500 



MEISSONIER, JEAN LOUIS ERNEST. 



members of all commissions, as well as other admin- 

 istrative appointees, be made responsible to the peo- 

 ple by being made accountable to the people's Gov- 

 ernor. 



We believe in free schools supplied with free text- 

 books. Believing not only in their maintenance, but 

 in their constant improvement, we are in favor of es- 

 tablishing an efficient system of manual training for 

 both sexes, and of increasing the school age in con- 

 nection therewith. 



We reaffirm our sympathy with all wise and consti- 

 tutional measures in the interests of manual labor, 

 and we renew the declarations upon this subject in 

 our platform of last year : we indorse the recommenda- 

 tions contained in the Governor's inaugural message 

 and his action in regard to suppressing the evils of 

 the sweating system. 



A demand was made for the repeal of the 

 McKinley act so far as it increases rates of duties, 

 and for the enactment of a genuine measure 

 of tariff reform. The recent silver legislation of 

 Congress was denounced ; and the free coinage 

 of silver, in the absence of international agree- 

 ment, was disapproved. 



A fourth ticket was placed in the field by a 

 small faction, known as the Socialist Labor 

 party, containing the following names: For Gov- 

 ernor, Harry W. Robinson ; for Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor, George R. Peare ; for Secretary of State, 

 Edward W. Theinert ; for Treasurer, Charles 

 Friede ; for Auditor, Squire E. Putney; for At- 

 torney-General, James Waldock. 



During the canvass, the Republican and Dem- 

 ocratic candidates for Governor were heard upon 

 the stump in every county of the State. The 

 vote for Governor was as follows: Russell, 157,- 

 982; Allen. 151,515: Kimball, 8,968: Winn, 1,- 

 772; Robinson, 1.429. Although Allen was 

 defeated, all the other candidates on the Repub- 

 lican ticket were elected by considerable plurali- 

 ties. For Lieutenant-Governor, Ilaile received 

 157,216 votes; Corcoran. 145.805 ; Smith, 9,346 ; 

 Shields, 2.399 ; and Peare, 1,471. The plurality 

 of Olin for Secretary of State was 15,384 ; of 

 Harden for Treasurer. 14,155 ; of Kimball for 

 Auditor, 12,769 ; of Pillsbury for Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, 12,317. Members of the State Legislature 

 were elected as follow : Senate Republicans 

 24, Democrats 16 ; House Republicans 149, 

 Democrats 90, Prohibitionist 1. To the Exec- 

 utive Council, 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat 

 were elected. The proposed amendment to the 

 State Constitution abolishing the poll tax as a 

 prerequisite for voting was adopted by a vote of 

 144,931 yeas to 53,554 nays ; the amendment fix- 

 ing the number of members necessary for a 

 quorum in the Legislature was adopted by a vote 

 of 152,688 yeas to" 29,590 nays. 



MEISSONIER, JEAN LOUIS ERNEST, 

 French painter of genre and historical subjects, 

 born in Lyons, France, on Feb. 21, 1815, accord- 

 ing to Vapereau (although the date has been 

 given as 1811 by Meissonier's friend Jules 

 laretie, and as 1813 by other writers), died in 

 Paris on Jan. 31, 1891. Meissonier was the fourth 

 child of a commissionnaire de marchandise, and 

 his childhood was cramped by extreme poverty. 

 Throughout his life he was unwilling to speak 

 of his earlier years. The evolution of his pecul- 

 iar talent was a repetition of the familiar story - 

 of a natural gift demanding expression in the 

 face of many obstacles. " When in school." 

 says Vaperean, "he manifested a very lively 



taste for painting, and obtained permission, not 

 without much difficulty, to take lessons of a 

 professor of drawing at Grenoble, M. Feriot." 

 At the age of nineteen he went to Paris to devote 

 himself to the study of art. " Well for him that 

 he was born robust ! "exclaimed Jules Claretic in 

 after years. " But what is a struggle even in 

 misery for a true-born artist ? I have read some- 



JEAN LOUIS ERNEST MEISSONIEB. 



where that in these dark days of his debut 

 Meissonier used to work side by side with Dau- 

 bigny at the production of pictures for export at 

 five francs a square metre. It is, perhaps, only a 

 studio tradition. But it is a fact that Tony 

 Johannot, to whom Meissonier exhibited his 

 sketches at the time, gave him encouragement. 

 and that Leon Cogniet opened his studio to him." 

 Yet he remained only four months with Cogniet. 

 Meissonier may fairly be accounted a born 

 draughtsman, for his early training was hampered 

 and imperfect. 



It was impossible for Meissonier to maintain 

 himself by painting alone in the first third of a 

 century which in its last third witnessed million- 

 aires offering scores of thousands of francsforhis 

 works. He resorted to illustration, the frequent 

 resource of youthful painters, not because he 

 loved illustration the more, but because it was 

 necessary to live. In this field also he met con- 

 stant rebuffs. Once he went timidly to the Rue 

 St. Jacques and offered an editor four sepia 

 drawings which he hoped might be used for the 

 illustration of a fairy tale. It is to the editor's 

 credit that he saw merit in the work, but the merit 

 was not deemed sufficient to counterbalance the 

 expense of engraving the drawings, and he 

 bowed the heart-sick young artist out. There is 

 another story of a publisher who was accustomed 

 to keep Meissonier waiting in an ante-room where 

 paper and pencils lay upon a table, placed as a 

 decoy for the artist, who almost unconsciously 

 began to make sketches which became the booty 

 of the publisher on his departure. Meissonior's 

 earliest illustrative work is considered to be five 

 woodcuts representing humorous and pathetic 



