"Le Charmeur," "Jadwigha," in these are concentrated all that is
lovely in the land of legend; and, like all places of legend, replete
with imaginative beauty, the places where loveliness and beauty of
form congregate, after they have passed through the sensuous spaces of
the eye travelling somewhere to an abode where all those things are
that are perfect, they live forever. Rousseau was a charming and
lovable child, whether he was painting or whether he was conducting
his own little orchestra, composed of those people who kept shop
around his home, and it is as the child of his time that he must be
considered, child in verity among the sophisticated moderns who
believed and believe more in intellect than in anything else, many of
whom paid tribute to him, and reverenced him, either in terms of
sincere friendship, or by occasional visit. The various anecdotes,
touching enough, are but further proof of the innocence of this so
simple and untutored person.

The real amateur spirit has, we like to think, much in its favor, if
only for its freshness, its spontaneity, and a very gratifying
naturalness. Rousseau was all of this, and lived in a world untouched,
he wove about himself, like other visionaries, a soft veil hiding all
that was grossly unreal to him from all that was real, and for
Rousseau, those things and places he expressed existed vividly for
him, and out of them his pictures became true creations. He was the
real naif, because he was the real child, unaffected and unspoiled,
and painting was for him but the key of heaven that he might open
another door for the world's weary eye.

PART TWO

THE TWILIGHT OF THE ACROBAT

Where is our once charming acrobat--our minstrel of muscular music?
What has become of these groups of fascinating people gotten up in
silk and spangle? Who may the evil genius be who has taken them and
their fascinating art from our stage, who the ogre of taste that has
dispensed with them and their charm? How seldom it is in these times
that one encounters them, as formerly when they were so much the
charming part of our lighter entertainment. What are they doing since
popular and fickle notions have removed them from our midst?

It is two years since I have seen the American stage. I used to say to
myself in other countries, at least America is the home of real
variety and the real lover of the acrobat. But I hear no one saying
much for him these days, and for his charmin