The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 36

i-. 4C The Miami News Saturday, January 15. 1983 Miami: The ivay iverc Senior Forum Beulah Collins Now is the time to get things done i Special ta Tft Mliml Mwi If you're 65 or over, you can make a pretty convincing case for doing what you want to do now, If not now, when are you going to get around to it? The cemisoirs lh if Da II 86th in a series on early HOWARD KLEINBERG Editor Tha Miami Hm Miami. Ed and Marie Thorndike naa put off recovering their worn living room furniture for several years. Since it was still comfortable, it still suited Ed.

But this year Marie convinced him that if she were ever going to have the living room decorated to suit her taste, she wanted it now. Not when she was 75. Or 85. "Couples like us who spend most Isms 1 reprinted below. The undated painting by Chabas (1869-1937) now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art In New York City.

Ferguson, who was referred to by The Metropolis as the "custodian of the people's was up for re-election eight days later. He finished fifth in a seven-man primary. Phillips, who had upheld the right to display the picture, won his first primary and swept the runoff. Ironically, the day after the primary election, Police Chief Ferguson was fined $5 in municipal court for public profanity in a quarrel involving one of his fired officers. v': The judge who fined him was Paul G.

Phillips. NEXT SATURDAY: Miami's fish houses. Calling it "inimical to the moral welfare of the town," Ferguson ordered the picture removed at once. Proprietor Julius Smith, who said he considered the picture innocent, nevertheless complied. "September Morn," which was painted by Frenchman Paul Chabas, had created a furor in Miami, just as it had in other cities prior to its showing here.

Miami appeared to take up sides on whether or not the picture was immoral and, two days later, the issue wound up in the court of municipal Judge Paul G. Phillips, who ruled there was nothing unlawful about the painting of the young nude woman standing ankle deep in water. The issue sparked a steady barrage of letters to the editor of the Miami Metropolis, both pro and con two of which are Miami's present skirmish with censorship, morals and? pornography hardly is the city's first In fact, the issue can be traced back to 1913 when the town was only 17 years of age, with a population of just under 13,000. On the morning of July 14, 1913, Miami Police Chief OR. Ferguson, responding "to complaints, went to the window of Smith's Book Store which was on now is the south side of E.

Flagler Street between S. Miami and SE 1st avenues to look at a copy of a painting called "September Morn." It was posted at Smith's Book Store that day. Si. of their time at home ought to have Collins pleasant surroundings," was her winning argument. Agnes N.

was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. She got along fine, but one of the things preying on her mind while she was in the hospital was that she wanted to make sure to give her grandmother's engagement ring, an heirloom she had treasured for many years, to her oldest granddaugter. As soon as she got out of the hospital, she did it. "Didn't want to get caught with another emergency trip to the hospital," she Emily, a widow who lives alone, got to thinking about a younger couple in her neighborhood who had been extraordinarily kind and helpful to her since her husband's death. They had helped her through the time of the funeral, housed visiting relatives, and since then had remembered to include her in Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

So she chose from among her many possessions a handsome porcelain vase and presented it to them, along with a letter saying how much their friendship meant to her. It took her a long time to compose the letter, because she wanted to say it just right. Now. A woman living in Iowa was a self-taught artist. Her many oils and watercolors included some seascapes, although she had never seen the sea.

It was her cherished dream to see the ocean, to walk on a sandy beach, to pick up shells, to observe for herself the changing colors of the sea at different times of day. She and her husband are going to California this winter, the dream of a lifetime will be fulfilled. Now. Only now she doesn't know why they put it off so long. Sometimes a "now" fulfillment requires quitting something, instead of doing something.

Evelyn, a piano teacher, had been involved with music in her community throughout her life. At age 12 she began playing the piano at her country church. By age 60 she was organist at her city church. "From the time I was 12 until now, I had never sat anywhere in church except on the piano or organ bench. So I resigned as organist I want to be a member of the congregation, at least for a while.

I don't want to spend part of the week practicing the organ or getting the children in the children's choir to behave themselves. Not anymore. As soon as I made up my mind, I quit." Fred, retired at age 62, had always regretted the fact that he didn't have a college degree. So he went back to college as an undergraduate, completing two more years of study and getting a bachelor's degree in English. Now he's working on his M.A.

Why? It was something he wanted, so he is doing it now. X- IF" 1 6 A ,1 On language William Satire Putting a cap on the entitlement Tha Metropolitan Mutaum of Art, As the debate on Social Security heats up, or up, a shadowy cliche slouches toward He is Cap the Entitlement. No, this is not Caspar I 1 lit (Cap the Knife) Weinberger, whose recent travels changed his sobriquet to "Cap the it is the amalgam of two opposing rallying words. Cap began as a noun in the early 1970s, drawing on the image of "capping" an oil well. The earliest citation anybody I know can find is in the files of Merriam-Webster.

"We have a somewhat ambiguous citation from The Wall Street Jour From The Miami Daily Metropolis, July 14, 1913) SEPTEMBER MORN' CAN'T BE SEEN IN MAGIC CITY "September Morn," the picture which it is said has aroused more discussion -and criticism that any "Other in recent years in Atlanta and -New York and other cities where it JiasJUgen displayed, was this afternoon removed from a prominent position in Smith's Book store at the order of Chief of Police Ferguson. can't have a picture like that-on public display in Miami," the "chief Instructed Julius Smith, the proprietor. "She hasn't any clothes on at all." Mr. Smith remonstrated with the officer, but the custodian of the people's morals was firm in his decision to have the picture removed or to arrest the proprietor of the store where it was on exhibition. A crowd gathered in front of the store while the debate on decency and art progressed and many joined in with opinion on either side, some holding that the picture was positively indecent, and others declaring it was pure art and entirely inoffensive to good taste.

Painting by Famous Artist "September Morn" is a painting by a famous French artist representing a young girl in her early teens standing ankle deep in the shallow water near the shore of a mountain lake, evidently for a morning bath. The chill of the water is said to be responsible for the semi-crouching position, somewhat on the order of Venus de Milo. A great furor was created in Atlanta over the picture and the one who had it on exhibition in that city resisted the efforts of the officers backed by the purity league and church people to have It removed. Strenuous efforts were also made in New York to have the picture veiled. 1 Chief Ferguson's attention was called to the picture by a telephone call from a woman who asked him to "just go and see it.

It's perfectly awful." From that time on the police chief was besieged with requests to have the picture removed. He finally went up and had a look at the picture himself and his decision was quickly given. "That picture should never be put up where the public can see it," declared the officer "As for myself I wouldn't care, but to display such a picture, a woman without a shred of clothing, I think is inimical of the moral welfare of the town. I think it is my duty to have the picture pulled down." Mr. Smith stated that he had heard much about the picture both pro and con, but that after he had received it he could see nothing offensive about it.

"It is as pure and innocent a picture as one could desire, and anyone who knows anything about painting will recognize it instantly as a work of art. It has been so pronounced by the courts. They tried to veil the picture in Atlanta but were unsucessful. However, if the poeple find it objectionable, I will certainly remove it." Some Other Opinions "You wouldn't let a woman to down the street like that, chief," urged one hot-headed reformer, "and how much better is a picture of a woman than a real woman." "There is a great deal of difference between a picture and a nude woman," declared Mr. Smith.

"In this window are a number of statues which are practically as much in the nude as this picture and yet no one complains about them, but recognizes them as works of art, as they are." "Yes, chief, I would make him take it down," declared Secretary C.H. Ward of the Board of Trade. "I think it is a bad proposition." "I cannot see anything wrong with the picture at all," declared W.F. Miller, of the Miller-Dunn Co. "It is simply a work of art and entirely inoffensive.

I think it is a beautiful picture, and should be left on exhibition. I do not think there is any law under which Mr. Smith can be compelled to remove it." Satire Purchaaa, Mr. and Mn. Wikam Coxa Wright Gift, 1957 in 1913 Miami, now hangs in (From The Miami Metropolis, juiy mii) The Public Pulse Editor Metropolis: Dear me, how just perfectly well peeved Dr.

Holmes must have been following his first glimpse of "September Morn," and how natural that he should, as one of the many self-appointed censors of the morals of Miami, rush to the rescue of the gilded youth and men further advanced in years already steeped in naughty wishes and unholy desires, by insisting that the offending picture should be removed from view. The doctor's communication is precisely what might have been expected from a hide-bound puritan who had never, been outside his own country, and whose knowledge of art was limited to a daub in the parlor depicting a shipwreck at sea special price $1.98 or perhaps that other classic, "Gates Ajar," which invariably hangs over the mantel, banked on one side by a china dog and on the other by a pretty pink conch shell that always murmurs of the sad, sad, sea. Were it not that Miami has so recently "arrived" and is so rapidly filling up with people whose horizon of the things beautiful in life is not so restricted, one might wonder after this if the city would ever emerge from its chrysalis state and take on these new ways which make for the refinement and culture of its masses. And what an arraignment the doctor makes of both sexes, the male gender in particular. If the absurd claims he sets up were true, he would have us believe all things are vile; that the young boys of Miami are embryo roues and the older ones seasoned veterans.

I shudder to think of the results of a tour Dr. Holmes might be inveigled into making of the Metropoli-. tan Museum of Art of New York; the Field museum or the Art Institute of Chicago, where every day in the week he could observe hundreds of students, mostly women, sketching from originals or replicas of the nude as exemplified by the old masters. With his present views uppermost, did he not wear colored glasses, he would emerge with a pronounced case of strabismus of the intellect. Yours truly, EUGENE STAHL Paul Morn', the Metropolitan Museum of Art (From The Miami Metropolis, July 15,1913) JUDGE WON'T SENTENCE SEPTEMBER MORN, BUT PURITY LEAGUE WOULD Painting is Back in Display Window, But According to Municipal Court Judge There is No Law to Compel Hiding the Picture from the Public Gaze Miami courts recognize nothing unlawful in "September Morn," the representation of a female figure in the nude which adorns the front window of a Twelfth street statio ner, and Judge Phillips declines to back up Chief of Police Ferguson In demanding that the picture be hidden from the gaze of the populace.

"There is no law against the exhibition of such a picture," declared Judge Phillips this morning. "No one could be forced by law to remove it." But law or no law, the women of the purity league are determined to have the picture hidden from view. Mrs. E.C. McAllister, president of the league, said this afternoon that she had been receiving calls all day from the women of the city asking her to do something to have the picture taken down.

"We are doing all we can," said she, "and I believe we will succeed. They tell me she is nothing but a girl, but even if she is, I think she is entitled to at least a bathing suit. They wouldn't let the boys go in naked way up at the Terminal dock, and here is a girl down on Twelfth street." Sheriff Dan Hardie purchased the last three copies of "September Morn" today. The sheriff stated that while he did not care for classical music he was in love with beautiful pictures. the painting that caused a furor in New York City.

(From The Miami Metropolis, July 15, WU) 0 The Public Pulse Editor Miami Metropolis: "September Morn" may be a beautiful production of art and it is perhaps to be regretted that the great majority of men and almost all boys under twenty cannot see art as art when it is dressed up in undress. In connection with this it may be stated that almost every city, Miami not excepted, has its quota of "living pictures" parading before men's eyes which certainly do not fill their minds with Sunday school thoughts; it is not so long ago that a man accosted a lady on one of the streets of Miami in a manner not very complimentary to her. She promptly and strenuously resented his remark whereupon he as promptly begged her pardon, coupled with the remark, "for the life of me I could see no difference in your dress and manner and some other women who advertise 'their goods' upon our public streets." Professor Albert E. Mowry, of the Northwestern University Medical school, and attending genitourinary surgeon to Provident Hospital, Chicago, read a paper before the Chicago Medical society recently from which I quote the following: "There should be a life term imprisonment for men who write and print such stories as 'Only a and the like, and news agents and others who distribute them. This also applies to printing of lewd pictures (and what is the difference whether a picture is painted by a 'high-fallutin French artist or printed by a dime hovel press? The effect of suggestion is the same).

I have had boys tell me that looking at pictures on billboards can cause various disturbances. "Theaters should be required by laW to exclude boys under age from so-called leg shows. The better age limit would be twenty-five. Dances are bad, but possibly unavoidable. Tell the boys you are treating not to go.

"One present day condition that is deplorable and wrong is the manner in which the average mother dresses her young daughter to look like a chorus girl or doll. These tight skirts, showy slippers or shoes and fancy silk hosiery simply fan flames of licentiousness." A.G. HOLMES, MJ. nal of May 22, 1972," reports Frederick Mish, editorial director, "applying the term to a 'rule' (perhaps a federal regulation) which limited the extent to which certain companies could raise their prices at that time." How well I remember those halcyon days at Camp on the weekend of Aug. 13-15, 1971, when a band of us gleefully solved the raging inflation rate (4.8 per cent) by imposing wage and price controls and flummoxing the economy for nearly a decade.

I vaguely recall economists Herbert Stein and Arnold Weber talking about "a cap on prices," which comes close to a citation, but close counts only in horseshoes: Merriam-Webster has the first, and the second and the third: "Our earliest clear-cut instance includes 'cap' as a piece of jargon meaning the same thing as writes Mish. It is from the July-August 1973 issue of The Mailhandler, a union publication; then comes tin Mayer's use in his 1974 book "The "In 1972, when Chicago's Continental Illinois offered some big borrowers 'cap' loans (long-term credits with a fixed-interest ceiling) i As conservatism reared its cost-cutting head, cap turned into a verb: Politicians volunteered to cap everything from welfare to property taxes. But then the capping ran into the other side's word: entitlements. Nobody, said the benefit-minded, was going to cap entitlements. That word lay aborning in a law passed by the Congress in 1944: it should be clearly provided that entitlement to pay and allowances is not to be terminated on the actual date of death For a couple of the word lay low, like Br'er Rabbit.

In the late 1960s, as the Great Society came to an end, congressional aides began using it to defend against attacks on "welfare cheats." For many, the new word was a euphemism for welfare, which once was a euphemism for relief. Then, in the mid-1970s, it was adopted by middle-roaders who felt the pressure to do something about spending: "He indicated a belief that something had to be done to hold down the growth of programs," wrote The New York Times about Rep. Brock Adams, "granting an automatic 'entitlement' to eligible individuals. Among these are food stamps, welfare and health-care financing' Cost cutters took up the cry of "doing something about entitlements." To this day, people who believe in the redistribution of wealth (or compassion for the truly needy) resist the notion that entitlement is merely a euphemism for welfare: "Entitlement includes both earned benefits and unearned benefits," says Ceil Frank at the Office of Family Assistance in Washington, "Social Security and veterans' benefits are earned benefits, and unearned benefits is what welfare refers to." Liberals take care to divide funds transferred to people by the government into public assistance welfare and entitlements, which carries the connotation "earned, deserved." Conservatives tend to lump the two together and demand that a cap be placed on it Ross Baker, political-science professor at Rutgers, puckishly defined -entitlements- as "tenure for the underclass." 4.