home gave and the influence it exerted can come only from a home in isolation; such life and influence can never come from the city home. This change from home life in isolation to so-called home life in the close proximity of the city marks a revolution in the tendency of family life in the South.

The loose customs of the city are conducive to divorce. When the Southern people lived on the farm there were few divorces, but in the Southern city to-day the divorce rate is large, and is on the increase. The South has a lower divorce rate than the rest of the country at the present time, but Southern cities are not far behind Northern cities in this respect.

The rural home of the South furnished the conditions for that seclusion and privacy without which home life is practically impossible. In the country home there was an abundance of useful, interesting, and inspiring work for all; and the character of the work was such that neither the wife nor the husband could leave their duties long at a time. These forces compelled them to make the home the centre of their social life; and so great were the seclusion and the interests involved that there was virtually no temptation for either the husband or the wife to become estranged from each other. On the other hand, everything tended to make them more and more dependent on each other as they grew older, and to engender in them a passionate love for their home. But social and economic forces are now working in the opposite direction in the city and are directed against the home; they are working powerfully for its destruction.

The present trend of life in the South must not be taken necessarily as indicative of the future. The transition from the country to the city has been very

rapid, and the change has been extremely radical. The conditions of life in the city are so absolutely different from those in the country that the Southerner has hardly had time to get his bearings and determine the real trend of his life. There is yet a very strong, conservative force, both in the country and in the city in the South, and it may be that a reaction from the new trend of things will set in before long.

PART VI.

THE ESTHETIC LIFE IN

THE SOUTH.

CHAPTER I.

PAINTING IN THE SOUTH.

IME was when drawings and colored drawings were the natural expression of man's thoughts: when he conveyed his ideas by pictures. Then language was developed and pictures were combined with conventional symbols to form writing; finally the symbols usurped the entire function of conveying ideas. But these symbols had to be learned; this writing could not be understood by the unlearnedso pictures were used to convey certain ideas and to teach definite lessons to the unlettered. There was, however, another use for pictures-they could give pleasure to the learned from an æsthetic standpoint; give enjoyment quite apart from any message they might have to convey. So pictures as expressions of emotions were developed.

Among nations where the written word was very generally understood pictures had the latter function almost entirely. And for the production of these a certain amount of leisure and culture had

to obtain. A people with great practical problems to solve; a public which could teach its lessons or express its emotions through the medium of writing, had no time or great need for paintings. The production of these for the æsthetic gratification of the painter and beholder must wait upon such time as gave opportunity for a widespread degree of general artistic knowledge.

Conditions Not Favorable to Artistic Development.

It is not to be wondered at that the Southern states have played, as yet, no great part in the annals of painting. That they have produced no great artist is also easily accounted for. Great men seem to be sent in answer to the needs of the times; the South has furnished such men at need. But in America we are still in the stage of development that demands leaders in the political, industrial and educational fields; social and economic conditions are such that the proper background for great art works is not yet at hand. This does not mean that we do not need artists; there is a crying need for them and each year finds the number growing. But their part is to raise the general standard of appreciation; to cultivate the public taste; to prepare the ground from which the great may spring. Each year finds them more numerous and better equipped; and as they develop they raise the public with them. As the general taste grows the ability of the artist to produce fine work grows. For without appreciation an artist cannot reach his full height. Until very recently conditions have been such that the artists have had to seek congenial fields abroad. This fact sometimes irritates the layman. "Why," he asks, "isn't America good enough for them? It's good enough for us." But

the layman does not realize that to produce great artistic works there must be a demand for these; in one way it is a mere business proposition. It is also much more. The artist must have a cultivated public-an appreciative public will spur him on; and he must be one of many striving toward the same goal. Without these sympathetic, stimulating surroundings he cannot exist as an artist. The history of painting shows scarcely a single instance of a man of note developing in loneliness. The great painters rise from among groups of men of high attainments; true of all men in all walks of life. Let the reader think of some phase of human activity with which he is well acquainted; he will find abundant proof.

So it is not to be wondered at that the South has not yet developed a local "school"; that her activities in artistic lines are small, or that her painters have usually sought other fields. A community with a certain amount of wealth, a society with a fair degree of culture, are necessary-and these have scarcely had time to grow, even in the most populous parts of America. In colonial days there was culture in the South and some little wealth; but too great a number of pressing political questions to allow of much interest in artistic matters; the settlements too small and isolated. During the first half of the Nineteenth century the industrial questions, beside the political ones, left little time for the cultivation of the arts, and since the war the conditions have been much the same. There has, however, been a rapid advance in recent years; the many earnest workers in the South are busy laying the foundation of general education and culture from which will rise worthy things. And to the artists working in such times all praise should be given. They are pio