The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-04-29
"A PICTURE OF YOU

George Barr McCutcheon. OF the
Vigilantes: You can draw this pic.
ture OF yourself More than that
you can make your own canvas. your
own pigments, your own brushes, and
you can close your eyes and produce
this picture. The greatest painter in
the world could not do It half so
well as you. Close your eyes. lean
back in your chair-idly, if you like
with your arms folded, and try.
You will see how swiftly, how clear
ly. how terribly the picture develops
under the magic of your mind.
Picture yourself-no one else. Just
yours lf-setting out to work in the
early morning. Try. if possible, to
think how you look to yourself as well
as to other people. First of all, draw
you-be you big, little, young, old
lame or strong-just you. You must
draw yourself alive, and breathing,
and Notwithstanding of the war
and Of those brave fellows over there
who should be at home and going to
work, just as you are, instead of be-
ing ripped to pieces by the things
they do not see-checked out by an
invisible time-keeper Picture your
self going to work in safety, and,
after while, going home in equal
security. Nothing is going to happen
to you-just think as you have al
ways thought-nothing is going to
happen to you. Other men may be
run down and killed by automobiles;
other men may be wiped out by the
wrecking of train; other men may
be caught by the cave-in Of the sub
way-always 1t is the other man,
never you. You must go on putting
yourself in the picture as you have
always been-the one man to whom
nothing can happen. Always it is the
other man who lies dead on the curb
stone. with you looking at him in
pity and with an awe that sickens
you. for a man who dies that way is
a gray, unlovely thing. You have
been able to picture only the other
mans body looking like that, all limp
and twisted and in ill-fitting clothes
clothes that were filled with the life
Of him little while before and were
not inert You go your way, wonder
ing why the clothes OF dead man
look dead too.
Go on with the drawing Of the pic
ture. Keep your eyes closed, your
arms folded, your head resting COM
fortably against the back OF your
chair.
You have come to your place Of
work. You go to your appointed
place and take up the implements
with which you toil-tools which
build life for you day by day. hour by
hour. You are an honest workman,
a man who fears neither God nor
man, for your conscience is clear.
You picture yourself as such, for that
is what you have known yourself to
be, whether other men think so or
not. Your tools are where you left
them-you may choose your tools
according to the picture you draw OF
you begin an honest
days work, looking forward to the
hour when you will set out for home
and the ones you love and cherish
the ones who think OF you only as
strong, alive, imperishable figure, as
sure to come home to them as the
night itself will come. Your picture.
according to all that past experience
has taught you. Is complete. Your
way Of looking at it Is the result of
a habit that began the day you as
sumed intelligence, the day that you
first began to think. But you are
still alive, so the picture is not
complete.
Go on with your drawing. Take