The age-herald., 1900-07-20
WoMAeNG;c;; eGc,nrv
Birmingham Girl Writes
 Of American Art Exhibit

Miss Rebekah Hamilton of Birmingham is contributing a series of clever sketches on the Paris Exposition to the Alabama Baptist, and in the last issue of that pa- per she writes most interestingly of the American art exhibit She says in part:
 From the very entering of the art build ing it is a qualification to see the choice places granted the American exhibit. Both with the sculpture and the painting the space assigned us is second in advantage to none, not even to the French itself. The center of the rotunda holds the Amer ican sculptures; the grand stairway leads direct to the American paintings. We have nothing to grumble at, and we do not grumble. Nothing but the broadest of smiles is seen on the faces of our country men, whether they be blue-coated officials or otherwise-coated visitors, for each feels that a credit has been done to the dear land beyond the seas, and each quietly takes little of the glory to his inglorious self.
 Of the several colossal statues in the TO- tunda none seem to attract more admira- tion than that of General Sherman. It is the design of St. Gaudens, an equestrian statue with Victory holding aloft a wreath of laurel. The likeness seems excellent, judging from the distance at which 1t is viewed.
 But best of all the statues, marble or bronze, is MacMounie's soldier monument to be erected in New York. This powerful group of fighting men has been, in its line, the best in this years salon. There we see it in bronze. This is reproduction in plas- ter, though perfect that few would guess it. In the early days of the expo stion it was interesting to see the work men busy putting the pieces together A rope attached to the scaffording would De knotted around a head and it then raised into place. With plaster it would be stuck to the neck, and, with the rope still as support, be left to dry, while arms, legs, guns and cloaks were being stuck on Tn like manner in a dozen different places
 The paintings are more numerous than the sculptures and signed by names well known in the world of artists. In the first room hangs a portrait of Sargent by himself, a speaking likeness, say his Paris friends. Another by him is of the presi- dent of Bryn Mawr. In room beyond. hangs his third, making the limit allowed 
 is a portrait of a mother and two children, quite the most beautiful portrait imagina- ble so far as features and cooring go.
 For charm all it's own, however, there Is one picture by the Baltimore man. Brown. Brown always paints street Arabs, boot blacks being with him prime favorites. In Paris he is not considered much of an ar tist, I am told, and the general criticism Is that there is a sameness in all that he does. He has a number of types and they are repeated time after time, till those fa- miliar with his work are tired of them. But this was the first of his had seen, so it came with freshness that was delight full A little bootback is doing "hand- spring to the admiration of a crowd of small boys. And the varying expressions upon the faces of those boys is a study. Their eyes are the brightest They are the impersonation of that keenness said to boys who have had to shift for them selves" And to the smallest detail the picture is perfect. The banana peeling, the. bit of orange skin on the sdewolk, even the dust on the upturned soles of the urch- ins feet, are faultlessly shown. And the spectators of the show not meant for them, grin with the bows till they catch the eye of an amused by-stander. Then they move off rather sheepishly, and the by-stander takes their place.