The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-20

: marred and gaiety gone, took their de-
parture, bearing with them all that re-
manned of her whose life had gone out
in a moment.
Why she found life so unbearable as
to make flight to the dark unknown
preferable to existence in this world,
none in Mendoza know
With everything seemingly to make
life a thing to be desired, her motive is
ungueSsable, and whether that which
urged her to her terrible act sprang
from something gone amiss, or fancied
lack, that stung to desperation the ar
tistfc side of her nature or whether it
was something in her home life, some
one of those unhappy incidents that
touch alike SO many human lives,
whether they are high or low, whether
they be artists or ordinary clay. But
what her motive none may say save
those few who saw the pitiful letter she
left explaining or excusing her deed.
But all this Is an old story now, so
swiftly the world moves on, for it was
four years ago, and since then this is
the first season that the artists have
done more than visit Mendoza for more
than q day at time. But this summer
once more Mendoza Is sought by the
great brotherhood and sisterhood of the
brush.
But not in the old Sibley house do
they live, that curious old structure
that is so large and rambling that once
with a sprinkling of half-breed, are
growing accustomed to the incompre-
hensible ways and eccentricities of the
painter folk, who roam about at such
strange hours, and admire such amaz-
Ing things. And once again the village
mother worries and wonders why it is
that it Is always the most careless and
untidy Of her brood that the artist Sc
lects to paint, and makes such queer
and disappointing objections to paint
him or her when washed, dressed and
starched out of all picturesqueness.
in It's remarkable and varied career it
served as convent, and yet stands
pre- eminent among it's former peers by
reason Of its wooden belfry which
crowns its gray mass with a touch of
red, Is still empty and deserted. This
time the artists in groups of twos and
threes, and even in parties of ten and
twelve, have stayed in the little village
hotel. And they wander through the
village and stray off to the fort and
paint and paint, and sketch and sketch
to their hearts content.
But, strange to say, the Shroud of
mystery, the dark fate of unhappiness
and crime that so often in village
curses a house so heavily that it is for
ever abandoned, has not fallen upon
I1l4S 0lDlGy HOu5Gs Iris may De De-
cause the property belongs to the
church, or because the holy lives of the
nuns who walked in it's corridors be-
fore that last sad party dewitt there,
may have in public opinion, or in the
minds of those most concerned, re-
deemed 1t forever in the future from
the shadows Of all unhappiness and
crime.
However all this may be, once more
| the villa VUhn q % mostly oh
And again the youngsters rejoice at
the harvest Of pennies reaped by the
labor that sounds so alluringly easy,
yet oftimes proves well nigh impossi-
BILE, the mere keeping still.
Sometimes the artists come in twos
or threes and sometimes in bands
Meanwhile the inhabitants Of Mendoza
tell the passing stranger with i'll as
sumed nonchalance.
"Oh, yes, Mendoza amt what 1t used
to be, but lots of artists comes here
to paint"