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Show I THE CHEAPNESS OF BEAUTY. BY ERNEST CROSBY, if wo see a tendency to polarization m society, the ugly forces of produc-I produc-I n huddling together at one end and he more sightly ones of luxurious expenditure ex-penditure at the other, wo may per-mds per-mds imagine this tendency carrying Itself to its logical limit and all the dirty work of tho country or of tho world corraled and localized in some concentration camp, whence by some wireless system Its benefits could bo spread over tho face of humanity. Wo might take the region of Pittsburgh for instance and deflect the economic ails of the earth, until It became tho social and industrial South Pole, and, as soon as any man anywhere began to Indulge In some unbeautlful means ot livelihood, he could be banished to the Forks of tho Ohio, and there permitted per-mitted to defile Creation as ho pleased. pleas-ed. The counties which are grouped about Fort Duquesne are already a good deal of a purgatory. Why not make an Inferno of thorn, so as to let the rest of tho country befome a paradise? par-adise? It Is just conceivable that such an attempt might be made, but alas, it Is perfectly clear that the new haven would 1)0 less habitable than the new hell. A world without manual labor would ho an inhuman monstrosity, and the partial experiments nlready made In this direction prove it. Go to any ono of the favorite "Paries" of the aristocracy, where near our great cities cit-ies they build their villas together, surrounded, sur-rounded, perhaps a hundred of thorn, by a great exclusive fence, with watchmen watch-men at the gates who admit no shabby Individual of any kind, unless ho administers ad-ministers directly to the comfort of thoso within. These parks are situated situ-ated In tho midst of tho most beautiful scenery and tho most invigorating air, and yet no man, I will not say with a heart, hut with a stomach, can really real-ly live there. It is a playing at living. The very atmosphere is artificial, and the lungs are stifled for want of a human hu-man environment. Better far the worst of factories, the most dismal of tenements, than perpetual confinement In the purlieus of a "country club." No. We cannot get rid of tho ugliness ugli-ness of manufacture and poverty by sequestration, for, if WQ try it, wo shall surely find tho worst form of spiritual ugliness left behind. Beauty means art, and art is a power of flower flow-er or labor and cannot be grafted upon any other stem. Tho dllltante appanage appan-age of luxury which we call art is a sport, tho issue of unnatural conditions condi-tions and It is only because our lives are also unnatural that we fall lo seo ifi k', "ot ,dlcnss, should be beau-iful, beau-iful, and beauty belongs by rights to jno worker and not to the idlor. Tho S,u? workshop and exchange rnn docorated, not tho drawing, room. By reserving art for the rich, nnnM madG 11 expensive, and this Is . e,r 1?ark of degradation. Beauty worn w,Ule cliealest thing in tho Zin VhatQver ls Plentiful is a?' and on artistic people would Spvny,lnt0 everything. Wo can see even today in the Swiss chalet and hit n,an0se coutry house that a mS?, y of monoy ,s not needed to qui a" artIstic offect- Beaty re-Quires re-Quires only an eyo and an oar, a hand shift 10UL 11 noeds men, and there Is w b ?? lack of tlem. If there on tVn"1'1 better (,evote our atten-leavB atten-leavB o 10x maiifacturo of them, and R,,3 t0 tale care of itself and Che n ke caro of ltself. Beauty is mou?Jtnoi,,Bh' but we pay an enormous enor-mous price for our ugliness. mtLUf5t d?, something to remedy ? ' or otherwise wo shall reach to a wnH?SS, Passase. Give tho rein come tn rId,of Proflt-huntors, and it will ITml ide,f- ,An the ld myth teach out an n1?10 lesson- The flood wiped from n,"gly Worl(1- not yery different w Si th w-m ThG theosophlsts give aU tho details of tho sinking of tho Atlantean continent with its highly civilized millions, and that continent undoubtedly had its Wall Street, its sky-scrapers, and Its slums. And no miracle is needed to bring such a civilization civ-ilization to an end, for it carries tho sqeds of its own destruction in its womb. We are becoming Titans of brute force preying upon ono another. This must bo ended somehow, but wo may bo able to dispense with .--.luges and cataclysms, if wo only undoUako to change our manners ourselves. And a keen sense of tho ugliness of it all may bo just tho straw necessary to break tho camel's back. Wo can put up with a great deal of iniquity, until it becomes hideous, and then, at last, we may revolt against it. I knew a man who tried to break the tobacco habit because It was unwholesome, extravagant, and foolish, but ho was never successful, until ono day ho dis-coverd dis-coverd that the back of his teeth was nearly pot-black, and that determined I CANYON SCENE OF THE YOSEMITE him. Ho never smoked again. Let us bo shocked In tho same way by our own ugliness and seek to reform! Tho Craftsman. |