The Port Gibson reveille., 1909-02-25
s0~1~S~SA~@~@~8~@ O. @~@~-9fe 90
/; APANESE
!: SWORDS
sSOMB SPEGBLATIONS CON-
) CERNING THE SWORD
; MAKERS ART.


Examples of the ancient swords OF
the samural may be seen in the Jap
anese collection of the Chicago Art
Institute. There is said to be in all
the world no more superb metal work
than that displayed in the chiseling OF
the guard and the adjuncts OF the
hilt, and no higher degree of tech
nical skill than that used in combln-
ing the various metals to gain the
desired effect of decoration. For the
curves, sinuosities and scallopings
shown in the tempering line, which
were employed together in accord
ance with the caprice of the smith
and which had nothing to do with
the blade proper, there are alone
twenty-five different expressions.
The forging, by means of which
a fabric of innumerable fine threads
was united into an even tissue alike
in all it's parts, was as fine an art
as might we'll be conceived And the
welding, which consisted in ham
mering together several strips OF
steel to form a rectangular ingot six
inches in length and two and half
inches in thickness, was the occupa-
tion of months.
One reads of the life of the ancient
artisan, working with a religious
devotion to his art, fashioning the
minute parts of the whole with a
tender and loving hand, in the same
consecrated spirit with which poet
might shape his verses or an artist
paint his pictures. >One reads of the
position he held in the social scheme
of old Japan, respected, admired,
doubtless deemed a social equal OF
those who had secured the highest
rank in literature and the arts
one reads and reviews the life and
position and handicraft of these
smiths of old and instinctively one
compares it with those of the fac
tory worker in the Industrial system
of the Japan of the new era.
Without knowing or having seen
this ancient artisan, one falls to Won
dering whether the factory hands
that one sees going and coming from
the great mills of Osaka and Toxic
can possibly have the joy in life and
labor. the pride and satisfaction in
their work, that was given to the
makers of the swords of the sa1nural,
working in the sanctuary of his
smithy, beside forge which was
sacred to him and which could dream
no more than himself Of the steam
monsters that were to take the place
of human ingenuity, human skill and
human artistry.
The age of 'handicraft in Japan has
passed, or is, according to all auth
ority. swiftly passing; the time OF
making things for the mere joy and
love of creation is rapidly giving way
before the sordid usurpation of the
industrial era, the chief consideration
of which must be quantity and the
sole aim of which is profit. The fac
tory worker commands not his pro
duce, but is commanded by iron
demons breathing steam.
Work and worker, unlike the smith
and his sword, are completely dis
severed. The worker has no voice
in the shaping of what the spindle
he watches or the jig he turns has
far greater control over than has
he himself. Having no voice in his
work he can have no pride in its pro
duct, and having no pride in it, be-
ing only a slave to it and never the
master of it, he can derive no honor
from that into which his strength,
but never his personality nor his
heart. has gone in the making.
One recalls to mind similar situa-
ton in England when the handicrafts
were crushed out by the machine,
when the factory system made for
our time its weighty problems OF
poverty. with its accompanying issues
of the tenement and the slum, and
one wonders if it is not after all
pitBful that all nations must so
through the cataclysm of the fndi-
vidual era and the horrible penalties
it has everywhere eXacteG.
The era Of the smith has gone
gone past recalI-taking with it much
that was beautiful poetic, inspiring.
The moore sober, dun and colorless
age of the machine commands the
children Of the present. What will
it give them by way of compensation
for admirable, ennob1ing things it has
taken away?-Chicago News.