Year: 1877

The other day while Col. B.. editor G


the Bugle, was sitting in his sanctum writ


ing an editorial, visitor entered. TakinI


seat, he said !:


"My name is Brewer; am the paints


Of the allegorical picture of The Triumph


Of Truth, on exhibition DOWN at Yelver


toms. called, Col. B., to make SOM


complaint about the criticism of the worl


which appeared in your paper. Your criti


seems to have misunderstood, somewhat


the drift Of the picture. For instance, h,


says let met quote the paragraph
'ln the background to the left stands st
Augustine with one foot on wooden Indi


an which is lying on the ground. Why tn,


artist decorated St. Augustine with (,


high hat and put his trousers in his boots


and why he filed the Saints belt with navy


revolyers and tomahawks, has not been re-


vealed. 1t strikes US as being very ridicu


lous.'


Now, Colonel, this seems to me to be a


little HASH. That figure doss not repre-


sent St. Augustine. 1t is meant for an al


legorical picture Of Brute Force, and it has


its foot upon Intellect-Intellect ct, mind you,
and not cigar store Indian. It is like.
ness Of Capt. Kidd, and set it back to
represent the fact that brute force belonged
to the dark ages. How in thunder that
man Of yours ever got an idea that it wa.
St. Augustine, beats me-


"It is singular" said the Colonel.


"And now let me direct your attention to
another paragraph. He says:


''We were asronished to notice that, while
Noah's ark goes sailing on in the remote
distance, there is close to it a cotton facto-
~, the chimney of which is pouring out
white smoke that covers the whole sky in
the picture, while the whole ark seems to
be trying to sail down that chimney. Now,
they didn't have cotton factories in those
days; the thing don't hang. The artist
must have been drunk


Now, Colonel, this insinuation pains me.
How would you like it, if you painted q
picture of the tower of Babel and some one
should come along and insist that it was the
chimney of cotton factory, and that the
clouds with which the sky is covered is
smoke? Cotton factory! Your man GER
,ainly cannot be familiar with the Script
ures and when he talks about the ark sail
ing down that chimney, he forgets that the
reason why it is standing on one end is
that the water is rough SO as to mako it
pitch. You know the Bible says the ark
did pitch without and within. Now don't
it ?'' rs


81 think maybe it does" said the colo
nell


"But that's not the worst. can stand
that, but what wonld you think Of man
who goes to criticiss a work of art, and
says:


On the right is boy who has his
clothes of, and has apparently been in
swimming, and has been rescued by gel
low dog just as he was about to drown.
What this has to do with the triumph of
truth, we don't know, but we do know that
the dog is twice as large as the boy, and
that he has the boys head in his mouth,
while the boys hands are tied behind his
back. Now, for boy to so in swimming
with his hands tied, and for dog to swal-
low his head so as to drag him out, appears
to US tho awfullest foolishness in the
world


Colonel, ysu will probably be surprised
to learn that your critic is here referring to
3 beautiful study Of a Christian martyr who
has been thrown among the wild beasts Of
the arena, and who is now engaged in be-
ing eaten by lion. The animal is not
yellow dog; that human being has not been
in swimming; and the reason that he is
smaller than the lion is that had to make
him SO in order to get his head into The
lions mouth. Would you have me paste q
label ON the Christian martyr to inform the
public that This is not q boy who has
been treading water with his hands tied p
Now look at the matter calmly. Is the
Bugle encouraging art when it goes on in
this manner? Blame me if I'll ever think
it is"


1t certainly doesn't seem so,' replied
the Colonel.


"Well, then, what do you think of this
What do you think of critic who will re-
mark:


''But the most extraordinary thing in the
picture is the group in the foreground. An
old lady with an iron coal scuttle on her
head is handing some black pills to ballet
dancer dressed in pink tights, while an
other woman, in a badly fitting chsinise,
stands by them brushing off flies with the
branch of tree, while canary bird rest
ing upon her shoulder is trying to sing to
some small boys who are seen in the further
corner of the field. What this means we
haven't the remotest idea; but we do
known that the ballet dancers legs have
the knee pans at the back of the joint, and
that the canary bird looks moro as if he
wanted to eat the coal scuttle than as if he
desired to sing.


This is too bad. Do you know what that
beautiful group really represents? You'll
hardly believe it, and yet, as I'm sitting
here, that old lady, as your idiot calls her,
is Minerva, the Goddess of War, handing
mot pills, mind you; pills Why, its
awfnl-handing cannon balls to the Goddess
OF Love as token there shall be no more
war. And the figure in what he considers
the chemise, is the Genius OF Liberty, hold
ing out an olive branch with one hand.
while upon her shoulders rests an Ameri-
can eagle screaming defiance 1t the enemies
of his country, who are seen fleeing in the
distance. Canary bird small boys! bal
let girl The man is crazy, sir stark mad!
It is awful! And now ] want you to write
up an explanation for ne and publish it.
This kind of thing exposes me to derision.
Il excites laughter. I can't stand it, and
by George, | won't. No, I'll sue you for
lihel. = s