new
furnace, his thoughts are no more or less exalted or lofty than when
creating a cartoon idea intended to sway public opinion. Strange, isn't
it, that considering the thousands of earnest thinking diligent-working
young students, that there are so few artists whose work reflects real
genius? Strange that the standard of the Graphic Arts is as
discouragingly low as it is considering this army of talent. But even
more strange that this contradiction to the law of averages is also
applicable to the field of sports--to a field so practical, tangible and
therefore measurable. Every healthy-minded youngster born, has two early
ambitions: one to be a great baseball player, another to become President.
And yet the scouts and managers for the Big Leagues have difficulty in
discovering talent above the average.

In the field of Pictorial Photography, the average is exceedingly high.
This volume is a demonstration. To be sure, if one seeks, one can quickly
discover atrocities in the galleries and on the printed page; but my
conviction is that the progress from the purely aesthetic standpoint has
kept pace with the mechanical and scientific strides made in Photography.

Quotations are generally sneered at, but they make excellent conclusions.
Some one once said: "All one's life is music if one touched the notes
rightly and in tune." A very happy thought and true. But finding the
right note is infinitely more difficult than the striking in tune. Ideas,
to be sure, you must seek. But orderly thought, patience and fine
craftsmanship in carrying out your idea frequently count for more than the
originality or brilliance of the idea itself. Owing to the restlessness
of the world situation--wars and rumors of wars, strikes and overtendency
towards jazz and slang--there is already, especially in the work of
youngsters, too evident an urge to be different; different merely for the
sake of being different.

A thought possibly worthy of the deliberation of every artist is that
Distinction is a result, never the object, of a great mind.

[A DECORATIVE PANEL, By Thos. O. Sheckell, Salt Lake City, Utah]

A DECORATIVE PANEL
_By _Thos. O. Sheckell, _Salt Lake City, Utah_

[IN A DANCER'S STUDIO, By Wayne Albee, Seattle, Washington]

IN A DANCER'S STUDIO
_By _Wayne Albee, _Seattle, Washington_

[HOUSE-BOATS, B