The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-03-23
When the Artistic
Wave Struck
Pennington
tCopyright, 1905, BY Joseph q. Bowles.)
BY UNA HUDSON

scended upon us, we, of Pennington,
were, concerning matters artistic, In a
state of dense and utter ignorance. All
our lives we'd reveled in red plush
chairs for our parlors and "God Bless
Our Homes" for our walls, and other
cheerful but inartistic things that we
afterwards blushed to remember.
Mr.. Lionel Farquhar was slim,
dreamy-eyed gentleman who wore
clothes that seemed strange to the
unsophisticated eyes Of the Penning-
tonites, and who advertised course
of lectures on ART-spelled with three
capitals-and the Home-spelled with
one capital.
Seats were dollar, and at the first
lecture I believe they were mostly
unoccupied. Then somehow the ru-
NOR got about that only the elect were
attending Mr.. Farquhar's lectures, and
OF course after that everybody who
could beg, borrow or steal dollar,
went The second night he was
obliged to put out "Standing-Room
Only" sign, and the third night We
were packed in that hall like sardines
in box.
He stayed a month, and when ne
did finally leave it was only because,
as he told us with tears in his eyes,
We now knew as much as he did, and
there was no longer anything ne
could teach us
Then trouble began in Pennington.
For everybody being now soaked and
saturated with high art, wanted to sell
off their red plush chairs and notices,
and buy art panels and the sort OF FUR
niture that gives you curvature OF the
spine when you try to sit on it. But
what we didn't want we couldn't even
give away, much less sell. So it end
ed in our going on pretty much as we
had before the artistic wave struck
us.
l didn't so much mind, because
mother had let me discard my serv-
iceable old-fashioned bureau for
packing-case dressing table draped in
stuff that Mr.. Farquhar assured me
was entirely correct. And / made
cushions of it for all my chairs and
q spread for my bed, and saved my
pocket money for high art wall paper.
So l had q sanctuary to which
could always flee from the horrors be-
low stairs for the soothing OF my
newly awakened artistic SensibilitieS.
But poor Alberta Clifford was denied
even the meager consolation OF few
yards of art denim. For her mother
was a hopeless Philistine, and de-
clared that not a solitary thing In
the house should be changed.
That would have been hard on any
body, but it was particularly awful
for Alberta, for she had been so en-
thuslastic over Mr.. Farquhar's lee
lures, and he had seemed to take al
most a special interest in her. One
could not wonder at that, for she has
a beautiful face and big, dreamy eyes.
and just the figure for the flowing
draperies he SO much admired.
We quite expected him to marry her,
until we learned, entirely by accident,
that he already had wife and three
children. OF course he couldn't COM,
NIT bigamy, even for Alberta-the
consequences are apt to be SO I'M
pleasant.
1 knew from the first that her
mothers unyielding attitude in the
matter of bureaus and denims would
force Alberta to some rash deed; and
it did.
She announced her engagement to
Basil Wyntoun. | am sure 1t must
l., hot Of
tracted her. Mrs. Basil Wyntoun
would look so stunning on ones
cards He had more money than any
other two men in Pennington, but
that wouldn't weigh with Alberta. She
was too sweet girl to be swayed by
mere worldly considerations. But,
spite of his name and his money, it
did seem a pity for girl like AL
berta to throw herself away on a man
like Basil Wyntoun. You can just
imagine the sort he was when AL
berta's mother told all over town she
was $50 glad Alberta was engaged to
a sensible man like Mr.. Wyntoun."
She even went the length Of saying
she hoped he'd stop what she pleased
to term "Alberta's foolishness."
was to be maid of honor at AL
bertas wedding, and l talked things
over with the bridesmaids, and among
us we decided that somebody really
ought to speak to Mr.. Wyntoun in
Alberta's behalf. She was just the
girl to let man furnish up the house
any, way he saw At, and never say
a word no matter how it set her teeth
on edge.
1t was easy enough to decide that
somebody ought to speak to Mr.. Wyn
toun, but when it came to locating the
somebody she didn't seem to be
there. Finally we drew lots, and it
fell to me. 1 always was unlucky.
1T seemed terrible cheeky thing to
do--to go up to a man and tell him
in cold blood what sort of furniture
he ought to put in his new house.
Frankly, didn't like the undertaking.
But one ought to be willing to suffer
little for the sake of art and ones
best friend.
Finally / screwed my courage
e. kha cficL;po potpt mr. &c poar tho