The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-10-28
We give Q few random extracts:


SYMPATHETIC ART IN FRANcE.-It reoui.e,
siong foreground for the world to reaeh the
point at which such . man ~ Edousrd Frere
appears. His work is almost study Of hum n
fraternity, his art IL the star under which neu,
society Is to DE born. Although, az 1 write
France can only be seen passing under the cloud
and through the tea to which evil powers have
doomed her, it must be remembered tn At wb;le
our Northern people, driven by their climate in.
DOORS have been developing the home in its in.
divlduaiity, the French, invited by their sum.
mer climate to mingle together in boulevards and
pleasure grounds until family 10 hardly distin.
gulshahle from family, have DEVELOPED the
broader social sympathies. The Northern races
may represent the idea of personal liberv. hut
the Southern lead US toward brotherhood In
provincial France there has existed a certain
kind or unorgaaized communism in some dis.
tricts, aud ia others such division of land and
equality of possessions that the vicious extremes
OF society-pauperism and excessive wealth-are
wanting, and the poor are, on the whole. the
happiest and most contented in the world. And
where happiness and contentment dwell. there
must also be their lover-srt. Hence there has
been for some time the gradual development of
school of art in France which has aspired IN
paint the beauty Of its poverty. Not that We
have not had in other countries artists of thar
school, but the best of them have been inspired
by the French school, and compelled to find their
appropriate subject in France. Outside of
France one OF the finest painters Of that school ia
our own American artist, Georxs Ii. BouRht,n.
whose exquisite sketches Of peasant life in Brit.
tany and Normandy have hardly been suppressed.
One might guess the fact that Boughton was
Edouard Frere's pupil, and the masters occa-
slonal visits'to his dear friends house in London
Is sometimes followed by work from the latter
almost equal to his own.
Ibis French school of sympathy seems to have
gained its distinctness first with Chsrdin. who
reappeared In Forth, with higher style, and
mas bad his latter avatars IN Milet and Frere-
N. d. CONWAY.
IHE PITCH LAKE, TRINDAD.-Some thirty.
SIX miles south from the Port of Spain lies the
famous Fitch Lake, covering space Of ninety.
nine acres, and containing millions of tons Of so.
called pitch. 1t Is situited IN the La Brea dis.
trict, the whole of which is of bituminous char.
acter much Of the ground looking like an asphalt
pavement, half overgrown with marsh.loving
weeas, whose roots feed in the sloppy water
everything the pitch. The whole air is peryaded
by smell OF bltumen, and on approaching the
lake the evil odors grow oppressive and sicken.
.ng' Inc pitch, however, certainly does not in.
Jure vegetation, though plants will not grow &C.
tually IN It, La Brea is famous for many kinds
OF tropical growths. Pine-apples, for example.
are brought here to special perfection. Thew
gro" bout any where, olinging to the patches
OF ri'" brown soil. seemingly unmludfui of the
pi'ch wing and sweating out of the earth in
odd II. aud Jumps. Even on the very
shores g. 'ue lake itself are groups of Moriche
tan.pa'm ad thick under2rowths of cocorite.
Inc surface of this Stygian pool. glariug and
gltterlne III the sun presents a most singular
ADDehrhlet. hIAnk ma ne ka1e
vlded by narrow channels of clear water into
hundreds OF Isolated patches, as if huge foul
blotches were dotted all over the surface of a
lake OF sparkling clearness. Struggling along
In the center are number Of small islands.
covered with thick low scrub, near which is the
very fountain of foulness, the place where the
asphalt Is still oozing up. Tie pitch here is
yellow and white with sulphur foam; so are the
water'channels; and out of both water aud pitch
innumerable bubbles Of gas arise, loathsome to-
I! smell On dipping ones hand into this
liquid pitch one is astonished TO find that it does
not soil the fingers. The old proverb that one
can not touch pitch without being detiled happi.
~ does not stand true here, or the place would
De still more loathsome than now 1t NAV be
scraped up and moulded into any shape YOU
Wall, but nothing is left on the hand save clean
gray mud and water. 1t may be kneaded for an
hour before the mud be sufficiently driven out
u it TO make it sticky. This very abundance
u earthly matter it is which. while it keeps the |
pitch from soiling, makes it far less valuable |
han it would be if it were pure.
1t is easy to understand whence this ear,hy
natter Twenty or thirty per cent? comes. |
Throughout the neigh borhood the ground is
ul!, to the depth Of hundreds OF feet of coaly
md asphaltic substances, Layers of Sandstone
n OF shale containing this decayed vegetable al.
ornate with layers which contain none. Aud
!, as seems possible, the coaly mater il contiu.
lily changing into asphalt and oil, and then
working it's way upward through every crack
nd pore to escape from the enormous pressure
the superintendent soil. it must needs carry
p with it innumerable particles of the soils
through which it passess.-From "Rambles in
ne West Indies" by Mrs HELEN CoNANT.