Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-15

mandoline players. Cur1y-headed as choir children they show all their white teeth as they laugh with heads thrown back and eyes full of light. The girls, seated motionless at the foot of the trees and very grave, with elbows closs to their sides, are busy knitting worsted work of shoWy colofs; and old wo-
 men with tortoise necks go to draw water at the fountain, keeping their heads erect un- der the weight of the vessel.
 It is not true that on certain days all these folks are smitten with homesickness for the sun, that they dream in vain of the golden
 hazes of the south and white cities bathed in
 aureate light beside an azure sea! One
 must become weary sometimes of dull horl-
 zons, of neutral tints, of gray crowds swarm
 ing under sate-colored sky. But to-day
 beam of sunshine pierces the clouds; let us
 take peep at the little Italian girls of the Place Jussieu.
 Under the glow of the rich light all this
 theatrical tinsel of costume, all this fgtrante
 undress becomes radiant. It is like the lighting up of an immense stage. The float
 ing sleeves white sails seen at sea-
 robes of velveteen show gleams in their hol-
 low folds; red aprons blaze with joyous
 flourish of color; and every thing is anima- ted and noisy and brilliant to eyes that ap-
 preciate the frank charm of natural colors.
 And here faces of ancient sibyls such
 as we read of in romance-profles of virgins worthy to be graven upon amethysts. Of all the Italian models who frequented
 the studies during recent years, little Medal la was by far the most charming and the best known.
 She had really the aspect of an antique cameo, with her low, broad brow, her hair braided in a rich twist behind her head and her sensuously patrician profile. She used to live in the Rue de la Clef, in a common
 place and sordid dwelling, with barrels of
 dirty water on every landing place, brick
 D,,4 IL
 roof could be seen one patch of green in a
 vacant lot; and Medalla dreamed of her
 broad Italian wales, silent and dreamy lands,
 where the lazy focks slumber under the mel
 low light.
 They loved her in the studios for her grace
 fulness and her smile. Her portrait was ex-
 hibited several times at the Salon last year.
 You must certainly have remarked her fe-
 verish- bright eyes that burned beneath her
 brows like dry twigs in furnace. In one
 painting you see her drawing water from
 fountain into bronze vessel; in another she
 holds out her hand to you from the recess of
 deep gateway; in another you see her lying
 asleep with her curly head reposing on her
 tambourine. But she is most often painted laughing.
 You ought to have seen her in the morn ing when the little band of models used to descend the slope of Sainte Genevieve- making specks of brilliant color with their LdSSCO CoSCulllSS tLl0 uOIlOlOuOuS uO- rizon-to hail the omnibuses with sonorous cries and climb up with bursts of laughter She would come down walking against the bitter wind, her bosom palpitating behind the thin chemise. Her ragged dress illumi- mated all the street, her beautiful hair, as in revolt of young life, would break through her Napolitan headdress, and behind her the Pantheon, bathed in morning light, made an Italian background for her igure-an Italian horizon.
 One cannot hurry with impunity through these streets of ours, especially in winter, with throat and chest unprotected. Medalla is dead. They buried her ill an obscure cor ner of the Montparnasse cemetery. An orig inal and dismal funeral procession. There were a dozen old models there, classicalIy draped in rags and tragically mournful. There was an old woman who never ceased to weep bitterly and two children who laughed There was not much ceremony about lowering her into the grave; there were neither speeches nor prayers. The prayers of the poor are short.
 To-day no one remembers her, except per haps some young shepherd of her own land :, who stil! waits for her and dreams of her as he watches his f1oeks, and tries when even- ing comes to spell out her name in the stars.