Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1877 — The Editor’s Valentine. [ARTICLE]

The Editor’s Valentine.

Wk have already received ourvalentine for thia year. It is not a very pretty one, bat what it lacks in beauty is made up in masterly coloring and skillful handling. The title is “A Newspaper Man,” and represents a dropsical-headed chap with a red nose, a green coat and a rod pair of trousers, going through a piece of teq-cent muslin with a formidable pair of shears. You may have noticed that all editors wear green coats and rod pantaloons. A quill inserted behind a comprehensive ear exhibits much feeling, and is unlike anything found in mediaeval art. Very much unlike it. The color in the noee is laid on with a reckless lavishneas and a brush, and doesn’t suggest the Goittesque style of painting to any appreciable extent. The abbreviated coat-tails are remarkable for breadth of effect and absence of feeling, and are painted, in a rather low tone. The pose of the figure is easy and graceful, as is natural with editors. The delicate modeling of the feet reminds one more of a pair of gun-boats than the early Christian frescoes. They appear to cover the whole ground—-or perhaps we should say the whole floor. The buttons on the coat lack strength and holes to push the needles through, while the shirtcollar is terribly real and happily conceived. The artist has thrown, considerable soul in the newspaper man’s shirtcollar. The legs of the table are patterned after the Gothic style of architecture, and are rather weak; but the pastepot pn the floor is full of tenderness and feeling and paste. The brush which reposes gently in the pot betrays a master hand and a short handle. The shears, with which the editor is supposed to tie molding public opinion, are bold, sharp and vigorous, the rivet being particularly well painted and oiled. His head is so bare that it barely invites criticism. All the details of the picture are faithfully worked out with one exception. There is a marked absence of a newspaper bore going through the pile of exchanges in the right-hand foreground. With this defect remedied, the whole picture would be so real and life-like that a tramp printer would naturally salute the counterfeit editor with: “Have walked from Reading; haven’t had a bite for two days; can’t you give an old typo a little help to go to Philadelphia. ” — Norristown Herald.