Art, Music, and the Drama [pp. 499-500]

Lip ERA TUBRE, SCIENCE, A.ND AR T
came very submissive, and grew up "a promising and exemplary
young man." Another case related is of a boy of sixteen, who was
whipped for certain past offences in the presence of his mother the
day after he entered school. In this instance the boy was undressed
by Miss -, strapped across a bench, and the several lady-teachers
in turn applied the birch, a new rod being provided for each. If an
indignant mob had broken into these virtuous women's domicile, and
administered a similar punishment to them, our sense of justice would
scarcely condemn it. But our "Rejoicer" tells how young women are
punished in some English schools, by which it would appear that it is
only necessary to sufficiently degrade a young lady to make her a pat tern of goodness. "I know," says the Rejoicer, "one very expensive
school for young ladies in Kensington, where, for certain offences,
whatever their age" (meaning, we suppose, the age of the young wom en), "the young ladies are birched;" and then follows the description:
"Having retired and put on a dress for the purpose, at an appointed
hour the young lady to be punished knocks at the door of the boudoir
of the lady-principal, who, after serious conversation with her, and some times prayer, makes her enter her offence (alwvays a grave one) in a book
kept for the purpose, which she does. The lady-principal then rings
her bell, and the matron of the establishment is sent for, to whom the
lady-principal hands the book in which the young lady has just entered
her offence, and below which the lady-principal has inserted the punish mnent. As she hands the book she says,'Mrs., will you be good
enough to give Miss - so many strokes' (naming the number)'with
the birch?' pointing with her finger to the entry in the book. The
matron takes the book and retires. Presently a maid-servant enters
and says,'Mrs. —' (the matron)'is ready for Miss —.' Thelady principal sa-in g,'I hope this will not occur again,' bows the young
lady out; and the said young lady, her heart sinking within her, knocks
at the next door, the room where the matron expects her. On entering
she is told by the matron to lie across a narrow ottoman which occupies
the middle of the room. Miss -- (as a rule there is no refusal) does
as she is directed, and the matron then buckles a strap, which, passing
across the culprit's waist, fastens her to the ottoman. She then, with out a word-"
But the story is too abominable to repeat. It is evident that all
these instances are related from a love of their prurient details. Mr.
Dickens and Mr. Reade have shown, at various times in their novels,
the atrocities practised in Yorkshire schools, private lunatic asylums,
and government prisons; it would be a good thing for one of them to
illustrate the beauty of corporal punishment as practised in "expensive schools" in England-where, it seems, nothing is respected, not
even the persons of "young ladies of whatever age," and where "ladyprincipals" ceremoniously degrade their pupils, not in private, but by
the aid of the maids and matrons of the establishment.
- We referred at length, two weeks ago, to the great want in
New York of modest and respectable residences suitable for the occupation of what we called the "cultivated poor." It has long been
evident that the Parisian plan of "flats" must sooner or later obtain
in our crowded city, and a large building, constructed during the past
year with this object in view, by Mr. Stuyvesant, in Eighteenth Street,
has been watched with interest. But some disappointment has been
felt in the high prices Mr. Stuyvesant has found it necessary to charge.
Rooms that would accommodate a family of four, on the upper floor,
are priced as high as twelve hundred dollars a year. And then the
building is very conspicuous in its appearance, having more the character of a public edifice than a private dwelling. Notwithstanding
these drawbacks, there has been an active demand for " flats" in this
experimental building, and capitalists are considering projects for the
erection of others, with such modifications as experience suggests.
We have seen the description of a plan for these so-called "European
houses," which strikes us as very good. It is as follows:
"Upon an ordinary double lot of fifty feet by one hundred feet the
architect has designed a four-story and basement building, calculated to
contain eight suites of apartments, or complete houses for eight families,
besides rooms in the basement for the janitor and his family, a valuable
physician's office, and rear dwellings for two small families, making
(with the janitor's) eleven famlies in all. Each house consists of a handsome front parlor, three chambers, a chamber for servants, a diningroom, kitchen, bath-room, and water-closets, besides abundance of
closets, every room and passage throughout the building having its own
direct light and ventilation from the exterior. Each kitchen is provided
with a kitchen-range, fixed wash-tubs, and a receptacle for coal for temporary use. At the back of each house, leading from the kitchen, each family has a balcony exclusively to themselves for drying clothes. Two lifts
are provided in centre of the building for bringing up coal and other arti cles from the cellar, where each family is not only provided with a separate receptacle for coal, wood,.etc., as usual, under the sidewalk, but a sep arate storeroom for containing any thing they ma3 lay up in gross. The
ashes from all the fireplaces will descend intc brick receptacles in the cellar, to be removed periodically without any trouble to the inmates. Water
is so laid on that each fa-nile wili have a constant supply independent
of any other. Two staircases are provided, the principal one to be used
exclusively by the families and their visitors; the back stairs for those
connected with the servants' department. These staircases will be fitted
out in good style by the proprietor, and kept in perfect order by the
janitor, whose duty it is also to attend the front door and to keep a constant watch on all who approach it. These staircases will be warmed by
a heater in the cellar, but the remaining portion of the houses will be
warmed at the option of the inmates. By the disposition of these staircases-which are brick-enclosed, as protection from fire-and the halt
doors which lead from them, it is made utterly impossible for any one
family, in ascending or descending, to encroach upon the privacy of another. Each main entrance door on each landing, when once closed, cuts
off all communication between the adjoining houses as completely as if
they were side by side on the same street. This is the pivotal idea
which utterly destroys all comparison between such buildings and what
are commonly called tenement-houses, and really places the former, in
point of comfort and respectability, upon a level with the best private
residences. Mr. Hamilton, the architect, has purposely made the front
extremely chaste and simple, with nothing whatever to distinguish the
building, externally, from any first-class private residence; so that it
cannot, in this respect, run counter to the most fastidious prejudice."
This plan would seem to be admirable, but buildings of this character must be erected in central localities, and in unexceptionable
neighborhoods, if they are to get the right sort of people as tenants.
Our confidence in the good sense of Froude, the English historian, is considerably shaken by a recent article of his in Frmser's
3~agazine on emigration from Great Britain. He urges English work
men to go anywhere rather than to America, although he admits that
they can get better wages in this country than they can at home. He
says: "At the risk of being called sentimental, I would sooner myself earn reasonable wages in the English dominions than be a millionnaire in New York." Mir. Froude's remark is not sentimental; it
is simply silly, and exhibits an amount of ignorance and prejudice
about his kinsmen on this continent which naturally leads us to distrust his judgment about our ancestors three centuries ago. A man
who has so little comprehension of the character and condition of his
contemporaries is surely not competent to form an accurate opinion
of the people and the events of past ages.
/IR. RUSKIN gave, at Oxford, his third lecture on art, the subject
being the Relation of Art to Morality. He said: " Ait can only
perfect morality: it never can produce art; for art must arise from a moral
state already existing, of which it is but the expression. The art of a
nation is the component of its ethical state: we cannot paint or sing
ourselves into being good men; but we must be good men before we
can paint or sing as we ought. So noble language is the exponent of
noble thought. It is not a communicable trick of grammar or of action:
it is possible only to the gentle; it can only spring out of a sincere heart.
Every beauty in the language of a nation is an indication of the innermost laws of its being. If the nation is great, its tongue will be great:
no tongue can be great, unless it be the exponent of great deeds. We
can never learn to speak as great men spoke, unless we become what
they once were. The manual arts, above all, are a perfect exponentfirst, of the character of the workman himself; secondly, of that of the
nation to which he belongs. What exquisite symmetry and precision
and energy we see, for instance, in Paul Veronese! Who could suppose it coexisting with any thing low or coarse or degrading? with remorse or lust or consciousness of wrong? But the moral temper of the
artist is shown, not only by his perfect expression, but by the lovely
forms he chooses to express. The great artist must have a keen perception of beauty as well as a powerful imagination, but both subdued,
to the calm of the waveless mountain-lake, which reflects each beauty
of the heaven, itself unmoved. In all the great artists of the past we
can see at once their character in their works; but in modern art this is
not so. Modern life wants simplicity and integrity-every thing is
broken up. The modern artist can no longer be fairly judged from
what hlie produces. Patly hle imitates the past, and so the character of
his art is not his own: partly he seems to forget that, if painting and
literature are to be good, their origin must be good. Of all hunmao ex
1870.]
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