The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-05-23
RY#tp@ss'N
APICTURE OF YOU
BY George Barr McCutcheon
of the VigiIantes

More thar that. you can make you
own canvas. your W pigments, your
own brushes, and you ran close your
eyes aud produce this picture. The
grentest painter i'm the world could not
do II half so well as you. Close youi
| eyes, lean back in your chair-idly. i
you like-with your arms folded. and
try. You will see how swiftly, how
| clearly. how terribly the picture de
velops under the magic of your mind.
Picture yourself-no one else. Just
yourself-setting out to work In the
early morning. Try, IL 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
MISUNDERSTANDING 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 being ripped
to pieces by the things they do not
see-checked out by an invisible time
keeper. Picture yourself going TO work
in safety and, after a while, goin"
home in equal security. Nothing is go
ing to happen to you-just think "a
you have always thought-nOthing Is
going to happen to you. Other men
may he run down and killed by auto
mobiles: other men may be wiped out
by the wreckinC of a train; other men
may be caught by the cave-in Of the
subway-alwavs Ii Is the other a
never you. You must 60 IN putting
yourself into the picture as you have
always been-the n man to whom
nothing can happen. Always II is the
other man who lies dead on the curb
stone. with you looking at him in pitt
and with an awe that sickens you, foI
a man who dies that way is a gray
unlovely thing. You have been able &c
picture only the other mans body look
ing like that, all limp and twisted and
in ill-itting clothes-clothes that were
filled with the life of him a little while
before and were not inert. You &c
your way. wondering why the clothes
of. a 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 10 your appointed place
and take up the implements with
which you toil-tOols which build life
for you day by day. hour by hour. Yon
are an honest workman. a man who
fears neither God nor man, for your
conscience is clear. You picture your.
self 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 yourself-and you begin an
honest days work, looking forward TO
the hour when YOU VIII set out for
home and the ones you love and cher
ish-the Ones who think Of you only as
a 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 IL Is the result of a habit
that began the day you assumed In
t~elligenee, 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 your
time. Something uncommon has &C.
Cured. You must wipe out some Of
the lines you have drawn. You are still
drawing yourself, but somehow you
have changed. You are not the same.
Try to think of yourself as not what
you are, but as what you a~reNgradually
making yourself to be on the
with your eyes closed, your arms fold
ed, your head resting against the back
of the chair.
Something has happened. You are
not using the tools any longer. You
have nothing in your hands. The place
in which you worked is not the same.
Nothing is the same. Wipe the canvas
clean and begin all over again.
= When you began the picture you
failed to take into consideration the
possibility that you could be something
ONhNi IMAM ~ EpA Aah1 aA"AF btfhs
You have never seen yourself-you
have not even thought of yourself-as
anything but a living, vital. compla-
cent individual. immune because you
are you. You have never thought of
how you will look dead.
The picture is getting beyond you.
You are seeing yourself as you never
have seen yourself before.
There has been an explosion. Pic
ture yourself at your work. serenely
unconscious of the thing that is about
to happen. You-you, the one person
in all the world who is absolutely ex-
empt from disaster-you are among
the Killed.
Go on with the picture. Keep your
eyes closed, your arms folded-and go
on with the picture you are drawing.
That crushed. twisted. shapeless
thing lying over there In the corner.