Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1899-06-30

ture quake with the tremendous things
of God and eternity and the dead.
actually staggered down the steps Of
the London Art Gallery, under the
power of Dore's Christ Leaving the
Praetorium." Profess you 70 be a
Christian man or woman, and see no
divine mission in art. and acknowledge
you no obligation either in thanks to
God or man?
1t is no more the word of God when
put before us in printers ink than by
skillful laying on of colOrs or designs
on metal through incision or corro-
sion. What a lesson in morals was
presented by Hogarth, the painter, in
his two pictures, The Rake's Prog
ress' and THE Miser's Feast" and
by Thomas Coles engravings Of the
Voyage of Human Life" and the
Course of Empire" and Turner's
slave Ship God in art. Christ in
art, Patriarchs, prophets and apos-
ties in art! Angels in art! Heaven in
art,
The world and the church ought to
come to the higher appreciation of the
divine mission of pictures; yet the au-
thors of them have generally been left
to semi-starvation. West, the great
painter, toiled in interpretation till.
being a great skater, while on the ice
be formed the acquaintance of Gen.
eral Howe of the English army, who
through coming to admire West as
clever skater. gradually came to APP
preciate as much that which he accom-
plished by his hand as by his heel.
Poussin, the mighty painter, was pur-
sued and had nothing with which to
defend himself against the mob but
the artists portfolio, which he held
over his head to keep off the stones
hurled at him. The pictures of Rich
ard Wilson of England were sold for
fabulous sums of money after his
death, but the living painter was glad
to get for his "Alcyone" piece of Still
ton cheese From 1640 to 1913 there
were four thousand six hundred pic
lures willfully destroyed. In the reign
of Queen Elizabeth it was the habit Of
some people to spend much of their
time in knocking pictures to pieces. In
the reign of Charles /. it was ordered
by Parliament that all pictures or
Christ be burnt Painters were so bad
ly treated and Inundated in the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century that
they were lowered clear down out OF
the sublimity of their art, and Obliged
to give accounts of what they did with
their colors. The oldest picture In
England, portrait of Chaucer, though
now of great value was picked out OF
a lumber garnet. Great were the trials
of Quentin Matsys, who toiled on from
blacksmith's anvil till, as painter. ne
won wide recognition. The first mis-
sionaries to Mexico made the fatal
mistake of destroying pictures, for the
loss of which art and religion must
ever lament. But why go so far back
when in this year of our Lord, to be
a painter. except in rare instances.
means poverty and neglect; poorly
fed. poorly clad. poorly housed. be-
cause poorly appreciated! When l
hear a man is a painter l have two
feelings-one of admiration for the
greatness of his soul, and the other Of
commiseration for the needs Of his
body. But so it has been in all de-
partments of noble work. Some of the
mightiest have been hardly bestead.
Oliver Goldsmith had such a big patch
on his coat over his left breast that
when he went anywhere he kept his
hat in his hand closely pressed over
the patch. The world-renowned BiSh-
OPP Asbury had a salary Of $54 year.
Painters are not the only ones who
have endured the lack of appreciation.
Let men of wealth take under their
patronage the suffering men of art.
They lift no complaint; they make no
strike for higher wages. But with a
keenness of nervous organization
which almost always characterizes ge-
MUS, these artists suffer more than
any one, but God, can realize There
needs to be a concerted effort for the
suffering artists of America, not SEN
timental discourse about what we owe
to artists, but contracts that will give
them a LIVELIHOOD for l am in SYM
patty with the Christian farmer who
was very busy gathering his fall ap-
pies, and some one asked him to pray
for poor 'amily, the father of which
had broken his leg, and the busy farm
er said: Il cannot stop now to pray,
but you can go down into the cellar
and get some corned beef and butter
and eggs and potatoes; that is all l
can dc now" Artists may wish for our
prayers, but they also want practical
help from men who can give them
work. You have heard scores of SER
mons that make pleas FOR the suffer
ing men and women Of American art.
Their ork is more true to nature and
life than some of the master pieces that
have become immortal on the other
side of the sea, but it is the fashion of
Americans to mention foreign artists,
and to know little or nothing about our
own Copley and Allston, and Inman
and GreenOugh, and Kensett. Let the
affiuent fling out of their windows and
into the back yard valueless daubs on
canvas, and call in these splendid but
unrewarded men, and tell them to
adorn our walls, not only with that
which shall please the taste, but en-
large the minds and improve the NOR
ais, and save the souls of those who
gaze upon them. All American cities