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Show YOUXG IIAFEX. He Intends Making Switzerland Switz-erland a Tisit. For the Purpose of Spending a Month Sketching Swiss Life and Scenery. Midway, Utah, March 3. Special to The Dispatch. It affords me great pleasure to communicate through the vehicle of your good journal some news that will be received with hearty welcome by many,;if not rather all, of your readers, especially the citizens of Springville, who can be justly proud of one young man who has grown up in their midst, to be an honor and credit, not only to them, but also to the entire Territory: another shining mark, another star ot pure and bright effulgence in that golden galaxy, known as "Young Utah." Of course, I refer to John Hafen, the modestly ambitious and steadily studious devotee f the designing board and the painter's easel, whose productions with crayon and brush have, ere this, delighted mauy who appreciate the beautiful. It will be remembered that young Ilafen (a good sketch and speaking likeness of whom appeared in the Christmas issue of the Salt Lake HerM) went to Paris, France, last summer in the company of two other Utah boys, upon whose brows the Creator has put the indel-lible indel-lible stamp of artistic genius, but who could not find the "nursery" of talent necessary for the development of their powars in the humble surroundings of their youth. Now . they are in the very centre of modern civilization, the gay and proud, but yet hospitable and lovable Seine metropolis, studying art in the Julian school of painting, acknowledged by the art world as the best school for drawing. That institution, insti-tution, as well as the magnificent galleries gal-leries of the Louvre and Luxembourg (those splendid caskets of past Bourbon Bour-bon gorgeousness and luxury) combines com-bines with many priyate' galleries (all of which are opened gratuitously to an admiring public) in affording unexcelled un-excelled opportunities for him who strives in hone?t efforts after the attainments at-tainments of the beautiful. Ilafen's early surroundings and impressions im-pressions manifest their wholesome influence in his motto the same that we find (almost as a hollow mockeryv though) on American coinsi- God-we God-we trust." Iu his letter to a mutual friend in Midway, he says in his own and his friend's behalf: "So here we are, trusting in God for diyine aid, while we diligently and earnestly apply ourselyes to study and grasp everything pertaining to art. Our trust in God has not been in vain. He has blessed us abundantly, so that our progress is much greater than it could possibly be by dependence only upon our own mental strength." j Hence his friends can "be assured" that he is enjoying a splendid opportunity, oppor-tunity, realizing his fondest aspira-i tions and hopes. But friend Ilafen also retains warm i loyalty for his native land, the country of his birth. Speaking of a contemplated contem-plated visit to, and one month's stay (next May or June) in Switzerland, he desires to be directed "to the most picturesque parts of Switzerland, especially such as are not far from Schorzingen," the idyllic village of Thurgovie. There Btood his humble cradle, in the shade, almost, of the proud castle of Arenenberg, where Louis Napoleon (afterward the infamously in-famously perjured Emperor of France) passed the years of his exiled boyhood boy-hood under the eyes of his noble mother, the accomplished Hortense, ex-Queen of Holland, and sister of the unfortunate Josephine. Ilafen, however, how-ever, has no such historical reflections to pursue. He aims at something more satisfactory to an artist's soul, to a poetic craving ' after nature's chaste embrace. Let us hear him: "I have a good map ind guide book, but these direct me in the course of tourists, where great bare-walled modern hotels mar the beauties of nature. I love to go away from the haunts of fashion into nature's secluded se-cluded nooks, where nestle quaint little villages and mirror lakes, amongst Alpine cottages and curiously attired peasants; where the spirit and poetry of nature and humble life, "is free and untrammeled with monotonous monot-onous land-marks of surfeited sight-seekers." sight-seekers." He intends to spend a month or so in sketching the choicest bits of characteristic Swiss life and scenery. "Of course," he adds, "'there is beauty all around,' but my time is so limited in this land tli.it I would not like to lose time in hunting for such salient spots as will do credit to ray old fatherland." With such devotion to God, admiration admira-tion of nature, loyalty to home, attachment at-tachment to art, to all and eacli in their purity and simplicity, young Ilafen is destined for a fair and bright future, not a little of the brilliancy of which will tend to cast a gleam around the territory that is his home of adoption. In conclusion I add, for the benefit of his numerous friends within the reach of the jurisdiction of Thi Dispatch, Dis-patch, the aspiring artist's present address; 9 Rue Campagne Premiere, Paris, France Europe. Leo IIaefeli. . . . . |