Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-05
BY Kate Masterson

WYE have had our golden ages in
wv art and there have been coro-
neted epochs in literature af-
terward proved symbolic by explorers
who seek for such mysteries in the
artistic output of various eras. Our
modern days have evolved a new school
that threatens to lead us into a maze
neither rose grown nor ivy climbed, but
blossoming rather with wild spears of
spinach. bogs of parsley curled as Or
nately as the boards of Grecian poets,
and forests of spouting beet and turnip
tops that have of late, in some circles,
become significant of the good, the
beautiful and the true.
Tracing the movement back, we may
safely say that realism began 1T. 1t is
within the memory of most of us that
an actor playwright produced a comedy
drama in which a real clam pie was
brought upon the table during a stage
supper, steaming hot and making Its
presence odorously known through the
auditorium.
After this an actress really fried an
actual fish during a love scene with a
famous velvet voiced star, and TINS was
quickly followed in society play by
coffee ground and boiled under the very
noses of the audience.
After these innovations great many
theatergoers discussed realism with a
most offensive familiarity, objecting tc
it only on the ground that so many
persons dined heartily before going tC
the play and for this reason found the
higher degree of art disturbing to the
digestion.
Advertisement Is so potent that even
to this day there are some who talk ad-
miringly and regretfully of that clam
pie drama, confusing it, by some subtle
mental process, not only with great
achievement in stage reform but also
with purity of theme and high purpose
1t was useless to attempt to dislodge
the notion that the pie stood for poetry
religion and above all, art as opposed
to the schools f Pinero, Wilde, Grundy
and Jones. The kitchen range had be-
come the altar upon which the flame OF
inspiration never ceases to burn.
The zeal with which the clam pie
motif was espoused spread Indignantly
There sprang up sudden and pecu-
liar vogue for what many called
Wholesome" fiction. Others described
it as quaint and homely." Book re-
viewers scented nature just as the
audiences had smelled the CLAIMS.
Ambitious writers betook themselves
far from steam heat and open plumb
ing and sought to make their pages
throb with the humanity that is repre-
sented In the croak of the frog and the
chirp of the cricket.
There were the rules of the game Il
be observed. The wholesome story re-
quired complete putting aside of gooC
diction or tales located in any but in
tensely rural districts. Few chose othei
ground than the old farm, the barnyarC
and the back porch, where the whole
some farmer dried his quaint hands OF
the always wholesome roller towel tina
rolled for the hired man as we'll as fol
Hiram.
The kitchen remained the scene FOL
proposals, quarrels and pathetic con
fabs about the sale or mortgage of tn,
place; mother drying her eyes on tn,
apron, with wrinkled hands. The crul
Ter and the apple pie were the foods up
on which these near-to-nature folk ex
listed. Trousers We're worn tucked il
the boots.
The magazines began to reek will
this form of fiction. Were 1t not for tn,
occasional sea story, with the salt
briny breezes and the tarry rope as
relief the reader was greeted by moth
ing In page or picture but a ginghan
mother standing in the kitchen door