The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-01-12
FACES ON THE WALL.
ny HARRIET BEEcHER STOWE.


Author Of Uncle Toms Cabin" my WIFE
and rs Minister'S Wooing," etc.
Once 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 magma
ton, may sit, as | do now, in the midst of
falling leaves and whistling winds, and call
back the green grasses and the summer sun.
| see yonder in the glen the darling of our
house, the gold CLEAN in her brown hair,
chain of daisies in her hand, and in her
eyes the roguish meditation of kitten,
weary for an instant only of its play, and
thinking slyly of another spring. Thrown
back upon the velvet grass, she is not rest
ing, only pausing; from her bright glances
to the tips of her tiny fingers she is wide
awake.
But now the merry play is over, and our
pet nestles yonder on the sofa cushion, tired
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, bewitching child-heads, in which
every mother sees something of her own
dear ones, never grown old, and never lost
to her, however time or death may have
dealt with them.
Nothing pleasss more at first sight or gives
pleasure longer than poetical pictures Of
children. "The little child " whom Jesus
sets in the midst of every family is Joy
that grows not old and fades not.
Age cannot wither, custom cannot stale
Its infinite variety"
For this reason happy picture of child
brings an enjoyment more lasting than any
other, because it is subject OF which no
one ever tires.
But these pictures, besides their constant
charm for grown folks, are such as children
can understand and love. Our little 4" Wide
Awake and east Asleep" would give many
a pleasant hour of companionable amuse-
ment and intercourse to the little people akin
to them in age. The pictures that chldren's
eyes rest on as they are dropping off to sleep,
or as they awake in the morning, seem to
them living friends. All sorts of childish
dreams and fancies make OF the pictured
face real companion. Not only in the par
lor or the sittng-room would they be an at
tractve and fitting establishment, but they
are a charming pair for the adornment of a
nursery.
Undoubtedly these two pictures are por-
traits. There is realistic faithfulness and
truth about them that forbds 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 taken! He who paints
one child well, paints thousands, and speaks
to the tenderest feelings of innumerable
hearts.
OF course there is pleasure in possessing
an original painting; but when the question
lies between an original at five hundred dol
lars and chrome which can scarcely be dis
| tinguished from it at ten dolars-particu-
| larly when one has not the five hundred to
| spare-the choice is not very difficult AS tc
these exquisite chromos, only critical ex-
animation can distinguish between the
copies and the originals, which sold for man
hundreds-which is certainly more than can
be said of the best copies of most pictures
| painted by hand.
Blessings upon mo-lithography, by
which the successful painting of master
can be reproduced indefinitely y, and can enter
| thousands of homes with its educating
| quickening, reforming influences
1t is not alone into the dwellings of the
great and wealthy that we follow this pretty
pair with anticipations of delight. We see
them in the cottages of the poor, in the log
cabin of the backwoodsman, Frightening this
| toll of the hardwife and mother, and re.
ceiving the almost sdoring wonder of chill
dren who have never seen pictures before.
God bless the darlings-send the little
comforters fast and far
The charming pair of oil chromos, " Wide
Awake" and EAST Asleep" of whose rea
beauty and attractiveness Mrs. Stoves grace
full sketch can give but an imperfect idea-sC
| pleasing are they to all who love art and
| children-have always sold in the picture
stores for $40, and the original publisher hal
never been able to supply the great demand
for them even 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 Il WAY
to every subscriber to The Christian Union
an unsectarian, literary, religious and domes
tic weekly newspaper, edited by HENRY
WARD BEECHER.
The pair, by a fortunate arrangement
which one of the partners Of this house was
able to make in Paris during the late siege
with tho proprietors of the pictures, are fur
nished to Mr.. Beecher's publishers at a rate
entirely exceptional. The subjects are life
Size.
AS to The Christian Union, the great sue
cess Of that paper has been 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
t,oenty-four pages, pasted at the back ana
trimmed at the edges, decided advantage
possessed by no other religious weekly pub
lished. 1t contains contributions from emf.
nent writer's of all denominations, and has