The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-01-04
IDEAS for IMnrnen.

F0SfN " ~ ~ H48A6 AL k%%<
word altruism and talk it with glib IA
miliarity are no more altraistic In spirit
ana in the fulhhment Of its ~promptings
than is the u~nspeakable Turk an altru-
list.
To talk altruisrns In the ane parlors and
luxurious libraries of these make-believe
aItruists and then to ascend to that cold
and bare third or fourth story room
whittier all thes@sdecrepit chairs. the
cranky window shades and faded bits of
carpet have migrated, and where supreme
discomfort and ugliness are thought
good enough for Nora. is to make one
despair of sincerity.
We nave even heard them sigh for
ar opportunity to bestow the overfowings
of their .'culcha" on the great .uncul-
chad" when the poor. hone maid. fresh
from the disheartening boys OF Ireland
or beauty loving old Chloe from the din
gy back street, was such a nearby and
would-be grateful recipient of some of
that Sweetness and light" which Mat
thew Arnold so persistently declared
make for righteousness"
In many houses where all is rich and
harmonious coloring. where there are
paintings and ~etchipgs, busts. books and
curios everywhere, there is not so much
as a colored Autograph or a plaster
statuette in that duh upper chamber
which is the only spot where the hireling
lives a moment of her own life away
from the tubs and brooms.
Knowing no variety in her work save
the dubious shifting from frying pan to
fire. she sees those who have music, art,
literature and society for their aids in
speeung the hours that mark of the
1roo ny dau raffra IN bod cbarnhpr whose
dainty loveliness Is like a bit of fairy
land to her beapty-staryed soul, wonder
ing with formless mental protest why
these things be.
And why, under he ~rooftree of the
generation thai has coined the word al
truism should there be this e~poch-wide
distinction between attic n second
floor, these extremes Of barrenness and
of su-mptuousness with only a few planks
dividing them?
Beauty, says saltruism. IS for the poor
as well as the rich. 1t ~repudiates the
dogma of artsfor arts sake as too mar
row for the catholic spirit of the times,
and altruism that does not include beauty
in its schemes for ethical advancement
is but a tinkling cyrnbal that irritates
with its meaningless iteration.
Though there are mue4-sns ON the
watch tower who ceaselessly cry, art is
art, and woe to the false. prophets"
altruism daress TO believe that there is
a second best IN art that may and must
minister to that Inherent sense for
beauty which seeks satisfaction more
and more as the aesthetic faculties de-
velop their appreciation of good. better
and best.
There Is a place in nature and in the
worlds need-why notSin art?-for the
crude and the embryonic as well as for
the symmetricalIy rounded and the ex-
ling's little, unadorned niche in the house
beautiful remain bare. and forlorn be-
cause Sir Midas will not. n ought not,
give his Raphael Madonnas and his
Gobelin tapestries to embellfsh the den
of Nora of the boys?
Nay, even He who set forth the plen-
tifui Iilyss claim to consideration in con-
trast with the are ssplendor Of a kings
robes, recognized values and inequalities
of appreciation In the pearls and the
swine.
But in order to bring che grand COM
ceptions of the masters-not necessarily
the old masters-to the perception and
TIE aQd1lluS VI 3tASSE IA ftaS N0USot S\oo~@
of mental evolution there is a second
dress in which art arrays them.
If in Morals room we would not hang
our old Flemish crucifx of marvellous
carving, would she not rejoice to wor-
snip as worthily before an engraved copy
Of the Ecce Honor VIII she learn no les
son of prayer after tod from a sepia
tint Angelus because the original Millet
is downstairs?ls s1 PISS
If her white. eye-wearying walls are
hung with daily colored scenes of coun-
Try merrymakings ard harvestings, some
brackets with plaster casts-even Leigh
Hunt did not scorn these. but treasured
them as adding grace to a
some good stories % pretty bindings,
now to be had for such a trife, she would
prove to the altruist that it is the concep-
ton and not the substance which en-
bodies it, by which the intellect is
reached and the heart cheered.
These second best expedients would be
as kindergarten object lessons to her un-
awakened faculties and as apples of
gold in pictures of silver to her erstwhile
desolate barraek. Through these she
would feel transmitted some of the grac-
iousness of arts noblesse oblige, and
perceive in them that. Humanitarian spir-
it of commiseration ssanda h~elpfulness
which she, poor soult may never know
to be altruism. ne,sM.ss
How droll that the notion of wearing
charms should revive and be considered
snart INSTEAD of silly, as it used to be
considered when as school girls the pres
ent generation of women wore anchors
and crosses. bears teeth and cats eyes
as watch charms.
For a coin to bring luck with it I be-
1:eve It ought to come to yot in the Or
binary way of circulation. with the hole
readysmade. You then take 1T to a jew
eier have it ringed and embellished
with some stone. A three cent piece
makes a more impressive pendant than
the ten cent piece, and 1t is not so often
seen.
OF course you can only buy lucky
things for others, as If you purchase
them for yourself they are no good The
poet says that love gives itself. 1t is not
thought; and much the same may be OBJ
Sserved of uck In money matters 1t is
ora very capricious. lavishing gold in
showers on the most lumpssh or unde-
serving Of mortals, people who will never
make good usesof their fortunes; and its
distribution of health and fl-health is
also very unfair.
Luck may possibly be a survivor of the
old healthier deitiess who shared 40 fha