The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-11

Mrs Marie Price Wear. who has
lately returned from visit of a few
months to her sister, Mrs. Paul Hud-
son of the City of Mexico, brought
with her a number of interesting
sketches of scenes in and about the
City of Mexico. She has in her studio
sketches that she made during pre-
vious visits to Mexico and these. with
the number that she has added since
the last return. cover the walls of the
little room up to the sky line. Mrs.
Wear has visited that artistic paradise
to the south of US so many times that
she has grown to love it, and has re-
corded with felicitous fidelity the
characteristics of the country-its
charm and variety and the picturesque
detail with which it abounds. And
this strange nation, with it's people of
blended races, whose vision is of
other kind than ours its sharp con-
trasts between rich and poor its an
cient grandeur, overlaid with a later
stratum of the civilization of south
ern Europe, and the final. coating of
Yankee commercialism, make it a
country of never failing interest to
Americans.
The sketches of the buildings are all
noticeable for the daring juxtaposition
of rich, almost barbaric colors, one
against the other, but these colors are
all in such softened tones that they
blend and harmonic without a Earring
note. This softening of the colors is
effected by the tinting of the plaster
of which the MeXicans build their
houses and churches.
One of the most interesting pic
lures of the collection is the painting
of an old cathedral at Churubusco.
One of the towers shown in the pic
ture is said to be the place where
Gen. u. S. Grant set his cannon to de-
fend the town after it had fallen into
leo. in which he served.
a beautiful nature painting is the
Viga canal. This stream is used by
boatmen who bring their RATS, loaded
with flowers, into the city every day.
The flowers are grown along the shore,
and at intervals along the banks are
patches of brilliant color-scarlet, pur-
pie, yellow and Withholding the tiny
gardens where the flower peddlers Sc
cure their supply. The water seems
to come moving from the center to
the lower foreground and almost over
running the edge. 1t is always a dlf-
ficult matter to reproduce the ever
changing color of water, but the CLEAN
and glimmer on the waves of the mar
row stream have been transferred
faithfully TO the canal sketch.
Another one of the pictures shows
patio of the common people-a low
rambling building where number OF
families have their abode-squalid,
love of beauty. The walls of the
building are in the same soft tints as
the more pretentious edifices, and at
the back of the house is a stone
curbed we'll, with the top beams
gracefully arched. And flowers every
where. even surrounding the big
clothes washing tank by the side of
the well.
Near the Hudson home in the sub
urb of Tacabayi, is the Hill of the
" l71E-
made a sketch. Prominent in this pic
ture is the Bogamvilla vine, which
grows 1uxuriant1y in Mexico.
One of the sketches shows a cathe-
dral with the flower market at the rear
of the building. In this sketch also
are patches of vivid color. and over it
the freshness Of the early morning.
on the trip in which this sketch was
made Mrs. Wear encountered the
omnipresent policeman who noticed
that a crowd was gathering to watch
her work. He advised her that she
had better move on soon. and her an
sWer that she would require another
half hour to finish the piece was ac-
companied by a fifty-cent coin, which
possessed the magic of dispelling all
the fears of mob violence that the
guardian of the peace had before ap-
pretended. However, the Mexican po-
lice have no monopoly on those
methods,
view that is painted probably by
every artist who visits Mexico is the
scene of the two mountains Popo-
catapetl and its neighbor, the White
Lady. In Mrs Wears sketch they are
both covered with snow and, rising out
of the level plain, they seem like white
clouds low in the sky. Legend has it
that a man and his daughter lived in
the valley and a lover came to WOO the
girl. Rather than permit his daugh-
ter to marry the stranger, the father
transformed her into a mountain, and
covered her with a mantle of snow
In order to be forever near her the
lover became Popocatapetl. The two
mountains stand out in solitary dignity
and, in spite of the numbers of pic
lures of the scene that exist, there is
a note of originality in this one that
Mrs. Wear has sketched.
The Hill of the Star, remembered
by all who have visited Mexico, is the
subject of a sketch, showing the
smoke of a fire burning at the top.
The people of the district have long
believed that at the ending of the
world the faithful Will be gathered to-
gether on the summit of that hill, and
so the fire is constantly kept burning
there.
once the home of Cortez, is the gar
den of beauty for many of the worlds
famous artists, some of whom Mrs
Wear met during her stay in the town.
The old gateway to the cathedral
grounds and the Street Of the Palm
are the best sketches she has made
of the scenes of the village. The gate
way is exquisite in coloring, showing
the soft tints of the stone, grey with
age, and flecked with moss, touched
by the mild light of a cloudy sky.
=
Events for next week are not crowd
ing the calendar at all, but for the
time of year, there is more than usual
gaiety. Miss Mamie Veale will give
a reception Monday afternoon for Mrs.
George Veale III, until recently Miss
Grace Walworth, and for Miss Mar
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