DOI Heft:
No. 303 (June 1925)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0366
THE LAY FIGURE : AN INTERIM
REPORT. 0000
" Let me make the beer of a people, and
I care not who makes its laws," misquoted
the Young Highbrow, sardonically, in
deference to the opinions on current
affairs recently expressed by his friend,
who belongs to the genus Rising Politician.
" You'd care soon enough if they
brought in prohibition," that gentleman
observed. " Why, you'd go and vote, I
believe, which would indicate about the
last straw in your case. You artistic folk
don't pull your weight in the world's
tug-of-war. Isn't there anything that
would stir you up to activity i " a a
" It's quite true," said the Old Artist,
" but it's not easy for us to find any obvious
job. It's not exactly that we aren't
interested. I always like that story of
Alphonse Daudet's politics. His son
Leon, told to define them, said that this
would be difficult because all the family
had been able to discover was that they
took the form of occasional fits of rage.
There's a general truth embodied in that
revelation." a a a a a
Everybody laughed, and the Young
Highbrow was moved to something more
constructive. " If you political people
would give your great minds more often
to the decencies of life, we should be there
or thereabouts," he asserted. " An occa-
sional Bill for the Prevention of Public
Eyestrain would have a most enlivening
effect. Make it illegal to produce ugly
things wholesale and deface the country
with them as at present." ana
" But something has been done in that
way already," said his friend. " If I am not
mistaken, unsightly advertisements. . . ."
" Oh, I don't mean things that even
politicians don't like," the Young High-
brow interrupted. " I mean the sort of
thing they are responsible for them-
selves, they and their Boards of Trade and
Offices of Works and so on. Why, a large
part of the country is fast bound in misery
and wrought iron on account of them.
Have you ever gone and really looked at
the average fencing that surrounds the
public parks i And the gates that are
called ornamental i And those cage things
that they put round unfortunate little
360
trees i They alone would be enough to
bring down a Government in a properly
constituted world. Hideous, expensive,
uneconomic, wasting lashings of paint,
dust-traps, eye-sores — it's awful. And
they set the fashion for a large part of the
iron work elsewhere. All iron gates ought
to have ' By Order' on them, sort of
Master's signature." a 0 a
" Well, granted that it is so," said the
Politician, " it's your job to suggest
measures of improvement. You are ex-
perts ; we aren't. Suppose you draft a
bill to deal with it." 000
" Oh, I'm not a blacksmith," declared
the complainant loftily. 000
" There you are "—the other appealed
to the company—" occasional fits of rage
and nothing more. And I'd almost com-
mitted myself to introducing it for him ! "
They smiled. 0000
" The. notion of a bill's a bit previous,
I'm afraid," the Critic put in, " but
there's a preliminary sometimes adopted
which rather takes my fancy. An enquiry
by a special commission into the present
state of the country's railings, with an
interim and a final report, and all the rest
of it." 0 0 0 0 0 0
" Enquiries are jolly good things," said
the Plain Man. " If you had the right
people on the commission you could get
something done." 000a
" I don't know about that," the Critic
said, " but I can certainly imagine a very
telling report being compiled, which would
show what possibilities for improvement
there are in many directions, and also how
the business could be arranged. If we had
it the Bill probably wouldn't be wanted.
Prove to the manufacturer that he can get
better results for less outlay by substituting
true ornament for false, and to the public
that it has been paying hard cash for mere
squiggles and need not do so any more,
and the thing is done. But some of these
youngsters would do well to take a course
in metal work, and learn how art can
influence casting as an economic factor.
They would benefit themselves ; it would
pay the manufacturer to employ them,
and the public, too, would gain." 0
"Carried, nem. con.," said the Rising
Politician. 00000
The Lay Figure.
REPORT. 0000
" Let me make the beer of a people, and
I care not who makes its laws," misquoted
the Young Highbrow, sardonically, in
deference to the opinions on current
affairs recently expressed by his friend,
who belongs to the genus Rising Politician.
" You'd care soon enough if they
brought in prohibition," that gentleman
observed. " Why, you'd go and vote, I
believe, which would indicate about the
last straw in your case. You artistic folk
don't pull your weight in the world's
tug-of-war. Isn't there anything that
would stir you up to activity i " a a
" It's quite true," said the Old Artist,
" but it's not easy for us to find any obvious
job. It's not exactly that we aren't
interested. I always like that story of
Alphonse Daudet's politics. His son
Leon, told to define them, said that this
would be difficult because all the family
had been able to discover was that they
took the form of occasional fits of rage.
There's a general truth embodied in that
revelation." a a a a a
Everybody laughed, and the Young
Highbrow was moved to something more
constructive. " If you political people
would give your great minds more often
to the decencies of life, we should be there
or thereabouts," he asserted. " An occa-
sional Bill for the Prevention of Public
Eyestrain would have a most enlivening
effect. Make it illegal to produce ugly
things wholesale and deface the country
with them as at present." ana
" But something has been done in that
way already," said his friend. " If I am not
mistaken, unsightly advertisements. . . ."
" Oh, I don't mean things that even
politicians don't like," the Young High-
brow interrupted. " I mean the sort of
thing they are responsible for them-
selves, they and their Boards of Trade and
Offices of Works and so on. Why, a large
part of the country is fast bound in misery
and wrought iron on account of them.
Have you ever gone and really looked at
the average fencing that surrounds the
public parks i And the gates that are
called ornamental i And those cage things
that they put round unfortunate little
360
trees i They alone would be enough to
bring down a Government in a properly
constituted world. Hideous, expensive,
uneconomic, wasting lashings of paint,
dust-traps, eye-sores — it's awful. And
they set the fashion for a large part of the
iron work elsewhere. All iron gates ought
to have ' By Order' on them, sort of
Master's signature." a 0 a
" Well, granted that it is so," said the
Politician, " it's your job to suggest
measures of improvement. You are ex-
perts ; we aren't. Suppose you draft a
bill to deal with it." 000
" Oh, I'm not a blacksmith," declared
the complainant loftily. 000
" There you are "—the other appealed
to the company—" occasional fits of rage
and nothing more. And I'd almost com-
mitted myself to introducing it for him ! "
They smiled. 0000
" The. notion of a bill's a bit previous,
I'm afraid," the Critic put in, " but
there's a preliminary sometimes adopted
which rather takes my fancy. An enquiry
by a special commission into the present
state of the country's railings, with an
interim and a final report, and all the rest
of it." 0 0 0 0 0 0
" Enquiries are jolly good things," said
the Plain Man. " If you had the right
people on the commission you could get
something done." 000a
" I don't know about that," the Critic
said, " but I can certainly imagine a very
telling report being compiled, which would
show what possibilities for improvement
there are in many directions, and also how
the business could be arranged. If we had
it the Bill probably wouldn't be wanted.
Prove to the manufacturer that he can get
better results for less outlay by substituting
true ornament for false, and to the public
that it has been paying hard cash for mere
squiggles and need not do so any more,
and the thing is done. But some of these
youngsters would do well to take a course
in metal work, and learn how art can
influence casting as an economic factor.
They would benefit themselves ; it would
pay the manufacturer to employ them,
and the public, too, would gain." 0
"Carried, nem. con.," said the Rising
Politician. 00000
The Lay Figure.