242 



DECORATIVE ART IN AMERICA. 



for 1883), thus virtually deciding Bismarck, and 

 not Yankton, the legal capital. An appeal has 

 been taken to the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. 



Congressional Legislation. The question of the 

 admission of Dakota as a State has been before 

 Congress in various forms. In December an 

 act passed the Senate for the admission of that 

 portion south of the forty -sixth parallel as the 

 State of Dakota, the northern portion remain- 

 ing a Territory under the name of Lincoln. It 

 is not probable that it will pass the present 

 House of Representatives. Acts were passed 

 providing for two additional judges for the 

 Territory, to be appointed by the President, 

 and increasing the Council from 12 to 24, and 

 the House of Representatives from 24 to 48. 



Political. A Republican Territorial Conven- 

 tion was held at Huron on the 23d of April, 

 which chose delegates and alternates to the 

 Chicago Convention. A second convention of 

 the same party met at Pierre on the 17th of 

 September, and nominated Oscar S. Giftbrd for 

 delegate to Congress. A resolution was passed 

 urging upon Congress the recognition of the 

 claim made by Dakota for the division of the 

 Territory on the forty-sixth parallel, and the 

 admission of the southern half as a State. Two 

 Democratic Conventions were also held; the 

 nominee for delegate to Congress was John R. 

 Wilson. The Democrats also declared in favor 

 of a division of the Territory. At the election, 

 on the 4th of November, Gifford was success- 

 ful by a vote of 71,579 against 15,124 for Wil- 

 son. The Legislature is almost unanimously 

 Republican. North Dakota cast 32,353 and 

 South Dakota 54,411 votes. 



County-Seat Troubles. Toward the close of the 

 year serious difficulties arose in several counties 

 concerning the location of the county-seats. 

 Violent possession was taken of the records, 

 and mob law prevailed for a time. 



DECORATIVE ART IN AMERICA. The impetus 

 that decorative art has received in this country 

 is due, more than to any other cause, to the 

 Centennial Exposition of 1876. Like all other 

 nations, we had the desire to ornament ; but, 

 from the earlier days of our national life until 

 our centennial was completed, but little was 

 done that we are now willing to place under 

 this head. Many fine specimens of work in 

 wood still remain in the old colonial houses of 

 New England, New York, and Virginia. In 

 the rooms of the Historical Society at Newport 

 there is a fine specimen in some pulpit-stairs 

 that antedate the Revolution. But such work 

 as this was done by workmen trained abroad, 

 and is foreign in spirit and tradition. That 

 which distinguishes decorative work now done 

 in this country is its departure. It is too 

 early to speak of any national school of deco- 

 ration ; but in manner, methods, and materials 

 there is a notable divergence from the decora- 

 tive art of other countries. This is not the 

 result of intention, but is due to the circum- 

 stances of our national existence, and of these 



chiefly to our isolated position among nations. 

 The revival of decoration in France and Eng- 

 land owes its character to the vast stores of 

 art-treasures in museums, inherited properties, 

 and other repositories. Our national life has 

 been too brief, and our national energies too 

 much absorbed in other and more necessary di- 

 rections, to accumulate these, even were it pos- 

 sible. Thus, inevitably, we have been thrown 

 in great measure on ourselves and our own 

 surroundings. 



This being the case, fortunately, the decora- 

 tive movement has been for the most part in 

 the hands of men trained in the fine arts, and 

 versed in the traditions and literature of art. 

 This has given the necessary artistic balance to 

 our progress, which with men less well equipped 

 might not have been preserved. It is curious 

 to note, and it is a lesson in national econom- 

 ics, how the artistic spirit reacts in the serv- 

 ice of commercial ends. Neither France nor 

 England underestimates the value of art-indus- 

 tries as factors of the national wealth; while 

 we are but tardily awaking to the conception 

 of decorative art as anything more than the 

 luxury of the moment, interesting chiefly to 

 the individual. But let us see how this inter- 

 action takes place. The artist is an insistent 

 person : what he wants he must have ; the 

 color, the texture, must be that and none other. 

 It will be readily seen how poorly equipped we 

 were in materials alone for any important dec- 

 orative work, when we remember the charac- 

 ter of the stuffs from American looms ten years 

 ago. This was but one of the difficulties that 

 the artist met in every direction. The Associ- 

 ated Artists in the beginning of their work pro- 

 vided for it artistic stuffs gathered from Europe 

 and the East. When these were exhausted, 

 the same difficulty was presented again. The 

 result has been the successful manufacture of 

 art-stuffs in this country, equal in texture and 

 color to those found in older countries, and 

 these have found a limited sale abroad. 



Stained Glass. The most important results 

 have been those in stained glass. It is not 

 amiss to say that American glass, for depth 

 and beauty of color, and for its adaptability to 

 artistic possibilities hitherto unattempted, now 

 surpasses that manufactured in any other coun- 

 try. This is primarily due to John La Farge, 

 the artist, and illustrates, more completely than 

 any other branch of the decorative movement, 

 its general course. Incapacitated for his pro- 

 fession as a painter by ill health, Mr. La Farge, 

 long a student of decorative art, particularly that 

 of Japan, turned his attention to decoration. 

 In no branch of his art had he more distin- 

 guished himself than as a colorist ; and when 

 he attempted thus to express himself in glass, 

 the English and other foreign glass, in certain 

 ways, gave him unsatisfactory results. This 

 led to experiments that resulted in what is 

 technically known as "opalescent glass," the 

 most important modern discovery in stained 

 glass. Opalescent glass is glass that carries 



