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already reigning over the distant hills; of morning mists illuminated in glory; of peaceful, new-fallen snow under softly veiled skies, or of the golden haze of summer sunsets. M. Monet's décomposition du ton gives results which he who runs may read. You see a haystack that seems to glow in the sunlight; you go nearer, and see that this effect is got by painting an irregular prism along the edges of the stack and suffusing the shadows with purple. In another picture, the same means a prism along the edge of the stack serves to give the effect of crisp, clear winter sunlight striking the yellow straw. But most wonderful of all is the way in which the painter manages, by mere pigments put on canvas, to make you feel all the heat and harmony and happiness of summer. By the side of achievement such as this who would cavil if the zeal of the pioneer sometimes carries the painter too far?

Claude Monet is a poet; everything he touches in his inspired moments seems to give out its inmost tone of beauty. He is a born colorist, enthusiastic and inspiring. But above all he is an artist, -one who sees things as a whole, and paints them with that subtile concentration of all means of expression toward one end which is one of the most precious qualities of the true artist.

Synthesis, too, has its heroes, artists to whom it has been a vital principle, not a mere formula, and who have won great and deserved success outside the narrow confines of the coterie; and I should delight to linger on the powerful qualities of the art of M. Degas, on M. Forain's penetratingly clever and artistic interpretations of some phases of contemporary life, on Miss Mary Cassatt's truly womanly studies of mothers and children, or felicitous, free translations of the exquisite synthetic art of the Japanese. But space is limited, and

1 See, for further illustration, the remarkable article by Madame Blaze de Bury in the

so I prefer to pass on at once to some unknown phases and obscure martyrs of impressionism, which have a pathetic interest of their own.

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The formula of synthesis, or the reduction of drawing to the necessary, the vital lines of the movement, cannot lay claim to the same originality as that of the décomposition du ton. Not to mention the Japanese, who have carried the synthetic treatment of line to such high and singular excellence, or the Greek vase-painters, or Giotto, or countless others, all children and primitive artists are synthesists after their fashion, — a fashion that seems to meet the high approval of some of the present synthétistes, to judge by specimens of their work. In others, you perceive landscape, with the element of light left almost entirely aside, synthetized down to the dusky dull sign-painting of our grandfathers' times, or scenes from contemporary life to grotesque caricatures. There is a good deal of affectation and coterie fashion in this, and of that curious allegiance to definite formulas, no matter how cramping, which mingles so strangely with the true artistic faculty in many French minds. But there are also, in many painters, the most undoubted sincerity, a profound feeling for the charm of mystery, and that longing for and reaching after the deeper spiritual truths of life that are thrilling through many a corner of Paris, undreamt of by the foreigners on the boulevards and the frequenters of the light theatres. Many an imaginative truth or curious suggestion looks out at you from among the exaggerations or mannerisms of products of l'art hiératique or l'art symbolique, whether enveloped in dusky mystery or wedded to luminism in visions of splendor.

One man in particular has the faculty of inflaming your imagination, till you feel ready to declare him one of the Contemporary for November, The Spiritualization of Thought in France.

bringers of heavenly fire. And yet his art is mad. Your first impulse is to laugh at these staggering cottages with flaming red roofs, or at this blaze of rockets and Catherine-wheels, supposed to represent night. But your laugh dies on your lips; you go on gazing, stupefied yet interested; and when you at last leave the exhibition, you do not know whether you have been looking at the pictures of a madman or not, but you have forgotten all the other pictures in the room. Such was my first impression of Vincent Van Goghe's work, and I was not astonished to hear that the man had committed suicide. I sought every opportunity of seeing more of his art, and thus one day I went to the studio of M. Gauguin, in one of the distant unconventional quarters of Montparnasse, where some of his pictures were to be seen. It was all very remarkable. Among things that were not merely exaggerated, but violently distorted, there were some splendidly conventionalized flowers, gorgeous sunflowers, and huge white roses on an apple-green background. There was an Alpine pass, absurd in color and handling, in streaky waves of dark paint, yet with more of Dante's Inferno and the awesome weirdness of desolate Alpine passes toward twilight than many better pictures. There was his own portrait, drawn with a firmness of hand which accentuated every angularity of that powerful skull and bony face, while he had chosen to give himself a green background that threw the most uncanny greenish reflections over the sandy-blond face. It is the face of a maniac or a criminal, with the eyes of a longing soul.

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Another day I was taken to Montmartre, to the little shop of Le Père Tanguy, full of the works of the néo-impressionnistes, and several Van Goghes among them. Many were exaggerated, every one was sincere, and two studies of figures were superb. One was a sower of the most splendidly energetic move

ment; another an old man weeping, bent down over his hands in a perfect abandonment of grief.

Le Père Tanguy is himself a martyr to the cause of néo-impressionnisme. His shop was very difficult to find, as he is constantly shifting his quarters, from inability to pay his rent. No one knows what or where he eats; he sleeps in a closet among his oils and varnishes, and gives up all the room he can to his beloved pictures. There they were, piled up in stacks: violent or thrilling Van Goghes; dusky, heavy Cézannes that looked as if they were painted in mud, yet had curious felicities of interpretation of character; exquisite fruit-painting by DuboisPillet, which showed how he could paint when he chose; daring early Sisleys, that made the master of the shop shake his kindly head at the artist's later painting; and many others, all lovingly preserved, and lovingly brought out by the old man. Le Père Tanguy is a short, thick-set, elderly man, with a grizzled beard and large beaming dark blue eyes. He had a curious way of first looking down at his picture with all the fond love of a mother, and then looking up at you over his glasses, as if begging you to admire his beloved children.

His French and his manners were perfect; and when he took off his greasy cap and made his bow, it was with all the grace and dignity of the old school. He has gone on for years finding the impressionists in colors, etc., and the artists I was with told me, after we left the shop, that many a time had he been sorely in need of money and had gone to remind some artist of an outstanding bill, but found some excuse for his call and come away again without mentioning it, because it seemed to him as if the artist were in straits.

I could not help feeling, apart from all opinions of my own, that a movement in art which can inspire such devotion must have a deeper final import than the mere ravings of a coterie.

Cecilia Waern.

LEGAL DISFRANCHISEMENT.

THE necessity of removing from the ballot box all taint of corruption has long been felt, and has been well met by the adoption, on the part of several States, of the Australian ballot system. But while this secret ballot reduces to the minimum the possibilities of bribery, intimidation, and all other forms of illegal disfranchisement, there still remains the unsolved problem of legal disfranchisement: we still lack that method which will give to the people of each and every State, at all times, representation according to the votes cast.

The avowed purpose of our political system is to secure the rule of the majority; but, though having that end in view, we have enacted laws which defeat the very object sought. Congressmen are apportioned among the States according to their respective populations; but, for the election of these representatives of the people, the States have been divided into districts corresponding to the number of men to be chosen, in each of which a plurality shall elect. The possibilities for mischief in such a method may, perhaps, be made most apparent by submitting a hypothetical case. Suppose a company of forty-nine members; of these twenty-five constitute a majority, and may direct affairs. But forty-nine being an unwieldy number, they agree to elect a managing board of seven, which will allow one representative to every seven members. Patterning from our political system, they separate themselves into seven sections, each of which shall have one representative on the board. As four members in a section are sufficient to elect, the whole board may represent but twenty-eight of them; and as four constitute a majority of the board, its course may be determined by the representatives of only sixteen of the members, the remaining thirty-three hav

ing voted against the four men who control the action of the board.

To make the supposition still more pertinent, let the company be given a political coloring. Suppose twenty-five of the members to be protectionists, and twenty-four of them free traders: the former, having the majority, make up the sections in such a way that one has six free traders and one protectionist, while the other six sections have each three free traders and four protectionists, which will result in the election of a board of management composed of one free trader and six protectionists. This order must remain until the free traders get a majority on the board. They may make converts among their opponents thus: The solitary protectionist may be won over, but though this action gives the free traders a majority of the members of the company, it does not alter the makeup of the board. In addition to this, the four protectionists in each of two other sections may be converted, but the others prove to be incorrigible. The free traders now have thirty-three members of the company, but they can elect only three representatives, and hence cannot control the action of the board. Of course, when they do get control, they are likely to reconstruct the sections in such a way that their opponents will be disfranchised. Thus it will be seen that, under a system fair and honest upon its face, it is possible for a faction to embrace 42.8 per cent of the members and yet have absolutely no representation; and it may grow to have 67.3 per cent of the membership without being able to get a majority of the representatives on the board.

That this hypothesis, gross and absurd as it appears, is not more extravagant than the fact may easily be demonstrated. The apportionment of 1880 gave to

Kansas seven representatives, which is at the rate of one for 14.3 voters in each hundred. In 1882, the Democrats of that State polled 32.2 votes of every hundred cast for Congressmen, but failed to elect one; in 1884, they mustered 37.2 votes of every hundred cast, but it availed them nothing; in 1886, they rolled up 40.3 votes of every hundred polled without breaking the solid Republican delegation; and in 1888, they polled 31.9 out of every hundred votes cast, with the same result. Not since Kansas was admitted to the Union have the Democrats of that State had a representative in Congress, though they have polled at the different elections from thirty to forty of every hundred votes cast. Minnesota tells the same story. There being five representatives from that State, twenty votes in each hundred should have one; but the Democrats, in 1882, cast 31.9 in every hundred, and in 1884, 40.9 in every hundred, without effect; in 1886, owing to the curious make-up of these same districts, they elected two representatives, with a vote of 38.8 in the hundred; in 1888, a vote of 41.2 in the hundred availed them nothing.

That this result is not due to climate, altitude, or the innate depravity of the Republicans, Kentucky or any other Democratic State can testify. In 1876, the Republicans of Kentucky polled 34.9 votes of every hundred cast for Congressmen, but failed to elect one of the ten Congressmen, though ten votes in the hundred should have been sufficient to elect one. The same party, in 1878, east 28.7 votes of every hundred, without effect. Since that time the Republican vote has ranged from thirty-two to forty in the hundred, securing them sometimes two, but more often one representative. In 1890, the Republicans of Missouri polled 39.8 per cent of the total vote, but failed to elect one of the fourteen representatives from that State : almost forty out of every hundred men voting cast their ballots for Republican

candidates, and the whole was thrown away, though a trifle over seven in the hundred should have been sufficient to elect one. The Republicans of Indiana, in 1890, cast 45.8 votes in every hundred, and elected two of the thirteen Congressmen ; 45.8 per cent of the vote secured them 7.6 per cent of the representation. In 1888, the same party in Michigan, with fifty per cent of the vote, had eighty-two per cent of the Congressmen; in 1890, it cast forty-five per cent of the votes, and got but twenty-seven per cent of the representation; with a loss of five per cent of the vote, the party lost fifty-five per cent of the representa

tion.

It is needless, however, to multiply examples. State after State may be found where a party polling from forty to fifty per cent of the total vote cast is wholly unrepresented in Congress. There can be no question of the fact of legal disfranchisement. It must be borne in mind that these outrageous results are not due to ballot-box stuffing, "counting out," or intimidation; they are from the vote as cast and counted and returned without question. They come of the law, have their being in the law, and are perpetuated by the law.

The reason of this, as in the hypothetical case of the company, is to be found in the arbitrary division of the voters into districts. The remedy is to be found in abolishing the districts, and electing the representatives from the State at large by means of the quota system.

When Thomas Hare gave to the world the quota system, a method by means of which representation must always be in proportion to the votes cast, it was hailed by such publicists as John Stuart Mill as the long-dreamed-of ideal. But the ordinary mind is so limited and circumscribed that it is very slow to conceive of the perfect when the ideal appears in any form not absolutely simple, and for that reason, if for no other, Hare's the

ory of proportional representation has not made the headway that Mill anticipated, and which of right it should have made. It is possible, however, by means of a slight modification of Hare's scheme, to secure the practical results of proportional representation, and, at the same time, have a plan so simple that all men may readily understand it, and one which will serve till the growth of popular intelligence has attained a stage admitting of the ideal.

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With this method, any number of ties may put tickets in the field, and each ticket may contain any number of names up to the whole number to be chosen. The voter selects his party ticket, which he votes for as a whole, but designates thereon the candidate whom he desires most to see elected. When all the ballots cast in the State for Congressmen are counted, the whole number is divided by the number of representatives to which the State is entitled, which gives the quota or number of votes necessary to elect one. Each party vote is now divided by this quota, which gives the number of representatives to which it is entitled; the successful candidates being those who stand highest on their respective party tickets, as expressed by the voter when he cast his ballot.

The late congressional election in Missouri will serve as an illustration. The total vote for Congressmen was 463,043, which, being divided by fourteen, the number of representatives to which that State is entitled, gives a quota of 33,074. The Republicans polled 184,337, which, divided by 33,074 (the quota), gives five full quotas and a remainder of 18,967; the Democrats, having cast 253,736, have seven full quotas and a remainder of 22,218 votes; the United Labor party polled 23,492 votes. As there are still two representatives to be chosen, they will be taken from the parties having the largest unfilled quotas, the Democratic and United Labor parties. This gives a congressional delega

tion of five Republicans, eight Democrats, and one United Labor man, instead of the fourteen Democrats, as at present, thanks to the political pens into which the minority parties are put to prevent their members from helping one another.

By means of this method, the voter may not only choose his party ticket with the full assurance that his vote will not be thrown away, but he may choose among the names which his party presents without in any way affecting the strength of his vote. And should none of the tickets in the field represent his ideas, he and his fellow-spirits may present one of their own; knowing that if they poll enough votes in the whole State to fill one quota, their candidate will be elected. The charge of complexity, which was so persistently urged against the Hare scheme by superficial critics, most certainly will not hold here; while a few years' experience with this simple and effective method will prepare the people for the more perfect scheme. Nor can the charge hold, at least in this country, in regard to Congressmen, that it sacrifices local representation. To tell the Kansas or Minnesota Republicans, or the Missouri or Texas Democrats, that, should the congressional districts be abol ished, they would lose their local representation would be absurd. They might well ask what they had to do with representation of any kind. Besides that, if opportunity were given the people of the country to nominate and elect the truly representative men, as such a plan most certainly would, it would soon be found that the legitimate duties of Congressmen embraced the conservation of the people's rights as a whole, rather than the appointment of petty politicians to local offices, and the voting of improvements for rivers which the surveyors cannot find.

There are, as in the State of Kansas, instances where the members of the minority party, though it contains a large

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