The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-09-21
OLD, POOR AND WRETCHED
Artist Collins Took Poison When He
Could Do No Better.

New York, Sept. 17.-There was dying
Of despair last night, an artist in hos
pftal This one was old, he had taken
poison and he had not the consolation TO
be told that his works would live in the
minds of men.
John Charles Collins was painter of
merit He had no admirers therefore no
enemies But he had suffered as much as
men may suffer and the life that de
wished to quit at sixty-three years of age
had become unbearabie. His wife was
washerwoman unable to obtain work, his
apartment was a dingy room in a crowd
ed tenement, and, unable topay the rent
of it, he had received a notice to leave.
Where may go, If not out of Efe?'
he asked himself on the evening of Thurs
day, while his wife was searching for
work He obtained opium pills, by what
strategem no one knows. He was i'll in
the night, unaided by any physician, his
wife having forgotten the luxury Of medi-
cal attendance. When the ambulance,
called by a policeman, came from st.
Vincent's Hospital there could be no hope
to save him.
His father was wealthy merchant who
lived in Bond street in the time when
Bond street had principally dwelling
houses, thirty-five years ago. Mrs Col
Inns was servant there. She was pretty
delicate. gentle and the young man of
the house fell in love with her. They were
married and his father disinherited him.
He had no other aim in life than this lost
inheritance, ne had been directed in no
other practical study than the care of it.
int NJ
thefas hfonable accomplishments Of the
period. He could paint portraits of the
politicians with the business ability to
make them grave and the portraits OF
women with the tact to make them i'm
personally elegant. He could execute or
ders for district clubs. He prospered.
He earned as much as $1,000 for a paint
ing and lived in happiness, now in the
city, then in the country. the pride of a
circle. They gave thirteen hostages to
fortune in boys their father liked to
sketch.
They died, one by one, of illness. of
neglect. OF poverty.
Collins and his wife fell Ill also. Then
their money, which they had not boarded,
vanished; then their credit They went
from house to house, from apartment to
apartment, until Mrs. Collins, having to
do manual labor in the homes OF others,
they decended to a home in a. tenement
Collins expected still to regain a place
in the sunlight. He painted portrait of
his child dying in bed, its mother kneeling
beside it in prayer for her husbands re-
turn
Inc picture was entitled Lights and
Shadows The scene was realistic The
room was the one in which he lived, his
child had died that way. Collins was sure
the picture would fetch a fortune. His
heart was in Il. He did not know that he
was not a gre at artist.
The picture was TO be sent TO an exhi-
b:tion of the Academy Designs. He had
not the time 70 learn that ii would not
be accepted there He had to offer 1t u
| dealers, who refused II politely. When
ha placed il IN pawn for SD he ard his
wife were on the verge Of starvation
| To the pawnshop went everything that
| was precious to them. In their roam IS
/ not a relic fthe time when they were
tapov. There are only a bed. table, a
/ box a chstr. all old and broken. There
/ is nothing that may be turned into money
L Is difficult 20 realize that an arts;
could have fallen into = misery as barren
as that