, 1877-01-06
BILLY FIFE.
THE UNTUTORED ARTIST OF
PUGET SOUND.
OUR TERRITORIAL cRUlxsHANk !


Nearly twenty years ago, sailor
like looking young man, called in at
the superintendent's Office at 1.-THE Port
Gamble mills and asked for work.
On being asked if he had ever work
ed in saw-mill before, he replied
in the negative; but sdded that he
was hungry and willing to work.
His was remarkable head mounted
on a diminutive though athletic
body. Surmount that face with a
red cap and tassel, and you would
have sworn it for one of the daring
Turcos that stormed the great Re-
dan, or planted the tricolor on the
frowning bastions of the Malakoff.
The short, arching upper lip, with
its crisp black moustache curling at
the corners; the aquiline nose and
pointed chin; and above all, the
piercing, restless eye, spoke the
PRESENCE OF LATIN BLOOD.
This man was none other than the
untutored artist, the pure lover of
nature, William Fife. He did not
long remain at Port Gamble, but
soon afterwards came to Seattle,
where he spent the residue of his
life. Under such influences as his
genius merited, he might have
achieved signal fame, for no man
ever had a greater natural ability.
But he never improved his oppor-
tunities and let slip golden chances.
Yet his works remain behind him,
to attest his great powers, not
merely as a painter, but humorist.
When we reflect that he had no edu-
cation. we wonder at his mastery of
language, and the subtle humor
couched in many of his caricatures.
OF HIS BIRTH
But little is known, save that his
mother was Greek woman and his
father an Englishman; and that he
was born at Cape Town, on the Cape
of Good Hope in 1885. Any allu-
sions to this subject seemed to
vex him and queries about his
boyhood always were rewarded
by his avoidance of the questioner,
in future. ''D-n your eyes," he
roared savagely at a questioner of
this sort, one day, "what odds does
it make where I was born, or any
body else ? Christ was born in
stable and he was better than either
of u.s." But Billy was kind-hearted
and, when poverty asked for aid,
forgot how scanty were his own
earnings. But it is Of
THE ARTIST, NOT THE MAN,
That we propose to speak. So far
from having any artistic education,
he actually did not know the first
principle of mixing paints or blend
ing colors. Yet some of his sketches
evince rare artistic merit. His "In-
nocents Abroad" for instance, has
the best likeness of Mr.. Clemens
| Mark 'Cwain) that we ever saw; yet
Billy Fife never saw the sol disant
author of the jumping Frogs"
But it was in the delineation of ma
rine subjects that the Cape Town
boy most excelled. His view of the
race at sea, between the two Ameri-
can clipper ships,
WHITE SOUALL AND ARCHER,
Both cracking on every thread of
canvass. that the yielding spars
would bear, is ample proof of this.
At the time this little brush took
place, Billy was sailor on the Ar
cher and made pencil sketch of 1t,
which he transferred to canvass,
fourteen years later. Then take his
picture of the beautiful but unlucky
pilot boat Dancing Feather; what
life there was in that. Also his view
of Seattle front, in the Spring time,
with the steamers coming and going.
The only picture extant of the i'll
fated steamer George S. Wright, is
one from his ready crayon. His
picture of the Pensacola, was an
other graphic likeness. But it was
AS A CARICATURIsT
That Billy Fife was in his element.
His native wit saw the ridiculous
side of everything. Look at his Sc
pia sketch of ''No bottom at Taco
ma" with the Saranac trying the
deep sea lead. Were there ever two
such likenesses as those of "Skook-
um" Smith and Gen. Sprague. The
former of these gentlemen carried
one of these sketches for months and
insisted that it was the only correct
likeness he ever sat for. His ''Elope-
ment of the Varuna" was not good.
But the "Railroading on Puget
Sound" was a gem, and the quiet,
honest face of our neighbor,
HENRY L. YESLER,
Was never so faithfully depicted as
in that cartoon. His first WORK was
"Life on Puget Sound" executed
in India ink, in which the festive
loggers caught polite dose of his
pungent satire. His last was an IL
Illustrated parody on Longfellow's
Excelsior, written in ''pigeon Eng
lish" and illustrated by outrageous
ly funny views of Cinnamon. The
fat "John" at the foot of the noun
tain (trv NOT the mass an old man