The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-15
She Changes Her Mind

do is to turn the key in the door of her co-operatively owned studio in New York's "block beautiful" and go. I don't know just when, Jean began to have a change of heart on the whole matter Perhaps it was after Cecilia got home with her striking portrait of Belgium's beloved cardinal. Any way, in due time she did change her mind. She decided that perhaps she could live without Jan and the kiddies long enough to get that portrait finished, and so she went.
 | Of course, it was very hard luck for Jan and for Jean that the com mittee had spent all of it's money and lost much of its interest by the time they got their pictures finished. And, very sad to relate, poor Jan has never yet received the $15,000 which was his charge for painting 'The Signing of the Peace Treaty" Jan is no ,busi ness man--far from it. He's only an artist. He had no contract or any thing, but he had hopes of the com mittee paying his bill. They say the moneys all gone. They do say about town, of course, the thing will be ad- justed in some way. :, Isn't it too bad that America does that way? We get all worked over something and plunge ahead reck- lessly. Then, we cool off and lose interest and before we. know it we are dizzy with, the excitement of some other big and high spirited thing. We are the greatest starters of worth while things in the world. ! A Hundred Dollars Dab ., | But there is evidence that Jean is more enterprising than Jan. She fret ted quite a bit about the money for her portrait. Furthermore she talked about it too. f..
 At first it was thought that the price would be- $5,000 plus the expensese of the trip. But when someone suggested that Her Majesty's neck was too long and her ears too short, that Her Highness' complexion was little pale and her hair a trifle dull, why Jean dabbed a few dobs of white paint here and there and added hundred dollars dob to her bill--making it round ten thousand dollars. a
 As matter of fact Jean gets strik- ing effects by a daring and original use of white paint, which, up to date, no one has succeeded in initiating.
 When l, saw Jean streak on that white paint, just before she let the pie ture go as finished, I thought the Queen of>Belgium was ruined beyond redemption. But-what magic had been wrought. There was sweetness and light in the face, and suggestion of gold in the hair that had not been there before! Yes, I decided that white paint, with Jean MeLane at the brush, is easily worth hundred dollars a dab.
 At any rate, Jean fretted about that check until some interested and admir- ing friend put the whole situation up to Mrs. Hartman, and that was when Mrs. Hartman wrote that check for $10,OO0 and called it square.
 Will someone please page that same friend, for Jan really should have his $15,000 for that picture which hun dreds of people admire daily in the Ma tional Gallery at Washington. If Jean can get $10,000 for painting one celebrity, why shouldn't Jan have $15,- 900 for painting a bunch of them?..
 Women don't like to paint women, any way. Jean seldom paints feminine beauty. It is her delightful portraits of children that have made her famous. You see, the average woman will come for sitting powdered and decorated with lip stick and rouge. The artist is up against asking her to wash her face and sometimes this is embarrass- ing. In fact, know of at least one case where the artist never got his nerve to make this simple request.
 That was when Henry W. Parton was painting Ruth Chatterton. She arrived at his studio in a regular make up--a real stage makeup. Now an artist is, of course, much concerned with flesh tones. But he simply couldn't tell her so. He just painted on. One morning he was careless. He allowed the dainty Ruth to get mixed up with something or other that had fresh paint on it, and he was mortified to see a cruel smear of bright green paint right down the middle of the velvety Chatterton back! Henry is a very modest man but, while he had never been able to get up the cour- age to ask Ruth to wash her face, he rose nagnificently to the occasion, got soap and water and how he did scrub that interesting back! For Ruth is interesting, whether she is coming or going.
 Ruth says that if Henry Parton ever loses his technique as a painter he could get a job in a bath house. She recommends him as a scrubber.
 And There Was the Milk Man
 T have been told that Mrs. Hartman did think bit over the size of the Me Lane bill, though she paid it cheerfully. And can well believe it. Though EIn~ her estate, said to be worth $100, ,000,- OOO, since Mir. Harriman's death in 1909, and though she has the big busi- ness mentality, she has been able to preserve her fine sense of humor through it all, and very few things es- cape her.
 A few years ago, after a long and ardous effort to see Mrs. Hartman in the interest of project for improving New York's milk supply, professional uplifter at last found himself in the presence of this remarkable woman. He was somewhat Hurried. This was the opportunity he had been living for. How should be begin. The interview was to be brief Every minute must count. He coughed little, folded and unfolded his hands a time or two, and began:
 q have made a very exhaustive study of the milk. situation in this city, Mrs Hartman. I have just completed my report and the manuscript is over four hundred pages"
 A merry little light played in Mrs. Harriman's eyes. Just the suggestion of a smile lifted the corners of her sensitive mouth. It wasn't a real smile, though sha must have smiled in wardly, as she sd d. Well, really my dear sir, am not interested in the size of your report. think should be