Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-10-02
PERIANDER Ar LTTCHFIKLD.
The Old Town Going in for the Fine
Arts - Seized With the Determina-
tfon to Have a Water system.
T rrrurrrr Can't 20


Arts - Seized With the Determfna-
tion to Have a Water system.
LITcHFIELD, Sept. 80.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Litchfeld is going in for the fine arts;
and when Litchfield goes in for the fine
arts let all the world understand that the
fine arts are being gone in for. A hun
dred and odd years ago the air of Litch-
field was redolent of beauty. Not only
were the men and women as beautiful as
they are now, but everything else was
equally beautiful. Houses were beautiful.
Tin pans were beautiful, cups and saucers
were beautiful, andirons were most beau
tiful Horse-shoes and fish-hooks were
made on curves of beauty unknown to
modern art II Litchfield fish won't bite
nowadays, know the reason why. There
are to-day on North and South streets
houses still standing of this blissful peri
cd; and no more beautiful specimens of
the so-called colonial architecture are to be
found in the United States. Every now
and then protection" compels farmer
of the environs to sell out ancestral treas
ures. Happy the individual who may Sc
cure a chair, blocker" or turnspit!
In those days factories were unknown;
craft was personal; every workman was as
much an artisan as sixteenth century
lively spirit into his handy work. Alas!
alas! Then came the revolution and the
willing sacrifice of everything to patrio-
tism. Then, later, the triumph of de-
mocracy; the distinction of caste, the
abasement of it's elegance and the distri-
button of its cash. There can be no ma
terial beauty in abject poverty, no elegance
in vulgar equality. Democratic ugliness
has for decades covered Litchfeld hill, as
oft in history it has covered other and less
favored sections of the worlds surface.
For year or two there has been some
thing or other in the air to indicate that
the cloud was passing away, and that the
sun of art was about to shine forth once
more. A person experienced in the ad-
vent of epochs knows that I'm epoch is
preceded by vague undefnable some
thing that partakes of the nature and
| character of the epoch. One cannot de-
scribe the precursors of an art epoch, yet
| their presence is perceived and felt. You
were not quite ready to go up to Litch-
fielder, put your finger on him and say:
'tYou have growing within you the soul of
| an artist" The consciousness of the
truth was still SO dim within him that he
| probably would have resented the famll-
iarity. Still he knew, they all knew, that
something was coming. They felt that
new and delightful sensations were being
| formed and were growing in the center of
their consciousness. Their steps were
lighter, their eyes brighter. They no
longer walked ponderously, but glided
gracefully Even their. demeanor was at
odd times gracious. Attention was paid
! to the outside adornment of the person.
Gloves were seen; boots were polished;
hair was cut; boards were abolished. To
the student of human nature it was evil
dent that all that was wanting was an in
cident to direct and concentrate this un-
folding artistic spirit. The incident has
occurred; the spirit has expression. The
glorious new school of Litchfield art is
founded.
How and why committees are aroused to
action is one of the many unsolved prob
lens of political economy. Every now
and then a state is astonished at the unex-
pected, unaccountable and inexpGcable act
of some one of its communities. If q
politician could foresee, or could learn the
secret, his march to power and position
would be Immediate. The New Haven
State House incident is in point. ALL of g
sudden there appeared in New Haven {
determination to utterly erase the only
thing left to remind New Haveners of the
happy time when New Haven was the po
have supposed that simply as a historic
reminder the building would be forever
sacred. To this reminiscence were added
questions of economy; then came the yer
dict of popular vote, and finally wers
added all possible legal hinderances de
visable by most acute and skillful mug
wumpian, would-be democratic nomines
for governor, urged with the extreme
, force and eloquence of the compound
But in vain. Down the State House mus
gol Now there is nothing to mark its site
but the difference between clover and tim
othy.
One of these same strange determine
tions seized the Litehfield community
about year ago. When Litchfelders
woke up in the morning they found that
during the night they had been filled with
the notion that Litchfeld must have 6
water system, with q reservoir off some
where; pipes leading from it to town
mains, hydrants, plumbers bills and al
the other accessories of a modern water
system. After1 1breakfasting, buzzing theil
wives, emerging from their homes and
meeting one another, they found that tn.
impression was universal, irresistable, ant
must be Immediately obeyed. How ittl'
did they realize at the time that they wer'
in the hands of the mighty spirit of art
and that the water business was merely
vehicle to lead them to an art expression
The rapidity with which the money wa
raised should have excited suspicion tina
Q the impelling spirit was not mercantile