the people who make and sell these articles would profit accordingly. Instead, however, of taking an intelligent course to procure themselves constant work at good wages, the members of the building-trades appear determined to destroy the business by which they live. They usually begin by swearing implicit obedience to a few noisy blood-suckers, who have not a single interest in common with theirs, and whose sole aim is to advertise themselves, and keep up agitations which they may have the credit of leading. Then, under the guidance of these counsellers, they proceed to render the business of building and owning houses the most uncertain, unprofitable and unsatisfactory employment of capital that can be made by making it impossible for an owner to know when he will have his building ready for tenants, and for a builder to know where or when he will be able to get the labor he needs to fulfil his contracts, and how much he will have to pay for it. Naturally, under these circumstances the people who have money to invest, prefer to put it into some other kind of property, or, if they build, seek out the great contractors who are in a position to defy the unions, and pay them an extra price for the assurance, which they alone can give, that the building will be ready, and that leases can commence on a fixed day; and, meanwhile, the union mechanics, who have devoted so much time and money, under the leadership of professional mischief-makers, to spoiling other peoples’ business, discover, too late, that they have effectually spoiled their own.
ARCHITECTS count among artists everywhere except in
this country, where we have heard them described as “ a sort of genteel carpenters ”; and young architects may be glad to know that, when they get to France, where most of them would like to go, they may claim to be received into the fellowship of the new Association of American Art-Students, which has just been established in Paris, after the model of the New York Art-Students’ League. The idea of this Association is due to an artist of distinction, long resident in Paris, and it seems to have met with an enthusiastic reception among those whom it concerned. At present, after only a year or two of existence, it has a membership of three hundred and fifty, and has hired for three years a small house, with a garden attached, where a library is provided, facilities for athletic exercise are furnished, with instruction in fencing and sparring; and coffee can be had, but no liquors. It is hardly necessary to say that the New York Art-Students’ League, that most warm-hearted of all professional associations, takes a lively interest in its young sister in foreign parts, and mutual messages pass frequently. Last year, the New York League, anxious lest, amid the enticements of French cookery, the students abroad should lose their taste for the healthful mincepie and drumsticks of their ancestors, packed a box full of turkeys and other Thanksgiving dainties, and shipped it to their brethren in Paris. It was received in good order, the pies were unpacked, and, under a canopy of stars and stripes, the members of the Association risked indigestion for the honor of New England. Thanks, perhaps, to the vigor of constitution imparted by the athletic exercises which form a feature of the Association, no fatal results appear to have followed the feast, and we may be sure that those who were present would rather have endured a slight loss of appetite for the next few days than have missed the happiness of reviving home feelings and recollections. Those who have seen how poor American students have had to live in Paris can appreciate the good which may be done by such an institution. It is all very well to talk of the “enthusiasm for art, ” the “inspiration of novelty, ” the “contact with foreign minds, ” and so on; but, after a few months of enjoyment of these privileges, one begins to find that “enthusiasm for art” has lost its power to make the dingy restaurant, with its sawdust-covered floor and its eternal beans, seem inviting, and that the “society of foreign artists ” of the cheaper sort, with their big hats and their flavor of gin, and, especially, with their unspeakable female companions, has ceased to be either improving or attractive, and the “ carità del natio loco” begins to assert itself. Then come homesick dreams of bright America, of parents, brothers, sisters and cousins, and the student must be enthusiastic indeed who can keep himself hard at work. Upon many of them, indeed, the effect of poverty and loneliness is very injurious. A French Bohemian is bad enough, but an American Bohemian is intolerable, and one can not be shut out long from the softer feelings without finding something
Bohemian develop itself in their place. From this danger the new Association is well adapted to preserve students. In it they can find friendship, sympathy and amusement, besides American ideas of manliness and purity, and no young American worthy of the name, least of all one with brains and heart enough to be an artist, could fail to respond to its good influences. For the benefit of such of our readers as may be in a position to avail themselves of the privileges of the Association, we will say that the membership fee is six dollars a year, and that all American students are eligible. For those who have passed the student age, but who retain their sympathy for its trials, and have money enough, and the disposition, to show that sympathy, we may add that the membership fees only pay the current expenses of the Association, but not the house-rent, which has to be made up by outside subscription; and that if they would like to do something for it, they may, for the present, address Mr. A. A. Anderson, the President of the Association, who is now in this country, trying to obtain substantial assistance for it, and may be addressed at Fordham, N. Y.
AN experiment, about the success of which we have some
doubts, has been tried recently by a Frenchman, M. Bigex, who has for many years been settled in Srinagar, in Cashmere, as the director of a great manufactory of rugs and carpets. About two years ago, M. Bigex had some designs made in Paris by M. Tochè, an artist of great skill in such work, and these designs were executed in Cashmere by the Oriental workmen, and the finished carpets and embroideries were sent back to Paris for exhibition. According to M. du Cleuziou, who writes an enthusiastic description to La Semaine des Constructeurs, the translation of the designs into textile work has been very successful. M. Tochè was left complete liberty as to his choice and treatment of his subjects, and tried a great variety. Among others, he produced what may be called historical, or high-art designs, representing Vishnu floating on the sea, and caressed by the houri Laksmi; Prakrite, the Virgin of the Himalaya, bearing the three sacred books; Ganessa, the god of Wisdom, seated on the great Lotus, and so on. People familiar with the way in which rugweavers draw the human figure would not expect much in the way of solemnity or sentiment from the fabrics produced in accordance with these designs; but M. du Cleuziou informs us that “the devout persons who executed these works have necessarily put into the rendering a profound faith. They have produced masterpieces. ” Whether this means that it is possible to distinguish the heads of the personages from the feet, which is not always the case with Oriental work of the kind, or whether there is really some sentiment about the embroideries, which is hardly conceivable, we will not undertake to say. Besides these ambitious subjects, M. Tochè produced, for imitation by the Cashmerians, some Saracenic designs, suggested by the rare remains of Saracenic art of the eighth century in France, with a series taken directly from Byzantine textiles. These, particularly the Byzantine patterns, are said to have been rendered with surprising success, and some ancient Assyrian, Persian and Egyptian motives, taken from the Dieulafoy and other collections, besides some modern Japanese designs, are said to have been charmingly reproduced; but a series of Renaissance patterns, with shaded relief, did not prove very successful. The most curious part of the experiment consisted in sending to Cashmere a large figure of a Breton peasant girl, dressed in the costume of the country, and holding the characteristic distaff. Of this model, as M. du Cleuziou says, the Orientals have made what would appear to be a sacred image of the goddess Devadassi, were it not for the big Breton cap and the cross hanging on the breast. Although we would rather possess a Cashmere rug in the native patterns than those imitated from anything else, the display of Orientalized European designs must be well worth seeing. We knew a man once who sent a photograph of his little daughter to Japan, where a native artist translated it into a beautiful figure, in Japanese costume, painted, as we recollect it, on a silk scroll. The face was an excellent portrait, and very sweet in expression, like most of the female faces painted by the best Japanese artists, and was just sufficiently Japanese in character to suit the rest of the figure. There is probably no other Oriental country where such work as this could be successfully done, but it would be interesting to see how conventional decoration, such as Byzantine mosaic-work, would be rendered in different parts of Asia.
ARCHITECTS count among artists everywhere except in
this country, where we have heard them described as “ a sort of genteel carpenters ”; and young architects may be glad to know that, when they get to France, where most of them would like to go, they may claim to be received into the fellowship of the new Association of American Art-Students, which has just been established in Paris, after the model of the New York Art-Students’ League. The idea of this Association is due to an artist of distinction, long resident in Paris, and it seems to have met with an enthusiastic reception among those whom it concerned. At present, after only a year or two of existence, it has a membership of three hundred and fifty, and has hired for three years a small house, with a garden attached, where a library is provided, facilities for athletic exercise are furnished, with instruction in fencing and sparring; and coffee can be had, but no liquors. It is hardly necessary to say that the New York Art-Students’ League, that most warm-hearted of all professional associations, takes a lively interest in its young sister in foreign parts, and mutual messages pass frequently. Last year, the New York League, anxious lest, amid the enticements of French cookery, the students abroad should lose their taste for the healthful mincepie and drumsticks of their ancestors, packed a box full of turkeys and other Thanksgiving dainties, and shipped it to their brethren in Paris. It was received in good order, the pies were unpacked, and, under a canopy of stars and stripes, the members of the Association risked indigestion for the honor of New England. Thanks, perhaps, to the vigor of constitution imparted by the athletic exercises which form a feature of the Association, no fatal results appear to have followed the feast, and we may be sure that those who were present would rather have endured a slight loss of appetite for the next few days than have missed the happiness of reviving home feelings and recollections. Those who have seen how poor American students have had to live in Paris can appreciate the good which may be done by such an institution. It is all very well to talk of the “enthusiasm for art, ” the “inspiration of novelty, ” the “contact with foreign minds, ” and so on; but, after a few months of enjoyment of these privileges, one begins to find that “enthusiasm for art” has lost its power to make the dingy restaurant, with its sawdust-covered floor and its eternal beans, seem inviting, and that the “society of foreign artists ” of the cheaper sort, with their big hats and their flavor of gin, and, especially, with their unspeakable female companions, has ceased to be either improving or attractive, and the “ carità del natio loco” begins to assert itself. Then come homesick dreams of bright America, of parents, brothers, sisters and cousins, and the student must be enthusiastic indeed who can keep himself hard at work. Upon many of them, indeed, the effect of poverty and loneliness is very injurious. A French Bohemian is bad enough, but an American Bohemian is intolerable, and one can not be shut out long from the softer feelings without finding something
Bohemian develop itself in their place. From this danger the new Association is well adapted to preserve students. In it they can find friendship, sympathy and amusement, besides American ideas of manliness and purity, and no young American worthy of the name, least of all one with brains and heart enough to be an artist, could fail to respond to its good influences. For the benefit of such of our readers as may be in a position to avail themselves of the privileges of the Association, we will say that the membership fee is six dollars a year, and that all American students are eligible. For those who have passed the student age, but who retain their sympathy for its trials, and have money enough, and the disposition, to show that sympathy, we may add that the membership fees only pay the current expenses of the Association, but not the house-rent, which has to be made up by outside subscription; and that if they would like to do something for it, they may, for the present, address Mr. A. A. Anderson, the President of the Association, who is now in this country, trying to obtain substantial assistance for it, and may be addressed at Fordham, N. Y.
AN experiment, about the success of which we have some
doubts, has been tried recently by a Frenchman, M. Bigex, who has for many years been settled in Srinagar, in Cashmere, as the director of a great manufactory of rugs and carpets. About two years ago, M. Bigex had some designs made in Paris by M. Tochè, an artist of great skill in such work, and these designs were executed in Cashmere by the Oriental workmen, and the finished carpets and embroideries were sent back to Paris for exhibition. According to M. du Cleuziou, who writes an enthusiastic description to La Semaine des Constructeurs, the translation of the designs into textile work has been very successful. M. Tochè was left complete liberty as to his choice and treatment of his subjects, and tried a great variety. Among others, he produced what may be called historical, or high-art designs, representing Vishnu floating on the sea, and caressed by the houri Laksmi; Prakrite, the Virgin of the Himalaya, bearing the three sacred books; Ganessa, the god of Wisdom, seated on the great Lotus, and so on. People familiar with the way in which rugweavers draw the human figure would not expect much in the way of solemnity or sentiment from the fabrics produced in accordance with these designs; but M. du Cleuziou informs us that “the devout persons who executed these works have necessarily put into the rendering a profound faith. They have produced masterpieces. ” Whether this means that it is possible to distinguish the heads of the personages from the feet, which is not always the case with Oriental work of the kind, or whether there is really some sentiment about the embroideries, which is hardly conceivable, we will not undertake to say. Besides these ambitious subjects, M. Tochè produced, for imitation by the Cashmerians, some Saracenic designs, suggested by the rare remains of Saracenic art of the eighth century in France, with a series taken directly from Byzantine textiles. These, particularly the Byzantine patterns, are said to have been rendered with surprising success, and some ancient Assyrian, Persian and Egyptian motives, taken from the Dieulafoy and other collections, besides some modern Japanese designs, are said to have been charmingly reproduced; but a series of Renaissance patterns, with shaded relief, did not prove very successful. The most curious part of the experiment consisted in sending to Cashmere a large figure of a Breton peasant girl, dressed in the costume of the country, and holding the characteristic distaff. Of this model, as M. du Cleuziou says, the Orientals have made what would appear to be a sacred image of the goddess Devadassi, were it not for the big Breton cap and the cross hanging on the breast. Although we would rather possess a Cashmere rug in the native patterns than those imitated from anything else, the display of Orientalized European designs must be well worth seeing. We knew a man once who sent a photograph of his little daughter to Japan, where a native artist translated it into a beautiful figure, in Japanese costume, painted, as we recollect it, on a silk scroll. The face was an excellent portrait, and very sweet in expression, like most of the female faces painted by the best Japanese artists, and was just sufficiently Japanese in character to suit the rest of the figure. There is probably no other Oriental country where such work as this could be successfully done, but it would be interesting to see how conventional decoration, such as Byzantine mosaic-work, would be rendered in different parts of Asia.