MR An American Landscape Painter R. Ben Foster, whose exceptional gifts as a landscape artist have long been known to his fellow-artists, has recently come into National prominence owing to the purchase by the French Government of one of his pictures for the Luxembourg, the national gallery of modern paintings and sculpture maintained by the French Government. Of the American artists living in this country who sent pictures to the Paris Exposition, only one other, Winslow Homer, received this honor. The distinction which France has thus conferred upon Mr. Foster is particularly gratifying to his countrymen because his picture, a photograph of which is reproduced herewith, is peculiarly an American subject. It is a scene at night in his native village-the village of North Anson, Maine. It is that hour of the night when the last lights are being extinguished and the entire village lies in peaceful repose in the moonlight. A star or two shines through the trees, and the only sound is the rippling and gentle splashing of the brook which flows on one side of the village street. Mr. Foster chose for his picture the appropriate title "Lulled by the Murmuring Stream," the very rhythm of which expresses the soothing and peaceful character of the scene. This title has been very happily translated by the French, and the picture is now known in the Luxembourg by the legend "Bercé par le flot murmurant." Mr. Foster's experience does not accord with the proverb that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, for while the French have been recog nizing his merit as an artist, he has also met with recognition at home. He received last autumn the silver medal and the prize of a thousand dollars at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburg for his canvas entitled "Misty Moonlight." He has also received this spring the Webb Prize at the annual exhibition of the Society of American Artists in this city-a prize offered for the most meritorious landscape in the exhibition painted by an American artist. This also is a picture of poetic and imaginative quality, and depicts a New England intervale with a mountain in the background partly covered by a mist which is rolling away under the influence of a warm and cheering morning sun. Mr. Foster's special work as a landscapist is to interpret the quiet, gentle, and meditative side of the woods and fields and hills. As a painter of the poetic, one may almost say of the dreamy aspects of the face of nature, he is not surpassed by any of the rising school of American artists. GLOUCESTER: THE FISHING CITY A BY LILLIAN W. BETTS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CLIFTON JOHNSON NEW background must be pro vided the short story-writer who has made the fisherman and his environment the theme of his story, the Atlantic seacoast the stage for his actors. A less romantic background than Cape Ann at the present day could not be found. Miles of her rugged coast and beautiful indented bays are in the possession of her fishery interests. Storehouses, smoke-houses, lofts for the preparing of salt fish, and wharfs represent millions in plants that wait on the coming and going of the fishing fleets. Quarries with derricks and guys from water-edge to peak of miles of her rugged coast, with railroads and wharfs and crushers, the clip ping and chipping of hundreds of hammers, tell of millions more in possession of another stretch of her coasts. Of the courage and tenacity of the Anglo-Saxon blood in keeping its grip on this rocky Cape, a walk through the streets of Gloucester furnishes hourly evidence. Here very modern houses are perched on terraces, built on side-hills, while the contours of her streets seem to have followed the outline of the boulders her houses must have displaced. Few of her old houses remain, but of these many are still in the possession of the heirs of the original owners. At first glance Gloucester seems like a new, a very new, city, in spite of the records which show her first settlement to have been made in 1623. The reason for this is that her growth was very slow until 1875, since which year it has been phenomenal. Devastating fires having made much rebuilding necessary, the impression of newness is strong. It is interesting to trace the evolution of the characteristic industry of Gloucester. While the first settlement was for the distinct purpose of establishing fishing grounds, it was the coast of Maine, not Massachusetts, that was the field and the haven sought. The master did not suc ceed on the Maine coast, and he decided it "good to pass into Massachusetts Bay, to try whether that would yield him any.' Evidently it did, for he sailed for Spain with his cargo, leaving a company of men behind him. Gloucester has passed through many industrial and commercial phases. Her first settlers took to agriculture in spite of her rocky land and their first purpose. In 1727 many of her people emigrated to Salem, because the farming land was overcrowded. The next commercial and industrial evolution was the cutting and shipping of wood in her own vessels built in her own harbors. This, in the nature of things, on the limited area, was of short-lived duration. The plant, the vessels, remained, and must be turned to use. The ocean lay before the town, and by an easy change the vessels were turned into fishing-vessels, with more or less success, principally less; for in 1840 the industry was at a low ebb, so low as barely to afford a living to the people of the town, so poor as to hold no inducement to outsiders to settle. For years the increase in the population of Gloucester was a natural increase, barely affected by the coming of new people. It was this which preserved its characteristics; the marriages were among the original families, producing a sturdy race physically and morally-a race of patriots. From the beginning of her history every call for military service has found the men of Gloucester eager and ready to respond. The Revolution ruined her fishing industry. Her vessels hunted the seas to harass and worry the British, and the story of her losses on land and water proves the stuff of which her people were made. The war of 1812, the Civil War, both found Gloucester alert to meet the needs of the Nation. Poverty never deterred her, nor the limited number of men who were left to protect and develop her industry. Every hamlet in her boundaries has its monument to the men who have city of Gloucester, a name given by its died in the country's service. The harbor of Gloucester at one time was the busy shipping center of a foreign trade which, in its turn, left that harbor as the lumber trade had left it. To-day she has her India Square, the center of residence of retired captains, the distinctive mark of her age and early importance. Boat-building has been a leading industry from her earliest days. One of her first settlers was said to have built a ship of six hundred tons before he left England. The schooner was born in Gloucester. As the first model glided from the stocks to the water, a boatman exclaimed, "See how she scoons!" "A schooner let her be," was her maker's comment. Not the least of Gloucester's renown is that schooners and Universalism in this country were both born on the cape to which she has now given her name, for Pigeon Cove, Annisquam, and all the rest of the farfamed shore are part of the incorporated The first settlers, most of whom, it is said, came from Gloucester, England. The two cities have exchanged portraits. picture of the Gloucester in the New World hangs in the council chamber of the old Gloucester, while a picture of Old World Gloucester hangs in the Mayor's room of the New World Gloucester, the latter bearing this inscription: "For it is certain that Apollo promises that in a new clime there shall be another Salamis." This painting was a gift of the Member of Parliament from Gloucester, 1869, in recognition of courtesies extended to his son in the New World Gloucester. The prosperity of Gloucester dates from 1860. The increased demand for fish as a food started a new activity in this industry, which had heretofore lived but did not thrive. Improved boats, fishinggear, better knowledge of the habits of fish, discovery of better fishing-grounds, all contributed to the result. The tide had |