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portance and value. While discussing this subject of cyclones and hurricanes, it is important to notice that they come in most cases from the ocean in the vicinity of the tropics. They are probably due to the conflict of the trade winds in the neighborhood of the equator. So far as our country east of the Alleghany Mountains is concerned, they originate in the West Indies, and in early summer, describing a parabolic curve, follow the course of the Gulf stream and the sea of Sargasso, and very seldom touch our coasts. In August and September, the region where they commence is farther South and the sweep of the cyclone brings it upon the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. In October they are generated

still nearer the equator, and moving Westwardly over the warm waters of the great equatorial currents, they enter the Gulf of Mexico and invade the Mississippi valley, which is a natural highway for storms. The New York Herald Almanac for 1873, published a "Hurricane and Cyclone Chart for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, compiled from the Signal Service Reports and the observations of the Coast Survey." Believing this may be of service to our ship captains and other officers of the Mercantile Marine, we give Marine, we give its directions and instructions. It is hardly necessary to say that they are but a very slight amplification of Mr. Redfield's instructions as adopted by Admiral Fitzroy :

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Whenever or wherever all these indications are found to storm of this sort-a cyclone-is impending, and that, in fact, the ship is already in contact with its outer margin, and that

occur simultaneously one may well take it for granted that a

it is time for the captain to immediately prepare and direct his vessel accordingly. If in the Northern Hemisphere, the first thing to be done is

mine carefully by the compass how the wind veers, or wheth

to bring the ship by the wind on the starboard tack, to shorten sail and deaden her way as much as possible; then deterer it veers at all. The wind of a hurricane being always gyrat ing, an hour or so at the most will in all probability be quite If the wind be found to veer by compass, from left to right, or to haul, then keep the ship by the wind, or a little free, on the starboard tack, and under as much canvas as would ordinarily be carried at any other time with the same force of wind, and continue to keep her by the wind, or a little free, however much the wind may change to the right, until the barometer begins to rise and the wind itself cease in violence. There need be no apprehension of the wind shifting in any other direction than to the right, with the ship situated and If the wind be found by compass to veer from right to left or to back, then run the ship off at once, with the wind on the starboard quarter; note immediately the course that has to be steered to do so, and stick to that course, no matter how much the winds may change to the left, as long as needs be or as long as you can safely, owing to the vicinity of the land, or until the barometer begins to rise and the wind cease in violence. A ship situated and acting upon these directions

long enough to indicate its course and the change of wind.

acting like the one in point.

will always find the wind to back.

If the wind be found by compass not to veer at all, but to remain steady at one particular quarter, then run the ship off at once (vicinity of land permitting), with the wind well aft, on the starboard quarter, say so as to bring the wind within be

ing two points dead aft. Note immediately a course to be steered to do so, and stick to that course, no matter how much the wind may change to the left, until the barometer begins to rise and the wind to cease in violence. A ship situated and acting like this will always find the wind to back, and may, like the one alluded to in the preceding paragraph, by doing as directed, readily run herself into a gloriously fair wind, and thus turn the storm to a great advantage. In each of the before mentioned (three) cases the ship, after following out the directions prescribed, on finding the barometer to rise and the wind to cease in violence, may then be kept with the wind abeam on the starboard' tack for the Northern Hemisphere and the port tack for the Southern

blow. No great while will now elapse before the center or

Hemisphere, irrespective of the direction from which it may vortex will have passed entirely by you, and at a comparatively harmless distance, and thus all danger of any moment will have completely ended; and in each of these cases, too, by adhering closely to these directions, a fair wind and fine weather

may be confidently expected in a large majority of cases.

Always adhere to the rules so distinctly laid down.

In the Southern Hemisphere the port tack is the preferable

one, and bearing up with the wind on the port quarter or beam should be resorted to.

Remember the wind of a cyclone in the Southern Hemis

phere whirls exactly in the opposite direction to those winds

of the cyclone on the Northern Hemisphere.

Now, keep in mind this opposite whirling motion, and manage your ship accordingly.

Remember also, in the Northern Hemisphere the right hand Hemisphere the heaviest winds are in the left hand semicircle. Two laws, deduced from long and careful observation and mathematical demonstration, have been proved to govern the course of the winds, and thus afford to meteorologists some of the data for determining the probable weather of the following twenty-four hours.

semicircle contains the heaviest winds, while in the Southern

The first, known as Ferrel's Law from its discoverer, Mr. William Ferrel of Cambridge, Mass., though adopted as a generalization by Mr. Redfield from the first, is: that in any area of high pressure, the winds in the Northern Hemisphere move from the centre outward, but are constantly deflected toward the right hand in an angle of from 30 to 60 degrees as they move forward; that in areas of low pressure, the winds blow toward the centre (inward) of the area, but are constantly deflected in an angle of from 30 to 60 degrees toward the right; and that in the Southern Hemisphere this motion is reversed, the currents being deflected in both cases toward the left. This is due to the influence of the earth's diurnal rotation.

The second law, first enunciated by Prof. Buys-Ballot, Director of the Meteorological Observatory at Utrecht in Holland, in 1860, is as follows: "If any morning there be a difference between the barometrical readings at any two stations, a wind will blow on that day in the neighborhood of the line joining those stations, which will be inclined to that line at an angle of 90 degrees or thereabouts, and will have the station where the reading is lowest on its left hand side.

The time cannot be far distant when the observations thus daily recorded, as well as those which accumulate from the weekly and monthly reports, from the occupancy of stations in Alaska, in the Arctic regions and from the logs of our merchant and passenger ships, shall be utilized in the construction of an Isometeoric Atlas of our own country, and eventually of such an Atlas which would cover in its deductions the whole surThe discovery of atmospheric waves of cold, sweeping over vast areas, and of magnetic waves accompanied by magnificent auroral displays, both definitely ascertained during the autumn of 1872, give great encouragement to the hope

face of the globe.

that such an Atlas would be of inconceivable advantage not only to physical geography but to agriculture, sanitary science, the route of epidemics, and the vast and varied interests of commerce. In Solomon's time it was a proverb, that "he that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap;" but the time has already come when the prudent agriculturist will observe both the winds and the clouds, or the weather estimates deduced from them, alike in his sowing and reaping.

THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA,

FROM 1780 TO THE PRESENT TIME.

CHAPTER I.

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. HORACE WALPOLE says, in his "Anecdotes of Painting in England" (writing in 1762): "As our disputes and politics have travelled to America, is it not probable that poetry and painting, too, will revive amidst those extensive tracts, as they increase in opulence and empire, and where the stores of nature are so various, so magnificent, and

so new?"

These lines were penned, perchance, in grave prophetic faith, but it may be that they were only idle speculations-a play of fancy, meaning nothing. Certain it is, that were the critic ever so much in earnest, very little could he have expected the full and noble response which so short a period would make to his query.

Little could he or any one have foreseen the rapid growth of these "extensive tracts" in population and in every phase of material life; still less the wonderful strides which they have made in all branches of mechanical and industrial art; and least of all, their achievements in the higher and aesthetic arts of design. Little could he have dreamed that within a period seemingly insufficient for the construction even of the rude foundations of empire, our country would have reached that point of refinement and intellectual development which gives it, in ample store, its own literature and its own arts-both with a strong and peculiar individuality of character and life.

ers who, quickly succeeding them, fairly and burns with such pure and ever-growing surely lighted the lamp of art which now brightness.

The earliest of these pioneers, whose name has been preserved, was John Watson, a native of Scotland. He crossed the seas and set up his easel in Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, in the year 1715. In this little port, which was then thought destined to be what the city of New York is now-the commercial emporium of the country-Watson painted portraits, such as they were, through a long life. He appears to have had plenty of "sitters," and to have grown rich upon the fruits of well-employed industry; but we can gather no intimations of the state of the popular taste at that time through the medium of his works, inasmuch as none of them now remain for our inspection. Watson was buried about the 22d of August, 1768, in the old church-yard of his adopted village, at the venerable age of eighty-three years.

Our next pioneer was John Smybert, a stronger man, much, than Watson, and one who, though he painted no pictures to be treasured in our galleries, yet left footprints of good incentive and example, which we may clearly trace beneath the subsequent march of greater gifts. Copley, though but thirteen years of age at the time of Smybert's death, confesses indebtedness to him and his works. So also does Trumbull, who at one time painted in the apartments he had occupied, and in which The only artists in America in Walpole's many of his pictures still remained; while time were a few strangers-Englishmen for Allston is thankful for the advantage he enthe most part-who had wandered hither in joyed in the permission to copy a head quest of a fortune which their very humble which Smybert had executed after Vandyke. talents had failed to win at home. They did Smybert accompanied Bishop Berkeley to little or nothing toward the development of America in the year 1728, at the age of the public taste, and left no works to honor forty-two. Like Watson, he was a Scotchthe future; though they may, perhaps, have man, and like him, again, he pursued his served, in some measure, to open the path craft in the colonies with gratifying financial for the distinguished group of native paint-success. He lived in Boston in high public

favor until 1751, leaving behind him many portraits of the distinguished characters of his time.

Nathaniel Smybert, a son of John Smybert, followed his father's profession worthily in Boston for a short time, and, according to the opinion of cotemporary critics, gave promise of more than ordinary talents. No record of him remains beyond the meagre facts here mentioned, and the additional one that he died early.

While the Smyberts were planting the seeds of art in Boston, there was in Philadelphia a Mr. Williams, an Englishman, remembered gratefully by West as the man who awakened his love of pictures by lending him books and by showing him the first works in oil which he had ever looked upon. During the same period, Woolaston and Taylor were also in Philadelphia; a Mr. Hesselius was at Annapolis in Maryland; a Mr. Theus in Charleston, and other laborers were in Virginia.

Besides the foreign adventurers here spoken of, there were a few native artists scattered over the country during the anterevolutionary period of our history. It is hardly desirable to recall even their names, or to add to our list of the yet earlier strangers; since, despite the service their little light may have done, in the then deep darkness, not one of them all possessed more than the most moderate talent, and not one will be remembered excepting in the way in which they are now so briefly referred to that is, in consideration of the initial times in which they chanced to live. The birth of American art was not in any portion of our colonial epoch, but singularly and felicitously enough, was in that day of happy augury when our country itself sprang into life, and started upon its conquering course of national development and power; and with equal strangeness and equal felicity, the very beginning of our individual existence as a people produced, on a sudden, fullgrown artists of first-rate genius, as it did Minerva-born statesmen, soldiers, and philosophers.

chair of the English Academy, and enjoying the most distinguished consideration, the patronage, and the personal friendship of the very monarch against whom his countrymen were waging angry war.

It is, then, with Benjamin West, and with the birth of our country as an independent nation-about a hundred years since, in 1772-that our story of American art properly and prosperously begins. We shall, however, say but little of West, since the space that has been allotted to this subject does not afford room for an extended notice of any one. Though we may rightfully honor him as the father of American painters, and may write his name first on the long catalogue of eminent laborers in the noble field of art which we now possess, yet, the fact that the greater part of his professional life was spent in England, and that his chief success was won there, places him, in one sense, among the painters of that country, rather than of this; just as the life-long residence among us of a foreign-born artist may make him ours, instead of his own countrymen's.

West was born in 1738, in Pennsylvania, as we have already said, near Springfield, Chester county. His parents were Quakers, and their habits of life, together with all surrounding circumstances, were such as to discourage rather than foster a predisposition toward the study of art. The bent of the boy's mind was, nevertheless, early and powerfully manifested. The sight of Williams' pictures inflamed his youthful predilections to such a degree that, in want of better pencils, he manufactured a supply from the stolen fur of his mother's favorite cat; in want of subjects, he, while yet a child, seized upon his infant sister sleeping, all unconscious, in her cradle; and in want of pigments, he borrowed ochres of the Delaware and Mohawk Indians, and indigo from the maternal laundry! He studied after a while in Philadelphia, and subsequently painted portraits in New York. At the age of twenty-one he went abroad, and after a tour through the art cities of the During the progress of our great revo- continent, he established himself in London, lutionary struggle with the mother land, and where he afterward chiefly resided, rising at the time of our successful emergence from rapidly into popular favor, until, upon the that trial, Benjamin West, born in the forests death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first of Pennsylvania, was reaching the highest president of the Royal Academy, his posihonors in the art world of London, sur-tion as the head of the English school was passing all native competitors, becoming the affirmed by the high honor of his election to successor of Reynolds in the presidental the vacant chair. This distinguished position

artist.

he filled with great dignity until his death, Lyndhurst, of England, was a son of this on the 11th of March, 1820, at the advanced age of nearly eighty-two years.

West's fame was won chiefly in the noble field of historical painting-a department which his brother artists of America have not continued fittingly to cultivate; though one in which they cannot, in due time, yet fail to distinguish themselves no less honorably than they have already done in landscape and portraiture; so rich and boundless are the themes at their command, and growing with every passing year yet more beautiful and noble in aspect.

Among the chief productions of his skilful and most industrious pencil, we may mention the Battles of the Hague and the Boyne; the Death of General Wolfe; the Return of Regulus to Carthage; Agrippina Bearing the Ashes of Germanicus; the Young Hannibal Swearing Eternal Enmity to the Romans; the Death of Epaminondas; the Death of Chevalier Bayard; Penn's Treaty with the Indians; Death on the Pale Horse; and Christ Healing the Sick. Many of his works are now in America; among others, Death on the Pale Horse, which is in the galleries of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia; and Christ Healing the Sick, also in Philadelphia, in the Pennsylvania Hospital, to which it was given with noble generosity by the artist himself.

In the same year in which West was born in Pennsylvania, John Singleton Copley, another distinguished man in the earlier days of American art, appeared in the city of Boston. The one, like the other, after following his profession at home for some time, went to London, and there continued to live and labor for the rest of his days. The simultaneous appearance of these two gifted men, at this early period of our country's progress, and in sections of the Union then so far separated, was, as Cunningham says, when alluding to the circumstance-most "noteworthy." Copley was occupied for the most part with portraits, though he made successful incursions at intervals into the domains of history. One of his best works in this department of the art, and that to which he first owed his fame, was the large canvas representing the Death of the Earl of Chatham. Copley died in 1815, five years earlier than his confrère, Benjamin West. Many of his pictures are now treasured in the galleries and in the private collections of Boston, and in other parts of the Union. Lord

In 1754, just sixteen years after the birth of West and Copley, Gilbert Stuart, of Rhode Island, came upon the stage, the earliest of that gifted line of portrait painters whose works have placed this branch of the art as high in America as in any part of the old world. Stuart, with Trumbull as a companion, studied under West in London, where he afterward painted successfully, and in due time rose to great eminence. Unlike his distinguished predecessors, West and Copley, he returned after a time, to his native land, and after some years practice of his art in Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston, he died in the latter city in July, 1828, in his seventy-fifth year. His name is familiar to the public at large, through his great picture of Washington, which he repeated for various societies and state legisla tures, and which is spread over our land in every style of the graver's art. He painted noble portraits of many other of the distinguished people of his time-from presidents to private gentlemen. His works are cherished among us as master-pieces and models, exerting still, as they have ever done, a marked influence upon the character of American portraiture. The especial characteristics of his style were a marvellous freedom and boldness of touch, a wonderful freshness and fulness of color, and a truth of character which placed the very soul of his sitter before you "He in the most striking individuality. seemed," says a cotemporary writer, "to dive into the thoughts of men-for they áre made to rise and speak on the surface;" and Sully is reported to have remarked of one of his portraits: "It is a living man looking directly at you!"

Stuart was a man of eminent social disposition and abilities, a famous wag and humorist, fond of a jest, and overflowing with anecdote. Innumerable amusing illustrations of this trait in his character, sprinkle and enliven the recorded and remembered records of his life.

Another pupil of West's, at this period, was Robert Fulton, who was born in Little Britain, in the county of Lancaster, Pa., in 1765. Fulton commenced the practice of art in 1782, at the age of seventeen, but continued it only a few years, being more powerfully led toward those scientific studies to which his genius was, as the end proved, better adapted; and from which sprang that

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