The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1899-06-30


all the year round, and from early
morning until ten o'clock at night, and
free to all who would come and go.
What a preparation for the wear and
tear of the day five minutes look In
the morning at some picture that Will
open a door into some larger realm
than that in which our population
daily drudge! Or what a good thing
the half hour of artistic opportunity
on the way home in the evening. from
exhaustion that demands recuperatlon
for mind and soul as well as body!
Who will do for the city where you
live what w. w. Corcoran did Tor
Washington and what others have done
for Philadelphia, and Boston, and New
York? Men of wealth, If you are too
modest to build and endow such
place during your lifetime, why not go
TO your iron safe and take out your
last will and testament, and make
codicil that shall build for the city oil
your residence a throne for American
art? Take some of that money that
would otherwise spoil your children
and build an art gallery that shall as
sociate your name forever, not only
with the great masters OF painting
who are gone, but with the great mas
tiers who are trying to live; and also
win the admiration and love OF tens
Of thousands of people, who unable to
have fine pictures of their own, would
be advantaged. By your benefactlons
build your own monuments and not
leave it to the within Of others. Some
Of the best people sleeping in Green
wood have no monuments at all, or
some crumbling stones that in few
years will let the rain wash out name
and epitaph, while some men whose
death was the abatement of nuisance
have a pile of Aberdeen granite high
enough for a king, and eulogium
enough to embarrass seraph. On,
man of large wealth, instead of leav-
ing to the within of others your monu-
mental commemoration and epitaphol-
ogy. to be looked at when people are
going TO and fro at the burial of others,
build right down in the heart OF our
great city, or the city where you live,
an immense free reading-room, or a
free musical conservatory, or a free
art gallery, the inches for sculpture
and the walls abloom with the rise and
fall of nations, and lessons of courage
for the disheartened, and rest for the
weary, and life for the dead; and one
hundred and fifty years from now you
will be welding influences in this
world for good. How much better than
white marble, that chills you If you
put your hand on it when you touch it
in the cemetery, would be a monu-
ment in colors, in beaming eyes, in
living possession. in splendors which
under the chandelier would re glowing
and warm, and looked at by strolling
groups with catalogue in hand. on the
January night when the metropolis
where the body sleeps is all showed
under! The tower of David was hung
with one thousand dented shields Of
battle; but you, oh man of wealth, may
have a grander tower named after you
one that shall be hung, not with the
symbols Of carnage, but with the VIC
tories Of that art which was so long
ago recognized in my text as pleas
ant pictures" Oh, the power OF pic
lures! l cannot deride, as some have
dore. Cardinal Mazarin, who, when
told that he must die, took his last
walk through the art gallery of his
palace, saying, Must l quit all this?
Look at that Titan! Look at that Cor
reggie! Look at that deluge OF Car
acct! Farewell. dear pictures!"
AS the day of the Lord of hosts, ac-
pictures, l implore all parents to see
that in their households they have nei-
Their in book or newspaper or on canvas
anything that will deprave. Pictures
are no longer the exclusive possession
OF the afIiuent. There is not a respec-
table home in these cities that has not
specimens of wood cut or steel engrav-
ing. II not of painting, and your whole
family will feel the moral uplifting or
depression. Have nothing on your
wall or in books that will familiariZe
the young with scenes of cruelty and
wassail; have only those sketches made
by artists in elevated moods, and none
OF those scenes that seem the product
Of artistic delirium tremens. Pictures
are not only strong but a universal
language. The human race is divided
into almost as many languages as are
nations. but the pictures may speak to
people of all tongues. Volapuk many
have hoped, with little reason, would
become a worldwide language; but the
pictorial is always a worldwide Ian
guage, and printers types have no
emphasis compared with it. We say
that children are fond of pictures; but
notice any man, when he takes up a
book, and you will sec that the first
thing he looks at is the pictures. Have
only those in your housesthat appeal to
the better nature. One engraving has
sometimes decided an eternal destiny.
Under the title of fine arts there have
come from France class OF pictures
which elaborate argument has tried to
prove irreproachable. They would
hor Nd