The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-09
]. J. BALES


this edition of The Age Herald might,
in the future, give to his nation a
talent as brilliant as that of Disraeli
The man who paints q carriage might
he Michael Angelo in disguise. And
If is heartrending to remember what
genius, what talent. what deeds of
prowess on the bloody field of battle,
what lofty verse and soul stirring
song might have been stifled and
snuffed through the tautness of a gall
lows rope.
All of which unusual thought is in
spired by new acquaintance, John J.
Bales Strange stories were told of
Bailes---strange enough, as a matter
of fact, to drive two men, unused to
arduous toll, to seek him out III all
the multitude which daily traverses
the streets and avenues of Birming-
ham.
1t was said that he was a carriage
painter and a man of dreams, of Won
drous dreams, and of splendid unde-
veloped talent; that during the Silly
hours of the night he was visited by
the spirits from the land of milk and
honey and that aroused he would
preach the gospel to man or wrought
upon canvas the subjects of his visions.
sions.
The image of the man sprung alive
in the minds of those who heard the
story. In this image he appeared of
certain though uncertain age, a man
who dwelt alone, who was not open
to the greeting of his friends, whose
spirit was soured by its enforced hab-
itation among men and things of the
world.
But the image was drawn by an i'm
agination which, though honest per-
haps, was ignorant. For John J. Bales
is a man of comparatively few years,
q man on whose face old Ireland has
stamped itself in unmistakable lines
and in whose heart the jocund land OF
his ancestors has painted a song ana
stored boundless stream of human
kindness.
Bales is unusual. however, in the
sense that he differs from the general
run of those one raeets, even in city
as large as Birmir CHAM, where un-
usual men are expected on every cor
ner and are generally found. lie is
carriage painter in the employ or
Grouse & Coleman. He is Seventh Day
Adventist and as such declines 10 dip
his brush into linseed oil on saturdays
He is a missionary or a lecturer on the
tenets of his faith and when instruct
ed to do so he leaves the shop and
goes abroad teaching the truth, Christ
and Him crucified.
And Bales is more, lie is a painter
not merely a painter of carriages, but
painter of dreams. On the naked face
of canvas he has wrought things SO
marvellous that his fellow workinen
have stopped to see and contemplate
things not of the world, but present
ing outwardly what all men in certain
stages of their lives have felt inward
ly--and not expressed.
And therefore the thought of the
talent which perhaps lies hidden in the
breast of the man you meet upon the
street, Who knows but that had this
talent of John Bales been nurtured
and developed and fondled it might
have presented to the world new
painting for the Louvre, the sanetuni
sanetorum of the immortals.
Other than of this thought, there is lit
tie to tell Bales is. as stated. q descend
ont of the Irish fathers. He was born III
South Carolina, has worked for 20 years
in the carriage factory OF Cruise & Cole
nan. Eighteenth street and Avenue d.
is happily married and lives in a cottage
en- Avenue ID, between twentieth and
Twenty first streets.
1t is not known when first ne put upon
canvas the subject of his dreams. but
that he has done so, is easily proved
Mrs. Bales win show you. She has 1.-The
Bridge of the Sabbath painting ex-
| tending across a three yard canvas, a
painting under the title from Genesis 2-2
Remember the Sabbath Day TO Keep II
| Holy" The bridge is supported by seven
| redestais, each representing a day of the
week. The first is Eden, the original
feen, with Mother Eve and the tempt
ing serpent. The last is Eden as 1t will
| be restored, in which the lion and the
| lamb will reclne together in amity feed
4 ing together upon the gentle foliage, and
drinking together from the same per-
petual stream.
| The five other pedestals represent quo
! tel tions from Exodus. Matthew, Luks
and Revelations. The second shows the
+, exodus" the children of God. attemptine
! to escape the bondage of Egypt, fed or
MAMMA, the third. the writing of the com
nlandments on Mount Sinai; the fourth
the burial of Christ following his cruel
| fixion. and the fifth the second coming
| Christ rising from the dead. and dis.
playing the wounds in his hands and sid,
to his doubtful apostles. And under