Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-24

life to art. If, however, you had
expressed such an estimate Of him in his
hearing. he would probably have
knocked you down. If a man who
came with the intention of purchasing
damned him with faint praise, for the
purpose of getting a picture cheap,
Mr.. Block, with extreme courtesy,
showed him the door. He might be
too poor to get his dinner, but he wa
never poor enough to pocket a profit
able snub, or to descend from the lofty
pedestal of his official dignity. He
never let Apcllonia know that he some
times suffered want; and he never con
descended to visit her in time for
dinner. Moreover, in the matter of
dress he was extremely particular;
when he pawned his waistcoat, he only
brushed his coat the carefully,
buttoned it close, and allowed a frag-
mentary tip of a bright silk handker-
chief to protrude slightly from the
outer breast pocket, as fashion pre-
scribed. He had bought this many
colored handkerchief twelve years ago,
and had cut it up into as many tips as
its size would allow, using only M at
a time, managing by an artful division
of the pattern to give to each tip the
effect Of a different handkerchief. In
spite of all these precautions, however,
the rumor gradually spread in the
artistic colony that Block was miser-
ably poor. Some discreetly offered to
help him, and were told, with polite
circumlocutions, to mind their own
business. Others, who had perhaps
seen him make a dinner off a dish of
broccoli and a slice of dry bread, tried
in all sorts of underhand ways to make
him their beneficiary; but his sensitive
pride always detected such disguised
charities, and promptly repealed them.
In fact, he suffered so keenly from
these well-meant attempts to succor
him that his friends would have done
better if they had permitted him to
starve in peace and self-respect.
Apollon1a. as I have minated, had
no idea that MI. Block was having a
hand-to-hand fight with starvation.
She saw occasionally n of his etch-
ings in the illustrated papers, and
naturally supposed that etching was an
immensely profitable business. When
Mr.. Block entered her paflor at half
past eight in the evening, and made
her the most ceremonious of bows, heI
old heart fluttered and the tears often
came into her eyes at the thought OF
his staunch and loyal devotion. When,
at the end of an hours discreet and
undemonstrative conversation. he arose
to take his leave, he usually stopped to
kiss her hand, and remarked: .Miss
Schwinger, this day has brought us one
day nearer to our marriage"
At these words Apollonia's foolish
old heart positively ran riot, and her
faded old cheeks exhibited q coy little
virginia. blush.
"The dear good man!' she would
say to herself, with a sigh. as she seated
herself on the sofa after his departure.
And then, for some reason or other,
the tears ran silently, one by one, down
her cheeks, while the knitting needles
clicked nimbly, and the toe of the
stocking grew several inches too long,
and showed no signs of contracting.
1t was in the winter of 1879, I think,
that MI. Breitkopf, a wealthy manu-
f%acturer from Berne, made his appear
ance in the Roman colony. Mr.. Brett
kopf, it was rumored, had come to
Italy for the purpose of buying pictures
for his gallery, and the artists scram-
bled and fought for his acquaintance
like a pack of wolves for a fat sheep.
His courier made quite a fortune
from artists fees, and even his dog was
made an object of marked attention.
Breitkopf, however, took his time be-
fore making his investment. He passed
by the works of tho most distinguished
masters with a mere passing glance,
and expressed the most unorthodox
opinions about everybody and every
thing. His taste, if he possessed any
such organ, was certainly eccentric;
and a certain obstinate and self-willed
independence, characteristic of the
self-made man, inclined him to sub
scribe to no opinion which he suspected
of being en- regle. After having passed
a month in exasperating the notebili-
ties of the artistic fraternity, Breitkopt
one day happened to see the name An
ton Block on the door of a rather
shabby studio. He inquired of his
courier who Anton Block was, and his
courier shruggedhis shoulders, asmuch
as to say he was nothing remarkable.
This piqued the manufacturers curios-
ity. He knocked at the door and en-
tered the studio. Within fifteen min
utes he had bought three pictures at
five hundred dollars each. Here was
actually an artist whom no one had
though worth mentioning to him, and
that an artist from Berne, his own ma
tive city. 1t was the blacklist envy, oil
course, which had leagued the rascals
together in a conspiracy to keep this
great man from his notice. But he
would teach the courjer-bribers a les.
! son; he would show them that he was
not to be duped. The more he thought
of it, the angrier he grew, and the an
grier he grew, the more he bought.
Three more pictures were transferred
to his possession, and two checks. for
fifteen hundred and one thousand dol.
lars, to Block
Brietkopf was in ecstasy; he had dis
covered a man O genius from Berne-a
man who, so to speak, knocked the spots
out of all his competitors. He talked
of nothing but Anton Block. All the
foreign correspondents, who had here
tofore studiously ignored the little mar
from Berne, suddenly discovered what
a romantic character he was, and filled
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