The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-10-22

the death of Sir John Millais reached him
Ruskin was observed to become more sane
At first it was thought the change was
merely temporary return Of sanity such
as he had experienced periodically for a
long time, but as week after week went by
and his mind appeared to gain in strength
those about him began to hope that per-
haps, after all, the cloud had not only lift
ed but had been permanently dissipated.
This appears to be certain now, for no less
q person than Mr. George Allen, his per-
sonal friend and the publisher Of Ruskin's s
books, is authority for the statement that
the great art critic is again at work.
Only once in all his writings did Ruskin
ever refer to the woman who had aban-
doned him, and then he spoke of her as
"that poor, sick child" The bitter
thoughts which must have ranked deep he
kept to himself, hugging them to his
breast as did the Spartan boy the wolf
The only way in which his trouble was
made apparent was in the deep melanoholia
which settled over his mind and finally
upset his reason. 1t had been whispered
in London for months that Ruskin had be-
come insane before the fact was finally ad-
mitted.
"Mr. Ruskin crazy" replied one Of his
friends to an inquiry. "Well, according
to the critics, he has been crazy from
birth" ="
Such answers as these and his we'll
known eccentricities kept the public ig-
norant of his real condition for long
time, but finally concealment was useless
or made impracticable by Ruskin himself
During his long mental affliction he was
occasionally violent, but more often 1t took
the form of gloomy hallucinations He
imagined he was pauper, too poor to buy
bread, and would have starved himself to
death on one occasion had not his devoted
cousin and constant nurse, Mrs. Severn,
persuaded him to write a check, see 1t cash
ed and then put the goldpieces in his
| pocket where he could feel them and hear
| them chink.
There was almost foundation for this
fancy, however. AS the son Of q wealthy
wine merchant, Ruskin inherited an in
come of "a, 900 year, which was consider
ably increased on the death of his mother
But his utter indifference to the value of
money and his extravagant passion for
buying rare and costly paintings, books
and nearly everything that was beautiful
and expensive caused this ample income
to dwindle away to nothing at all Before
|
from his books had amounted to almost
half this sum, so that he never need have
felt the want of money.
But he did. For one thing his liberality
was unbounded. For years he supported
long list of pensioners, broken down art
lists, writers and distant relatives Then
he was constantly buying rare paintings
until his house at Brentwood is one great
museum whose contents alone are worth a
| princely fortune. He has one bedroom
whose walls are almost completely covered
with Turner's masterpieces. Besides these
there are almost priceless treasures of the
works of Titan, MeissoniGr and other mas
ters, besides cases of rare books, tapestries
and other articles which he has industri-
ously collected
1t will indeed be welcome news TO all
lovers of literature and art TO know that
the light of this great mind is again to
shine forth, even If only for few brief
years HOWARD SPENCE SINCLAIR.