Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-12

A PROPOS Of the recent Madison
~ Square Garden tragedy the press
the pulpit and men and women
in the better walks Of life have ex-
claimed. at least in spirit. the thought
Of contemporary editorial:
what is laid bare to the gaze of
the reputable, the respectable. the
good--is something very like an organ
lied, recognized maelstrom. which
sucks in young men and women Of Ill
ages to destroy them.
"On one side the whirlpool touches
art and giddy young women like
Evelyn Nesbit learn as mouels in the
studio and the life class. the habit Of
exposure and the appetite for admira-
tIon, which prepares them for worse
things. on another side the sweep Of
this whirlpool skirts the stage. The
simulated nudity Of the musical COM
edy is. much of It (not alb, nothing
but bait for the man-wolf, who is on
the open trail for prey. The roof gar
den, the studios, the snowy restau-
rants, the easy-going hotels-all these
are part of the descending curves of
this yawning abyss which daily en-
CULTS its hideous tribute of youth and
maiden"
In the hour of this early excitement
this is the bill of Indictment returned
by the public. Tomorrow. next month,
it will be forgotten. I'm the name Of
art" is a talismanic symbol too power
full for even company of Comstocks
and Jeromes. Yet the bill is true
one.
From the Bryant park studios on
Forty-first street south to washington
square, on Fourth street-this is the
district inclosing the alleys and by
ways and main stem of New York's
Great White Way. Here are the great
er number of theaters, snowy restau-
rants, easy-going hotels and gtlded
concert halls; here American art and
drama and literature have centers in
large picture shops, and studios, and
bare stages, and crowded agency
rooms, and busy publishing houses
and strenuous magazine factories; here
thousands of young men and thou
sands of young women gain their liv-
ing, or their existence, and here thou-
sands of these thousands take their
pleasure, many carefully, many care
lessly. in the minds of the great ma
ior,ty the expression-"in the name of
art
About the Art Schools
In the neighborhood of the art
schools. the dramatic and the music
schools, along Fifty-seventh and Fifty
eighth streets, are located. number
of studios. and, Of course, the student
boarding houses, and several of the
important theaters are situated IN this
uptown district But here is to be
found only small part of the artistic
license for moral laxity that character
ICES the Great White Wav. The fur
ther south this crooked line of thirty
eight blocks runs the more truly Bohe-
mian the environment appears to be-
come. One begins to see a little of the
unconventional in the spirit: Eat,
drink and be merry, for tomorrow art
will triumph"
The art student moral. the profess
sionaI or professionally ambitious
model and the girls who pose"-in
these three classes may be included
every wave of the whirlpool that
touches both the stage and the studio.
Among the students in the various
art schools there is, as matter OF
course, an exaggerated degree of imi-
tation of what lurid tales of the Latin
quarter and some imagination has
painted as the approved artistic life.
With not a great many exceptions they
affect a negligence of dress and a.
staggering disregard of the old world
and it's prosaic notions. They are be-
yond the pale of conventional society,
they believe, and in this spirit they
sometimes go to extremes that are
dangerous.
Commonly accepted regulations re-
garding the association of young ladies
and young gentlemen are invariably
condemned to the four winds. What
is wrong in my visiting Jack?" ex-
claims Jill. 1--WE are working on the
sweetest cover design. 1 am posing for
it-in costume, of course-and I know
1t will take prize. Besides, we have
the most interesting discussion about
art
Perhaps innocent enough is the care
less friendship of Jack and Jill. But
the setting of the little play is too Sc
ductive for impressionables of their
age and experience; the incense stick
that Jack insists gives him inspira-
ton may burn too pungently; the bit
Of wine with cake which JACK deems
necessary for proper color may thrill
In the veins; it becomes a dangerous
friendship-this of Jack and Jill. Yet
who dares, in the face of art, preach its
impropriety? Even the teachers seem
to encourage it by silence. Association
in art is a great thing" it is said.
In the Real Studio
In the real studio with the man who
makes his living with his brush and
pencil md the model who depends for
q livelihood upon her knowledge of her
business and her grace of form and
eomeliness of feature, the quantities
alone are changed. The element of
dangerous chance practically vanishes.
Instead a very healthy, or unhealthy
savoir faire on the part of all con-
cerned, Is apparent.
The writer's Introduction t. the err
rant model was in a small studio in
Twenty-third street, in the row Of sky
lighted apartments beginning above
Dorlon's and extending east to Third
avenue. A friend OF whom the writer
had acquired an interest in the studio
was at work on a fantastic study he
chose to call Spring was the more
or less conventional maiden and lambs
and wild thyme bank-and he was in
quandary. 'I cannot do it," he at
Ia,, 9TH avoIafYaad INV noaa fs oil