The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-05-29


/ OF France is said to have gone out
with the empire and its extravagan
| and dissolute court. I am informed
| indeed, that the true life OF France
| has never been properly represented
| by life at Paris. Marriages of con-
vsnience still exist, and are fruitful
source of domestic infelicfty, but these
are confined to the aristocracy and
very wealthy people.
The woman movement In its best
and most practical form, has made
greater advances OH this side of the
Atlantic than with us. There are no
female conventions, nor lady
orators but women found employ
ment many years ago in France In
avenues which we have only recently
opened tic them. They are clerks in
hotels and shops. They sell tickets at
the railroad stations, and receive tel
egraphic messages. They act oceasfon-
ally as BARRIERS or .barberesses." One
who was well stricken In years and
who used snuff, and wore spectacIes,
and ate garlic, shaved me the other
day.-and I have not ventured inside
a hair-dresser's shop since.
Everybody visits the Louvre. OF
course. Equally everybody Stimulates
enthusiasm and rhapsodizes over the
"old masters" and the art critics are
safe In the Louvre. for no painting can
be admitted to that august gallery un-
til its author has been ten years dead.
stood IN front OF Murilioss sInamacu-
late Conception, = FOR which piece OF
canvas the French government paid
Marshal ScuEt. in 1859, the modest sum
OF six hundred and fifteen thousand
francs. and I honestly tried to feel its
powey. but failed utterly. 1t was a.
very pretty painting certainly. 1t re-
presented a woman with a sweet face.
floating quietly in mid-air, with no
wings, or other visible means Of sup
PERI with the sun clothing her with
ITS RAYS. and the moon under her feet,
and crown of stars on her head.
You have seen hundred engravfngs
OF It. and suppose it is a great work
or art. but to my uneducated mind
there is nothing In it. A crucifixion
by Rubens. In which the CHASTITY light
is thrown on the faces OF the Roman
soldiers and the women at the foot
of the cross. and in which the agony
of the sufferers is depicted in every
facial muscle, was. to me a wonderful
work, and its strange beauty kept me
gazing at it for many minutes. Two
pictures by Girodet Trioson (yyhoever
he may be--or was) We're to my mind
among the finest in the collection. One
represented the Deluge, the other the
intermerit of Atalas. And IL ever the
passions of fear and of sorrow. the
of life and the peace of
death found accurate and intense rep
resentation on canvas, it was here.
I shall not attempt to further describe
individual works. There are galleries
filled with paintings, mostly on re-
ligious Subjects, and I suppose they
make up in piety what they lack in
execution. There are galleries Of
sketches, and crayons, and I
oronzes. and ancient vases, and NUNS
mics, and. bas-relief. and high reliefs, /
Ind carvings and statuary, and models
IF ships. and models of harbors, and
stores. and Gobelin tapes
ries, and relics, and articles vertu in
.xhaustless and bewildering confusion.
You can examine the prayer book of 5
Catherine de Medicis, and look out up-
IN the very streets once crimsoned by
AAS O1SO0 Va lAAC AAhS <1@A IAAose
aved this grand collection of art fvom
along with its neighDor,
he Tuilleries, was the fact that 1t was
pen free to the public. ST burned the
'alace,'' said Bergeret, because 1t was
he home of kings. saved the Louvre,
because it was the property of the
eople.''
The Luxembourg Palace, once a
oval residence. afterwards used as
'rison for the victims of the revolu-
ion, and subsequently for the tenn
orary confinement of Hebert, Danton.
Josephine Beauharnais
nd the artist David, contains several
alleries of paintings by such artists
$ Bonheur, Robert Fleury, DeIacroix,
ngres, and Horace Vernet. To my
aste, these fresh beautiful pictures
re as far ahead of the old masters, as
ne latter are superior to the produc-
ons of a Seventh Avenue sign-paint- ,
r, and the same art criticism" is
ereby extended to an extensive coll
.ction of new paintings in the large
anery on the Champs Elysees. I
Ter these gratuitous remarks on art
1th full knowledge that am liable
} be derided by every self-constituted i
art critic" who is able to squint
trough a paper horn at a painting,