Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-06
THE TOPICAL TALKER.

A Notable Gallery of Pictures Exhibited
Here Mr.. HOwelIs' Opinion of Miss
JeweIt's short stOries-A Super Of Ex.
nIted Sympathy.
THE reputation of Pittsburg as an excellent
market for fine paintings has got abroad ex-
tensively within the past two years; and the re-
suit has been the bringing here of several
admirable collections, as well as some that were
but mediocre. Where the paintings showed
conspicuous merit they met with ready sale.
Probably not less than Sl00, 600 to $50, 900 has
been expended by Pittsburgers at these sales
during the period named; and one Of the re-
suits is that the forthcoming Art Loan Exhi-
bitiou, at the opening of the Carnegie Library
in Allegheny next week, will show the handi-
work of the modern masters in such imposing
and varied array as must delight art lovers.
The statement of these general facts is intro
ductory to brief mention of what is undoubted-
ly the most attractive collection of paintings
yet brought by any dealer to Pittsburg. 1t is
that of Mr.. Bleiman, which was yesterday
opened at Gillespie's gallery on Wood street.
1t differs from the preceding collections in that
there is nOJhing in it which is not admirable. 1t
is a great treat to see the beautiful group OF
works by modern masters which now brighten
the walls of Gillespies delightful little gallery,
though detailed mention must be deferred un-
til q later issue.
a FEW weeks ago I suggested to the readers
of The DISPATCH that if they had not al
ready made Sarah Orne Jewett's acquaintance
as a short story writer, to do SO at once. Her
short stories in the Atlantic Monthly were
particularly pointed out as unGoubted gems.
1t is rather reassuring to find my suggestion
indorsed by such an authority in the field of
fiction as William Dean Howells. In the Feb
ruary number of HGrper'S Magazine. Mr..
Howells, as the Editors Study, says: "In a
degree we have inherited the vice of over
explanatory fullness from the English, who
seem to address their fiction to the esthetically
idiotic; but such a sketch, for instance, as Miss
Jewett's Going to Shrewsbury has the virtue
of the best continental work and something
more: the humor of the delicious sort of which
Americans seem to have the spirit"
The connection in which Mr.. Howells men
tions Miss Jewett would seem to suggest that
he considers her the foremost among our
sketch or short story writers, and an equal of
the great Frenchman De Maupassant, whose
wonderful chain of short stories linked under
the title of 1.-THE Odd Number" has been the
most striking book of the Christmas flood.
WHEN this winter shall have dragged its slow
dismal length out of sight, it will be found
that death has been especially active among
the socially prominent during the season.
Mourning has never in my recollection, been
SO generally worn in time Of peace and whenno
deadly epidemic ragged as it is now.
A writer in the New York Sun testifes to the
same phenomenon there. He says: ''The severe
mortality of the past six weeks is beginning to
be shown by the unusually large number of
mourners who go about the streets. On every
side, in car or boat, walking and riding. are to
be met women whose fresh and densely somber
garments proclaim their recent bereavements.
In car on an elevated train the other day, out
of eleven women seven were nouced thus at
tired proportion also encountered elsewhere.
So
THE scrap of reminiscence related by Joe
Jefferson in this column the other day sug-
gests an anecdote which an old actor told me
the other day. Here is the story in the actors
words; THAT story of Mr.. Jefferson's reminds
me of one the late John Mccullough told me
while was in McVicker's Theater at Chicago.
1t was to this effect: While he (McCulough)
was playing Virginius' in st. Louis, lot of
supers were talking together between the acts
of Edwin Forests death, when a raw-boned,
lanky Roman, about six feet high, whose tights
fitted him all over and touched him nowhere,
broke in on the conversation. and exclaimed:
What Is Ned Forrest dead !? Then drop
ping his spear and putting his hand to his fore
head, said: Great heavens, there's another one
of US gone.""