The record-union., 1899-12-03

ments gave him the most satisfaction,
Mr.. Smith answered: The Race Rock
Lighthouse"
| His taste for art seems to have been
inherited. His greatgrandfather Fran
els HopkiHson, q signer Of the Declar-
alton of Independence, was an anna
teur in water colors; his great uncle,
Judge Joseph Hopkinson, was the first
President Of the Academy of Fine Arts,
in Philadelphia, and also an amateur
painter.
Mr.. Smith began to paint when boy,
and although his art work has been
done mainly in the intervals of a busy
life, he has attained to the first rank
among American painters in water
| colors.
| At 40 Mr.. Smith had written nothing
for print. At that time his publisher
wished him to furnish letter-press to
accompany each picture in a series OF
water colors which were at first de-
! signed simply as a series of plates il
Illustrating picturesque bits in various
parts Of the world where he had trav-
eled. He wrote for these some stories
or descriptions, and the result was his
first book, 'Well-Worn Roads,"
| In Mr.. Smiths own words: my
first story called The Church of San
Pablo I sent it to my publisher and
awaited his verdict, feeling sure he
would throw it into the wastebasket
He disappointed me by telegraphing:
| Good stuff. Keep it up took his adj
vice. and that is how I stumbled into
! literature
1t is but just to add that well Worn
Roads was successful from the out
set. 1t was not, however, until the
publication of Colonel Carter of Car
tersville" that he became a prominent
figure in the literary world This
story, describing the adventures of an
old-fashioned Virginian-affect
effusive, unworldly, with a high sense
of honor-who finds himself stranded,
as it We're, among the breakers of bust
ness life in New York, is generally rec
ognized as masterpiece in the delin-
cation of character. with fine, subtle
strokes, and has an exquisite blending
OF pathos and humor
Since these earlier efforts, Mr.. Smith
has published through Messrs. Hough-
ton, Mif11in & Co. a long list of very
popular novels and stories, such as
Tom Grogan," "Gondola Days." etc.,
his Caleb West, Master Diver" pub
lished in the spring of 1898 being his
most successful book. ~
Every year Mr.. Smith takes a vaca-
ton OF three months, and goes directly
10 Venice, where he has been spending
his summers for many seasons. But
Venice is not the only city that has
known Mr.. Smith; he has lived in Con-
stantlnople, Spain, Holland, and his
friends among officials, diplomats, and
natives of those lands over the sea,
are scarcely less numerous than his
many friends in America.
| In the midst of all these varied act.
ivities, fancy a man of medium hight,
erect, well-knit and muscular, alert in
his movements, with iron-gray hair,
gray military mustache, looking, at the
first glance, like an army officer When
he speaks, however, this Illusion van
ishes, for his voice has the peculiar
ring, and his gestures have the illus
trat1ve significance acquired to the full
by no one but the. American lecturer.
The man impresses one as having enor-
nous physical and intellectual powers,
with which are blended the fine sensi-
blllties of a woman, and a delicacy of
fancy and sentiment rarely found in
one personality. 1t is this same com
olnatlon of qualities in his pictures and
writings that has won for him a unique
place IN the world of art and letters
THE Lord loves ordinary looking
men, said Abraham Lincoln. THAT is
why he made so many of them, This
o1f-hand defense of democracy is quoted
IN the new life of Lincoln by Norman
Hapgood, about to be published. and
number of similar stories, to show the
various sides of Lincoln's democracy.
In using the subtitle, 1.-The Man of the
People," the author shows that this
idea of "the first American is carried
throughout the work.
A remarkable and valuable contribu-
ton to Revolutionary Americans" is
the nrst publication of the account of
the capture of the American shin An
rora, as written by Philip Freneau, the
poet of the revolution, 12O years ago.
Inc account is taken from a manuscript
log book" kept by Freneau while vow
aging in the West Indies in 1916 in the
Aurora, which he had fitted out as q
privateer.
soon after leaving the Delaware his
snip was fred upon and captured by a
BRUSH fr1gate, and in his account Tie
dulnor mas given a vivid word picture
OF the many hardships and indignities
10 which he was afterward subjected.
Inc volume will contain various repro
auctions of both literary and historical
value, which have never before been
published, among them a portrait of
Agnes Watson, the mother of Freneau,
together with much other relative ma
terlal, which can but appeal to all who
take an interest in Colonial patriotism
ana history, as well as to the student
OF early American literature The vol
ume should prove a valuable contribu-
ton to Colonial literature 1t is got up
after the old-time manner and bound
in antique boards.
The readers of that clever book,
Young April" will be interested in
knowing that Egerton Castle declares
that all its characters are personages
who were still living in the middle of
TINS century. men and women whose
doings and adventures had in days gone
by been recounted to the author by one
who had known them ALL some of them
mately--namely, by the authors
own father. The names of the actors
are. however, disguised, the dates suit
ably altered, and the exact situation of
1.-The Germanic Confederation Kinglets'
is left vague with purpose.