Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-19

| exhaustion that demands regeneration
for mind and soul as we'll as bodyi
Who will do for the city where you
| live what W. W. Corcoran did for
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 a
place during your lifetime, why not
go to your iron safe and take out your
last will and testament and make a
| codicil that shall build for the city of
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
! ters 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 benefactions
build your own monuments and not
leave it to the whims of others Some
of the best people sleeping in Green
wood have no monuments at all, OF
some crumbling stones that in a few
years will let the rain wash out name
! death was the abatement of nuisance
have a pile of Aberdeen granite high
enough for king and eulogium
enough to embarrass a seraph
Oh. man of large wealth, instead of
leaving to the whim of others your
monumental commemoration and epi
taphology, 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 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 $50
years from now you will be welding
influences in this world for good. How
much better than white marble, that
chilIs you if you'put your hand on 1t
when you touch it in the cemetery,
would be q monument in colors, in
beaming eyes, in living possession, in
splendors which under the chandelier
would be glowing and warm and look
ed at by strolling groups with cata-
logue in hand, on the January night
when the metropolis where the body
sleeps is all showed under! The tower
of David was hung with 1000 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 victories of that art
which was so long ago recognized in
my text as pleasant pictures" Oh,
the power of pictures! l cannot de-
ride, as some have done, Cardinal Ma
zarin, who, when told that he must die,
took his last walk through the art gal
lery of his palace, saying: "Must I quit
all this? ' ook at that Titiani Look
at that Correggio! Look at that del
uge of Caracci. Farewell dear pic
tures!"
A Universal Language.
AS the day of the Lord of hosts, ac-
cording to this text, will scrutinize the
| pictures, | implore all parents to see
that in their households they have
neither in book nor newspaper nor on
canvas anythings that will depraye.
Pictures are no longer the exclusive
| possession of the affluent. There Is
not a.respectable home in these cities
! Of y-ondnJrf nj
steel engraving, if not of painting,
and your whole family will feel the
moral uplifting or depression. Have
nothing on your wall or in books that
will familarize the young with scenes
of cruelty and wassail Have only
those sketches made by artists in ele-
waited moods and none of those scenes
that seem the product of artistic de-
lirium tremens. Pictures are not only
a strong but n universal language.
| The human race is divided into almost
as many languages as there are ma
tions, 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 worldwide
language, aud printers types have no
emphasis compared with it. We say
that children are fond of pictures; but
notice any man when he takes up
book and you will see that the first
thing that he looks at is the pictures.
Have only those in your house that ap-
peal to the better nature. One en-
craving has sometimes decided an
eternal destiny. Under Sthe title of
fine arts there have come here from
France a class of pictures which
elaborate argument has tried to prove
irreproachable. They would disgrace
a baIroom and they need to be contis-
Gated. Your children will carry the
pictures of their fathers house with
them clear on to the grave. and. pass
ing that marble pillar, will take them
through eternity.
Furthermore, let all reformers. and
all Sabbath school teachers and all
Christian workers realize that, if they
would be effective for good. they must
make pictures, if not by chalk on
blackboards, or kindergarten designs,
or by pencil on canvas, then by words.
Arguments are soon forgotten, but pic
lures, whether in language or in colors.
are what produce strongest effects.
Christ was always telling what Il thing
was like, and his sermon on the mount
was 4 great picture gallery, beginning
with sketch of a city on a hill that
cannot be hid'' and ending with Il