Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-10-18
HIS MASTERPIECE.
How Flanagan Flanagan Got Three HIT
dren and Fifty Dollars for EIeYen.

How Flanagan Flanagan Got Three Hun
dren and Fifty Dollars for Eleven.
This is the age of ba-n-door art-that
kind of art which represents powder
horn, a rabbit and lot of other things
hanging against barn door in such a
way that no one would suppose they
were painted at all, out were really
hung there.
Over such a picture some people go
wild with joy. The naturalness of a
nail-head, or the folds in a felt hat
carry them away, and make them feel
better satisfied with themselves and
every thing else.
Flanagan Flanagan had painted many
a landscape, to which he conveyed the
subtle impressions made upon him by
nature. You could feel the crimson
leagues OF calm in his twilight marine
as keenly as you could the musical
rustic of his silver birches.
But so great was the rage for photo
graphic painting that Flanagan Flana-
gan, in spite of his self-respectan and pro-
fessional pride, felt that he would for
once have to give the public what it
wanted, because he was in need of the
ever potent shekels of silver that en-
able man to step out into the gloam-
ing through the front door, without
stumbling over the wolf.
So Flanagan Flanagan sent canvas,
representing an old one-dollar bill
slightly crumpled, to a well-known an
nual exhibition.
The papers began to rave over it in
half-column notices. People who went
to the exhibition stood and looked at
this canvas, as they looked at no other.
''How natural the eyebrows of
Washington look" said one enthusi-
astic young lady: ''and the lace on his
collar is just perfectly lovely!''
Il never saw any thing like that be-
FORE" said bald man. who looked first
at the canvas and then at one-dollar
bill which he held in his hand; now
that's what call painting
And so it was with every one. One
would become entranced with the hair
lines, and another over the signature of
the Secretary of the Treasury in the
lower corner.
After while it was so much talked
about that it was considered the proper
thing to see, if only to be in fashion.
Flanagan Flanagan ran the price up
until it reached three hundred and
fifty dollars, and it was nip-and-tuck
between three bar-rOoms, four prune
and several capitalists to
see who should secure the prize.
There is nothing like barn-door art
for the United States of Chicago" said
Flanagan Flanagan to a brother painter
at the fifty cent table d'hote a day or
two later: "they don t want the 'Keene
Valley or the 'Murmurous Megallo-
way or Near Gloucester or 'Twi-
lights Soothing Hush or any thing
that breathes nature in every line.
They want pictures of beer bottles hang
ing on antlers, or any old vest painted
in such a way that the buttons look as
though they were about to fall off,
They will go wild over neatly painted |
grease spot on the lapel, or buckle |
showing the steel through the japan.
ming. After awhile, instead of visiting |
Milford or the coast of Maine in sum-
ner, we shall all be making studies for |
,uture triumphs in old junk shops and |
secondhand clothing stores. The
PANIC is our national instrument, and
We must paint to suit banjo people,"
but did it not cost you good deal
If patience:?" inquired his friend.
Not Bit" replied Flanagan: sit
'nly cost me ten dollars for the frame,
tretcher and all. The one dollar bill |
vas a genuine one, ingeniously stuck
m the background of gray paint. That's
low got three hundred and fifty dol
arS for eleven.-PUck.