New-York tribune., 1899-12-17
BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
THE CLEVER ENGLISH ILLUSTRATORS
BEGINNINGS IN CARICATURE AT
STONYHURST COLLEGE,

Of Bernard Partridge, a regular contributor to
the latter periodical There are points about
the personality and the antecedents Of Mr..
Partridge Of which those who have often
laughed at his keenly apprecatve and, for that
very reason, kcerly humorous reflections u
English life may be interested to learn.
lie comes Of a talented stock His father vas
a surgeon. protest. )nally known in his day not
only for skill in operation, but also for theoreti-
cal attainments SO eminent as 10 make his
name memorable in the distinguished catalogue
OF past professors Of the medical school OF
Kings College. London 1t was this same Mr..
Partridge surgeons are very careful in Eng
land not to let themselves be called Doctor
who was summoned to Caprera from England
to operate on Garibaldi when that hero re-
ccvcd a severe bullet wound in the cause OF
Italian unity.
In spite of the Garbaldian. and therefore
strongly anti-Papal connections and sympathies
of his father Bernard Partridge received his
education at the old Jesuit college of Stony
hurst. in Lancashire 1t is an interesting CO.
incidence that Dicky Doyle, the yet more
famous Punch" illustrator. who in the forties
designed the cover Of Punch" still in use
where Mr. f. appears surrounded by fly
ing fairies cos.umed in the fashions Of nlty
years ago-was also a Stonyhurst boy Ihe
traditions Of Stonyhurst, however say mat
Dicky was not brilliant success IN purely
academical sense. and Bernard Partridge GER
tainIy was on both sides of the strenuous
Jesuit curriculum he kept constantly ahead "t
/ his form, or as they call it at St'nyhurst' MS
/ school" There used to be one, and only one
/ hoy in Partridge's school who ever passed
him in studies and that boy-now distln-
euished priest Of the Jesuit Order-dld II py
dnt Of harder work than Partridge ever knew
At the regular monthly announcements o1 school
standing there was always specially greatness
pause TO hear whether in that school ber-
nardus Partridge" was "lmperator Roma
ror,m and A C "Imperator Carthage
niensium," vice versa
Where Partridge as a Stonyhurst boy ulu
strongly resemble his more ilustrious pre'e-
caeeor was in his precocious taste and talent
for caricaturng. Partridge cut no notable hg-
ure in the college drawing classes. If ne ever
entered them. But he did distinguish him
e self artistically in certain ftfuy appearing
= sbeots ,cbereon any one with half an eye could
not fail to recognize the features and, more
than moro features the very walk and trick of
carriage of this or the other one among his iel-
. lows These were no more like the usual crude
srit.ful schoolboy scurrties in pen and INK
I or mcneil than the boy himself was like the ordi-
nary awkward, self-assertive, noisy schooDoy.
- They were simply portraits, with the humor ol
their subjects subtly but effectively empha-
sized.
The height Of his schoOlboy achievements in
this direction was reached in his eftigies ot one
Dick. who was not boy, but the very mature
and responsible college butler Then there was
Partriiges portrait Of Father r the memory
of which if not the work itself. mas doupteSS
lasted at Stonyhurst through the Intervening
twenty years. 1t was pretty well UNDERSTOOD
throughout that college, with It's ramlhcatiohS
- Holder and the Seminary beyond the-Pond,
that Partridge need not be expected 10 sup
.bort at Father = in his humorous COM
,nentaries on local celebrities. ana he dld not
He proceeded i'm the course Of time to present
- the community his own conception of a still
moro reverend one-who, by the way, now oc-
,,,,i.s . high place among the Catholic clergy
/ Of New York.
A. an elocutionist when it came to his turn
70 r.cjte a bit Of .Eschylus or Of Mohere
Partridge quite naturally, did very well. bu'
in the completely dressed up and stage sci
dramatic performances which formed 50 lhl'
portant a part Of the Stonyhurst college nc
he never made any name for himself thousi
the stage was the goal Of his ambition II Mt
Partridge is not now working his way ul
tbrough the ranks of the English theatrical pro
fession. but is known to fame as u humorlSt ahC
an artist in black and white, it is due chehS
to the advice Of that very same hlgh college
dignitary whose caricaturng consututed I'M
height Of Bernard Partrdge's impudence a
Stonvhurst None Of his friends, it Is true no
the friends Of his family were pleased that nj
should take the stage as his profession but
WAS this same reverend father who put tn
matter TO him in such a way as to commend /
to his reason. Partridge agreed TO wait 10
some years until ne should know a little NOR
Of thn ,navs of the world. and, in the lnterVa