The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-01
49, sssssssss:
Z BEFORE BREAKFAST. ,

A gang of small boys can worry q big
boy out of n years growth.
Down near the corner of Penn avenue
and Mulberry street yesterday afternoon
boys from No. So school, just then dis
missed, were having fun with q round, ro-
tund citizen. Snow was on the ground,
nice Fedora hat was on the fat mans
head, and the little chaps were wilin'.
They pelted the big mark from all sides.
His nice Fedora lost both its outline and
its high place. The battle, or more prop
erly seige, continued for several minutes.
The fat man was too busily engaged in
protecting his face to see much He
CROPPED about, looking for his Fedora,
while the white bullets rained upon him.
Finally the fat man caught a glimpse
of one very active youngster and he
made for him. He decided to take from
this one boy his revenge for the crowd.
So away they started.
The small boy directed his legs down
Penn avenue toward the Dickson works.
The fat man struck out nightly Tor q
race. AT the corner of Mulberry is q
peanut stand. The peanut man, a quiet
demure looking foreigner, was just COM
ing out of his coop with large box of
fresh shelled peanuts The little boy
made straight for him; the fat man boy
was following closely and at a terrific
pace. When the little boy got within a
foot or so of the neanut man he turned
his course sharply.
The fat man continued onward
The peanut man sprawled on the side
walk from the force of the collision The
peanuts were flying about like unto the
SHOWS from heaven. All around tor
yards and yards the peanuts nestled in
the snow. To the neanut man they were
gone forever. Also the fat man. He had
never stopped in his flight and disap-
peared up Vine street in the wake of his
little tantalizer
But to the rest of the gang the peanuts
were not gone. These sat about in the
snow like chickens picking corn, they
had their feast. The peanut man
growled: Dana dose policemen"
The small boy had the best of it all
around for the pursued one escaped
Art with capital A is beginning TO
permea.e circles hitherto innocent of it's
thrall 1t probably hasn't yet penetrated
into the interior of the rural districts, TO
the extent of displacing chromos, or the
autographs of Washington crossing the
Delaware and "From Shore to Shore, q"
Rock of Ages, etc, but in most middle
class homes in town will now be seen a
ST. Cecilia, Guido Reni or a Raphael
Madonna. 1t is u good indication when
these crowd out homemade oil paintings
and cheap colored prints 1t shows that
the daughter has been at the high school
or, that the mother has aspirations be-
yond planning to have little Mary's
frocks finer than those worn by the
small person next door,
But it is now time that in American
homes some idea of art as seen at its
best in America should be familiar.
There are many refined and cultured wo-
men who know their Baedeke to some
purpose, who can tell where every great
picture is TO be found in foreign gal
lerles' to whom the masterpieces in the
Aatcan, the Utizi, the Louvre, or in
Dresden are like the faces OF well loved
friends and yet they cannot describe the
really excellent productions in our home
galleries. In many cases they are not
acquainted with the magnificent works
in the Boston or the congressional liz
braries and could scarcely tell what truly
great pictures are TO be s,en in the Met
ropolitan.
1t is time Americans outside of Boston,
New York and Washington began to take
some interest in the wonderful moral dec
orations, triumphs of beauty in stained
glass effects and various works by both
Foreign and native artists which have
been secured in this country. 1t is time
by Intelligent selection of reproductions
In their own homes. and by gifts "a
friends the riches of our galleries be
more widely known. Many people of edu-
cation and artistic taste are unfamiliar
with Elihu Vedders weird and marvellous
creations save perhaps, as seen on the
cover OF the Century Magazine. They
might not care for 1.-The Lair of the Ser
peEt," but surely the LAZARUS from
the Boston library, the strong, beautiful
dark face framed in the drapery of the
grave looking out eagerly, wistfully. to-
ward the life into which he had been
called back, is something to be coveted
for wall or portfolio. The magnificent
friezes and lurettes from the same art
treasury, the prophets by Sargent ought