The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-03


 ton. but once in long time you can coax an architect to tell just wee leetle bit of a strecher.
 CT want to build three thousand dol lar house" say you.
 "'All right says the architect. Tt will cost you in the neighborhood of five thou sand dollars
 "'Shoot away, thenp say you. Tt will take about all that's saved up in the little old cracked. blue teapot, on the pam try shelf, but I'll stand for the pain.
 .fSo the architect goes ahead with his rule and his square and his shiny little compass, and 1t costs you eight thousand dollars, not counting extras But he wouldn't deliberately deceive you for worlds He just can't help it.
 "Now there was Jimmy Smith. Nice boy, Jimmy His mother let his hair grow down in front of his ears and meant i him for a preacher, and the poor kid was so well trained that he honestly didn't know how to lie. Not onfy that, but he went around wasting the truth at a scandalous rate. It's wrong to waste the truth when there is so little of it in the world And consciencel Why that boy | had a conscience that went piling itself l up like compound interest on ten year note. and by the time he got into long pants he was so good that nobody liked him but the pastor and his mother. And the pastor was only lukewarm.
 Tt was his conscience, though, that saved Jimmy. from becoming a mighty poor preacher He figured 1t out that he wasn't good enough to be a minister of the gospel and his argument brought tears of joy to his mothers eyes About that time, too, the art bug got hold of Jimmy and 1t was all up with him. He went off to one of these institutes where they take any kind of raw material and, after four years of pairing and trimming, turn 1t into an architect with long hair and loose neclktie. If 1t is a good job and makes money 1t gets it's hair cut by and by, and dresses like any other hus- tier, but if It don't outgrow the overdose of Ruskin it winds up in front of free lunch counter, with glass of beer in one hand and a fork in the other, and roasts the government and the entire social menu, from cocktail to toothpick.
 Well Jimmy came home strapped and honed down to keen edge, and brought over his circus board portfolio and his flowing locks and his Lord Byron collar to make me sit up and gasp
 i" Howdy, Jimmyl' says I, gripping his hand.
 " Not Jimmy, any more. said he, in the deep bass voice that afterwards gave him chronic throat trouble. I've outgrown that It is J. Wesley Smith, now.
 "I don't blame you said I. It's good business. especially if you're going in for "sassiety" architecture. J. W. Smith wouldn't look half so well on a gilt sign.
 Jimmy had the good grace to blush, but he hurried up to explain that 1t was mere matter of Individuality, there being several other Smiths in town.
 "All right, J. Wesley, I said. I'm with you till you spell the Smith with Y. then I quit. What do you intend to do? Work as a draughtsman awhile, or start in on your own hook?' ' Well drawled Jimmy, finging back his hair, and pressing the tips of his fingers together. I feel that the Message of Art with which I am charged can best be delivered by coming in direct contact with my public. I shall open a studio at once.'
 'T excused myself while I grinned "And what kind of an architect do you intend to becomeT I asked. Prayer meet ing, pink tea. or ward primaries What! gasped Jimmy. '' Churches, residences or public build ings I explained. I had been thinking of the ways to get the business.
 :" "'Ohr said Jimmy. I shall make no attempt to be come a specialist, only striving, in what work comes to me. to express Structural Truth in terms of Pu- rity and Beauty.
 Uh-huhr I observed. That sounds as pleasant as old wine gurgline out of a dusty jug; but it don't sound like money to me-
 
 scorn. Money do not ask for it. I de- spise it. It is the enemy of art. All I ask is a bare pittance to sustain life that I may follow my chosen art for arts sake
 "I excused myself again while grinned. " Jimmy my boy, said solemnly,
 when I hear a man above thirty-five say Art for Arts sake I lock up all my valuabies and get two ehaperones and bull dog for my daughter. But with a boy like you 1t Is different. It's like the humps and the measles and the whooping cough All you need is care and a. good diet and an occasional dose of boneset teal
 "'Sirr Jimmy exclaimed. "'Oh, sit down Jimmy, sit downf went on. I'm only telling you what you won't believe till you find 1t out for your 1 self. Ive heard about this Art for Arts | sake idea till I can say it all forwards, backwards and crisscross and the only 1 man I ever knew that could make liv- | ing at it was barber. He called him. ! self 'Tonsorial Artist and he was so much stuck on his business that he took l to shaving notes, and died rich and de- 1 spised as we all hope to do. And so you | hate money! And you old Jeremiah Smiths soni Well! Wellr
 Jimmy went home just then. He was fine boy and I liked him, but Lord, | Lord boys will be boysl He mighty near 1 fooled me though. He opened up his l studio, with a fish net on the ceiling and a thick rug on the floor, with pie lures and easles and busts and what not scattered around like junk in an auc-
 ton store. and the first thing knew he
 was giving a series of Heart to Heart
 Talks on wall paper and carpets and
 draperies and such things before the Wonfens Art League. Jimmy was the sort of a built man that has a right to admire himself in the glass with his bath ing trunks, on, and he had that gathering
 of How Levely's' up in the air and not
 caring smash whether the parachute
 was on board or not. It wasn't month
 till he had "a common looking annex to
 his studio and three draughtsmen l working in 1t. He turned out a whole
 bunch of high art houses and they were mighty nifty to look at,. but I noticed the next spring that the chimneys had | settled and the shingles were curling up | and the stonework was cracking and the 1 porch posts splittin, so I went around | to see him one day. 'He sfill wore his hair long. hut not