Alex. Stirling Calder 
essay on psychology, written in symbolistic 
figures and exaggerated attitudes that hint 
obscurely at cryptic meanings—“speci¬ 
mens,” in fine. I his we are told is the 
modern spirit, and, unless our superlatives 
flow freely, we are put down among the 
vulgar. If we are naive enough to ask what 
particular end these things were intended to 
serve, where they are to go, what they are 
suitable for, we are eternally lost. 
It is the well-defined purpose as well as 
the simplicity and directness of method of 
“ THE MAN CUB ” 
A Life-size Statue ( Plaster ) 
CHILD PLAYING 
A Study 
expression, in the work of Mr. A. Stirling 
Calder that especially attracts me. Having 
set up for himself the rule that the relation 
of the subject in hand, whether monument, 
fountain or bust, to its setting must be scru¬ 
pulously observed, he has seldom been be¬ 
trayed into doing what may be called frag¬ 
mentary or detached work. He not only 
accepts the restraints imposed upon him by 
his art, but he strives to act in obedience to 
those conditions of environment which the 
particular circumstances prescribe. Through 
his later work especially this principle asserts 
itself with growing emphasis. How far this 
tendency has been fostered and encouraged 
by his connection with the School of Indus¬ 
trial Art in Philadelphia it would be futile to 
surmise. But it is a pleasing theory at least 
to hold that instructor and pupils derive 
mutual benefit from their daily association. 
Mr. Calder is still at the outset of a career 
which came to him, as it were, by heritage, 
his father having done much notable work, 
especially in the sculptural decoration of the 
City Hall of Philadelphia. Mr. Calder was 
