The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-28

the bears fur and the trampled pines.
For the rest there is the blue sea beyond
theAawnngs.
Three years hard work, besides the spe-
cial knowledge of lifetime, would be
needed TO copy-eyen TO copy--this pic
ture. Mr.. So and So. Il. A. could I'M
doubtedly draw the bird: Mr. Such an
OF gentlemen the still lite; out VINO would
be the man 10 pull the wno.e thing to-
gether and make il the riotous, tossin =
cataract OF color and life that it is? And
when IL was done some mlddie-aeed per-
son from the provinces, who had never
seen pineapple out Of plate, or q kris
out OF the South kensington, would say
that it did not remind him of something
that il ought 10 remind him of. and there
fore that it was bad. If the gallery could
be bequeathcd 10 the nation, something
might, perhaps, be gained, but the nation
would complain of the draughts and the
absence O.: chairs. But no matter In
another and a better world we shall see
certain gentlemen set to tickle the backs
OF Circe's swine through all eternity.
Also. they will have to tickle with their
bare hands
The japanese rooms visited and set in
order for the second time, hold more pic
lures than could be described IN month !;
but most of them are small. and, excepting
always the light, within human compass.
One, however, might be difficult. 1t was
an unexpected gift, picked up in Toxic
by-street after dark. Half the town was
out for walk, and all the peoples clothes
were indigo and so were the shadows, and
most OF the paper lanterns were drops of
blood red. BY the light of smoking oil
lamps people were selling flowers and
shrubS-wicked little dwarf pines, stunted
peach and plum trees, wisteria bushes
oil ,rfS -,1 st oil 10,
wholesome plants, leaning and leering out
OF green glaze pots. In the pickering
of the yellow flames these forced Grip
pies and the yellow faces above them
reeled to and fro Enthusiastically all
together. As the light steadied they
would return to the pretence of being
green things, till a puff of the warm night
Oft again in a crazy dance of dwergs, their
shadows capering on the house fronts be-
hind them
At a corner of a street some rich men had
got together and left unguarded ali the
gold, diamonds and rubies of the East,
but when you came near you saw that this
treasure was only gathering of goldfish
in glass globes-yellow, white and red fish,
with from three to five forked tails apiece,
and eyes that bulged far beyond their
heads. There were wooden pans full of
tiny ruby fish, and little children with
nets dabbled and shrieked in chase of some
special beauty. and the frightened fish
kicked up showers of little pearls with
their tails. The children carried lanterns
in the shape of small red paper fishes bob
bing at the end OF siIvers OF bamboo, and
these drifted through the crowd like
strayed constellation of baby stars.
When the children stood at the
edge of a canal and called down to I'M
seen friends In boats, the pink lights were
all reflected orderly below. The light of
the thousand small lights in the street
went straight up into the darkness among
the interlacing telegraph wires, and just
at the edge of the shining haze on a sort
of pigeon trap, forty feet above ground,
sat Japanese fireman, wrapped up in his
cloak, keeping watch against fires. He
looked unpleasantly like a Bulgarian
atrocity or a Burmese deviation from the
laws of humanity" being very still and
all huddled up on his roost. That was
superb picture and it arranged itself to
admiration. Now, disregarding these
things and others-wonders and miracles
all-men are content TO sit in studios and.
by light that is not light, to fake subjects
from Yots and pans and rags and bricks
that are called pieces of color. Their col
lection of rubbish costs in the end quite as
much as ticket, iirst-ciass one, to new
worlds where the 'props" are given away
with the sunshine. TO do anything be-
cause it is or may be new on the market IS
wickedness that carries its own swift pun
ishment; but surely there must be things
in the world paintable other and be-
yond those that lie between the North
Cape, say. and Algiers. For the sake of
the pictures, putting aside the dear de-
light of the gamble, 1T might be worth
while to venture out little beyond the
regular circle of subjects and-see what
happens. If man can draw one thing,
it has been said, he can draw everything.
At the most he can but fail, and there are
several matters in the world worse than
failure. Betting on certainty, for in
stance, or playing with nicked cards, Is
immoral. and secures expulsion from
clubs. Keeping deliberately to one set
line of work because you know you can do
ii and are certain to get money by SO do
ing is, on the other hand, counted vir-
tue, and secures admission to clubs. There
must be a middle way somewhere, as
there must be somewhere an unarrived
man with no position, reputation or other
vanity to lose, who most keeniy wants to
find out what his palette is set for in this
life. He will pack his steamer trunk and
get into the open TO wrestle with effects
that he can never reproduce. All the
same his will be superb failure. And
afterwards (nothing this side of the grave
can change most OF us)-
When Earth's last picture is painted; when the
tubes are twisted and dried;
When the oldest colors have vanished, and the
youngest critic has died:
We shall rest (and, faith We shall need it, lie
down for an AEON or two,
Till the Master OF ALI Good Workmen shall set
us to work anew.
And those that are good shall DE happy. They
shall sit i'll q golden chair
And splash at Il ten-league canvas with brushes
of comets hair;
They shall have real saints to draw from-Silas
ana Peter ana Paul.
They shall work for year az sitting, and never
get tired at all.
And only Rembrandt shall teach US and only
Van Dyck shall blame.
And no one shall work for money and no one
shall work for fame,
But all for the sake OF working, and each in his
separate star
Shall draw the Thing ss he sees 1t for the Good
of Things as They Arel
RUDYARD kIPLIN6.