MICROFILMED 1985 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY GENERAL LIBRARY BERKELEY, CA 94720 COOPERATIVE PRESERVATION MICROFILMING PROJECT THE RESEARCH LIBRARIES GROUP, INC. Funded by THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION Reproductions may not be made without permission. THE PRINTING MASTER FROM WHICH THIS REPRODUCTION WAS MADE IS HELD BY THE MAIN LIBRARY "UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA 94720 FOR ADDITIONAL REPRODUCTION REQUEST MASTER NEGATIVE NUMBER 8. 02.2.9 AUTHOR: Wickson, Edward James, 1348-1923. TITLE: Utility of beauty in home and town... PLACE :[ Berkeley, Calif. ] DATE:L 1881 ] VOLUME CAL F $69 9S L BswS MASTER E NO. NEG. NO. 21219 F869 BSWS \ ~- oN Wickson, Edward James, 1848-1923 Utility of beauty in home and town; an address delivered at the annual meeting of the Berkeley Association for the Encourage- ment of Neighborhood Improvements, Berkeley, Alameda County, Cal, , July, 1881. [Berkeley, Calif. , 1881] [4] p. 25cm. Caption tide. l. 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WICKSON, Editor *“ Paciric RuraL Press.” Beautiful is Berkeley for situation, Beauti- ful are the hills which look down upon us; beau- tifnl are the waters upon which we look down. Beautiful are the adjacent lands—the wide plain southward, where, within a score of years, crouching oaks have grown to stately roof-trees, and miles of sandy waste have given place t. smiling gardens beside ro yal avenues—a land of oaks become an Oakland. Beautiful, too, are the views in distancespread, the far-off hills of San Mateo brought near by the clear winter air; the great city with ite count less windows all ablaze at morn, flashing back as to Berkeley the first rays of the rising sun, the hilltop signal fires heralded to Argos the return of the victorious Agamemnon; and with its myriad lights by night brightening the dark- est sky, as though Ceres was still marshalling her torch-bearers, searching for the lost Perse. phone in the Hades of the metropolis. Before us is the far famed Golden Gate, the ships of all nations plowing its blue waters by day, and its headlands jeweled at night with the beneficent gems, set for the guidance of ma riners. To the right is the outline of the coast mountains, clear cut against the evening sky— the reigning hight of Tamalpais drawing the royal purple over his wounded side—and still farther northward is the upper bay, its shores approaching each other, from our point of view, until it seems a majestic river flowing around picturesque islands, Beautiful is this quiet air unvexed by chilling breath of ocean. Beautiful too is the atmos- phere of taste and culture emanating fro.e this seat of learning which we have in keeping for the State, and from the homes of our citizens, and beautiful again are the objects which the society we honor to-day is striving for. Thus surrounded by beauties of nature of art and in. dustry, I t us endeavor to catch the significance of beauty— The Utility of the Beautiful. Metaphysicians, in their analyses of the bean- tiful are prone to give highest rank to that which is beautiful in itself and which wins ad- miration without suggesting uses: or adapta- tions. This is terme pure beauty, and there are other relative beauties of lesser rank. But Sir Wm. Hamilton authorizes our theme when he says what has been distinguished as depend- ent or relative beauty is no ing more than a beautiful utility or utilized beauty. An object may be beautiful apart from all consideration of the object it may serve, but when it is dis- cerned that it is also a means toward an end, there will be additional satisfaction in the ob- servation of ite perfect adaptation to its purpose. The usefulness of the beautiful may be dem- onstrated in many ways. Even the metaphysi- cian, who claims that beauty without the idea of use is the only pure beauty, will grant that pure beauty is of high usefulness to man in that its contemplation elevates his thoughts and tends toward the cultivation of taste, The theologian finds the beautiful in nature of tran. scendant utility when he weaves it into his ar- gument to prove the existence of design in na- tare. But it is not these lofty utilities which we seek to set forth. The office of the beauti- ful in the intimate surroundings of our lives is the theme which approaches nearest to idea upon which our work as a society is founded, and is most pertinent to the present occasion. Of what use 1s it, then, that we live in a beau- tiful place, and that we, as a society and as individuals, put forth efforts to beautify our surroundings? The Influence of Environment In the formation of pbysical and mental traits and characteristics has been often remarked by shrewd observers, and is of common accepta- tion. The dweller on the mountains is usually credited with having borrowed his stature from the peaks amid which he lives, strength from the mountain pine, and loftiness of purpose from the pure air of the higher altitudes, while the lowlands furnish a host of smaller men tre- mulous in frame and fickle in purpose, kept for a time above the level of the plain by gen- erous doses of quinine. Between these extremes of river bottom and mountain top the e are pre- ponderances of strength or weakness accordin to local surroundings or inherited conditions, Whether this a claim for influence in en- vironment be true or not, it is beyond question that the character of a home and its surround- ings has much to do in shaping men for success and for useful lives, or the reverse. A beautifal home is one of the best moral agencies in existence. It appeals alike to young and old. It shapes the dis. position and thoughts of the child, and it cre- ates an evergreen old age. Literature is full of tributes to lovely homes and their influences; and it is not in stately architecture or sumptu- ous fittings that the charm lies. The vine hung cottage has done more for humanity than the Alhambra; the neatly kept half acres of blade and bloom on the p'ains or hillsides have out- lived the hanging gardens of Babylon. The requirements of home beauty seem to be very simple, but they are imperative. Care and culture are uecessary, and neglect is fatal. Good nourishment and training are indispens- able. The affections must be freely bestowed, and devotion must be hearty and unstivted. And as we name the requirements, does it not plainly appear that they are called for alike in in what may be termed the externals and the internals of home-making How, then, can they be bestowed upon one and withheld from the other? Is not the influence irresistible that if our "habitations are uncouth, neglected and unclean, we sha'l be found also coarse in our manners, neglectful of our families and devoid of those graces of life which are the most precious gifts of enlightenment? It is true that in the con- test for subsistence which most of us are forced to wage, there is often little time or money at command for adornment and embellishment, and it is the saving clause in the argument that but little is required. I bave seen men going to their work with lovely rosebuds in their but- ton holes and neat patches upon their knees, and I have almost thought them twin orna- mente—each expressive of tenderness and de- votion. It is the glory of beauty that wealth cannot monopoliza it. It is free as air and it is as grand in its utility. Beauty in Towns and Villages. Pleading for the usefulness of beauty in in- dividual homes is but a step leading to an argu- ment for beauty in villages and their surround- ings. For villages are but groups of homes with the important addition of the space which lies between them. The village is the setting; the homes are the gems. There may be hun- dreds of beautiful homes and yet not a beautiful village; hence, there rests upon the villager a responsibility outside his garden gate. And if this responsibility is assumed and discharged in such a manner that glimpses of beauty greet the eye wherever it may turn, what is the use of it? The beauty of a town wins the love and loy- alty of those who dwell in it. It promotes fel- low feeling; it advances friendly intercourse; it ministers to the success of all those agencies by which the taste, morality and general cul- ture of the people are advanced. It brings the village into harmony with itself and with the 1atural beauties which surround it. It hight- ins the effects of all individual efforts at beau- iifying homes. Beautiful homes in a beautiful Tliage are “like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Beauty in suburban towns serves a special purpose. It draws humanity from the stifling vir of the metropolis into the sunshine of the sountry. Suburban residence gives rosy heeks to the children and brings radiant beauty to their mothers. And to the sires who pass to and fro it brings each day that peerless restorative—a change of scene and air. It is plain that for the well-being of the race und for the comfort of those who compose it, wnything which leads men to their gardens rather than their clubs, which gives the chil- dren clean dirt instead of street scrapings for their mud pastry, and which lifts the house- wife’s eyes from the backyard or front steps of ber neighbor to the hillside or the expanse of waters, is an agenzy for the elevation of charac- ter and of health. City and Country. The issue between city and country is an old one, and the country is late in choosing its best weapons. For more than a century the Eng- lish sovereigns fought the growth of London by decrees that people should live in the country, and still London grew. Even the Star Cham- ber could not stem the tide of seekers after city excitements and allurements. Most forcible acts were employed by the sovereigns to prevent the extension of the corporate limits of the city, and still the suburbs were gathered in. In vain did Elizabeth, James I and the Charleses forbid the erection of new buildings, for still new roofs appeared. Even satire was powerless, for a writer of the time says: “Everyone strives to be a Diogenes in his house, and an emperor in the strects; not caring if they sleep in a tub, so that they may be hurried in a coach; pinching many a belly to paint a few backs; changing their woods into wardrobes, their leases into laces, and their goods and chattels into guarded coats and gaudy toys.” Still the city grew until the writer was forced to exclaim: “Such is the deluge of building that we shall be poisoned by breath- ing in each others faces.” The improvement of transportation facilities, a better understanding of sanitary laws, and perhaps a more general appreciation of nature’s beauties, which is a mark of a more enlightened people, has accomplished in these later days what kings, queens and courts could not do 250 years ago, for now we see a constant escape of city prisoners to rural freedom, and a yearning for release among hosts who cannot break their shackles. To foster and promote this beneficent ten- dency nothing is so powerful as the beautifying of suburban towns. Men can be charmed when they will not brook commands ; they yield to persuasion when they grow more stubborn under ridicule. If they can look through avenues of trees upon a smiling hillside or upon the placid waters ; when they can stroll along neat side- walks and peep over well shorn hedgerows into lovely gardens, or roll their wheels over dust- less highways through parks fragrant with blos- gsoms and musical with the play of fountains; when they realize that a home-grown rosebud is a sweeter thing to wear than the merchandise of the florist, and when they are assured that they can carry photographs of four-inch straw- berries to demonstrate their horticultural suc- cess, then we may indeed achieve what royal mandates failed to accomplish. Results of Town Improvement. The results of the incoming of new beauty lovers to the neighborhood are many. Real es- tate advances, which satisfies those who own it, and the community in general, for advancing values mean growth, life, popularity, import- ance and the like, in the town, and every one feels his pride of home and its surroundings grow more intense. All the local industries are stimulated and merchandising is brisk. Thus the results of beautifying a town are shown to be most prac- tical, and if every local real estate owner and merchant should take a life membership in a beautifying association, and every day laborer should give an idle day now and then to carry- ing on the society’s work, they would promote their own interests and show an enterprising spirit at the same time. These deductions are merely records of experience in other towns where systematic efforts have been made at improvement, as in a score of villages at the East, and all these benefits will be realized here if the people recognize the utility of town beauty and work together for it, Aside from the benefits upon the people who are won from winds and fogs to the delights of our sunny hillside, and in addition to the ad- vantages to those who will find their property advanced or their business stimulated, there are other benefits which will accrue to every dweller in the town, and they, too, are of the most vital and practical character. The unsightly com- mons will disappear; stately mansions with their wide lawns and pretty cottages with bright little gardens will multiply. Such will be the general spirit of improvement, that no front yard will long be a cow corral. Narrow trails through stretches of ruts and rubbish will give place to well-graded walks beneath shapely trees. Then it will be comparatively easy to carry forward a system of sanitary drainage, which will be the surety of health toall. Then will the dust disappear, and the measured clat- ter of the hoofs upon the sounding roadways will be music on the evening air. The effort {or these material beauties will link residents In 8 community of interest and fellow-feeling Social intercourse will be promoted, and even- ing entertainments of the higher class will yield opportunity for recreation and culture. Public institutions, the library and the lecture room, will feed the hungry mind, and all agencies tending toward the promotion of the graces of life and the elevation of thought will be ad- vanced. The town will be better, and all will be better for living in it. i Improvement a Duty. To beautify Berkeley is a duty which should be cheerfully assumed. It isa disgrace to a town to be a blot upon a fair landscape. The more beautiful the surroundings the greater the need that the town should ba pleasing to the eye and gratifying to the cultured taste. No town around the shores of the magnificent bay of San Francisco affords so good a view of its beautiful waters as Berkeley. Travelers who have feasted their eyes upon the world’s most celebrated scenes, have stood upon the hillsides above us and declared the combined land and water view the finest their eyes have ever rested upon; not excelled by the Bay of Naples, which lovers of the beautiful cross oceans and continents to enjoy. It is recorded that those who visit the higher ground to secure an outlook over the lovely Italian waters find the rqualid and the loathsome inhabitations and life offending their sensibilities while they are seeking the picturesque and the beautifulin na- ture. It is within our power to prevent suck deplorable discord from lessening the enjoyment of those who come to gaze upon the grandest gift of the Pacific to California. We may show them harmony of nature and of life. We can demonstrate that our civilization is not an in- sult to the scenes which surround our homes, but by devotion to the truth in art in our build- ings, and their surroundings, truth to the laws of health in our cleanliness of dooryard and street, and truth to the economies 1n our thrift and epterprise—and in them all prove again that Brcanty is truth; truth, Fwool 8 END OF TITLE END OF REEL. PLEASE REWIND.