Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-11-15
TOM GALWAY
BY FREDERICK e. SHEPPARD.

AS a general thing we believe that
there are few truly sublime natures, and
that this is true is due to the fact that SO
few cases of true sublimity are surround
ed by circumstances calculated to bring
them into the general notice of the
world. There are widely different ideas,
too, as to what constitutes sublime ma
ture.
happened to be personal friend of
the man of whom l am going TO write,
and know that butfor rny pen he would
have lived and died unknown outside of
the small circle in which he moved. He
was an artist by nature and mechanic
from force Of circumstances of con-
fdence in himself in the first place-and
opportunity came that would have placed
him where he presumably belonged. At
the time when young Galway and [ were
fast friends and shared the same rooms,
sat at the same table, walked together,
and in fact we're so inseparable that we
came to be called "the twins" [ was
struggling on toward a mediocre fame as
a literary man, and Tom was using
paint brush alternately on the neighbor-
ing houses and large canvass stretched
dCIOSS one III OU1 IOOIuS"GII6 4OIu1eI IOE
bread, the latter for fame. In those days
Tom had widowed mother and young
sister to support, and it was hard
enough to make both ends meet. TOMS
mother and sister occupied the first
floor of the dwelling and our rooms were
above. Tom and had lived together
for about three years, and he had begun
three or four pictures, destined to make
him famous. as we both thought, and
had given them up and daubed them all
out again because he hadn't sufficient
confidence IN his talents to believe he
could ever succeed, when I one day be-
came acquainted with Hugh O'Neill, a
young actor of whom 7 at once became
an admirer, and forthwith introduced
him to Tom. Tom was as bad as I, and
it wasn't long till our new acquaintance
was installed with us and we three might
soon have been called g the triplets " on
the same hypothesis that caused Tom
and to be demonstrated "the twins.
Tom and I were both rather sedate
and grave, while Hugh was as unlike us
as it was possible to be almost Viva
cious, witty, quick at repartee, he was
fine type of the whole-souled, generous
Irishman. His ambition lowered over
ours as the sturdy, full grown oak tow
ers over the saplIng of tender growth.
Booth, Mccullough, Irving were to APP
pear as pygnnies beside O'Neill when he
| should have attained his full growth in
| fame. His sanguine temperament acted
| like tonic upon Tom. He seemed to
flourish and develop under it until it did
my heart good, and [ congratulated my
self upon having been the means of
bringing them together. [ have lived to
wish that might have died before I ever
saw Hugh O'Neili, although loved him
as long as / k4ew him, and love him yet,
though our paths have diverged and 4
have not seen him for years.
Tom began his grand picture-the
| grand picture-soon after he came under
Hugh's influence. and [ was reioiced to
see how he seemed to feel inspiration
under Hugh's glowing pictures of what
| he was capable of accomplishing if he
| tried. I have reason to believe, how
ever, that even Hugh's influence would
have failed at a certain stage of Toms
work but for something else that oc-
Cured about the time the huge canvas
! began to assume some dim outlines Of
picture. There was nothing startling in
!
arrival-or rather, three new arrivals in
our immediate neighborhood- Just
across the street, in fact. A middle
aged man of ratker commanding appear
ance; a motherly looking woman, his
wife, and young lady. Tom and [
having Witnessed the arrival, late one
evening, crossed over and passed the
house after dark, and read the door-plate
/ (Which had been nailed on within an
hour after the new neighbors had taken
possession) by the light of the street
lamp. We made it out to be Thorn
borough--a rather high-sounding name
and discovered the letters NJ. D. i'm
mediately following it, and that is how
we came first to know that he was a
physician.
Tom had noticed the young lady more
particularly than [ had, and displayed
an absurd anxiety to see her again. He
stood at the window mornings and even