St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-12
CRUEL COMP ARISONS.
Margaret Sullivan Criticises
American Citizen
ship.
Our Exhibits at Paris Lack in
Beauty and aesthetic
Taste.
Americans Are Sadly in Need
of Eye and Hand Train
ing.
Foreigners Are Doing the De-
signing for Our Best
Firms.

design enters QlSclOSeS tWO tIutHS CoH-
corning American growth. The CLASH
fication in which these truths are ap-
parent comprise everything in the
manufacture of which beauty is blended
with usefulness. The first truth is
that the American constructive sense
is superior to the European, and the
second that the American decora-
tive sense is inferior to the Euro
pean. The American has surpassed
the European in mechanism, but the
sense of beauty is still dull in the ma
tional breast. American artisanship,
speaking broadly. when brought face to
face with European artlSanShlp, is more
intelligent in the application OF means
to ends and in directness OF method ana
economy of labor, but is crude. ana al
most illiterate in taste. In saying thiS
one runs the risk of making Americans
feel a resentment which the German
poet Heine avowed on famlilar occa-
sion at dinner. When, he wrote, ne
would gladly forget all the exactlohs OF
the world. his countrymen spOlled for
him the best dishes by pouring over
them the bitter sauce of patriotism. Ii
would be an agreeable duty to write
only praise of the works OF ones own
country, but the Exposition and ones
own country are entitled to the
truth. If in reading it the national in
telligence shall be led to right reflection
upon theme whose Importance Is mes
Unable and whose scope is practically
infinite, another universal exposition
will furnish
MORE GRATIFYING CHAPTER
of American industrial and esthetlc his
tory. Design enters into the treatment
of metals, woods, textiles, paper, Ieatn-
er, CLAWS, skins and stones. WehaVe III
our zones the raw material ana essen
tiaS, with few exceptions, OF nearly the
entire classification generally accepted
as decorative manufactures III TINS eX-
nosifion' Our progress in their en-
ployment is shown to be, except III a
few great departments, primitive and
paltry. In fine artisanship generally
considered every other country OF mag
nitude puts us to shame. The tree
dom of which we rightly boast in civil
life is found associated with ignorance
and slavery in the artistic and industrial
life. Eliminate from the American eX-
hibit the machinery, the gold and silver
smithing. and the art OF the lapldary
and glassmaker, and there is
NO AMERICAN DECORATIVE ART
remaining upon which one can llnger
with satisfaction. Even such countries
as Italy and Switzerland show that the
craft of the wood carver is active:
Houmania, Servia and Greece, none OF
them in close touch with modern
thought, display beautiful products OF
the loom. Continental countries whose
industries are old retain the supremacy
which their guilds and schools Gre
ated. England, until very modern
times addicted almost exclusively
to trade and to manufactures.
appertaining rather to the necessities Of
civilization than to the adOrnment of
life, has accepted tuition from people
whose spirit is more artistic than hers.
Her porcelains. furniture, metallic
products, tapestries, carpets, paper
hangings. velvets, silks, shawls and
brocades constitute an impressive por-
ton of her entire exhibit, to catalogue
which requires a large volume. In each
of these divisions of her labor she adj
mits the teaching of Germany, France,
Holland and Belgium. II England has
learned from artistic Europe now to
blend beauty with usefulness she has
had no occasion to admit tnat the peo-
pie who wrested from her their
political liberty have. created even ID
century national spirit i'll
formed by beauty and able to meet
nations less free. collectively or indi-
yidually. in this noblest field of human
toll. The prohibition which parliament
sent over to our forefathers concerning
manufactures we have removed
throughout the range of strictly me-
chanical products. Within the month
that has glorified the centenary of our
civil INDEPENDENCE we cannot offer at
the congress of the worlds skill
SOLITARY EXAMPLE
of American porcelain, fine textiles,
superior bronzes. artistic manipulation
of wood, decorative paper OF leather.
We offer machines that can write and
talk. machines that perform all the
labors of the field, and that solve most
IOf the problems of the factory. In
IAN age of physics distinguished
by the discovery OF no new
principle, we have aStOniShed science
itself by new combinations of principles
and by the creation of resources for the
convenience of mankind. But we have
added scarcely anything to the beauty.
grace and repoSe of idealism. While
Justly boasting of our rank as mechan-
les. chemists and electricians, we still
pay transportation to England for our
native furs. skins, leather and cotton,
and are content to pay afterwards sec
ond transportation and the manufact-
urer'S price. as well as the outside tax.
for the products into which our own
raw materials have been turned. Add
to this the yearly drain of money UNI
necessarily lost. the millions annually
paid for decorative manufactures from
every factory of Europe, and of rtviv-
Ing East, and an approximate estimate
may be made OF the colossal penalty
we pay with incomprehensible stupidity
for failing to develop a sense of form,
color and composition i'll our own youth;
There are American pOrcelains and
wallpapers which might have been
exhibited here with safety as showing
promise if not achievement.
THE GLASS
exhibited has commanded candid. even
enthusiastic praise. 1t is from the
Hawks glass cutting works at Corning,
n. Y. In the same exhibit are credit
able examples from the Lockwood pot
teries near Cincinnati. which the widow
of George Ward Nichols founded as
school of practice in connection with
the Cincinnati Art school, and which
Davis, COilamOre & Co.. of New York,
have carried on. The exhibit of
gold and silversmithing is COM
prised of four groups-Tiffany's,
the Gorham company's, the Fair
child company's and the Meri-
den Britannia company's. The R6ches-
ter Lamp company shows selection of
good bronzes. The Lyon Umbrella
company has an interesting exhibit of
handles in gold and smithiDg. In
the treatment of Jewels and in the in.
vention of decoration of small articles of
ornament OF personal use the American
exhibit is undoubtedly superior. There
is a surprising exhibit of industrial
brOnzes from Russia, artists like
Lanceray, who died two years ago,
Lieberich, Posen, GratScheff and Bach
being the sculptors. These Russian
bronzes, whether single figures Or
rrounc noccocc remarkable dramatic