20 



Best patch-work quilt. Mr?. H. W. Smith, Alford, $6 00 



2d do., Mrs. Cyme French, Sheffield, 



3d do., Mrs. H. C. Warner, Great Harrington, 



4th do., Mrs. M. H. Fuller, Alford, 



5th do., Miss Hattie D. Cook, Pittsrleld, 



6th do., Miss Frank Stickles, Sheffield, 



7th do., Mrs. Rufus Morgan, aged 82 years, West Stockbridge, 



8th do., Mrs. Wells Anderson, Great Barrington, 



9th do., Miss Mattie Kilmer, Egremont, 



loth do., E. M. Wilcox, Egremont, 



11th do., Miss Katie Nichols, aged 5 years, Richmond, 



12th do., Master Edmund Ward, aged 1! years. New Marlboro, 

 Best 3 lbs. white or colored woolen yarn, Miss Martha Tucker, Lee, 



2d do., Mrs. M. C. Langdon, Monterey. 



3d do., Mrs. Harriet Williams, Great Barrington, 

 Best woolen hose, Mrs. Levi Butler, Lenox, 



2d do., Miss Mary Vosburgh, Great Barrington, 



3d do., Mrs. H. Codding, Lee, 



4th do., Mrs. Guy Day, Great Barrington, 

 Best cotton hose, Mrs. S. M. Cooper, Stockbridge, 



2d do., Mrs. Wm. I. Walker, Great Barrington. 



3d do., Mrs. Jerry Clark, Sheffield, 

 Best woolen mittens, Mrs. E. C. Brewer, Monterey, 



2d do., Miss E. Freeman, New Marlboro, 

 For woolen gloves, 31 rs. L. S. Butler, Lenox, 

 Best 5 yards fringe, Mrs. M. Snyder, Great Barrington, 



2d do., E. Mc Arthur, Sheffield, 

 Your committee have awarded a premium on tattle linen to 31 rs. L. 



Prindle, Alford, 2 00 



A number of bed spreads were exhibited by J. M. Seeley, Housatonic, 

 (Great Barrington), although tic society offer no" premium for 

 such, your committee would recommend a premium of 2 00 



G. B. Langdon, f 



Mrs. C. Hitchco< k, - Committee. 



Mrs. E. C. Ticknor, \ 



FAINTING AND FANCY WORK. 



Probably no committee has ever awarded the premiums of our society upon 

 Paintings without a mortifying sense of the immense disparity between those 

 premiums and the object they are intended to serve — the encouragement of 

 .esthetic culture among our people. It may he unavoidable, hut it must inevi- 

 tably seem unsatisfactory, almost ridiculous, to examine a number of real, oi 

 intended works of art, the results of considerable study, thought, and pains- 

 taking, sonic of them in oil. some in water-colors, with the premiums of $5, 4, 

 3, ■_', !, waiting to be divided among them! It is certainly a pity that, atleast, 

 the suggestion made three years ago by the committee on this subject, to make 

 separate divisions of oil paintings and those in water-colors, has not been fol- 

 lowed. 



It is not an easy task to decide upon the comparative merits of a variety of 

 paintings, various in subject, manner, method, and inspiration, with only the 

 testimony of internal evidence to show whether the picture be a mere careful 

 copy, displaying, perhaps, manual skill, but few higher qualities— a genuine 

 work of genius of original conception, or a bit of faithful study from nature — 

 the honest work of a true artii t. 



The whole influence of art must be elevating if its true nature and power are 



