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TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF WESTERN ARTISTS:-

     The magnificent exhibition of the Society of Western Artists is ample proof of the necessity for its existence.  Born in a year of financial panic and distress, launched at a time when many of its members had already disposed of some of their pictures to older and apparently more important exhibitions, it had to fight its way against the doubts, indifference, and in rare cases positive enmity of some of our Western artists.  Yet, when it sprang into existence fully armed like Minerva, it surpassed the most sanguine expectations of its friends.  New York was positively astonished and even far off London papers spoke of it as a new manifestation of the great Western States.  Whilst the labors of the jury had to be carried on in haste, and without the precedents and rules that lighten the work in those cases, it can be said that but very, very few of the pictures admitted are unworthy of the highest standard.  A great