The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-05-27
IN The SOCIETY WORLD.
General Notes of Society and
Personal Items.
Recent Social Events in Topeka
and Vicinity.
Items of Interest About Topeka Peo-
pie and Visitors in Town.

The largest audience that Mrs. Ford
has yet had gathered al Unity church
last evening to hear the lecture on
Color" Miss Catherine Smith opened
the programme by playing the Ma
zurl1a in F. by Rubinstein.
Mrs Ford explained the theory of
color as employed by the most famous
of ancient and modern artists. She
gradually worked up to the most inter
esting part of her discourse, the rela-
ton of color to our souls.
She says that we are every one sur
rounded by a cloud of color, though it
is not visible to the human eye, and the
color of this cloud is taken from the vi
brations of our thoughts. She also
says that many of US have an idea that
we can hide our sins within US, but this
is a mistake, for to the most sensitive
eyes they are plainly revealed by means
of the little magnetic rays which radi-
ate from US. She thinks that the time
Will come when people can read each
others thoughts and desires as easily
as the open page of a book. 1t is ex-
tremely likely that if such a state of
affairs comes to pass, there viii be a
great reformation in many minds.
Mrs. F'Ord's descriptions are beautiful
and so realistic that one can easily close
their eyes and see the picture before
them as it is deity painted on their
brain as she speaks. The following
description of a picture painted by the
famous Chicago artist, Walter Mac
Even, will give an idea of what her
descriptions are:
THE painting shows US the Church of
La Madeleine in Paris at o'clock mass.
The darkness of the early morning is
scattered by the candles upon the altar,
and each woman in the congregation
holds in her hand a candle with which
she lights her prayer book. The cOlOrs
of the picture are soft rose and an eX
quisitely delicate green, with the yell
n "a candle 1io-hf forming the
most beautiful symphony of color tones
Imaginable. 1t is the feeling of the
picture which makes it supremely
great, however.
1T is not difficult TO paint the interior
of a church, but it is a wonderful
achievement to paint the service and
the presence which deScendS at rare
intervals when the hearts of men are
opened so that heaven may enter.
There IS only one woman in the audi
ence painted who has felt the beautiful
spirit descending She sits in the fore
ground with bowed head, the light fall
ing on her golden hair. She is richly
dressed, and in every wOman's face ex-
cept her own there is a distinct disap-
prevail of her appearance. Why do you
dare to come among US? they seem to
say. you have sinned.
The faces of the cenSuring women
are hard and cold, the face of the sin
ner is full of light. Their own un1ind-
ness has shut them away from the
presence that has entered the church,
but the heart of the sinner has opened
in love and humility, and heaven has
filled it. The grace of God IS far more
loving that the hearts of men, and the
love in the painting is from above; it
touches and penetrates one with all the
reality of tenderness and noble feel
ing.
:'The coIors used are the yellow of
wisdom and truth, the soft rose of love,
the green of harmony and, to tell the
story of heavens kindness, could any
he more perfect? The picture speaks
with its own beauty of artistic pre-
sentiment, and sinks into the heart with
that profound teaching which springs
from the artists conviction that all IS
love"
This afternoon her subject will be
''Balzac" and tomorrow evening she
will close her course of lectures with a
talk on 1.-The Evolution of Modern FIG
ton