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Show PASSING OF THE PICTURESQUE A returning feminine globe trotter has been lamenting at cv York over the passing of the pkturesque.Moderni7ation of the aboriginal people is growing so fast, she complains, that the world is becoming commonplace. The Chinese and Japanese are taking to "store clothes." the women of the Fiji islands are longing for high heels and hobbles, hob-bles, and very soon the comic opera producers will have nowhere no-where to go for costumes. It was in ft similar vein that Pierre Loti, the French author, sorrowed over the Balkin victor-ies victor-ies against the Turks. Tho Moslems Mos-lems were so infinitely more picturesque. pic-turesque. True, they 'might mas-sacre mas-sacre a few hundred) Armenians, but they were so kind to their dogs! Their cities might be pestilential, pesti-lential, but they were so oriental Their farming might be primitive, primi-tive, but it was so artistic. Really, Real-ly, he felt like weeping at the thought of Constantinople being civilied. It was one splotch of color in a drab world. All of which recalls the romantic ro-mantic drivel about love in a cottage, cot-tage, life on the farm and the rest. Usually this cottage is lacking lack-ing in tho most elementary comforts com-forts and conveniences, is damp and dismal, the farm infested with more varieties of discomforts discom-forts than you ever imagined ex-isted. ex-isted. and tho romantic figure in tho bizarre garb proves on iclos-or iclos-or acquaintance to be a barbarian barbar-ian or a beggar, just as the c-Uy of the Golden Horn develops into !'. plague spot of evil odors and sights on landing- Tho world can well afford to let the picturesque peoples go without regrets. Modern Japan is a vast improvement on tho samurai, sa-murai, and Wu Ting Fang on Kublai Khan. Even our own aboriginal is a more inspiring and profitable figure on tho diamond dia-mond or the gridiron than on the warpath. And many of tho great cities of tho world would be vastly better if tho "picturesque" "pictures-que" povertw of tho slums were abolished. Pittsburg Gazette. |