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Untitled-7 1 25/01/2019 14:39
BRIEF C O N T E NT S

PART 1 Introduction and Key Principles 11 The Income-Expenditure Model 222

1 Introduction: What Is Economics? 1 12 Investment and Financial Markets 253

2 The Key Principles of Economics 27 PART 5 Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
3 Exchange and Markets 47
13 Money and the Banking System 272
4 Demand, Supply, and Market
14 The Federal Reserve and Monetary
Equilibrium 62
Policy 291
PART 2 The Basic Concepts in Macroeconomics
PART 6 Inflation, Unemployment, and Economic
Policy
5 Measuring a Nation’s Production
and Income 92 15 Modern Macroeconomics: From the
6 Unemployment and Inflation 115 Short Run to the Long Run 311
16 The Dynamics of Inflation and
PART 3 The Economy in the Long Run Unemployment 329
7 The Economy at Full Employment 136 17 Macroeconomic Policy Debates 348
8 Why Do Economies Grow? 156
PART 7 The International Economy
PART 4 Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy 18 International Trade and Public
Policy 365
9 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate
Supply 184 19 The World of International
Finance 386
10 Fiscal Policy 204

iv

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 4 16/11/18 12:06 PM


CONT E NT S

Preface xxii Using Macroeconomics to Understand


Economic Fluctuations 12

PART 1 Using Macroeconomics to Make Informed


Introduction and Key Principles Business Decisions 12

Preview of Coming Attractions:


Microeconomics 12
1 Introduction: What Is Economics? 1
Using Microeconomics to Understand Markets
and Predict Changes 12
What Is Economics? 2
Using Microeconomics to Make Personal and
Positive versus Normative Analysis 3
Managerial Decisions 12
The Three Key Economic Questions: What, How,
Using Microeconomics to Evaluate Public
and Who? 4
Policies 13
Economic Models 4
* SUMMARY 13 * KEY TERMS 14
* EXERCISES 14 * CRITICAL THINKING 15
Economic Analysis and Modern Problems 5
Economic View of Traffic Congestion 5 APPENDIX: Using Graphs and Percentages 15
USING GRAPHS 15
Trade-offs from International Trade 5
COMPUTING PERCENTAGE CHANGES AND USING
Economic View of Managing the U.S. Economy 6 EQUATIONS 23

The Economic Way of Thinking 6 APPLICATION 3 The Perils of Percentages 24

Use Assumptions to Simplify 7


2 The Key Principles of Economics 27
Isolate Variables—Ceteris Paribus 7
The Principle of Opportunity Cost 28
Think at the Margin 7
The Cost of College 28
Rational People Respond to Incentives 8
The Cost of Military Spending 29
APPLICATION 1 Incentives to Install Rooftop Solar
Panels 8 Opportunity Cost and the Production Possibilities
Curve 29
Example: Southern California Addresses Its
Congestion Problem 9 APPLICATION 1 Don’t Forget the Costs of Time
and Invested Funds 31
APPLICATION 2 Housing Prices in Cuba 9
The Marginal Principle 32
Employability: Economic Logic on the Job 10
How Many Movie Sequels? 32
Preview of Coming Attractions:
Renting College Facilities 33
Macroeconomics 11
Automobile Emissions Standards 34
Using Macroeconomics to Understand Why
Economies Grow 11 Driving Speed and Safety 34

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 5 16/11/18 12:06 PM


vi

APPLICATION 2 How Fast to Sail? 35 APPLICATION 2 Weather-Linked Crop


Insurance 55
The Principle of Voluntary Exchange 35
Market Failure and the Role of
Exchange and Markets 35
Government 56
Online Games and Market Exchange 36 Government Enforces the Rules of Exchange 56

APPLICATION 3 Rory McIlroy and Government Can Reduce Economic


Weed-Whacking 36 Uncertainty 57

The Principle of Diminishing Returns 37 APPLICATION 3 Property Rights and Urban


Slums 58
APPLICATION 4 Fertilizer and Crop Yields 38
* SUMMARY 58 * KEY TERMS 58
* EXERCISES 59 * CRITICAL THINKING 61
The Real-Nominal Principle 38
The Design of Public Programs 39

The Value of the Minimum Wage 39 4 Demand, Supply, and Market


Equilibrium 62
APPLICATION 5 Repaying Student Loans 40

* SUMMARY 40 * KEY TERMS 41 The Demand Curve 63


* EXERCISES 41 * CRITICAL THINKING 45
The Individual Demand Curve and the Law of
* ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 45 Demand 63

From Individual Demand to Market Demand 65

3 Exchange and Markets 47 APPLICATION 1 The Law of Demand for Young


Smokers 66

Comparative Advantage The Supply Curve 66


and Exchange 48
The Individual Supply Curve and the Law of
Specialization and the Gains from Trade 48
Supply 67
Comparative Advantage versus Absolute
Why Is the Individual Supply Curve Positively
Advantage 50
Sloped? 68
The Division of Labor and Exchange 50
From Individual Supply to Market Supply 69
Comparative Advantage and International
Why Is the Market Supply Curve Positively
Trade 51
Sloped? 70
Outsourcing 51
APPLICATION 2 Law of Supply and Woolympics 71
APPLICATION 1 Absolute Disadvantage and
Comparative Advantage in Latvia 52 Market Equilibrium: Bringing Demand and
Supply Together 71
Markets 53 Excess Demand Causes the Price to Rise 71
Virtues of Markets 53
Excess Supply Causes the Price to Drop 72
The Role of Entrepreneurs 54
APPLICATION 3 Shrinking Wine Lakes 73
Example of the Emergence of Markets: POW
Camps 55 Market Effects of Changes in Demand 73

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 6 16/11/18 12:06 PM


vii

Change in Quantity Demanded versus Change in The Production Approach: Measuring a


Demand 73 Nation’s Macroeconomic Activity Using
Gross Domestic Product 95
Increases in Demand Shift the Demand Curve 74
The Components of GDP 97
Decreases in Demand Shift the Demand Curve 76
Putting It All Together: The GDP Equation 100
A Decrease in Demand Decreases the Equilibrium
Price 77 APPLICATION 2 Intellectual Property in GDP
Accounts 101
APPLICATION 4 Craft Beer and the Price of Hops 77
The Income Approach: Measuring a Nation’s
Market Effects of Changes in Supply 78
Macroeconomic Activity Using National
Change in Quantity Supplied versus Change in Income 101
Supply 78
Measuring National Income 101
Increases in Supply Shift the Supply Curve 78
Measuring National Income through Value
An Increase in Supply Decreases the Equilibrium Added 102
Price 80
An Expanded Circular Flow 103
Decreases in Supply Shift the Supply Curve 80
APPLICATION 3 The Links Between Self-Reported
A Decrease in Supply Increases the Equilibrium Happiness and GDP 104
Price 82
A Closer Examination of Nominal and Real
Simultaneous Changes in Demand and Supply 82
GDP 104
APPLICATION 5 The Harmattan and the Price of Measuring Real versus Nominal GDP 105
Chocolate 84
How to Use the GDP Def lator 106
Predicting and Explaining Market Changes 84
Fluctuations in GDP 107
APPLICATION 6 Why Lower Drug Prices? 85
GDP as a Measure of Welfare 109
* SUMMARY 85 * KEY TERMS 86
* EXERCISES 86 * CRITICAL THINKING 90 Shortcomings of GDP as a Measure of Welfare 109

* ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 90 * SUMMARY 110 * KEY TERMS 111


* EXERCISES 111 * CRITICAL THINKING 114

PART 2
The Basic Concepts in Macroeconomics 6 Unemployment and Inflation 115
Examining Unemployment 116
5 Measuring a Nation’s Production and How Is Unemployment Defined and Measured? 116
Income 92
Alternative Measures of Unemployment and Why
They Are Important 118
The Flip Sides of Macroeconomic Activity:
Production and Income 93 Who Are the Unemployed? 119

The Circular Flow of Production and Income 94 APPLICATION 1 Declining Labor Force
Participation 120
APPLICATION 1 Using Value Added to Measure
the True Size of Walmart 95 Categories of Unemployment 121

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 7 16/11/18 12:06 PM


viii

Types of Unemployment: Cyclical, Frictional, and APPLICATION 1 The Black Death and Living
Structural 121 Standards in Old England 142

The Natural Rate of Unemployment 122 Labor Market Equilibrium and Full
Employment 143
APPLICATION 2 Disability Insurance and Labor
Force Participation 123 Using the Full-Employment Model 144
The Costs of Unemployment 123 Taxes and Potential Output 144

APPLICATION 3 Social Norms, Unemployment, and Real Business Cycle Theory 145
Perceived Happiness 124
APPLICATION 2 Do European Soccer Stars Change
Clubs to Reduce Their Taxes? 147
The Consumer Price Index and the Cost of
Living 125
APPLICATION 3 Government Policies and Savings
The CPI versus the Chain Index for GDP 126 Rates 148

APPLICATION 4 The Introduction of Cell Phones Dividing Output among Competing


and the BIAS in the CPI 127 Demands for GDP at Full
Employment 148
Problems in Measuring Changes in Prices 127
International Comparisons 149
Inflation 127
Crowding Out in a Closed Economy 149
Historical U.S. Inf lation Rates 128
Crowding Out in an Open Economy 151
The Perils of Def lation 129
Crowding In 151
The Costs of Inflation 130 * SUMMARY 152 * KEY TERMS 152
* EXERCISES 152 * CRITICAL THINKING 155
Anticipated Inf lation 130

Unanticipated Inf lation 130


8 Why Do Economies Grow? 156
* SUMMARY 131 * KEY TERMS 132
* EXERCISES 132 * CRITICAL THINKING 135 Economic Growth Rates 157
Measuring Economic Growth 158
PART 3
The Economy in the Long Run Comparing the Growth Rates of Various
Countries 159

Are Poor Countries Catching Up? 160


7 The Economy at Full Employment 136
APPLICATION 1 Global Warming, Rich Countries,
Wage and Price Flexibility and Full and Poor Countries 161
Employment 137
APPLICATION 2 Behavioral Incentives in
The Production Function 137 Development 162

Wages and the Demand and Supply for Capital Deepening 162
Labor 140
Saving and Investment 163
Labor Market Equilibrium 141
How Do Population Growth, Government, and
Changes in Demand and Supply 141 Trade Affect Capital Deepening? 164

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 8 16/11/18 12:06 PM


ix

The Key Role of Technological Progress 166 Flexible and Sticky Prices 185

How Do We Measure Technological How Demand Determines Output in the Short


Progress? 166 Run 186

Using Growth Accounting 167 APPLICATION 1 Measuring Price Stickiness in


Consumer Markets 187
APPLICATION 3 Sources of Growth in China
and India 168 Understanding Aggregate Demand 187
APPLICATION 4 How Important is Infrastructure? 169 What Is the Aggregate Demand Curve? 187

What Causes Technological Progress? 169 The Components of Aggregate Demand 188

Research and Development Funding 169 Why the Aggregate Demand Curve Slopes
Downward 188
Monopolies That Spur Innovation 170
Shifts in the Aggregate Demand Curve 189
The Scale of the Market 170
How the Multiplier Makes the Shift Bigger 190
Induced Innovations 171
APPLICATION 2 Two Approaches to Determining
Education, Human Capital, and the Accumulation the Causes of Recessions 194
of Knowledge 171

New Growth Theory 172 Understanding Aggregate Supply 194


The Long-Run Aggregate Supply Curve 194
APPLICATION 5 The Role of Megacities in
Economic Growth 173 The Short-Run Aggregate Supply Curve 196

APPLICATION 6 Culture, Evolution, and Economic


Supply Shocks 197
Growth 173
APPLICATION 3 Oil Price Increases and the
Changing U.S. Economy 198
A Key Governmental Role: Providing
the Correct Incentives and Property
From the Short Run to the Long Run 199
Rights 174
* SUMMARY 201 * KEY TERMS 201
APPLICATION 7 Lack of Property Rights Hinders * EXERCISES 201 * CRITICAL THINKING 203
Growth in Peru 174

* SUMMARY 175 * KEY TERMS 175


* EXERCISES 176 * CRITICAL THINKING 178 10 Fiscal Policy 204
APPENDIX: A Model of Capital Deepening 179
The Role of Fiscal Policy 205
PART 4 Fiscal Policy and Aggregate Demand 205
Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy The Fiscal Multiplier 206

The Limits to Stabilization Policy 207


9 Aggregate Demand and Aggregate
APPLICATION 1 Increasing Life Expectancy and
Supply 184 Aging Populations Spur Costs of Entitlement
Programs 209
Sticky Prices and Their Macroeconomic
Consequences 185 The Federal Budget 210

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 9 16/11/18 12:06 PM


x

Federal Spending 210 APPLICATION 2 Multipliers in Good Times and


Bad 233
Federal Revenues 211

The Federal Deficit and Fiscal Policy 213 Government Spending and Taxation 233

Automatic Stabilizers 213 Fiscal Multipliers 233

Are Deficits Bad? 214 Using Fiscal Multipliers 235

APPLICATION 2 Dynamic Scoring 215 Understanding Automatic Stabilizers 237

Fiscal Policy in U.S. History 215 APPLICATION 3 The Broken Window Fallacy and
Keynesian Economics 238
The Depression Era 215
Exports and Imports 240
The Kennedy Administration 216

The Vietnam War Era 216 APPLICATION 4 The Locomotive Effect:


How Foreign Demand Affects a Country’s
The Reagan Administration 217 Output 242

The Clinton and George W. Bush The Income-Expenditure Model and the
Administrations 217 Aggregate Demand Curve 243
The Obama and Trump Administrations 217 * SUMMARY 245 * KEY TERMS 245
* EXERCISES 245 * CRITICAL THINKING 248
APPLICATION 3 How Effective was the 2009
Stimulus? 218 * ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 249

* SUMMARY 219 * KEY TERMS 220


APPENDIX: Formulas for Equilibrium Income and
* EXERCISES 220 * CRITICAL THINKING 221
the Multiplier 249

11 The Income-Expenditure Model 222


12 Investment and Financial
A Simple Income-Expenditure Model 223
Markets 253

Equilibrium Output 223 An Investment: A Plunge into the


Unknown 254
Adjusting to Equilibrium Output 224
APPLICATION 1 Energy Price Uncertainty Reduces
The Consumption Function 226
Investment Spending 255
Consumer Spending and Income 226
Evaluating the Future 256
Changes in the Consumption Function 227
Understanding Present Value 256
APPLICATION 1 The Wealthy Hand-To-Mouth and
Real and Nominal Interest Rates 258
Consumption Spending 228

APPLICATION 2 Explaining Low Investment


Equilibrium Output and the Consumption
Rates 259
Function 229
Saving and Investment 230 Understanding Investment Decisions 260

Understanding the Multiplier 231 Investment and the Stock Market 261

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 10 16/11/18 12:06 PM


xi

APPLICATION 3 Underwater Homeowners and APPLICATION 4 Coping with the Financial Chaos
Debt Forgiveness 263 Caused by the Mortgage Crisis 285

* SUMMARY 286 * KEY TERMS 286


How Financial Intermediaries Facilitate
* EXERCISES 286 * CRITICAL THINKING 288
Investment 263
* ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 288
When Financial Intermediaries Malfunction 266

APPLICATION 4 New Regulations for Financial APPENDIX: Formula for Deposit Creation 290
Stability 267

* SUMMARY 268 * KEY TERMS 268 14 The Federal Reserve and Monetary
* EXERCISES 269 * CRITICAL THINKING 270 Policy 291
* ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 271
The Money Market 292
The Demand for Money 292
PART 5
Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy APPLICATION 1 What to Do with the Fed’s Balance
Sheet? 294

13 Money and the Banking System 272 How the Federal Reserve Can Change the
Money Supply 295
What Is Money? 273
Open Market Operations 295
Three Properties of Money 273
Other Tools of the Fed 296
Measuring Money in the U.S. Economy 275
APPLICATION 2 Commodity Prices and Interest
APPLICATION 1 Cash as a Sign of Trust 276 Rates 297

How Banks Create Money 277 How Interest Rates Are Determined:
A Bank’s Balance Sheet: Where the Money Comes Combining the Demand and Supply
from and Where It Goes 277 of Money 298
How Banks Create Money 278 Interest Rates and Bond Prices 299

How the Money Multiplier Works 279 Interest Rates and How They Change
How the Money Multiplier Works in Reverse 280 Investment and Output (GDP) 301

A Banker’s Bank: The Federal Reserve 281 APPLICATION 3 The Effectiveness of


Committees 301
APPLICATION 2 Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies 281
Monetary Policy and International Trade 303
Functions of the Federal Reserve 282

The Structure of the Federal Reserve 282 Monetary Policy Challenges for the Fed 305

The Independence of the Federal Reserve 283 Lags in Monetary Policy 305

Inf luencing Market Expectations: From the


What the Federal Reserve Does During a
Federal Funds Rate to Interest Rates on
Financial Crisis 284
Long-Term Bonds 306
APPLICATION 3 Stress Tests for the Financial * SUMMARY 307 * KEY TERMS 307
System 284 * EXERCISES 308 * CRITICAL THINKING 310

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 11 16/11/18 12:06 PM


xii

PART 6 16 The Dynamics of Inflation and


Inflation, Unemployment, Unemployment 329
and Economic Policy
Money Growth, Inflation, and Interest
Rates 330
15 Modern Macroeconomics: From the
Short Run to the Long Run 311 Inf lation in a Steady State 330

How Changes in the Growth Rate of Money


Linking the Short Run and the Long Affect the Steady State 331
Run 312
The Difference between the Short and Long Understanding the Expectations Phillips
Run 312 Curve: The Relationship between
Unemployment and Inflation 332
Wages and Prices and Their Adjustment over
Time 312 APPLICATION 1 Shifts in the Natural Rate of
Unemployment 332
APPLICATION 1 Secular Stagnation? 313
Are the Public’s Expectations about Inf lation
How Wage and Price Changes Move Rational? 333
the Economy Naturally Back to Full
U.S. Inf lation and Unemployment in the
Employment 314
1980s 334
Returning to Full Employment from a
Shifts in the Natural Rate of Unemployment in
Recession 314
the 1990s 335
Returning to Full Employment from a Boom 315
How the Credibility of a Nation’s Central
Economic Policy and the Speed of Bank Affects Inflation 336
Adjustment 316
APPLICATION 2 Estimating the Natural Real
Liquidity Traps or Zero Lower Bound 317
Interest Rate Around the World 337
Political Business Cycles 318
APPLICATION 3 The Ends of Hyperinflations 339
APPLICATION 2 Elections, Political Parties, and
Voter Expectations 318 Inflation and the Velocity of Money 340

The Economics Behind the Adjustment Hyperinflation 342


Process 319
How Budget Deficits Lead to Hyperinf lation 343
The Long-Run Neutrality of Money 321 * SUMMARY 344 * KEY TERMS 344
Crowding Out in the Long Run 322 * EXERCISES 345 * CRITICAL THINKING 346

* ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 347


APPLICATION 3 Increasing Health-Care
Expenditures and Crowding Out 324

Classical Economics in Historical 17 Macroeconomic Policy Debates 348


Perspective 324
Say’s Law 325 Should We Balance the Federal
Budget? 349
Keynesian and Classical Debates 325
The Budget in Recent Decades 349
* SUMMARY 326 * KEY TERMS 326
* EXERCISES 326 * CRITICAL THINKING 328 Five Debates about Deficits 351

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xiii

Should the Fed Target Both Inflation and To Help Domestic Firms Establish Monopolies in
Employment? 355 World Markets 374

APPLICATION 1 Creating the U.S. Federal Fiscal APPLICATION 2 Chinese Imports and Local
System through Debt Policy 355 Economies 375

Two Debates about Targeting 356


A Brief History of International Tariff and
Trade Agreements 375
APPLICATION 2 Do We Need to Change our
Inflation Targets? 358
Recent Policy Debates and Trade
Agreements 376
Should We Tax Consumption Rather than
Income? 359 Are Foreign Producers Dumping Their
Products? 377
Two Debates about Consumption Taxation 360

APPLICATION 3 Should We Care If Another


APPLICATION 3 Is a VAT in Our Future? 362
Country Adopts Our Latest Technology? 377
* SUMMARY 362 * KEY TERMS 362
* EXERCISES 363 * CRITICAL THINKING 364 Do Trade Laws Inhibit Environmental
Protection? 378

PART 7 APPLICATION 4 How American are American


The International Economy Cars? 379

Do Outsourcing and Trade Cause Income


Inequality? 380
18 International Trade and Public
Policy 365 Why Do People Protest Free Trade? 381
* SUMMARY 381 * KEY TERMS 382
Benefits from Specialization and Trade 366 * EXERCISES 382 * CRITICAL THINKING 385

Production Possibilities Curve 366

Comparative Advantage and the Terms of 19 The World of International


Trade 368 Finance 386
The Consumption Possibilities Curve 368
How Exchange Rates Are Determined 387
How Free Trade Affects Employment 369
What are Exchange Rates? 387
Protectionist Policies 370
How Demand and Supply Determine Exchange
Import Bans 370 Rates 388

Quotas and Voluntary Export Restraints 370 Changes in Demand or Supply 389
Responses to Protectionist Policies 372
Real Exchange Rates and Purchasing Power
Parity 391
APPLICATION 1 The Impact of Tariffs on the Poor 373

APPLICATION 1 Big Macs in Norway 393


What Are the Rationales for Protectionist
Policies? 373
The Current Account, the Financial Account,
To Shield Workers from Foreign Competition 374 and the Capital Account 394
To Nurture Infant Industries until They Rules for Calculating the Current, Financial, and
Mature 374 Capital Accounts 394

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 13 16/11/18 12:06 PM


xiv

APPLICATION 2 Tax Havens and Global Managing Financial Crises 401


Imbalances 397
APPLICATION 3 Problems within the Euro Bloc 402
Fixed and Flexible Exchange Rates 397
APPLICATION 4 The Argentine Financial Crisis 404
Fixing the Exchange Rate 398
* SUMMARY 404 * KEY TERMS 405
Fixed versus Flexible Exchange Rates 399 * EXERCISES 405 * CRITICAL THINKING 407

The U.S. Experience with Fixed and Flexible * ECONOMIC EXPERIMENT 408
Exchange Rates 400
Glossary 409
Exchange Rate Systems Today 401
Index 417

Photo Credits 432

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 14 16/11/18 12:06 PM


P REF A C E

In preparing this tenth edition, we had three primary goals. • In Chapter 18, we explore how automobile companies
First, we wanted to incorporate the ongoing changes in the have been purchasing a large fraction of their parts
United States and world economies as they have continued ­outside the United States to put into “American” cars.
to recover and adjust from the worldwide recession of the • We also incorporated a total of 21 exciting new
last decade. Second, we strived to update this edition to Applications into this edition including four in the
reflect the latest exciting developments in economic think- common chapters (Chapters 1–4). In addition, we
ing and make these accessible to new students of economics. incorporated a total of 9 new chapter-opening ­stories.
Finally, we wanted to stay true to the philosophy of the text- These fresh applications and chapter openers show the
book—using basic concepts of economics to explain a wide widespread relevance of economic analysis.
variety of timely and interesting economic applications.
• In the first four introductory chapters, the new
To improve student results, we recommend pairing the
­applications include solar tax credits (Chapter 1), crop
text content with MyLab Economics, which is the teach-
insurance and food production (Chapter 3), and the
ing and learning platform that empowers you to reach every
effects of the growing popularity of craft beer on hop
student. By combining trusted author content with digital
prices (Chapter 4).
tools and a flexible platform, MyLab personalizes the learn-
ing experience and will help your students learn and retain • In the core macroeconomics chapters, other new
key course concepts while developing skills that future applications include explaining high rates of saving in
employers are seeking in their candidates. From Digital China (Chapter 7), the behavior of households that
Interactives to Real-time Data Analysis Exercises, are wealthy but have little cash on hand (Chapter 11),
MyLab Economics helps you teach your course, your way. theories of why investment spending has been low in
Learn more at www.pearson.com/mylab/economics. the United States (Chapter 12), the role that Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies may play in the monetary
New to This Edition system (Chapter 13), and the role that technological
improvements in other countries will have on trade and
In addition to updating all the figures and data, we made a welfare for the United States (Chapter 18).
number of other key changes in this edition. They include
the following: Solving Teaching and Learning
• At the end of each chapter, we have added Critical
­Challenges
Thinking Exercises that challenge the student to think Many students who take the principles of economics class
more deeply about the topics and ideas within the have difficulty seeing the relevance of the key concepts of
chapters. economics, including the role of opportunity costs, thinking
• We discuss in Chapter 6 the links between disability on the margin, the benefits of voluntary exchange, the idea
insurance and labor force participation. of diminishing returns, and the distinction between real and
nominal magnitudes. This reduces student preparedness
• We discuss in Chapter 8 the relationships between cit-
and engagement. We explore the five key principles of eco-
ies and economic growth.
nomics we think are most important to students and use the
• We discuss in Chapter 10 the concept of dynamic scor- following resources to engage ­students with the content to
ing and explain how it is used to estimate tax revenues highlight not only how economics is relevant to their lives,
in the federal budget process. but also their future careers.
• We discuss in Chapter 12 the Dodd-Frank regulations
and consider how they will impact the financial sector Make Economics Relevant through
and the economy. Real-World Application
• In Chapter 14, we introduce Jerome Powell, the new Real-world application is crucial to helping students find
Chairman of the Federal Reserve and discuss his prior the relevance in economics. As such, our applications-driven
experience and the challenges he will face in the new text includes over 130 real-world Applications to help stu-
economic environment. dents master essential economics concepts. Here is an exam-

xv

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 15 16/11/18 12:06 PM


xvi

ple of our approach from Chapter 4, “Demand, Supply, and 5.9 Repaying a Car Loan. Suppose you borrow money to 5.10 Inflation and Interest Rates. Len buys MP3 music at

Market Equilibrium.” buy a car and must repay $20,000 in interest and prin-
cipal in 5 years. Your current monthly salary is $4,000.
$1 per tune and prefers music now to music later. He is
willing to sacrifice 10 tunes today as long as he gets at
(Related to Application 5 on page 40.) least 11 tunes in a year. When Len loans $50 to Barb
66 P AR T 1
Complete the following table. for a 1-year period, he cuts back his music purchases
by 50 tunes.
Which environment has the lowest real cost of repay-
ing the loan? a. To make Len indifferent about making the
APPLICATION 1 loan, Barb must repay him _________ tunes or
$_________. The implied interest rate is _________
THE LAW OF DEMAND FOR YOUNG SMOKERS Change in Prices and Months of Work to percent.
Wages Monthly Salary Repay $20,000 Loan b. Suppose that over the 1-year period of the loan, all
APPLYING THE CONCEPTS #1: What is the law of demand? Stable $4,000 prices (including the price of MP3 tunes) increase by
inflation: Prices rise 20 percent, and Len and Barb anticipate the price
that increases in state cigarette taxes between 1990 and 2005 by 25% changes. To make Len indifferent about making
resulted in less participation (fewer smokers) and lower fre-
Deflation: Prices drop the loan, Barb must repay him _________ tunes or
quency (fewer cigarettes per smoker).
A change in cigarette taxes in Canada illustrates the sec- by 50% $_________. The implied interest rate is _________
ond effect, the new-smoker effect. in 1994, several provinces percent.
in eastern Canada cut their cigarette taxes in response to the
smuggling of cigarettes from the united States (where taxes are
lower), and the price of cigarettes in the provinces decreased
by roughly 50 percent. Researchers tracked the choices of CRITICAL THINKING
591 youths from the Waterloo Smoking Prevention Program and
As price decreases and we move downward along the market concluded that the lower price increased the smoking rate by
roughly 17 percent. Related to Exercises 1.6 and 1.8. 1. Consider a college graduate who is thinking about 4. Consider a student studying for a biology exam.
demand for cigarettes, the quantity of cigarettes demanded enrolling in law school. How would you compute the Would you expect study time to be subject to dimin-
increases for two reasons. First, people who smoked cigarettes
cost of a 3-year law degree? ishing returns? Suppose productivity is measured as
Stimulate Active Learning with Experiments
at the original price respond to the lower price by smoking
more. Second, some people start smoking.
SOURCES: (1) Anindya Sen and Tony Wirjanto, “Estimating the Impacts of Ciga-
2.Suppose you open a new food cart and must decide the anticipated increase in the exam score. Construct
rette Taxes on Youth Smoking Participation, Initiation, and Persistence: Empirical
in the united States, cigarette taxes vary across states, and how long to remain open. Explain how you would use a numerical example in which the first hour is twice as
Evidence from Canada,” Health Economics 19 (2010), pp. 1264–1280. (2) Chris-
studies of cigarette consumption patterns show that higher economic logic to make the decision. productive as the second hour, which is twice as pro-
Economics Experiment sections are available throughout
topher Carpentera and Philip J. Cook, “Cigarette Taxes and Youth Smoking: New
taxes mean less cigarette consumption by youths. using data Evidence from National, State, and Local Youth Risk Behavior Surveys,” Journal ductive as the third hour, and so on up to five hours
3. At the end of a party, Steph Curry must decide whether
from the youth Risk Behavior Surveys (ySBS), one study shows of Health Economics 27 (2008), pp. 287–299. of study.
the text, rolled
engaging students
a single station-with
to clean up his back yard by tossing discarded napkins
(conveniently into spheres) into 5. the opportunity to perform
Suppose you graduate from college with $40,000 in
ary trash can. Given his formidable 3-point skills, he student-loan debt. Over the 10 years it takes you to

The market demand is negatively sloped, reflecting the law of demand. This is
their own the
could complete economic
task in 3 minutes,analysis.
compared to repay the debt, do you prefer inflation or stable prices?
Suppose that after you repay your debt, you become a
an hour for a groundskeeper. Should he clear the dis-
Each Application has at least one related exercise available
sensible, because if each consumer obeys the law of demand, consumers as a group
will, too. When the price increases from $4 to $8, there is a change in quantity
carded napkins, or hire a groundskeeper? Explain. lender rather than a borrower. How will your prefer-
ences with respect to inflation change?
in MyLab Economics. These exercises can beis the
found
demanded as we move along the demand curve from point f to point c. The move-
ment along the demand curve occurs if the price of pizza inthatthe
only variable has

Application boxeschanged.
MyLab Economics Study Plan
in the eText with an opportunity for
MyLab Economics Concept Check
Economic Experiment
additional practiceThe
Learning Objective 4.2 inSupply
the StudyCurve Plan, and in the end-of- PRODUCING FOLD-ITS

chapter section. The Study


supply sidePlan gives
firms sellstudents
their products to personalized
Describe and explain the law of supply.
On the of a market, consumers. Suppose you Here is a simple economic experiment that takes about 15 minutes to four students, and so on. How does the number of fold-its change as
ask the manager of a firm, “How much of your product are you willing to produce and run. The instructor places a stapler and a stack of paper on a table. Stu- the number of workers increases?
recommendations,topractice opportunities, and learning aids
sell?” The answer is likely to be “it depends.” The manager’s decision about how much
produce depends on many variables, including the following, using pizza as an
dents produce “fold-its” by folding a page of paper in thirds and stapling
both ends of the folded page. One student is assigned to inspect each
to help them stay on track.
example: fold-it to be sure that it is produced correctly. The experiment starts
with a single student, or worker, who has 1 minute to produce as many
MyLab Economics
• The price of the product (e.g., the price per pizza) For additional economic experiments, please visit
fold-its as possible. After the instructor records the number of fold-its www.pearson.com/mylab/economics
• The wage paid to workers
produced, the process is repeated with two students, three students,
• The price of materials (e.g., the price of dough and cheese)
• The cost of capital (e.g., the cost of a pizza oven)
• The state of production technology (e.g., the knowledge used in making pizza)
• Producers’ expectations about future prices
• Taxes paid to the government or subsidies (payments from the government to
firms to produce a product) Single Player Experiments are also available in MyLab 45
quantity supplied
The amount of a product that firms are
Together, these variables determine how much of a product firms are willing to pro-
duce and sell, the quantity supplied. We start our discussion of market supply with Economics to engage students in economic decision-
willing and able to sell. the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity of that good supplied,
making. Experiments are an easy-to-use, fun, and engaging
way to promote active learning and mastery of important
M02_OSUL1098_10_SE_C02.indd 45 15/09/18 3:24 PM

economic concepts. Single-player experiments allow your


M04_OSUL1098_10_SE_C04.indd 66
students to play against virtual players from anywhere at
24/08/2018 18:32

any time so long as they have an Internet connection. Pre-


and post-questions for each experiment are available for
assignment.
Our macroeconomic world is rich with data. We help
students understand the importance of real and current data
through the incorporation of Real-Time-Data Analysis
Exercises in the Macroeconomics volume. The Real-Time-
Data Analysis Exercises, marked with , allow students
and instructors to use the very latest data from FRED. By
completing the exercises, students become familiar with
a key data source, learn how to locate data, and develop
important employability skills in interpreting data.
Students are often best motivated when they see the
relevance of what they’re learning to the world they live
in. The Current News Exercises available to students in
MyLab Economics help demonstrate the real world rele-
vance of these important concepts. Every week, microeco-
nomic and macroeconomic news stories and accompanying
exercises are posted to MyLab Economics. Assignable and
auto-graded, these multi-part exercises ask students to rec-
ognize and apply economic concepts to current events.

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 16 16/11/18 12:06 PM


xvii

Show the Big Picture with Five Key Thinking exercise will be available in MyLab Economics
Principles as an essay question. These open-ended, thought-pro-
voking questions challenge students to think more deeply
In Chapter 2, “The Key Principles of Economics,” we intro-
about and apply the key concepts presented within the
duce the following five key principles and then apply them
chapters.
throughout the book:
Illustrating the Key Principles of Economics
1. The Principle of Opportunity Cost. The opportu-
These big picture concepts are also well-illustrated in
nity cost of something is what you sacrifice to get it.
the figures and tables included in the text. Animated
2. The Marginal Principle. Increase the level of an activ- graphs in MyLab Economics help students understand
ity as long as its marginal benefit exceeds its marginal shifts in curves, movements along curves, and changes in
cost. Choose the level at which the marginal benefit equilibrium values. For every figure in the book, there is
equals the marginal cost. also an exercise directly related to that figure in MyLab
3. The Principle of Voluntary Exchange. A voluntary Economics.
exchange between two people makes both people bet-
ter off.
4. The Principle of Diminishing Returns. If we
increase one input while holding the other inputs fixed,
output will increase, but at a decreasing rate.
5. The Real-Nominal Principle. What matters to ­people
is the real value of money or income—its p ­ urchasing
power—not the face value of money or income.

This approach of repeating five key principles gives stu-


dents the big picture—the framework of economic reason-
ing. We make the key concepts unforgettable by using them
repeatedly, illustrating them with intriguing examples, and
giving students many opportunities to practice what they’ve
learned, such as the Concept Checks available in MyLab
Developing Employability Skills
Economics. For students to succeed in a rapidly changing job market,
they need thinking and communication skills. In addition,
Practicing the Principles they need to be informed about career options and the path-
Each section of each learning objective concludes with an way from college student to productive employee. This
online Concept Check that contains one or two multiple book—along with the MyLab—promotes skill development
choice, true/false, or fill-in questions. These checks act as and career awareness.
“speed bumps” that encourage students to stop and check We added a new section to Chapter 1 on page 10,
their understanding of fundamental terms and concepts “Employability: Economic Logic on the Job,” where we
before moving on to the next section. The goal of this dig- discuss how economics promotes the sort of critical think-
ital resource is to help students assess their progress on a ing and communication skills that employers value in their
section-by-section basis, so they can be better prepared for workers. Additionally, we discuss the role of economics in a
homework, quizzes, and exams. liberal-arts education in building thinking skills that make
The end-of-chapter exercises then test student under- a worker responsive to changes in the workplace. We also
standing of the concepts presented in each chapter. These point readers to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as a
exercises are available in MyLab Economics and include good source of information about career paths that start
multiple-choice, graph drawing, and free-response items, with course work in economics.
many of which are generated algorithmically so that each Economics is the science of choice, and the book
time a student works them, a different variation is presented. clearly illustrates the widespread application of econom-
New to this edition are accessible versions of exercises in ics. Throughout the book we use examples from business,
MyLab Economics that ask students to draw a graph. These government, and other organizations to show the practi-
accessible versions present the same question in a different cal deployment of economics to all sorts of decisions. This
form, which will allow every student the same opportunity approach applies economic concepts with real-world situa-
to practice their knowledge of the key principles explored tions, and thus imparts critical thinking skills to workers in
in the text. all sorts of organizations. We deliver these practical applica-
New to this edition are the Critical Thinking exercises tions in the text itself, as well as in chapter openers and 3 to
included in the end-of-chapter section. Every Critical 5 applications per chapter.

A01_OSUL2200_10_SE_FM.indd 17 16/11/18 12:06 PM


Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
shivering wounded, packed in the jolting carts or limping through the mud,
gave me, hardened as I was, a painful contraction of the heart. The best I
could do was to lift upon my worn-out horse one brave young fellow who
was hobbling along with a bandaged leg. Followed by the Cossack, whose
horse bore a similar burden, I hurried along, hoping to get under cover
before dark. At the entrance to the town numerous camp-fires burned in the
bivouacs of the refugees, who were huddled together in the shelter of their
wagons, trying to warm themselves in the smoke of the wet fuel. I could see
the wounded, as they were jolted past in the heavy carts, look longingly at
the kettles of boiling maize which made the evening meal of the houseless
natives.
Inside the town, the wounded and the refugees were still more miserable
than those we had passed on the way. Loaded carts blocked the streets.
Every house was occupied, and the narrow sidewalks were crowded with
Russian soldiers, who looked wretched enough in their dripping overcoats,
as they stamped their rag-swathed feet. At the corner, in front of the great
Khan, motley groups of Greeks, Bulgarians, and Russians were gathered,
listlessly watching the line of hobbling wounded as they turned the corner
to find their way among the carts, up the hill to the hospital, near the
Konak. By the time I reached the Khan the Cossack who accompanied me
had fallen behind in the confusion, and, without waiting for him, I pushed
along, wading in the gutter, dragging my horse by the bridle. Half-way up
the hill I saw a crowd of natives watching with curiosity two Russian
guardsmen and a Turkish prisoner. The latter was evidently exhausted, for
he was crouching in the freezing mud of the street. Presently the soldiers
shook him roughly, and raised him forcibly to his feet, and, half supporting
him between them, they moved slowly along, the Turk balancing on his
stiffened legs, and swinging from side to side.
He was a most wretched object to look at. He had neither boots nor fez;
his feet were bare, and his trousers were torn off near the knee, and hung in
tatters around his mud-splashed legs. An end of the red sash fastened to his
waist trailed far behind in the mud. A blue-cloth jacket hung loosely from
his shoulders, and his hands and wrists dangled from the ragged sleeves.
His head rolled around at each movement of the body, and at short intervals
the muscles of the neck would rigidly contract. All at once he drew himself
up with a shudder and sank down in the mud again.
The guardsmen were themselves near the end of their strength, and their
patience was well-nigh finished as well. Rough mountain marching had torn
the soles from their boots, and great, unsightly wraps of raw-hide and rags
were bound on their feet. The thin, worn overcoats, burned in many places,
flapped dismally against their ankles; and their caps, beaten out of shape by
many storms, clung drenched to their heads. They were in no condition to
help any one to walk, for they could scarcely get on alone. They stood a
moment shivering, looked at each other, shook their heads as if
discouraged, and proceeded to rouse the Turk by hauling him upon his feet
again. The three moved on a few yards, and the prisoner fell again, and the
same operation was repeated. All this time I was crowding nearer and
nearer, and as I got within a half-dozen paces, the Turk fell once more, and
this time lay at full length in the mud. The guardsmen tried to rouse him by
shaking, but in vain. Finally, one of them, losing all patience, pricked him
with his bayonet on the lower part of the ribs exposed by the raising of the
jacket as he fell. I was now near enough to act, and with a sudden clutch I
pulled the guardsman away, whirled him around, and stood in his place. As
I was stooping over the Turk he raised himself slowly, doubtless aroused by
the pain of the puncture, and turned on me a most beseeching look, which
changed at once into something like joy and surprise. Immediately a death-
like pallor spread over his face, and he sank back again with a groan.
By this time quite a crowd of Bulgarians had gathered around us, and
seemed to enjoy the sight of a suffering enemy. It was evident that they did
not intend to volunteer any assistance, so I helped the wounded Russian
down from my saddle, and invited the natives rather sternly to put the Turk
in his place. With true Bulgarian spirit they refused to assist a Turk, and it
required the argument of the raw-hide (nagajka) to bring them to their
senses. Three of them, cornered and flogged, lifted the unconscious man
and carried him towards the horse; the soldiers meanwhile, believing me to
be an officer, standing in the attitude of attention. As the Bulgarians bore
the Turk to the horse, a few drops of blood fell to the ground. I noticed then
that he had his shirt tied around his left shoulder, under his jacket.
Supported in the saddle by two natives on each side, his head falling
forward on his breast, the wounded prisoner was carried with all possible
tenderness to the Stafford House Hospital, near the Konak. As we moved
slowly up the hill, I looked back, and saw the two guardsmen sitting on the
muddy sidewalk, with their guns leaning against their shoulders—too much
exhausted to go either way.
I found room for my charge in one of the upper rooms of the hospital,
where he was washed and put into a warm bed. His wound proved to be a
severe one. A Berdan bullet had passed through the thick part of the left
pectoral, out again, and into the head of the humerus. The surgeon said that
the arm would have to be operated on, to remove the upper quarter of the
bone.
The next morning I went to the hospital to see what had become of the
wounded man, for the incident of the previous evening had made a deep
impression on my mind. As I walked through the corridor I saw a group
around a temporary bed in the corner. Some one was evidently about to
undergo an operation, for an assistant held at intervals a great cone of linen
over a haggard face on the pillow, and a strong smell of chloroform filled
the air. As I approached, the surgeon turned around, and, recognizing me,
said with a nod and a smile, “We are at work on your friend.” While he was
speaking, he bared the left shoulder of the wounded man, and I saw the
holes made by the bullet as it passed from the pectoral into the upper part of
the deltoid. Without waiting longer, the surgeon made a straight cut
downward from near the acromion through the thick fibre of the deltoid to
the bone. He attempted to sever the tendons so as to slip the head of the
humerus from the socket, but failed. He wasted no time in further trial, but
made a second incision from the bullet-hole diagonally to the middle of the
first cut, and turned the pointed flap up over the shoulder. It was now easy
to unjoint the bones, and but a moment’s work to saw off the shattered piece
of the humerus, tie the severed arteries, and bring the flap again into its
place.
There was no time to pause, for the surgeon began to fear the effects of
the chloroform on the patient. We hastened to revive him by every possible
means at hand, throwing cold water on him and warming his hands and feet.
Although under the influence of chloroform to the degree that he was
insensible to pain, he had not been permitted to lose his entire
consciousness, and he appeared to be sensible of what we were doing.
Nevertheless, he awoke slowly, very slowly, the surgeon meanwhile putting
the stitches in the incision. At last he raised his eyelids, made a slight
movement with his lips, and then deliberately surveyed the circle of faces
gathered closely around the bed. There was something in his eyes which
had an irresistible attraction for me, and I bent forward to intercept his gaze.
As his eyes met mine they changed as if a sudden light had struck them, and
the stony stare gave way to a look of intelligence and recognition. Then,
through the beard of a season’s growth, and behind the haggard mask before
me, I saw at once the circus-rider of Turin and Paris. I remember being
scarcely excited or surprised at the meeting, for a great sense of
irresponsibility came over me, and I involuntarily accepted the coincidence
as a matter of course. He tried in vain to speak, but held up his right hand
and feebly made with his fingers the sign of the letter which had played
such an important part in the story of his life. Even at that instant the light
left his eyes, and something like a veil seemed drawn over them. With the
instinctive energy which possesses every one when there is a chance of
saving human life, we redoubled our efforts to restore the patient to
consciousness. But while we strove to feed the flame with some of our own
vitality, it flickered and went out, leaving the hue of ashes where the rosy
tinge of life had been. His heart was paralyzed.
As I turned away, my eye caught the surgeon’s incision, which was now
plainly visible on the left shoulder. The cut was in the form of the letter Y.
TEDESCO’S RUBINA

A NY one may see among the fragments of antique sculpture in one of


the museums of Rome a marble head of a young maiden which has
been rudely broken off at the neck. It bears no marks of restoration, and
is mounted on the conventional pedestal or support. There is a half-
coquettish twinkle in the lines of the mouth and eyes, and a most
bewitching expression of innocent youthful happiness about the face, which
at once attract and fascinate the eye of even the most careless observer of
these relics of ancient art. The head is gracefully poised and exquisitely
proportioned, but is not conventionalized to the degree usual in busts of a
similar character. Indeed, notwithstanding its classical aspect, there is a
marked individuality of treatment noticeable in its composition, if I may so
call the arrangement of the hair and the pose of the head. The features are
small and regular; the chin a trifle too delicate, if possible, to complete the
full oval suggested by the upper part of the face; and the hair, in which a
wreath of ivy is twined, clusters in slender, irregular curls around a low
forehead, and is gathered behind in a loose knot. One tress of hair, escaping
from the embrace of the ivy-branch, caressingly clings to the neck. On the
pedestal is the label:
“A Roman Nymph—Fragment.”
Visiting the museum one day in company with two artist friends, I
pointed this head out to them as we were hastily passing through the room.
Like myself, they were enchanted with the fragment, and lingered to sketch
it. They were very long in making their sketches; and after they declared
them finished, shut their books with a resolute air, walked briskly off, but
returned again, one after the other, to take another look. At last I succeeded
in dragging them away; but while we were examining another part of the
collection, in an adjoining room, each disappeared in turn, and came back,
after a few minutes’ absence, with the volunteered excuse that he had found
it necessary to put a last touch on his drawing of the attractive fragment.
When we left the museum both of my infatuated friends had made
arrangements with the custodian to permit a moulder to come and take a
cast of the head.
The island of Capri is the most delightful spot in the Mediterranean.
Blessed with a fine climate, a comparatively fertile soil, and a contented
population, it is one of the best places accessible to the ordinary traveller in
which to spend a quiet season. In this refuge life does not sparkle, but
stagnates. Tired nerves recover their tone in the eventless succession of lazy
days. Overtaxed digestion regains its normal strength through the simple
diet, the pure air, and the repose of mind and body which are found in this
paradise. Of late years the island has become a great resort for artists of all
nationalities. Many good studios are to be had there; plenty of trained
models of both sexes and all ages are eager to work for trifling wages;
living is cheap, rents are by no means exorbitant, and subjects for pictures
abound at every step.
A few modern buildings of some pretensions to size and architectural
style have been erected within the last twenty or thirty years, but the greater
part of the houses on the island, both in the town of Capri and in the village
of Anacapri, are very old and exceedingly simple in construction. The
streets of the town are narrow and crooked, and twist about in a perfect
maze of tufa walls and whitewashed façades, straggling away in all
directions from the piazza. The dwellings of the poorer classes are jumbled
together along these narrow streets as if space were very valuable. They
overhang and even span the roadway at intervals, and frequently the flat
roof of one house serves as a loggia, or broad balcony, for the one above it.
Small gardens are sometimes cultivated on these housetops, and the
bleating of goats and cackling of hens are often heard in the shrubbery
there. Not the least among the many attractions of Capri are its historical
relics. Ruined Roman villas and palaces abound all over the hills; traces of
ancient baths and grottos of the nymphs may be seen along the water’s
edge; and fragments of Roman architecture are built into every wall, and
into almost every house. The peculiar geological formation of the island
furnishes the excuse for a variety of short and pleasant excursions; for there
are numbers of interesting caves, strange rock forms, and grandly
picturesque cliffs and cañons within easy reach by sea or by land.
When I was in Capri, there was one remarkably pretty girl among the
models, called Lisa. She was only fifteen years old, but, like the usual type
of Southern maiden, was as fully developed as if she were three or four
years older. Her father and mother were dead, and she lived with her great-
grandmother in a small house of a single room in a narrow street which ran
directly under my bedroom. None of the houses of the quarter where my
studio and apartment were situated had glass in the windows, but the
interiors were lighted, like those of the ancient Romans, by square holes
provided with wooden shutters. From the rude window in my bedroom, and
also from the loggia in front of the studio, I could look directly down into
the small dwelling below, and at all times of the day could see the old
woman knitting in the shadow just inside the open door, and Lisa flitting
about, busy with the primitive housekeeping. Whenever I wanted the girl to
sit for me, I had only to call down and she would come up to the studio. It
takes but a few days to become intimately acquainted with the simple-
hearted islanders, and in a short time the old woman grew very friendly and
communicative. At my invitation she frequently came to sit on the loggia,
whence she could look over the sea, towards the south, to watch for
returning coral fishermen, or on the other side, to the north and east, where
Naples shimmered in the sun, and Vesuvius reared its sombre cone. She was
not comely to look upon, for she was wrinkled beyond belief, and her
parchment skin was the color of oak-tanned leather. She often said that Lisa
was the image of her own family, but I could trace no resemblance between
the blooming maid and the withered dame. The chief beauty of the young
girl’s face, or at least the most remarkable feature of it, was the eyes, which
were of a deep-blue gray, almost as brilliant as the rich, dark ones common
to the Italian type, but more unique and more charming in contrast with the
olive-tinted skin and black hair. The old woman’s eyes were as dark as
those of the generality of her race, and apparently but little dimmed by her
great age. All over the island she had the reputation of being the oldest
inhabitant; but as she could not remember the date of her birth—if, indeed,
she ever knew it—and as there had been no records kept at the time she was
born, there was no means of proving the truth or the falsity of the tales
about her wonderful age. She bore everywhere the peculiar name of La
Rubina di Tedesco—Tedesco’s Rubina—the significance of which,
although it was variously explained by common tradition, had really been
forgotten more than a generation before, and was now known only to
herself. The islanders are fond of giving nicknames, and I should not have
remarked this one among so many others if it had not been for the word
Tedesco, which in Italian means German. My curiosity was excited on this
account, to discover what the name really meant and why it had been given
to her.
In the long summer twilights I used to talk with the old woman by the
hour, or rather I used to listen to her by the hour, for without a word of
encouragement from me she would drone on in her queer patois in the
garrulous way very old people have, elaborating the details of the most
trivial incidents, and rehearsing the intimate family history of all her
numerous acquaintances. She looked upon me with the more favor because
it happened that I was the only artist who employed Lisa, and consequently
furnished all the money for the support of the small household. Relying on
the position I held in her esteem as patron, and cannily increasing her
obligation to me by various small presents, I schemed for a long time to
make her tell the history of her own life. She had an aggravating way of
either utterly ignoring all questions on this subject, or else of taking refuge
in a series of wails on the change in the times and on the degeneracy of the
islanders. By degrees and at long intervals I did, however, succeed in
getting a full account of her early life and of the origin of her popular name.
Long ago, even long before any steamers were seen on the Bay of
Naples, two young Germans—a sculptor and an architect—wandered down
to Capri, to study the antiquities of the island. They were both captivated by
the beauties of the spot, by the delights of the pastoral life they led there,
and possibly also by the charms of the island maidens, who even then had a
wide reputation for beauty, and they consequently stayed on indefinitely.
Rubina was then a girl of fourteen, and held the enviable position of belle of
Anacapri. The sculptor, whose name was Carl Deutsch, somehow made the
acquaintance of the beauty, and after a time persuaded her to sit to him. He
first made a bust in wax, and then began to work it out in marble, using for
his material an antique block found in one of the ruined palaces of Tiberius.
Days and weeks he toiled over this bust, and as he worked he grew
hopelessly in love with his model. As time passed, the islanders, with their
usual freedom with foreigners’ names, translated Carl Deutsch into its
Italian equivalent, Carlo Tedesco, and Rubina, who was constantly
employed by the sculptor as a model, was naturally called Tedesco’s
Rubina.
Then on the peaceful island was enacted the same old tragedy that has
been played all over the world myriads of times before and since. Tedesco’s
friend, the architect, also fell in love with the model, and took advantage of
the sculptor’s preoccupation with his work to gain the girl’s affection. Early
in the morning, while his friend was engaged in preparing his clay and
arranging his studio for the day, he would toil up the six hundred stone steps
which led to the village of Anacapri, on the plateau above, meet Rubina,
and accompany her down as far as the outskirts of the town. Then often, at
the close of the day, when the sculptor, oppressed with the hopeless feeling
of discouragement and despair which at times comes over every true artist,
would give up his favorite stroll with Rubina and remain to gaze at his work
and ponder over it, the architect would be sure to take his place. So it went
on to the usual climax. Rubina, flattered by the assiduous attentions of the
one, and somewhat piqued by the frequent fits of absent-mindedness and
preoccupation of the other, at last reluctantly gave her consent to marry the
architect, who planned an elopement without exciting a suspicion on the
part of the sculptor that his idol was stolen from him. The faithless friend,
pretending to the innocent girl that, being of different religions, it was
necessary for them to go to the mainland to be married, sailed away with
her one morning at daybreak without the knowledge of any one save the
two men who were hired to row them to Naples. Where they went, and how
long they lived together, I could not find out, for she would not open her
lips about that portion of her history. Only after a great deal of persuasive
interrogation did I learn that when she came back she brought with her a
girl baby a few months old. It was always believed in the village that her
husband had died. I drew my own inference about the circumstances of her
return.
When she reached the island, Tedesco had long since disappeared, and,
although there were no absolute proofs, he was thought to be dead. For
months after he had learned of the faithlessness of both sweetheart and
friend he had been seen very little outside his studio. What he did there was
not known, for he invited nobody to enter. Even the neighbor’s wife who
had done the housekeeping for the two young men did not see the interior
of the studio after Rubina ran away. She gossiped of the sculptor to the
women down the street, and they all shook their heads, touched their
foreheads significantly with index-fingers, and sadly repeated, “Un po’
matto, un po’ matto”—“A little mad.” Several weeks passed after the flight
of the young couple, and then the sculptor was observed nearly every
morning to walk over one of the hills in the direction of a high cliff.
Sometimes he was absent but a few hours, but on other days he did not
return until night. At length, towards the end of winter, he gave up his
studio and apartment without a word of his plans to any one. When he had
departed, carrying the few articles of clothing which were kept in the outer
room, the housekeeper entered the studio and found, to her astonishment,
that, with the sculptor, all traces of his work had disappeared.
After a while it was discovered that he had taken up his abode in a
certain cave near the water’s edge, at the foot of the cliff, along the top of
which he had been frequently seen walking. This cave had always been
considered approachable only from the water side; but some men who were
fishing for cuttlefish near the shore had seen the mad sculptor clamber
down the precipice and enter the mouth of the cave, which was half closed
by accumulated rubble and sand. The fishermen, of course, exaggerated
their story, and the simple islanders, who always regard a demented person
with awe, came to believe that the sculptor possessed superhuman strength
and agility; and, although their curiosity concerning his mode of life and
occupation was much excited, their superstitious fears prevented them from
interfering with him or attempting to investigate his actions. At long
intervals the hermit would appear in the piazza, receive his letters, buy a
few articles of food, and disappear again, not to be seen for weeks.
Summer passed and a second winter came on, and with it a succession of
unusually severe storms. During one of these long gales the sea rose several
feet, and the breakers beat against the rocks with terrific force. On the
weather side of the island all the boats which had not been hauled up much
higher than usual were dashed to pieces. No one dared to leave the island,
and there was no communication with the mainland for nearly two weeks.
After that storm the sculptor was never seen again. Some fishermen
ventured into the mouth of the cave, now washed clear of rubbish, but
discovered nothing. It was therefore believed that the hermit, with all his
belongings, was swept out to sea by the waves. Of late years no one had
visited the cave, because the military guard stationed near by to prevent the
people from gathering salt on the rocks, and thus evading the payment of
the national tax on this article, had prohibited boats from landing there. This
prohibition was strengthened by the orders which forbade the exploration of
any of the Roman ruins or grottos on the island by persons not employed
for that purpose by the government. Several years before, the authorities
had examined all the ruins. They had carried to Naples all the antiquities
they could find, and then had put a penalty on the explorations of the
islanders, to whom the antiquities are popularly supposed to belong by right
of inheritance. This regulation had created a great deal of bad feeling,
particularly since several peasants had been fined and imprisoned for
simply digging up a few relics to sell to travellers.
I asked the old woman what became of her child, for she did not readily
volunteer any information concerning her.
“Ah, signor padrone,” she said, “she was a perfect little German, with
hair as blond as the fleece of the yellow goats. She was a good child, but
was never very strong. She married a coral fisherman when she was
seventeen, and died giving birth to Lisa’s mother. Poor thing! May the
blessed Maria, mother of God, rest her soul! Lisa’s mother was blond also,
but with hair like the flame of sunset. She was a fine, strong creature, and
could carry a sack of salt up the steps to Anacapri as well as any girl in the
village—yes, even better than any other. She married a custom-house
officer and moved to Naples, where she had meat on her table once every
blessed week. But even in her prosperity the misfortunes of the family
followed her, and the cholera carried off her husband, herself, and a boy
baby—may their souls rest in Paradise!—leaving Lisa alone in the world
but for me, who have lived to see all this misery and all these changes.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Lisa resembles her mother only in her eyes.
All the rest of her is Caprian. Ah me! ah me! She’s the image of what I was,
except her eyes. By the grace of God I am able to see it! May the Virgin
spare her to suffer—” and so on to the end of the chapter of mingled family
history and invocations.
Lisa resemble her? I thought. Impossible. What! that wrinkled skin ever
know the bloom of youth like that on Lisa’s cheek; that sharp chin ever
have a rounded contour; that angular face ever show as perfect an oval as
the one fringed by the wavy hair straggling out from Lisa’s kerchief? Did
that mask, seared with the marks of years of suffering, privation, and toil,
ever bear the sweet, bewitching expression which in Lisa’s face haunts me
with a vague, half-remembered fascination? Never! It cannot be!
This history of a love-tragedy, enacted when Goethe was still walking
among the artificial antiquities in the groves of Weimar had a curious charm
for me. I patiently listened to hours of irrelevant gossip and uninteresting
description of family matters before I succeeded in getting together even as
meagre a thread of the story as the one I have just repeated. The old woman
had a feeble memory for recent events and dates, but she seemed to be able
to recollect as well as ever incidents which took place at the beginning of
the century. She retailed the scandals of fifty years ago with as much delight
as if the interested parties had not all of them long since been followed to
the hillside graveyard or been buried in the waste of waters in that
mysterious region known as the coral fisheries.
Partly in order to test the accuracy of her memory, and partly to satisfy
my curiosity, I persuaded her to show me the place where the sculptor used
to walk along the edge of the cliff. I had previously taken a look at the cave
from the water, and knew its position in relation to the cliff, but had never
been able to discover how the German had succeeded in clambering up and
down. Accordingly, one Sunday afternoon, when most of the islanders were
in church, she hobbled along with me a short distance up the hillside and
pointed out the spot where the children had seen the mad sculptor vanish in
the air. This place was marked by a projecting piece of rock, which cropped
out of the turf on the very edge of the cliff, not at its highest point, but at
some distance down the shoulder of the hill, where it had been broken sheer
off in the great convulsion of nature which raised the isolated, lofty island
above the sea. I could not induce her to go within a dozen rods or more of
the edge of the cliff, and, having shown me the spot I wished to find, she
hobbled homeward again.
There was no path across the hill in any direction, and the scant grass
was rarely trodden except by the goats and their keepers. On that Sunday
forenoon there was no one in sight except, a long distance off, a shepherd
watching a few goats. Thinking it a favorable opportunity to investigate the
truth of the story about the sculptor, I walked up to the very brink of the
precipice and lay down flat on the top of the piece of rock pointed out by
the old woman, and cautiously looked over the abyss. The cliff below me
was by no means sheer, for it was broken by a number of irregular shelf-like
projections, a few inches wide, upon which loose bits of falling stone had
caught from time to time. Cautiously looking over the cliff, I saw at once
that it would be possible for me to let myself down to the first irregular
projection, or bench, provided I could get some firm hold for my hands. The
turf afforded no such hold, and at the very edge, where it was crumbled by
the weather, it was so broken as to be dangerous to stand on. I looked along
the smooth, perpendicular ledge, but found no ring to fasten a rope to and
no marks of any such contrivance. A careful search in the immediate
neighborhood disclosed no signs of a wooden post or stake, or, indeed,
anything which would serve as an anchor for a hand rope. I lay down and
hung over the cliff, to see if I could discover any traces of a ladder, marks
of spikes, tell-tale streaks of iron-rust, or anything to show how the descent
had been made. Nothing of the kind was visible.
Far below, the great expanse of turquoise sea, stained with the shadows
of summer clouds, seemed to rise with a convex surface to meet the sky at
the distant horizon line. Away off to the south, towards Stromboli and
Sicily, a few sails, minute white dots relieved against the delicate blue
water, hung motionless, as if suspended in an opalescent ether. To the left
the green shores of the mainland stretched away to hazy Pæstum. To the
right the headland of Anacapri rose majestically against the tender summer
sky, and a bank of cumulus clouds was reflected in the smooth sea. Beneath
screamed a flock of sea-gulls, sailing hither and thither in graceful flight.
While dreaming over the beauty of the scene before me, I suddenly
caught sight out of the very corner of my eye, as it were, of a crevice in the
ledge beside me, almost hidden by the grass which grew tall against the
rock. Hastily tearing the grass away with my right hand, I found that this
cleft, which was only a couple of inches wide at the most, continued
downward along the face of the cliff in a slanting direction, rapidly
diminishing in width until it lost itself or became a simple crack in the rock.
With my knife and fingers I dug the cleft out clean, as far in as I could
reach, expecting to find an iron rod or a spike or something to which a rope
could be fastened. But I was again disappointed, for there were no signs of
iron and no visible marks of man’s handiwork. Whether this was an
artificial excavation in the rock, or merely an accidental irregularity, I could
not determine, but it made a perfect hold for the hand, like an inverted
draw-pull. The moment I discovered this I saw how the descent could easily
be accomplished, and without stopping to reflect I clutched my right hand
firmly in the cleft and swung off the cliff. My feet struck a pile of loose
stones, but I soon kicked them off, made a solid foothold for myself, and
then cautiously turned around. The wall of rock pitched backward
sufficiently for me to lean up against it, with my face to the sea, and stand
there perfectly secure. When I turned again and stood facing the rock, my
head was above the edge of the cliff so that I could overlook quite an area
of the hilltop. Before attempting to descend the cliff I thought it prudent to
test my ability to reach the turf again. Seizing the cleft with the fingers of
my right hand, and clutching the irregularities of the edge of the rock with
my left, I easily swung myself upon my chest, and then upon my knees, and
stood on the turf. Elated now by my success, I let myself over the edge
again, and began the difficult task of picking my way down the face of the
cliff. By diligently kicking and pushing the rubble from the bench I was on,
I slowly made my way along, steadying myself as well as I could by putting
my fingers in the crevices of the rock. In two places I found three or four
holes, which had the appearance of having been artificially made, and by
the aid of these I let myself down to the second and third projecting
benches. From this point the descent was made without much difficulty,
although I carefully refrained from casting my eyes seaward during the
whole climb. Fortunately I was on the face of the cliff, which was at a
receding angle, and consequently was not swept by the telescope of the
guard on the beach to the right, and I finished the descent and reached a
point to the left of the mouth of the cave, and on a level with it, without any
interruption. I was too much fatigued to care to risk discovery by the guard
in entering the cave, which was in full sight of his station; so, after resting
awhile on the rocks, I clambered up the path I had come, and found that the
ascent, though toilsome, was not particularly difficult.
I told no one of my adventure, not even the old woman; but early the
next Sunday morning I went down the cliff again, unobserved as before,
and, watching my chance when the guard was sweeping the shore to the
right with his glass, I stole into the cave. It was an irregular hole, perhaps
thirty feet deep at its greatest length, and not over ten feet high in any part.
Three shallow, alcove-like chambers led off the main room. These were all
three nearly full of gravel, sand, and disintegrated rock, and the floor of the
whole cavern was covered with this same accumulation. There were
plentiful marks of the labors of the Italian antiquarians, for the ground had
all been dug up, and the last shallow pits which had been excavated to the
bed-rock had not been refilled.
With no settled purpose I took up a piece of an old spade I found there,
and began to dig on one side of the cave near the largest alcove. The
accumulation was not packed hard, and I easily threw it aside. I had
removed a few feet of earth without finding anything to reward my labors,
and then began to dig in the heap of rubbish which was piled in the alcove,
nearly touching its low ceiling. Almost the first shovelful of earth I threw
out had a number of small gray tesseræ in it. Gathering these up and taking
them to the light, I found that part of them were of marble, or other light-
colored stone; but that a few were of glass with a corroded surface, which
could be clipped off with great ease, disclosing beautiful iridescent cubes
underneath. The whole day was passed in this work, for I was much
interested in my discovery. The tesseræ were of no great value, to be sure,
but they proved that the cave had been used by the Romans, probably as a
grotto of the nymphs, and they were certainly worth keeping in a private
collection. Possibly not a little of the charm of the operation of excavating
was due to the element of danger in it. The guard was stationed less than a
rifle-shot away, and if I had been discovered, fine and possibly
imprisonment would have been my lot.
To make a long story short, I made several excursions to the cave in the
same manner, and dug nearly the whole ground in a systematic way, leaving
until the last a small alcove near the mouth of the cave, because I found
very few tesseræ anywhere in the strong daylight. Everything which was
not a simple, uninteresting piece of stone or shell I stowed away in a bag
and carried to my studio. In a few Sundays I had a peck or more of tesseræ,
a quarter of them glass ones, and a great many bits of twisted glass rod and
small pieces of glass vessels. One day the spade turned out, among other
things, several small pieces of brown, porous substance which looked in the
dim light like decayed wood. I put them in the bag with the rest, to be
examined at my leisure at home. The next morning, when I came to turn out
the collection gathered the day before, these curious pieces fell out with the
rest, and immediately attracted my attention. In the strong light of day, I
saw at once what they were. They were the decayed phalanges of a human
hand. The story of Tedesco and Rubina was always in my mind; and I
compared the bones with my own fingers, and found them to be without
doubt the bones of an adult, and probably of a man.
I could scarcely wait for the next Sunday to arrive, but I did not dare to
risk the descent of the cliff on a week-day lest I should be seen by the
fishermen. When at last I did reach the cave again, I went at my work with
vigor, continuing my search in the place where I left off the previous week.
In a short time I unearthed several more bones similar to those I already
had, but, although I thoroughly examined every cubic foot of earth which I
had not previously dug over, I found no more of the skeleton.
In my studio that evening I arranged the little bones as well as I could in
the positions they had occupied in the human hand. As far as I could make
out, I had the thumb, the first and third fingers and one joint of the second,
three of the bones of the hand, and one of the wrist-bones. There could be
no question but these had once belonged to a human hand, and to the right
hand, too. There was no means of knowing how long ago the person had
died, neither could there be any possible way of identifying these human
relics. The possession of the grewsome little objects seemed to set my
imagination on fire. After going to bed at night I often worked myself into a
state of disagreeable nervous tension by meditating on the history of the
sculptor, and revolving in my mind the theories I had formed of the mystery
of his life and the manner of his death. For some reason the old woman had
never told me where his studio had been, and it never occurred to me to ask
her until the thought suddenly came during one of these night-hours of
wakefulness. When I put the question to her the next afternoon, she replied,
simply:
“This studio was his, signor padrone.”
The poor old soul had been living her life over again, day after day, as
she sat knitting and looking out to sea, her imagination quickened and her
memory refreshed by the surroundings which in many decades had scarcely
changed at all.
This information gave a new stimulus to my thoughts, and I lay awake
and pondered and surmised more than ever. There seemed to be something
hidden away in my own consciousness, which was endeavoring to work its
way into recognition. It would almost come in range of my mental vision,
and then would lose itself again, just as some well-known name will
coquettishly elude the grasp of the memory. While lying awake in a real
agony of thought, a vague feeling would enter my mind for an instant, that I
had only to interpret what I already knew, and the mystery of my
imagination would be clear to me. Then I would revolve and revolve again
all the details of the story, but the fugitive idea always escaped me. With
that discouraging persistence which is utterly beyond our control, whenever
great anxiety weighs upon our minds, I would repeat, again and again, the
same series of arguments and the same line of theories until at last, utterly
worn out, I would go to sleep. It was quite inexplicable that I should think
so much about a sculptor of whom I had never heard, except from Tedesco’s
Rubina, and who died long before I was born; but, in spite of my reason, I
could not rid myself of the vague consciousness that there was something I
was unwittingly hiding from myself.
One warm night in summer I sat up quite late writing letters, and then,
thinking I should go to sleep at once on account of my fatigue, went to bed.
But sleep came only after some hours, and even then not until I had stood
for a long time looking out of the window on the moonlit houses below,
with my bare feet on the cold stone floor. The first thought that came to my
head, as I awoke the next morning, was about that marble head I had seen in
Rome a year before. The dark page of my mind became illuminated in an
instant. I did not need to summon Lisa to note the resemblance of her face
to the marble one which had so fascinated me, for I was familiar enough
with her features to require no aid to my memory. Besides, I had a fairly
accurate study of her head on my easel, and I compared the face on the
canvas with the marble one which I now remembered so vividly. There was
the identical contour of the cheeks and forehead, with the hyper-delicate
chin; the nose, the mouth, the eyes, each repeated the forms of the marble
bust. It was the color alone that gave the painting its modern aspect, and it
had been, I now saw, my preoccupation with the color which had prevented
my observing the resemblance before. The only thing my portrait lacked, as
a representation of the model from whom the marble was made, was that
fascinating expression of girlhood, which, I was obliged to confess to
myself, I had not succeeded in catching.
Full of my discovery, I wrote at once to the authorities in Rome, asking
for a history of the fragment.
In a few days I received the not unexpected information that it had been
given by the Naples Museum in exchange for another piece of antique
sculpture. I hurried across to Naples and interviewed the authorities there,
requesting precise statements about the bust, on the plea that I was
interested in the particular period of art which it represented. In the list of
objects of antiquity excavated in the summer of 18—, I found this entry,
under the head of Capri:
“Female head with ivy wreath in hair—Marble—Broken off at neck—
No other fragments discovered. Mem.: This probably belonged to a statue
of a sea-nymph, as it was found in a grotto with the remains of mosaic
pavement and ceiling.”
In return for this information I gave the authorities my sincere thanks,
but not my secret.
Three years later I met my two artist friends in New York. Like all who
have torn themselves away from the enchanting influences of Italy, we
reviewed with delight every incident of our sojourn there, not forgetting the
visit to the museum in Rome. Two plaster copies of the head had been
made, and the mould then broken.
In each of the studios the plaster head occupied the place of honor, and
its owner exhausted the choicest terms of art phraseology in its praise.
Foolish fellows, they could not escape from the potent spell of its
bewitching expression, and, burdened with the weight of the sentimental
secret, each of them took occasion, privately and with great hesitation and
shamefacedness, to confess to me that he had stolen away, while we were
together in the museum in Rome, to kiss the marble lips of the fascinating
fragment.
To each of them I made the same remark:
“My dear fellow, if you were so foolish as to fall in love with a marble
head, and a fragment at that, what would you have done in my place? I was
intimately acquainted with the model who sat for it!”
MEDUSA’S HEAD

H ENRY SEYMOUR fancied he was a realist. Indeed, he was very much


annoyed when his work was described by an art critic as idealistic, or
when he was alluded to in the art columns as “a rising young artist
quite out of place in the realistic circle to which he affects to belong.” But
the bias of mind which prevented him from recognizing the real qualities in
his own productions, equally hindered him from accomplishing what was
his present highest ambition—an accurate and realistic imitation of nature.
In common with the large majority of the young artists of the day, he
studied two or three years in Europe, notably in Paris, where he learned to
believe, or fancied he believed, that the most hopeful tendency of modern
art consisted in the elimination of all idea and all sentiment from the motive
of a picture, and the glorification of the naturalistic and, if I may say so,
earthly qualities of the model.
After his return from the ateliers of Paris, Seymour divided his time
between the apotheosis of rags and squalor and the delineation of the
features of the New York banker, broker, or insurance president, with an
occasional excursion into the field of female portraiture, which was opened
to him through the large and influential circle of friends and acquaintances
of his family. His efforts in this direction frequently resulted in popular and
artistic success, and after a season or two gained for him a profitable and
exceedingly agreeable line of sitters. A strange jumble of millionaires,
bootblacks, society ladies, and beggar-women covered the canvases that
encumbered his studio. The portraits went away in their turn, but the
pictures, after brief absences at exhibitions, remained his own property,
testifying to the practical worthlessness of the encouragement of his
comrades, who would sniff at his portraits of ladies and gentlemen, and
prostrate themselves before his studies of gutter-snipe. It must be
understood that no one of his artistic clique disapproved of his painting
society portraits, for they had all adopted some means of gaining a
livelihood outside of the special line of art which they, in their mistaken
zeal, believed to be the only true and worthy one. Most of his comrades
taught in the art schools of the city; some of the more fortunate ones
conducted highly profitable private classes, where, at an enormously
extravagant price per season, they actively stimulated and encouraged the
artistic illusions of wealthy young ladies, and helped them to acquire a
superficial and dangerous facility, which, for a future mistress of a house, is
the most useless accomplishment imaginable.
Seymour was of an energetic and enterprising turn of mind, and if it had
not been for his unwavering devotion to his artistic creed, he would have
speedily made a wide reputation for himself as a painter with an original
and charming talent. But accident of situation had exposed him to the
contagion of realism, and the fever which seized him in Paris was now kept
alive, in a milder form to be sure, by association with the young painters in
New York, who had been abroad the same time as himself. After two
seasons at home he found his studio too small and inconvenient, and he
turned a stable in the spacious back yard of his father’s house, on one of the
cross streets near Fifth Avenue, into a fine studio, with a side and top light,
and transported thither his easels, his bric-à-brac, and the lares and penates
of his Bohemian quarters. The new studio was entered by a porte-cochère at
one side of the house, and was therefore as isolated and private as if it stood
in the centre of an acre of ground.
Among the sitters who came to him in his new studio was Miss Margaret
Van Hoorn, the only daughter of a well-known wealthy man, who had a
stalwart pride in his Knickerbocker origin, and boasted generations of
opulent Van Hoorns before him. Miss Van Hoorn was not an ordinary
society belle, but an intelligent, capable, sensible girl, and a favorite no less
for the charm of her personal character than for a distinguished type of face
and figure, which would stimulate the ambition of the most worn and weary
portrait-painter.
Here, then, was Seymour’s golden opportunity. He recognized it, and
began to make the most of it by starting to paint a portrait of the young lady
in a party dress. It had hitherto been his custom to deny to his sitters the
privilege of watching his work in its various stages, but he was unable to
refuse Miss Van Hoorn’s request that she might be permitted to see the
portrait in progress. Her desire to watch his work was excusable, because
she had already taken lessons in painting, and had some little knowledge of
technique. After the first sitting was over she occupied the divan under the
large window, and chatted cheerfully an hour or more, thus initiating an
intimacy which grew rapidly as the sittings went on. The painter, as long as
he had his palette on his thumb, looked upon his sitter as a sort of
automaton, watched the pure lines of her neck and arms with no conscious
feeling except that of keen anxiety to reproduce their grace, and studied the
mobile turn of the lips and the varying curve of the eyelids with a single-
minded desire to catch something of their charm and fix it on the canvas.
But soon another element crept insensibly into the relation between sitter
and painter, and long before it was recognized by either of them, became a
potent factor in the growing problem. Miss Van Hoorn first began to
question Seymour about his artistic creed, then showed an interest in his
early life, thus encouraging the artist to talk about himself. She grew bold in
criticising his work, and even modestly declared her disapproval of the
confusion of his studio, and occasionally gave to the arrangement of the
objects a few of those skilful feminine touches which add an indefinable
charm to any interior. The artist, in his turn, suggested books for her to read,
frequently joined her in the box at the Metropolitan Opera-house,
accompanied her to picture exhibitions, and even advised her as to the color
and style of dress most suited to her complexion and figure. They were all
the while under the protection of that unwritten social law which grants a
certain brief license to sitter and painter, which, like the freedom of a picnic
or an excursion party, usually lasts no longer than the conditions which
make this freedom innocent and desirable.
“Mr. Seymour,” said the sitter one day, “why don’t you paint an ideal
subject, something classical or poetical?”
“I’m a realist, Miss Van Hoorn, and I have come to the conclusion, since
I began your portrait, that I had better stick to copper pots and cabbages.”
“But no one cares for copper pots and cabbages, even if the former do
have the sheen of burnished gold, and the latter sparkle with dew-drop
jewels. I think every painter ought to paint something more than the surface
of things.”
“How about Vollon and—”
“You know,” she interrupted, “I am not far enough along, as you call it,
to appreciate the wild combinations of color and the hodge-podge of
splashes and dashes affected by the modern school. I have tried to acquire
this taste under your tuition, but I cannot do it. I shall always believe in the
verdict of past centuries, that good art has its reason in the immortalization
of the beautiful.”
“But there’s Terburg—” he began.
“Raphael,” she interrupted.
“Van der Meer de Delft,” he suggested.
“Botticelli,” she argued, and so the conversation went on, and at last
ended, as discussions on religion, politics, and art always do, in each
declaring unwavering adherence to original views.
Excursions to the art galleries and to the Metropolitan Museum were
often the result of these little flutters; but although neither the artist nor the
sitter would confess to the least disturbance of artistic faith, Seymour
actually began, before he knew why, to select an ideal subject. Several
motives from classical poetry, from mythology, and from modern writers
came to his mind, and he was unable to decide, nor did he know that he
really cared to fix on any one of them. Meanwhile the sittings continued,
and the portrait approached completion. Suddenly one day a compromise
suggested itself to the painter, how or why he never knew, and he quietly
remarked, “Miss Van Hoorn, I am going to paint a Medusa’s head.”
“Horrid,” she said, frankly. “I hate snakes.”
Seymour was somewhat discouraged by her impulsive disapproval of his
subject, but, nevertheless, warmly defended his choice, and was all the
more eloquent, perhaps, because he felt that she had recognized his
ingenious compromise between idealism and realism. He insisted that the
proportions of her face had suggested the subject to him, and was so serious
in his assertion that she was in this degree responsible for his choice of
motive, that she finally yielded to his eager solicitation, and consented to sit
for the eyes and mouth of the Medusa’s head.
The same afternoon he went down-town to a shop near the docks, where
all kinds of birds, animals, and reptiles were sold alive—a sort of depot, in
fact, for the dime museums and small menageries—and bought a box of a
dozen moccasin snakes recently arrived from the South. He selected this
variety on account of the venomous appearance of the small heads, the
repulsive thickness of the bodies, and the richness of color of the mottled
scales, intending to make a close study of all the characteristics of this
variety of the serpent. He could in this way heighten the contrast which he
proposed to make between the calm beauty of the woman’s face and the
repulsiveness of the serpent locks. He ordered the box to be sent to his
studio the same afternoon, and spent that evening in blocking out on the
canvas a charcoal sketch of the head he had in his mind.
The following day was Sunday, and during the night a severe cold wave,
accompanied by a blizzard of unusual severity, began to sweep over the
city. Early on Monday morning the artist went around into the studio, and
was surprised to find that the snow had blown in through the ventilator, and
that the temperature was very low, notwithstanding the fact that a fire had
been kept up all the time in the great magazine stove. His first thought was
for the snakes, and, by no means certain that they were not already frozen,
he moved the box near the fire, closed the ventilators in the roof of the
studio, opened the dampers in the stove, and shook the grate, so as to start
the fire more briskly.
It was the last day Miss Van Hoorn could come, because she was about
to accompany her family to Florida for a few weeks, and in order to sit a
little for the picture she had promised to come earlier than usual.
Seymour, like all who were not obliged to brave the blizzard on that now
memorable Monday, had no idea of the severity of the storm which was
raging, and was not surprised, therefore, at the appearance of his sitter
shortly after nine o’clock. She was accompanied, as usual, by her maid and
by her pug-dog. Miss Van Hoorn never looked more charming than she did
at that moment, for her cheeks were ruddy with the cold, and her eyes
sparkled with the excitement of the drive.
“Do you know,” she said, “we came very near not getting here. The
drifts were so high that John was scarcely able to get the horses through the
street; and as for the cold, I never felt anything like it. There now, I do
believe I have left my opera cloak at home, and you must finish the drapery
to-day. You’ll have to run back and bring it,” she added, turning to her
maid. “I don’t think the storm is as bad as it was; the wind does not sound
so loud, at any rate.”
The maid courageously set out on her walk, but before she crossed the
avenue was blown down, half smothered with the snow and half frozen, and
was finally rescued by a policeman, who carried her into the basement of
the nearest house, where she was obliged to remain the larger part of the
day.
Meanwhile the artist and his sitter sat for a long time beside the fire,
expecting the return of the maid at every moment. Almost the first thing
Miss Van Hoorn noticed was the box of snakes, and, although she was
horrified and disgusted at the first sight of them, soon began to look at them
with interest, because the artist was so enthusiastic about the use he
proposed to make of them, and so full of the picture he had begun. The
glass in front of the box was slightly clouded by vapor condensed by the
change in temperature, and in order to examine more closely the beautiful
colors of the scales, Seymour took out the glass, placed it on top of the box,
and went to get a paint-rag to wipe off the vapor. The moccasins made no
sign of life.
Miss Van Hoorn was very much interested in the charcoal sketch of the
head, criticised it frankly and freely, and they both grew quite absorbed in
the changes the artist rapidly made in the proportions of the face. The loud
striking of the antique clock soon reminded them, however, that the hour for
the sitting was long past, and that the portrait was of more present
importance than the embryonic picture.
The artist was shortly busy with his painting, and the sitter, now well
accustomed to the pose, endeavored to facilitate the progress of the work by
remaining as quiet as possible. The silence of the studio was broken only by
the stertorous breathing of the pug, asleep on the Turkish carpet in front of
the stove, and by the rattle of the sleet against the large window.
Suddenly the shrill yelps of the dog startled them from their
preoccupation. On the carpet, near the stove, one of the moccasins was
coiled, ready to strike the pug, who, in an agony of terror, could not move a
foot, but only uttered wild and piercing shrieks.
“Never mind; I’ll soon settle him,” said Seymour; and he rushed at the
snake with his maul-stick. But before he could cross the room, the moccasin
had struck his victim; and as the artist shattered his slender stick at the first
blow, he saw that the box was empty, and that the other snakes were
wriggling around the studio.
Miss Van Hoorn was transfixed with horror, but she neither shrieked nor
fainted, although she looked as if she would swoon before Seymour could
reach her. The pair were fairly surrounded by the reptiles before the artist
had time to think of another weapon.
The only thing to do in the emergency occurred to both of them at the
same instant, and in a much shorter time than it takes to tell it Miss Van
Hoorn was safely perched on the solid crossbar of the French easel, four
feet or more from the ground; and the painter, who had hastily thrown the
portrait on the floor, face upward, was standing on the shelf.
Knowing the venomous character of the moccasin, Seymour was not
eager for a fight with the snakes, particularly since he was without a
weapon. It was impossible to reach the trophy of Turkish yataghans on the
farther wall of the studio without encountering at least two of the reptiles,
and after a moment’s consideration he climbed up and sat down beside Miss
Van Hoorn, tête-à-tête fashion, and, like herself, put his arm around the
upright piece between them.
Neither one of them spoke for a moment; and then he, overcome with
remorse at his carelessness, and trembling at the possible result of the
adventure, exclaimed, in a tone of despair, “Here’s a situation!”
This commonplace remark did not carry with it a hint of a satisfactory
solution of the difficulty, and he felt this the moment he had uttered it. Miss
Van Hoorn made no reply, but with pale cheeks and frightened eyes sat
silent, clinging almost convulsively to her support.
“We can easily bring the people by shouting,” suggested her companion.
“No, no!” she half gasped. “What a ridiculous position to be found in!
Indeed, I—I—Are you sure the neighbors cannot see through the window?”
“Of course they can’t; it’s corrugated glass. But then, after all, if any one
should come, the moccasins might bite them, and we should be no better
off.”
The snakes became more and more active.
“MISS VAN HOORN WAS SAFELY PERCHED ON THE SOLID CROSSBAR.”

The pug lay in his last death-agonies, and as he struggled on the carpet,
almost under their feet, the soft fingers of the young lady instinctively
found their way to the firm, muscular hand of the artist, and closed around
it with a confiding pressure, as if she recognized in him her sole protector in
this danger, and had great need of his sympathy and support.
If the truth must be told, her sweet unconsciousness was not shared by
her companion, for he felt a distinct sense of satisfaction at the touch of her
hand, and this sensation fully dominated for a moment the complex feeling
of relief at escape from recent imminent danger and of great present
perplexity, uncertainty, and fear.
They were now fairly besieged; and although no harm could come to
them in their present position, it was by no means comfortable to sit
perched on a narrow oak bar, and it was impossible to tell how or when they
would be delivered from their enemy.
A strange and oppressive silence seemed to have come over the whole
city; not so much a silence, perhaps, as an unusual muffling of all the
ordinary sounds of traffic and activity. The swish of the sleet against the
window was almost continuous, but when it ceased for a moment there was
heard no rattle of the streets, no rumble of the horse-cars, no clatter of trains
on the elevated railroad. Instead of these familiar sounds, a wide, deep, and
ominous murmur filled the air. This was not a loud and heavy sound, like
the roar of the ocean, nor yet shrill, like the rush and whistling of a gale, but
had a peculiar low and muffled quality that made a weird accompaniment to
the dramatic situation of the artist and sitter in the storm-and-serpent-
beleaguered studio.
There was a horrible fascination in watching the movements of the
snakes as they restlessly glided from one part of the studio to another, the
scales on their thick repulsive bodies glistening in the strong light, and
flashing a variety of colors. The stove was now red-hot, and the fire was
roaring loudly. In spite of the intense cold outside, the heat became
oppressive at the height where they sat, and Miss Van Hoorn, whose nerves
were much shaken by her fright, and kept in a flutter by the movements of
the snakes below, began to feel faint. The house-servants had standing
orders never to interrupt the sittings on any excuse until the artist rang for
luncheon. It was now half-past eleven, and Seymour, despairing of the
return of the maid, at last resolved to shout as loudly as possible, and to stop
the servant from opening the door by calling out to him as he came along
the passageway. He explained this plan to Miss Van Hoorn, and proceeded
to shout and halloo with the full strength of his lungs. He waited a few
moments, but no sound of footsteps was heard, and then he shouted again
and again. Still the roaring of the fire, the grumble of the storm, and the
hideous rustling of the snakes alone greeted their eager ears. At last he was
obliged to conclude that the noise of the storm prevented his cries from
reaching the house.
What to do next he did not know, but as he was fanning Miss Van Hoorn
with a letter out of his pocket—indeed, with one of her own notes to him—
he struck upon a plan of letting in air, and at the same time attracting the
attention of some one. When the brief faint turn had passed off, he climbed
down to the shelf, gathered up his tubes of color, and returned to his perch.
After a few vigorous throws with the heaviest tubes, he succeeded in
breaking one of the panes of the large window, and a fierce gust of wind
blew upon them. To their great disappointment the opening in the glass
disclosed only the blank wall of the opposite extension; and as he had
wasted all his heavy ammunition, he could not break another pane higher up
in the window. He tried shouting again, but with no result.
The situation was now worse than before, for Miss Van Hoorn was in her
evening dress and exposed to the freezing draught of a blizzard. Seymour
persuaded her to put on his velveteen jacket, and, after a few attempts,
succeeded in tearing down a curtain that hung from the ceiling alongside
the opening in the roof in order to cast a shadow on the background. This he
wrapped around both of them, then sat and considered what to do next. No
new plan, however, suggested itself to either of them. They did not talk
much, for they were too seriously occupied with the problem of escape to
waste words. The single hand of the antique clock moved with agonizing
slowness, and the pair sat there a long time in silence, shivering, despairing.
Once or twice a sense of the ludicrousness of their position came over them,
and they laughed a little; but their mirth was almost hysterical, and was
succeeded by a greater depression of spirits than before. Seymour had
proposed several times to make a dash for the door, but two or three of the
reptiles were always moving about between the easel and the entrance, and
Miss Van Hoorn entreated him tearfully not to attempt it. The cold seemed
to increase, and Seymour soon noticed that the fire was burning itself out.
This was a new source of anxiety, and neither of them cared to anticipate
their sufferings on the top of the easel with the temperature below zero.
“Just look at the snakes!” suddenly cried Seymour, in great excitement.
Miss Van Hoorn was startled by the vehemence of his cry, and could
only gasp: “No, no! I can’t bear to look at them any more.”
“The cold is making them torpid again,” he fairly shrieked, in the joy of
his discovery. “How stupid not to have thought of this before!” he added, in
a tone of disgust.
He was right. One by one they ceased to crawl, and those nearest the
window soon lay motionless. Checking his impatience to descend on the
snakes until those by the stove ceased to show signs of active life, he
dropped from the perch, seized a yataghan from the wall, and speedily
despatched them all.
Miss Van Hoorn anxiously watched the slaughter from the safe elevation
of the easel, and, when it was over, fainted into the artist’s arms.

The most unique and remarkable engagement ring ever marked with a
date at Tiffany’s was a beautiful antique intaglio of Medusa’s head set in
Etruscan gold.
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