4o8 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



THE DESECRATION OF NATURE. 



To portray in beautiful art a dese- 

 cration of nature or the ravages of 

 vandals, reminds one of Dr. Holland's 

 "Canonization of the Vicious." Think 

 of the incongruity, the absurdity of a 

 poem or drawing - eulogistic of a stone 

 wall bearing the Salvation Army mot- 

 to, "Wash me and I shall be whiter 

 than snow," flanked as the writer once 

 saw it, by the insistent and clamorous 

 command to, "Use Blank's Soap." 

 Both announcements may be commen- 

 dable in themselves but when either 

 defaces a bit of rustic beauty it is an 

 outrage to one's artistic perceptions 

 as well as to one's sense of the fitness 

 of things. 



Not long ago I ordered a title page 

 drawing of nature to be made by a 

 skilled artist. I explained that the 

 scene should be a ravine with a forest 

 in the background, and that the 

 lettering should be in a distinct and 

 separate panel. The artist evidently 

 thought that my artistic tastes had 

 not been fully developed. Imagine my 

 feelings when he brought in the com- 

 pleted drawing and taking it from its 

 wrappings held it up at the proper 

 distance with an air of pride and 

 enthusiastically inquired, "There, how- 

 does that strike you?" 



Tt struck severely hard — almost hard 

 enough to cause collapse, surely 

 enough to cause the artist to redraw 

 the illustration. 



Tn the foreground, on the bank of 



the ravine, he had placed a huge 

 boulder, and thereon had painted the 

 title in the style of an enthusiastic 

 and enterprising manufacturer of piils! 



"Oh, aren't they beautiful;" "Just 

 lovely;" "What exquisite art;" "Did 

 you ever see such perfect taste;" "She's 

 an artist all right ;"-— these and many oth- 

 er similar exclamations I heard from the 

 young ladies as I entered the room 

 and saw them crowding around a long 

 table on which was spread out a liberal 

 assortment of water color drawings. 

 The ladies were in ecstasies as they 

 enthusiastically picked up one after 

 another of the sketches, dropping each 

 hastily to take another that seemed 

 more beautiful or calling the attention 

 of some one to a particular point of 

 excellence. 



"You like nature; come and see these 

 drawings," was the cordial invitation. 

 "Don't you think these are beautiful," 

 as the young ladies made room for me 

 at one end of the table. It must be 

 admitted that the first glance at the 

 beautiful cards and dainty timings of 

 the drawings spread in delicious dis- 

 order over the table was enough to 

 excuse all their intensity of enthusiasm. 

 The artist's specialty was rustic hill- 

 sides and picturesque ravines with 

 brook, pools and foaming waterfalls. 

 Tn nearly every picture was one or 

 more clusters of white birch trees, ami 

 almost every tree had several wide 

 bands showing where the bark had been 

 stripped off by the vandalism that is„ 



