The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-05-15

WASHINGTON, d. c., May 10th, 1872.
To the Editor Of the Slate Journal
The Smithsonian Institution is to-day
more interesting to the visitor than it has
been at any time since the fire which de-
stroyed the library and nearly destroyed
the whole building.
CATLINS' INDIANS.
On the second floor are the two great at
fractions: Catlins' American Indians, and
Moran's Canon of the Yellowstone. The
first is collection of some. 600 small car
toons in oil, painted, most of them, on the
very scenes they represent, and bearing on
their face the testimonial of their fidelity to
truth in the hurried manner, and entire alb
sence of theatrical make up. The Indians
do not look quite as grand as those in the
rotunda of the capitol, but they look a
great deal more like the "rale varmint." !"
The sketches show love of human in the
artist and also in the savage himself. Be-
sides their interest as a series OF Indian
pictures, they have a historical value.
Many Of the scenes, the habits and
customs portrayed have entirely passed
away, and these pictures, true as the mega
tive of the camera, are all that remain to
show to coming generations the life of the
aboriginal American. In fact, to use the
words of General Cass, ''they will form
the most perfect monument of an extin-
guished race that the world has ever seen."
To add to the pleasure of the examination
of the gallery, | had a conversation with
the painter and traveller himself. Still
hale, hearty and vigorous, Mr.. Catlin has
lived through the dangers and hardships of
half lifetime spent among the Indians,
and has outlived also the Interpretations
of stay-at-home travellers, and now has
the pleasure of seeing the plan of
making a national park of the head waters
of the Yellowstone, which he advocated 32
years ago, adopted by Congress, and of
knowing also that the people now appre-
ciate his gallery of paintings as being not
its kind. 1t should be purchased by the
government at liberal sum, and allowed
to remain in the Smithsonian, as deserved
amends to Mr.. Catlin for its past injustice,
and to prevent its purchase and removal
from the country by. foreign museums.
MoRAN's GRAND CANON OF THE VEL.
LowsToNE.
This magnificent picture, recently exhib
tied in New York, is now hung in the wes
end of the Smithsonian gallery. 1t is pro
nounced by competent critics to be equa
to Church's "Niagara" or "The Domes
of the Yo Semites." The scene is awful ii
its desolate grandeur, The beholder il
looking from an eminence up the canon
At his feet the rugged basaltic rocks, will
here and there cedar growing out of th,
creyices, making in its perpendicula
growth sharp angle with the steep wall
Further on, overlaying the rock, is seel
a calcareous deposit, with rusty street
of iron, record of by-gone centuries, ,whel
the earth was convulsed with upheavals ant
drowned with floods. Far in the distanc
are dizzy. falls, and the vapor of ascending
mist. The edges of the precipice ar
fringed with thin growth of tall or othe
herbage, and one can imagine nothing els
but an almost barren waste for miles o.
either hand. 1t is not as handsome pic
ture as Berstadt's "Rocky Mountains,
but in its fidelity to landscape and geologi
truth, and in the impressive awfulness {
the scene, a grander one. X.