Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-03-05
Art or
Sef2ESD3 enf &?
By ZAzDA.
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NTHEN MIR. John Winston, the new
w ~ engaged art teacher Of the
high school, talked over his new field
with Mrs. Almira Parsons, at whose
beautiful home he had been fortunate
enough to hire a room, Mrs. Parsons
said:
"Stella Paving Will be in your class.
She is a real artist. She can model,
draw and carve, and has painted some
pictures that are hanging in their par
Tor at home. Her people are in very
moderate circumstances. Her father
and brother are carpenters and her
mother keeps hous for them all. Stella
IS said to be very ordinary scholar
in other things, but nobody can come
anywhere near her in the drawing
class. There is big publishing house
in S. ten miles from heve, that gives
her orders, and sometimes sends things
for her to pass on"
1t was no wonder that, after such a
eulogy, Mr.. John Winston should Gov
ertly take Il good deal Of notice Of
Stella. In fact, he did not have very
high opinion Of his OWE art talent, and
while he could carve some, he could not
model at all. So he closely inspected
all Stella's work in class. also some
Of the modelling and carving that he
found in some Of his pupils homes,
gifts of Stella to her friends. lie was
anxious to see the paintings in her own
home parlor at home. lie imagined
that parlor would be quite a dainty,
artistic affair.
He was quite surprised, when he
found an opportunity to 60 there, to
find it quite an ordinary parlor indeed,
with stuffed furniture, plush albums
and cheap lace curtains at the win
dows. At his request Stella quietly and
reluctantly showed him her paintings,
which he recognized as very creditable
productions. Then, also at his request,
she ran up to her room and brought
down other pieces of work in modelling
and carving. Not only had she talent
but she had been well taught. 1t de
veloped that, while a waitress two
years before, at a summer hotel, an
artist, to whose children she had done
some little favor, taught her and
started her in the right way to develop
herself.
There was a picture on the parlor
wall that puzzled him more than the
cheap, snowy furniture and curtains
1t was a very large picture and occu-
pied the place of honor between the
two front windows. 1t was one of the
large snowy landscapes, in impossible
colors, that travelling artist, some
times with his fingers, sometimes with
coarse brush, paints while you
wait" Such "artists" are often tenn
porarily employed by country and town
stores, and the pictures sell, in large
snowy frames, for two dollars apiece,
being usually considered a bargain.
Mr.. Winston could hardly keep his
eyes off that picture. It's incongruities
fascinated his attention. He finally
looked at it attentiyely, without know
ing what he was doing. He was stand
ing up at the time, ready to leave. The
girl suddenly raised the curtain higher.
"You can see better now" she said,
quite composed.
For a moment he wasn't thinking of
her as being near him. He was uncon-
sciously recollecting that she had been
said to have "fne taste" in art, and
her evident respect for this coarse pic
ture caused a superior, sarcastic ex-
preston in his eyes and mouth.
"Ah, favorite of yours, l see?" he
said, lightly.
There was a moments silence and
he looked up quickly at her.
Eyes, Mr.. Winston" she said, in a
low, quiet tone, st is one of my ia
vorites."
With the superior light still shining
in his eyes, he babe her good-by. And
sometimes that same expression
showed itself when he would ask her
an ordinary class question that in
cluded in its answer original judgment
or taste The girl seemed to pay no
attention, but he remembered after
ward that she had been very reserved