The Pictures UNKNOWN

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3862, 20 July 1891, Page 2

The Pictures UNKNOWN

["OfVIS- IN - The romantic Bower man Brothers in their UNgbpt to diffuse a taste for the fin6PStetrfr amongst a rude and illiterate peasantry, on the Otago Peninsula and elsewhere, would fill a book. The ./■ '\r process in most cases seems to havo , liad three stages, all equally inter* esting. The first stage was the stage of tact and diplomacy, a specimen "91 copy of the work of art, and a pencil «|| that would write with indelible ink« ;>iggH in the second stage,at the peril of life Mi, and limb, the work of art in 42 num- iS bers was delivered, some times dumped f| down like a load of manure at the settlers baok gate. Third stage: triumphant proceedings in the Magistrate's Court—judgment for plaintiff, LlO 10s and costs. At the end of .v the campaign the Bowerman Brothers have the satisfaction of knowing not only that they have scattered broads cast through the land some invaluable art literature, but also | that they have recovered the full price | thereof by process of law. In the last particular they ara more lucky than '.|f another labourer in the field of art , .'\Jg whose case is reported in an English . newspaper. He sued for the prioeof a double bass fiddle built and supplied ' to the order oi the defendant- > %g|

Defendant's case was that he to ld plaintiff what kind of wood was necessary, and he replied that he had two heech planks in the back yard which would do for the • body of the doable bass, and an old care shaft which would do for the neck. Plaintiff then purchased some deal and began the construction. Plaintiff was in a great hurry to finish the instrument, and when he had finished glueing the belly it was found he had forgotten to take out the glue pot. The neck was made from the cart shaft, according to instructions, but plaintiff fixed it on the wrong end of the instrument. After everything was prepared for the strings, defendant told plaintiff to go to a music shop for them ; instead of doing so he went to a watchmaker's and got the catgut rope of an eight-day clock. He put this string on, and when he was winding it up to tune the fiddle the string broke, struck him in the face and gave him a black eye. When all was completed it was found that plaintiff had made the instrument so large that he could not get it out of the room.—Judgment for defendant. This remarkable Buit was beard and decided in the Leigh County Court. Morally, the bass-fiddle maker's case may have been as good as Bowerman's. On the Peninsula the opinion will be, I have no doubt, , that it was every bit as good. But was against him. He anyhow, and certpimPwould never have succeeded in disseminating amongst a reluctant population ten-guinea copies of a work of art in 42 parts.