The evening times., 1899-06-28
Utility and Beauty.

The "Charlestown News and Courier"
in an article on Utility and Ugliness."
bewails the vanishing artistic perception
from modern life. and declares that all
the inventions of man disfigure nature,
and that beauty is daily sacrificed to util-
ity. to the extingushing of all esthetic
emotions. 1t then makes this rather
sweeping statement:
The influence OF work Of any kind is always
defacing to the human form.
According to that, the savage who has
Fever done anything but lie in unclothed
bliss under tree and wait for the fruit
to tumble into his mouth ought to be
model of beauty, but the accounts of the
travellers do not exactly confirm this the
ory. The man who does not work at all
frequently develops diseases which are
anything but beautiful and it is to be
doubted whether bent and wrinkled
workman in overalls is not quite as pleas
ing. from an artistic point OF view, as a
corpulent aristocrat with the gout. Aside
from the unhappy influence which such
statement is likely to have on those who
read it-for human nature is always quick
TO seize on an excuse for laziness-it is
not true. Excess OF work is disfiguring.
but 80 in excess of self-indu!gent idle
ness. and the Greeks. who remained
through ages the worlds models of ply
i5al Hauty were net an indolent people
III. beauty which comes from activity
from a fine physique animated by an en-
crgc,i, aud Intelligent spirits the great
est delight of the artist.
The fact is that the ugliness bewailed
by the newspaper above quoted does not
come from the influence Of work, but
frcm various other causes. One of these
is the determination of some men To live
lf-indulgent lives at the expense of 9TH
er men. The man who runs a business for
the sole purpose of making money does
not care whether his factories are pretty
or not: his desire is to make the factory
yield him such an income that neither he
ror his children will have to work with
their hands. He does not care whether
the factory operatives are overworked or
not. \ reasonable amount of work. done
under proper conditions. does not deface
the human form; but too much of any
thing-activity or idleness, starvation or
epleticn-generally has that effect.
Another cause of the ugliness of our
furniture. buildings. and other belongings
is the ignorant striving of the poor toward
the standards of the ignorant rich. When
man sees a millionaires house uphol-
stored in a barbarous DTOfusion of plush
and gliding, he buys cheap gliding and
plush for his own house When a poor
woman sees that the rich wear gorgeous
herself clothing in imitation of theirs
Thus. owing to the higher wages and pc
culiar social conditions which prevail in
this country, the children OF foreigners
and of the ca. ne farmer drift further
and further away from the really beauti-
full household belongings of their ances-
tors. This is not because they have set
up a utilitarian standard but because they
have a false idea of the artistic. Look
lines Of an old-fashioned piece of furni-
ture. and then at the cheap monstrosities,
covered with painted flowers or sham
which have replaced it, Look
at the old-fashioned willow ware" and |
then at the dishes. not half so convenient |
or artistic. which are on the working !
mans table today. OF what use are the |
ornaments which cover our crockery. |
our draperies, our furniture. even our |
stove doors? When a thing is without |
ornament, but perfectly adapted to the |
place in which it is, and the use to which |
it is to be put, it is. in nine cases out of |
ten. either beautiful or picturesque That |
is a law of nature.