The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-11-01

have become immortal on the other side
of the sea, but it is the fashion Of Amer
leans to mention foreign artists, and to
know little or nothing about our own
Copley and Allston and Inman and
Greenough and Kensett. Let the afhuent
ding ont Of their windows and into the
back yard valueless daubs on canvas, and
call in these splendid but unrewarded
men, and tell thern 10 adorn your walls,
not only with that which shall please the
taste, but enlarge the mind and improve
the morals and save the souls Of those
who gaze upon them.
Brooklyn, and all other American
cities, need gEeat galleries Of art, not
only open annually for few days on ex-
hibition, but which shall stand open. all
| the year round, and from early morning
until ten O'Clock at night, and free to all
who would come and 60. What a
preparation for the wear and tear Of the
day q five minutes look in the morning
at some picture that will open door
into some larger reAlI6 than that IN
which our population daily 1drudgef Or
wiat good thin1F tho half hour Of astis-
tic opportunity On the way home.in the
evening from exhaustion that demands
}srecuperation for mind and soul as well
ms body! Who will do for Brooklyn, or
the city where you live, what W. w.
aCorcoran did for Washington, and what
4 am told John Wanamaker, by the
donation of De Munkacsy's great picture,
"Qhrist Before Ptlate, . is going to, do for
.Rlhladelphiaa Mem Of wealth. II you ara.
go 81 az>6k 1s.s74
place during your lifetime. why not go
to y5driron safe and take out your last
will and testament, and make q codicil
that shall ibuild for the city of your resi-
dence, a throne for American art2 Take
some OF that money that would otherwise
spoil your children. and build an art gal
lery that shall associate your name for
ever, not only with the great masters of
I painting, vho are gone, but with the
great masoesf who are trying to live; and
also win theAdmaration and love Of tens
of thousands Of people, who, unable to
| have fine pictures Of their own, would
be advahtaged by your benefaction.
| Build your own monuments, and not
| leave it to the wf1im Of others. Some
of the best people sleeping in Greenwood
| have no monuments at all, or some
crumbling stones that In few years
will let the rain wash out name and epi-
/ taph; while some men, whose death was
the abatement of nuisance, have pile
| of polished Aberdeen high enough for a
king, and eulogium enough to embarrass
seraph. Oh, man Of large wealth, in
stead of leaving to the whim of others
your monumental commemoration and
epitaphiology to be looked at when peo-
pie are going to and fro at the burial Of
| others, build right down in the heart of
our great city, OF the city where you
live, an immense free reading room, or a
free musical conservatory, or free art
gallery, the inches for sculpture, and the
walls abloom with the rise and fall of
nations, and lessons of courage for the
disheartened, and rest for the weary, and
| life for the dead; and one hundred and
fifty years from now you will be welding
influences in this world for good among
those whose great grandfather was your
4 greatsgrandchild. How much better than
white marble that chills you if you put
your hand on it when You touch it in the
cemetery would be monument in colors,
in beaming eyes, in living possession in
splendors which under the chandelier
| would be glowing and warm, and looked
| at by strollins, groups with catalogue in
hand on the january night, when the
| metropolis where the body sleeps is all
| showed under. The tower of David was
hung with one thousand dented shields of
battle; but you, oh man of wealth, may
| have grander tower named after OF, ,one
that shall be hung not with the symbols
of carnage, hut with the victories of that
art which was SO long ago recognized in
my text as '.pleasant pictures Oh, the
power of picrurest I c,nnot deride. as
some have done, Cardinal Mazarin, who,
when told that he must die, took his last
walk through the art gallery of his pal
ace, saying: ''Must quit ell this2 Look
at that Titan! Look at that Correggio!
Look at that deluge of Caracci! Fare
well, dear pictures!' AS the day of the
Lord of Hosts, according to this text.
will scrutinize the pictures, ilnplore all
parents to see that in their households
they have neither in book or newspaper
OF on canvas anything that will deprave.
Pictures are no longer the exclusive pos
session of the affiuent. There is not a
4 respectable home in these cities that
has not specimens of wood cut OF
steel engraving, if not of painting,
and your whole family will feel the
moral uplifting or depression. Have
nothing on your wall OF in books that
will familiarize the young with scenes
of cruelty Or wassail; have only those
: sketches made by artists in elevated
moods, and none of those scenes that
q seem the product of artistic delirium
i tremens. Pictures ere not only strong
but universal language. The human
race is divided into almost as many
languages as there are nations, but the
pictures may speak to people of all
tongues. Volapuk many have hoped
4 With little reason, would become Q
world wide language, but the pic.
toriai is always world wide
language, and printers types have
no emphasis compared with it. We say
that children are fond of pictures; bu.
notice any man when he takes uI
book, and you will see that the first
thing that he looks at Is the pictures
Have only those in your house that ap
peal to the better nature. One engrav-
ing has sometimes decided an eternal
destiny. Under the title of fine arts
there have come here from France class
Of pictures which elaborate argument has
tried to prove irreproachable. They
would disgrace a barroom, and they
need to be conflscated. Your childrer
will carry. the pictures Of their father
house with them clear ON to the grave
and, passing that marble pillar, will takt
them Though eternity.
Furthermore, let all reformers, and al
Sabbath school teachers, and all Chris
, tian workers realize that il they woul(
be effective for good, they must maxi
pictures, if not by chalk on blackboards
or kindergarten designs, or by pencil or
, canvas, then by words. Arguments al,
soon forgotten; but pictures, whether il
! language or In colors, are what produces
strongest effects, Christ was Away
r telling what thing was like, and hi
: Sermon on the Mount was a great pictur.
gallery, beginning with a sketch of ,
! '.city on hill that cannot be hid, " ant
ending with tempest beating against tw,