The age-herald., 1900-04-24
THE MAKING OF
 HOMER DAVENPORT
RY LuoIEN JULIEN wALKER.

a village store where rollS lne oieSohi
 and a white pine box was darkened by ms carpenters pencil. His father came along and seeing the sketch on the smooth board pronounced it excellent; declared he would procure a hand saw and cut the picture out. and accomplished his purpose. The
 sawn section was carefully wrapped in paper. and the father gave it to the son as d sort of ticket of admission through
 the backdoor to the place of fame. The
 son was also presented with two dollars,
 and bidden to journey to Portland ana
 have speech with publisher. Most lkeiy this man was a Philistine, for he bade the
 youthful artist to go seek labor on 1arm.
 The injunction was not obeyed, and the
 world has Homer Davenport, the master oi
 all it's makers of cartoons!
 Davenport was bred a cartoonist. Even before his eyes opened to the world that
 was to sound with his praise, the tenderest of all human loves had fixed his destiny, and the years have worked its fultillment.
 His calling was decreed; his election was given to time. This truth is so extraor-
 dinary that it is a marvel. Davenport s mother was of artistic and humorous spirit, and it was her will that made him
 humorist and artist.
 The story of this man Davenport is a
 story of world-interest because it is of a
 real man, living son of earth; one who has had trials and triumphs, aches, sui- ferings, peace, joys! It is the you and me of life, in our own poor little contracted lots It bleeds and loves and hopes and
 strives Davenport talked to me yester- day as he worked on a cartoon that the
 world will see gladly today. When he was begged to talk about himself, he answered as kindly as a woman as simply as d schoolboy whose confidence had been gained. His father owned, lived upon, ana
 worked a farm in oregon. Nearly thirty five years ago, when Mast with his mas terly cartoons was making the fortune oi Harper's Weekly, the elder Davenport sub scribed for that publication with view
 chiefly to his wifes enjoyment of Mast great work The paper reached the Ore
 gon farm somewhat irregularly, for the
 railway had not then spanned the conti-
 nent, but it was received, and read and enjoyed by the fair woman to whom 1t
 came as a messenger of things hoped for. Great personal sorrow had come to that
 household Joy came when Homer Daven- port was DOTH, MATCH O, loo'
 The little fellow began to draw about the time he began to talk, thereby beginning the fulfllment of his mothers prophecy and her cherished hope. He should be car toonist, she declared time after time, and that which to her was tender hope and devoted purpose, was the subject of the rustic jest of the neighborhood. Little did she care for that, little cared the brave and hopeful father Before the boy was , three years old he was scratching with carpenters pencils all about the house. There was no white paper obtainable and finally he began his crude drawings on the f1cor. He would lie upon his stomach and scratch away. This wore his clothes, and his mother fashioned sort of apron of grass that reached from his neck to his knees. His father bought carpenters pen cils by the dozen, and the boy Used them. So passed the days until the mother fell ill. She knew that death was coming quickly. Calling the father to her, she bade him be of good cheer. You shall take another wife, she said, 'but I charge you have care of the boy. Encourage him with his pencils. He will be an artist" So saying, the mother slept, her love for pillow The ' Th father resolutcly refu. ] to gi. his permission for the son to do manual labor when the age for it had come. He insisted that the son would one day be cartoonist, and scorned every suggestion to the con trary. Meantime, the carpenters pencils were piled necessarily. One day Uncle Ben came on a brief viist. He had been on the Davenport farm not more than an hour be- fore he demanded of his brother Tim, why in the devil that lazy, loafing Homer wasn't put to work That was all right, brother Tim answered. Homer would be cartoon ist some day Cartoonist hen s-foot. Uncle Ben had four of them at home and every one of them plowing
 Some considerable portion of the elder Davenports very modest incomes swas ex- pended for carpenters pencils, the draw ing and sketching continued the neighbors and villagers ioked about the cartoonist, and so genius and all that rustic commun- ity of far Oregon fared forward. Genius returned from the Portland publisher, and drifted freely, using carpenters pencils the while. He would go away and remain ab- sent for days, dreaming dreams and pie turing them with carpenters pencils doing
 
 home he would seek to pursuade the | father that it was all unpromising, useless, l that their contracted world had no use | for a cartoonist. The brave father never thought of yielding, never thought of fall- ing short of the promise made when death left boy baby all to himself. Even in that hallowed hour. Master Two-and- Forty Months could draw sketch which did not l need to be labeled horse He could do wonders now. But finally genius broke away from home restraint and found cheap l work on locomotive engine. and the hand of the carpenters pencils became the hand l of greasy rags and cord-wood. It was a | great change that to manual toll poorly | paid It was adhered to for year or l two.
 | One day there came to the Davenport | farm very business-ke herald of fame in | the stout person of William Henry Smith, | founder of the Associa ted Press, and kins- man of the Davenports. The father sub