D. Mansfield, Joseph Medill, Henry Read, Samuel Read, Richard Smith, Murat Halstead, and the present editors of the New York Tribune, the New York World and the Cincinnati Enquirer, have yielded or are now yielding as large a measure of influence as had fallen to the lot of any American journalists. Buchanan Read, William D. Gallagher and William H. Lytle have done nobly all that they attempted to do at all, and Will Carleton, John James and Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt and Mrs. Kate Sherwood are making poetry and fame just so fast as the muses will permit.

And while it would take many essays to show what Ohians have accomplished in art, none can afford to be ignorant of the lives and works of the worldfamous Thomas Cole and Hiram Powers, or of the achievements of America's first animal painters, James H. and William H. Beard, or of the noble works which adorn so many cities, of this country's greatest sculptor, Quincy Ward, whose "Indian Hunter," "Shakespeare," "Washington Washington" and "Equestrian Thomas." will live a thou

sand years after all that is now mortal has crumbled into dust.

I close this appeal for the study of our state's history by reminding the reader that Ohio can lay full or partial claim to four Presidents of the United States, Harrison, Grant, Hayes and Garfield; to one vice-president by birth, Hendricks, and one speaker of the house, Keifer, to two chief-justices, Chase and Waite, and four associate justices, McLean, Swayne, Matthews and Woods; to one secretary of state, through fourteen years' residence, Cass; to five secretaries of the treasury, Ewing, Corwin, Chase, Sherman and Windom; to three secretaries of war, McLean, Stanton and Taft; to three secretaries of the interior, Ewing, Cox and Delano; to two attorney-generals, Stanbury and Taft, and to three postmastergenerals, Meigs, McLean and Dennison. If all these men have not done enough to command your interest and studious attention, citizens of Ohio, set to work to do something to honor the Buckeye state yourselves!

JAMES Q. HOWARD.

ART IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF OHIO.

There are now recognized three lines of work which are developed simultaneously-in many of the public schools of Ohio.

Construction drawing, or the kind necessary for the workmen to work from in the construction of objects. These are commonly called working drawings, architectural drawings, machine drawings, etc.

Representative drawing, or the kind necessary for the pictorial representation of objects, and

Decorative drawing, or the kind necessary for the decoration and embellishment of objects; in other words, the study of industrial design, its principles and their application to wallpapers, carpets, furniture, pottery, iron work, stone work, etc.

A graduate of the schools of to-day, where this course is fully developed, should be able to sketch, pictorially, any simple object he may see or form in his mind; he should be able to make a working drawing to a scale, so he or any workman could construct the object from the drawing; and he should also be able to design the ornament for the object.

Such is the nature of the art education-industrial art education, it should

properly be called-in the public schools of Columbus and other cities of Ohio.

Cincinnati has been noted, more or less, for the work in drawing in her public schools. They have made a change in the last two years in the plan pursued, which is more or less similar to that pursued in Columbus, but not so fully developed. Good work is being done. The Cincinnati schools also made an exhibit at the New Orleans exposition, and the character of the work may be judged from the fact that the French commissioner of education requested and received the entire exhibit in this branch for the Paris Pedagogical

museum.

At Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Springfield and eighty-one other towns in the state of Ohio, drawing is one of the regular subjects of study in the public schools, according to report of the state school commissioner.

It is impossible to estimate the influence this study will exert on the rising generation, especially if, as in Massachusetts, the instruction could be under proper and efficient direction. Then there is the Massachusetts Normal Art

school, with a thorough four years course, and supported by the state. They have discontinued the position of state director of art education, but em

ploy the best talent, under the name of state agents, for the promotion of industrial art education. Their business is to travel over the state, hold institutes, lecture, issue circulars of information, and otherwise advance the object. In Ohio much of this instruction is poor and aimless, for want of knowledge and proper direction.

Hon. John Eaton, commissioner of education, writes me:

Art in schools has been for several years a prominent subject of discussion in the principal educating countries of the world. Drawing and modelling enter into the elementary course of training in nearly all the countries of continental Europe.

The British royal commission on technical education especially recommended the introduction of drawing and modelling into all elementary schools.

With reference to the course to be pursued in elementary and intermediate schools, Philip Magnus, a member of the commission, director and secretary of the city and guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education, and long acknowledged as an authority on the subject, says, in an address before the Society of Arts:

"On every occasion on which I have had the opportunity of speaking on this subject, I have called attention to the neglect of drawing in many of our public elementary schools, which is the more to be regretted seeing that the majority of the children trained in these schools are destined to commence life in occupations in which the ability to draw is quite as useful to them as the ability to spell. I am inclined to think that it is partly in consequence of the examination and inspection of drawing being placed under a diferent department of state from that which superintends the general work of elementary schools, that this subject, important as it is, comes to be regarded as an extra rather than as an essential element in primary instruction. Adequately satisfactory results are not likely to be obtained until drawing shall have been made an obligatory subject, both in girl's schools and in boy's schools, subject to the same rules of examination

and inspection as reading, writing and arithmetic.

In learning drawing, the pupil generally commences by copying from the flat to the flat, he then proceeds to copy from the solid to the flat, and

lastly, he is engaged in rearranging materials previously studied, and in original design. In the teaching of modelling, the opposite is followed; the pupil begins by imitating in relief what he sees in relief, and then proceeds to copy in relief what is presented to him in the flat; and lastly, by aid of mere sketches and suggestions or original conceptions, to project into the solid form the pictures of his mind.

Wherever in our own country drawing has been introduced and properly taught, excellent results have followed. Massachusetts affords the best example of a practical effort in this direction, embracing the schools of an entire state, and the advantage of the training is already experienced in the improvement of various of her manufactures."

Why cannot we have an Ohio school of art? We certainly have had a large number of prominent Ohio artists. Let us not forget what they have done for

us.

Cole, Powers, and others that are dead, even the veterans among the living, Beard, Whitridge and others. There are many like Andrews, Mosler, Neihaus, Weber, Barber, Witt and Griswold, and many others who are ripening with years into better and better work. It is by constant advances of talent, exercised at home and on home subjects, that a home art is created, and this is what is needed. Powers did not, unfortunately, leave anything behind him distinctly American with his "Eve," his "Greek Slave" and Proserpine." But Ward's admirable "Indian Hunter and Dog" is a work of to-day. Ward has studied the red man, and made an Ohio or rather an American group in an American way. Farney of Cincinnati is a splendid delineator of Indians. When at the Paris exhibition, we were disappointed that our American artists had so few American subjects. They seemed to delight in Oriental scenes,

like Bridgman's, so much like his master Gerome. The critics of Europe all said, "when we enter English galleries we find England; we know when we are in Belgium; Italy may be weak, but she is Italy, but when we come to the United States, what do we see? Why, a mixture of all. Paint us an American landscape for Heaven's sake." The Revue des Deux Mondes articles had nothing to say about American art, because there was none. Of all the pictures we had there, only those few were noticed which smacked of the soil. Now that you know as much as your masters, why not go home and work out your artistic destinies in your own way." If we cannot have a distinctive Ohio art, let us have an American art, and when it is achieved it will be as eclectic and comprehensive as the American nation. We consider knowledge of art, taste for art, and even skill in art as necessary to culture-even indispensable to it. Art administers to the necessities of life, while in addition to this the fine arts address the imagination. Thus in civilized nations, in proportion to the development of the intellect and fancy, we find the fine arts entering largely into the ornamentation of even the most common as well as the greatest objects. An art idea is not a mere phantasm. It is as real, as vital as other formulas of human thought. The self-styled practical man, the man of figures, whose faith is in the tangible, looks upon life as a carefully worked problem.

Says one, "It is true there is much art that defies analysis. There are sub

tle influences that cannot be explained. Can the scientist tell me why the sun and rain sweeten the fruit of the tree and not the rest? Nowhere can we escape mysteries. But if we study art by the right methods and in the right spirit, much of its seeming mystery disappears. We find that reason rules here, as in law or science. Blue and yellow make green as sure as two and two make four."

In the galleries of the Old World there is often too much of the nude and sensual. At the salon in Paris, in 1883, when we were there, it seemed as if onefourth of the paintings were nude and sensual, because it was said the Parisians demand such exhibitions, and they sell well. Does not the magnificent delineation of natural scenery, the noble portraits of the greatest of men, the vivid representation of historic events, the statues of orators, sages and patriots of the world, the touching portrayal of domestic bliss, of its sorrows as well as of its joys, the wedding, the the christening, the grave, the purely ideal conception of beauty, are these not all refining? Vice is also so graphically depicted that the dissolute tremble while they look. Men are to be pitied who sneer at art and lovers of art; they lose one of the most delightful enjoyments of life by not cultivating the love of the beautiful.

The people's taste should be cultivated by having an opportunity to see fine paintings from the best artists of Europe and America. Then the work in our art schools, exhibited free to the people at their spring exhibitions, is a

great educator, and people will soon. know better than to buy cheap daubs so frequently offered at auction, and photographs painted and offered as expensive water colors, and bought by the cord, as it were, because they are cheap. Patronize your home artist. He cannot work as he ought to work when he lacks means. He cannot attract your attention like a highwayman'; you must approach him, and recognize the value of his gifts.

ART IN CINCINNATI.

In looking for the influences which have directly and indirectly helped to secure for Cincinnati the means of culture in the industrial and fine arts, we find, as far back as 1838, there was established in Cincinnati the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts, having for its object the mutual improvement of its members in the various departments of the fine arts. The president was John L. Whetstone; superintendent, T. W. Whitridge; among its officers were James H. Beard, Miner K. Kellogg and others; its membership was made up of both artists and amateurs. The Western Art union was established in Cincinnati in 1847. "The object of this institution is the encouragement of the fine arts." Every subscriber of five dollars a year is a member for one year, and is entitled to a copy of a highly finished original engraving, etc. All the funds of the society, after defraying expenses, are devoted to the purchase of American works of art, painting, sculpture, etc. son was president.

Charles Stet

In 1854 an association of ladies was formed, called The Ladies' Academy of Fine Arts, which was formed under the earnest and intelligent leadership of Mrs. Sarah Peter (mother of Mr. Rufus King of Cincinnati).

Then the organization known as the "Associated Artists of Cincinnati" was instituted. The association opened its first annual exhibition in 1866-67, which was designed to further the interests of art and pave the way for the creation of a permanent art gallery. The president was C. T. Webber. Among its officers were T. D. Jones, J. Lucas Williams, William P. Noble, Henry Mosler, etc.

In 1868-69 "The Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts" was incorporated, with the object of cultivating the love of the beautiful and improving a taste for the fine arts. The first president was Hon. W. S. Groesbeck; officers, H. Probasco, George W. Nichols, Julius Dexter, Lewis E. Mills, Joseph Longworth, W. F. Force, C. T. Webber.

In 1874 the ladies of Cincinnati were called together by Mrs. General Noyes, centennial commissioner for Ohio. Through their efforts Cincinnati was represented in the display of women's work by a large exhibition from the School of Design. The amateur work in over glaze china painting by Cincinnati women was equal to any at the exposition. In January, 1877, Mrs. A. F. Perry was instructed by the women's centennial executive committee to prepare a definite plan to reorganize as an art association, and she read a paper giving an account of what had been