s possible of that provincial which
makes cathedrals out of carpenters' Gothic churches, and, on the other
hand, without carping, but with good-natured patience, with a feeling
that if things are not very good, they can hardly be expected to be
better; that we, in this country at least, are only half-civilized in
the ways of cultivation, and we do uncommonly well for such babes as
we are in literature and art. With patience then, and with impatience
about nothing but this, that we deny ourselves the study of the great
works of art of Europe and Asia by thirty per cent and forty per cent
and sixty per cent duty, and deny to the author all proper
remuneration for his work by the lack of common honesty. No other
nation of European blood does these things. It is not a matter of
politics. No protectionists so ardent in the Bismarck ranks as to
propose to levy a tax on literature and science. No selfish grabber so
small, even among peoples whom we consider less honest than we, who
approves of stealing an author's books under color of the law. While
we send to Washington Congressmen who keep such laws on the
statute-books, our community is not "barbarous" so much as savage; for
such acts are the acts of savages; that is, of men who have no
reasonable motive for their acts, but act impulsively, like grown-up
children.

And now, after this evening, let us return from theory and general
principles, to practice and details, and see whether we can find out
how it is that Indians combine color, how Japanese use natural form
decoratively, how Chinamen make porcelain lovely and noble; how Greeks
of old time have sculptured and Frenchmen have created Gothic
architecture, and Italians have raised painting to the highest heaven
of achievement. There is happiness, if study can give it. And for
those to whom scholarship is less attractive than action and
production, there is sculpture in small and large, in stone, marble,
terra-cotta, wax, clay, plaster, bronze, iron, lead, gold and silver;
there is inlay of all material and styles, from square tiles to minute
glass tesserae; there is painting with all known vehicles and of all
sorts; the whole to be devoted to the beautifying of buildings in
which we have to live and work and rest. There is a plenty to do for
those who know how to begin.

* * * * *

TO PROTECT PLATE-GLASS IN BUILDING.--Passing along Dearborn Street,
recently, I saw a crowd watching close