Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-02-21
A PORTRAIT OF VICTORIA.
The Picture Sold by Confederate
Exile to Macmillan in Mexico.

The Picture Sold by a Confederate
Exile to Macmillan in Mexico.
"The first pictures can remember
were of Queen Victoria and Tlenry
Clay, said man who is now 80 and
is taking his ease in New York. "The
picture of the Queen was a colored
plate. copy of the painting by
Thomas Sully. How it ever got where
| saw it don't know.
1T hung in the home of my father,
who was living on the border There
wasn't white settlement 10 miles
west of his place. Indians used to
come to his house to swap their work
for anything they could get, and one
of my recollections is their fondness
for the queens picture. One of them
tried to steal it.
THE picture had quite a history
later on. My father moved away from
the border and went to st. Louis.
Soon after young artist came to our
house to live. He became a celebrity.
He painted the Country Election, and
during the civil war he painted the
celebrated picture known in Missouri
as Order No. IL, which was com.
mentary on canvas of military order
issued at that time which drove many
southern people out of the state. The
artist was also a politician and if
congress, but for the life Of me
cannot recall his name.
He painted an oil from the colored
plate of Queen Victoria. That was
probably the first canvas of the queen
ever turned out so far West, The
painting attracted attention and was
for awhile on exhibition.
In the civil war my father was a
confederate soldier. 1t was the Gus
tom for union soldiers to visit the
houses of southern sympathizers in
search of contraband articles. A
squad went to my fathers house. The
young officer in command saw the
painting of the queen and took off his
cap to it. He asked my mother If
she was an English subject. An eva
sive reply was made. and the young
officer politely begged pardon and said
that his mother was an English wo.
man and that a picture of her queen
in any house meant protection to that
house so far as he was concerned.
With that he ordered his squad
away.
AT the close of the war number
Of confederates preferred to go to
Mexico, and, as you may know, more
than a thousand, nearly all of whom
had been officers in the confederacy
crossed the border and offered theil
services to Macmillan. My father
, was one of the number.
! Macmillan did not accept the ser
vice of the ex-confederates, and each
: was left to decide his own destiny
Some remained in Mexico, and DID
well. My father purchased a planta
ton near the capital. One day several
hunters stopped at his place and had
dinner. They were foreigners, and by
their bearing proclaimed high birth.
"One of them became interested in
the painting of Victoria and bought IL.
The family was loath to part with It.
but the purchaser offered a price Far
beyond its value. Besides, he said he
wished it for his wife. A few days
later the painting was sent for.
Its destination at the time was not
known. But some time after a former
Confederate visited my father and in.
formed him that his painting of Queen
Victoria hung in the room of the EN-
press Carlotta, and that her husband
Macmillan, was the purchaser. He
was one of the party who had visited
my fathers plantation. OF the subse.
quent history of the painting know
nothing. | would give any reason
able sum to get it."-New York Sun.