The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-29
CROSS SADDLE HAS BEEN
 INTRODUCED IN BIRMINGHAM
Reception of the Custom of Riding Astride Has Not Been Very En- thuiastic-Few Women Ride
 Horses Here Anyway. <
BY ANNIE KENDRIcK WALKER.

The only suggestion of ouartier Latin in Birmingham is in the sketches hang ing on some of the studio walls. There are views of the Paris Quays at night, street scenes with the flicker of Paris lights, and all the darkness and gloom of the Seine with Notre Dame in the background.
 Some of the studio walls are covered with drawings from life which were made in the Quartier Latin. There are any number of character sketches for for which the models in the Paris stu dios posed. Some of them are such beau- tiful types but there are others with hard. wretched faces, thin to cancellation, :. and without a semblance of a contour. l These are the women with stories. No where else but in the Quartler Latin would they be appreciated. They are part of Paris and there is but one Paris.
 The Birmingham artists whose studios are in the Watts building and who have not glimpsed Paris in year or two have stories of the Quartier Latin at their tongues end. Every canvas, all the charcoal sketches from the view of the Seine to the Paris gutter women suggest some incident. A year in the Paris stu dos furnish more interesting stories than a life time in any other part of the world.
 Among Birmingham artists whose stu- dios are small replcas of these occupied by them in the Quartier Latin in Paris are Miss Edna Smith and Miss Alice E. Rumph. They have adjoining studios, and are among the successful young ar- lists in Birmingham.
 Miss Smith studied in Paris several years, and received most of her art edu- cation abroad. She was a pupil of the Academic Julien, working In the Passage des Panoramas. one of the oldest stu dios in Paris she owes much of her suc- cess to M. Julien and to M. M. Schom- nfer, Baschet while she received weekly criticisms from the late Benjamin Con- stant, the leading portrait painter of his time, and M. Jean Paul-Laurens, a master in technique, drawing and com position Miss Smith exhibited in the Paris salon In 1900 a portrait of her mother, which received favorable mem tion in L'Authorlte
 This young artist has received several commissions. Her work has attracted much attention in Birmingham. In ad- dition to her portraits of several well known persons she has painted some
 
 large classes and has pupils in the still life classes and life class each week. She has a most interesting sketch class. and her pupils gave recent exhibition that was most creditable.
 Enough cannot be said of the impor- tance of drawing" said Miss Smith in her studio recently. There are too many houses built on the sand in art ed- ucation, and much talent is perverted
  stand the right way at the commence ment of study.
 "A knowledge of form, as effected by perspective light and shade. is the only direct means of an intelligent understand ing of the beautiful
 Mature is the guiding inspiration of true artist and to learn to understand what one sees, and to acquire the tech nique to reproduce should be the aim of every student.
 '"The first means toward this end Is drawing in black and white. The sense of color is innate and largely influenced by temperament and character. What one learns is an intelligent use of colors to shape the beauty of form.
 "A tree has color but form also and without understanding the form, all the color used is to no purpose.
 stForm Is necessary to the painter; but color Is not necessary to the sculptor. Many more illustrations I could give to. prove that student should understand drawing in black and whte.'
 ''It means work and patience to get in the salon. In the Julien academy a stu- dent must gain the consent of Monsieur Julien before she may try for the salon. "The suspense of waiting to hear the decision of the committee is another thing There are little cards sent out by the committee. If a pupil receives a green card she has failed but If her card is red her picture will be hung in the salon.
 Marie was the name of the French maid who tidied up the studio" said Miss