OCR Text |
Show Bringing Beauty Into Common Life By Sir Philip Burue-Jones, Bart., Author of "Dolinrs and Democracy." In looking at old pictures of houses and streets, or representations of the everyday every-day dress of our ancestors, one Is strmk by tho much more Important part which Beautj played In the common life of days gone by than has been assigned to her In these lator years by the' wisdom of new generations. Without going further back thin the days of the Georges, what records abound of beautiful and dignified domestic architecture, archi-tecture, of cheerful and attractive garments, gar-ments, both for men and women. not only in the palaces of Princes and the costumes of the couit but In the houses of men of moderate means, and In the cloth, a of ordinary cltlsens To thlrf legacy of beauty, left us by our fathers, we their children of the modern wmhl seem to be strangel; Indifferent The builder of the twentieth century, no less than the tailor and th- dressmaker, dressma-ker, appears to dread any note ir Individuality Indi-viduality 6r dlstlrfCtlOn and to do his best to reduce all things to one dead and depp cslng I. el A Melancholy Monotony. Streets were once fringed with gabled houses, no two of which were absolutely alike, whose Interesting Irregularity gave a character to the thoroughfares, while the shops were ornamented with quaint i and attractive signs, and the simple tav- I ems in the town were the meeting places I for men ol refinement and education We have i hanged all this, und wher- : evei we could d.. so, have pulled down the picturesque old houses that survived J and have built iu their stead miles upon I miles of dreary and desolate streets, of which each house Is exactly like Its J neighbor ail equally devoid or any touch of human Interest, mechanical and so illess il-less In their construction, melancholy anil disheartening in tfielr Appearance. Instead of wearing coats uf many colors col-ors as our fathers did. we clothe ourselves In funereal black, as though the Ol life had in truth departed from ainoiig6t I us. Could anything, for example, be uglier than the apparel oj an ordinal') respectable respec-table man 01 Inday'.' A shiny black cyl- in. lei-, made of a material peculiarly BUS ceptlble i" Injury from wear and weather surmounts his head. The height of It Is i purely arbitrary, there seems no particular partic-ular .season wh) ll should stop where it ' 1 1 . i s and not extend for another six Inches Into the air Or why it should not i be arrested al half in height, Another hard binj cyUnder- this tiuio white en- cases bis neck, and two whltO cylinders surround his wrists. He covers his body with two coats also black. One of these Is all front and no back the other nil ba k and no front i and this hangs round him Iu yards of superfluous draper He then thrusts his legs Into two more cylinders and a pair of dismal black I boots, often covered with a dirty reeking , substance called "blacking," completes ': the pit tUrO. j Looked upon dlspa5slonately, what , could be more groti j.iie a s a. costume for i a man' and yet custom has so inured us to th aspect of 'ho top-hat and tho ! frock-coat, thai we ICS nothing particu- I larly Incongruous of ugly about them, ! and nil efforts that have been mado to Introduce a more reasonable style of I clothing have proved Ineffective. Imbed any ijilhal change In the national na-tional costume must of necessity be gradual and universal. Spasmodic Individual attempts to invent a more becoming and rational attire must always savour of eccentricity or affectation, affecta-tion, and. unless the new fashion is very generally adopted, must be doomed to failure. My complaint is that we should be content con-tent to sit down un.l. r the tyranny of the top-hat and the frock-coat, and should not. before now. have made some co-operative effort to evolve som thing a little more. In consonance With the dictates of human dignity Vulgarity nnd Ugliness With regard to architecture we seem to be entering UPOn an era of Ugliness, unparalleled un-paralleled in the history of the art It Is grievous to see the modest and pleasant houses of a by-gone generation, replaced by the towering and pretentious e tillci -. which arc contributing, tp no small extent, ex-tent, to the growing vulgarity of the town. Indeed It Is a vulgar age upon which We are entering, and unless something occurs to arrest modern tendencies, our cities will b'-coiiie uglier and more j.,yes-, as the y ears advance for ugliness" and VUlgarlt) go hand In hand. The sad Hung is that no one today seems to mind the de-tr i tj.,n ..f what I.i beaullful or to offer any s t I ,, 1 1 .3 ,,pp,,.. t loll to Us place being taken by what Is palpably the reverse It might be interesting to speculate as to what are th- CUUSes Which have led to this artistic apathy. I have no hesitation iu ain rlblng this change In the national attitude, to the Introduction of steam and electrlcltj and nil that these forces Imply. Quick and cheap 1 ra ii-Ii'--.hw If t and SaeV Interchange of thought, ho resulted In tho massing together in our cities of thousands of human beings, who are a'- traded to the same spot by the hope of ' selling their services or their wares. With the advnt of machinery the com- B merclal output has become enormous, H j and wo are now not merely nation of H shopkeepers but a nation of manufartur- era, whose goal Is material wealth, In tho """"""""H pursuit of which the majority ot the pop- """"""""H ulation hits become exclusively absorbed. standard of excellence, based upon utilitarian principles of supply and de- mntiil. and entirely .Irrespective of as- thcttc considerations, has been raised In the place of the natural good taste and beautiful tradition which characterized I tho days of our forefathers. A Spirit of Snobbery. Many thousands of men and women I am not speaking of the very poor, but of 1 the humbler commercial classes clerks, small shopkeepers, etc., are compelled to live, herded together 111 cheap, Ill-con- structed houses. H These depressing and ugly surroundings B Inn- helped 10 "had. 11 the sense of beauty J with tho masses of tho community, who HBV have practi. ally ceased to desfro that HB which r J So the dreary jerry-built streets con- HHHJ I tlnUe to extend In all directions like rank HHHJ weeds No one complains. No one seems H to H It Is not that Ihe construction of a house HHHJ Ihat is agreeable to look at Is a matter H of great expenst ll is Just as cheap to H design a little ctlmplc house that Is dig- H n 1 tied in its modesty as 11 is to produce H 1 the miles of pretentious horrors whoso H bat k windows di solate the outlook from HHHJ 1 our railways as we approach a city front H l any point of the compass- People are lu- H 1 different, that Is all. and do not caro HHHJ 1 what sort of .1 home it is that (hey ll HHHJ In. so long as ll may be made to look. HHHJ putslde, as though It cost a few morn HHHJ poinds a year than their neighbor's. H How long the spirit of Beauty will HHHJ withdraw herself from us. it would be HHHJ 1 Idle to speculate. She seems at present. HHHJ I to have gone Into retreat, waiting, as " HHHJ , were, th- wave of universal ugiim s HHHJ P. pass. That she will one day return to HHHJ I have no sort of doubt; but It will HHHJ not be in our time. Other ayes than ours HHHJ will look upon Ihat home-coining eyes HHHJ which years of starvation shall hare HHHJ tuught to miss and 11 1 the mighty Pre- H em ,, whit )i we are driving from our doors HHHJ todav and her reappearance will be a HHHJ sign that her home Is worthy to receive HHHJ 1 |