The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-08-08
Psyche and
the Turkey
GOhhIer.

TT SEEMS like an unkind thing to
say that Pierce Churchilrs down i
Fall began when he met Hester
~ MacLagan, for she was a good, |
gentle and beautiful girl, and We
were all sure that she really loved
him. The Lord knows he has been a
reckless blade long before he saw her,
and the record that he made in Paris,
Vienna and in Frisco after he came
home was lurid enough to stamp him
as very wild young man.
When he landed in New York the
last time-it must have been about
'9S-he had nothing left but a bunged-
up color box. cracked palette and a
tlunkful of old sketches jumbled into
the midst of lot of pretty wellworn
clothes. He contrived to get posse
ssion of back room up in Fifty-third
street near Eighth avenue, and there
he went to work as if he meant to
retrieve his squandcred fortune and
make a name for himself. He quit
drinking, probably from necessity as
much as from choice, and we all be-
gan to think that at last he was in
| fair way to establish himself.
| lie worked like a mailer and peddled
| the stuff he had painted with per-
tinacity ami eloquence that seemed
wholly foreign - his character Fin
aIly Knocdlcr took hold of one of his
pictures-a Dutch interior with "a
pesant woman peeling apples-and
surprized poor Pierce one day by
sending him check for 500. The
money didn't sway him from the path
of industry and virtue, and he prob
ably would have been famous by this
time if he had never found out who 1t
was that bought that first picture.
But he picked up a young flower girl
in the Gilsey house lobby one night
and insisted on posing her for fanci-
full head. He worked harder on that
than on anything he had ever done,
and the result astonished everybody.
knoedler took it and had it sold for
round sum within two days.
Then Pierce got a note to the effect
that both his pictures had been bought
by the same person, and that he had
EXPRESSED the wish to have Churchlll
PAINT "A portrait. A meeting was ar
ranged and the wealthy Connoistur
who had taken such a strong fancy To
Pierce's stuff proved to be an old COL
onel MacI.agan, a wealthy English
Irshman who had made his money IN
India, had relatives in the peerage ana
was as proud and irasCible as turkey
! cock, Pierce used to called him "The
Gobbler' in those old palmy days when
J he was first at work upon Miss Hes
ter's portrait, but I've heard him use
, worse terms than that afterWard. !
5 mean after the final explosion. But
that comes later in the story.
, Miss Hester was a perfect type OF
| the young English beauty, "A bit IAN
ruid and dreamy in manner, but, ac-
I cording to Pierce, the very soul OF ten
. derners loyalty ard imagination
5 There's no doubt that she had an eN'
D.. aggrraIed notion Of the superiority OF
the colonel, and she carried the En-
e gIish idea of filal piety and respect be-
r yond the limits usually set by self
s reliant, grown-up American girls. The
= sittings began at Macl.ogon's toWr
house in Fifth avenue, but as soon al
Churchill got into his new studio th'
British gOddess illuminated it almos
daily with her dazzling presence
r Pierce never told anybody that he VA
in love with the girl, but his friends al
y knew it, and, try as he might to con
= ceal the state of affairs, he betrayed
his secret i'm a thousand ways peculia
= TO young men of red corpuscles ant
n vigorous fancies,
a 1t was in October that Miss Mac
I.agan became pupil as well as a pa
L tron of Pierces studio. lie had ottel
!. sworn that he would never paint por
traits or teach, that both meant slav
- cry, drudgery, d!shOnor and that he
q starve first. And yet-but this wa
+ one of the signs! Miss MacLagan WA
n getting on splenddly' Churchill toll
% me late the following January, ana
didn't wonder, for never was there
more enthusiastic teacher nor yet
more inspiring pupil. His studio wa
Uttered all over with studies OF he
face, her hand, shoulder, foot, eye!
- lie had done her in water colors, an
the great life-size portrait itself wa
70 swiftly growing into masterpiec
that must have made Pierce famous
t. but that's going ahead too fa'
. again,
Churchill was sitting smoking with
-, friend the night of the explosion. The
had Just drawn away the hans
or ings from the portrait of Hester whe
I. Colonel MacLagan, the gobbler," rusf
ed into the room, He flung upon ii
lg floor a bundle of cardboards and papt
!, and, purple with rage, his white hea
. wagging like a puppet, he bawled:
ne There, YOU d. audacious daube
take them! How dare YOU teach n