The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-09
His End Almost Tragic, and Due to
Heart Trouble, Complicated with
an Affection of the Lungs.
INCIDENTS OF HIS ILLNESS
HIS CONSTITUTION TOO WEAK TO
STAND GREAT SUCCESS,
And Like SvengaI, One of His Char
acters, He Died in the Zenith of
PopuInrity-HIs Career.

| the artist novelist, author or 'IrlIDy, QleO
at 23O o'clock this morning. His end was
| painless, and he passed away surrounded
by friends. The illness of Mr.. Du Maurier
was pathetic in the extreme. For days he
| has been lowering between life and death,
! a. intervals conversing with his friends re-
! garding his work. On one occasion a friend
! at the dying mans bedside referred to the
/ success of ''Trilby' as a book and as a
| play whereupon Du Maurier replied: Yes
| it has been successful, but the popularity
! has killed me at last One of Du Maui
riers friends, who was present at his
| death, said: He died almost as tragic
| ally as Svengali. At the zenith of Trilby S
| fs me Svengan became victim of an aftec-
| ton of the heart, and Du Maurier has gone
| the same way. At the zenith of his pop /
larity the author has succunbed to the
| heart trouble from which he always suf-
fercd his suffering being accumulated by
the constant succession Of exciting Incl
dents in which the closing few months of
ks life were spent. Checks rained in upon
him as his old heart trouble increased.
This, complicated by an affecuon OF the
lungs, took him off.
A fortnight ago Mr. Du Maurier suffered
from chill, which settled OH his lungs.
Tie family was hastily summoned on Sept.
but he rallied, gained strength and the
Improvement reported last evening contin-
ued until midnight, when he suffered a re-
lapse from which he never rallied. He
died in his new house. on Oxford square,
Hyde Park.
In a review of Du Mauriers career, Vance
Thompson says in the New York CONNER
cial Advertiser: He was a gentle, witty,
genial person eminently human, who did as
much to amuse and delight his generation
as perhaps any one of the lesser men OF
the day." Essentially an artist, it was only
in his old age-half blind. crippled, but
sweet in temper and rich in fancy-that he
made the startling discovery that he could
write and had indeed no small share of the
story-teller's art. 1t was an odd discovery.
With all ones admiration for ''Trilby" as a
tour de-force, and with all ones admiration
for the amateurish cleverness or Peter
Ibbetson," one can but recognize that it is
on his pen-and-ink drawings that Du Maui
riers fame will rest. ''Trilby.' with it's
sentiment and sentimentality. its strong
hearts interest" which give it such
vogue when drafted into a play, will never
surpiant his pretty woman IN the hearts
OF those who were bred and fed on the
not only Leech's successor. lie was, in his
lighter, finer way, a worthy successor.
IN 1861 he sent MS nrSC 10
Punch" 1t was signed George Louis Pal
mella Busson du Maurler--a name to I'LL
the, sounding trump, OF fame. the Jokers
said. At that time, l dare say, neither he
nor the Punch men suspected that he
would be counted, together with John
Leech John Tennill and Charles Keene, as
one of the four pillars upon which the ar
tiStic reputation OF the paper would rest
In that Iirst picture he and his two friends
were represented entering the studio of
q photographer, smoking, as the manner of
artists is; and they are coidly requested by
side, they are in an artists studio
The jest is not over waggish. The drawing
is poor enough, showing some straining
after comicality but neither grace nor
beauty. Still it was beginning.
Du Maurier was born IN Paris, March g.
1884. For a while he studied for a scientific
career. He became. convinced that he
would make "a shocking bad chemist" that
art, not science. was his destiny. He stud
led art at Antwerp and Paris. He STILL
however, fuddling in chemical laboratory
In some experiment or other he lost an eve
The sight Of the other eye was imperiled
1t would have seemed to most men that his
chance OF success as an artist was gone. 1t
that he first saw copy of Punch, peering
at it with his one useful eye. When he re-
covered in a measure and went to London
it was with the idea of working for this
new comic journal He had hard strug-
gle.
He and the late Lionel Henley-afterward
r. 8. A.-liyed together in a truly artistic
garnet, at No. s. Newman street. AS Du
Maurier was often in doubt whether he
would dine or even sup, on any great day.
he became a tremendous democrat. He
hated a bloated aristocracy without know
ing much about it; and. to do it justice the
boated aristocracy did not go out of it's
way to poster him with its attentions
he may have foreseen the time when he
should become the vested deineator of
those same .'bloated,' classes. Du Maurier
and his art fourished on an empty stomach
the way of art and artists.
When John Leech died Du Maurier was
hogany table Of Punch. Mark Lemon,
the editor. soon discovered in what direc-
Don't try to be too funny" said Mark.
by way of advice; be the romantic tenor
in Mr. Punah's opera bouffe.'
Du Maurier filled the role The little So
cial dramas of the day, The drawing rooms
OF, BelgraVia, the nur serles of Mayfair
not funny man. though he had a nice nice
taste for ugly men and a pretty apprecia-
TONS. His sense of beauty was strong
Every one knows his pretty woman';-thiS
tall, finely bred, greyhoundish woman who
has been popularized in his novel. ''TrfIby."
and vullgarized in innumerable theaters.
Ihe Thacker9y of the pencil. This is
o f;a9l4 and ID. true He had Thackerayish de-
beauty il the grotesque and essentially
ugly; his satire, in his drawings and the
startling, keen and Veracious as Thack-
cray own. He has no jollying, none of
the British, beef-fed humor of Leech and
i<eene: But in his work there is keen OBJ
servation and an almost French knacl1 Of
recording neeting emotions. And in this
lnclslve way of his he goes very deep into
vice and virtue, the habits and motives of
the merry and sad folk of society
a Thacke-ay of the pencil! 1t is a good
phrase. He has given us true and not ma
Iicious pictures Of the manners of his time
He has satiriZed life, but ALWAYS in a
kindly, polite ard nalf-tolerant fashion
You smile rather than laugh at his hits
And through all his black and white work
runs the same tenderness which made
Trilby'' n notable book. His children are
kiSSable; one looks upon his pretty wom-
an with respectful alteration
Mr.. Henry James. in we1l-considered
paper, said: Since 1853 Punch has been
-artistically speaking-George Dr. Maui
rier." This is an eXaggeration, but an ex-
cusable one. His types" and Characters
have certainly been Punch's chief attrae-
Wife ana vulgar son, Mrs. Ponsonby de
Tompkyns and her meek husband AIRY
and 'Arriet young Cadby the Cockney.
Mrs. Cimabue Grown the Duchess of Still
ton-a figure which seems to have been
drawn in purple ink''-and all the aesthetics
and society felix are much a part of
the educated mans life as Colonel New
come or Tartuffe himself.
And his pretty women--one must always
come back to them-for which his wife
and daughters We're the models A file OF
Punch is almost good as an introduction
to London society There Du Maurier has
cial life of his time and country With
pencil as ThacLeray with pen, he is a
social historian of that segment of the
century from the sixties to the Eineties.
Perhaps he has been too fond of the beau