The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-04-05

winch are, OF course, meCnanlCal mixtures.
These named in my last paper, to which 1
refer you, so that only now give them as in
expensive mediums for the plain treatment
under discussion. l do think that these COM
pounds should be oftener specified; then per
haps the quantity sold would enable the manu-
facturers to lessen the cost OF manufacturing,
and thus cause them to be used for less costly
work, and a greater number of workmen would
be educated to apply them.
"There is limited number of methods OF
treatment for the ordinary uniform coating
OK woodwork; plain painting would be too
commonplace to require single word here,
other than that 1t is advisable to coat all with
that material which is least injurious to
health. 1t often comes under your practice
to have to deal with old grainings. Should
such be In imitation Of oak, mahogany, wal
nut, or maple do not entirely cover this with
dense coat OF paint. There is given to you
an excellent under-paint for glaze colors, and
exquisite tones OF greens, soft reds, browns,
and blues can be easily washed on to these
old grained surfaces, the veining under COM
ing through the coloring and creating charm
ing1y broken effects, with a luminous play
not otherwise to be obtained; IL is also mex
peneive. OF course, the actual imitation is
buried, but 1t is its variety of form which
lends itself to this decorative treatment, and,
although In part buried, will tell upon the
semi-transparent pigment used.
"The general method of ordinary, and in
deed all, decorative work has been to mix the
pigments to produce color effects. Artists
know full well that IL they wholly work by such
method they do not produce depth, crisp-
ness, or luminosity. l have never under
stood why decorative painters should be con-
fined to the three oils and one fat practice,
and to mixing the paints with view only TO
see how each coat covers, without any regard
to purity Of tone. 1 strongly advise the use Of
paints that do not cover, the very antithesis
of the general practice of house-painters, and
indeed the architects have demanded that
only such paints as cover shall be used, 1t
may be supposing that none other can be
good. l know pigments are adulterated and
have little body, but pure pigments which are
semi-transparent are equally good with the
denser ones.
"Supposing the old painting to be of dull
umber gray, and 1t is determined to change
this to pure primrose or buttercup yellow,
the first new coat should be nearly white, very
slightly toned with the deepest yellow ochre
or zinc chrome, SO that the old umber gray be
entirely obliterated; an additional coat or two
should then be applied, or the pureness of the
finished coat will suffer. Indeed, 1t is one Of
the essential features and needs of decoration
by transparent and semi-transparent pigments
that nothing of an opposite character be used
or present as an under-pain ting.
"For nearly all under-paintings, or first coats
after the suppression OF the old color effects,
nothing is better than the many yellow tones,
varied in depth according to the depth and
tone OF the finish determined upon. If the
finished color be blue or green, then mix
Antwerp or Prussian blue with the yellow, 30
that 1t may have more or less cold cast. II
the finished color be any of the multitudinous
tones Of reds, or red-browns, then add any of
the red pigments to the yellow-say Venetian
red or burnt sienna, 80 that it may have
warm cast. 1t must be distinctly borne in
mind that the tone of the under-paint will
materially affect the finished work, SO that
careful study muGf ha ma6p Of tho fhOnean6
and one effects.
Having secured good and efficient under
paint, the finishing coats will be simply glazes
of greater or less thickness. 1t is not well that
they should be too thin, or that the under-paint
be too light only careful attention and ex-
perience can regulate this; for if the glaze be
too thin and the underpaint too light 1t is pos
sible that the result will be unsatisfactory
shadiness, particularly Objectionable in the
mouldings. The aim should be to produce
regulated, satisfactory shadiness; then the
contour of the mouldings will be pleasing and
their beauty emphasized. To effect this the
glaze must be made with very little and fre-
quently no white pigment, which, when COM
purity of nearly all colors. White has
tendency to give them milky appearance, and
does not form glaze proper. | am thinking
now of the purest tones. Care must be taken
in the application of glazes to lay them on
with eyenness, and tohaye them finely stippled;
then soft, mossy result will accrue. AS "a final
finish an egg-shell gloss varnish should be ap-
piled in one, two, or three coats, and the result
| will be play of light and shade such as moth
ing else can give. 1t is desirable to have q
coarser stipple the further it is removed from
the eye. There will be q change of tone with
every atmospheric change; artificial light will
enhance its beauty, and even gaslight will do
this; indeed, its character might be termed
chameleonic
II do not say it is necessary to have dark
|. painting only for this. IL is not necessary.
the method can be used for the most delicate
treatments. Ii you will, even the fashionable
white need not be swept away. For instance,
If pure, clean, ivory tone be aimed at let
the surface be of the cleanest white, and q
slight wash OF raw sienna, Indian yellow, or
yellow lake laid on, far superior finish to
mixing these pigments with white.'
The Negroes Reverence for Lincoln.
San Francisco Call.
''Did you ever know a negro to be named
Abraham LincolnF' asked Judge Fitzgerald
as he leaned against the counter at the Grand
Hotel and meditatively eyed cigar which he
hadjust lighted swell, never did, and the
greater part of my life was spent in Missis.
sppi, where the negroes outnumber the
whites. George WashingtOns, Andrew Jack
sons, Thomas Jeffersons, and Ohm Adamses are
thick as flies among the negroes, but / never
heard of an Abraham Lincoln. / have often
wondered why it is so, and can only find one
explanation for it, You know among the
blacks Of the South the name of Lincoln is