall now, in ilustra
ton of my meaning, read a poem written in
Charlottesville, in the shades of our Wabash
campus. by little girl of fifteen l shall ask
you to observe how full it is of the genius of
American life-how its smacks of democratic
ambrosia, SO to speak-how it reflects the senti
ment of a republican people-how it spurns
stocracy and asserts the high dignity of labor
how it demands that no gate shall be closed to
the brave and the true on account of poverty
/ hope you will not be impressed with the
thought that am asserting the superiority of
this little Indiana poem over tie best of the,
classics. l simply assert its Americanism, its
. democracy it's sincerity it's childish loyalty to
the present and its faith in the future. l quote
it because little Western girl wrote it, and was
simple and sincere enough to voice in it the ele-
ments of her environment.
LITTLE BROWN HANDS.
They drive home the cows from the pastures,
Up through the long shady lane
Where the quail whistles loud in the wheat fields
That yellow with ripening grain.
They find, in the thick waving grasses,
Where the scarlet-lpped strawberry grows,
They gather the earliest snow-drops
And the first crimson buds of the
They toss the new hay in the meadow.
They gather the elder bloom white,
They know where the dusky grapes purple
In the soft-tinted October light,
They know where the apples ripest,
And sweeter than Italy's wines,
They know where the clusters are thickest
On the long, thorny blackberry vines.
They gather the delicate sea-weeds.
hr1ild firuc r.nfrn