Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1878 — Beauty and Art. [ARTICLE]

Beauty and Art.

It has been often said that beauty is a mere question of taste, and the remark is truo, although only up to a certain point. In matters relating to art the taste most certainly has to be cultivated. It is only in the privileged few that it reaches the point whore exquisite pleasure is produced by gazing upon a cracked Chinese Mandarin, minus his nose, or an old oil painting representing some of the saints, elaborately dreesed in royal robes studded with innumerable gems,., engaged in earnest conversation with very substan-tial-looking angels, ungracefully poised upon clouds on the tops of their heads. It is a most fortunate thing that there are a ‘few men and women endowed with the taste to thoroughly appreciate these magnificent creations of genius. They form a sort of school in which the more ignorant of their species may learn what they should and what they should not admire. The untrained mind of a child shows from what a state of dense ignorance the artistic sense has to be lifted to attain those sublime heights we have mentioned. “It seems,” said a little girl of ten to her mother, after looking at some socalled objets Wart, “that everything that looks ugly is pretty.” This remark plainly shows the advisability of submitting one’s ideas of what is pretty to those who have made themselves, or think they have made themselves, capable of judging. Of course it is very humiliating, after having bought and paid for what you think a very pretty water-color or plaque, to be told by a high-art friend that your money has been thrown away—your water-color is by an unknown artist, and your plaque pretty, perhaps, but modern. You feel ashamed of your ignorance, and secretly resolve never to buy another ornament, or express an opinion on the subject. And yet you cannot help thinking that nobody ever remarked that your taste was bad either in dress, equipage or amusements; and why should you not have enough natural taste to judge whether a picture is well drawn and colored, even if it is by an unknown artist, and a plate pleasing to the eye, though not ot old Nankin? If these sticklers for art would acknowledge frankly that they have formed a school, and that successfully, in which a fictitious value has beer, placed upon certain antique articles, whether handsome or ugly, and that as long as that value lasts it is the best policy toinvest one’s money in these articles, their remarks would be reasonable; but to tell though never having possessed a blue and white plate, l that an ornament he or she has chosen is ugly in itself because it is not old, and that a picture is in bad taste because the artist is not an R. A., is an affectation bordering on the ridiculous.— London Week. Two old Texas ranchers, who had just helped bury a neighbor, were talking about religion, and one asked the other how pious he thought it was possible for a man to get in this world," if he was in real earnest. “Wal,” said the other, reflectively, “ I think if a man gets so’t he can swop steers or trade bosses without lyin’, ’at he’d better pull out for the better land afore he has a relapse.” Prejudice often rales In the physical treatment of Babies. They are allowed to suffer and scream with Pain from Colic, Flatulence, Bowel Disorders, etc, when some simple, reliable and safe remedy, as Dr. Boll’s Baby Syrup, would give alipost Immediate relief and perfect ease to the little sufferer,