Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-04-15
Fetching tho Public.

/ Henry Biivens was an artist in Paris,
where he expected to garner in heavy
crop of immortal glory and golden du-
cats, but he made nothing but big
lodging bill. For months he had
T worked on figure of Venus. When it
was done it was q melancholy affair,
with sad eyes turned up at an angle of
thirty y-tive degrees, and a complexion
/ like consumptive cheese.
Higher and higher rose the lodging
bill, deeper and deeper grew the despair
of the artist. One day stranger en-
tered the studio.
"Jack!" said Henry.
"Hello!' said Jack.
1t was gleam of hope in the dark
ness. John Perkins was O retired cir.
Gus proprietor he had started life with
q yellow clarionet and q performing
bear, and retired with fortune He
listened to the artists tale of woe, and
SAID:
Noodle! why don't you sell your pic
ture and your misery?"
1T could not be given away with
a pound of tea" said Henry, dejec,
tedly.
Stuff" exclaimed his companion.
Jack, leave it to me. Have you got
any SCOT? We will sell the picture for
forty thousand francs.'
The artist brought SCOT, gasping.
Selling handful his friend daubed the
picture front and back until its own
grandmother would not have known it.
"Givo me brush" he cried.
In the lower corner he carefully
painted Rafael Pinksit, and then Oh.
scured it with SCOT, when the outlines
of Venus could be dimly seen as
through cloud.
Get me an old rotten frame, lie
said at length.
When the picture was transferred to
it, it looked as if it had come out of
junk shop.
Now, come with me, he said to the
artist. Ito the Paris Salon.
place for masterpiece, gentlemen!"
exclaimed the circus proprietor, in q
confident tone.
The committee were profoundly af-
fected by the grimy appearance of the
treasure and hung it up in the most
prominent place in the exhibition, and
marked it Number One. When the
painter had had the effrontery to offer
it in its fresh state the committee had
knocked him down stairs. Now they
were all suavity.
They called on number of poor
painters.
Gentlemen" exclaimed Perkins, II
will give you forty francs apiece if you
will sit and sketch picture Number One,
Venus in the Salon."
They were engaged. A crowd of
students he next employed at two francs
an hour, to stand in an entranced state
before the picture. The Salon opened,
and crowds stood in front of it. The
students raved and tore their hair in
pretended delight. The artists copied
and sketched rs if their lives depended
on it. Men in the audience fought to
get glimpse. Women tainted in the
crush. The noblest works of French
artists were sighted
Then critic scraped off the SCOT
from one corner and found the name
Rafael Pinksit" with microscope. A
sensation was caused, equalled only by
revolution. Fifty thousand francs bid
duke, one hundred thousand francs
offered marchioness, four hundred
thousand francs bid the Prince Clam
Clam.
The latter bid was accepted and the
money paid, and out of it the lodging
bill was made thing of the past. The
Parisians still rave over the picture,
which can be seen by any one in the
Louvre gallery, although it has to he
whitewashed occasionally to preserve
its visibility, and the moral is. you can
make copy of any of the old masters
by the judicious use of tea shop
chrome and box of backing.