The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-05
THE EVENING STORY
Roses and Cherubs.
by Lawrence Alfred Clay.l

with ;tl''
But don't get excited. Cherry" eau
toned the mother.
How can L help it when I'm going
to earn $50 week and at the end OF
a year take us both to Europe!"
You mustn't be too sure about it.
20, but 1 am. Sadie said 1 was
natural born artist. Why, L was paint
ing cherub within half day''
Miss Cherry Kinsell was a happy
looking young girl. Her mother was
a widow with a moderate income, and
the daughter had often wished that
she could find some congenial employ
ment to earn her own way.
Nothing had come of it until she had
paid her chum, Sadie NeWhall, a visit
at Fall River. Fall River is noted for
it's great cotton mills; also for new
and startling ideas. The idea that
wouldn't come to Miss Cherry at AL
bany came to her before she had been
in FAN River two days.
The Newhall mansion had a large
and liberal garnet. That was before
the lumber trust got in its work. Such
a garnet nowadays would cost as much
as a steam yacht OF course Miss Sa-
die took Miss Cherry Up to see that
garnet with it's cobwebs, old trunks,
broken chairs and romantic atmos-
phere. Miss Cherry gazed around her
and felt inspiration clawing at the
roots of her hair. A few hours later
she had developed the grand idea. That
garnet which looked to be two miles
long by a mile in width, was to be
decorated.
The trunk was hauled into Il corner
and paints and brushes bought, ard
the circus opened with grand over
ture. The performance lasted three
weeks, and the work went on days
and nights and Sundays. Young men
called, but the young ladies were not
at home. The minister called to pay
his respects to the visitor and ask
after the heather of Albany, but he
didn't get to see her. She was just
beginning to paint The ears on her
third cherub. and she wouldn't have
stopped W DIRK for Ill the goou men in
the cotton town.
The two artists couldn't quite agree
as to the general plan of decoration,
and SO they did Il very sensible thing.
They divided off the garnet and took
about mile apiece as a share. The
groundwork of one part was d vivid
green and the other a vivid red.
There was to be no monotony W there.
Miss Sadie decided to decorate her
mile with roses, and Miss Cherry went
in for cherubs. What they did agree
on, and it was artistic to the core,
was that the cherubs should seem to
be trying to overtake the roses as
they fled around the garrett
1t was no easy matter to try to
paint a cherub on the plastered wall
of a garnet while standing on the
head of an empty barrel that threat
ened to collapse at any moment. One
who has not done this has not felt
the real joys that now and then wal
lop the soul of born artist. Cherub
after cherub was developed by the
hand of genius.
Some smiled and some wept. Some
walked and some flew. Some grinned
and some frowned. Some of the fly
ers had legs long enough for clothes
props while others had legs sawed
off at the knees to save cloth in
making up the trousers. BY what
appeared to be an error of judgment
at first, but which later on turned
out to be a happy thought, some of
the cherubs were painted standing
on their heads. This broke up what
many a family portrait by an artist
that has been on the job for twenty
years that would look better if turned
bottom side up.
Days and days-from ten to four
teen hours a day and no strike talk,
and the garnet was finally finished.
One first coming into it thought he
had struck Paradise. After a look
around he thought he had struck the
other place. The cherubs were a sun
flower yellow on the green ground.
They stood out. They beckoned.
They flew and frisked and gamboled.
1t was free exhibition, with pink
lemonade and peanuts thrown in.
Nothing is said about the roses, be-
cause they might have been holly
hooks when finished.
Finished at last and praised by
every member of the family, even to
the baby, Miss Sadie Insisted that her
young man must be shown. He was
a solemn young man who labored in
an undertaker's shop, and he could
read all the jokes in a family almanac
and sigh over them, but when led
into that garnet by the ear he gave a
snort like a river horse.
"Good Lord. but have you swallow
ed your gum!' exclaimed Miss Sadie
as she thumped him on the back.
The solemn young man lied about
it. He said he had. He snorted sew
eral times more, and then he set in
and told such a whopping big lie that
Satan wrote his name down on the
records. He said the effect of that
garnet on him was soothing, placid,
restful and complacent. He said there
was no installing those cherubs for
live Goldfish. He said the expression
of each and every one of them was
even more natural than life. He said
that some low-down, beetle-browed vii
lain might declare they had goose
wings instead of those of angels, but
let him come face to face with that
man and the lie should be crammed
down his throat.
What the solemn young man said
about Miss Sadie's roses doesn't mat
ter as they were married a. year later,
and he never let her paint another
Miss Cherry returned home to take
up decorating. She had graduated in
the art. She was ali there when it
came to the cherub business The
solemn young man wrote down to the
city to a bachelor friend of his, and
the bachelor called at the Kinsell
house and told Miss Cherry that he
wanted his billiard room decorated.
When she called to see it next day he
gave her carte blanche to go ahead