Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-01-15

Quarrled and shaped stone, anu piotS VI
ground suitable for building. No one
builds house for the sake Of the archl-
tect; and what is entrusted, in this line, TO
young one? He is master of an art,
and he has no materials for exercising IT.
His profession is to construct, and he has
nothing TO construct. | imagine beaver
waiting for employment His only clients
are small proprietors who, having crew
ice to be filled up, or window to be pierre
ed, or a wall to be propped, send for an
architect in small way, just as, In cases
of indisposition, one sends for humble
practitioner of medicine, with the view OF
getting advice more cheaply. Such was
the condition of Henry Grandval.
BY way of compromising himself for
these wretched little jobs, which he call
ed his bread -and-cheese work, he en-
ployed his rare talent as draughts-
man and water-colorist in drawing
plans Of eountry-seats in compel
ing for all great public reconstructions,
and in sending out, in all suitable direc-
tions, his designs for edifices of general
utility. AT the same time, as ne made
very just pretensions TO being practical
no less than an artistic man, he joined to
his drawings emblematic devices, sec
tons, and models, that reflected the high
est honor on the thoroughness of his
studies, but which had the one grand in
convenience ofcosting him great deal OF
money. He had to pay the geometricians,
to pay the measurers, to pay the verifiers,
so that he expended on these projects for
construction all that the repairs brought
him in. He laid out on poetry what he
picked up in prose.
His budget was made up, as has been
limited, from his wife's dewry and his
own, which together brought him in an
income that would have been amply suffi-
cient for a citizen of the olden time. But
an artist man who likes everything
that is beautiful! 1t is a dear business,
this love of the beautiful. There is
chance of getting bit of antique tapes
try; how can one resist the delight of
buying it? One reads the description of
remarkable monument recently dis
covered; how can one help going to see
it? Artistic pilgrimages are all but an
obligation for artists. But what is most
ruinous for them is the reduced prices.
Think of immense advertisements pla-
carded upon the walls, setting forth, in
huge red letters, these cabalistic words:
"a Months Tour in the North of Italy,
with Stops at the Principal Cities-One
Hundred and Fifty Francsr Only a
hundred and fifty francs! 1t is so cheapl
Yet there is nothing that does so much mis-
chief as cheapness. These enormous putfs
are as immoral as the exchange-shops;
and you can just so much the less resist
the tempt9tion as you have the air of be-
ing reasonable in yielding to it. Our
young household, then, gave way pretty
often; and if to this you add that the hus-
band was very much in love with his
wife, and consequently desired that sh
should be charming and well got up;
bearing in mind, also, that, in three years,
they had INDUCED themselves in the lux
ury of little son and little daughter,
you will easily understand that, during
the latter part of the quarter, they were
very apt TO be in ifficulties-difficultie
that broke the heart of the excellent
Madame Desgranges, and drew upon the
head of M. Desgranges deluge OF pray.
ers and invectives.
al beseech you, my dear, do add some
thing to their dover"
81 shall take good care not to do it,
was the answer of M. Desgranges. i con-
graduate myself too sincerely on the
course | adopted. My system is too good
TO be changed"
as it possible that you have the heart
TO see them thus embarrassed, and to leave
them SOP"
care they embarrassed? ?"
Frightfully, my dear"
$50 much the better. My son-in-law
will take all the more pains to find en-
ployers."
but they don't come, these en-
ployers." D.,
"All the more cause for working hard
to procure them"
"They have additional burdens besides
their own"
additional sources of happiness, you
mean" And, as Madame Desgranges
made gesture of desp air, "Come, come,
wife, no outburst. Let's talk it over
calmly. Surprising that three years ago
| had given my daughter hundred thou
sand francs more, as you wished, what
would have happenedg'
at would have happened" replied
Madame Desgranges, with mingled in
dignation and pathos, "that, instead Of
living in a state of privation, as they have
been compelled to live for three years;
instead of denying themselves every
thing"
"Stop, stop, my dear, permit me. 1t
seems to me-"
at seems to you, indeed? Well, then,
would you have me tell your When |
am with them at their home, when see
their poor little modest table-just sin.
gle dish of meat, just one vegetable, and
no sweets whatever-and when / come
home and find you, yes, you, seated there
comfortably with your chin almost upon
the table-cloth, with your excellent
broiled chickens and your partridges
larded--for you must needs have them
larded now"
"Wlat would you, my dear? AS one
grows old"
"Well, we'll, all this hurts me much. |
reproach myself at every good mou'hful
that eat "
~ don't"
az find our conduct revolving"
"Be calm, my good wife, and come
back TO the question, from which you
have completely wandered off. Follow
my argument, If you are able. We are,
today, at the 18th Of November.
Our daughter, our son-in,law, their
two children, and their two servants,
have been here in our country house since
- D.t. - tI.at 10 .xa tiran