Mexico weekly ledger., 1893-07-13
T A BIG SHOW.'
So Says j. n. Basket, Who Is Attend
ing the fair-ntsappointed ia
the Art Exhibit.

CHICAGO, ILL.,, July I'll | do b
not snatch this moment 10 write you, a
according to promise, l will never g
have an opportunity. am too tired /
to do anything else, so of course you i
will expect a brilliant effort. This q
is the hottest day of the fair and has t
been a "swinger." There is a Won J
derful amount of reflection from so ,
much white surface and n suffers {
much in passing, but within the 5
buildings the shade and the draft OF
lake air make it pleasant. 1t is the
immensely of the thing that hurts I
and it is wonderfully deficient In
transportation. There is enough
going of gondola-launch and margin
al railway, but they do not go your
way. The water carriage is both
deficient and exhorbitant. So one
Just has to loiter and gaze till he
drops in a double bow-knot upon
some seat, and feels the poverty of
his anatomy in not having another
pair of legs. Ii any Mexico people
have an extra set they had better
bring them along or practice walk
ing on their hands awhile.
It's a big show, worth the coming
in a hundred ways, but there is so
much of it that each n cares
little for. The pity of it is the doing
of it for the sake of saying you have
"done it." The man who makes
most of it is going to be able to say
that when he goes home, SO he ticks
his pencil and scratches his pad
with the weight Of a block of coal or
the diameter of some engine driver
and feels himself edited and
prepared to edify. The best
of it after all is the grounds
and the buildings. | say this after
having seen them first without the
exhibit and second with it. The de-
sign and execution both in proper
ton and technique are marvellous,
the artistic thing among allthe artistic
| things here. He who does not study
a little the spidery tresses of the
Liberal Arts building will let much
slip, and he who fails to ascend
among them will miss the inspira-
ton of the whole plan. Much OF
. this great buildings exhibits have
been made common to us by our
wonderful commerce and by the
splendid exposition of our own Mis-.
! souri, city, but the boldness Of these
, great Orders in their sweep, like
9 a rockets trail into the very azure, is
something we have never seen.
! | am disappointed in the art ex-
hibit. 1t is immense enough but
y impresses me as quite poor in quail
| ity. The rooms are too small for one
thing, to give proper perspection tc
4 many fairly drawn paintings; bu'
except perhaps the Flagellants there
seems to be no painting before
which the people linger. There is
o the same wierd stare here, the same
sort of cork-screw curiosity strair
that one finds elsewhere. There is
no such paintings here as the Verest'
schagin pictures, or the Lee Surren'
I der, etc. etc, which have graced oul
) exposition and held people spell
bound. The impressionist style
. prevails disgustingly to the eye O
! the simple lover of the beautiful, OIL
the lover of the simple-beautiful. Il
looks very much as though some one
had kicked a pot of blue calcimine
I over a circus poster. 1t is ''the
thing" now, however, and lots O
' peopls are lying about it, no doubt
Doubtless "art is to conceal art" az
: the proverb goes, for there seems tt
= ! be no attempt here to conceal nature
. in the general exhibit. They seem
ed to wear patent scene-shiftins
garbs in those days, and a dagger
8 scratch or spear thrust knocked al
d the clothes off of a fellow then. The
bettered condition of our women il
our days is very marked. Diana is
here, of course, CARRIED in her bow
without a string and many other:
clad only in their toe nails, ad nau.
seam, with much fractured anatomy
in plaster, but the exhibits in nc
g way, except extent, compare with
that of the old Centennial. Why,
g saw mothers stop and weep before
s that"Frst STEP" "Forced Prayer
. etc, where childish innocence al.
! most spoke in marble but l have
seen little of it here. Somehow ou
know, / fear our reaction toward the
0 antique carries with it our accept
ance of their morals as we'll as theil
art. Why do We not evolve an ar
in keeping with our other culture!
}, Why should not Christianity have
d an art of its own, distinctly its own:
1t is said no child appeared in the
e art of the ancients till Jesus was
r born a child and had blessed the
children, and yet Christian mothers
must go blushing through our gal.
v leries in a land and civilization that
D boasts so much OF what it has done
1 for women because we see fit to pay
4 her no higher tribute than to mount