Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10

| supposed this was not what he meant, mas
much as, for aught he knew to the contrary
1 maintained that was working exactly il
the same way as when he last hat
done me the honor to com
mend me. "Well, there's a muddle some
make it out" depended upon him to d.
so. Where else was the fresh eye? But b.
| produced at last nothing more luminou
! than 81 don't know; i don't like you
/ types" This was lame, for a critic who ha(
| never consented to discuss with me anythin:
but the question of execution, the direction
| of stroke and the mystery of values.
"In the drawings you've been looking a
1 think my types are very handsome.
"Oh, they won't do
| 'Tve had a couple of new models"
| 81 see you have They won't do"
care you very sure of that?"
| absolutely They're stupid"
"You mean L am-for I ought to get
| around that"
| "You can't-with such people. Who are
they?"
told him, as far as was necessary, and
he declared, heartlessly: 'Ce sont des gems
quill faut METRE a la porte.
you've never seen them; they're aw'
| fully good" ! compassionately objected
| "Not seen them? Why, all this recent
work of yours drops to pieces with them.
Its all / want to see of then"
"No one else has said anything against it;
the Cheapside people are pleased"
Everyone else is an ass, and the Chedpsidl
people the biggest asses of all. Come, don't
pretend at this time of day to have pretty
illusions about the public, especially about
publishers and editors. It's not for such
animals you work-it's for those who know.
H. v@l,a Il e.
me, if you can't keep straight for yourself
from the irst-and very good thing it is
But this twaddle isn't in it" When I
talked with Hawley, later, about Rutland
Ramsay" and its possible successors, he de-
clared that 1 must get back into my boat
again or 1 would go to the bottom. His
voice, in short, was the voice of warning
noted the warning, but / didn't turn nv
friends out of doors. They bored me good
deal, but the very fact that they bored me
admonished me not to sacrifice them-if
there was anything to be done with them
simply to irritation. As 1 look back at
this phase they seem to me to have pervaded
my life not little. L have a vision Of
them as most of the time in nv studio,
seated against the wall, on an old velvet
bench, to be out of the way, and looking like
a pair of patient courtiers in royal ante
chamber. 1 am convinced that during
the coldest weeks of the winter they
held their ground because it saved them
fire. Their newness was losing its gloss,
and it was impossible not to feel that thev
were objects of charity. Whenever Miss
Churm arrived they went away, and after I
was fairly launched In ''Rutland Ramsay"
Miss Churm arrived pretty often. They
managed to express to me, tacitly, that they
supposed 1 wanted her for the low life
of the book; and I let them suppose it, since
they had attempted to study the work-it
was lying about the studio-without
discovering that it dealt only with the
highest circles. They had dipped into the
most brilliant of our novelists without de-
ciphering many passages. L still took an
hour from them, now and again, in spite of
Jack Hawley's warning; it would be time
enough to dismiss them, if dismissal should
be necessary, when the rigor of the season
was over. Hawley had made their aedueint-
ance-he had met them at my fireside-ahd
thought them blighted apparitien. Learn
ing that he was painter, they tried to ap-
proach him, to show him, too, that they
were the real thing; but he looked at them,
across the big room, as if they were miles
away; they were a compendium Of every
thing that he most objected to in the social
system OF his country. Such people as that,
all convention and patent leather, with
CALCULATIONS that stopped conversation, had
no business in studio; studio was place
to learn to see, and how could you see
through pair of featherbeds?
The main Inconvenience 1 suffered at
their hands was that, at first, was shy of
letting them discover that my artful little
servant was sitting to me for "Rutland
Ramsay" They knew that had been odd
enough (they we're prepared by this time to
allow oddity to artists) to pick foreign vag-
abond out of the streets, when 1 might have
had person with whskers and credentials:
but it was some time before they learned
how high L rated his accomplishments.
They found him sitting to me more
than once, but they never doubted L was
doing him as an organ grinder. There
were several things they never guessed, and
one OF them was that for striking scene in
the novel, in which footman briefly
figured, it occurred to me to make use OF
Major Monarch as the menial. L kept put
ting this off, | didn't like to ask him to don
the livery-besides the difficulty OF finding
a livery to fit him. At last, one day late in
the winter, when 1 was at work on the
despised Oronte (he caught ones idea in an
instant), and was in the glow of feeling that
1 was going very straight, they came in,
the Major aud his wife, with their society
laugh about nothing (there was less and
less to laugh at) like country call
always reminded me OF that
who nave walked across after church and
are presently persuaded to stay forflunch-
con. Luncheon was over, but they could
stay to teal knew they wanted 1t. The
fit was on ne, however, and L couldn't let
nv ardor cool and my work wait, with the
fading daylight, while my model prepared
it. So | asked Mrs. Monarch if she would
mind laying it out-a request which, for
an instant, brought all the blood TO her
lace. Her eyes we're on her hus-
bands for a second, and some mute
telegraphy passed between them. Their
folly was over the next instant; his cheerful
put an end to it. So lar from
pitying their wounded pride, must add. I
was moved to give it as complete a lesson
as could. They hustled about together
and got out the cups and saucers and made
the kettle boil 1 know they felt as If they
were waiting on nv servant, and when the
tea was prepared L said: "He'll have a cup.
please-he's tired" Mrs. Monarch brought
him one where he stood, and he took it
from her as if he had been gentleman at a
party, squeezing a crush hat with an ell
bow.
Then il came over me that she had made a
great effort tor me-made it with kind of
nobleness and that owed her compensa-
tion. Each time / saw her after this won
dered what the compensation could be.
couldn't go on doing the wrong thing to
pblige them. Oh, it was the wrong thing,
the stamp of the work for which they sat
Hawley was not the only person to say it
now L sent in large number of the draw
ings 1 had made for Rutland Ramsay"
and / received warning that was more to |
The noin1 than HawleY's The artistic ad- |