Life — May 5, 1887 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- LI Te Grand Duke di Cesnola has confided almost a column of woe to our E.C. the Maz and Express. It appears that there is no fireproof apartment in the | Museum, as it now stands, in which the late Miss Wolfe's paintings can be placed. Mayor Grace would not let the Museum have its appro- priation unless it would open its doors on Sunday~—and the Board of Apportionment is expected to act very much as Mayor Grace acted, respecting the $315,000 when the bill per- mitting the City to give that much money is passed. It costs $47,000 a year to run the Museum now, and it will shortly cost $88,000 a year to do it, and the City which bound itself to pay for repairs has never paid one cent. Thus waileth the Marquis, who seems to be fireproof | himself even if his Museum is not—else would he have been fired long since. Now, as to Mayor Grace and the Board of Apportionment: the former was and the latter is representative of the people, and both seem to have taken the very level-headed view that what the people pay for the people must have access to on all reasonable occasions, whether it pleases the Ameer of Afghanistan or displeases the Ding di Cesnola; and, if the Corporal in charge backed by the Board of Trustees decides that the people may not have access to that for which they are taxed, at so reasonable an hour as may be found from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. on any Sunday, the representatives of the people do right in withholding the appropriation. No one asks Alderman di Cesnola to exhibit himself on Sunday, nor does the ordinary citizen much hanker for a Sab- bath-day’s view of the Board of Trustees. Hence the per- sonal feelings of this nobleman and these gentlemen should not be brought into a controversy where they stand a fair chance of being slightly maimed, as it were. Next as to the fireproof buildings, we fear that in their absence we detect the Trustees in a small joke at Admiral di Cesnola’s expense. It was not very long ago that a col- lection of statuary was burned in the Central Park, and while we, of course, make no direct charges, we nevertheless feel tolerably certain that there would not be much wailing | and gnashing of teeth among the Trustees if they should wake some morning and find the whole Cesnola collections turned to ashes and the Duke himself somewhat “ Chastened by Fire.” There was method in Hamlet's madness, and the melan- choly aspect that the Metropolitan Museum Trustees have | worn since Lieutenant di Cesnola's experiments in composite antiquities were exposed, convinces us that between them and Hamlet there is a decided case of parallelism. Third and last—why should the City pay for repairs when the Midshipman himself has shown that when left alone he PCE * is capable of stupendous achievements in reparation, on his regular salary as Director? Is not the City justified in thinking that the gallant Duke | willeventually repair a crack in the wall so that it will resem- ble a triumphal arch, and rest content with the glory of his achievement? Are we not all watching earnestly for the day when the present brick building shall have been repaired into a marble palace with a fagade from Rome, a cupola from New Jersey, and a back door from the soon-to-be-destroyed Madison Square Garden—all regularly paid for in the Director's salary? Really, we think that taking all things into consideration, the Colonel has very little cause for complaint. It is very hard for him, no doubt, to sit all day long contemplating the nose of a Cyprian lady glued above the mouth,of a Greek god; but he placed the pin in his own chair and should not growl because he has to sit on it, He should view the condition of affairs with resignation— | for his resignation would give the Museum new life. A GOOD INVESTMENT. GENT: It’s the best investment for your money I know of. Why, the income from it alone is $20,000 a year. CusTOMER: Why does the owner sell ? AGENT: Well, the fact of the matter is he owes the State $400 for taxes, and he wants the money, bad. Perhaps it's unnecessary to state that these youngsters have been to the circus, Balancer (to boy on top): WHY DON'T YER WAVE THE FLAG, Tommy? comicbooks.com