their teeth extracted, but often disbursed large sums for the privilege of retaining them.  When I asked him if I could procure a good and effective picture at a moderate price, he threw out his chest and waved his arms toward his walls.  “There, sir,” he said, “you can see oil paintings of every subject, of every style, and of every class; and at prices, sir, lower than they can be found elsewhere in the known world.  Mention the kind of picture you want, and I can accommodate you.”

I replied that I did not know exactly what I wanted, and that I would see what he had.  I now began to look at the pictures on the walls, occasionally mentioning my ideas in regard to their merits, when suddenly my companion turned to me and said: 

“Are you connected with the press, sir?”

I replied that I was not, although I occasionally wrote for periodicals.

“Upon art subjects?” he asked.

I answered in the negative.

“Then you are unprejudiced,” he said, “and I believe from your appearance that you are a man of influence, and there is nothing I would like better than to exhibit the workings of my art organization to a man of influence, unprejudiced on the subject.  My object is, sir, to popularize art; to place high art within the reach of the masses, and thus to educate the artistic faculties of even the poorest citizens.”

I said that I supposed the chromo movement was intended to do all that.

“No, sir,” he replied, warmly; “chromos cannot accomplish the object.  They are too expensive; and, besides, they are not the real thing.  They are printed, not painted; and what the public wants is the real thing, the work of the brush; and that is what I give them.  The pictures you see here, and an immense stock besides, are all copies of valuable paintings, many of them in the finest galleries of Europe.  I sell no originals.  I guarantee everything to be a copy.  Honesty is at the bottom of all I do.  But my copies are exactly like the originals; that is all I claim.  I would like, sir, to show you through my establishment, and let you see how I am carrying on the great work of art education.  There are picture-dealers in this city, sir, plenty of them, who try to make the public believe that the vile daubs they sell are originals, and the works of well-known painters; and when they do admit that the picture is a copy, they say it is the work of some distinguished student; that there is no other copy in the country; or they make some other misstatement about it.  These people conceal their processes, but their tricks are beginning to be well known to the public.  Now, sir, I conceal nothing.  The day for that sort of thing is past.  I want men of influence to know the facilities I have for the production of art-work upon a grand scale.  We will first go into the basement.  Sir,” said he, as I followed him down-stairs, “you know how the watch-making business has been revolutionized