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some one standing in the audience before the rise of the curtain, after which the dramatis personæ delivered the dialogue there set down. For instance, in "Passionate Brompton" (" Punch," June 14, 1879) the scene is described in this way: "A fair young Esthete, who has just been introduced to Mr. Smith, who is to take her down to dinner, is overheard to ask the following question," whereupon the curtain went up, and the character said, in her most appropriately affected tone: "Are you intense?" A little ingenuity in re-arranging the bracketed words is sometimes necessary, in order to put the situation clearly before the observer; but if the actors have the advantage of personal familiarity with English society, or with "Punch," there will be good chances for dramatic effect, even within the narrow scope of a few sentences.

and slim, shapeless figures do not add to the ordinary prettiness usually considered necessary in tableaux. For these æsthetic scenes let us recommend ladies of slight, girlish figures, with long, thin necks and prominent features. The faces of all must be whitened, not rouged, and a judicious application of black must be made under the eyes and about the nose and chin. Avoid light blues, purples, or greens, rather choosing for the dresses figured chintz, sage-green, dull yellow, and either pale pink or brick-dust-red canton flannel. Flowers roughly embroidered on the skirts produce a remarkably good effect, and the traditional lily, sunflower, or poppy may be effectively introduced by a clever young lady fond of art-embroidery. The expense of the material is so slight that a person appearing in more than one tableau can have two or three costumes. For instance, in another scene of the "Mutual Admirationists" (May 22d, 1880), where the ladies wear cloaks and poke-bonnets, and again when Mr. and Mrs. Cimabue Brown listen to Lord Plantagenet Cadbury's comic song (May 15th, 1880), Mrs. Brown would here add to the effect by appearing in another dress. The male characters require long-haired wigs, smooth, beardless faces, but ordinary frock-coats are the only costumes necessary for Maudle and Postlethwait.

We have not space to enumerate all the tableaux that would be appropriate, but in looking over the back numbers of "Punch" one can find many from which to select. We would suggest, however, such as "The Six-Mark Tea-pot" (October 20th, 1880) as amusing and easy of execution. Then "Affiliating an Esthetic" (June 19th, 1880) forms a good

The subjects chosen were drawn from the types portrayed by George du Maurier, Charles Keene, and John Leech, the three affording an agreeable variety which no one alone would furnish. The most unction would, perhaps, be bestowed upon Mr. du Maurier's Esthetes, which, in later numbers of "Punch," have afforded the world so much amusement-those "intense disciples of "high art," Jellaby Postlethwait, young Maudle, and their "supremely consummate friends, the Cimabue Browns, who give to the world (represented by the Colonel and Grigsby) their ideas of what one should admire in "the truly great." In these scenes the setting of the stage must follow closely the drawings. One or two screens, about six feet by two, can readily be made, and covered with dullcolored cretonne, or wall-paper. By turning one side or the other, these screens can be made to pre-finale to the aesthetic series. This represents "an sent all sorts of effects, and any piece of antique drapery, gracefully draped over the chintz, will make a harmonious bit of color. Some blue china plaques, hung in conspicuous places, several small tables, wicker chairs, growing plants, and palm or India-rubber plants in pots, may be shifted about the stage, and turned into all sorts of uses. A person with a quick appreciation of the drawings themselves will, we fancy, seize the spirit of the decorations far better than they could here be described.

It is in the dressing of the characters that the effect of the scenes chiefly consist. Let us say at once that the young beauty with fresh and rosy cheeks must be warned that, to look æsthetic, she will have to sacrifice all vanity as to personal adornment. Look at the opening scene in the lives of the Cimabue Browns, in the issue of "Punch" for February 14th, 1880. It is called "Nincompoopiana," or "The Society of the Mutual Admirationists." The Colonel (who is not a member of the aforesaid society) is being introduced by Mrs. Cimabue Brown (who is a member) to young Maudle and Jellaby Postlethwait, who are surrounded by a group of admiring friends. The dresses of the ladies in this picture are very funny, but certainly not becoming, as the faded colors and strange mode of making the gowns would cause even a pretty woman to look her worst. The melon-shaped sleeves, narrow skirts, low-cut bodies,

heroic group, modeled from memory by Pilcox, a rising young pharmaceutical chemist, and showing Mrs. Cimabue Brown, as the muse of the nineteenth century, crowning Maudle and Postlethwait as its twin-gods of Art and Poetry." The group of stat uary requires little practice to be made exceedingly funny. The posture is not difficult, and the dresses of the group may be copied in unbleached muslin, exactly like those in the picture. White wigs will save the trouble of using powder, and are, indeed, necessary for the men, as few have sufficiently long hair, nowadays, to copy the flowing locks of Maudle and Postlethwait. Mrs. Brown may be whitened and simply use powder, as that will remain in long hair.

Not less amusing or less clever is the series of pictures from the life of Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkyns, showing how she climbed the social scale, and by her advice to her young friend Georgius Midas, Esq., Jr., gave him the "straight tip" on matrimony. Now comes a chance for the pretty girl with regular features, small, aristocratic head, and graceful air. Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkyns is so essentially a type of English beauty that her American cousins will be obliged to look their prettiest when they undertake to fill her rôle. Here, again, the dressing must adhere closely to the print, though a large scope for taste is given, and all the friends of Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkyns dress most becomingly and well. The

character of Georgius Midas, Esq., Jr., will have to be carefully studied. Wealth-and newly acquired wealth-is written over the man and his clothes, and the consciousness of innate vulgarity makes him shrink from expressing his opinions till drawn out by the clever Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkyns. The "Advice on Matrimony " (May 22d, 1880), and two scenes of recent issue also relating to marriage, form a group proving the remarkable insight into the weaknesses and foibles of London life and human nature, while in earlier numbers, in some of the scenes with the Duchess, du Maurier admits us to the secrets of Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkyns's advancement in society. Her drawing-room must be tastefully arranged, and the furniture previously used changed about the stage, the screens turned to different sides and color, making the scene into a modern mansion in Mayfair.

Some of the hunting-sketches of John Leech form a good contrast to the modern drawings of Keene or du Maurier, and the fashions of twenty years ago of big hoops, ringlets, many flounces and turbans, are sure to recall merry associations in the hearts of the elder portion of the audience. In fact, in choosing these subjects, the trouble seems to be not to know where to begin, but how to stop.

Of the drawings by Leech, we may mention "The Briggs Series," depicting Mr. Briggs's trials and tribulations to get ready for the hunting-field (for one could not, of course, introduce horses and hounds into a drawing-room). Should the necessary "pink coat" of Mr. Briggs not be obtainable, some of the scenes from "Servantgalism" are inimitable,

and will remind alike old and young housekeepers of their own experiences. These pictures may be varied by some of those from "Flunkeyiana," and none of the costumes are difficult or expensive to get up. Good effects may be produced by gay chintzes and red cotton, with a plentiful use of the flour-bag on the head of Chawles or Jeames de la Pluche.

The foregoing scenes were all represented in a drawing-room which was divided off by a curtain stretched on wires from cornice to cornice. A stage would of course add to the effect, could one have an elevation of eighteen inches with gas foot-lights and a drop-curtain. But our idea was informality and a jolly evening, so the first-mentioned plan was adopted. Two old red satin-damask window-curtains were fastened to the wire, leaving a space of about ten feet for a proscenium; rings were then sewed on to two other red curtains, which enabled the stage-manager to draw the curtains aside at will. Candles placed in tin sockets, with reflectors (which may easily be made by any country tinsmith), gave an appearance of foot-lights and added materially to the lighting of the stage. Ordinary lamps, fastened on to pieces of wood securely nailed to the wall or door, will answer the purpose, as these scenes do not require the strong effects of light and shade given in many such performances.

Outside these suggestions there are many admirable scenes to be copied, and we feel sure that anybody overlooking a file of "Punch" must be struck by the feasibility of many of the sketches, and find ample means for providing an amusing and novel entertainment. F. A. B.

CULTURE AND PROGRESS.

A Second Offer of Prizes for Wood-Engraving. IN the present issue of this magazine we print the report of the committee which was announced in March, 1880, to consider the merits of wood-engravings to be made by pupils during the year which has just closed. In order to exhibit the basis of the awards and the quality of the work, we present also impressions of the blocks which have received the prizes, and others which have been accorded honorable mention. In renewing this offer, we are prompted by the occasion to make a few suggestions on the general subject of technical instruction in the art.

Our first offer was made with two firm convictions: first, that the success already achieved by our countrymen in this line of work was not temporary or fortuitous, but had its source in the native keenness of the American mind and the dexterity and adaptiveness of the American hand; and, secondly, in the belief that we should discover an interest in the subject not merely mercenary, but inspired with a genuine devotion to the art. As far as the competition has any significance at all, it is to confirm and fortify

both convictions; the most successful of the competitors are Americans, and the quality of their work is, all things considered, of marked excellence, and in some instances surprisingly good; while the earnest spirit in which the larger number have entered upon the work is not the least omen of success in a profession which depends for signal success as much upon character as upon ability. A few of the many letters regarding the competition gave such decided evidence that the writers would undertake it merely as a stop-gap, or with no interest beyond the pecuniary, that we felt obliged to discourage them, the world of art being already too full of routine service, which yields neither pride nor profit to those who give or those who pay for it. It goes without saying that it was not to this class that our offers were addressed; but, perhaps, we ought to have gone further, and to have said with emphasis, that unless, after a fair trial, an engraver's work meets with encouragement at the hands of reputable publishers, and before long with payment, it would be well for him to turn his attention to some other employment. Fortunately or unfortunately, in America the adop tion of a trade or profession is a matter of consider.

able experiment, and some will undertake the work in uncertainty as to their qualifications for it; but, considering the past success and the probable future of wood-engraving, it is not holding out false hopes to say that in this, as in other employments, there is good chance of success for marked ability. To consider only the prudential side of the question, a failure in the experiment is likely to be attended with little loss of expense for tools and materials, and with a good deal of compensation in the training of the hand and the eye.

This very education of the perceptions and of manual skill is a consideration which ought to commend wood-engraving to the favor of our technical schools. The way to learn how little one knows of natural objects is to begin to portray them, and, studied in connection with the observation of nature, as the art should be, engraving might afford as valuable discipline as drawing, and might profitably take the place of some of the obstructionary studies in our school curriculums. To any one who regards this idea as wholly chimerical, we beg to commend the paper in this issue on "Elementary Instruction in the Mechanic Arts." Who knows whether, if the development of our educational system keep pace with the demand for more practical and less abstract instruction, its momentum may not take us before many decades to the introduction of wood-engraving as an elective study in the higher departments of the public schools!

However premature and fantastic this idea may be, it is not so to consider the desirability of such instruction in the technical schools already in existence, or yet to be established. Ezra Cornell aspired to found a university at which one could be taught any branch of learning or any craft which it might be desirable to learn and practicable to teach, and without doubt it is toward some such broad view of education that we are tending. The Cooper Union in this city, which already has done much in special instruction, extends excellent facilities for learning to engrave, under the able teaching of Mr. John P. Davis. Our correspondence indicates a decided demand for similar instruction in Chicago and Boston; it is intimately allied to the aims of the Cincinnati School of Wood-Carving; and we believe that Mr. W. W. Corcoran, who is already so great a benefactor of Washington City, could not do better than include this branch in his long-meditated scheme of art-schools in connection with his val uable gallery in that city. The cost of the experiment would be trifling, and before long a chair of wood-engraving might be made self-supporting. What is chiefly needed is a guarantee that an engraver of good technical ability would devote a portion of each day to such pupils as might present themselves. Other things being equal, the best artist will be the best instructor; but what is most desirable is to foster special adaptiveness, and this a less accomplished instructor could do. The rest could be accomplished by the great colleges of engraving-the magazines-where are to be found the best models, the keenest criticism, the most helpful personal appreciation. Granting that only three or

four workmen of signal ability are produced in a year, it is, proportionately, no smaller yield of excellence than is expected of our law or medical colleges; or, indeed, of any other class of professional instruction.

In order, therefore, further to encourage the pursuit of this art by those who feel a special interest in it, we make a new offer of the following prizes:

To the engravers of the first, second, and third best blocks to be made during the current year by persons who, before reading this, have never engraved for pay-the proofs to be submitted to us by December 31, 1881, with certificate of good faith-we will pay, respectively, $100, $75, and $50.

For the best block to be done during the year by any one who has taken part in the first competition, $50.

The same gentlemen, Mr. De Vinne, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Drake, have consented to act as judges, and correspondence may be addressed as before, to Art Department, SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, 743 Broadway, New York.

Winter Picture Exhibitions (1880-81).

THE Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of the "American Water-Color Society" was considered satisfactory, both in an artistic and a business sense. Like its predecessors, it afforded opportunity for the annual discussion, on the part of the professional critics, of the subtile technicalities of the art,-discussions not easily comprehended by any but the artists and the critics themselves. These discussions have doubtless an esoteric value; but the critics sometimes appear to be talking about water-color painting as if it were not much more related to oil-painting than is the art of japanning, for instance, or that of architecture. Of course, however, they would deny having meant anything of the kind, and they would, doubtless, all agree that, to the artist who expresses himself by the medium of colors on a flat surface, the materials with which and upon which he works are secondary considerations. There was a time when a famous sculptor and fresco-painter could declare (according to the story) that oil-painting was fit only for women. Now there is a belief that it is water-color that is fit only for women, or for men in moods when they have nothing very vigorous or important to say. But, meantime, as one walks through the galleries at the Academy, when the water-colors are on exhibition, it is just as it is when the walls are covered with oil-paintings,the men who interest us in the one exhibition interest us in the other. After a painter has accustomed himself to the medium, what tells is his own taste, his own sense of beauty, his own view of nature and power of presenting that view, his own intellectual force. There is no getting away from the fact that it is the man himself who speaks to us from the walls.

In the water-color exhibition this year the visitor was attracted by a number of small pictures, hung in various rooms, but which had the air of being torn from the same sketch-book. Direct, simple, crude sometimes never "pretty"-they caught the eye by an unmistakable look of nature. They were

Mr. Winslow Homer's contributions,-virile, and frank, as everything that comes from this artist is, except on those rare occasions when he departs from his own standards. Such drawings as these are a judgment upon the easily discerned tendencies of some other artists-toward the sentimental, the gorgeous, and the inanely pretty. There is strength and beauty in Mr. Currier's drawings; but putting aside any discussion of ultra-impressional tendencies, this present showing strikes one as monotonous, and too much sought out in its prodigality of pigments; in other words, if Mr. Currier should continue long in this line, his sincerity might well be doubted. One even feels inclined to call halt to painters as excellent and charming as Mr. Swain Gifford and Mr. Murphy, and to warn them to beware of the Beautiful.

The Artists' Fund Exhibition was memorable for a single picture, at least, of extraordinary beauty and artistic value, and one which well illustrates the intellectual in plastic art as opposed to the literary. Mr. Homer Martin's "September Landscape" told no story of merely literary interest; it related no incident like that of dawn or sunset: it was a straightforward attempt to express the delight the artist evidently felt in looking at a piece of American forest scenery,-trees, bushes, rocks, running water, a luminous midday gloom, streaked with green and gold. If America had a Luxembourg, with the mission to gather up the best works of living artists of the country, this marvelous picture should find its way there.

Corthell's History of the Mississippi Jetties.*

THE successful construction of the jetties at the mouth of the South Pass of the Mississippi River, especially when considered in the light of the powerful opposition by which the early progress of the work was embarrassed, and the consequent magnifying of already great financial difficulties, to say nothing of the physical magnitude of the work, and of the far-reaching results of its success, may fairly rank as one of the very great engineering achievements of modern times.

In Mr. Corthell's book we have a very full and complete description, not only of the engineering details of the work of construction, and of the influence of those works on the channel of the pass, but an elaborate statement, supported by a reproduction of the original documents, of the preliminary and collateral history of the enterprise. It is not, and it could not be expected to be, an impartial history, written in the judicial frame of mind of a mere his torian; it is partisan and enthusiastic. At the same time, while its bias is evident, no occasion is given to suspect an entire fairness and honesty of treatment. It would be improper to judge the attitude of the United States Engineer Corps in this matter entirely by Mr. Corthell's account of their action concerning

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it. It would, perhaps, even be unwise to accept without question all of his eulogies of Captain Eads. At the same time, one who cares to study the very interesting scientific and political history of this really great event will find here ample and reliable material for his purpose.

Two elements of the scientific bearings of the question are worthy of notice. One is Mr. Eads's fundamental theory concerning the action of siltbearing streams on their beds and shores. He states it as follows:

"The popular theory advanced in many standard works on hydraulics, to wit, that the erosion of the banks and bottom of streams like the Mississippi is due to the friction or impingement of the current against them, has served to embarrass the solution of the very simple phenomena presented in the formation of the delta of the Mississippi; because it does not explain why it is that under certain conditions of the water it may develop with a gentle current an abrading power which, under other conditions, a great velocity cannot exert at all. A certain velocity gives to the stream the ability of holding in suspense a proportionate quantity of solid matter, and when it is thus charged can sustain no more, and hence will carry off no more, and therefore cannot then wear away its bottom or banks, no matter how directly the current may impinge against them."

So far as the mere bearing of silt is concerned, this is doubtless correct, but to deny the direct effect of the impingement of a strong current, no matter how muddy, against a crumbling shore, is to disregard the inevitable action of a well-known, great mechanical force. Indeed, this theory is entirely reversed by actual experience at the jetties, for we are told on page 151, as an illustration of the "extraordinary force of an eddy current," that such a current undermined the foundation of the mattresses, and caused a crevasse through the solid wall of the jetty. The enormous abrasions of the banks of the Mississippi River are certainly much more due to the direct action of impingement than to the hunger of the current for silt.

The other point, and a much more serious one, is that the permanent success of the jetties is predicated upon the absence of "bar advance";-that is, that as the bar in front of the jetties does not advance or grow by accretion, therefore the permanence of the channel may be considered certain. Is it, after all, at the mouth of the jetties that we are to look for the formation of the bar? Under the former conditions, the current flowing out from the pass maintained its integrity for a distance of nearly two miles. After having traversed this distance, its loss of velocity per mitted the formation of a bar. There seems every reason to suppose that this condition had been constant; that, at a corresponding distance in advance of the real mouth, a bar may have always existed; that presumably the "bar advance" has been, not at the mouth of the pass, but at a very considerable distance in front of it. Captain Eads has now carried his jetties, suddenly, to the crest of the bar, and has established entirely new conditions, whose ultimate issue can only be a matter of speculation. Assum

ing that the littoral current from east to west has always been an efficient factor, the resultant forces are to be considered. Their discussion, thus far, seems to have been confined solely to the direct flow of the pass, the wave force of the Gulf, the littoral current, and the simple relation of these to the South Pass discharge. The South Pass delivers only one-tenth of the discharge of the river. The remainder is about equally divided between Pass à l'Outre and the South-west Pass. Supposing the proportion of silt borne by the water of the three passes to be the same, and the littoral current to be equally effective along the whole coast, we have forty-five per cent. of the earthy matter brought down by the river to be disposed of by the current moving westward across the mouth of Pass à l' Outre, and traversing the outlet of the South Pass. The real problem relates to the deposition of this material, together with the much smaller amount that the South Pass discharges. The aggregate is enormous. It is of the same origin and character with the vast burden of the Mississippi which has filled the Great Gulf from above the mouth of the Ohio to the present mouth of the Mississippi. Borne along by the rapid current discharged by the passes, it must soon reach a point where the quieting of the waters will cause its deposit. As the South Pass has been suddenly projected out of proportion to the gradual advance of the great passes, the natural conditions have been so disturbed that the subsequent location of deposits cannot be determined; but it is here, in our judgment, that the Engineer Corps must look for a justification of its well-sustained criticism.

So much for theory. It seems clear that, from a practical point of view, the jetties are to be accepted as a complete success.

Long before an obstructing bar can be formed, the cost of the jetties will have been returned a hundred if not a thousand fold, by the constant benefit they will have secured. Before their construction the Mississippi was almost sealed against foreign commerce. An uncertain channel of about eighteen feet was maintained at great cost by the South-west Pass. Now, there is a reliable channel through the jetties and South Pass of about thirty feet from the deep water of the Gulf to the deep water of the Mississippi. The Great Eastern can steam freely up to New Orleans, which has the best outlet to the sea of all the great American cities.

However we may carp at processes, however our preconceived ideas may have been set aside, no man can question the value of Captain Eads's work, nor withhold from him the honor due to it.

Seward's "Chinese Immigration."*

MR. GEORGE F. SEWARD, late U. S. Minister to China, may fairly be said to represent one extreme of the discussion of the Chinese question, at the other end of which we shall find Denis Kearney and his followers. Between these two widely separated points

* Chinese Immigration, in its Social and Economical Aspects. By George F. Seward, late United States Minister to China. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1881. Pp. 420.

we may discover many varying shades of opinion, ignorance, and indifference. Mr. Seward has written a book from his point of view as an American citizen of intelligence and breadth of judgment, residing for many years at the Chinese capital and at the chief sea-port of the empire, where he had rare opportunities of studying the character of the emigration to the United States, as well as the characteristics of the emigrants. It is natural that the men who represent the other side of the question should say that Mr. Seward, who has so long been a resident of a foreign country, is not competent to declare, from personal observation, what is the effect of Chinese immigration upon the social and industrial aspects of the United States. To meet this criticism, and as far as possible to anticipate it, Mr. Seward has drawn liberally from the published testimony of citizens of California who have been examined by Congressional committees, charged with the duty of examining into the so-called Chinese problem. From these reports, and from various other sources, Mr. Seward has deduced conclusions which are widely different from those of the California politicians and public speakers.

Mr. Seward, while he approaches his subject with an honest intention to deal with it in the spirit of fairness, has manifestly made up his mind that the Chinese question, as we are in the habit of calling it, has been wrongly put before the American people, and that it is his duty to set us all right before we can examine for ourselves the intricate matters which he discusses. But we must concede to him, in addition to his peculiar qualifications for the work, and his apparent frankness, a patience of research which should entitle his conclusions to great respect. Those of us who have not studied the subject with the care that he has, should be very chary of criticism.

In the first place, Mr. Seward makes a good point against the anti-Chinese partisans by showing most conclusively that their statements concerning the number of Chinese in this country have been ludicrously exaggerated. Indeed, Mr. Seward might have been justified in saying that many of these statements are fantastically incorrect. For example: a California representative, on the floor of the House, asserted that the number of Chinese in California was 150,000. A senator from California said: "There are now in California more Chinese than there are voters." The lowest estimate made by any of these partisans gave to the State a Chinese population of 100,000; and to the city of San Francisco 35,000 Chinese. The author of the work before us devotes an entire chapter to an analysis of these various statements and estimates, and arrives at the conclusion that there are not more than 100,000 Chinese in the entire republic, of which only 75,000 are dwellers in the State of California. When these figures are compared with the election returns of California, showing a vote of nearly 160,000, it will be seen how reckless was the assertion that there are more Chinese in California than voters. Mr. Seward, however, need not have spent so much labor upon his critical analysis of the estimates of the numbers of Chinese in California, if

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