USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 83
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Samoan flag in the center, and on each side of the boat handkerchiefs with bright borders were tied in the branches, and filled in between with boxes of matches, cans of meat, biscuit, etc. In the bottom of the boat was any amount of taro, casks of beef, large tin boxes of biscuit, roast pigs and fowls, fish, bananas and cocoanuts. Next came a native leading a handsome white heifer followed by a crowd dragging by ropes two canoes lashed together, and filled to the brim with native food, all sing- ing as they came. Then came nine men, followed by others, bringing on a kind of frame a cooked hog, weighing at least three hundred pounds. And so they came until the ground was covered with gifts. They said there were as many as one hun- dred casks of beef, weighing from thirty to fifty pounds each, and two hundred cooked pigs of different sizes. One chief alone brought six hundred taro ; another three hun- dred taro, seven casks of beef, yams, etc. After all had arrived and been called off, the principal men and women of the villages withdrew to a neighboring bush to com- plete their toilet and put on the finishing touches to their gorgeous array, a toilet con- sisting of the best which they can secure in the way of a lava-lava of fine mats or painted tappa. The chiefs are particularly dressed in full war paint, a gorgeous dis- play of head-dress of human hair standing two feet high above a band of shells around the forehead. In the center of the hair plume is fastened a round mirror, sur- mounted by a bunch of long red feathers of the boatswain bird. Their bodies above the waist are bare, shining with strongly perfumed oil (well rubbed in by the women), the inevitable necklace of scarlet pandanus hanging to the waist or below, while over the lava-lava is worn a girdle of streamers made from the leaf of the fou tree. The taupou, or " village maid" (always a girl of high rank), who invariably accompanies the chief of the village on state occasions, is, like the chief himself, bare to the waist, well oiled, her beautifully rounded shoulders shining under the tropical sun, dressed in her finest mats, while her head-dress is of distinguishing height and magnificence. At the side of each division marches and dances the grotesque funny man, a cross between a clown and an American drum-major, at whose antics and jokes all are expected to laugh. The passing of the column occupied an hour or more. On the arrival at the Malie the chief tu-la-fa-li (the talking man), steps forward, throwing his fly-trap (an article used to drive away mosquitoes and flies, which are unusually numerous in Samoa), across his shoulder, and leaning with both hands on his long staff (which is his badge of office), proceeds to deliver a lengthy speech, in which he usually apolo- gizes for the poverty of the country, etc. Then other tu-la-fa-li make their speeches very similar to the first, a proceeding much enjoyed by them, as all Samoans consider themselves born orators, and then comes the ceremony of dividing all this food among the different chiefs. How this is accomplished is astonishing, for it has to be done with great care as to quantity, certain portions belonging to certain ranks. We were told that some of their wars were started by the unequal distribution of food on these occasions. There were at least twenty-five hundred natives at this talolo, and it was exceedingly interesting.
The taupou, or village maid, is a peculiar Samoan institution. She is chosen by the old women, and is generally a daughter by birth or adoption of the chief, and must be beautiful and exceptionally attractive. She has certain responsibilities. She leads the siva, or native dance, presides over the house provided in every village for the stop- ping place of visitors from neighboring islands, is conspicuous on all ceremonial or state occasions, has several less prominent sisters to do her bidding and to follow her wherever she goes, and several older women whose special duty it is to see that she is not led astray, for a taupou must be perfectly chaste and pure. She is eligible to marry a chief who seeks her for her attractions and dowry of fine mats. Of late they are quite ambitious to marry a white man. Suega, a taupou we knew quite well, much prefers to dress like European women, and is very much averse to appearing in public dress "a la Samoa," but the requirements of the Samoans in that regard on certain ceremonial occasions are inexorable, and must be complied with in order to retain caste or position.
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Sunday is a great day for all Samoans. They sing hymns from early morning until late at night, with the exception of short intervals of sleep. Their first service is at 6:30 in the morning, when all go. men, women and children. About half an hour before church they begin their preparations, and if there is not room to dress in the house, the outside will do just as well. Their best things are kept in small chests at one end of the house, or rolled in tappa or mats, and placed on the roof beams of their houses. The men high in rank, as a rule on Sunday, wear clean white lava-lavas and white shirts. They always carry their Bible and prayer-book carefully wrapped in a clean pocket handkerchief. In the case of a chief a boy follows behind, carrying the chief's Bible. The native pastor marches ahead, always carrying a large umbrella and a lot of books, followed by a crowd of his people. Ile is usually dressed in a white lava-lava and white coat, bare-footed and bare-headed.
In conclusion I am moved to say of the Samoans, as a people, that so far as I am able to judge their advancement from barbarism to their present comparatively happy condition is due entirely to the missionaries.
As Samoans they are, as I have said, in a physical point of view, good specimens of men and women mentally, while they are probably wanting in ability to expand or grow to any great extent, still there is no stupidity in the Samoan. In other words, as Samoans, they may be said to be a success among the many races. An effort to make them other than as they are, or to advance them on a higher plane, would in my judgment be unsuccessful.
Speaking of Samoa as a race, Sir Robert Stout said: "Their development must 1 be slow; any attempt to force them, or to make them like Europeans, must end in the destruction of the race. *
* Physically they are a magnificent race. No one can see them walking without being struck with the gracefulness of their carriage It is better than any race I have ever seen, white or colored. In point of intelligence, they are at least equal to the Maoris, and morally their notions and practices are such as would tend to their preservation. They are a kindly and hospitable people, good tempered, not given to quarreling, and pass their lives easily and happily. In my opinion it would be a crime to allow such a race to be destroyed."
THE ART OF ELOCUTION .* By MISS ANNA MORGAN.
A sign of the times, which should be encouraging to all teachers of elocution, is the progress of woman in public affairs, and the consequent necessity that they should become proficient in public speaking.
I have had the pleasure of hearing the discussion of Woman's Progress in various departments of art, and have been much pleased with the natural and unaffected demeanor of most of the ladies who have participated. Conspicuous among them has been the President of the Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary- Mrs. Potter Palmer. She has addressed many crowded and distinguished audiences with as much ease as if she had been in her own drawing-room. Now, to con- vey this impression, she has been obliged to use a certain measure of art. It has been necessary for her to speak with a fuller volume of tone than that used in a drawing-room, and she has accomplished this with- out appearing strained or artificial. The great beauty of her manner was, that she was entirely womanly, not a vestige being about her of aiming at masculine methods. It has been delightful to me to see this; for I know it means a newer and sweeter fashion than the manner which previously prevailed among certain MISS ANNA MORGAN. woman lecturers and woman lawyers. Several, espe- cially of the latter class, I have heard speak with the swelling port of masculine pomp and masculine assertiveness. In the woman speakers of the future, the assumption of virile methods will be in bad taste.
The voice of woman is less strong than that of man-a less perfect instrument for addressing audiences-yet it may be made effective by judicious training. To make it a more perfect organ, to give its possessor full control of it, will be the
proud office of the art of elocution. If it is not so robust as the male voice, we have one consolation: In the laws of acoustics there is one which is, that a sweet sound is carried farther than the rough and rugged one; that the soft and stealing notes of the flute may out-travel on the wings of air the explosion of a cannon. The penetrative quality of every woman's voice may be improved; every woman can be taught to stand at ease, to speak with composure and to judge the objectivity of her own voice, to know its extension-in other words, to feel within herself whether she is clearly and distinctly heard in all parts of the hall. Elocution will not make women orators any more than it will make them actors; it can not confer brains, nor in a great measure impart that good taste which is the fragrance of the individual soul; but it can take that disordered instrument, the body, and tune it.
Miss Anna Morgan was born in Fleming, N. Y. Her parents were Allen Denison Morgan and Mary Jane Thornton Morgan. She was educated in Auburn, N. Y. She has traveled over Europe and quite extensively in America. In personal appearance she is commanding, handsome and graceful. Miss Morgan is an elocutionist and philanthropist. Her principal literary work is " An Hour with Delsarte," published by Lee & Shepard, Boston. Her profession is that of teacher of elocution and dramatic expression. Miss Morgan is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Her postoffice address is Room 80, Audi- torium, Chicago, Ill.
*The address here presented consists of extracts from one delivered before the Woman's Congress, under the title, "Some Modern Tendencies of the Art of Elocution."
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Ex.Senator John J. Ingalls, in an article on " Oratory " contributed to a Chicago newspaper, referred to the art of elocution in terms of condemnation-terms which we, who profess the art. have long ago come to expect from those who examine it superficially or judge it by its failures Said the ex Senator of Kansas: " No speaker eminent at the bar, in the sacred desk, or on the platform, observes the rules which the elocutionary teachers of ambitious and aspiring youth inform their pupils arc indispensable to eloquence." The public speakers who do not observe the fundamen- tal rules of elocution are hopelessly bad in their delivery, and they are valued for other gifts than that of expression. These men do not ascribe their success to the faults that have hindered them; they know that intellect and imagination have triumphed in spite of a muffled monotone, an indistinct enunciation and a laborious delivery. Their efficacy as speakers would have been greatly increased had they been properly trained in clo- cution. The positive philosophy of this century has effected all the arts, and particu- larly the art of expressing the mind through the body-the art of elocution. Look at literature in all its phases, and literature may be tersely defined " the expression of life." Both in our own country and Europe the imagination which creates is gradually giving way to the inquiring scientific mind which analyzes. To illustrate this idea is the purpose of Mr. W. D. Howells' latest work, " Criticism and Fiction." Realism is the direct result of the positivist philosophy. This realism is carried to such an extent, especially in French and Russian novels, and in the art of acting, that extreme realism is described by one class of critics as naturalism. I have no intention to go into a literary discussion, though literature is moving on parallel lines to the art of expres- sion. I am anxious, however, to dwell on the naturalistic impulses that are now actu- ating the world of acting-impulses which must communicate themselves to the world of elocution, students and teachers; impulses with which we ought to be in active sym- pathy if we are to keep abreast of the art progress of the nations.
" All art," said Mr. Nelson Wheatcroft, " is nature better understood." A child having no mannerism-that is, I mean, petrified peculiarities-has no occasion to be taught elocution, especially if it be in a good school of acting. I can easily see that teaching might check the originality of that child. It might give her self-conscious- ness, that unpardonable sin which so many of us older people frequently commit, that fault from which no work or study will ever completely free us. Now, a child brought up on the stage might become a great and unaffected actress, other things being equal. Miss Terry, Mrs. Kendall, and several other of our actresses were brought up in this way (Joseph Jefferson and Ristori are also examples ), and in naturalness they are unsurpassable. Signora Duse's life was like theirs, only that her parents and grand- parents were actors before her, and her aptitude for the boards (not speaking of her particular genius) came as naturally as a young duck's inclination for water. The teaching of pantomime should precede the teaching of elocution. Take a young woman of eighteen or twenty; she can not speak or walk or stand with the natural- ness of a child of six or seven. Elocution takes her, and if it fulfills its duty that young woman is given freedom where she is constrained, grace wherein she is awk- ward, is taught to breathe instead of choking herself; she is not taught new or arti- ficial habits, she is only taught to rid herself of false ones. If she is a diamond she will then begin to sparkle; if she happens to be a common bit of clay she is a little better fashioned, but intrinsically not more valuable than she was before.
"What is elocution?" said Miss Cushman to an aspirant to the stage who asked for advice on elocution. "I don't know what it is," said the great actress; " no one ever taught me elocution. God gave me a mouth with which I can make a whisper heard in the end of the largest hall; then what use have I for elocution?"
Very true; elocution had nothing to teach Miss Cushman, though she had much, no doubt, to teach elocutionists; but how many actresses in her profession could truth- fully repeat her words? The exception proves, it does not disprove, the rule. Blind Tom needed no music-teacher, but the number of music-teachers has not been dimin- ished since his phenomenal precocity astounded the world.
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A name that attracts as much undeserved ridicule as elocution itself is Delsarte- ism. People seem to regard it as a series of gymnastic exercises. This, of course, is not its definition. The system which François Delsarte tried to formulate and left unfinished was the expression of the emotions through the body. What Lindley Murray was to English grammar, such was Delsarte to the art of expression. The great Frenchman has revealed to us much about the body, the wonderful complex organism through which the Ego or the spirit manifests itself; but on the side of the soul so infinite is the speculation that François Delsarte, even if he had lived to carry out his system, would have been incapable, I think, of formulating anything approach- ing an exact scientific system. The reader or the actor who is educated on Delsartean principles is necessarily no more self-conscious than a writer in the process of com- position is handicapped by knowing the rules of syntax. Thousands of good actors will live and do without bothering about Delsarte, just as Robert Burns sang without troubling himself about grammarians, but this reasoning is no argument either against Lindley Murray or François Delsarte.
In nothing was the naturalism of Signora Duse so apparent as in her economical use of gestures, which one would imagine would be voluminous in one of the Latin temperament. It seems paradoxical to say it, but it is a fact that this actress was even true to nature in a certain awkwardness in moments of grief. The unimpeachable truth of the attitude was their vindication. The modern tendencies in the art of expression are to the closest naturalness attainable without flatness, to suggestiveness rather than to literal expressiveness, and to hold to the exact truth in preference to any scheme of decorative beauty. This is equivalent to saying that these tendencies are, first, naturalness; second, naturalness; and third, naturalness. In the beginning of dramatic art in Greece men walked on stilts, spoke through instruments that magnified the voice, and wore masks that exaggerated the human features. The history of the art from that day to this has been the gradual approach to nature, until now the art of conceal- ing art seems almost to be identical with nature.
Declamation-old-fashioned declamation-has no longer any place in the artistic economy. It is out of harmony with our time and our institutions. Though declaim- ing has gone out of fashion the charm of the sweet voice of the accomplished reader will never become obsolete. More may be left nowadays to the imagination of the auditor than in former years. It is now especially important to suggest the subtle beauties of a poem or a chapter of prose-those beauties which would escape the cas- ual reader, who voraciously devours the sense.
But it will not be impertinent, I hope, to commend to teachers, who deal largely with the poets, to take a course in prosody. To anyone with a taste for rhythm it is a knowledge which is easily and even pleasantly acquired. Many of us neglect the rhythm and the rhyme of poetry. In reading verse strictly in accordance with sense and punctuation many reciters, destitute of poetical sympathy, commit a sacrilege the enormity of which they can not appreciate. Pity is that the reading-desk, which has done so much to refine public taste and to minister to the intellect more directly and more exclusively than did the stage, should now be obsolete. Let us hope that it is only in temporary eclipse of public favor, and that when this day of follies and trivial- ities has passed the reading-desk will once more emerge to shed on the world its mild and beneficent influence.
ART-ISMS. By MISS ANNETTE COLE.
"Isms" and "idiosyncrasies " are not synonymous terms, and yet for the past century, especially in art expression, any erratic or revolutionary idea has received the appellation of an " ism." When the human mind became unshackled in the great upheaval of universal freedom, we find, particularly in the theological world, that thought moves in concentric circles, animated by a strong initial or projective force, and this central idea was denominated an " ism." Constant evolution of thought changes the ideal or standard. So creeds wear out or beconie de mode. Art canons are also very transitory in their nature and formula, requiring very close observation to keep pace with the latest expression. The question is asked, Why should we be troubled with so many perplexing isms? Or is there a logical, historical and chronological develop- ment, so we may grasp the significance of these seemingly obscure, indefinite terms which, like the will-o-the-wisp, are ever cluding our mental grasp. The reply is in the affirmative. It is not necessary to go farther back than the beginning of our century to compass the thought or begin the study of the isms of modernite. We can not philosophize deeply upon the causes which introduced the new word Roman- MISS ANNETTE COLE. ticism. Politically, in this nineteenth century move- ment, man asserted his freedom as an individual in proportion to the idea of liis own responsibility, and also his liberty of interpreting life after his own methods, which changed the whole current of thought and action and revolutionized social and intellectual life. Hence Individualism is only another expression for Romanticism.
Germany led the van in the literary world, particularly in the novel, poetry and drama. Nerder was a reformer, but Goethe, influenced by the subjective philosophy of Fichte, most emphatically announced the individual. Then England followed, and Burns, Scott and Shelley opposed the classicism of Addison, Pope and Johnson. In France, the reign of Napoleon and the Revolution burst the bars, and the people opposed king-craft, convention and tradition. "Every man can be a law unto him- self," was the spirit which now animated the thinking world. Victor Hugo was the great leader in France, although Madame de Stacl and Bérange: forecast the change. No other canon of criticism was tolerated than this: "The work, is it good or bad?" Art reflected more intensely the spirit of the age in her representations and interpre- tations. Romanticism in art was a reaction against the formal and cold classicism of the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the fossil ideas of Mediævalism. In 1812 the German artists, Cornelius, Overbeck, Veit, Schadow and others, impelled by the new impulse, went to Rome and formed a brotherhood, and in conscientious isolation
Miss Annette Cole is a native of Johnstown, N. Y. Her parents were Frederick S. Coleand Phoebe Cole, of Connecticut. She was educated in the Albany Normal School, New York, and in Cambridge, N. Y .; has traveled in England and Scotland, and extensively on the Continent. Her special work has been in the interest of art, literature, history and music, devoting twelve years to the study of art, and firmly believing that the multitude must be brought to art, since art can not reach the multi- tude. She has written many works in manuscript. Her profession is that of art teacher. In religious faith she is Methodist Episcopal. Her postoffice address is No. 4204 Calumet Avenue. Chicago, Ill.
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remained unshorn, and thus received the title of Nazarenes. They were also called " The Church Romantic Painters " and " The Old School." They even donned their kitchen aprons to attend to the culinary department. In their art labor they wrought diligently. For what? To purify art by drawing their inspiration from the revered old masters of Italy; and, returning, they transplanted the seed in the soil of the fatherland, and not only revealed to it the significance of natural life, but imbued it with a moral element which still dominates German art. This religious phase of Romanticism found expression in England under the name of pre-Raphaeliteism, which was a conscientious striving after truth and purity of conception. Entirely idealistic in aim but realistic in method, evincing absolute fidelity to detail. But the strong individuality or personality of Millais, Rosetti, Collinson, and one or two others, did not allow them to remain many years an organized brotherhood. Who shall say pre-Raphæliteism has not served to perpetuate sincerity and a nobler aim in art, and also a more thorough mastery of technic?
With one notable exception, we must go to Europe to study the master-pieces of that noted group and their followers. In France, Gericault and Delacroix were the exponents of the heroic phase of Romanticism, while Scheffer alone represented the religious. Delacroix was the most strongly individual and dramatic in his concep- tions. He drew his inspiration from Dante, Byron, Scott and Shakespeare. The school of Fontainebleau or Barbizon is another marked phase or illustration of Ro- manticism. We all know how sincerely Diaz Dupre, Daubigny, Corot, Rosseau and Millet sought to reinvest landscape with truth and feeling, and if we carefully study their pictures we can not fail to observe how marvelously each has impressed his own individuality and character upon his work. But now the vision of the artist grows more sensitive and acute, and he says, "This world is visible to me only in proportion as I annihilate myself and seek to interpret life just as I find it," and thus we have Realism. Themes may be chosen from life, and the whole aim may be to render objectively, but how can an artist sever his individuality and his art? Contrast Cour- bet with Meissonier, Morot with Fhermitte, LePage with Bonnot, and decide as to the possibility of the proposition. After due consideration is Realism more than a training- school for Idealism? Many critics of the present time think we ought not to employ the word " idealism," arguing that there is, and never was, but one true ideal, and that is in Greece. This is philosophically true; yet every age has its ideal, or may have. There are artists gifted with strong imagination, their minds teeming with poetic con- ceptions and subjectively must find utterance. If art is imagination, then it is the province of the idealist to create ideal standards of excellence, beatific visions of truth and goodness. Quite relevant to this thought is the present innovation upon the usual conventional manner of representing Christ. Is it sacrilegious to represent the Re- deemer of the world as a Son of Man, clad in ordinary garments, walking and living among men? We will not assume the responsibility of approbation or condemnation. Every heart must pronounce its own dictum. Perhaps Skredsvig, the Norwegian artist, in his work, entitled "The Son of Man," has struck a keynote to a chord which shall long vibrate in the heart of mankind. What is more pathetic than the absorbing devotion of the woman who feign " would lay all at her Master's feet," expressed in the act of bringing her rugs and adjusting them with the utmost care, and then bordering the way His feet must pass with vases of precious flowers. Yes, the simple faith of those humble people is sure of a benediction. Idealism should, we believe, receive not only the sanction but the enthusiastic approval of all who sincerely desire the elevation of mankind.
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