The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-06-09

bockers; but then, just the same, she
might have been generous and have
allowed him to go on-she might have
forgiven him then.-Just here the hob
of his Norfolks caught a projecting
log. In an effort to recover poise, he
lost his balance and fell. A sharp
pain shot from ankle to knee; and as
he slowly pulled himself up to asitting
posture beside the fallen trunk, he
groaned: Here's fix. 1 never can
keep that appointment now, and as for
Trixie-' here he paused, stretched out
the offending member, clad in knick-
ers and golf-hose, and with true Brit
ish courage commenced to whistle old
Ben Jonson's ballad of the heart,
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes,"
Following up this epitomized exam
pie of the general error heretofore
mentioned, let us now turn an imagin-
ary page. All, yes, the illustration
underneath which reads: Drink to
Me Only With Thine Eyes" VOLTA!
there he is. Yet-no. The mono
chrome certainly has him leaning up
against log; while he tenderIy caresses
ankle and foot done in. yes, low Ok
ford's and what might De cardinal hose,
| splashed with tit-tat-toe polka-dots.
There's incongruity for you. Where
are the hobnailed Norfolks and the
golf hose? And, shades Of Madame la
Lingerie! the rough shooting jacket
and corduroys of the authors imagina-
tion have been metamorphosed into
the lightest of summer fannels; sur
mounted by an ascot tie and straw
hat. With discriminating precision,
one Immediately reverts to the descrip-
tion as contained in the extract from
the pseudo-noyel; and one longs to Of
fer the young man t0pcoat, a muffler,
or-and that north wind, and the frosty,
crinkly trees too. With the lightning
like swiftness of prestidigitator, our
hero has donned the ehabillments of sum-
mer for winter, and we wonder if there
is not the merest, the merest chance of
his taking cold One must admit that
it's rather confusing.
The foregoing is a fictitious repre-
sentation of condition which is as
true in itself as the representation is
true of it,. From the factory girl, por-
ing over her copy of "The Duchess" up
to the most ultra-aesthetic of the liter
ati, all have their imagination and
ideal, circumscribed of necessity IN all
gradations by influence and environ
J ment, but still forming plastic back
, ground whereon the story writer may
work with delicate, facile skill. Is ii
not then fair to expect the illustrator
i to- be conscientious in his workP The
} world fOrgives genius, or even talent
! its little idiosyncracies and erraticisms
+ but that gives the artist no right to al
, low the vagaries of temperament tc
) enter in and mar his artistry. Better
let the utility of masterpiece WORK
8 out its own salvation; yea, better lei
: it remain art for arts sake, lost in {
8 creative contemplation of its own flint
8 construction, than to assume the atti
8 tude of omniscience and disdain al
q authors suggestions or refuse perus
D al of his book. The different branches
: of art are not so antagonistic and aliel
Q but wha. each may learn of the other
t This being the case, how much mor'
: should it lie within an illustrator
province to avail himself by ever,
: known means, in becoming conversan
r with that of which his delineations ar,
y but collaboration in one sense
; French critics give the laurel to Poe a
3 our greatest poet Why? For his in
/ defatigable zeal in attention to detail
y in its relation to his art. His tiness
81 of construction made his poems verita
8 BILE mosaics of beauty, while he yet re
Il mains the greatest short story write
J. of past and present decades.
e Outside of Christy, Remington an,
n the coterie to which they belong, ther
t; must be others who bide not at tn
10 city gate, lazily waiting for the none
D changers to count their commissions
It and expecting fame to reach down an
q. extend them q hand. Verify, there
u room for all. 10 understand that sue
y is the case, the average reader has onl
sr to look around him, while perusin
n magazine or book. True work in al