The San Francisco call., 1898-02-14
How the ApOtheOSiS of Senator MdrtyPdOm of Artist
 Hill

y Thomas Hill, the artist, has come back to San Francisco. The painter of the
 great Yosemite" which received the first medal in the Centennial Exposi- tion in Philadelphia in 1876, looks old now and feeble; older and Trailer than man of his years ought to look. And | the main cause of his suffering is the i very thing on which he once built his greatest hopes of fame and fortune the picture out at the Park Museum, Driving the Last Spike" Thomas Hill has no tenderness for this child of his brush. 1t is the black sheep of his artistic family. What he has suffered in connection with this picture cannot be atoned for by all the rest of his paintings combined. He speaks of 1t as that wretched picture, that dreadful Spike picture!" He dis likes to talk about it. The very thought of it renews all the humiliation it has caused him.
 T never want to see it again. Every thing connected with it Is hateful to me. No one can realize what an agony | that picture embod1es. That Wretched, wretched picture!"
 | MT. Hill is recovering from a paraly- l tic stroke just now. His voice is weak. and while he talks he sits in that effort ful immobility that follows severe ill., ness. But not age nor sorrow nor suf- fering can Quench the sense of humor and the kindly good nature with which the artist looks upon the world His | trials have not embittered him, though they have saddened his heart and shat | tered his health. He told me the story of the celebrated picture yesterday in temperate words such as a dignified. honorable man uses in speaking of an injustice done him.
 MT. Stanford-Governor Stanford he was then-ordered the picture. We agreed upon a price-not to ex- ceed $25,OOO. When he discovered that his associates in the railroad company were infuriated at his egotism, at his monopolizing the credit for work they all had done, he repudiated the bar gain he had made with me and refused to pay for the picture. The Last Spike cost Stanford the presidency of the Southern Pacific. He wished to evade the responsibility of what that picture implied. And he sacrificed me That is the whole story
 "Oh, you've no idea of the vanity the egotism of the man He would have walked over dead bodies to jus tify himself. He believed there was nothing too great for him, nothing to which he might not aspire. He firmly believed that some day he should be President of the United States. Fancy such a thing!"
 MT. Hills blue eyes twinkled with humor. Those eyes of his are very ex- preSsive. AS rule they're mild and soft, beneath his broad forehead, above which the soft, abundant gray hair waves. But they glow with anger, lending an appearance of determiua tion to the artists candid, simple face. when the memory of the old wrong stirs within him.
 Tt was in 1875 that MT. Stanford commIssloned me to paint that plc- ture. worked on it for years. Dozens or men were sent to me by Stanford to pose and I painted and repainted. put in this figure and plotted that one ont, as he was in or out of favor with stanford. Every political wind, every personal quarrel, made some altera tion ecessary-according to Stan lords idea-in the grouping of the picture. Oh, I cannot tell you how many alterations I made; how many times, after painting portrait from life. had to blot it out and paint over 1t another face to gratify Governor Stanford's vanity or enmity. The pie ture's all Stanford You-everybodv ~~NN~ [ any one but himself to be glorifed in 1t. Not only must he have the center or the stage, but those whom he dis liked or of whom he was jealous must be subordinated or even taken out all together. Oh, the weariness of being subjected to that sort of thing!
 had put MT. Durant of the Union Pacific, who drove the silver spike, be- hind Stanford. When Stanford saw that he objected immediately.
 Nobody must have a hammer but me in that picture he said You've given him too prominent a place any, way
 there?'
 Put strowbridge in his place. he
 And Strowbridge did come clear up from Arizona on pass issued by the office to pose for his picture.
 And where shall l put MT. Durant? asked then.
 oh, 1t is not important He was one of the Union Pacific people. It doesn't matter
 I can place him where Mrs. Strow- bridge stands
 Yes, said Stanford, and put Mrs. Strowbridge by my side. She deserves first place, for she has been ill the lead all the way from Sacramento.'.
 Mrs. StroWbr1dge had cooked for them all, had been with them through all the hard work in the beginning, you know. It was one of the best traits in Stanford's nature that he should be grateful to and remember her. wasn't it?"
 Perhaps it was. But with the light that Thomas Hill throws on the dead character one is more like 1 ly to believe that it was thes impossi- bility of any rivalry between himself i and woman that induced Mr. Stan | ford to accord Mrs. Strowbridge so prominent a position.
 "One day Stanford wanted Towne out of the picture. 1 pleaded for MT. | Towne, and Stanford finally consented that he should be placed in the back | ground by the side of Colonel Grey. Then his eye caught the figure of David | D. Cotton, and he exclaimed angrily:
 !" I don't want that man in. He has | no business there. He was not con- | nected with the road at the time
 So Cotton was taken out. MacCrel- | fish of the Alta California came next. | Stanford's eyes flashed when he saw figure.
 Why have you got that man in?' he asked. I told him that understood | was present on the occa- sion, and that if l should leave him out,