THE TRUE POCAHONTAS.
little as possible, but getting more strength of color and finish into it, working on the face as lightly as possible, simply to make it a little less rough and unfinished than it was!!"
Thus, all the labor of again securing permission to make a second copy had to be gone over again, and again letters to the owner of the Grange as well as to the artist were treated with silent disregard. Glad to ascribe this to want of proper addresses, an appeal was made to the distinguished Philadelphia artist, Miss Anna Lea, now resident in London. Through her, Henry J. Wright, the copyist, a man of unquestionable ability, was found. But it then appeared that his professional services had been farmed out to a picture-broker, who haggled over the conditions, through a course of several letters, and sought to impose conditions utterly inconsistent with his position or that of his copyist. Having been finally brought to terms, the order was given in December, 1874, with peremptory directions that no delay should occur. The pictures were completed early in the following year, but the fellow kept the pictures for his own purposes till the following May, and they did not arrive in Philadelphia until June. Here another difficulty was encountered, for William Penn's portrait was not permitted by the Collector of the Customs to be placed in Independence Hall without paying toll to the United States authorities.
"The Founder of Pennsylvania, and Hannah his Wife," were placed in close confinement for forty days and forty nights till, all the formalities complied with, the Secretary of the Treasury having cordially approved a free passport, these noble likenesses were placed in " visual juxtaposition " with the original painting of the Treaty by West. Both genuine portraits, the Historical Society portrait at the age of 22, and this National Museum portrait at the age of 52, seem to realize the recorded description of Penn as " eminently handsome, the expression of his countenance remarkably pleasing and sweet, his eye dark and lively, and his hair flowing gracefully over his shoulders."
His predominant trait of benevolence stands out in both of these portraits, especially in the latter, the noble brow, expressive eyes, firm but gentle mouth, speak that "sweet reasonableness," characteristic of the pioneer, on this continent, of true peace on earth, and good-will toward men.
THE TRUE POCAHONTAS.
CAPT. JOHN SMITH.
[FoR two centuries the story of the rescue of Captain John Smith by Pocahontas, perhaps the favorite bit of romance in all our colonial history, was left unassailed in the shape in which its hero had told it in his " General History of Virginia;" nor was that vivid record of remarkable exploits and sufferings looked upon as anything but the unembellished narrative of a rough soldier, decidedly too plain a man to magnify his deeds, or indulge in the picturesque exaggeration common to more artificial writers. But there is a process which every conspicuous passage of history encounters in due course: it is often mourned over as the image-breaking tendency of modern criticism; but, in reality, it is only the correcting and clarifying influence of time. For a while each historian quietly follows the investigations of his predecessor; but afterward other documents are found, new sources opened. Many special students silently contribute their added knowledge; and at last some one author puts all the fresh evidence together and writes the story anew. The whole character and action are often changed, and rightly. We may mourn the loss of a
