The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-11-07

municipal support. assisted by money
at the disposal of the county council
for educational purposes, each town 10
itself, each town with its well-paid
responsible masters. First In rank Is
to be the artist who teaches the artis-
tic branches, and then should come the
master who Is to teach the more me-
chanical branches, such as might be
needed for mechanics In their crafts.
But never should one man be expected
to be proficient in both these branch
es, for no man has ever been.
TEACHING ON A PERSONAL BASIS.
This emancipation from the apron
strings Of Kensington through munich
pal and county council support would
produce an individuality In the art Of
the necessities of the community. All
teaching must be on personal basis.
The longer my experience the more GER
tain am that the art faculty In every
human being is worked by his charac-
ter. / mean that. provided the natural
gifts are there, It's successful issue de-
pends on the mere character of the in
dividual. and 1t Is precisely for this
reason that the art master must be the
students best friend. We must remem-
ber that all questions Of art resolve
themselves into the one, what do you
see?" To train seeing" does not mean
to implant an original brain faculty,
for that is impossible. The student can
only be shown his strength or his weak
ness. Out of himself comes his ideal
ity; out Of himself comes the gift; out
of himself comes his inner seeing or
Imagination. Strange to say, the art
that needs this precious faculty above
all others has been generally consid-
cred to be one of the lesser arts name
ly, decorative art. But / tell you that
true and noble decorative art is rarer
than true and noble pictorial art. and
the teaching of this art offers far more
obstacles than the teaching of the pic
torial art 1t cannot be taught on a
large scale; 1t cannot even be taught In
schools; it must be taught I'm the work.
shop. Turning schools into workshops
is the alternative. you might say; yes.
but not with the ordinary system Of
classes. 1t must take the form Of COM
plete apprenticeship. This brief survey
tuition will show you the drift Of my
beliefs. You will have gathered that
the unwieldy system governed by that
central body at kensington is not OF
the kind likely to unearth individual
talent. You will further have noticed
that put the strongest emphasis on the
Importance of personality" in teach
ing; that the pupils must be around a
strong man, who Is a system in HIM
self, without having to conform to
central system. which must necessarily
become stereotyped and llfeless. That
the applied arts need this method of
teaching more than the pictorial You
have heard me say that certificates OBJ
tained from such a system as that prac-
ticed at South KensinEton are worthless
as guarantees of ability: therefore. the
whole question for Wales resolves itself
into the following: Wales needs mas
ters who will establish art schools on
newer and more national basis. The
National E.isteddfod must appear to you
the one and only agent for finding the
masters through their work, and that
the selection will follow naturally upon
the work sent in. When you have the
men, then. surely. the formation OF
schools simply means local enterprise.
But we cannot move In the matter OF
selecting the masters until we have
seen what the next few National Els
teddfodau bring forth I'm cart work.
Fiwt. get united effort on the part of all
Welsh born, living in and out of the
principality, in order to gauge the quail
ity of the present living Welsh work
els. (Hear hear) If, in the next few
years. it Is shown that there are too
few Welsh artists to select from. we
must turn to those who have lived three
and more years in the principality; fail
ing that, We must turn to foreigners to
help, as they have been obliged to do
in other young countries. The times
are propiticus for a new art era in
Wales. The GOrsedd is alive to the i'm
I,o n,,t ttsil f,tN
over the Eisteddfod with cver-increas-
ms interest. The Eisteddfod is Great
ing more and more interest. and / be-
licve each local committee will in turn,
exert its influence to improve that IN
stitutiOn year by year. ] see the goal
that Wales Is to reach in art clearly,
and 7 believe the nation Is ready to fol-
low the voice of friend who sees that
goal. And may live to see great art
works, at least in the applied arts,
branded with the phrase Made in
Wales."
NO PITTSBURG.
Mr.. Robert Davis, secretary of the
Pittsburg eisteddfod, visited the West
Side singers the latter part Of last
week. Mr.. Davis was accompanied by
Mr.. Roberts Their mission was to get
a choir or party of singers organized
for the purpose of competing at Pitts
burg on Christmas day. Since the
Worlds fair eisteddfod very little is
the interest in music on the West Side,
and we are not led to believe that q
choir of any kind will participate in
the competition at Pittsburg. The per-
sons who know how to organize choir
will not do 1t and those who would like
to do 1t do not know how to. We would
like to see the Pittsburg folks helped
out, but the scheme to take a choir
down there is very impractical.
ROBERT MORRIS EISTEDDFOD.
We understand that the Robert Nor
ris lodge will soon be able to publish
the programme of their second annual
eisteddfod which is to be held next
year. We do not see why the commit
tee should go out its own circle for ad-
INDICATORS. There are two or three
musicians in the lodge well able to do
justice in that department. They have
Prof. George Howell, Howell Harris
and others very capable to adjudicate
the literary compositions. DR.. Beddoe
is a splendid judge Of what good reci-
tatiOn should be. All the outside help
they need is a Welsh poet to adjudicate
the Welsh poetry. What Is the matter
with Mr.. Griffiths. of Turin, N. Y, who
seems to be the Welsh poet of the day
and the winner Of the three hundred
dollar prize at Denver?