The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-04-21

with their attractive. thick-lipped faces
and their daring but amazingly artistic
blacks and whites, TO Oscar Wilde. That
erratic genius recognized at once that
here were pictures more abnormal than
his sentiments: stranger than his most
empty phrase; more likely TO be graedily
absorbed by novelty loving public than
the very siIliest sentence in his wittiast
and siliiest philosophy. So Wilde gave
Aubrey Beardsley ''Salome' to illustrate
When "Salome' was printed, with a
hundred or more OF Beardsley's fantas-
tic pictures Bearisley got more notoriety
out of 1t xhan Wilde did Everybody
talked about him. cursing him or laugh
ing at him. and q few admired him, some
because they were Of the kind who really
worship fRds. as most folks pretend TO.
ana some because they actually saw the
almost superhpman cleyerness OF the
whole affair: because they realized that
Bsardsley, finding that the Strand would
not notice him If he simply wore a plain
stovepipe hat. had found It practical to
attract attention by sticking feathers In
his tile. Everybody wore a silk hat. but
no one else wore feathers In IL.
Then Beardsley. with the Aid and
allotment OF one John Lane, another en-
terprising Englishman, started the ''Yei-
low Book They called II book be-
cause other monthlies were called maya
other magazines had paper covers.
Beardsley made all the pictures for IL.
and between them they gathered some
unimportant literature together to fill
the space which the pictures do not oc-
cupy. Then they mailed copies Of the
first number to almost all the important
newspapers of the world. Every enter
prising journalistlwhe saw It snapped at
1t eagerly. II was something new. and
q novelty is a rare thing. In England IL
attracted all sorts of comment In Amer
lea all the big newspapers gave IL a lot
OF space. One or two reprinted every
picture in It. 1.-THE Yellow Book" and
through 1t Aubrey Beardsley had
I achieved the most splendid advertise
| ment ever secured by any publication,
and the advertisement had cost nothing.
Since then both OF them have been very
prosperous indeed.
Poverty has fed from the Beardsley
family. So far from finding IL impossi-
BILE to make ends meet. they now live in
very handsome house. and life Is easy.
Beardsley's studio is queer place. but
like his pictures. Ii is attractive despite
its queerness. lie has shown in Ii the
same knowledge of the value of black
that has done so much to make his pic
lures fascinating. The walls are a dead
yellow, while the woodwork, the book
shelves filing one side OF the room, the
wainscoting. the floor. the tables and a
chair or two are a smooth gi&sy black.
/ What upholstery there is is dull blue.
Those book shelves. and Beardsley's In
tense and intelligent familiarity with
every one of the leo volumes on them,
are the first things TO convince you that
this youth who has Jumped out of the
obscurity of an architects Office into the
prominence OF public character almost
has much more than ability to make
strange drawings In him. Twenty-one-
year-olds who are on terms of scholarly
familiarity with all that is best In the
poetry. the drama and the fiction of these
centuries. IN three nations, are not COM
monplace
After you have talked with him for
an hour and have looked at the pictures
hanging on the walls and peeped at some
which are not publicly exhibited, you be-
GIN TO realize that Beardsiey Is a great
deal bigger than the work he is doing
now. or. at most. than the work he Is
giving TO the public now. You become
impressed with the theory that he recog-
nizes the money value OF the fad which
has made his queer pictures popular. and
that he is making hay while the sun
shines He talks with perfect serious
I ness OF his methods, and speaks as IL
they were the only methods in the world.
but you cannot help but notice that smile
which is hidden in his sleeve.
II am hoping TO write some good things
| by and by he said eventually