Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1915 — Tramp Is High Class Painter. [ARTICLE]

Tramp Is High Class Painter.

Atlanta, Ga.—There has been an awakening of art in the Salvation Army Industrial Home In this city. The apostle of the Muses appeared one night In the ragged disguise of a beggar, with a strongly flavored Scandinavian accent. They gave him a bath, a supper and a free bed, not knowing they were entertaining an angel unaware, and next morning prepared to put him to work. “What can you do?* asked Maj. French, and added: “You know this Is a self-supporting institution, and if you stay here you’ve g< to work." “Ay bane able to plant potatoes and paint pictures,” answered the Swedish wanderer, hopefully. The home boasted neither potato patch nor art gallery. They put him to work sorting rags. One night he got hold of a piece of charcoal and drew a portrait of Mozart on the whitewashed wall. He also made a profile of a beautiful young lady—a sweetheart in far-away Sweden. The pictures met the immediate and enthusiastic approval of everybody from Maj. French down to the cook, so they took the artist off the rag heap and let him follow his natural bent. In less than two weeks he had produced a dozen or more pictures and drawings, including an oil painting, all of which adorn the walls of the home. By that time the Salvation Army had succeeded in getting the artist a job planting potatoes on a big farm near Atlanta, and late reports Indicate that he is as skillful with the hoe as with the pencil.