Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-29

/ think ii only fair to myself to state at
the start that, through no fault of my
own, l have been blessed, or cursed with
n sense of the ludicrous which utterly
dwarfs everything else in my makeup Up
to the time of the following occurrence
this gift had not served me well, for on the
day in question 1 found myself in the city
Of my ancestors with less than thousand
dollars to call my own. 1 am perfectly well
aware of the fact that the cornerstone OF
r1auy a successful career has been laid on
less than that sum OF money. But 1 lack
utterly the business sense and had been
IN the habit of spending about six thousand
a year without working for it.
BY profession 1 am an artist But peo-
pie had not recognized my art thus far and
the money which had been left to me on
the death of my mother had dwindled rap
IDLY since 1 left Bougereau's. New York
dealers received me not and I had puddled
along for year hoping that they would
But the end came and / sold my studio eff
feCts. That is why l have the thousand
dollars above mentioned.
With the thousand | determined to go to
California Just why, l don't know; but
such was my determination, But before leav-
ing for the golden west made up my mind
TO revisit the scenes of my childhood, sc
to speak. And. as the scenes of my child
l came.
Ten years before my mother and father
had agreed to disagree, and Brother Tom
arrayed himself on the part of the pater.
AS Brother Tom and l were twins we were
naturally, Opposites; therefore l elected to
take mothers part. The separation came
and mother took me and her allowance and
departed for Europe There l spent the re-
mainder of my boyhoOd days, and at eight
cen went IN for art Four years In the
Quarter Latin. and then mother died. Her
allowance had been large and she had
saved some of it; that I received.
But before my mothers death my father
had gone the way of the Just and the I'M
just, leaving all his estate to Brother Tom
1 was not even mentioned in the will.
Mother heard of this from dear friends
who loved 10 make trouble.
You can ina CINE quite naturally, there
fore, that after such treatment 1t was not
the intention of James Truscott Lanvale,
myself, to make any calls upon Thomas
Linley Lanvale, his twin brother No: my
intention was to revisit Baltimore and look
over the old places for day or so-then
depart. Wishing to avoid any newspaper
mention, I signed my name illegibly at
the hotel that the clerk addressed me as
Mr.. Anvil.
That was three hours before. I am now
roaming in the quiet of Druid Hill Park,
smoking a cigarette and basking in the
sun. ! have been walking for nearly half
hour and am pretty well away from the
beaten track
The sun was very warm and the trees
were very green. The spirit of springtime
was about in the forest, and 1t affected me
much as does champagne l laughed for no
apparent reason and suddenly felt that life
was very much worth living. The cigarette
which 1 was smoking suddenly developed
an aroma which no cigarette of that brand
ever had before to my knowledge
l turned q curve of the footpath where
Il sgnboard read ITO the Seals" 1 had no
desire to see any seals, but the path lay
ahead of me and 1 walked on. Even seals
have their good points on q beautiful
spring day.
And then the sound of an infants wall
disturbed my dreams and / turned to see a
rather gOod-lookng young woman, dressed
very neatly, albeit ineXpensirely. The
young woman held baby in her lap and
the baby seemed irritated about something.
But the sight of my face evidently produced
good results. The tear wrinkles disappear
ed and the baby smiled. 1t also piped out:
Papa
For = moment I watched the baby and
the young woman. The baby was holding
out its arms TO me. Then the ridiculous sit
uation touched that sense OF the ludicrous