Omaha daily bee., 1891-01-18

writer In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dis
cusses the destruction Of Bouguereau's
Spring in this city by Warrington and
characterizes the act as most criminal.
But" says the writer, 'last week heard
another exhibition OF modesty in art that was
as amusing as it was pleasing and touching
for its very innocence. A family who were
about to leave the city had in the house an
exquisite collection Of statuary, many pieces
of which, owing to the contemplated rc-
moval, were sold to friends. Among the
beautiful works of sculpture was quite
large-sized one OF Venus in the undraped
manner in which the goddess usually. Is
shown. An Irishman was sent to convey the
statue to its owner, and he rolled cheerly up
in his wagon and called for that for which
he was sent. Very promptly the marble
Venus was handed to him and the companion
who had come with him, another man Of his
own country. For q moment the two men
looked aghast, then crimsoned with shame,
and before carrying the offending goddess to
the wagon they looked furtively up and
down the street to see if any ono was un for
tunatcly in sight. Only in the distance were
people approaching (but unobservcd from
window was the young lady artist who told
me the story. Then bright thought
flashed through the mind of the first man.
1t was cold, but he was also modest, and his
Keen sense of modesty forbade his going
through the streets with the undrcssed
Venus with him. SO, for moment pale and
white, was the goddess placed lonely on the
ground whilst the overcoat of the man who
was to carry her was hastily taken off and
presto, as swiftly wrapped about the chseled
form of Cupid's mother. Then with this
achievement and the nude statue warmly
covered with his overcoat the man walked
triumphantly to the waiting vehicle, and
placing the Overcoatcd goddess securely in it,
drove to his destination in great content 1t
was an intensely amusing scene, but there
was pretty vein of deicacy beneath the
ridiculous aspect, for he who could not un.
derstand art certainly did that of not offend
ing modesty"
VI never had much use for an Indian and
never will, )" said an Omaha man the other day
while discussing the Sioux outbreak. "They
will steal anything they can carry away and
that they think will be of the least use to any
one. I'll tell you of an illustration. Onlya few
years ago ran a little store in the north
western part of the state where the Indians
were considerably thicker than they are now.
In those days we lived chiefly on canned
goods and the tin cans, after being emptied
OF their contents, were thrown out Of the
back door, that being the easiest way of get
ting rid of them. BY the wind or other means
the cans became scattered around until the
ground in all directions about the house pre-
sented very unsightly appearance, being
covered with cans of all sizes and shapes. NV
wife had spoken to me several times about
it, but / was at loss how
to get rid of the cans except by picking them
all up and CARRYING them away. However,
one day an idea struck me and I decided to
try IL that very afternoon. When 1 went
home to supper l told my wife that I had
means Of getting rid of our old tin cans and
explained the details. She doubted my ability
to make the scheme work successfully, but i
told her to walt and see
AFTER supper went out and began to sort
out the cans, apparently with great care, and
piled them up in little piles OF a dozen or so
in each. just as expected, while was en-
gagged in this work some squaws passing by
stopped to see what | was doing 1t was
new sight for them to
see white man apparently about
to make some use of old tin cans. The news
evidently spread rapidly, for before / had
COlplcJcu my WOrh uHcTc was u group OF AT
least fifty bucks, sQuaws and children watch
ing me and iabbering continually among
themselves. l paid no attention to them and
as soon as l had the cans all nicely piled up
went into the house. By this time it was
growing dark fast and sat down and pa
tiently waited for developments.
'In the course of an hour or two we heard
several ratings and | said to my wife,
There go the cans Sure enough the next
morning when we opened the door and looked
out, not can could be seen; all had mysteri-
ously disappeared"
Omaha and THE BEE have secured a great
deal OF advertising out of the Indian troubles
from the fact that nearly all Of the dispatches
to the newspapers of the country have been
sent from this Office. Some Of the advertis-
ing, however, has not been to the advantage
of the city. A well known press operator
here received n letter from his mother in
Virginia the other day pleading with him not
to expose himself unnecessarily during these
trou blous times. 81 know" she wrote, ''that
your business calls you out at night and that
you are obliged to expose yourself to some
extent. But, my dear son. 70 relieve your
mothers anxiety, promise me that you will
not venture into the suburbs after darhn