The evening times., 1899-05-30
INHALED GAS AMID
HIS COMIC SKETCHES
Artist Boyd's Work Drove
Him to Commit Suicide.
Labors to Excite Laughter Dis
tracted the Worker.
Ambitious to Become Painter OF
RenOwn. He Sinks Under the Ne
cessity of Making Caricatures.

New York, May S0.-"Don't you find it
tiresome to have to be continually invent
ing themes for your comic sketches?" en-
| quired one day last week a friend Of Ar
thur Newton Boyd, the humorous illus
1 traitor.
| "Tiresome!" he repeated glcomily. 1T
is driving me mad! Comic pictures haunt
me. They keep me awake at night. / hate
them!''
lie had just been exhibiting some of the
work he liked to do, the work he was
proud of, the work his heart was in, the
| work he could not sell. There were strong,
sincere drawings, full of co.or.
| In many of them occurred the same fig
| ure-that of an Indian. Boyd talked af-
| fectionately about this Indian model OF
his.
Much as he loathed the amusing trivial
| tiles to which circumstances competed
him to direct his pen, they yielded him a
| good livelihood. He and his wife had
| comfortable fiat at ial Park Place. Brook
| Ign.
She had been connected with the stage,
and their marriage had taken place against
the wishes of his parents-persons OF con-
sideration in Abbeyviile, S. c.
He had come to New York on fire with
ambition, feeling it in him to become an
artist CT renown. He sought in vain a
market for the drawings into which he
threw knowledge, thought. enthusiasm.
| Persons whose business it is to buy such
things said that they were very good.
| but
IF you'd only try your hand at comics."
| they would add. That's what the public
wants."
There came time when Boyd was COM
1 Ii, n.
| own intense amazement he succeeded. He
had what Daudet called a fatal facility"
! The work that he despised made him pros
porous. if it could not make him happy.
| But it became a great strain on the IN
| vention after time. When he wasn't act
ually drawing funny pictures he was conf
PEELED to be planning new ones. His whole
world became distorted into caricature.
| 1t was at this stage that he uttered the
fierce lament already recorded. He was
showing the evidences of the strain. The
home was not a happy one.
| Mr.. and Mrs. Boyd quarreled on Satur-
| day, and 1t ended in her taking trip to
| Harlem. In the police court there she
| made complaint against him for on-sup-
| port, and summons was issued directing,
| him to appear yesterday morning. This
| summons was SERVED on lloyd later in the
day.
| That night the other tenants were an
noyed by a strong odor of gas. They
traced it to the Boyd fiat. which was in
| darkness. and assuming that nobody wss
at home, Charles Poole and James Ma.
| thews procured key and entered.
They did not dare TO strike match for
| fear of an explosion. All was quiet there.
| Cropping their way to the source OF the
smell. they came to the room in which
Boyd drew his maddening comics"
| Poole passed his hand along the wall
until it encountered gas Jet. The cock
was opened. He turned it of.
That there was a tube attache, 10 the
burner did not escape his notice, but he
supposed that il was part OF the equipment
OF gas stove or something of tnnt kind.
| Well satisfied with having stopped the es-
cape. he and Matthews groped their way
out again, censuring Boyd for his careless
| ness.
Boyd did not appear in the Harlem police
! court yesterday in answer to his wifes
summons. and she went to Brooklyn IN
search OF him. BY that time there was not
much OF a gas odor left in the fiat.
| The artist wGs lying in his studio. dead.
| with the tube in his mouth. That the gas
was turned of pointed to a mystery until
the adventure OF Poole and Matthews came
10 light.
Comics" finished and half finished,
were strewn about the apartment.
Careful studies of the Indian boxed
calmly from their places on the wall.