The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-22
A PAIR OF wooD-NYMPHs.
lPeck's Sua.1

the Misses Bertha von Hiliern and Mari l C. Becket in the paiRting and frescoing | line, and the proba abilities are that unless something is done about it, these in- domitable artists" as the Philadelphia Ledeer styles them, will continue to waste their time and wear out their blue and red pencils marking cubes of solid matter for the SHH to copy. Therefore it is best to give them send-off," not by copying any of the said notices, but by little moTceau of our own that will be quite as readable if not more so.
 It may be that Miss Rockets name should have been mentioned first, as she seems to have been handling the mahl. stick and Paris green longer than Bertha has, but the dear girls will probably take no offense, as there seems to be Damon and Pythlas-like love existing between them which no masculine has yet broken up or sat down upon. They are welded to art, and no bachelor need apply.
 Miss Won Hillern, it will be remem. bered, is the young Austrian lady who some ten years ago orthereabouts created such fuiore among admirers of tan-bark exercise by her pedestrian performances. We have not the necessary data at hand, but our recollection is that her forte was covering a good many quarter-miles in the same number of quarter hours-a thousand or so being a mere bagatelle or game of "horse billiards to her well-knit muscles. It seems, too, as if she won the championship record at this style of pedestrianism, but perhaps not. At any rate it is but right to say that she dem- onstrated the possibilities of female en- durance, and instead of being regarded as woman of coarse tendencies, be- came everywhere a lioness, and made friends by the score.
 After conquering the world of sport in this legitimate exercise, she concluded to train the fingers, mind and eye as we'll as as well asher trotters, and having amassed good wad of greenbacks, she entered the studio of Mir. Hunba Boston artist and after devoting herself faithfully for several years to the work, has become an artist whose pictures, in the language of critic "betray peculiar talent, with out remarkable genius. They are strik- ing without being exceptional. They are at least original, and that is something in this age of imitation and unconscious theft"
 It was in Hunts studio that Bertha and Maria first met, and a strong Platonic love at once sprang up between them. Summary of Maria, taken from blue-pen- Gil item:
 "Miss Becket is probably the most rugged nature of the two. She is an American. descendant of an old Catho- lie family. She is woman of remark able keenness, quick of perception,. and intellectually the superior of her compan- ion. She is a famous traveller. She studied in France and Italy prior to en- tering the studio of Hunt"
 
 "Miss Beckett is a landscape painter, with fine eye and feeling for the beau ties of nature. Her art is rather a sober one, but her figures are worked out with remarkable fidelity and truth. As con- versationalist Miss Becket is unequalled She is one of the best informed women in America"
 Since then these devotees of art have been living together, spending their win ters in New York and Boston, and their summers among the forests and moun- tains of Virginia, near Strasburg, where, far away from the restraints, bustles and pull backs of society, they have fitted up studle or atelier, and divide the time between sketching and painting bits from the magnificent forest whereabouts, frying bacon and an occasional beef-steak over an oil-stove, writing for the press (notices in advance for the fall and winter cam paign), climbing trees, going in swim ming, playing on the guitar and zither, smashing mosquitoes, shooting at mark, reading Ruskin, Herbert Spencer and the Psalms, and entertaining their city friends, who occasionally call to see how they a,e getting along.
 And this queer scheme of the girls is not so bad, after all, don't you know. It demonstrates to certainty that all fe- males are not afraid to be alone, with no men near, though what in samhill they would do if COW should stray up there and break into their cabbage-patch, it is hard to say. Or suppose that a great, big, shaggy, awful bear should meet them some. day when they are out sketching Bertha, in view of her early training, might, perhaps, out-run bruin, and thus avoid the brewing trouble, but what would become of Mariar2 But there are probably no bears CT other wild "var- hints" in that vicinity, and why this needless alarm2
 As winter approaches, these two maid ems, full of health, and tanned up like squaws, pack their Saratoga trunks, lock the door of their log cabin, putting on notice: "Gone East for the Winter-ad- dress so and so "-arrive at Boston, hire a hall, hang up their paintings, and com mencs to subsidize the press about as follows:
 First. "Their many friends and ad- mirers have looked forward with pleasant anticipation to this exhibition, which, aside from its art merit, has the novelty of originality, and presents the grandeur of deep forests as few artists paint it. This last characteristic of Miss Becket's and Mss won Hillern's pictures seem to be their greatest charm. In pausing be- fore them one feels the hush of profound solitude steal over the senses, and, with slight self forgetfulness, one can almost n