The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-12-09
May Be Given for Sweet
Charity
BY LOCAL SOCIETY WOMEN.
Some Opinions on the New York
Controversy.
CONDEMNATION WENT TOO FAR.
Members of the Mercantile Library
Auxiliary Enthusiastic Over
the Plan.

some of the prominent San Francisco
women an inspiration. Why not give
some living pictures for sweet charity?
The Mercantile Library is badly in need
of funds, and the ladies CT the auxiliary
| are many of them of the opinion that they
could prove how artistic the pictures could
be made, and at the same time replenish
the empty Golfers of the institution.
II do not believe we should have any
diff uIty IN getting society women to
pose" said Mrs. Louis Taussig yesterday.
II have number of pictures and prlnts
that would make artistic tableaus, thai
the most prudish enemy Of living pictures
could not object to-"
Mrs. Taussig who possesses one OF the
finest collections of pictures in San Fran
cisco, is secretary of the Mercantile
Library Auxiliary. and it was she who
first thought of change in the form of
entertainments.
People are tired or musicales, and
there is nothing prettier than living pic
tures." she said. Il remember in the
Passion Play at Oberammergau there
were settings Of some great works ofart as
living pictures. arranged by artists from
Munich. They made an impression even
on frivolous people, and TO the religious
their effect must have been very deep.
II always look upon picture as work
of art-'Hon soft Qui NAL y pense.' you
know. | believe that those very women
who are raising such a commotion about
the living pictures are the ones who would
say to one another, oh, come and look at
them, but don't give it away Yes. and
they would go and enjoy it, too"
aolya mi ofh no
upon living picture in exactly the same
spirit as a canvas one, Mrs. TauSsig an
swered in the negative.
IAN undraped figure in a picture is no
the same as one in life. If the undraped
picture were hanging in gallery one
| would pass it by without discussing it
perhaps, but without blushing. II the
model for that work were standing on the
pedestal outside the studio l should not
| like to see it at all. But why need they
60 in for the nude. when there are SD
many beautiful pictures that could be rep
| resented y?
When asked whether she approved of
the way in which Mrs. Grannis had taken
up the cudgels for the women who posed
in the living pictures. Mrs. Taussig re-
piled: ~ certainly could never admire a
very decollete style of gown, though do
think there is a great difference between a
lady in evening dress and those heavy fat
women on the stage that wear tights and
little belt, or something of that sort.
Our ladies in ball dress, within bounds,
look pretty, but l always find suggestion
of coarseness when l see woman in
tights.
"They may say what they like about
Paris being immoral, but [ have been to
all the operas there and never saw a
woman in the boxes who was much
decole.e. 1t is in London that l have
seen most of that sort of thing. and it was
not the best people then who made a COM
plete exhibition of their necks and arms.
But even In London the decollete display
was not coarse like the fat woman in
tights.
However" concluded Mrs. Taussig,
"if living pictures are displayed for the
Mercantile Library we shall try TO show
how artistic and beautiful they can be
made"
''Is Mrs. Taussig thinking of living pic
lures to raise money for the library? ?" said
Mrs. DR.. Henry Gibbons, the president of
the Auxiliary. Then she continued as she
laughed at the coincidence, That's the
very thing L was going to propose at the
next meeting. l was talking it over with
one of the ladies yesterday, and we not
only decided that living pictures would be
a great attraction. but also that we would
introduce some novelties into them. 1t
would never do to say what the novelties
are to be at this early stage. however. for
some theater might seize upon our idea
and rob us of our thunder.
''As for the controversy in New York, |
really have not followed it very closely.
1t seems to me absurd to make crusade
against living pictures-tableaux vivian Is,
we used to call them when / was child
just because few theaters show Ques-
tionable ones. / suppose those disrep-
utable theaters where they are exhibited
have questionable exhibitions of some sort
or other continually, so the women ought
to strike at the theaters and not only at
the pictures. No sensible manager would
put anything on the stage that he knew
would shock and disgust mis- audience"
rs living picture just the same as the
painted canvas it represents?
La answer to this question Mrs. Gibbons
replied decidedly: "The human figure is
not the same as cold marble or canvas.
No respectable audience would want to
see nude figure on the stage, however
artistic it looked. 1t is possible to pervert
almost every good thing, and the undraped
in living pictures is an unfortunate per-
version of the beautiful and artistic ends
TO which they can be turned"
"The living pictures bear just the same
relation to the painted one that the model
does 10 it, said Miss Sarah ID. Hamlin.
Il am always inclined TO look upon form
as expressed in marble and bronze and
color as expressed in painting as similar in
their power to express an idea. The idea
becomes coarser if it is expressed in flesh
and blood-no. coarse is not the word. for
the human form is the most beautiful
thing in the world; but marble expresses
one idea. the living breathing woman
expresses a thousand,- and among them
everything that goes with sensuous life.
There was no more suggestion of i'm
modesty in the undraped figures of the
Greeks than there is to US in a Six-month-
old baby. The sculptor simply sought 10
| oyproao nd no natnata Soma artistic idaa