Omaha daily bee., 1894-02-05
PUNCHING RIM Z
Kate Field Pours out Her Wrath on tho
Modern "womeu oe Norwich"

Kate Field Pours Out Her Wrath on tho
Modern "woneu oe Norwich"
Dispatches from Washington announce
that the senate quadro-contennlal committee
decided to recommend 10 the secretary of
the treasury the rejection Of st. Gaudens'
Worlds fair medal unless It be changed to
conform to the committees idea VI propriety.
The action of the committee provoked the
wrath OF Miss Kate Field. which she vents
in the following lively style in the last num-
Der Of Washington:
II isn't enough that through the insanity
OF national legislation we are on the verge
Of bankruptcy. It isn't enough that our Solons
present an unparalleled spectacle Of incom-
potency in matters of business. Not con-
tent with the general muddle. the quadro-
centennial committee of the senate has
made us the laughing stock of the world.
When the women OF Norwich, Conn, arose
in mighty madness and demanded full suits
Of clothes for the plaster casts of classic
statues. a smile of sarcasm glrdled the earth
and they were forgiven. They meant well,
but they didn't know. The scent of the
Puritan hung round them sttll. poor things.
IL was to be expected that human beings.
taught to despise their own bodies. should
cap the climax by being ashamed of them
and see in physical perfection not the noblcst
and most beautiful work of God, but an
inspiration of the devil.
Those women of Norwich could be for
given when they stayed at homo; when their
prurient prudery invades the capitol and
breaks out among n senatorial contingent pa
thence gives way to indignation.
H. Ever since this review was born l have
asked for a national art commission, that
the country might be spared the disgrace and
expense of abominable paintings, statuary
and public buildings. Were there such a COM
mission American artists in general would
not now be gnashing their teeth.
1t Is a fine story. With great good sense
the secretary of the treasury employed an
eminent American sculptor to design the
medal FOR prize winners at the Worlds fair,
Realizing the Importance OF the commits
sion, Mr.. st. Gaudens expended much time
and all of his ability on a model, which, on
presentation, was accepted. The director of
the mint, as l understand II, submitted this
design to the committee of awards, of which
Mr.. John Boyd Thatcher is chairman. In
the absence of a national art commission this
was the best thing to do, for what our off
Gals don't know alb Nut art would fill the new
library of congress.
All went well until n senator beheld with
his own eyes an alleged fac smile of the de-
sign, circulated by a New Hampshire firm as
an advertisement. 1t appears that a citizen
OF that state presented himself last summer
to the director of the mint. introduced by a
senator. He wanted to see the model of the
Worlds fair medal at the Philadelphia mint.
thinking this citizen was a Worlds fair ex-
hiDitor, MIR. Preston gave him a note to the
director Of that mint, where he saw the
model and carried off enough in his minds
eye to set going an advertisement that has
led to an immortal scandal. What this
American citizen thinks of himself for steal
ing and villifying the brains of an art
ist paid for BY the United States,
and what his masters think of
themselves for receiving stolen goods, |
can't conceive. Conscience. however, Is not
rampant among thieves. and now that Mr..
st. Gaudens has brought a suit against them,
we will have a chance to learn whether our
laws protect brains better than before we
hauled down the black flag on the high seas
of literature.
One glimpse of the stolen advertisement
filled certain members of the quadro-centen-
NAL committee with a desire to inspect the
original design. Forthwith Mr.. Preston was
summoned to appear at the capitol with the
plaster cast that peacefully reposes in the
Treasury building. 1T was an outrage"
1T was a disagreement the stolen adver-
tisement, but the artists conception. "Mr.
st. Gaudens should be fined" Such were the
of legislators who ordered the sec
rotary to stop work on what was an offense
to decency. Work stopped. II st. Gaudens
refuses to change his design, it will be re-
jected and some awful substitute will be sup
piled by the mint.
| have seen what shocks my friends of the
senate. / am shocked, not at the design,
but at them. On one side of the medal is
a well clad Columbus thanking God for dis
covering land. On the other side stands a
nude male figure, supposed to typify Amer
lea in all the virility of youth. Not unlike
the Apollo Belvedere in pose and freedom,
it would excite no more criticism among
educated men and women. That it has
created a hubbub at the capitol, puts the
critics on the same plane as the old women
of Norwich.
AS an art lover and a Worlds fair medal
list l protest against this grotesque per-
Torrance of a few men armed with a little
brief authority. The Worlds fair medal is
not for a day, but for all time. II is not
awarded to babes and stockings, nor to the
old women of Norwich. nor to their counter
parts in the senate. 1t Is awarded to men
and women who have won reward by their
brains, and who want that medal to repre-
sent the genius of an American artist, and
not the commonplace driyel of an artisan.
If the st. Gaudens design be rejected or
tempered with 1t will be an unhappy day for
the prudes of the senate. II Mr.. st. Gaudens
consents to change 1t, l for one want the
original design, many casts of which have
already been made. As all but 5000 of these
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