St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-02-28

''Be careful it does not take thee too long.
We're hungry round here, and this is grub
time"
Left alone, the young woman sank upon
a chair and buried her face i'm her hands
Perhaps she was asking herself whether she
had better not abandon the idea of pushing
the adventure any further. But the cry of
her offended mOdesty was more than
drowned by the cry of her hungry stomach
And with quick turn of her hand, with
feverish haste and indifference to the de-
mands OF laees and hooks and eyes, she
threw off all her garments. even to the last,
(which fell crOuching at her feet like a
great white leverette." D, Master The
Ophile. Gautier, forgive the quotation!
At this moment the massier re-entered
followed by his companions; and the cere-
mOny began.
In order to remove any impression the
reader may have of the improperly OF what
follows, let me observe that to art students
rapiniere Is precisely what the amphithea-
/ tor or the dissecting room Is to medical
students. To the rapins, models, whether
male or female, are not men or women
but models only, just as bodies in the dis
secting room, or patients in the medical
amphtheator are simply subjects. This ac-
| counts for the Indifferent, unfeeling fash
| ion in which those male or female hirelings
are treated. who are regarded as so much
! flesh TO paint by students, Just as soldiers
, are considered only as so much flesh for
powder by generals. Flesh without soul.
So the massier and his band began to
walk round and round the poor creatures,
as slave-buvers might walk round a slave
7 in sOMe Turkish market. And as observa-
( ton proceeded, each one uttered his criti-
cism aloud:
? "Arm?-a little thin,'
/ 'Breast?-pOOrly placedr'
''HipS?-tOo narrow"
''LOins?-no curvew
"Skin?-pOOr tint-neither amber-col-
Ored nor nacreous!'
The unhappy girl submitted to this ex-
pert-wOrk was in state of unconscious
stupidity. Her eyes saw nothing and her
ears heard nothing, until the massier. after
summing up the notes, coldly articulated:
Lists are full. We've got models enough
for several weeks. Thou canst come back
again later. Put on thy peel again.
At these words. Inundated beyond ex-
preston at having sacrificed her mOdesty
for so little, she sat down upon her tumbled
apparel, enveloped herself chastely there
with. and burst into tears.
The students are a little miSchieyOus as
far as the head goes, but at heart they are
good fellows. They rolled a big screen be.
fore the young woman, who then began to
feel her nudity for the first time. And
when she reappeaTed in her little Sunday
bOurgeoise dress, with eyes cast down, as
if ashamed of having been seen. they all
understood at once that there was nothing
in common between her and the ordinary
GallateaS of the studio. And instinctiveiy
they ceased to ''thee-and-thOu" her.
Its quite evident" said one to her,
''that you have never tried the model-busi-
ness before?"
"Oh, Dieu! no.' she exclaimed with a
little CULVER OF disgust. But if you knew
what it is to be. .hungryr'-
And drawing halt franc from her pocket
she continued:
This is all have left-and for forty
eight hours l have been trying TO live this
way"
Scarcely had she spoken when a cap, ex-
tended by a paint-daubed hand. passed
around the little group. BY the time the
last student had dropped his mite into it
there were francs so confines at the bot
tom.
Dame!-folks are not rich at the Beaux-
Arts institution, you know! Besides. No
vember is the season for wood and coal and
and thck-soled shoes and warm Overcoats.
But anyhow! the way thing is given
doubles the value of the gift.
3 Gradually the rapiniere became deserted.
One of the students, more sceptical than
his comrades. remained alone with the pre-
tended model. He had been duped so
many times that he suspected this was
only new game, and wanting to satisfy