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 by the great companies which manufacture watches by
machinery. The slow, uncertain, and expensive work of the poor toilers
who made watches by hand has been superseded by the swift, unerring, and
beautiful operations of machinery and steam. Now, sir, the great purpose