up than any art magazine America ever had." "He gathered around him all the leading artist photographers of the country, and afforded them the opportunity of becoming known by monthly exhibitions at the club-rooms. Everything praiseworthy in American photography is directly or indirectly due to him." "His best-known prints are 'The net-mender,' 'On the Seine,' 'Scurrying home,' 'The Savoy at night,' and 'Snowstorm on Fifth Avenue.' The latter, of which only half a dozen perfect prints exist (which have brought as much as $150), is a masterpiece and ranks with the best work of any other black-and-white process." Stieglitz and his followers (among them the German names, Gertrude Käsebier, R. Eickemeyer, and E. J. Steichen) work from a conviction that some effects can be accomplished in photography which are beyond the reach of painting. The members of this school work for the advancement of the artistic expression of photography, and devote their lives to this end.

Recapitulating briefly concerning the German influence on music and the fine arts in America, we note in the first place that the Germans have been responsible for the development of musical taste in the United States. This was true of vocal and instrumental music, and finally of the opera. In painting, American artists twice stood under German influence, once during the period of the Düsseldorf school, in historical and landscape painting, about 1840-1860, and again within the recent period of the ascendency of the Munich school, after 1880. Germans have taught American painters the technique of the art, just as in the department of music, and in America they hold a large number of the most prominent positions in American music and art schools. In sculpture, the popu

1 Hartmann, vol. ii, pp. 154–158.

larizing of the art through architectural decoration has been accomplished under the leadership of two Germans, Karl Bitter and F. W. Ruckstuhl. As masters in sculpture, William H. Rinehart, C. H. Niehaus, and a large number of others have created lasting works. The development of a taste and demand for sculpture in America is largely due to German influence. In architecture, the Germans have seconded the inventors of new forms, and some of the noblest structures, as Girard College, the United States Treasury, the Dome of the Capitol, the Congressional Library, the Union Station in St. Louis, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, have been designed by German architects. As illustrators, designers, and artistphotographers the Germans have also figured prominently.

CHAPTER VII

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCE OF THE GERMAN

ELEMENT

II. THE THEATRE, LITERATURE, AND JOURNALISM (A) THEATRE: Condition of the American theatre — The "Meininger,” and German methods of the stage - The Irving Place Theatre - Conried's visits to universities Schiller's "Maid of Orleans " at Harvard - College dramatics - American playwrights - Charles Klein - Favorable indications for the future.

(B) LITERATURE: German-American literature briefly considered — The eighteenth century - Pennsylvania-Dutch - Whittier's allusions to Pennsylvania-Germans Travel literature and fiction Poets and writers of the nineteenth century-Hans Breitmann's ballads - Representative American writers of German descent; Bayard Taylor, Joaquin Miller, Nordhoff, Timrod, Saxe, Wister, etc. - Influence of German romanticism and transcendental philosophy upon American literature in its best period. (C) JOURNALISM: Cartoonists: Nast, Keppler, etc. German newspapers; function; influence; statistics - German element in the American press German war correspondents - German owners of American newspapers.

A. The Theatre

Of all the phases of art cultivated in the United States, the drama stands lowest to-day. There have been notable performances by great actors, the equals, perhaps, of any in other countries; nevertheless in the dramatic art there has not been the same progress as in music, or the same good beginning as in painting or sculpture toward a development of taste for higher standards. When the American theatre-goer speaks of going to a "show," meaning a play, he unconsciously criticises the existing state of things. Spectacular exhibitions, with masses of performers, brilliant costumes, and magnificent scenery are created

to please or fill the eye, and, while there is a place for such performances, a taste that continues to be satisfied with mere display and bigness smacks of vulgarity. One is reminded of the vast jubilee concerts of Gilmore in 1872, with their twenty thousand performers, where music was visualized and wholesaled, but which we now set down as something overcome. There are certain conditions in America which check the development of better dramatic art. The theatre trust, stretching to the west as far as San Francisco and to the south all the way to New Orleans, like a great octopus, holds in its clutch the best playhouses of all the leading cities.' The effect is to destroy competition, to produce obedient, manageable artists, and to encourage mediocrity. Again, the starring system, so much in vogue in our country, exalts the individual actor above the purpose of the play or the genius of the dramatist. Our managers do not change their play-bills and the actors are therefore not called upon to exercise their talents in various rôles. They are like factory hands on piece-work, not masters of an art, but mechanical repeaters of some small section of the article to be manufactured. If some actor has succeeded well in a particular rôle he is generally doomed to play that kind of part all the season or all his life. He becomes neither a student of life nor an artist able to imitate the subtle idiosyncrasies of human personality. These are some of the manifest evils that produce the present low level of the American theatre.

In Germany, the home and refuge of the serious drama, the death-blow was dealt the starring system by the players of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, who performed be

1 In smaller cities, the one- or two-night stands, which lie along the routes of travel, the owners of theatres are also entirely at the mercy of the trust managers. The latter dictate what plays are to come, and opposition means ruin to the small city manager.

tween 1874 and 1890 on the stage of Germany, and exhibited their art also in London, Amsterdam, and St. Petersburg. The Meininger made their first appearance in Berlin in May, 1874, and by their effective ensemble revolutionized the methods of performing drama in Germany. The duke's troupe did not possess any luminaries equal to the many stars at that time casting their lustre upon the German metropolis. The critics commented upon this circumstance, and yet consented that the Meininger had produced an effect infinitely superior to anything that had been seen in Berlin that winter. The players were remarkable for harmonious equality of talent, simplicity, naturalness, and finish in execution. They were careful in their selection of plays of the lasting quality, and paid much attention to accurate detail in costumes and scenery. They did not produce a play for the glorification of any particular actor or manager, but they worked together for the most artistic interpretation of a dramatic masterpiece. The author was placed upon the throne and the actor became his servant. The idea of ensemble effect had been derived from the Wagner opera, where the equality of singers and orchestra, the equal coöperation of drama and music, had been enforced in the cause of artistic unity. Since the period of the Elizabethan drama, no nation has produced so many classical plays capable of being presented on the stage as Germany. National pride upholds the German theatre and makes of it an educational factor.

The Meininger furnished the example for all that is superior in German dramatic performances. Their methods. were consistently followed by but one stage in America, which has been called "our only high-class theatre." It

Norman Hapgood, The Stage in America, 1897-1900. (New York, The Macmillan Company, 1901.)