The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-12
PROVINCIAL NEW YORK.

San Francisco Argonaut.

San Francisco Argonaut.
Few things are capable OF affording more
pure amusement TO the cosmopolitan mind
than the attitude of New York toward all
things European-unless. indeed. IL be her
attitude toward all things Western. AS 10
the former IL is sufficiently notorious. New
York herself is the only place on two con-
tinents, apparently. which fails TO see the
humor OF IL. 1t adds TO the gayety Of ma
tons at home and abroad II is harmlessly
funny enough in a way. but is nothing TO
the absurdity of the position she all un-
consciously assumes with regard TO the
West-any West, but the Pacific coast more
especially.
Overwhelming evidence throughout a gen.
Grafton. has compelled New York at length
to realization that the Californian does
not Of necessity wear a gold-nugget scarf
pin and diamond ring she is willing TO
accept the individual Californian upon the
footing OF any other man. IL is artistically.
not individually, that California is that
Nazareth out OF which no good can come.
IL is likewise the wilderness into which no
good thing penetrates. The Californian
learns TO submit in all patience and humil-
ity TO kindly meant explanations upon all
topics which may be classed as OF universal
interest. to be informed 10 the works
metropolitan celebrities. He learns 10 have
ii taken for granted, even by Gothamites
who have never got east OF Fourth avenue,
west OF Philadelphia. nor so far as the Mar
rows, that his own experience has. up TO
then, been bounded by the Pacific on the
west and the Rockies on the east That
Californian may have ventured as far as
the continent is the last thing New York
ever takes into consideration.
This is amusing. But endurance revolts
at observing, time and again, unmistaka-
III
complacently ignored by the metropolis
solely because IL has come out OF the West.
Last winter. by way of one example,
there was an exhibit OF statuary' oronzes
and sketches at the Union Arts-perhaps
the most representative and really intelli-
gent club for both sexes In that or any
other town. Borglum had there number
of things on show, and IL did not matter
from what remote spot they came the small
figures OF animals were wonderful-instinct
with life and imagination. Nothing among
the other stereotyped, classic-bound, pretti-
fled pieces in the rooms In any way ap-
preached them in force or form. But New
York was totally uninterested In them.
A bronze wild horse dancing In the sheer
vim of living. mincing like kitten in play
| full fun, coquetting with it's own SHADOW
coyly. for all the TREMENDOUS latent
know what IL meant. Or a poor mare and
| tiny colt. caught in a blizzard and suffering
| so wildly with bitter cold and cutting
sleet that one cringed in sympathy-New
York did not understand horses like those.
| The horses Of st. Mark. perhaps-yes. or
| at the best the poor docked-tailed beasts
/ of Madison-sQuare Garden, which trot on
tanbark TO the music of a band. In the
feelings of horses like Borglum's New York
| cannot share. II very much preferred some
pastels of society girls and some marbles
1t was not until some newspaper critic OF
unusual enterprise discovered and pro-
4 claimed that Borglum's animals had made
| stir in Paris season or two before, and
| had won him desirable honors, that the
metropolitan public began so much as to
look to see IL those at the Union Arts had
| any merit
And it is precisely the same with the art
/ of the pencil and the brush II a certain
| California painter, whose speciality is night
scenes, had come over from Europe 10 ex-
| hibit, instead Of from the coast, as he oid:
| IL is safe to say that he would have created
a furore. But, as II was, the very small
portion Of New York which happened TO
see his things at all went on its way un-
| impressed. They were clever. no doubt.
But New York has never looked up to
southwestern night sky, unpaled by the
| simmer of electric lights. undeadened by
the dust from thousands Of feet and the
smoke of countless chimneys; II mas never
4 seen absolute starlight across a stretch OF
| desert and on white adobe walls. And TO
| go in for enthusiasm about them has never
| been pointed out by the critics as sine
/ qua non of culture. Until IL shall have
| been New York will crowd the auction sales
| that show Botticellis and Carlo Dolces
warranted safely admirable and quite in
l nOcuOuS.
The mind of New York is much like that
/ of Bulwer's friend. which reminded one or
/ citizens garden near London-a pretty
/ parterre here and Chinese pagoda there,
/ an oak tree I'm one corner and a mushroom
| bed in the other; and, above all. a Gothic
| ruin opposite the bay window. You may
/ travel the whole in a stride" and there
are neither boundiess seas nor big mountain
| ranges nor even a vast plain. New York
| likes the landscape garden better-and yet
| she might profitably give thought TO the
Il forf cot ~ N q
| stranger In the metropolis 1t was at the
| studio Of that couple who have the only
literary salon In New York--and they, too.
| are out of the West incidentally. One
| celebrity after another. rising or risen, was
| pointed out to the visitor. This one was
| from New England, that one was from the
| South, another from California, yet another
| from the middle West But where are the
| born and bred New Yorkers?" the stranger
/ wished to know. Among this kind or peo-
| ple-the ones who do things! There are