Bisbee daily review., 1908-05-08
CITY OF BELGIUM;
ITS LAW COURTS

Leopold; and taey say what / verify
believe, that he is that style of gay,
hilarious kings which are now few in
number compared to the dozens Europe
had centuries ago and in another gen.
Grafton all of them will be gone for
ever.
Only a few miles from Brussels is
the battle ground of Waterloo, the
field of blood and desting. 1t is yet
open as it was the day the battle was
fought century ago, only the few
bullet scared farm houses yet remain
of that great conflict. 1t is now gov
ernment reserve and by public funds
great pyramid monument has been
erected TO commemorate the battle,
surmounting this is huge lion made
of the melted guns taken from the dead
soldiers after the battle. In the last
few years the French, by permission
of Belgium, have erected a fitting
monument which tells by suggestion
what history ellis in print. 1t is an
enormous bronze eagle with a broken
wing. suggesting that the life of Ma
poleon the first was broken here and
never scared so hiGh again" 1t
was from this field sodden In blood
that the great general ran on his
white war horse and was a conquered
man forever. / must write some
thing of a crazy Flemish painter,
named A. Wiertz. He is called the
s"crazy painter" by his own peopie.
He would never sell his picture,
claiming it was a disgrace to sell the
works of genius and even starving
himself to paint pictures which today
are masterpieces. His life was no
joke either, for he made the people OF
Brussels believe in him to the extent
that they sent him abroad for study
and on his return presented him with
furnished gallery for his work ana
home to live IN the remainder of
his life. At his death these reverted
to the city and are open daily and
free to the public in memory of his
work. Two pictures behind screen
are thus kept hidden on purpose for
the contrast. One is a woman at
ease, composed in every nerve, and
her beauty is wonderful; while the
other picture is a woman buried by
mistake before she died and is in
the act of raising the coffin lid-the
horrible look on her face cannot be
described or imagined. Another pic
ture is called ''the Suicide"-a man
blowing out his brains with a pistol
L and on one side is the good angel, on
the other the bad angel, each with
his characteristic look, and the blood
squirting from the wounded skill.
Two pictures he painted together
and called them "Nineteenth Century
Civilization" The first is a woman
shooting a soldier in the head with a
pistol while he has his arms around
her waist. 1t represents what happen
ed in Europe so many .ImCs in the
past centuries. when soldiers enter
ing a town took liberties WITH and
ravished women. The other picture
is a soldier shooting p woman who
holds a child in her arms, a thing
which occasionally happened up to
century ago in the capture of a city
by an army. There is still another
war picture and it is prophetic and
its truth is perhaps many centuries
in the future. 1t is a woman holding
small canon in her hand, called
The Last Canon breaking it in two
pieces, meaning that war had became
so useless and firears so small that
woman could break a canon as If
| it were a modern rod. True to his
Flemish dislike to the great general
the painter made a picture which he
called Napoleon in He'll" 1t repre-
sents Napoleon the first standing in a
detected like position and surrounding
him are women who hold up before
/ his eyes the legs, arms, hands. heads
and dismembered bodies of their hus-
bands, sons, fathers and brothers who
have perished in the French wars
in Europe.
No wonder he was called the Cray
Painter" for strange departures he
surely made in his subjects and he
has as many masterpieces as any 9TH
er painter in Europe. This art gallery
is crowded all day long by people
from all parts of the world and all
admit that they have never seen any
thing anywhere so peculiar and
strange.
L..