The Washington critic., 1890-01-29
NOTES OF TRAVEL.


1t is about an hour since asked the po-
ter of the sleeping car to fetch me table.
l have been sitting with my elbows on the
table looking out Of the window for that
length Of time. The day came in blue
sort of way, and found me similarly In
clined; and one hour ago desperately re-
solved that would 70 to work and by sheer
industry try aise my spirits to the level of
the equable; SO I.asked for the table. As
soon as It was fixed in place l began feel
ing better, and now l am quite comfort
able; 1t is curious what an amount of salts
faction one can get out of the Pathological
thought that he is going to OTTO work. have
enjoyed writing large number of books
and plays in this way, to say nothing of q
thousand and one poems that were calcu-
]stodt TO move the world.
Sa'
! saw Millet's "Angelusi yesterday al the
Exposition Building in Chicago. A leading
paper of that city, in speaking of the pic
ture the other day, said that 1t was good
picture, well-colored, but that most Chicago
. people were disappointed in its size. No
doubt It is very small picture, eighteen
inches by twenty one, and the true Chicago
idea of art ia expressed only in panoramas
--of which it has more than any other city
IN the United States. But the ''Apgelus" is
great. Whye 1t is hard to tell. The
thing that does not satisfy is the thing that
courts analysis. There is one test of art
perhaps. When the actors and the play
bring you to the stage and make you live
xrl,o ist1 1.o -, -
his world, and, as you read his "hnis," you
seem to pass into real life as into sudden
dream; when the singer expresses you ms
much as himself, and when you become a
part of the scene of painted picture
that, perhaps, is the effect of art. 1t
seemed TO me when / saw the "Ange-
lus'' that hush fell and stood at the edge
OF that field Of Barbizon. wished to bow
my head as they were bowing theirs, out of
respect to the simple earnestness of their
religion and the sweetness of their humility.
did not expect TO hear the bell--imagina-
tion fell short of that. did not lose the
sense that the "Angelusi was picturc-I
lost the sense Of outside life and movement.
Everything seemed stopped, poised, still.
Existence was intercepted. There was no
atmosphere. 1t seemed as though there
were no further purpose, save just II wait
ing, purposeless, at the edge Of the field,
with those two peasants forever.
@s@
That was the shock of it--anl afterwar |
came the sadness aud the philosophy. TIL
spirit of the ".ingelus'' bears u strong ana
subtle resemblance to that of "Gray'
Elegy"-it is simple, pathetic, tender, beau
tiful, perfect, The gay side wrote
Millet, "never shows itself to me. ! do not
know where it Is. ! have never seen it.
The gayest thing I know is the calm, the
silence which is so sweet. either in the for
est or the fle!d.' But one may have a
choice of salnesses, and it is better to be
sad in that peaceful and lucid pastoral way,
with peasants yearning for unknown
things, than to be a thoroughly civilized
sorrower with sins to answer for and trage-
dies to face. Few pictures will stand their
own flxedness; one tires even Of a Christ on
the wall being crucified forever. But one
could always turn with long-drawh sigh
of relief from the complexities of life to the
world Of the "Angeius,n with its holy calm
and its vague and tender sorrow, which is
more than half expectancy.
S.
Not long agoI was In South Dakota, neal
Deadwood- Whitewood, believe, was the
name Of the place. Whitewood has GENE
tery on an imaginary elevation that is called
| ridge. The cemetery once had fence, bnt
now the fence has departed through numer
GUS great gaps IN Itself, and the graves have
been trodden by many hoofs. There are nc
flowers in the Whitewood cemetery; if a
mound had a bunch Of buffalo grass It con-
siders itself adorned for company, and there
are few grave-stones. But there is one "a
head-board, to be more exact, forit is fine
slab with silvered edges), which have not
forgotten. 1t stands. in the most distant
corner of the corral Of death and bears the
inscription, beautiful in Western dircctnes'
and lacopicism