THE SUXDAT OIIEGONTAX, PORTtAKD, MAT 31, 1914,
IN ONE OF OREGON'S DREAM-NOOKS IS THI1SJKERSV RETREAT
Mrs. Alice Weister, Clubwoman, Builds Up Scenic, Unconventional Rendezvous for Creative Artists of "Pen and Brush on Sea-Kissed Shores of Nehalem Bay.
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BY ANNE SHANNON MONROE.
A GOOD many years Ago Edward
MacDowell. the American com
poser, began to suffer from tbe
gTOwins pains of a great conviction
that the creative artist, however sin
cere ardent and inspired, was too
shackled In a city to do the best work
that was In him. As head of the music
al school of Colombia University, New
Tork, he came directly in touch with j
hampered senius; he had a first rate
chance to know. In his own youth he
had been impartially drawn to litera
ture, painting: and music. His early
expression in all three arts save prom
ise of rare hlnh achievement. In later
years, forced by the demands of prac
tical life, ho concentrated, finding his
chief expression through music, both
composition and Interpretation.
- But forever to him the arts were
closely allied, and In his estimation the
creative worker, whether employing
clay, paint, words or music had the
one problem to face:- How to get his
time, undisturbed, for his work; how
to . escape for long periods from the
preying torments of the material
world when his inner self might be
at peace and the divine fire have' full
possession.
Mr. MacDowell began to work out
the problem for himself. He purchased,
about 20 years ago, an abandoned farm
in New Hampshire, near Peterborough,
and with his own beautiful artist's
bands, reconstructed for his own use
the old farmhouse: He tramped over
every foot of the place and reveled In
the discovery of relics of first occupa
tion. He listened to- the voices of na
ture in the deep woods and got inspira
tion for his songs of New England.
As time went on and he Improved
the place, getting better buildings, a
beautiful grassy lawn, a flower garden
and a gardener to attend it. a stable.
and so on, he began to feel again the
encroachment of artificial life he
could hear the lawn mower. One day
wandering dreamily through the fir
weods, he came upon a lovely knoll
hidden from sight, or sound of man.
ana looking off on to Mount Monad-
nock. The moss all about was deep
and there was no sound when he
stepped. Birds twittered and hopped
about In that happy freedom, of young
wild things that have never known
molestation.
The spot was his and God's. Rever
ently he withdrew, following a little
footpath out of the fir forest, but the
next day he had workmen busy in hiB
retreat. A one-room log cabin was
built, as like the woods as a bird's
nest is like the tree bough. A piano
was moved in. There Was & fireplace,
an easy chair and ' Edward Mac
Dowell. It is today as he closed tbe
door on it the last time some five or
six years ago when he left our world
for that great eternal Sanctuary to
which his woodland cabin was but a
vestibule. I think all of us who have
been permitted to enter the little cabin
feel that something of his beautiful
personality still lingers in the lovely
spot
Problem Loag Studied.
Long before his death he had wor
ried over the problem of making such a
retreat for others. With his matchless
genius and bis superb love of life, he
still thought most keenly and constant
ly of this one problem of making sim
ilar retreats for men and women who
could not make them for themselves;
making them to meet the creative art
ist's needs early, before he is worn out
and past his best possibilities with the
struggle of life. While all the civilized
world. It would seem, was engaged in
trying ' to-take care of the defectives
and the unfit, no one was endeavoring
to foster the fit.
Every demand of modern life tends to
smother genius. It has to prove itself,
always, before it gets attention. No
one seems concerned over giving this
rarest and most delicate and most lm
portant of all the flowers in God's
great human garden breathing space
and room to grow till it shall become
strong and sturdy. Should we see
gardener treat his real garden in this
way we would speedily can tne man
insane a gardener who would leave his
choicest, rarest plants to weather the
winds and the storms while he care
fully tended the weeds and the culls.
We would know that the result would
be a garden, eventually, almost worth
less, all weeds ami culls. But with
people we seem to miss this point. We
can recognize a hungry body so much
more quickly than a starved soul. And
so Edward MacDowell. with small
means, undertook to meet the problem
for a limited number. His widow has
made it her life work since the great
man's death to carry out his plans.
And so today from 15 to 20 creative
artists from the great cities pass the
Summer months at the MacDowell farm,
working in an ideal environment, at a
nominal cost. There are several
"scholarships" which provide the Sum
mer there each year for-a few workers,
free. Also work is given on the place
in assisting at various duties, to those
who could not be there otherwise. ,ach
worker is provided with a cabin in the
woods, out of sight or sound of human
activity, and here in the deep woods
where do one will intrude, where no
voices will confuse the voice that
speaks to the soul of man, each, may
follow out his dream to the end. j
'Workers' Honrs Undisturbed.
I was a guest at the MacDowell farm
one bummer; again in the Cats kills, 1
was a Summer guest in another group
of artists working on a similar basis,
at Byrdcliffe. Mr. Whitehead, the own
er and inspirer of Byrdcliffe, is an
Englishman, an art patron, and pos
sessed of immense wealth. It is his
pleasure to use his money to prepare
what he considers an ideal environment
for the artist-worker of today. He
has built the small cabins here and
there over his mountain, and each
worker has ' undisturbed hours from
daylight till dark. All social activities
take place at the library and big gen
eral living-room where every one is at
borne and welcome. There Is no visit
ing at the cabins. Work is the idea.
This second experience but empha
sized what was proved to me in the
first: the absolute Tightness of the
principle back of the enterprises. The
creative worker has the hardest prob
lem pn earth to find a satisfactory
plaee in which to do his work. If you
pause to think about it, you will realize
that there is no spot on earth) that is
open to people in. general where one
could be protected from distractions.
At all "resorts" of Summer people, the
motive is play and amusement, and the
result is noise and confusion. If you
hie away to where there are no peo
ple, you will not find desirable accom
modations. If you attempt to work in
your own home among your own peo
ple, your mind will be continually dis
tracted by memories of family duties.
with interruptions and demands that
become positive, torture when they drag
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listen, to walk or to swim, or to do
anything under the sun but what the
mood inspires. If a guest wishes her
days alone, no one will disturb her.
She may with perfect ease of mind
wander off alone along the beach, of
by the winding paths, or climb Neah-kah-nie
Mountain, fahe may dream to
her hearts content of the wonderful
old legends that abound, of the early
history that has left Interesting foot
prints, or Just be idle and invite ner
soul.
It is a place of retreat from the
world of fashion, convention and de
mand, a retreat where no worldly
"musts" drive and no questions call
halt."
The clubhouse has had but ode sea
son, and the members of the psychol
ogy circles were the principal guests;
but I am sure Mrs. Weister and her co
psychologists are far from any wish to
make the clubhouse exclusively for
psychologists. Tour kinship with Its
spirit will be an admission card.
one from his work. . Tbe only practical
answer to the creative Worker's prob
lem is a place of isolation far from
town, away from the daily demands of
present existence. - A nook in a time
less world and a dateless fraternity.
Often when in the beautiful New
England hills, so rounded and green
and pretty, a vision would come to me
of Oregon's vaster grandeur. Often
when looking across their dimpling
knolls, so finished and soft and tame
and gentle, I would bave a sudden vis
ion of Oregon's rugged mountains and
torrential streams and vast cathedral
like woods. Gathering dainty violets,
I recalled' our ferns, waist high,- our
wealth of - greenery. -. And often and
over I thought,- if Oregon were not so
perfectly situated for a great commer
cial .future, what an ideal dreamer's
paradise I What a place for poets and
Ringers! What a land for the painterl
What -subjects for the sculptor I What
romance and beauty and fullness of life
for the writer! A -country that knows
not anaemia, with a past as heroic as
anything New England can offer, but a
past knitted fast into -a stirring present
and- going on toward' a more stirring
future. A country -where you have no
application for the t word "decadent."
where everything is going onward and
upward! -
When ' you -write a New England
story, you must dip your brush into
her. quaint and heroic past; but when
you write an Oregon story, you can
take it raw from the Oregon of today,
the Oregon of now with red blood in
her -veins "and energy in her stride.
Oregon, virile and young and at the be
ginning of great things. Oregon's song
is a aeng of. .bone, and opportunity Xoc
men; it is no dying swan's song, which '
however lovely, is still dying.
And so, imagine my absolute surprise
and delight to fina, tucked away near
one of Oregon's loveliest sea beaches,
the germ of just such another working
center as I found in New England and
in the Catskills. Mrs. Alice Weister is
the author of the wregon idea,- and.
strange to Bay, she had' known nothing
of the work of Edward MacDowell in
New Hampshire or of Mr. Whitehead in
the Catskills. It had been her own
Idea, not so much to supply, a retreat
for creative artists, as for thinkers, for.
people who want to cut loose the bands
that tie them to the world of material
things, and be free for awhile. Un
doubtedly her years of work as head
of the psychology department of the
Portland Woman's Club, and- later as
head of her own many psychology cir
cles that cover the city and the sub
urbs, gave urge to her plan. One of
the first things a psychology student
learns or any serious thinker, for that
matter is the vital importance of a
season of all-alone nees for every indi
vidual. No nervous system was ever
so constituted that it could stand the
continual presence of people and either
not wear out or become blunted. Wo
men in homes have very little chance
to slip- away and be alone with their
thoughts. And particularly is it diffi
cult to go away from home and be
alone -and happily environed. When a
woman leaves home she usually goes
on a visit to friends or relatives, where
she is entertained continually; or she
spends her time at Bummer hotels or
boarding-how es, where she finds the
same round of life cards, the need to
dress conventionally, the daily meet
ings with people who would think it
strange if she shunned them, and
sought solitude. She would . be put
down as "queer at once.
Mrs. Weister has a wonderfully well-
situated strip of woods convenient to
Nehalem beach, but remote from the
sound of revelers, should there be rev
el era. It is also convenient to the
town of Nehalem, on the Tillamook
line. The "Club House," as she calls
the headquarters building, is right in
th6 woods at the head of a lovely
woodland road leading to the ocean.
Everything is in the rough-and-ready
out-of-doors state so appreciated by
real nature lovers. ' The clubhouse has
a large general living-room, and the
bedrooms are provided with sleeping
porches, where all night long the sleep
er is fanned by the sea breezes glori
ously scented with fir. -'
- Convemtiou Call Forarotten.
There are a number of tents scat
tered through the woods, so that one
may be absolutely alone, only coming
to the clubhouse for meals. The cost
Is merely the actual estimated expense,
or one may take her own provisions
and do her own cooking if she likes. It
Is not a money-making venture. Tne
Ideal of the management is to provide
the utmost freedom from restrictions
that bind elsewhere. One is not ex
pected to Join a group, t talk, or to
MAYOR DIRECTS TRAFFIC
New Jersey City's Executive Stands
at Street Junction Nightly.
ELIZABETH, N. J May 23. Mayor
Kravlag has constituted himself a traf
fic officer on Broad street, the busi
est thoroughfare in this city, tor two
nights in response to many complaints
he has received from citizens who have
narrowly escaped being run down by
motorists. He stands in the middle of
the street when a trolley car comes to
stop, and, with uplifted hand, just
like a traffic officer in New York,
halts oncoming autos and sees that they
do not pass the stalled trolley car.
The Mayor says there Is no need
for his services during the day. as the
regular traffic men are on duty then.
He has not made any arrests, nut ne
will arrest the first autolst who fails
to obey the traffic regulations and
passes a standing trolley car.
FRECKLES
Don't Hide Them With a Veils Remove
Them With the Otklne Prescription
This prescription for the removal of
freckles was written by a prominent
physician and is usually so successful
in removing freckles and giving a
clear, beautiful complexion that it Is
sold by druggists under guarantee to
refund the money If It fails.
Don't hide your freckles under a
veil, get an ounce of othine and remove
them. Even the first few applications
should show a wonderful improvement,
some of the lighter freckles vanishing
entirely.
Be sure to ask the druggist for the
double strength othine: it ia this that
is sold on the money-back guarantee.
Adv. .