Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-02-02
GMost of the bad things
are only too much OF
d good thing.---Geo. II.
Taylor.
CHILE-CON-CARNE.
By the Contributing Editor.
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+-f r + r r + r ~ r r r + r + + :
1t seems to me there was a marked
falling off i'll the New Year calendar
market locally this year. Our local
merchants must have concluded that
they were being worked on the cal
endar rae ket. 10 give an artistic cal
endar to each member OF family
that bought a pound OF tea, or TO
hand out calenders to the whole line
OF school children who caught the
contagion for calendars just as they
catch measles and mumps, was hard
ly a paying venture. The manufac-
turers OF calendars were probably
working our merchants at one end
and their customers. or non-custom-
ers were working them at the other.
1t was probabl y time to call a
halt. Most OF the bad things OF lite
are only too much OF good thing;
and whenever we Americans take Il
an idea we generally run it into the
ground. To make anything too cheap
and easy OF attainment is to spoil tn.
appreciation OF it by the people wht
g.i it. That is the evil OF all CIV
.ng." 1t tends to wastefulncss, in
duigcd at some ones else expense
So it is that giving is a virtue The
very reverse OF Mercy. which we are
lCld falling like the gentle dew from
heaven, on the deserving and the un-
deserving. blesses him tnat gives ana
him that receives. Giving, on the
contrary, falling too promiscuously
easily becomes curse.
Still, 1 am sorry to see the free cal
endar lad abating. Ii was highly ed
uca:ional in its way. We are sup
posed 20 be living under democracy
and under a religion that is called
Christian. 1t is the spirit OF Christ
and the spirit OF Democracy, when
they are the real thing, to spread
amongst all the children OF men equa.
crrortarity for gaining the good and
the beauty OF lite. As we grow in
:hc grace OF both democracy and
chris''a' iy we grow away from the
old idea that ugliness is virrre in
this world. being calculated TO give
us higher appreciation OF beauty in
the next. We grow in the convic-
ton that Time is only one section OF
Eternity and that no time is better
than the immediate present for enjoy
ing whatever is good. that indeed the
greater enjoyment OF future good
comes OF previous discrimination
as to what is good. And this is pc
culiarly true OF art, peculiarly the art
OF painting.
Ii is a pity that when we speak OF
art, says a writer, | have just been
reading the thought is so generally
OF something quite remote from the
life of the people. That when we
speak OF art the first thought is OF
some great gallery OF pictures. which
to the people who live in great cities,
is only open on certain days of the
week, and may be looked upon only
by the gracious permis sion of some
body who being no longer able to en-
JOY them themselves, being dead.
graciously turn them over to the pub
lie. in order that their memory may
be kept green. For that great num-
ber whose lives are passed in smaller
towns and country homes even these
occasional glimpscs at art, picture art,
are mostly out OF reach. So | feel
Like rising up and calling blessed the
man who devised the free picture cal
ender fad, ana the picture postal card
fad
OF course the picture postal card
idea has run riot too. From Christ
mas and New Year greetings and
good wishes we have run not only to
Easter and Thanksgiving, but to 9TH
of July and St Patrick day in the
morning. and all the other $50 days
OF the year and kindly sentiment and
beautiful design has taken second
place to loud coloring, coarse wit and
coarser portraiturc, not to say vul-
garity and indecency. But twas ever
thus. Most OF the bad things are
only too much OF good thing. The
printing press and movable types are
the greatest inventions OF the human
nina. Yet how they have facilitated
the spread OF lies and the perpetra-
tion OF fraud. If we had been content
with the ancient styles or even the
old reliable goose quill perhaps we
would have had to think more and
write less. How many of the up
to-date' novels and "best-sellers" we
should have been saved from.
-
| am poor worshipper OF the an
tique. il | do not always admire the
modern. The "Old Masters" rarely
appeal to me. Perhaps my early ed
ucation in art was sadly neglected
But | sympathized with a young
woman | met in foreign parts and
compared notes with. when she said
DO you know | saw so many OF
those posed and pious Madonnas
while was doing the art galleries OF
Italy that II gives me crlck i'll the
neck now to look at one. She was
right. There is more inspiration to
be good. for me. in modern Gibson
girl
II ] were put on the witness stand
would testify that to the best of my
kno, edge and belief the modern
printing press is beating the old
masters" all hollow. not only as to
quantity but as TO quality in picture