664 KANSAS CITY RE VIE W OF SCIENCE. 



Now some one will say that it is taking unfair advantage to draw example 

 from so lowly a place as the kitchen. I answer, that the humblest flower has its 

 fragrance, and that the humblest utensil may bear the fragrance of art. There is 

 a false conception, which has prevailed for many hundred years — I am glad to 

 know that it is beginning to decay — that there could be no coalition between high 

 art and practical industry. The truth is, they were wedded long centuries ago, and 

 all discord that has risen between them since has been entirely due to the ignorance 

 .and egotism of their respective disciples. Said disciples have admirably succeeded 

 in misunderstanding each other. The artist says to the mechanic, "You are ignorant 

 and boorish; you have no taste. If I couldn't make a better looking thing than 

 that, I would make nothing." The mechanic says to the artist, " I'm a practical 

 man. I don't know anything about your fine-spun theories ; but when I make 

 anything it works, and I guess it looks just about as well as any o' your fancy 

 fixins." 



The result is discord where there should have been union. The artist, if he 

 deigns to serve the manufactures with his genius, produces ornamentation incom- 

 patible with the nature of his work. The mechanic manufactures articles ostensi- 

 bly to serve a useful purpose. It may be bureaus or bedsteads; but he finds 

 among his customers a very decided demand for something more than mere utili- 

 ty, and he, of course, attempts to satisfy that demand. The result is often — from 

 the artist's standpoint — a conglomeration of monstrosities frightful to behold; but 

 there is the evidence of the attempt, ofttimes a very expensive one, and the public 

 is satisfied and calls it splendid. 



From the above, we may set this down as a rule, that if any product of art 

 industry is imperfect, the artist who made it was not a mechanic, or the mechanic 

 who made it was not an artist. In our own country to -day, it would, usually, read : 

 "The mechanic who made it was not an artist." This being true, probably the 

 quickest way to reach the best results in industrial art would be to make an artist 

 out of the mechanic. In Massachusetts, steps have been taken in this direction. 

 Art schools have been established with the express purpose of introducing art into 

 industry, and they are doing a good work. The only fault that we can find is, 

 that there are not enough of them. They ought to be established all over the 

 country. The result in a few years would surprise the most sanguine. Not only 

 would art receive an impulse, but manufactured products would be better in every 

 respect; for, if the mechanic becomes an artist, he is the better mechan c for hav- 

 ing become so. 



But we cannot expect a great deal of progress in art industry until the peo- 

 ple, the general public, are able to distinguish the good from the bad. As long 

 as poor art is marketable, it will be manufactured ; and when no distinction is 

 made betwen the inferior and the superior, the inferior will predominate. The 

 Centennial Exhibition did much for the education of our people in this respect. 

 As an instance, see the advancement that has been made in the artof book-binding. 

 What a contrast is presented between the work of to-day and that of a few years 

 ago, both in the beauty and the quality of the work. Other departments of in- 



