Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-05-18
THE NUDE IN Il
a Chapter on Educational Influences Of
Displays at the Worlds Fair.

New 10Th gum Shi'uhc OPO
One OF the most startling conse-
uuences of the opening OF the far Is
that the west is brought face to face
with the art work of the nineteenth
century. The west, SO progressive In
all things else, has been slow In its
art progress, and the jump by which
il now confronts the most Parlsian
conditions is such that it is no wonder
the populace holds its breath. This
exposition is fairly Uttered with ex-
amples of the nude, and especially OF
the nude masculine. This is a great
and startling novelty to the west. 1t
Is true that there are now art leagues
in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis and
st. Paul, and within a year classes
have been formed in these cities for
the study of the nude, but they are
small classes, mere handfuls com
pared to the great bodies OF young
men and women who crowd the pri-
mary grades. Most Of the fifty or
seyenty-lye girls who are DOW draw
ing and painting the undraped human
figure west Of the Alleghanies have
been abroad. To Europe they have
taken up the within for reproducing
the beautiful outlines of the human
figure, and have gone miles past the
great majority who stay at home.
The great mass of western homes still
display the most sober English chro-
mos, If not those old fashioned stand
bys best exempliied by the motto,
"God Bless Our Happy Home" done
in mothers hair.
With what seems to the west a bru-
tai suddenness the exposition has
thrust the nude on its great public.
All around the lower end Of the mag
nificent court Of honor, the roofs of
the casino, the peristyle, the music
hall and machinery hall are frlnged
with figures of nude men. They
stand clear Of the roof against the
sky. They are of heroic size and very
boldly executed; not a detail has es-
capped the loving ear of the fin de sic
Gle sculptors, who learned their call
ing in Europe.
The majority Of the figures are Of
civilized men, and a few are of sava-
ges. The few savages are sculptured
with regard for the feeling OF the
west, for each wears, a tiny piece Of
covering, Just as our red Indians Go.
This badge Of modesty is what the
cowboys call a gee string and what
in the eastis known as abreeCh cloth,
But the civilized or white men are
guiltless Of all covering except their
compilations. They are forty feet up
in the air, but are so large that they
might as well be On a level with the
public for all the cOncealment they
make.
Their effect on the people from the
interior is always interesting, and is
sometimes calculated TO excite com
passion for the people. Some are Wis
IDLY panied and shocked and some are
plainly indignant. Wives drag their
husbands away, and mothers aud sis
tiers, after m startled glance, tug at
their children to lead them out OF
danger before they have seen the
statues and it is too late.
Some of those who are more sophis-
ticated, and others who are more sem
sible, keep right on regardless of their
feelings, bat they must think that a
veritable diabolism is in the hearts of
the managers, for as they progress
they find a number of these enormous
naked statues of men down on the.
ground under the peristyle, where
they a touch them with their
hands. Some of these figures are
ready togo up, some have workmen.
laboring to finish them, and some are
dismembered and in pieces.
Elsewhere the examples of the nude
represent both sexes. The statues Oh
the roof Of the woman's building are
draped, and so is French's colossal
statue OF the republic, but scores of
the graceful and truly beautiful fig
ures which one sees scattered about
the grounds are such as meet the gaze
of visitors to the galleries and palace
gardens of Europe.
All the figures in McMonnie's beau
tiful fountain are nude, and none Is
stranger and more surprising to the
western eye than that Of the goddess
WHO'S driving the chariot and who
sits bolt upright in an armchair with
not a stitch on her above her waist.
A much more severe test OF the
patience of the western people will
come when the art palace is open. 1t
is unq~uestionably the shelter of the
greatest number Of the beautiful ob.
jects in the exposition and of the fin
TEST collection ~ paipt;nr,