St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-30
STREET sTATUARY.

Imperial Caesar dead and turned to clay,
may stop crack, but he has fallen little
farther than other great men. On Seventh
street, in front of clothing store where
price is no object at all, stands Bismarck.
He wears a cynical expression on his pa pier
mache face. and four-button cutaway on
his wire form. His trouser legs wave to and
fro in the rainy winds of March that have
got mixed up with the summer zephyrs.
Verify are the mighty fallen; but even Bis
marck has not suffered the blow to his van-
lty that one of our own statesmen
has endured at the hands of the,
same shopkeeper. In the window,
above the cutest little blue Fauntleroyi
suit, and beneath the visor of jockey cap.
appears the bearded face of John Sherman.
Jefferson Davis, Gen. Hancock and Thomas
Edison stand within reach. silent and digni-
fed, to display the wears-or the wares-of a
clothing store merchant One of the larger
stores has in its window figures of real wax.
with silken moustaches. glass eyes and gem
eral appearance of sweetness. Their atti-
tudes are too stiff for even the standard of
stiffness which obtains in society circles but
their faces have distinctly well-bred air of
absolute idiocy.
There is a great deal of statuary which, for
obvious reasons, never sees the inside Of an
art gallery. Here and there, in a window,
one sees ecclesiastical angels-pasty-loo looking
angels in blue frocks, and palpably rouged
virgins, with faces as void Of expression as
the wrong side of a postage stamp. These
stay in the shops for while and then are
buried in the dim interior of some church,
till their staring colors fade into less painful
tints, with dust and fly specks. An angel or
well made saint costs from sos to 500.
Sometimes he is made of stone composition,
sometimes of plaster of Paris and sometimes
of papier mache. He comes from ST. Louis
or Chicago, or even from Munich, Occasion
ally we see one whose drapery is really artis-
ic, but the coloring is invariably bad, and
the faces the faces of dolls.
-
One of the dry goods stores recently dis
played method of costuming statues which
ought to fill all the requirements of even
the managers of the Detroit art museum.
In the large window, surrounded by beautl-
ful drapeues, stood an exquisite little statue
of the Greek slave. One is not accustomed
TO seeing her ladvship clad, but this particu-
lar statue wore a glove-ftting suit of union
underwear. Thus is high art debased
to the uses of vulgar trade. A little
farther down the street a jeweler
had the bust of woman under glass case.
The bust was of brilliantly white and almost
transparent Parian marble. On its pure
white brow glittered a tiara of diamonds and
the necklace about its exquisite neck setevery
woman who passed wild with envy. She was
beautiful creation. that bust, but she was
nevertheless working for a living. On the
same block with her one of Bluebeard's S
wives stays with a hairdresser. Mrs. Blue
beard has her head twisted back, and her
eyes rolled up with an expression of terrible
agony. Her wig is blonde, and a bleached
blonde too. and altogether she is a horrid
sight. Sometimes her owner lets her wear a
white wig for d day or two, and then the effect
is not quite SO excruciating.
-
A tobacco shop without an Indian would
be lemonade with the lemon playing an en-
gagement in another city. Not a cigar dealer
in town knows why he owns an Indian ex-
cept that everybody i'll the business does. st.
Paul has fewer Indians than most cities of
its size, for the very curious reason that dur
ing the Sioux outbreak years ago the image
| of the child of the forest fell into iil-repute
| There is one young squaw at the market cor
| ner who is not popular. Near the Merchants,
on Third street. is g handsome brave. but
popular taste favors other races. A
student from the Latin quarter ofl Paris
stands on Third street at grins
with good d-natured idiocy and every passer-
by. His clothes are gaudy and a trifie out of
date; but surely if any one may be excused
for being blockhead, it is this Eastwood
young man. Punch, with an exaggerated
hump, is favorite. Sometimes one sees a
| Turk or ball player in uniform, but all are
classed as Indians. Most of them are made
Of -;oIl
dian, if exposed to the weather, has his head
soaked so often that it becomes cracked in a
very short time. The real origin of the Gus
! tom of using Iudians at tobacco shops dates
| back to the days of Queen Bess, when
| the landlord of the inn Belle Savage,
in London put up an Indian at
his door to indicate that tobaccos
and other novelties from the colonies were
to be had there. In time the other tobacco
merchants of the town adopted the device,
and since that time no one has been daring
enough to free himself from the hammels of
| custom. 1 can vouch for the truth of the
| story, for know the man who made it up.
Petrifed victims of tight lacing are to be
met with in nearly every dry goods store,
dressed effectively in the very latest styles.
| Horrible headless women wear cloaks and
trocks. One pltleS their hopeless misery,
| for it is agony to woman to have fetching
| gown unless she can see how envious other
| women look. Sometimes the calmly lovely
face of the Milo Venus appears above mass
| of lace neckwear and crepe ruching.
The most artistic of all the commercial
statuary of the town is large figure of Atlas
on Seventh street. It's coloring is little un-
natural, but the pose of the giant the plac-
ing and proportion of his strained muscles.
| and the expression of his patient face are all
| excellent.
| The way to educate the artistic taste of the
| peopleis to put beautiful things where ev-
| cry one can see them. The man who moulds
correctly proportioned cigar store sign may
do it only for the money it brings but his
unconscious influence for truth in art is ex-
ercised on millions, and the man who delib-
erately accustoms the public to all inartistic
| image is doing the state All irreparable in