The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-02-23
THE URCHIN DAYS OF AN EM1ENT ARTIST.
Elliott Dangerfield as a School Boy in Fayetteville. The
Strange People of the Upper Pee Dee. Is the Remnant
of the Lost Colony in the Swamps of Robson. Inter-
esting Historical Facts that Give Ground for this Belief.
For The Messenger.

i TedSs Wnll6 lying III DCS III lle
Highsmith hospital, the sketches Of
seven artists az Virginia in the Rich
mond Times dispatch of January It'll,
with great Interest, and especially did
the sketch Ell Elliott Daingerfeld give
me pleasure, though I followed it with
ib2ted breath, that such a man as this
the creator of MASTERPIECES, the ia
terpreter of man in his majesty and
strength. and Of patsre in its sublisni-
~ and beauty hssd spanked" in my
time. Trough not often, for he was a
good LITTLE chap on the 81 1ool bench
In order TO narrate intelligent1s how
Elliott Dangerf I'D and I forcgathered
many many years ago, I will be in
dulge1 in a little personal reminis-
cenc@, and the younger readers of The
Messenger will not receive without in
terest a brief account of how some
people got a start after the collapse
of she c~Onfede7acy
7 came out of the civil var not quite
q years old, though, young as l was,
I had already married; and, like tens
c1 the sands Of other soldiers turned
loose after ne surrender, I had I'D
bestir myself to boil the pot" I hid
n.y. q NcIIo4 III liz i LII IJ
Father, whose fortune had consisted in
bank stock and other securities, was
absolutely ruined. My wife and I
lived with my parents at the old
homestead on Haymount, the vest ern
suburb Of Fayetteville, and the best
mems / cGald see Of gaining a liVeli-
hood was TO utilize the schooling I
had acquired at the Fayetteville Don-
aldsOn academy, at the famous school
of the great Quaker educator, Caleb
S. HaIiowelI, at Alexandria, Va, and
at the University of Virginia, for I was
a student there when the war broke
out, although not quite 10 years old
S~herTnan's army, in March, 1865, de-
strOy@d the building, type. presses, etc.
of the old Fayetteville Observer, es-
tablisffd in 1925, and there was not
a printing office in town. . Had there
beer, was too poor TO- pay fs~ hand
bills, bat | wrote school notices, tack
ing IttC1n W in prominent places; and,
knowing the scarcity of money, let
it be known that I would TAX pay for
tuition in corn, meal, flour, bacon, etc.
l opened a school in a vacant house
on the family premises and soon a
a number of scholars.
Tffe late j. E. P. Dafngerfeld (who
was captured by John Brown at Harp
er'S Ferry, and was the latter's pris-
Oner in the engine house Wnen it was
StOrInCd and taken by C01@nel R. E.
Lee and the United States marines)
sent his two boys to my scneol-Elliott
and his elder brother, Kichard-and,
as WELL as ? recollect, he paid in bacon.
n very good bacon it was.
Elliott Daingerfield could not have
been at that time more" tnan 6 or s
year. old. He had haT ike the golden
silk of the corn or the farm. n eyes
like the olue-bells in field. I once
heard a cultured woman say that he
dad the most spiritual child's face she
ever saw. 1t never struck me hat way
1T was toe human. But it was some
thing better. one of the ~cieanest, pur-
EST faces Of happy childhood, n FL
lott DaiEg erfield justified his physiog-
nomy by being the best boy in school,
adored by all the other pupils. But,
Though a good boy, Elicit was not a
-'goody-gooGJ' boy. He was full of
u had a keener appreciation Of
'hunor than is seen III most children,
arid now and then he was as full Of
mischief as a monkey or maple.
Beoing the smallest boy in school,
he mad a stool down alongside my
desk. About the secOr1 morning after
mis- appearance as a scholar. I said:
Now look over your sptller, Elliott"
A few minutes afterwards I noticed
Ralph LutterlOh, the head boy, about
six feet high, smiling qulzzically in
E1hott's direction. Looking down, I
saw the little fellow running his eyes
very slowly from the bottom of the
page. on up, and then peeplng Over the
top of the speller. What are you do
ing. Efiott?" I asked. He looked up
at me solemnly, and replied: You told
me'to look over my sperrer." There
was implicit obedience for you: but
to this day I am undecided in min
whether it was the innocence of child
hood or mischief in the little rascal
IN 49, ~~ ~hn-
bflity of his face to guide me.
EfIiott's parents lie MOI live more
than a hundred yards from US: and
O. morning. just before senool-time.
/ was walking up and down the piazza
smoking a~pipe, while a heavy shower
was failing, when Elliott dashed in at
the backgate. b~areheaded. 1 hailed
him sharply: Hi there, Elliott. What
do you mean by coming from home
without your hat?" He stopped, his
golden head a mop, his eyes shining;
and. much abashed. with no little diff
ficulty hauled from his rousers pocket
his cap. There was the boy all over
defying the elements unthatched.
In Elliott Dainserfield the love of
art developed early in life: and. If my
n serves me. he first TOOK les
sons under Mrs. w. Mel. Mckay, liv-
ing in our neighborhood, a cultivated
woman and an amateur painter of
merit. Before lie achieved greatness
and had greatness thrust upon him, he
was a photographer On Person street
in this city. one day 1 walked into his
gallery with q. very large photograph
and a very small locket. 18th some
thing of indifferer &c in my tone, per-
haps, I said: Elliott, I doubt whetff-
er you can squeeze that big picture
into that litt, ~Iocket. Perhaps I win
have to send nerth to nave it DONE
He took the picture and focket in his
hand, glanced at them, and, looking
up. said slowly, with a fash in his
eye: II could put the one into the
other, if the picture wete three times
as large, and the locket were three
times as small, as it is"
have seen Elliott Daingerfield only
once or twice since he married Miss
French, of Wilmington, N. c., and be-
came the great artist that he is. Ever
than 7 natod the nre1a teal Look and