The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1888-08-01

and Instruct the eye. Beauty was their
religion; the temples and statues which
We look at with the interest OF the student
or the artist were their Churches
aud gods. The atmosphere of the
beautiful surrounded their lives In
the climate and scenery OF Italy
and Greece. In the songs OF poets, the
games OF athletes. or the deeds OF warriors
alike they found food for their artistic
nature. Over these beautiful and smilin,,
lan'ls passed alike the savage hordes Of the
North and the stern asccticism OF the
Early Christian church. The beauty OF
Greece, the grandeur OF Rome erumbled
and fell before the brute force OF
the one aud the religious feryor OF
the other. II was only for a time.
Centuries rolled away. The great awak-
ening OF the modern world was at hand
and Cosmo di Medici IN his gardens at
Florence, collecting works OF art for the
young artists OF his day to study, ia the
originator OF the art museum. Florence
was the cradle OF the new birth Of modern
art, and who shall say how much the
genius, even Of Michael Angelo, was In
debted 10 his early studies In the Medici
gardens. From the soil OF Greece and
Italy since that day 10000 statues have
been exhumed TO adorn the museums OF
Europe. such enormous collections as
that OF the Vatican were commenced only
In the sixteenth century. The galleries OF
the Louvre, with their seemingly inter
minable wolls did not receive a picture
until 200 years ago, aud II is less than a
century since II was made q public gal
lery; while the British museum, the
largest In the world, was commenced In
1903.
80 our new civilization need not be dis
couragcd. With little more than hundred
years OF national life behind VA, we have
already awakened to tho necessity of
beauty. In that brief space we have civil
med continent, aud now we turn awhile
from the stern struggle for the useful and
the material, and feel that we have earned
the right TO new Inheritance. IL Is true
we cannot dig up from our soil buried
Venus or Apollo, that beneath our fields
and gardens repose no marble gods or
fallen temples; but from the mines
aud forests OF our own state alone
come the means for such an art
museum as America has not yet scent
IL Is not material wealth which is want
ing. Money can be raised in profusion
for political or commercial needs, and
without difficulty for religion or charity,
but as a community we do not yet feel the
Importance Of art. In the popular estl-
mate art is still the amusement OF the
rich, whose fancy IL Is TO adorn their
houses with pictures and statues or curioe
and bric-a-brac. That man should give
thousands Of dollars for a few square feet
OF painted canvas Is often, to his brother
millionaires, source OF serious criticism.
But this viii not last. The American,
like his English brother, is outwardly the
most practical OF men, but deep down ia
his nature the ideal still lives. The proof
Is In his language, aud so far
the evidence has been mainly In
his poetry. Now, however, new influences
are at work which are opening our eyes
10 world OF art almost as unknown TO
us as was our continent TO the dreaming
Genoese.
The lrst is the incessant stream OF travel
from the new world to the old. No mat
ter how shallow or superficial or uned-
ucated large number may be, they can
not return as they went. One cannot walk
through the halls Of the Vatican the gal
leIios OF Louvre or under the dome Of ".
Peters and the arches OF Westminster
without wider mental vision. Then
among the thousands who go for fashion
or amusement are always a small number
whose trained minds are specially given to
the study OF art. This is an enormous and
eyer-increasing factor In our national edu-
cation.
Let US think for moment how our
travellers chiefly learn. lis II not In
museums and galleriesY Had II never oc-
CURED to Cosmo di Medici, or julius H.,
or Francis |. to begin art collections,
European travel would have been compar-
atively useless, while II is doubtful IL one
OF those men, king, prince or pope, had
the command OF money which many
Americans possess. Little by little each
generation added TO the work. In Eng
land, which Is richer, q single century has
sufilced for tho National Gallery, South
Kensington, the British Museum and
others less noted. Think what one
alone offers 10 the visitor
the sphinxes OF Egypt, the
sculptures OF Assyria, the statues OF
Greece and Rome, the missals Of the mid
die ages, the paintings OF the renaissance,
gems, vases, manuscripts In endless
profuslon. One could be well and thor.
oughly educated In tho history OF art
under the murly skies OF London. This
| Ia the more instructive 10 us because few
OF these things were produced In England
OF by Englishmen. They are almost with
out exception the work OF other ages and
races and religions, but the Englishman
has made money and other nations have
made beauty, aud the money has pur-
chased the beauty II could not create.
Let us do likewise.
spoke, however, Just now OF another
| influence, which perhaps In our latitude IL
more powerful than the asthetIc. The
knowledge and cultivation OF art do more
than refine the taste, and elevate the
soul. Art has a commercial value. People
may sneer at your sentiment, and laugh
| &C your enthusiasm, but the multiplication
table and the rule Of three arc entitled to
respect. Now nothing stimulates the IN.
dustrial arts like museums and art schools.
Every employer Of labor knows that
skilled industry commands the highest
wages, and those industries into which
art enters employ the highest skill Eng
land is proof Of the rapid progress In
artistic industry caused by the South
Kensington museum and its attendant
schools. For many years France had led
the markets OF Europe In all branches OF
industry depending upon art processes,
but the eyes Of England we're opened by
her hrst great exhibition. In this com