International studio (56.1915)

The Stranger

Exhibited recently al the Paint and Clay Club Exposition in
New Haven
EVOLUTION BY F. FERRARI


of such styles. The room, however, is invariably
made to present a warm or picturesque appear-
ance, and with perfect disregard for the character
of the other rooms.

The stranger
Dr. James P. Haney, Director of
Art in high schools of New York City,

has recently written what he terms “a

modern miracle play,” under the title of “The
Stranger.” This, Good Furniture has reprinted
from its columns as an attractive little brochure.

“The Stranger” is a little play of four scenes
and an epilogue, which deals with the teaching of
art as it is taught in our public schools throughout
the country. “In it,” says the author in his
introduction, “ there walk out acquaintances en-
gaged in what some ribald spirits conceive to be
the solemn farce called ‘Art Teaching,’ but
which others esteem a tragedy, with only oc-
casional touches of humour to relieve its times of

tears set all too close together.”
The play points with jocular finger at the quaint
deeds clone under the name of Art, both in the
American school and home. Everyone will
recognize the portrait of Faith, the despairing

teacher, whose aesthetic horizon is tight around
her and whose artistic weapons are without edge
or point. Into Everytown, where she teaches
Everyboy and Everygirl, comes the Stranger,
who captures the children and, through them,
the parents, the teacher, and the townspeople,
with his practical lessons in taste. When he is
urged to tell his name, he answers, “I’ll tell you
my business and you shall say who I am.
“My business is to quicken in people every-
where a sense of what is truly fine—to make them
grow in taste through constant choosing between
good forms and bad—to make them understand
that beauty is not something to be put up by
others for them to admire, but something which
they should create whenever they dress them-
selves, deck their rooms, plan their houses, or set
forth the windows of their shops.
“It is mine to show to Practical that the laws
of beauty affect his prosperity at every turn and
that to know them is to have a business asset of
immense value. It is mine to show to Compla-
cency that these same laws apply to her life, and
that for her to know them is to enable her to add
to the home its most seductive charm.
“Most of all, it is mine to show Faith how she
may apply this teaching to the class room, making
her work touch in vital ways every phase of the
life the child sees around him—for know you,
Faith, Doubt, Complacency, and Practical, that
it is to Everyboy and Everygirl and their children
that we must look to see the civic spirit grow and
burgeon into finer and finer forms as these citizens
grow to be sensitive to everything that touches
their town and it civic welfare.”
As the Stranger ceases, Everyboy and Every-
girl gasp out together, “Why, you must be Art.”
and all echo, “Why, of course you’re Art.” Says
the Stranger, smiling, “Did I not say that when
I was no longer a stranger to you, you would
know my name without the telling?” Says
Practical, Everyboy’s father, as the curtain closes,
“Why, I thought you were Art long ago, but your
lessons were so common-sense and useful, I
couldn’t believe it was you.”

X^ERAMIC EXHIBITION
V-'Z The New York Society of Ceramic
Arts announce their autumn exhibition at the

Little Gallery, 15 East 40th Street, N. Y., from
November 1 to 15 inclusive.

LXX