The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-10-05

d. u utu1u14y ana AS pAtAcSSiy as IN q
looking glass. It was justice unten
pered by mercy, and it was extremely
good.
why, this is capitalp' exclaimed.
ssshe has real talent. What shame
that she should waste herself on minia-
lures and working Tor photog1aphersl''
Yes, it is beautiful; 1t Is very fne,"
acquiesced MUSCLE, grinning compla-
Gently. 'sBot If she work for photogra-
pliers, you know, hit is because, as we
say in France, II faut vivre, one must
live. What would you ave? She mex
no money if she don't.
eyes, yes, understand. But the wo-
man who painted that has it in her to
do things that would really be worth
while. Does she never attempt anything
better?'
Eff you come down stairs wiz me"
returned the exterminator, 4 show you
beeg picture witch sine pent, and witch
tex one time in place Of the rent money
they bowed me. 1t is magnificent; it is
supairb. You come, yer
why, yes; by all means, said I.
And thinking Ia my soul that s land
lord who would take paintings in lieu of
rent money was most convenient SORT
Of landlord for painters to put up with.
followed him down stairs. He led ms
to the back room on the second story.
which was furnished as bedroom, and
there, having closed the door and thrown
open the blinds, ssThis is my 'orne, . he
announced; and here is the picture
He had described it as big picture,
and big it scarcely was. But in point Of
artistic merit it far surpassed what had
come prepared for, even though the
specimen of her work which he had
shown me above stairs had been so good.
Its dimensions were perhaps two feet BY
eighteen inches, and it represented the
interior of a dungeon or prison cell. An
oblong window, too high up to be reach
ed without ladder, too marrow to per-
NIT the passage through it Of human
body. and further protected by stout
iron bars, admitted daylight and framed
in patch of slaty wintry sky. For the
rest there were bare stone walls, stone
ceiling and stone floor; while broad
HtOttr c1nDf 81 tCl1St4 uNtt4 tltttD IL loff1itO
a part of the solid masonry Of the
wall from which it projected, was the
only piece Of furniture In evidence, and
manifestly answered at once for bed,
stool and table So much fer the Access
sories. They were rendered In spirit OF
exact, almost Photographic realism; and
the effect Of massiyeness, remoteness and
ff<,<,,, -.,-<.v.s~ ~, 49, .z,.J,s1<4 .a- ~
conveyed. And now the interest of the
composition conferred in the figure.of an
old man, seated upon the broad stone
bench, with his elbows resting on his
knees, his fingers buried in his long,
white beard, and his eyes fixed intently,
vacantly, painfully straight before him.
There was something so irresistbly
pathetic in that old mans face and fgura
that I, who had come to eriticise, fell
myself instantly penetrated by an emo
ton Of distress and sympathy as If ]
were looking upon veritable human
being and not upon a mere effigy in
paint and canvas. His face was terribly
emaciated; the cheekbOnes and the
bridge of his nose seemed to be almost
starting through the skin. His hair and
beard were long and white and I'M
combed and untrimmed. His skin had
that clayey, CHASTITY pallor which results
from long seclusion from fresh air and
sunshine. His clothes We're old and
worn and they hung baggily about his
limbs as if he had shrlnk up within
them. His attitude, limp and bent over
and huddled together, breathed a broken
spirit in every line; and his eyes in their
fixed, purposeless stare expressed the de-
spair and the hopelessness and the deep
dull pain that consumed his heart far
more knowingly than words ever could
have done. In examining this picture
you quite forgot to think of the artists
technique, which, however, was excel
lent. Indeed, if the drawing, coloring
and modelling had not been very good
no such final emotional effect could have
been obtained.
'Well,p demanded the exterminator,
who stood at my elbow, SOW you like
it, ehs"
's0h," said, sit is very strong. Very
powerful and imaginative and moving.
But how did she come to choose such a
painful subject? And who was her
model? Where did she ever find such
an awfully broken down old mani"
Eth, for the sobjec' she pent wat in
terest her, suppose The model, e was
the Gle man himself"
ssWhat old man? Where did she find
hims It's wonderful face-like the
wreck of face that had once been
strong, intellectual, almost beautiful"
IVY, don't tell You it was her ole
man, her fazair; DIR. Eczardy, who leeve
Upstairs"
ssWhatr I gasped. "Her father? Her
own father"
eyes. 1t represent him in the prison
IN Rossia, Were they keep him five, six
years waiting to be tried, and Were e
catch the cawnsumption. You see it
was pretty hard staying all alone there,
in solitar' confinement, one, two, tree,
four, i've, six years. E pretty near go
crazy"
Hard I should think it was. And
you'll don't see how You can sleep with
that picture in tbs room.
s.Oh, you get use to it." he explained,