Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-03

AS l@L% midst of which the
~ toilers of the world
HO usually live. To them
the ioy o. beauty, as we'll as the joy of ex-
istence, is a sealed book, thing of which
they have no idea, and yet the want of
which has very distinct effect on their
lives and ways of thought. The restfulness
of all true beauty is thing no one can deny;
even the calming effect of certain colors on
disordered brains has been demonstrated by
recent experiments in the great Italian
asylums, and everyone can verify, from
ones own experience, how in some rooms
one feels soothed as soon as one enters, while
in others one feels sense of irritation and
ctual'unrest
If this is the case, therefore, with us, who
are blessed not only with a sense and an
appreciation of beauty, but with the means
wherewith to crafty them, how much more
must it be true of those who toll all day long
in CRIME and dirt, in the midst of the whirl
of machinery, and the hopeless, depressing,
unloveliness of our great factories?
SAD LIVES.
But perhaps the factory workers are not
those Who are the most to be pitied; for look
at the lives of the women who ply their
needles at home, often for 49,. 18 and even
20 hours out of the "a, in order to gain the
yeriest pittance wherewith to keep body
and soul together! The men working in the
factories have the distraction of each others
companionshlp, and even the roar of ma
chinery tells of life and activity. But the
needlewoman plies her trade at home i'll a
garret where ugliness alone reigns supreme;
ioI, hor lfnac
more acute, her work more depressing. And
vet even in such garret, the human be-
ing's unconscious thirst for life and beauty
of some kind is betrayed by the miserable
little plant in the window, a starveling
geranium, or a muskplant, and some cheap
| Christmas. card on the wall. Even the
burial certificate of some relation is looked
upon in the light of an ornament, and is
| carefully framed and hung up on the wall,
where the eyes Of the worker will rest upon
| it, with an unconscious feeling of relief at
anything that breaks the dead surface ever
before her.
1t was to bring help to these poor broth
| ers and sisters of ours and of toll that the
| Kyrle Society was formed in 1877 by the
late Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. At
| the first public meeting of the society, which
| took place at Kensington on January q,
| 1881, the objects for which it had been
| founded were clearly explained. ''To bring
beauty home to the poor" was the chief aim,
which was to be carried out by the follow
| ing means: "To decorate by mural paint
ings, pictures, gifts of flowers, and other
means, workmen's clubs, schools, and mis-
sion rooms; to lay out as gardens any avail
| able strips of waste ground, and to encour-
age the cultivation of plants, not only in
windows but also in areas and back yards;
to organize voluntary choir of singers to
give oratorios and concerts to the poor; to
cooperate as far as possible with the Ma
tional Health Society in securing open-air
spaces in poor neighborhoods; and also in
investigating the question as to the possi-
bility Of preventing smoke fog"
GOSPEL OF BEAUTY.
That society with such aims and objects
had to endure good deal of ridicule was to
a certain extent to be expected, and the
Gospel according to Kyrle," and the
''moral regeneration by wallpapers" were
made the texts of good many jokes at the
time. But the Society wisely took no heed
and continued on its way quietly, its men,
bers feeling pretty sure that they would not
long have to wait for their reward in the ap-
probation of the poor to whom they were
| trying to present life under new aspect.
| They had to fight their way through many
| difficulties, not the least of which was that
| of inducing the public to take their efforts
! au serieu1. Another pitfall was the weed
| ing out of the amateur painters, musicians
| and general decorators" who, faithful to
the old adage that "fools rush in where an
| gels fear to tread" saw in the prospectus Of
the Kyrle Society glorious opportunity
wherewith to satisfy their vanity and occupy
| their idle hours.
Sir Frederick Leighton gave the society
| at the first meeting to which I have already
alluded, a most salutary warning on this
very subject. He reminded the meeting
| that it was beauty the society proposed to
| bring home to the poor, and he owned he
had felt shudder 60 through him, when he
| heard that all who painted were expected to
contribute. If it was beauty, he continued,
that was to be brought home to the poor, the
society must be careful not to food them
| with rubbish. And the warning was wise
| one, like most of the remarks that come
| from the President of the Royal Academy.
| For young society, egged on by its own
enthusiasm and by the numberless applica-
tions that poured in upon it, might very
we'll have allowed itself to be carried away
! on the plea that it was better for the poor to
have pictorial rubbish rather than nothing
| at all Fortunately, however, the society,
backed by Sir Frederick Leighton's warn
! ing, remembered that part of its mission
! was to train that very love of beauty which
| they were seeking to develop, and that, to
| use homely aphorism, it would be well to
begin as they meant to 60 on.
ART CONTRIBUTIONS.
No less than IA hospitals in London have
had their wards decorated by the Kyrle
| Society. And what an inexpressible COM
/ fort these decorations are to the sick who
| pass through those hospitals only those who
| have any real experience of the gaunt
melancholy of an ordinary hospital ward
with its rows of white beds and staring
| white windows, can imagine. Close on 4(
workmen's and girls clubs, institutes and
homes, owe their decorations and the bright
ness that makes them so attractive to the
! ewes of their tired members, to the ministra,
tions of the Kyrle Society, while the list o.
parochial and mission rooms, which are
also indebted to the society, numbers over 80
The decorations vary from large frescos
and oil paintings, down to framed photo
graphs and chromos. For instance, the
Working Mems Club at Battersea is adorned
with six landscapes, painted especially fol
the club, and framed in oak and gold. Sil
Arthur Clay (whose picture OF little gir
at last years exhibition at the New Gallery
was one of the best there) contributed "a
Deer Forest, Scotland and the other five
landscapes, though perhaps not quite up tc
Sir Arthur Clay's high level, are still fal
above the average of amateur work.
But the actual decoration of the halls ani
homes OF the poor is but fraction of tn,
useful work done by the society. Beauty
is comprehensive term. and can be brough
to appeal to many more senses than that o
sight alone. The depicting of trees, flowers
and such like objects in nature, is very wei
as far as it goes, but for those whom tn,