The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1903-02-12
Art or
Sentiment I?
INJHEN Mr.. John Winston, the new
By ZAIDA.

INTHEN Mr.. John Winston, the new
wv ly 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 room, Mrs. Parsons
said:
~Stella Paving will he in your class.
She is real artist. She can model,
draw and carve, and has painted some
pictures that are hanging in their par
Lor at home. Her people are in very
moderate circumstances. Her father
and brother are carpenters and her
mother keeps house for them all Stella
q 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 here, that gives
her orders, and sometimes sends things
for her to pass on"
1t was no wonder that, after such n
sulogy, Mr.. John Winston should COW
Srtly take a good deal of notice of
Stella. In fact, he did not have "A very
high opinion Of his own 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
VI 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,
hut she had been well taught. 1t de-
yeloped that, while a waitress two
years before, at Il 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 showy landscapes, in impossible
colors, that a 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 bargain.
Mr.. Winston could hardly keep his
eyes off that picture. Its incongruities
fascinated his attention. He finally
looked at it attentively, 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 n moment he wasn't thinking OF
her as being near him. He was uncon'
seiously recollecting that she had been
said to have fine 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, | see?" he
said, lightly.
There was n moments silence ant
he looked up quickly at her.
"Yes, Mr.. WINSTON she said, in 6
Tow, quiet tone, "it is one of my ia
vorites.'
With the superior light still shining
IN his eyes, he bade her good-by. Ant
sometimes that same expression
showed itself when he would ask heI
an ordinary class question that in
eiuded in its answer original judgment
or taste. The girl seemed to pay NJ
attention, but he remembered after
ward that she had been very reserved
with him, never speaking to him il
class or elsewhere unless he first SPOKE
TO her, or unless it was really neces
sary.
One day the teacher had been led Il
speak of the value of art in the publi
schools. In moment of real earnest
ness to him he gave expression to th'
ideas that he held of great moment.
''Children who are taught early tn
foundation principles of true art, how
ever poor they may be, will have II
aheir homes only things that are reall.
expressions of artistic beauty, in fur
Dishings, pictures and decoration
There will be nothing incongruous il
the homes of even the poorest work
men, nothing loud and coarse in col
orlug, everything will be dainty ant
tasteful, the judgment being educated
Isn't that So Miss Pawling"
lie was really not thinking at all o
she coarse picture, the snowy furn
ture in The well-remembered little par
ior. He was really in his excited en-
thusiasm appealing to her as one Wh'
Of all the class, had superior judgment
and whose word, in agreementwit
him would have weight,