Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-24
LATE MAGAZINES

Houston, Texas, city of nearly
$4,000 people, has a high school build
ing so overcrowded, so insanitary and
poorly constructed, that Frank Put
nam, well-known magazine writer,
made an earnest forceful appeal to his
feiloW-citizens last June for a new
building. Mr.. Putnam said:
1.-THE most obvious fact is that the
structure is overcrowded. 1t is called
upon to house too many pupils. In
order to make room for them exits
have been closed and seats placed in
the space SO gained. The manual
training and domestic science depart
ments have been installed in the dark,
ill-smelling basement, which is totally
unfit for any such use. The fact is, If
it were discovered that a county jailer
in Oklahoma was confning juvenile
prisoners in such quarters as these he
would have all the charitable and
philanthropic societies buzzing around
him within two days. The basement of
the Houston high school is permeated
by evil smells from oldfashioned san1-
tary plumbing; it is poorly ventilated
and lighted; it is, like the upper floors,
unhealthily overcrowded."
From Good Housekeeping.
Governor Curtis Guild, jr., writes
for January in regard to the recent
conference of governors at Boston.
Among other things he says: "One
New England governor who has IN
vested in Pacific coast apple orchards,
with no prospect of any profit for
some years to come, said, after the
close Of the conference, that his in
vestment had suggested to him, last
spring, experiments on the neglected
Baldwin apple orchard on his own es-
tate. His trees were, accordingly, this
year for the first time sprayed and the
fruit graded and picked in the west
ern fashion. His No. 1 grade Bald
wins netted him $3.50 a barrel, a bet
ter return than, after many years, was
even promised for his western ven
ture."
Why does the being we call a gen
tleman'' wear around his neck band
of spotleSS whiteneSS and unbearable
stiffness, at his wrists similar instru-
ments of torture, and before his chest
a rigidly starched linen plate? NO one
outside of a madhouse would call these
articles of apparel agreeable. There is
for the custom no reason at all drawn
from comfort, hygiene or usefulness.
There is, however, the ghost of a dead
reason. Once upon a time a gentle
man. was presumed to do no work, and
he dressed to show this, by putting OH
these visible signs that he never soiled
his hands, sWeated his neck or bent his
noble back 1t matters not that we no
longer believe in this definition of a
gentleman; we did believe it once; its
ghost rules on. No man is bold enough
to appear in society without this i'm
humorist, like Mark Twain, or some
one who wishes to pose as mild
lunatic, dares rebel. Addison said that
the man who would clothe himself ac-
cording to common sense would find
himself in Jail within week.-Frank
Crane, in January Atlantic.
William Allen White, writing in the
January American Magazine, says, in
part:
"The sin of Hanna was not a specific
Intentional debasement of our politics,
and corruption of our business. He
did what he did by his example, by his
influence by his point of view With
him in all sincerity and in all candor
business was the most important con-
sideration and prosperity for the nation
was the one end and aim in his soul
He saw that prosperity threatened in
the campaign Of 1896 by the free silver
craze. He fought that craze with en-
tire propriety; he fought for business
stability with the utmost sincerity and
with all good will; he won that fight,
and it was the most natural thing in
the world that he should consider busi-
ness stability an end rather than
means Of national happiness. He was
our most picturesque national leader in
those days. Mckinley was never
dramatized as the hero of the play.
He was what dramatists might call the
walking gentleman'-strong, Of course;
honest.
The we'll known artist. Birge Harri-
son, contributes to the January num-
ber of the North American Review an
extremely suggestive article on 1.-The
Future Of American Art" Mr.. Harri
son enumerates a certain number Of
artistic problems which are still I'M
solved, giving a historical account of
the manner in which those problems
arose out of the work of artists in va
rious countries. He is Of the opinion
that the main opportunity for the
American artist lies in the field Of land
scape painting, although he intimates a
possibility that in the changed condi-
tions of our civilization there may 1urk
hitherto unsuspected opportunities for
our figure painters. He says:
1.-THE old masters knew nothing what
ever about landscape. Indeed, it is
curious when you come to think of it,
that artists whose vision was so Won
derfully true in the diffused light of the
studio should become suddenly blind on
stepping across the threshold and out
into the open sunlight. For this there
is only one reasonable explanation-if
the old fellows knew little about land
scape they cared less. Their concern
was with humanity; it's joys and it's
sorrows; its loves and its passionate
hatreds; it's wars; its pageants; it's
faiths and its superstitions. Landscape
to them was never more than stage
setting, a background against which
the human puppets played their
parts. Viewed simply in this light
however, it was not only adequate, but
frequently artistic and admirably
beautiful. Nevertheless, it was not
landscape at all in the modern sense
of the word-landscape as we know it,
1t was conventional in form, false in
color and devoid of atmosphere and
J. -i--osity."
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