Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-07-31
REMIN IsCENCEs.
WRITTEN FOR THE nAnrissBUEa IsDERKSDExr
By A BERKELEY BOY.
David HI. Stroller.

The types have been destroying
history again. In my last chapter
comma, which was peppered in
between the middle and last name
of General Strother, as / wrote II
David Hunter Strother) made nae
seem to wrongfnlly add the name
of !. David Hunter" to the cata-
logue Of students Of my Alma Ma
ter al Cannonsburg. was moved
to so write out Strother's middle
name, because / have always sup
posed he was named after his pa
ternal grandfather, who was a
Hunter, the father of Andrew and
Edmund p. Hunter, his mothers
mother, and that their progeni-
tors name was David.
And now I don't know that /
can elect a better topic for my
present chapter than the career of
this Berkeley boy and schoolmate
of mine, "Pidge Strother.u We
boys had thus nick-named him,
not without significance. If ever
an urchin had pigeons ON the brain
it was he. He had all the common
varieties Of the bird and some that
were not common, judging by the
way we used to make a straight
line from the old Academy, on
Quality Hill, for Col. John Stroth-
er's residence, which was in a stone
house on Queen street, the mo-
ment Mr.. Sortelie dismissed us for
dinner, without stopping to get
our own dinners. This was the In
evitable consequence of the man
ner in which " Pidge" had spent
his time, viz: in sketching "fan-
tails" and the like on his slate, and
slyly showing them to all the boys
near him, right and left, front and
rear. This he was bound'' to do,
ferrule or no ferrule. If ever boy
came naturally by propensity for
sketching, he did. 1t was almost
impossible to get his attention to
anything else.
| we'll remember conversation
had with the Generals excellent
father, after he and / were grown
to manhood. Meeting the old Col
onel, one day, when on visit to
Martinsburg, I inquired where
David was and what he was doing.
"Oh! he is at Rome. You know,
Joseph" said he, "what a propen-
sity David had for sketching, when
you were boys together. His
turn seemed to grow all the
stronger, for artistic matters, with
every added year, and / had to let
him 60 at last. In fact he seemed
to be good for nothing else. I had
striven to get him Interested in
something more practical and
useful. But it was all i'm vain.
TO Italy he was hound to go, and
to Italy he has gone, although /
could lily afford him the necessary
OUTFIT
/ was not in the least surprised
at what Colonel Strother told me,
with my recollection of his sons
habits as have sketched y them.
Years passed away before I saw
the young artist. AT length new
sign met my eye one day, while ]
was residing in Baltimore, modest
ly attracting attention to the name
of David HI. Strother, Artist"
He had opened studio on Balti-
more street, between Gay and
Holiday, where he was trying his
hand at Observation-Disclosures be-
cause of preference for that line
of art, doubtless, but for the sake
of the reader money to be derived
from it. With weakness for see
Ing themselves in frame as we'll as
In print, wherewith most people
are touched, the chance of young
artists keeping above the starva-
ton point, at that day of lower
esthetic taste, was much better
from portraits than scenic pictures.
1t gave a beginners friends an OPP
portunity to patroniZe him If
they felt so inclined.
Strother's sign soon disappeared
from Baltimore, and he with it..
Returning to his fathers home, he
produced his Porte Crayen I"
sketches, which were devoted to
scenes in the vicinity. These
found a market as they could not
have failed to do. His friends and
the reading world at large know
what has followed in the way Of
fame, if not Of fortune also.
allude not to his career as a
military man duiing the war, for
his enduring fame rests not on any
laurels he may have sought then,
but on his cooperating pencil and
pen. That hissmilitary career gave
him advantages for his favorite
and more successful line of life,
his "Recollections of the War; in
Harper's Magazine, have borne