The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-07
OUT AND ABOUT.

panied often by their parents, nave Viz
tied the collection since 1t was opened
Saturday 1t will remain open TODAY
from to 6, and 7 to 8, and Sunday from
to 6. Sunday night it will close.
The league has brought the pictures
together to show the public what IL IS
doing, and to enable it to see just what
objects are going upon the walls OF the
school rooms.
But the league has still another pur-
pose in view. 1t aims to interest tns
people of the city in its mission and TO
stir them up to help on the work that
has been begun by the league. II IS
anxious to have the decoration OF the
school rooms go on more rapidly than
the league can do it, and that persons
in the different sections of the city
may be moved to decorate their chill
dren's school rooms.
A good deal which does not appear
has been accomplished by the league
this summer. For example, 1t has had
the walls of all the new school build
ings and Of the Harlow street and new
Woodland street schools, which were
opened last year, tinted. Sycamore
street and oxford street schools were
also tinted, the latter very beautifully.
The city did the tinting, but the league
chose the colors that were used, max
ing special attempt to defeat the old
characterless scheme Of color by means
of a rich, strong, yet hygienically
proper scheme. Grays and greens have
been the favorites, and the colors along
these scales, but where rooms were
dark and inclined to be cherries and
sombre, more luminous tints, with more
or less yellow in them, were employed,
and in the hall, teachers offices and the
like, that are used only internationally,
Venetian red was used to lend richness
to the color scheme. The result has
been to make the school buildings
beautiful enough for home.
Nov the thing is for people to take
hold and help the league In its work
In other places-Springield and Brook
line, for instance-alI such work has
been done by individual aim. That is
to say, there has been no group Of per :
sons organized for the purpose Of deco
rating the schools, but those individuals
who felt moved so to do put their hands
in their pockets and contributed as they
saw fit. The situation there is the re-
verse of what it is in Worcester, where
general apathy has been the rule out
side the Public School Art league.
To return to the exhibition at the Ii
brary. An excellent system was adopt
ed for ascertaining the taste of the sew
eral schools into which the pictures are
to go. Each teacher was requested to
send in list of the pictures she would
prefer for her room, and so far as pos
sible these lists were followed. OF
course, this entailed a tremendous
amount of work upon the league. The
only restriction that was put upon the
teachers was that they should make
their selections from the list Of prints
published by the Helmund- Taylor Com
pany; but as the publications of this
company were exhibited here last fall.
the part of the teachers was compare
lively easy.
The pictures have been assigned to
the schools that asked for them, and
framed with the greatest care, the same
pains having been bestowed upon the
frames and mats TO make them thor
oughly artistic, as if they had been
meant for home.
AS any one can see, the photographs
are all representative of the best mas :
tiers. Nearly all are Braun carbon pho
,tographs. Fourteen go to the Blithe-
wood school, AMI these are monu-
ment to the enthusiasm and persever-
ance of the pupils, for they raised the
amount necessary to purchase the
prints by their own exertions, holding a
fair and soliciting their friends to that
end
Bloomingdale. Adams square, Wins
low street nd Woodland street schools
have also assisted in getting their own
pictures.
1t is a surprising thing how much the
pupils enjoy these works of art In
one Of the ninth grade rooms, for in
stance, after the pictures had been
placed, the teacher spoke about them,
saying that perhaps they would need
to be explained before the children
would care for them The next time
the drawing teacher came, one of the
little girls ran UP to him and pointed
them out. Teacher says we ought to
have them explained to US" she said +;
but we don't need anything Of that
kind-we enjoy them as it is"
1t is the same in drawing The boys
and girls enjoy the pictures, materials,
etc. In years back, they could draw
only the simplest things, but now they
can manage much more complex work,
for their art consciousness is farther
progr essed than was that of the chill
dren of a decade since. The school
children of today enjoy what people or
dinarily say is too far beyond them.
This happy circumstance is in part
due to familiarity with the Perry
prints, great numbers of which have
been used as an adjunct to the draw
ing lessons. Boys and girls alike have
become tremendously interested in
them, and find them not only pretty,
but fine. Why in some of the schools,
they have brought their own pennies,
and then have begged money from
their parents, for their teacher to buy
Perry pictures for them.
But not only have the pictures re-
acted on the homes; the influence of
the scheme of decoration is also felt
in the homes, and simplicity, taste in
color and taste in arrangement are
among the lessons that the pupils have
carried with them out of the school
building. And this will become more
perceptible as the pottery and other
material of the sort which the league
is trying after, becomes an integral
part of the child's school life.
Prof. Edward Howard Griggs, M.
A., who gives the initial lecture at the
Woman's Club on Wednesday, is in de-
mand as a lecturer in and about New
York Thursday he gave the second
lecture in the course on THE first part
Of Goethe's Faust" which he is de-
livering at the Brooklyn Institute of
Arts and Sciences, and Saturday at the
Y. NJ G. A. hall in Harlem he began
course Of free illustrated lectures on
THE cities of Italy and their gift to
civilization, under the auspices of the
board Of education.
There was terrible waste of assorted