The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-07
HANS THOMASHAD
 SENSE OF HUMOR;
 LETTERS REVEAL
Beloved German Painter
 Knew How To Please . His Clients

BERLIN, Dec. 6.-Hans Thoma, the much beloved German painter who died recently in Karlsruhe at the age of S2. had a keen sense of humor. This is revealed in letters of Thoma which now are being published.
 An art dealer once wrote Thoma saying he could sell one of his pictures for a high price if Thoma could give him the names of all the persons shown in the picture. The dealer added that it was only on this condition that his client would purchase the canvas. Thoma then wrote to the dealer as follows: 1.-The picture shows my cousin, Jerome Cinnamon and his family. The art dealer immediately sold the picture and Thoma declared every one was hap py, as it was little trouble for him to invent new relatives.
 Political Phantom Appears
 Germany has an imaginary character, "the German Michael" who is a great favorite with political cartoon ists and is playing an important role in the prediction publicity campaign, just as he has for many years. This figure represents good natured chap in a cap which is sort of cross be- tween a dunce cap and a night cap.
 Michael usually is pictured in dressing gown and is somewhat laxy type which is supposed to typify the slow-going German the various polit- ical leaders are trying to influence. The figure is said to have been copied originally from the picture of a brave German officer in the Thirty Years war, who was known to the Spanlards for his sincerity and valor.
 Monument Scrubbed
 Art experts are shocked over the transformation made in the Schiller monument before the Stadt theater by zealous cleaners. They have sand pa pered and scrubbed the famous poet and the allegorical figure surrounding him until sculptors say that all traces of the character which Reinhold Begas imparted to the monument through his treatment of the surface of the mar ble have been eliminated.
 Schiller and the allegorical charac- ters of drama, poetry, history and phi losophy, which are grouped about him, are 50 ghostly and stark since relieved of their weather stains that crowds gather about the statue in amazement and voice their protests. Begas com pleted the monument in 1871 and il had never been subjected to the hands of the cleansers until this year, when a general postwar cleanup was insti- tuted.
 The officials attempted to prove that the monument had suffered no artistic injury, but the academy of fine arts deputized two of its members, Profes sor Wenzel and August Kraus, to make an examination. They reported that the statue had been actually damaged The newspapers are now conducting g campaign to prevent other marble statues from being so vigorously scrubbed and sandpapered.
 Who Invented Beauty Spots? European beauty experts are en- gagged in an animated discussion as tc
 where the beauty spot, which is now be
 ing used so generally by women giver | to heavy makeups, was invented. Int Dutch claim the honor of having orig mated the use of bits of various coloret
 plasters on the face nearly five cen turies ago, when plasters were put or the temples to cure headaches. Wo ns,n of fashion saw the fine contrast offered to a fair skin by dark patche: and inaugurated the use of black court | plaster cut in the shapes of stars, hall moons, full moons and crescents.