Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1872-01-11
FACES ON THE WALL.
By HARRIET BEEoHER STOWE.

Author OF" Uncle Toms Cabin" My Wife
and T." Minister'S Wooinq," etc.
0nee there was a very good little girl, who,
" by reason of her goodness, knew where
to find strawberries in the winter. In the
same way less perfect people, blessed by the
generous fairies of memory and imagination,
may sit, as 1 do now, in the midst of falling
leaves and whistling winds, and call back
the green grasses and the summer sun. 1see
yonder in the glen the darling of our house,
the gold CLEAN in her brown hair, a chain of
daisies in her hand, and in her eyes the
roguish meditation of a kitten, weary for an
instant only of its play, and thinking slyly
of another spring. Thrown back upon the
velvet grass, she is not resting, only pausing;
from her bright chances to the tips of her
tiny fingers, she is wide awake.
But now the merry play is over, and our
pet n~estles yonder on the sofa-cushion, tire
at last in earnest. Slowly the lids. fall, and
the lingering smile dies out but the flush in
cheek and lip remains, like the glow after
sunset. The gathered buttercups and daisies
are loosely held by the fair little hand no
shadows, even of dream-land, disturb the
sweet brow's perfect peace. She is fast asleep.
In other words, two chromos hang upon the
wall, b~ewitching child-heads, in which every
mother sees something of her own dear ones,
never grown DID,, and never lost to her, how
ever time or death may have dealt with them.
Nothing pleases more at first sighto or gives
pleasure longer than poetical pictures of
children. "The little child" who II Jesus
sets in the midst of every family is a joy
that grows not old and fades not.
hftgg9 ;G osnnSt y witheT, custom cannot stale
For this reason a happy picture of a child
brings an enjoyment more lasting than any
other, because it is a subiecte of which no one
ever tires.
But these pictures, beside their constant
charm for grown folks, are such as children
can understand and love. Our little " Wide
Awake" and Fast Asleep" would give many
a pleasant hour of companionable amHse-
ment and intercourse to the little people akin
to them in age. The pictures that children's
eyes reston as they are dropping off to sleep, or
as they awake in the morning, seem to them
like living friends. All sorts of childish
dreams and fancies make of the pictured face
q real companion. Not only in the parlor or
the sitting-room would they be an attractive
and fitting establishment, but they are a
charming pair for the adornment of a nursery.
Undoubtedly these two pictures are por-
traits. There is a realistic faithfulness and
truth about them that forbids the idea of
their being fancy heads. They will remind
many parents of little ones either here or in
heaven. Dickens says somewhere of his
portraiture of little Nell that he has had let
ters from the farthest regions of the earth
speaking of children who resembled her-so
dear, and SO early takenl He who paints
one child well, paints thousands, and speaks
to the enderest feelings of innumerable hearts.
OF course there is a pleasure in possessing
an original painting; but when the question
lies between an original at five hundre dol
lars and q chrome which can scarcely be
distinguished from it at ten d~ollars-particu-
larly when one has not the five hundred to
spare-the choice is not very difficult. As to
these two exquisite chromos, only a critical
examination can distinguish between the
copies and the originals, which sold for many
hundreds-which is certainly more than can
be said of the best copies of most pictures
| painted by hand.
Blessings upon chromo-lithography, by
which the successful painting of a master
can be reproduced indefinitely, and can enter
quickening, reforming inhuencesi
1t is not alone into the dwelling of the
great and wealthy that we follow this pretty
pair with a~nticipations of delight. We see
them in the cottages of the poor, in the log
cabin of the backwoodsman, Frightening the
toll of the hard-wife and mother, and re-
ceiving the almost adoring wonder of chill
dren who have never seen pictures before.
God bless the darlings-send the little
comforters fast and farI
The charming pair of oil chromos, " Wide
Awake" and "Fast Asleep" of whose real
beauty and attractiveness Mrs. Stoves grace
full sketch can give but an imperfect idea
SO pleasing are they to all who love art and
children-have always sold in the picture
stores for $40, and the original publisher has
never been able to supply the great demand
for them ever at that price. And yet, al
though thousands of them have been sold in
America at that high rate, they are now
within the reach of all, for they are
GIVEN WAY
to every subscriber to The Christian Union,
an unsectarian, literary, religious and do
nestle weekly newspaper, edited by HENRY
WARD EEcHER.
The pair, by a fortuna e arrangement
which one of the partners of this house was
able to make in Paris during the late siege,
with the proprietors of the pictures, are fur
nished to Mr.. Beecher's publishers at a rate
entirely exceptional The subjects are LJe-Size.
AS to the Christian Union, the great sue
cess of that paper has been a marvel in the
history of journalism, and the scholarly and
critical New York Nation calls it " not only
the ablest and best, but also the most popu-
lar of American religious periodicals."
This paper, after the first of January, will
be printed on a still larger sheet, folded in
ta0entyJour pages, pasted at the back and
trimmed at the edges, a decided advantage
possessed by no other religious weekly pub
lished. 1t contains contributions from emil
nent writers of all denominations, and has
matter of interest for every member of the
household, young and old. For the year 1872,
Mrs. HARRIET BEEcHER Stowe will write er-
c~lusiueLy for the CHRISTIAN UNION.
The terms of subscription to this paper
are: For one year, ONLY $500. This will
entitle the subscriber to the paper and to the
above pair of beautiful Oil Chromos. Tar
CHRISTIAN UNION, including the Illustrated
Holiday Number (2s pp.), will be sent FREE
until Jan. LIST, to all who noao subscribe for
the year 1872.
Send money in postal orders, drafts, or
registered letters direct to the Publishers.
SPECIMEN COPIES of the paper will be mailed
FREE of postage to any address on receipt of
six cents by j. B. FoRD & Co., Publishers, 81
Park Place, New York. For full particu-
lars, see advertisement in the next column,
headed " Why's"
Awake : $ - SS' e s $s; sssilRS;s q
Chromos - subjects
= M cT1r oxou;a;ta fooei,,;Ieo oF orioiDaI nil |