to a recent writer, indicates the
money-getting faculty; and he plainly belonged to that class of persons
who in the Middle Ages did not, as is the present custom, pay money for
having their teeth extracted, but often disbursed large sums for the
privilege of retaining them. When I asked him if I could procure a good
and effective picture at a moderate price, he threw out his chest and
waved his arms toward his walls. "There, sir," he said, "you can see oil
paintings of every subject, of every style, and of every class; and at
prices, sir, lower than they can be found elsewhere in the known world.
Mention the kind of picture you want, and I can accommodate you."

I replied that I did not know exactly what I wanted, and that I would
see what he had. I now began to look at the pictures on the walls,
occasionally mentioning my ideas in regard to their merits, when
suddenly my companion turned to me and said:

"Are you connected with the press, sir?"

I replied that I was not, although I occasionally wrote for periodicals.

"Upon art subjects?" he asked.

I answered in the negative.

"Then you are unprejudiced," he said, "and I believe from your
appearance that you are a man of influence, and there is nothing I would
like better than to exhibit the workings of my art organization to a man
of influence, unprejudiced on the subject. My object is, sir, to
popularize art; to place high art within the reach of the masses, and
thus to educate the artistic faculties of even the poorest citizens."

I said that I supposed the chromo movement was intended to do all that.

"No, sir," he replied, warmly; "chromos cannot accomplish the object.
They are too expensive; and, besides, they are not the real thing. They
are printed, not painted; and what the public wants is the real thing,
the work of the brush; and that is what I give them. The pictures you
see here, and an immense stock besides, are all copies of valuable
paintings, many of them in the finest galleries of Europe. I sell no
originals. I guarantee everything to be a copy. Honesty is at the bottom
of all I do. But my copies are exactly like the originals; that is all I
claim. I would like, sir, to show you through my establishment, and let
you see how I am carrying on the great work of art education. There are
picture-dealers in this city, sir, plenty of them, who try to make the
public believe that the vile daubs they sell are originals, and the
works of well-known p