Viewing page 4 of 22

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

III

ago as 1850. You can get a very good idea of the advance that has been made in art here in the last 30 or 40 years. Then there is a sculpture gallery which contains some of the finest modern statuary.

Some of it is perfectly stunning and some of it is perfectly beastly. The French like any thing that is well done and it dont make a particle of difference what it is they will reward it. The result is that then some very ugly things very beautifully executed in both the picture and sculpture gallery. I remember one thing in the picture gallery of a moonlight. It is just simply a broad sketch of country with some hills in the distance but it is so fine that you can feel that your are there. You know how you feel in a beautiful moonlight night in the country when everythink is so grand and quiet; well I could almost feel that I was there walking in the moonlight. I think it was one of the finest things that I ever saw. Then there is that picture that the lady told us about when we were over to miss Page's. Do you remember?   Of the Madonna sitting with her hands uplifted and the poor woman nealing with her hands outstretched around the holy mother's [[strikethrough]]evap[[/strikethrough]] lap and the little child lying dead at their feet with a few white roses scattered near on the steps. You remember she thought it was one of the finest pictures she ever saw. Well it is very fine but I dont like the way it is done. The expression of the woman nealing is [[strikethrough]]suf[[/strikethrough]]

IV.

superb, the agony of the mother expressed in the whole pose of the figure is fine and then the child unmistakably dead; there is no question about that but I dont think it a pleasant picture by any means. Should you? I dont think I should like it in my house. The French all run to death and blood shed in their pictures some of them are perfectly horrible to look at but so superbly done that you can help admire them. We walked over from the school to the Luxembourg and from there up to the house making in all about 7 or 8 miles. The distances are very deceptive here the streets are so wide. I am letting my moustache grow again I felt so lonely without it that I could'nt keep it off any longer. I showed madame a photo of myself last night with my moustache on an she would'nt believe that it was yours truly. She thought that I had never had one. She did'nt hint that I could'nt raise one if she had I should have got up and (let her alone;) I guess. You ask me if I was home sick, well the first night in Paris was something to remember. We did'nt know enough French to ask for what we wanted to eat. We wandered around and finally got up courage to go in and struggle with the bill of fare. We did'nt see a [[strikethrough]]sole[[/strikethrough]] soul we knew; it was awfull then we went back to the hotel and up to the [[strikethrough]]sieve[[/strikethrough]] sirve they called a chamber and sat there by the