The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-16

new WORK. venice OF To-Day yet I'M
published, was a rare bit of dramatic
reality. He concluded with a humorous
sketch, THE Water-logged Town." also
from 'Bucce of To-day" and which ex-
cited his audience to ilproariojs nirth
1t would be difficult to say which was the
best of his selections, all were so thor
oughly enjoyed. There was a genuine re-
greet when the entertainment ended
After the readings Mr.. Smith was en-
tertained at the Guards Club. He will
remain in the city until tomorrow night.
Tomorrow afternoon he will lecture be-
fore the Art League on THE Quality of
the Picturesque"
There are few better known and more
unique people in the literary and art cir
Giles of the day than f. Hopkinson Smith
Mr.. Smith is 50 years old. though he
does not look it. He is an engineer by
profession, and has built number of pub
lie works, many of them for the United
States government. These include the
Race Rock lighthouse off New London
harbor, and the Block Island breakwater.
Turning his attention more particularly
to art, he became well-known for his work
in watercolorS and charcoal. His taste
for art appears to have been inherited.
His great-grandfather, Francis Hopkin-
son, signer of the Declaration Of Inde-
pendence, was an amateur in water-col-
ors; his grandfather, Judge Joseph Hop
kinson, was the first president of the
Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
and also an amateur painter.
Mr. Smith began to paint when a boy,
and although his art work has been done
mainly in the intervals of a busy life,
he has attained to the first rank among
American painters in water-colors. He is
favorably known to magazine readers by
his illustrations, and has also written sew
eral popular books. 1t was not, however,
until the publication of Colonel Carter
of Gainesville that he became a promi-
nent figure in the literary world. This
story, describing the adventures Of an old
fashioned Neutrality-suspicious. effu-
sive, unworldly, with a high sense of
honor-who finds himself stranded, as it
were, among the breakers Of business life
in New York, is generally recognized as a
masterpiece in the delineation of charac-
ter, with fine, subtle strokes, and has an
exquisite blending of pathos and humor.
1t is undoubtedly one of the cleverest and
most interesting achievements of recent
American fiction. A drama tization of
Colonel Carter" by Mr.. Smith and Au-
gustus Thomas, author of Alabama"
has had great success in New York.
"a Day at Laguerre's'' is the title of a
book of stories which has just been pub
lished. For the most part" says writer
in the Book-buyer, Mr. Smiths stories
are either the record of his personal daily
experiences, or the incidents are suggested
by them. Colonel Carter, while being the
record of a regime-the Virginian landed
proprietor-was really the sum of the
memoirs and traditions of his own boy
hood, many of the characters being drawn
from or suggested by his own relatives
and his father and friends"
Mr.. Smith is certainly versatile man.
He is a first-rate architect, a high-class
civil engineer, paints well enough to take
a place in the front rank of professionals,
etry, is a fair musician, is a composer of
short stories that have even an inteIna-
tional reputation, and has made great
deal of money contracting. 1t is seldom
able a man has found his way into public
view.