The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1919-03-28


of the earth in their search. II Is per
haps natural to suppose that 1t was
the instinct of preservation that led
men to the search, although the slories
of the sunsets and the beauties of the
rainbow may have created desire "a
initiate those wonders in their own
dwellings,
The earliest record of the applica-
ton Of preservative to a wooden
structure dates from the ark, when
was according to the Bible, "pitched
within and without" The pitch was
triumph of preservation whatever 1t
lacked as thing of beauty.
Decoration applied to buildings first
comes to light with ancient Babylon,
whose walls were covered with repre-
sensations of hunting scenes and or
combat. These were done in red and
the method followed was to paint the
scene on the bricks at the time OF
manufacture, assuring permanence by
baking. Strictly speaking, this was
not painting so much as 1t was the
| earliest manifestation of our own IA
miliar kalSomining.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
ing is Moses. In the thirty third chap
ter of the book of Numbers he in
structs the Israelites, "When We have
passed over the Jordan into the land
of Canaan then shall We drive out all
the inhabitants of the land from be-
fore you and destroy all their pic
lures.
AT later periods the Jews adopted
many customs of the peoples who sue
cessvely obtained power over them
and in the apocryphal book of the
Maccabees is found this allusion to
the art of decorating, For as the mas
ter builder of new house must care
for the whole building, but he that
undertaken to set it out and paint it,
must seek out things for the adjoining
| thereof"
Although Homer gives credit to
Greek for the discovery of paint, the
illusions to it in the books of Moses,
the painted mummy cases of the Egyp-
tians and the decorated walls of Baby
lon and Thebes fix it's origin at a
period long antecedent to the Grecian
era. The walls of Thebes were paint
ed 1900 years before the coming of
Christ and 996 years before "'Omer
smote his bloomin' Tyre"
The Greeks recognized the value of
paint as a preservative and made use
of something akin to it on their ships.
Pliny writes Of the mode of boiling
wax and painting ships with it, after
which, he continues neither the sea,
nor the wind, nor the sun can destroy
the wood thus protected"
The Romans, being essentially a
warlike people, never brought the dec
grafton of buildings to the high plane
it had reached with the Greeks. For
all that the ruins of POmpeii show
many structures whose mural decOra-
lions are in fair shape today. The
colors used were glaring. A black
background was the usual one and the
combinations worked thereon red, yell
low and blue.
In the early Christian era the use Of
mosaics for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting. Still, during
the reign of Justinian the Church of
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
ple and it's walls were adorned with
paintings.
In modern times the uses of paint
have come to be as numerous as its
myriad shades and tints. Paint is
unique i'm that its name has no SynO-
nym and for 1t there is no substitute
material. Bread is the staff of life, but
paint is the life of the staff.
No one thinks of the exterior of
wooden building now except i'm terms
of paint coated. Interiors. too, from
rainted walls and stained furniture
down to the lOwliest kitchen utensil,
all receive their protective covering.
Steel, so often associated with cement
reinforcing, is painted before IL goes
to give sOIidity to the manufactured
stone. The huge girders of the sky
scrapers are daubed an ugly hut ell
ricnt red underneath the surface coat
Of black. Perhaps the best example
OF the value of paint on steel is found
I'm the venerable Brooklyn bridge. on
which a gang of painters is kept go
ing continually. IL is scarce possible
To think Of a single manufactured mr.
ticle which does not meet paint scnle-
where in thl course Of its cOnsl rue
ton. So has paint grown into tie
very marrow Of our lIVeG