The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-03

clan would understand the word. His
etchings, however, yield an income that
can always be depended on. Some of them
that are out of print command fancy prices,
while his current work even is beyond the
reach of moderate purses. His productions
are little known in this country. S. p. Avery,
the retired New York picture dealer, has
perhaps the most complete collection of
Whistler etchings IN the United States.
Apart from him there are not more than
three Americans who can justly claim rep
resentative collections. Mr.. Whistler sells
best in England and Scotland, where he is
appreciated as nowhere else. That he has
not made more money is no strange matter.
Innovators such as he rarely reap a money
reward commensurate with the value of
their service to art. His brush and needle
have never been degraded, and his contempt
for convention and defiance of the parvenu
are proverbial. In 1885, at the time of the
delivery Of the Ten O'Clock, "dOyley Carte
made him an unusually advantageous offer
to repeat the lecture i'll the larger cities of
America. Such a tour would probably
have netted him more money than be could
earn with his brush in years. but he declined
the offer and many similar ones. TO party
who was after him to lecture once wrote he
these words;
That you should propose that | should
make art talks from New York to Chicago
only shows your want of appreciation of that
sublime work, The Ten O'clock which
involved, | may confess, years of prepare
ton and has left me clothed in the dignity
of silence and conscious that anything
inferior in quality must never be given utter
aDce to by its author. | certainly would not
undertake to be turned on in halls all over
that vast continent
Last spring Arthur Melville, an Edin-
burgh artist who can paint better water
colors than any man living, and who is
great admirer and friend of Mr.. Whistlers,
wrote on behalf of some public spirited
Scotchman, Offering a large money guar
antee if he would name an evening and
deliver Ten O'clock" in Edinburgh.
The letter was never answered Meeting
him a few weeks later in London. Mr..
Melville naturally inquired if he had re-
ceived it.
"Oh, yes" was the response" 81 get
many such, many such"-and that, so far
as Mr.. Whistler went, was all there was to
it. Mr.. Melville relates the incident with
Sinfinite zest and caps the climax by the
assertion that Mr.. Whistler acted perfectly
right.
A story is current of the famous portrait
of Carlyle. completed when the equity old
PHILOSOPHER and Mr.. Whistler were near
neighbors at Chelsea. 1t was painted with
out recompense, as labor of love-for
Carlyle had all he could do to make both
ends meet without bothering his head about
pictures-but though considered wonder
full presentment of the original, has never
been purchased. Once a public subscription
was started in Scotland TO buy and present
it to one of the public galleries Of Glasgow
or Edinburgh. The artist was asked to
name his price and he, considering the fit
ness of the end in view, fixed on 400 guineas.
On that basis the necessary money was
nearly all raised when it leaked out that the
subscription paper ingeniously stipulated
that in contributing the subscribers dis
claimed any approval of Mr.. Whistler's art
or art theories. It's effect on the masters
excitable mind may be imagined. The way
he met the matter was by wiring the
organizers of the movement that the price Of
the Carlyle had advanced to 5, 900 guineas;