East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-01-17
Buying Misery

AS the impulse of each century is
toward a kinder and less savage hu-
manity, let us hope that in the next
100 years our art will show the re-
filming process of time.
War, murder and bloodshed are
still rampant in the world, yet the
sentiment Of civilization is opposed to
them. We are all ashamed of war,
where In olden times people gloried
in it.
Since we are ashamed of it, why
should we perpetuate its horrible
scenes on canvas, or buy such pictures
to hang upon our walls?
What pleasure is there in gazing
on graphic representation of car
mage, of looking at lifelike pictures
of agonized men and animals in their
death throes? Such work may prove
an artists skill, but it does nothing
for the betterment of humanity.
The realistic in literature, in the
descriptions of scenes of vice or mur-
der, may serve a useful purpose as the
plot proceeds and unfolds the me-
rhanism of cause and effect.
There can be no purpose in a real
istic picture of brutality and blood
shed.
What good end is attained by
blemishng our fair walls with the
picure of a dying deer, seized by
pack of hunds; or two wild beasts,
tearing each other to atoms; or a
frenzied bull goring a horse, while
the bull is pierced by the spear of a
human monster; or two men bruising
each other in the prize ring; or dying
men and horses flung in horried heaps
upon the battlefield?
All these things occur, and it is
terrible enough that they do, and that
we must read about them and hear
the details. But why should we per-
petuate them in art for unborn gen.
erations to gaze upon?
There ought to be a "horror cham
ber" where artists and sculptors who
love to portray the morbid and bru-
tai features of life could exhibit their
work without forcing it upon people
who do not want to see it,
There is so much that is sublime,
dramatic, tender, beautiful and ex-
alting in the world for painter and
sculptor to depict, so much that acts
as an inspiration to the beholder, that
soothes, rests or stimulates the mind,
heart and eye, instead of merely
arousing a sensation of fascinated re-
pulsion!
Why do people put pictures of dead
birds and fish on their dining room
walls? l can imagine nothing more
calculated to spoil the appetite and /
upset the digestion. One likes to for
get the market stalls while at din
ner.
In lady's boudoir. sweet with sug-
gestions of refined feminity, 1 have
seen the picture of a deer at bay
which tore the heart of any sympa-
thetic observer, Possibly the lady at
tached a symbolic meaning to it, and
as a successful hunter of hearts she
may have often seen her game "at
bay"
l have had my visit spoiled by an
almost life-sizer bull fight scene on
room wall. and I have had a
bleak winter day suddenly bloom with
the glory of a summer afternoon at
the shore by bit of marine view OPP
poste me as | waited the arrival of
my hostess.
Why not select things which shall
delight and please our own eyes and
those of our friends when we are
adorning our homes?
The sad and awful side of life will
force itself upon us fast enough as
we go along, without buying it and
putting an expensive frame about it.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox.