The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-11-12

Detroit Free Press When F. Hopkin-
son Smith isn't building lighthouses and
breakwaters he's writing books, and
when not that, he's usually 'off sketch
ing in Holland" He combines as varied
an array of talents as a quack doctor,
and in practicing them he passes
through real experiences.
Here is one Of the latter, right OH
the ice, that has never been given pub
licity before:
Smith was in Ireland early this sum-
mer, and what befell him there was
told the cabinetmaker who put together
this column by Mark Twain in the
rooms of the Authors Club of London,
on the day of the big dinner given by
that association to the American hui
moriSt.
"Hoppy was in Ireland, you know,
said Twain, ''sketching causeWays ana
castles and blarney stones and IN
loikes iv thin. One day he set out very
early on an expedition with his PAD
under his arm, his mouth full of funny
little brushes and his pockets Loaded
with cute little paint pots. He seated
himself on a tiny cliff overlooking
tiny lake, and in the middle of painting
a billowy cumulus he fell asleep. he
nodded, he leaned too far forward
There came an awakening in midalr-
then Splash! Three feet of muddy
Materl
'Help!' yelled Smith
1.-TWO old Irishmen happened to be
within sound of his voice and fastened
to the rescue. One of them knew Smith
They helped the drenched author-arch-
itect- painter to the cliff again and saw
him shake himself. Then he lit out on
a dead run for the farmhouse where he
had lodgings.
"a Morgan, who wuz ut?' asked the
1rishman who didn't know.
That's Misther Smith, was the re-
ply.
IAN who tn divips hep
Hes author
"'An' phwat's he writin'?'
q "A book about a diver !"
The Irishman who didn't know
grinned. AN phwat dye spose he wor
doin' down thayre, Morgan? Collictin'
matherial fur another wan?"
A picture of rare merit, supposed to
be Raphael, has been discovered at
Como.
New York Post: What local paper
calls the beginning of a campaign OF
education to develop a municipal con-
science and IDEAL was opened recently
by the Chicago Architectural Club, at
a meeting which took place in the Art
Institute The discussion brought out
suggestions for identifying the city's
parks, boulevards and public buildings
and making Chicago a rival of the Ia
NOUS old-world show places in all that
is artistic" One speaker urged that the
city acquire the lots on principal streets
which command a vista, and use them
as sites for public buildings and mon
uments Among other suggestions Of
fered was that of converting the Hyde
Park reef into an island with material
excavated from the drainage channel
of converting the Des PLANES Valley in
to a great park, and connecting it with
the West Park system by the extension
of the boulevards, of utilizing the
Skokie marsh in a similar manner, and
connecting it with the North Park sys-
TEN, and making a park out Of Goose
Island.
AS to the choice of subject Nothing,
truly, is more legitimate, nothing Is
more beautiful, than allegorical or le-
gendary themes which because of their
eternal significance seem to underlie
the events of time and thus to have
eternal youth But it is pure illusion,
real deception, if they are not renewed
.itrc
Imagination which develops them.
Many time to speak frankly, has the
symbolism of Puvis de Chavannes
seemed too easy, too clear, too simple,
so to speak, and above all not sufi-
GENTLY modernized. Among his means
of expression the masters method of
work is no longer a secret to any one,
and will become singularly instructive
to US. He used to begin by powerful
studies from nature, of which we find
irrefutable evidence in the remarka-
bic vermilion drawings SO definite and
clear. which at least had the advan-
tage Of destroying the fiction that Puvis
deChavannes did not know how to draw.
He drew admirably when he wished,
with a decision and power quite ex-
ceptional Then when the time came
for the grouping of the composition,
he reduced, he simplified the attitudes
to those conventional poses, voluntarily
deprived of life, which gave to his
works the character whence he derived
his fame. 1t remains to be judged
whether, in the case of an artist as
cultivated, as clearheaded, in word,
as skillful as he, such a return design
ed and premediated to the style of the
primitives did not have its origin in
a realization of the extreme difficulty
a modern finds in creating geste orfgi-
nal and personal.
R. Sturgis. in Scribner's Magazine:
The artist of 400 years ago, or of any
great time for individual effort as OPP
posed to the associated and unrecorded
work of more primitive times, was a
many-sided man. All these things
have been so much changed of late that
it is noticeable in Mr.. LIE Farge's life
that he should be, in many ways, like
q painter of old time, that is. traveller,
reader, collector and student: colorist
and decorator; painter in large and in