Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-03
John Gray, Artist,
Via Angelo Custoda,
CHAPTER ",
A SECRET HALF-ToLD IN ROME.

A SECRET H~ALF-ToLD IN ROME.
All the streams of this land are unlike. Yet
they all flow coward the sea. In order to know
why this one is dark or disturbed as it flows,
why this one or that is light and shining and
shallow, why this or that one is deep, silent,
somber, we must trace back SO far as we can to
the fountain head. Man is merely a river in
another form, flowing swift or slow, deep or
shallow, silent or otherwise; but on, on, on to
the great sea of eternity.
Let US find out if we can where this plain.
placid man, John Gray, came from, and what
was his purpose in leaving Rome and hiding
away. among the redwoods oyerhangine the
stormy Straits Of C~arquinas by the great Bay
of San Francisco.
In the published battle records of our Civil
War, issued by the authority of the Govern
ment under the title of Records of the Re-
bellion," you perhaps have already read of the
chaplain who, when the last officer of his regi-
ment fell, seized a sword and threw himself at
the head of the few remaining men.
But you are our chaplain" cred the soldiers
at his side, rushing to the charge, striving to
pass him, to push him back. to reach death be-
fore him. You are our chaplain; go backl'
II am your Colonel, There is your chaplain
too small. please God, for death to find him."
And the man sank down and died; shot to death
In the middle of his speech: the boy, the little
lo-year-old chaplain, bending over his dead
father.
1t does not matter on which side of the battle
line this mar fell or that boy stood at his side.
Valor, like virtue, knows neither sex or sec.
ton. This was the beginning of the life of
John Gray. He, his soul, was born there, that
day on the bloody grass, by the side of a grave.
This man had never been a boy from that day
forth. He struggled forward, trying all the time,
like bis dead father, TO get to the front in the
battle of life, if only for the privilege of dying
there.
We find him at Rome, not doing very much,
while the roar of cannon was still in his ears.
Anyhow, he would pause sometimes with lifted
brush before his work, and stand there, and
stand there, motionless and immovable for
ho0s. he was fine, rather than great; a true
artist; out at the elbows, unknown. alone.
There was something rather pretty in the idea
of his choosing the Via Angelo Custoda; some
thing of his father, the chaplain, possibly. For
this is not a street given over to art or artists
at all. 1t is a street with a palace on the north
side, and then the great, ever-1owing fount-
ain stands at the west end, down by the Corso.
One day as he passed the court entrance of
the Torlonia palace. built by the princely
mlser and miserly prince, Torlonia, not many
years ago, a man called to him from a carriage
that stood In the little circular court within.
Gray left the narrow strip of sunshine, and, en-.
tering the dark court, found an invalid mufied
to the throat and about to set out for q short
drive on the Pincean Hill.
Get in. want to talk to you. You are an
so am ], an 1talian-American, but 1
am dying" here the muffied invalid began to
cough, and cough. and cough.
The carriage rolled and travelled out over the
olpuCc, dlu e DtHdu u lin I0e 0lll
before the poor man could explain that the
artist must be on hand the very next morning
and begin his work. He was to paint the dying
mans portrait. And SO it was arranged that
the out-atthe-elbow artist, John Gray. was to
paint the picture of a man who was living in
one of the very richest palaces in all Romei
How the world widened outi Far away to
either side the world shone gloriously that
night, as in the land of the midnight sun. Far
ahead the road of life lay now, white and high
and magnificent. Far back over a rough road
be looked at last-tO a grave in the CORY trod- |
den grassland SO sank to sleep.
In the morning the work began bright and
early. But it was cough, cough, cough all the
and it was hard to get the once strong and
manly lines of the dying mans face in repose,
However, they got on satisfactorily. The work
looked most promising, and the invalid was so
pleased that he thrust half a handful of gold
into the artists hands late that afternoon,
with the injunction that he must make haste to
early next morning.
Take the gold nuggets to the jeweler across
the street from the Cafe Grace, at the base of
the great Spanish steps, and he will weigh the
gold and give you the coin."
Strangel and the artist wanted to ask and to
know what all this meant; but it was cough, |
beckon him to begone.
The next day the work moved forward with |
pace. There was color in the artists
face as well as on his canvas. There was strength
in his arm and a heap of gold in his pocket. He
had dined.
Paint FAST paint fastr' Cough, cough,
81 am dying fast. You must paint
faster than death!' Cough, cough, cough.
On the third daythe diving man was no longer
able to leave his bed. He drew the artist to his
and placed in his hands what seemed to be
he remains of a once heavy bag of gold dust.
Take this for your work and make the most
IF it, In Rome the Government takes possess
sion of your body, and your goods; your soul if
when you die. And then my relationsI
they have hated me; hated the hand that fed
hem; but they are lowering around and will
levour all that the church and the State NAV
cave. And that is nil. The priests after ali
re better than my own blood have been TO me.
have divided up my gold and =" cough,
cough, cough. ''Oh, yes; the goldl Well, 1
lave shared my gold, but not my secret! You
if j should ever have made known the
.ource of my supply of gold, the very gold that
have gathered from the cave -" cough.
cough. 'Oh, that cavei with its swift.
swirling winds. There lis where /
my death, boy; caught my death in
hat deep, dark cave, by toiling and sweating
lnder my bags of virgin gold" Cough, cough,
The artist leaned over and lifted the diving
nan nearly upright in his bed.
You want to know where it is? All. I see
our eager young face is all ablaze! Listen