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Show Quintillian says the perfection of art is to conceal art. Then the yo.ung miss whose mother, ashed to admire a first effort, admitted the productkia was a rose or a cow, she would ba blest if she knew which, had almost reached the art pinnacle, as it were. You have heard of the man who don't know any more about art than a fig -does about skating. He exists in evry village and is usually found in too front row at an- art exhibit, talking glibly of Michael Angelo, Raphael and . Dennis O'Toole's masterpieces, standing stand-ing first on one leg and then on the other '(the man, not the masterpiece), and looking as wise as an educated billy goat full of paint brushes, paint cans and canvas. This individual is' usually the town whitewasher or a sign-painter who paints over a tin alphabet with yellow ochre and plenty of oil to make it spread easily. 'He believes in the natural rather than the acquired art. His theory is that an artist should be born, not made; -the same as a poet. He daubs and daub and has more canvas covered with landscape than there wer? rods in the fence Tom Sawyer and his chr-ns painted for Aunt Polly. The local paper pa-per tells him he has a future before him as big as a dray "load of empty piano boxes, and he believes it. He continues to paint from Nature, and with natural talent, until some sad day he awakens to the fact that he is only an understudy to Whistler and a third-rate Phidias at best. He has learned the sad lesson that only careful, care-ful, painstaking preparation, right methods and a liberal foundation admits ad-mits one to the real realm of art as a painter. Even then, jn the words of Pericles: "In framing an artist, art" hath thus decreed. de-creed. ' To make some good, but others to ex-- ex-- ceed." "'.'.. W ' Avoid it as assiduously as our elif- I sive nature is able, we are bound to be rich some day! Our disposition is a combative one, and we have strenit-ously strenit-ously avoided even the appearance of riches but, in our fatigued condition, we fear a capifulation at no distant date! On every hand, at our very , feet, lie opportunities as thick as sturgeon's eggs on a caviar sandwich! Any one of these grand openings for a fine young man would make us Midas-like! . It was only yesterday we were permitted per-mitted to dream of an investment of $5,000 which would bring us an income in-come sufficient to drive four-in-hand adown the avenues , of life, the observed ob-served of all observers. When sorely tempted to throw aside the yoke of dependency and ride astride into the effulgent. light of luxury, lux-ury, we suffer. With bated breath and tight-shut eyes we cry out with pained emotion: ' ; "No! No!! A thousand times -no! ! Leave us! Leave us poor and worried about our next week's meal ticket!! But leave us!!!" ,. - All through life we have been engaged en-gaged in this battle against riches that ever forced themselves. upon us. We do not want to be rich; we desire only to be left alone or almost alone with moderate circumstances.. We line moderate circumstances. Somehow Some-how they appeal to us. They give -us something to live for. They are just I uncertain enough about the rent .being, paid to make life worth living for our landlord. Otherwise he would decay ' of inertness. We don't want'our landlord land-lord to decay He is a lenient landlord, land-lord, and his dying might cause us to subsequently move! Every time-we: move somebody jumps us on the checkerboard of life and we deprecate moving! . ' ".'- I If only our friends would leave us 1 alone we could be happy: "Man wants -but little here below," and we can get along swimmingly without Deing made rich every few days! No, we don't i want any oil stock to-day! No gold J J J A young woman who gave up neither candy nor theaters during Lent, had no real love for the young man- who' was earnestly striving to save' enough money to buy a spring overcoat.. It is , easy to tell when a young, woman -is really spoons on a young- man.. When she first meets him she helps him spend his money at a-mad gallop-.- .She is no more considerate con-siderate of : his; back account than an . iconoclast who sets out with a pledge hammer to batter down a few old- marble monuments.' . She accepts" his presents 'with' intrepid valor, praises his "livery horses and the steerer of his -devil wagon with vol- f umihous . flattery, : partakes of his after-theater refreshments with wild ) abandon,: and meets . every opportunity opportun-ity to spend more of . his substance with glad .and generous welcome. . ' But when she. begins to feel stricken strick-en she goes "slower. Finally, when she is really in a state to capitulate, she crawfishes lite a lobster and I mines, thank you! wo sure tnings, u you please! No get-rich-quick bonanza. bonan-za. "Please go 'way and let me slep." that's all! . 33 3 "Any married man who has moved once or twice, and has had the advice, i of the family and the . neighbors about hanging the pictures in his happy home, will feel sorry for President Presi-dent Roosevelt. Do you recall how you wanted to hang that copy of the Battle of Marathon Mara-thon at right angles to the light in the front parlor? Your wife insisted on it being suspended at an opposite angle to the shafts of Old Sol, and directly in the vortex of a reflection from a French mirror, in whose liquid depths might be seen the soft colorings of a group of Simmond's graces disporting at the springs. Can you chase your memory back to your daughter's blushing confusion over the prominent wall space you chose -for- the --bevy of; Venetian naiads? And are you not reminded with vividness ot the shocked and pained face of Deacon Strawberry's better-half at finding you insistent on the suspending, of an. alleged Raphael madonna' in full glare of the library window? ; And do you not but why continue? At last you got down off your step-ladder step-ladder in disgust and told the "blooming "bloom-ing chumps" to hang their own pictures pic-tures "where they darned pleased!". Eh? Well, think of Roosevelt! There Were about you during this ordeal only .those who loved you, or who felt an interest in your happy home. About Rocsevelt, as he stands on the ladder with his arms full of pictures, ' are thousands of critics, liberals, con-tractionists, con-tractionists, old . maids and crabbed bachelors, women who have declared repeatedly: "The lips ; that touch liquor shall never touch mine!" and who have never been deceived; men whose ideas of art are as warped as a basswood slab in August sunshine, crafty individuals, with political insurrections in-surrections to kindle, conniving canines ca-nines with trouble . to breed, emotional emo-tional characters with tears to shed, yellow newspaper reporters with jobs to hold and others! Think! Oh, think, of Roosevelt! Compare your task with his and he happy that you are just a plain American citizen and not president of this great United States with a new White House and a big bunch of pictures to hang therelnl asks him "to cut it all out except a few flowers now and then, and the cheap sunshine of his presence. Then, my boy,' .you have her, and if you don't claim your own the investment you have been making is a dead loss and.no prospect of even a two per "cent recapitulation. From the time she is yours sire will begin to save your money like a miser who is working work-ing hard at hoarding after a complete rest. She will keep it up long after you are married, and at times you will be compelled to go to her, confess con-fess a spendthrift habit and borrow fifteen cents. for a shave; ten for the face and five for the neck. Don't tell her that, however, or she will give you but ten and offer to shave your neck herself. Don't let her do it. She might cut you. . -- . 3 53 The mouth is a hiatus In the face, a trap-door to the internal regions. When a boy we learned a lesson wel! regarding this wonderful orifice from which so many fool utterances spring. A band of nomadic Indians were encamped en-camped near-.the village and as wa stood about the camp on one foot because be-cause the other was afflicted with a stone bruise, we were accosted by a dirty buck,' who had a wonderful bit of mechanism' about his person, th-e sight of which he was willing to hawk for a new slungshot'we had recently purchased.' For this weapon he agreed r to exhibit a cute ivory case inclosed in a covering of leather. In the center of the wonderful box glowed a living flame, and behind it a red strawberry grew. He was intensely passionate ia speaking of his curiosities, and in less than five minutes' a bargain was struck.' By permission our chum was allowed to enjoy the sight of the treasures. treas-ures. Having wrun-j this much of a concession out of the bargain, we transferred our slungshot to his charge and keeping. Then the swarthy aborigine opened his. bungholo of oratory, pointed at his teeth, and grunted: "Cmp! " Heap big ivory box!" Out came his tongue. - "Injun's red flame, much red!" Then with his soiled finger he directed di-rected the gaze far into his yawning throat, to his palate: "Hump! Big strawberry! White face see?" Having thus fulfilled his part of the contract he turned away, grinning at our discomfiture. We have had a dislike for .the tawny faced red man ever since |