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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1903)
Why Municipal Art? TrT-TT i ( d i I (i irrt m'IiIIa w.'altcln0 nn A I one of the beat residence streets SW 1 In Vhilu ilulrtlftl a I tli 1 1 mv no up and gave a light tap against the porch pillars of a large and ' 1st f.'l pretentious bouse. I was tar tied to find that they were only tin or thin galvanized Iron and gave forth a very hollow Round. Iast winter I went Into noma house that were being built. In the bay-window of a small sitting-room were two great columns, fully ten Inches In diameter, apparently supporting some decorative woodwork above. Upon examination I found llicm to le made of quarter-Inch pine curved to form a column, stained to Imitate rnhog any, and when struck with the knuckle they gave forth a sound like a wooden drum. Now In both cases these pets of pil lar were put up to deceive. They ure mado to resemble classic columns ami the casual observer takes them for things of substance as long as they remain undented or unwarped. Our ideas of a pillar are that It is to support a weight, but these would rot support their own weight unless held In place by nails and screws. Can human actions be more deceitful? Can boys and girls playing about these "hollow mock eries" of columns eespe their corrupting Influence? What parents are willing that their children shall associate with lying, deceitful and vicious playmates? They flrtnly believe and act upon Paul's admoni tion to the Corinthians: "Kvil communica tion corrupt good manners!" They know if a child p'.nys with one who steals, lie.', and uses obscure language that no amount of ethical instruction given line upon line and precept upon precept can save him from contamination, liut they forget that objects have characters which are dividedly good or bad, virtuous or vicious. In fact, JjL I trembling In every limb, ran on a I to the veranda of n nlanrer's house In Trinidad one evening and Cling himself at the nl, inter's feet in a dead faint. "What's the matter, Bob?" asked the planter, after he had brought the man to and given him a stiff drink of whisky. "John Awful Man put obeah 'pon you, eh'" alluding to a famous witch doctor of the neighborhood. "No, massa," was the reply. "Wusser dan dat! I see de rollin' calf In de oush Jus' now. Him eyes shine like liah and him chain go clank-a-clank-clank. l)e blessed Lord hab mercy 'pon me. I die soon, fo' sure." Nothing could persuade the man that he was not doomed or that ho had only seen a harmless and perfectly natural white calf, lie fell in a state of hopeless melancholy and soon afterward died of a slight attack of malarial fever "from pure funk," as the doctor said. The "rolling calf" is the most famous of the many animal ghosts firmly believed in by tho colored people in the West Indies. Indeed, throughout the world there is no animal ghost which causes people greator line isiness. It Is a white calf of enormous size as big as an elephant, if some accounts may bo trusted. Its eye blaze like two live coals and roll fearsomely from sfdo to side; honce Its name. A heavy chain encircles its body and drags behind on the ground for many yards, clanking weirdly In the stillness of the tropical right. The apparition Is supposed to presage death, or, at tho least, somo terrible mis fortune. And, of course, nearly every negro whi meets a white calf straying at nlglit ia the Jungst or on a lonely mountain road Imagines that he has seen the dreadod 'rolling calf." There Is only one way to render the phan tom harmless. When It appears, a knife or a machete must Instantly be stuck ia the ground, with the edge towards the calf. Then, like Mephistopheles held back by the sign of the cross, it cannot approach or do any evil. On this account a West Indian negro wtfl seldom go out at night without his machete. The belief in anufmal ghosts fs common to most savage and barbarian races, as well as to many civilized people. It is natural that this should be so, because most savages credit animals with souls and a future existence equally with men. They think that after death. rh8nun,, r ,hl" deer pursues, The hunter and the deer a shade." Therefore, if they believe that the ghosts of men revisit these "pale glimpses of tha moon," they must believe, iu order to ba logical, that the ghosts of animals do the same. This is the true explanation of the numerous stories of ghostly animals which the traveler hears In all pjrts of the world. The Red Indians' bell t that the eouls of slain animals went to the happy hunt ing grounds, as well as the souls of slain warriors, ia well known. Rut It Is not so well known that among certain tribes It was the custom to beg pardon of an ani mal before killing it, and even to stick the pipe of peace In its mouth if there was time to do so before Its spirit fled. This nil good and bud human qualities are to be found in the concrete things around us which have been made by man. Let ua go out into our streets with this criterion. Lt us examine the concrete evidence of our municipal life. We find many streets in moat of our cities ill-paved. We find most of them dirty, filthy, papers flying about, garbage boxes and ash barrels lining the sidewalks. Ashes and dust flying in ail directions when the garbage wagon is being loaded, and few people with good clothes have the temerity to puss a gang of street sweepers. Keeping in mind young people ami tbe effect of surroundings upon theni. If they ride in the street cars of raot cities they see signs parted up: "Slitting on the Floor of This Car is Poxi tlvrly Prohibited," nevertheless they see this prohibition violated daily and no ef fort made to enforce the law. Not only this, the car la Jammed to over llowing and everybody takes it as a matter of course. If they turn the water spigot there comes forth at some sea sons w iter unfit to baths? In and) they are forbidden to drink It at any season of the year until It is filtered or boiled. Some may think that these things do not concern art. Hut the basis of all municipal art is cleanliness and wholesomeness. It is vain to talk of grand boulevards if they are to be kept dirty and unsightly. And when all of the common streets of a city are neglected, a system of grand boulevards is merely vain boasting, and not true art. We take great pains to teach tho youth to understand the government unier which they live and of which they are a part We use not only text books but we organ ize them Into legislative bodies and "School Cities," hoping in this way to arouse an Interest in municipal affairs; to give them The Myriad Spooks was to prevent the animal from coming back in ghostly form to haunt its stayer. The same superstition may be met with In many other parts of the world In In dia, in Assam, in New Guinea, among the Kwe-speaking negro tribes of the West Coast of Africa, among the Watomgoroj Indians of Venezuela, and in tiu& Interior of Madagascar. The people of Assam firmly believe that if a man takes care to beg pardon with due form and ceremony the ghosts of all the birds and beasts he slays in this life will become his property in the next world. It is rather annoying to an English planter in that country to wait for hi. dinner whllo his servant goes through elaborate propit iatory rites before he kills a chi.ken. No animal ghost has been mure firmly believed in for many ceuturiej by many millions of people than the "Pale. Horse." It dates back to tho days of Icelandic: sage and Norse legends. Today It is an urtliio of faith with the peasants of Iceland, of tho northern part of Norway and Sweden, Russia, and even with fume of the Scottish Highlanders. When a man Is about to die the "Pale Horse" white, shadowy. Ghostly comes out of tho dark night and halis before the dojr Oi his house. Then he must arise from his deathbed, drink life's stlr-rui-cup, mount the spectral and rid:; off to that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." In the days when he wrote poetry In stead of guiding America's foreign policy, John Hay took this curious myth for the theme of one of his best poems, "The Stirrup Cup." "My short and happy day Is done. The long una oreary nix lit comes on; And at my door the Pate Horse stands, To curry me to unknown lands. "Ills whinny shrill, His pawing hoof, Bound dreadful us a gathering storm; And 1 must leave this sheltering roof. And Joys of Ufa so sufo and warm. "Tender and warm the Joys of life (iood friends, the faithful and the true; My rtwy children and my wife, So sweet to kiss, so fair to view. So sweet to kiss, so fair tr view Tho night comes down, the lights burn blue; And at my door the Pale Horse stands, To bear me forth to unknown lands." India is full of animal ghosts, from the Himalayas to Cape Cormorln. Ghost tigers, ghost Jackals and ghost clepliants haunt half the Jungles of that vast country, If the natives may bo believed. Here is a typical story: "Ry the beard of my father. Sahib, I speak straight words," said an old Mi liomedan ham out.' "One evening we were hunting wild elephants In tbe Jungle for our lord, the maharaja of Gidhaur. I saw a large tusker abine by a iool. His color was grnyish-white, am my heart bout fast, for 1 thought Allah had been gracious to mo and had placed In my hands that great est of all prizes a Lord While Elephant. Cautiously 1 edged my own tome elephant towaid him. hoping that while they made trie ids I could bind aim fast to a tree by the heel-rope. "My last trumpeted In terror and trem bled violently. Imt I goaded him on. Ami then, wlit n I put my hand on the; white ele phaat I felt nothing but air. It was a ghost Observations and Comment by John Quincy Adams high political Ideals and a strong sense of civic duty. Hut set over against ail didactic Instrurtina fat this tremendott. persistent and ever-present influence of concrete municipal surroundings which flatly con tradict ail of our precepts ond forces upon the youth these low standards of civic life. Vain and futile will instruction remain when universally belied by concrete and everyday surrounding. The yunng people of our cities are dally taking into their systems the prtnts of a city government which Is negligent, pretentious, insincere, vulgar and dinhcTtest. Hat there is a more subtle though equally important Influence exerted by sniiaictpal surroumlings. We know that the nervous system la like a delicate stringed1 Instru ment. Serine Impressions are the fingers which prodnre npon It discord or harmony, Rvery sense Impression sets its string in vibration throughout the whole nervous system. It fs commonly thought that the character of the sense Impressions is a mat ter of Indifference. But It has been re cently shown that one kind of sense Im pressions is like oil to the nervous sys tem. Keeping It in working order; toning it op, while others are like acid corroding It an! wearing It out. Beautiful and har monious sense impressions sweep over the. nerves, relieving their tension, integrating and giving them health and vigor, whilo ugty and discordant ones have a disinte grating and debilitating effect. The sense Impressions from a work of art. tike strains of music, fall upon the sensarium in ryth mical cadence, thus binding asl of tbe nerve, centers into a harmonious unity. I!y a work of art I do not mean merely a statue, painting or melody. These, but much more than these. Art Is no respector of persona, but clothes alike the Parthenon of the Animal elephant one of those elephants which come back after death to walk the earth because In this fife they went raaath' and murdered men. "I fled from the spot as if Shattaji himself were at my heels, and soon afterward I made a pilgrimage to Mecca to avert tho curse. But my elephant fell sick and died." The Jaine, a powerfnl retigtmrs sect in India, who devote themselves to caring for animalu, teach that any animal which Is 111 treited during Its earthly life will return in spirit form after death to haunt its p-pr.-ssor. It will Inflict upon him all tho torments it has endured and worse.' His crops will fail, his children die, his wife prove unfaithful, his enemies triumph over him and his body be racked with all man ner of aches and pains. Naturally, this doctrine does more to promote kindness to dumb creatures than any society for the prevention of cruelty to animals could do Chinese folklore alKvunds with stories of the ill-used pet monkey whj returns after death to worry the people who torment ?d him in the llesh. ThU monkey is never seen only felt and heard. He sits on his former master's bed at night, gibbering at him ami pulling his pigtail, or he ai.poirs at meal times and snatches away th.-'fitiol as it is being conveyed to tho mouth. Mad ness untl death are fold to be the Inevitable doom of anybody haunted by this mewl uncomfortable specter. Travelers in the remoter parts of O.-r-many are pretty sure to come across stoiio i of unimal ghosts. Indeed, Uermany hus a finer crop of all sorts and conditions of ghusts than any other country In the world. "1 he most famous of these stories ia that of the "Wiltl Troop of Koirensteiu." Refore it "passed over," as spiritual ss ray, this troop was a bamd of robbers win owned the castle of Kedenstein anl com mitted many frightful crimes. To this day, It Is said, the troop may bj hearl dashing madly along the road to tho castle. Nothing Is seen, but the hoof beats eni neighing of hones, the curses of the tro p ers and tho barking of hounds make I lie peasant shudder as they pass by him on the lonely Toad. Ohostly Hocks of sheep are aNo fre quently seen by the peasants of some parts of Germany, if their word may bi ac cepted. It is suiported by several tourists, Including an English clergyman. The latte. declares that the driver of Mi carriage "got down anil found himself In the midst of the animals, tbo sie ami beauty of which astonished him. They ptwet him ot an unusual rate, whilst ho nvtd his way through them to find the sh.pierd, when, on getting to the end of the fl-M-k, they suddenly disappeared. He then first learned thai his fellow travelers had not seen them at all." Another clergyman who met the :pectral muttons declares that he "saw a Uago Hock of sheep which stretchol quite across tho road and was accompaulel by a shep herd and a long-haired black, dog." A ho gazed at the flock it vanished. The ghost lore of England aud Scotland abounds in tales of animal specters, but they are generally deceased humans who, for some reason are compelled to revisit earth in the form of an animal. For example, the Pog of Manse, "a gray ish beast. " wandered Hhout Scotland until quite recently, telling everyone it met that and the humblest object of dally use with dignity and beauty, liem-e. not only the school building both within and without, but every municipal object, such its lamp posts, hydrants, and all objects paid fur by public taxes. Cvery one of these is an lmpersomtl teacher. It i for us to chotwe whether they shall tcuch deceit, pretense, vulgarity or whether they shall teach sin cerity, nobility and retlnement, Tvaiii they will, and from their influence there is no escape for hoy anal Kills who puss through the Hi recta. Then ugalti take the effects of color upon persons. lr. Kern of l'uris has experimented npon several hundred per son. to test the effect of color upon tho physics! strength, lie found that If a per son's Ktrength with ordinary white light In the eyes was twenty-three as measured by the dynamometer, with blue light his strength was raised several points, or to about twenty-live; with green light It was twenty-eight; with orange, thlrty-tlro, and wllh red forty-two. The results wvre the same with those who were rotor blind. Colored rooms are now used in many asy lums as a treatment for some kinds of in sanity with marvelous success. Ami recent Journals have spread broadcast the re markable discovery of Dr. Flnsen that cer tain organic diseases can be cured simply by the use; of colored Hunts. Not only are colors and farms sources of health and strength, or of deluilty and weakness, but they are ns well powerful influence for elevating or debasing char ueter. 1'gly telegraph poles, overhead wires, unseemly public buildings, lamp posts, hydrants makes for low civic ideal and an titter indifference to civic duties. Philadelphia, Pa. World It was the ghost of Pavld Soutar, who had murdered a man by means of a dog uud was therefore doomed to walk the earth In the guise of a dog. It used to auk peo ple, of their Christian charity, to go to the scene of the murder und bury tho bones of the victim, so that It might be released from Its canine shape. Hventually, some body was obliging enough to do this, und the phantom dog appeared no more. Tho old farm laborers of Shropshire firmly believe that human ghosts take the form of bulls, and In Cornwall that stronghold iff quaint legends und strange superstitions the people say that spirits of tho departed return In the shape of a moth to watch over the welfare of those whom they hold most dear. Many a Cornish woman has been seen to weep bit terly at the sight of a moth and heard to declare that it was tho spirit of her dead baby. A. T. Qulller Couch, himself a Cornlwli m;m, has written a pathetic poem on this superstition. A young lover, whose sweet heart had Just died, is sitting In his stu ly, thinking snilly of Ik r. A moth tiles In through the open window ond flutter around him, trying to attract his attention. At lajit it kisses him on the lips, and, Ir ritated by the Interruption to his sweetly bitter thoughts, he crushes It. to ilesth. Then, too late, he realizes that It was the spirit of his sweetheart come back to com fort him. He lias destroyed its earthly tabernacle and condemned it to w:infer houseless though the void of spare to the end tima. A well-known Knglish naval officer, who Is quoted by Andrew I-tng. used to tell a story of a real animal ghoat that is to say. the ghost of a real animal,, not a human ghost in anlmul shac. He says thnt ho was sitting in a room In hiH country house with a friend when they heard a wejl known bark on the stairs outside. "Why, tlml's old Peter!" said the friend, referring to a favorite dog which had be longed to his host. "Peter died since yon were here last," said the naval olllccr. A fox terrier In the room whined and trembled violently. Presently tin- door of the room was pushed open and they heard the "pud-pud" of a dog's feet on the pel I.Mhed finer. No dug could bo seen, but the Invisible ghost of one walked over to tho hearthrug, shook Itself violently, and then flung Itself down heavily on the rug. The Jingle of the collar could be distinctly beard. A hnrd-headed Scottish planter, who Is now living In Jamaica, declares that he met a ghostly mare three nights in succes sion nt the same spot when riding home from his banana fields. Kach time his horse stopped dead, quivering with fear, and could only be made to pnss tho mare by the liberal use of whip and spur. On the second night the planter tried to flog the mare out of the way, but as his whip curled over her back It only cut the air. The planter's two sons, not to be out done, swear that their horses were once raced for a mile by a spectral mule, which suddenly vanished nnder their very eyes. lint the queerest Jamaican ghost Is una which haunts a plantation called "Tulloeh." It Is a spectral horse and buggy, and ap pears with oppressive regularity two or (Continued oa Page Fifteen.)