The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-03-24
Fetching the Public.

Henry Bllvens 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
worked on figure of Venus When j,
was done it was a melancholy affair
with sad eyes turned up at an an lie OF
thirty five degrees, and q complexion
like consumptive cheese.
Higher and higher rose the lodging
bill, deeper and deeper grew the despair
Of the artist. One day stranger en-
sered the studio.
Jack" said Henry.
"Hello!' said Jack.
1t was a CLEAN of hope in the dark.
ness. John Perkins was O retired cir
Gus proprietor he had started life with
q yellow clarionet and a performing
Dear, 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
u pound of tea,' said Henry, dejec,
tedly.
Stuff" exclaimed his companion
Jack, leave it to me. Have you gc,
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" he
said at length.
| When the picture was transferred to
it, it looked as if it had come out of q
junk shop.
Now, come with me" he said tc 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 a, pearance 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 offe,
| it in its fresh state the committee had
knocked him down stairs. Now they
were all suavity.
They called on q number of poo,
painters.
Gentlemen, exclaimed Perkins, u
will give you forty francs apiece if you
will sit and sketch picture Number Ono,
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
aud sketched rs if their lives depended
on it. Men in the audience fought tc
get glimpse Women tainted in the
crush. The noblest works of French
artists were slighted.
Then q critic scraped off the SCOT
from one corner and found the namc
Rafael Pinksit' with microscope. A
sensation was caused, equalled only By
revolution. Fifty thousand francs bid
. duke, one hundred thousand francs
offered a 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 bo
whitewashed occasionally to preserve
its visibility, and the moral is. you eau
make copy of any of the old masters
by the iudicious use of tea shop
chrome and box Of blackipg.