Wichita eagle., 1889-06-04
ART OF DESCRIPTION.
METHODS EMPLOYED BY SOME OF
THE LITERARY HACKS.

Way to Find Amusement in Reading.
Bunyan's Vivid Scene Painting - Flau-
bert's Graphic Prose-Zola's Wonderful
"Reminiscences.
To describe-it signifies little what, pro-
vided the thing be strange to us-in such man
ner that words convey a distinct impression
thereof, is certainly one Of the rarest arts.
The gentlemen who tell US every day that We
are nation of Philistines, unacquainted with
the sense of artistic fitness, if not unable to
comprehend it, might find some moral in
stances in this theme The rashness with
which our poets and writers launch them
selves into description is equaled only by the
amiable simplicity Of the public which accepts
their tumble Of adjectives as word picture.
We would not mention names
But young people at a loss, for amusement
might find it diverting to take sketch by
MIR. Anybody Almost, the successful novelist,
read it aloud. and invite each member of the
group to define, by word or pencil, the idea
actually produced upon his mind. The re-
suit, we venture to say, would be comic.
yet Mr.. Anybody Almost is fancied among
his admirers for power and exactitude OF de-
scription. He gives himself, for instance, to
portrayal Of the sea and sky. To succeed
in this line Of art, ones first care apparently
should be to collect all the words in the Eng
ish language which deal with color. Having
made an inventory of them one looks out
quaint. suff. of nouns substantive connected
with the ocean and the heavens. A quota
ton or two from the poets and from scrip
ture, undistinguished by inverted commas, is
useful Mix these ingredients and serve. The
public cannot fail to be delighted There is
no particular meaning in the composition,
but none is asked.
If one regard it clause by clause, it mas
neither outline nor substance; it is no more a
picture than is the casual combination of
colors in palette. But the words are sonor-
Gus, or perhaps sweet They cover a certain
space upon the page, enough to suggest that
the author had some distinct intelligence in
writing them. And he himself supplies the
plaudits tells like a Snowman, what you
are about to see. It must be the fault of
your own eyesight if you do not catch the
view A young lady begins, perhaps: ooh,
what heavenly, heavenly scene, Ferdinandol
Oh, observe that And then the author
strikes in with a fresh paragraph: st was
so he opens his assorted vocabulary. This
kind Of thing is description as Turkey car
pet is picture.
WHAT TIE MASTERS HAVE DONE.
We are speaking Of description as an art,
in which sense number Of the greatest mas
tiers do not properly come under view.
Whether by accident or design, or by the
mere force Of circumstances, they did not
travel beyond the range of those ideas which
are, as one may say, fixed in everybody's
mind. Such ideas meet the writer half way,
but that is perilous advantage for the I'M
sl1ilful. 1t is natural that we should find the
most charming as the most vigorous examples
of this power in works Of an unsophisticated
age Nowhere, that we recall, does Bunyen
GO beyond the range of fixed ideas, and thus
every one Of US finds a picture at every page.
Who fails to see that street In Old Bedford
and the tinker looming where there were
three or four old women sitting at door in
the sun talking about the things of GodF'-or
the time when he sat by the fire in his house,
''musing on his wretchedness?n- that clear
est scene of all, when he walked to neigh.
boring town and sat down upon a settle in
the street, and fell into very deep panic
about the most fearful state my sin had
brought me into"-we viii not quote pas
sage which every boy knows by Macaulay's
reference, if not by reading the original. Sc
clean cut, so finished, it is, that one could
swear to the locality, in manner of speaking.
Yet, if the mere words be scrutinized Bun
yam gives us scarcely hint of his actual sur
roundings. \ town unnamed, settle, man
lost in sad thoughts, the sun that shineth in
the heavens, the stones in the streets and the
tiles upon the houses that is ALL In the ''Pil-
grim's Progress" itself we have the same
thing. Conceptions habitual to every one are
touched and heightened by genius, but the
body Of them remains simple, the common
property of mankind. The Slough of De
spond" Goes not claim to be anything beyond
bog; the Delectable mountains are such q
view of fell and slope glowing softly on the
horizon as is familiar to all inhabitants of @
plain. No word disturbs the easy compre-
hension of the reader, which is due to his OWL
mind, not to the description. 1t Is the same
case with Izaak Walton, and with Defoe
AMONG THE NATURALIsTs.
Description as an art has reached its high
est pitch in the works of the naturalist