The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-09-04
.qcTIN. or. AIT.

consider that the poverty which afhletS
~:grear. country is due to the fact that
=-f:s5l,s. is.fn- the wrong hands; and " hen L
- iff5<I oypJtT. 1 mean: my p0yerty'which
.,rs.Iac. For Instance, II JONES', Browns
1.s.+i-i:R06inson's wealth were In my hands.
@*tT4r@I. Should cease to be poor, And. there-
r fe:fssk. and I: want an, answer TO my in
..:|--:-rv. *yyjIyd op't / cease to be p0er2~
+. l.lsral .Uf.us' formed ourselves together
.ti-ET::a1 as socation the ayowed purpose of
=:vIri5Ji:Tas 10 inquire into tire present work.
:4f-it& f.the So-called economic~laws Our
:lfo.to: was social Progress" by which, Of
=C5.i Tse,.WaSme ant our progress. There was
e~r-s+6u6>Of The members who could lend me
..i-I1. al crowf.. sol knew that we were in
.5.sziiasi. Then Tom Ferguson had a.fortune
:ef ::lg..iii-. by an uncle in Australia, and he
*ts~iene d:his membership Of the association;
...60il. .fteetge :Somers sold book ortwo, and
.Ee:Te5 Ened and Phil Moray pulled off a.
:,p,.:on, the Liverpool cap, and went in for
xpaking ON a large scale. and lie re-
= saed<-and similar things happened 10 all
- >e~rest. Qf-them. and. they all resigned.
And. nothing happened tome. so huug on,
.*a- z l:strEl ain hanging on. | am: THE only
:fie6. Der leftQf that association: Ournlotto,
>.:S9cJal. Progress" is unchanged" am
~iiarSu,ng. with, Emay tFQthfally affirm, I'M
..d@affjils he'd ardOF my Inquiry into THE pres
:elIt aNGrk iAE.ef the. so-calred economic laws,
:.aEti:-H> o at i wan 70 know rs this:
- 7 ain an artist by profession. and because
II paint: sEgcking bad pictures is that any
1Ffds On. why should be unable to sell them?
..-I.Eaf:i is one thing /. want to know. The
q tGeE day 1<~teok: nine or. ten OF my. works
IS q paWBbEOker, and: the fellow behind the
.ea0Un Ter; after he had asked which was the
right way .un and which was the back and
u Inch WAS the front, suggested that,.In his
-:dpiufsn, a recourse on my part TO house
::paia tfirg. door staining, whltewashing and
that sort Of thing might bring about change
IN mv-pto speets for the better The fellow
not nnlE -insulted me and meant to insult
-r4e::bllt he also meant to tram ule on TEL
:l0w-cTeature. He attempted nothing snort
:of.a Violation OF the liberty of the subject.
:Fllaye no taste for houSe-paintlng; have
s}fl$ less for d6Or-Staiuing. and as for white
Washing, the idea is simply absurd. He
aided that pawnbrokeT'S assistant, that If
j Scraped the paint off he might possibly see
his syay to lend twopenee upon each canvas.
f.ueed scarcely observe that l declined his
offer 1 brought the pictures back with me,
and there they are at this moment of writing,
ALI in q. row IN front of me. | wonder who
Is g@ipg to buy them. That is another thing
..Esh0uiG like TO KNOW. ga
1t might be suspected. by those who do
mot know me, that l am intending joke by
a repetition Of my former inquiry Why,
because / paint Oaf pictures, should be
rnaB}e to sell them? / consider that a most
"a
slider 1t for q moment you will perceive
whers the point which l am aiming at
comes in
SirJ0hn Everett Millais sells his pictures.
You say.thats because lie paints good pic
lures say that's Just the reason why be
shQulGn't sell his pictures. You don't sup
pose that l paint bad pictures because |
want To paint bad pictures? You are very
mach mistaken II you 90. " Aeneyer
look ar that row OF pictures which IS IN
front Of me, and at the other works OF art
which litter my establishment / almost
have an attack Of jaundce. Ii is quite
impossible that | should not know where
abOlItS in art they rank. 1 am not pre-
pared to admit tsat they are as bad as
every body says they are, else were less
or more than human. But that pawn
brokers' assistant is not by any means the
only person who. has given me- his uu-
biased opinion Of their merits. l was once
engaged to the dearest girl in the world. L
believe she loved NE until took her, upon
one occasion, TO my studio to show her the
products of my brain, and eye, and hand.
The next day she returned my letters.
have never spoken 10 her since; she has
certainly never spoken 20 me. There was
no necessity for her to give any reasons. l
understood. | have lost heaps OF friends
BY taking them to see my studio. They said
that thew did not mind me so much, but
they could not endure even the remote pos
siDiiity OF being required 70 spend, by way
Of q sacrifice on friendships sacred altar.
another quarter Of an hour IN that cham
Der of horrors.
And vet say. without fear of contradic-
ton, that SIT John Everett Millais is not
fender Of painting than l am. And he can
paint wish l could ! would ask no more.
am almost positive that if l could paint
should be content with painting without ex-
pecting to sell the things / painted. 1t
seems 10 me that the gift OF painting Is, and
ought to be, enough for any man. What is
man that he should ask for more?
No man can realize, except from eXpe-
--rianca-9nd then NAV angels and minister's
of grace defend rim. be VIII need them all
what il means to have painters passion
without a painters power We have all
read about men languishing for an unattsin-
able woman, and OF their lives being
withered and wasted by unreQuited pas
sion. ! believe we only read about these
men. But. If you know where TO look for
them, you can meet, any day, with them,
and plenty OF them, whose lives nave been
withered AMI wasted by an unTequited pas
sion for art. l am not speaking Of unrecOg
nized and unrewarded geniuses-M Michael
Angeles who 90 down to the grave un-
bought and unhung. DO not believe IN
them much more than l believe in
men In the love tales. l am speaking
Of the men who cannot paint, who never
will pain1, but who do paint, and who will
90 on painting till the day they die L aD
speaking. 10 fact of men like myself
A wel-known dramatlst, who is dead now,
and who was friend of mine till took him
10 my studio once tod me storysf man
= no wanted to be a play Tright-a dTamatlst
like the dramatlst who told the tale. He
was a very funny man, that dEamatist, and
be told q story very well. That particular
story 10 which an alludine-I shan't for
get how roaTed with laughter as he told
T.: you won't laugh when | tell IL; nobody
ever does laugh when /. tell story, except
when it approaches the pathetc-was about
s. man IS hO was always writing plays He
began writing plays when he was quite a
enid No one could keep him from play
writing not even his father or his mother,
OF any one. AS a boy he would lie awake
at night c0nceiving plots. When he fell
Rssep he would dream Of them for a
change. Long before he was out OF his
teens he had, over and over again, submit
ted plays to every manager in London. He
had a system Of his own about the thing.
Hewould start play at the st. James
then send 1t right along the Strand. until II
reached the end Of the line. Then he would
send lt.north, then south Of the line Then
10 such theaters as the Britannia and the
Surrey. Then he would send ii to the
actors, giving critic now aud then a
chance. Then he would send it to the
dTamatists whose plays were acted and
suggest collaboration He had even been
known to submit his plays 10 amateurs. 1t
was his ruling passion. That dramatist de-
cla-ed-in his very funniest way-that If
you had torn that young man limb from
limb, each separate limb would have started
OF, then and there. upon its own account,
t0-write a play.
One would suppose that a young man
who.was so very much in earnest. who had
so set his heart on doing certain thing,
>: would at least have some rudimentarT no
tions Of how the thing ought to be done.
But that was where all the point Of the joke
came in. You may not see It, but know
did when / was told the story. That dram
atist assured me that the things which the
- young man produced were as much like
plays as some peoples attempts in the
artistic ine-bere he looked very straight