Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE ORACLE. 157 without which he had made? Inquiry was useless. The man and the position met at last. John Hay’s final opportunity was at hand and he grasped it without hesitation. No wonder now that John Hay dared to lead the nation into a new epoch; no wonder now that the nations of Europe look on apprehensively while, under his guidance, we take our first strides as a world power. Well might Germany rage because John Hay said, ‘China shall not be divided.” Indeed the raging did little good. The integrity of China was secured. John Hay had decreed it. Well might Russia roar because John Hay said, “The Open Door shall prevail in China,’ and did the roaring do much good? The ports of China are open to the world. John Hay had de- manded it. With the right always on his side, John Hay has dared all the powers of Europe, and they have quailed before him. It is not reck- lessness nor is it audacity; it is a firm courage and an implicit faith in the triumph of the right, an appreciation of the advantages of clean diplomacy over foul treachery. Thus in John Hay we see the height which a humble American citizen may reach; not through luck, not through double dealing, but by plain, honest, hard work, and by seizing each opportunity as it comes. And now let us thank God for John Hay, and pray that He will spare us for many years the life of this true, this ideal American. II. THE MISSION OF AMERICAN ART. VAN WYCK BROOKS. HERE is no other phase of National Life which so generally embodies and so accurately expresses the National characteristics and ideals as the Nation’s Art. Fe Italy, with her acutely artistic temperament and her passionate fer- vor, presented in her Art the opening scene of modern civilization. Germany followed—primitive, uncouth, profound. And every other race placed in the History of Art the symbol of its national character. Murillo typifies Spanish Art in the dusky, black-eyed signoritas who were his conception of the Madonna. Every nook of thrifty, home-loving, practical little Hol- land is illuminated by the brush of a Brouwer. All the polish, the dainti- ness, the worldliness of the court of Louis is pictured on the canvases of Watteau. And always last in a question of sensibility, dear old England,

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156 THE ORACLE None of these. It is a man, a product of the American nation, a descendant of the tillers of the soil, a result of modern education. Not a god but a gift from God; not a hero of old but a hero of the twentieth cen- tury. A man whose only qualification in the beginning was an ability to grasp opportunities; a man whose only title in the end will be “A per- fect diplomat.” From the time that John Hay left college, he began to improve his every opportunity. In the beginning of his career, he met Abraham Lin- coln, and set to work to make himself an invaluable part of Lincoln’s life. John Hay began to study law. He soon stopped, to study men. He made himself familiar with all the details of the great Lincoln-Douglass contest. He became an absolute necessity to Lincoln and it was as Lin- coln’s Assistant Secretary during the trying years that followed that John Hay obtained the broad foundation for his knowledge of statesman- ship which he has exhibited in later years. He had desired to undertake a life of public service, but motives which were known only to himself held him back; yet when the war was ended and with it the life of his President, John Hay burned his bridges behind him and entered the consular service. He served successively at Paris, Vienna and Madrid, staying in each country only long enough to obtain a thorough knowledge of its people and policies and never losing an opportunity to broaden his knowledge of statecraft. He had studied the foreign policy of the country from without and now he returned to study it from within. He first got in touch with the nation through newspaper work and soon he accepted the position of Assistant Secretary of State. He mastered the details of the administration of the nation’s foreign af- fairs, and then he could safely feel that he was prepared for whatever re- sponsibility the nation chose to place upon him. The nation did not see fit to use him for fifteen years, but he was there, ready, with lamp trimmed and burning. Thus, when President McKinley wanted a man for the most important consular position, he put his hand on John Hay; and John Hay again grasped his opportunity, and again entered into the struggle of dip- lomatic life. As Ambassador to England, he measured his wits against the keenest statesmen and politicians of Europe, and his reputation still stands where he, himself, made it; for from that time he is known as “America’s most polished diplomat.” When at last the portfolio of State was vacant, but one name was mentioned to fill it. Who was prepared better than John Hay? Had any- one made that careful study of the diplomatic service from within and

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158 THE ORACLE hearty, fox-hunting, honest to the core, glows from the rosy cheeks of a Reynolds portrait. Further back, before our modern civilization, we remember Greece —the race-name that stands for everything lofty in ideals. And after we have felt and thought a great deal about the broadness, the Christianity of Greek culture, what do we find embodies and expresses it all? A Greek God—a Greek God as a Phidias has imagined it for us. His Art executes our conception. | From all the civilized races of antiquity we have heirlooms of sculp- ture and building, as the only tangible memorial of their existence. So we see that pre-eminently, indication of character has been the peculiar func- tion of Art. In modern times, it may be that Painting with its own deli- cate attributes of color and shade expresses the feelings of our more compli- cated life with greater accuracy than any other of the Fine Arts—even than Poetry. For, if we believe Macaulay, Poetry is essentially primitive, and de- clines as civilization advances. Certain it is, that the infancy of the World produced a Homer and a David, and equally certain it is that a Phidias and a Raphael came by Evolution. The difference lies here, that whereas Poetry is the unhindered voice of the soul, in Art the voice of the soul speaks through the instrumentality of the hands. Mere speech is primi- tive, and needs no instruction, but the hands need training and the skill that comes only with Time. In Art, too truly, “the spirit is always willing but always the flesh is weak.’ And so in Art we see a parallel incarnation of human nature, ever striving to represent, to live, what it feels to be right— the spiritual, imperfectly seen, guiding the blind, endeavoring, unskilled hands of will. And when we realize how vital is Art to a nation’s develop- ment, and equally how accurate it is as an Indicator of the inner workings of national life, what must we fear and hope for the future of American Art? That an artistic revolution is in progress among our people is made evident by a thousand Signs of the Times. There is no longer a market for gilt vases. Our schools, once timbered barns, are now picture-galleries. This means that a certain part of the American people realize that children must be made to know something about Art. Whether these people are actuated more by a sense of obligation than by a spirit of sincere convic- tion is another matter. Very few of us can feel Art. But we all know that to be properly balanced we ought to. Taste is a thing which once lacked can never be acquired. But in the rough it can be developed, and the broad- cast spread of Art works it rapidly accomplishing a development.