The Republican journal., 1876-10-05
TIE ENGLISH PICTURES.

Now let me leave it al to YOU and show you
some Of my fayorite pictures in the English
Gallery. Ii is not an American scene, nor one
well known in Northern attitudes. Shut your
ewes and Lex me open them where we stand on
the shore of an African lake. They are low
and sedgy; thick planted with curious reedy
croWths most unfamilar on The water great
leaves of strange aquatic plants make emerald
islands lying amid opaIine coorS, whose beauty
changes with every sighted stir of the fainting
wind which has fed painting across bare reaches
Of desert sands to this one >pct of Nerdurc
Amid the reeds patient canels are hnceng,
still bearing their heavy saddles; turbaned
drugomen and swarthy Arabs in their striped
| mantes are smoking; tent has been pitched
and light wreath of vaporous smoke goes
drifting lazy Up from the camp fire; between
| Us and The horizon two great pyramids stand
sharply against the sky, and up in the bllvst
azure. where no clouds are ailoat the crowned
heads Of kingiy palms toss their nlumes. But
the charm of the scene is the Uniting of the
clouds, and the glow their colorng throws over
everything. Near the earth belt of warm
rich brown; this shades gradually TO an orange
50 deep it is almost scarlet; the orange palcS to
amber flushed with tint Of rose; then fading
into palcst gold till beyond all this there is the
blue 50 deep and perfect that it seems cNag5er-
ated TO northern eyes, vet have seen lust such
ctic~to many Il time where the Gull waves wash
Inc bcach III Galveston. and the picture to me
is trae. 1t is labelled "SuItry Noon" but no
noon tide skies Were ever like those in any
latitude.
In direct contrast to this there hangs on the
other side of the room, "MOHNINti AMONG THE
GRANITE BOUIDERS." This tells no story of
the south, but It brings TO you an actual sea
beach where the sand, are 50 tine that the re-
cettin- tide leaves all its rippes marked there
on. 50 white that in the sunshine the glow
would be painful, bat now in the dim unccr-
tainty of the carly morning it il the palest
gray. 1t is 50 perfectly painted that it seems
rs il the watt of YOUR pen might disturb the
SUI face, and the great black houltlers have
planted themselves deep amid the yielding
grains. You know how the sea-wee,ls cling to
them till they seem part Of the rock they
cover, and here You see the inkv lines they
make when old, strangely unlike the bright
bronze green Of the trailing lengths Just fresh
ly cast there. \ tiny line of fringing foam
washes their feet, white caps are tossing in the
bay beyond, ana great crag Hike that Of Glib
raltar, rises sharply from the sea. The skies
are northern skies; the atmosphere Of the pic
ture is that Of an Atlantic coast, and white
sailed ships dinly defined against the horizon
are the only suggestions of life in the midst of
desoaion. Even more wild and lonely is the
View Of wintry sea hanging very near. You
must stand ut Il distance to feel its truth, and
don't think you will covct it for your paror
wall. "NlorninS among the boulders' hints of
homes not far distant and coming sunshine;
the ''wntry sea- is fragment of mid-ocean
with its yawning waves, surgjng in angry con-
lict, and reminding YOU how pitiles. the cruel
waters may Dc.