The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1890-12-16
Official Paper of the City of Sedalia
CHRISTMAS PICTURES.

Has any reader of the SUNDAY
BAz o ever taken the trouble TO con-
srast the Christmas times of fifty
wears ago with those of to-day so far
as pictures are concerned ? Why,
bless you ! The fathers and fond
mothers who are old enough now to
stroke silken-haired, sunny checked
child on the head and talk tenderly
to it of the appr. ach of The great un-
versal holiday, knew very little all ut
pictures in the prime of their youth
full years.
But in this later modern period how
would Christmas look without pic.
lures 1t would be very much like
the play of the worlds greatest poet,
wherefrom a certain musing and mel
ancholy prince royal finds himself
absent somewhere, heating his blood
with bot res buttons against the hand
some brother of the fair Ophelia or
working himself up to the CORY pitch
of a DESPERATE deed against the lewd
old king and queen.
Fifty years ago, though the reader
need not be carried back so far, pic
lures were a rarity. Aside from grand
portraits and magnificent landscapes
by the great artists, there was very
little in this line to attract attention
The rude wood cuts looked as though
they had been hacked out with a meat
axe, and even these were in measure
expensive. Poor people were deprived
of any ornaments from the better
artists, and nope but the wealthy
could indulge in the work of the ia
NOUS European and American mas
ters.
Happily, all that is changed now,
and stroll up or across the streets of
Sedalia will reveal many shop win
dows which are almost miniature art
galleries. Ger. aiuIy, by stepping
inside the door of some of these es alb
iishments, may be found fac displays
of pictures that would have bewilder-
cd the average person half century
ago.
One dealer remarked to a BAzoo
representative yesterday, that the
present season SURPRISES any he has
ever experienced in the
number and variety of studies as dis
PLAYED on canvas. Looking along the
crowded walls of his establishment
there were pictures in pastel, etchings,
water colors, French oil colors, oil
paintings. etchings in silk. engravings,
photpgrovures, etc.
Every conceivable subject on land
and sea, in the heavens and upon the
round rolling earth is drawn upon to
advance the fame AMI fortune of the
artist or to delight the eye Of the or
locker.
Yonder is the old mill, of mellow
memory, with the battered wheel
almost ready to turn n the almost
actual water and to grind out the
almost sure enough meal for yonder
old-fash oned countryman standing 10
the doorway that no wind can ever
blow shut.
BY lis side is a sea scene A ship
in the dis nce, the sailors seemingly
ready to open their dumb lips, the
breakers on the beach about to dash
a Bit of salt spray over the books on
the shelf below and ruin them for
the Christmas trade.
Not far off is farm scene in
~inter-the roofs of the humble cot
tage covered with several inches Of
snow that never fell "out Of the
bosom of the air." Up from the
wooden chimneys the blue smoke
curls gracefully in the Christmas air,
and one almost imsgiaes he
scents the odor of hick,r logs and
walnut branches.
Then there arr all sor's Of figures