The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-02-25
American Standards. of Art.

Miss Lillian Bell seems TO have started
lively discussion on the subject of art
and the American girl. She has declared
that the American girl is going TO be the
ruin of our art and literature, because
nothing will be tolerated that this young
person cannot see. She winds up her ar
raignment of the American public by de-
claring that The Scarlet Letter is TIA
booed in many good American family
Winifred Black takes issue with Miss Bell
and states that the American girl is not
hurting art, but art is hurting the Ameri-
can girl. and 1t is her opinion that Haw-
thorne's masterpiece is not fit for a young
girl to read. She specifies several other
things. on the stage and in literature
which she thinks corrupting to the matinee
girl, and her conclusion is that parental
discipline is too lax.
The trouble with both these essays on
the American girl and American art is
that there is much pretty writing in them
but not very many good arguments. In
the first place the two subjects are not con-
nected very closely under any circum-
stances. The average maiden is not going
to worry herself seriously over matters of
art when she has her work, and her play,
and her friends to take up most OF her
mind. And it is equally true that il an art
ist has the power TO create a beautiful pic
ture or a magnificent work of fiction the
young-girl public Is not likely to stop him.
If his work is good he can find plenty OF
men and mature women who VIII pay for it,
The trouble with American art-includ-
ing in this term literature, the drama, and
paintings not connected with the young
person at all. 1t is that at the present
stage of our evolution we have not settled
what is and what is not good A part OF
our population is still ruled half uncon-
sciously by the old Puritan idea that all
art should be looked upon with suspicion
This idea very nearly killed artistic feel
ing in whole communities. for people must
be educated to appreciate the drama in its
highest form, and a person who has once
been thoroughly convinced that Milton's
Paradise Lost" is the greatest poem on
earth will have hard work to make rOor
for an ideal which will include "Trilby,"
or even books much less discussed than
that abused work of Du Maurier. 1t takes
generations to overcome the effect of two
hundred years or so spent absolutely with
out the drama or paintings or sculpture.
Another part of our population comes
from the peasant class of Europe and con-
ssts of people without trained sensibilities
of any sort. and also without the reserve
which characterized the old-time Ameri-
can. They see with delight the same sort
of plays which they saw in Paris, or Wen
ma, or Berlin. and are not shocked by a
good many things which cultured taste re-
fuses. In towns where the cheap theatre
is the only theatre the better class of the
population eschew the drama altogether
unless they can afford to see it when tray
cling. The village system which prevais
in this country binders the development OF
the stage in a way which would not be
possible in a smaller and older country 1t
also prevents knowledge of art among
large perlentage of the people. Whatever
culture they get must be obtained through
books, and when an American book is pub
lished the public TO which 1t appeals is not
comparatively small and select one as
in some of the older countries where the
working folk do not read at all; 1t is an
immense, half-educated. quick-witted, and
more or less narrow minded public com
posed of people with all the prejudces of
the village less than a hundred years old.
Thus some of the books which have reached
the widest popularity here have been any.
thing but artistic, because they appealed
not TO the educated but 10 the half
educated. prejudiced. or prurlent ele-
ment OF our population. There is lust