Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-07-05

A ROYAL ART ASSOCIATION SCHEME
In our advertising columns will be found
the details of scheme which is proba
bly, the most prineely Of the kind ever
projected 1t is one which involve.
nearly a million of dollars. 1t is, in
short, one which includes the disposal Of
Crosby's Opera House, in Chicago, to
gether with the itch contents of its su
perb art-gallery, and also other works OF
art, to an extent limited only by the
membership.
AS will be seen by reference to the ad.
vertisement, it is proposed to form an
art association, the price of membership
of which will be five dollars. On the
first day of next October the opera
house and its three hundred paintings
will be distributed among the members
of the association, The first prize will
be the palatial opera house, worth over
half million dollars. The second,
Bierstadt's unriyaled painting, The 70
Semitic Valley" valued at $4,000 Next
to this is $4,000 painting, and so on in
constantly decreasing progression.
Nothing so grand as this project was
ever before conceived There never was
one which involved so much property;
and again, there never was another one
in which the public could invest their
money with the same certainty that the
transaction would be conducted by hon
orable men As will be seen, Mr. Crosby
has submitted his plan to the best men
in Chicago, and they give it a cordial
and unhesitating Endorsement. There
can be nothing surer than the fact that
the operation is in honorable hands, and
that every dollar will be as properly &C
counted for as if deposited in bank.
This plan does not propose that few
members of the association shall receive
a few gifts, and the great majority none.
On the contrary, every member gets
gift which is very near the equivalent Of
the money which he invests. Thus,
man taking two memberships, costing
80, gets an engraving Of Washington
Irving and his friends, which is precisely
what one would have to pay for the same
picture provided he bought it at a print
store The enormous quantities of en-
cravings which will be purchased by the
managers of the association enables them
to purchase them at price on whose
margin they will obtain the value of the
other articles to be distributed.
Of the magnifcence of the leading
gifts in the distribution, scarcely enough
can be said. The opera house is, without
exception, the finest building of the kind
on the continent Its cost was over
5000, 900, and its returns to-day, in the
shape of rents, are a princely income
for any man. The second gift, The |
70 Semitic Valley" is now on exhibition
at the art gallery, in the opera building
1t is an eight by eleven landscape, and
is one of the most thoroughly superb |
works of art in the world Its grandeur
as a whole is only equaled by the aston
ishing perfection of its details One
loses himself in contemplating its uH-
ending distances, its mellow colorings,
the depth, extent and magic warmth of
its skies 1t alone is fortune; and the
chances of obtaining it are worth ten
lines what it will cost to possess them.
We take pleasure in assuring the pub
lie that the most thorough integrity per-
sades every portion of the management
1f this art distribution scheme. If royal
n its dimensions, it is no less volumin-
,us in the possession of probity. 1t is
IN opportunity of which no one who can
afford it should hesitate to avail them
selves
MARTIN HOLLAND, 3l3 Main street,