Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-10-23
A PICTURE TO ORDER,

scene, dingy, old, tumble-down build
ing IN a better-days quarter of New
York.
Across the front of this smoke be-
grimed pile is emblazoned legend
which, if of recent origin, must have
been put there in sport. 1t runs: "En-
tcrprise Building"
The pawn broker, the tallow chandler.
and the old-clothes-man are in possession
OF the ground floor, while the signs
adjoining the stairway jambs tell to what
a motley crew the upper regions have
been abandoned.
Within this portal, almost blocF aiding
1t with his broad shoulders, stands a
man OF type more numerous in the
tifties than now. A genuine "Forty-
niner'-red shirt, corduroys, top boots
leather belt, broad hat, sunburnt face.
His great, rough hand is fumbing
irreso'utely through his big, tangled
beard. as he regards intently sign upon
the stairs which reads: PORTRAITS and
Landscapes tainted Room 80"
de has pa My been sue, essful IN his
gold-seeking. Even his back shows
that. 1t is a broad. well-to-do, one
hundred cents on-the dollar back. Per
haps he has had enough of "roughino
IT,, and longs for taste of the refined
delights dcnicl him in his exile.
Whatever his intention, he seems half
ashamed of it, he takes a hurried olanc c
up and down the street, and hcsitates
again before his resolve is taken, and his
heavy boots go numbering up the stairs.
In Little room on the top floor sits n
shabby man, the physi al opposite of
the first.
The well-worn books upon the shelves
and the bullying portfolios of "studics"
all about show that he too has been a
digger after treasure, but of another
KIND, and his face gives evidence that
he has found it.
His wide, shadowy eyes see more than
they rest upon, and his high brow teens
with fancies far above the groyelinn
horde about him.
Upon the canvas before him his hand
combines the fruits of research. obscrva-
ton and reflection in results too good to
win the general applause-too perfect
to be widely understood
His labors have not brought him the
robust health nor yet the material re-
wards of the other.
lie is thin and weak and miserably
poor. Strive as he may with his I'M
businesslike, unpract cal nature, he can
but keep himself half fed.
The day is bitter cold, and he pauses
often in his work TO beat together his
blue fingers, almost as numb and lifeles
as the little, rusty, unused stove in the
corner.
How unequally the goods of this world
are divided!
What pity such as this cannot ex-
change of their possessions to the point
OF equalization with that other class rep
resented by the wearer of the heavy
boots now numbering up toward him.
What a pity-ah, yes, but Fate doesn't
often lend an ear to Pity.
ferhaps he was Eliminating somewhat
TO TINS eject when the clump-clumping
OF the top boots, followed by vigorous
Eombardment of his door, interrupted
him.
He risen and opens the door, starting
half in fear half with pleasure at the
stalwart figure before him.
With such model he could paint
men.
"G'd mornin', stranger says the
''Forty miner"
''oood morning, come in the other
repllts, holding the door Hospitality
oTen.
"C'n look at the pictures2'
''Certa'nly"
The visitor steps over the threshold,
and by the time the artist has closed the
door and seated himself at his work, he
has gone around the room, has 'look ed
at them and plainly failed to find some.
thing he as plainly hoped to sec.
He stands now and watches the artist
laying the colors on the canvas.
An, he says, Il don't care much fol-
pictures. They don't look like out
doors They don't look like the place |
want to see. Say, stranger! could "
paint pictur' list as I'd describe it tive
so it'd look like tn very place."
II am afraid not. Words are moi
readily translated into form and color
The usual terms Of desert ption a"e toe
indefinite, capable of too many ard toe
varied interpretations: too liable t, dis
tortion through the transforming influ.
ences of the painters own imagination
to render success probable"
mo, no; / don't mean ANYTHING like
that. Jus, make it the way I'll tell We
Kinder pan around, an I'll help VI
strike it, Try it, stranger I'll stand
the damages. M if We make t look
like the place, I'll pay ye well t'r it,
The inducements are irresistible to tht
hungry Bohcm an SO he puts fresh can
vas on the easel and seats himself
palette in hand, to make the attempt.
The other shuts his eyes moment ir
retrospection, and then says: .'Well
there's river runnin' right through the
middle of this pictur' that / want t. see
Not big river, j'st kin of an over,
grown creek. Fig enough t'r trout an
suntish that ID do a boys eyes good t.
look At. Eut that amt mu Ii of de
scription,is it2" And he scratches hi,
head in puzzled way, and tries again
"Well this river is abo forty foot wide
on the average. J'st paint it about tina
wide right across the middle there, will
ye? Kinder windin' around, like this
But the other doe paint it. In
stead, he says: ''There is nothing tan
gible in that. The water itself is n,
more visible than the air we breathe
We only seem to see it as it reflects othe
things, as the objects upon its banks O.
the sky overhe, d. or shows US colo
from the salts or soils beld in suspension