Rock Island Argus., 1906-07-21

Arduous Tasks-How He Befriended
Sick Stage Girl Whom He Never
Saw Testimony of Theatrical
Manager to His Charitable Acts.
One of these is genius to the other. and
SO of these which is the natural man and
which the spirit? Who deciphers them?-
Comedy of Errors
The late Stanford White, the noted
architect, who was recently killed by
Harry Kendall Thaw, was a genius,
with all the attributes and eccentrici-
ties of one, says the New York World.
He had two great qualities. as the
men who knew him best learned dur
ing long years of intimacy. These
were concentration and Imagination
the concentration capable of the great
est persistency in any undertaking, the
imagination that recognized no bounds
for the full play of creative talent
His greatest weakness, as the men
who liked him best discovered, grew
out of his propensity to substitute and
apply his remarkably developed gift of
imagination for reasonable discrimina-
ton. Aside from the restrictions of his
profession and the fine and diStin-
gushing geometrical rules of it he
obeyed no law that might curb his i'm
agination. He loved all the beautiful
things in nature and human nature.
He was sybarite i'll his tastes, vo-
luptuary in striving for the realization
of his imagination.
There was nothing vulgar in his ma
ture only a wild, lawlesS desire for the
things that rarely exist in real life and
are most frequently the creations of
just such an Imagination as he pos
SeSSed. He was gentleman in his
treatment of all persons with whom
he came in contact, man of ineffable
charm that impressed one with his eX-
cellent breeding and appreciation of
the rules of courtesy. If he had the
weaknesses that often serve as the
hidden foil for great minds and a gen
ius such as his he deftly concealed
them from public view and did not pa
rade them as would have done man
of less refinement He was not loud or
blatant, but rather quiet in his man
ner, dress and speech.
ways in his highly strung nervous
movements, his utterly oblivious disre-
gard for people who did not interest
him, his erratic and at times fiighty
transition from one object to another,
in the Kaleidoscope working of his
great but lawless brain, in the singu
larity of his habits. There was no hui
man law that he respected so much as
that of concentration and his obServ-
ance of the ethics of good department
One of his very best friends furnish
es some very instructive information
concerning the character of his friend.
stanford was certainly a genius,
and he was also a gentleman. He
worked with the vigor of n steam en-
gine and as If he there were but TWEEN
ty-four hours instead of a lifetime to
complete his work. His wonderful
mind needed stimulant and relaxation.
He created his own field of pleasure,
and. like most geniuses, he strayed
perhaps at times into unlicensed fields.
But you can put it down as Il fact
that he never prosecuted nor forced his
attentions upon any person, man or
woman. He was like child who tires
of toy. Stanford was always firing
of toys.
He enjoyed the friendship of stage
people because they We're unlike the
people he met in his business life. 1
knew of some of his enterprises in this
although 1 never shared in
them, and you can take my word for it
that he never molested any woman nor
her with his attentions unless
she were adept and experienced in the
bohemian side of stage life.
when he wanted to indulge his
tastes for society he was not compelled
to limit his territory to stageland. He
was welcomed at Newport and Lenox
in the highest and most cultured of cir
cles.
The impression has been created by
persons who are apparently trying to
create a mawkish and unjustified SEN
timent in favor of Stanfords cowardly
murderer that Stanford spent every
night of his life for thirty years in pur-
suing women of the stage and that his
relations with these were entirely un-
That is absolutely false.
Stanford knew many fine women of
the stage whose cultlred qualities he
and admired.
HE was too busy'a man, his mind
was too concentrated on the work he
loved better than anything else in the
was the peculiar type of
his genius-to waste time in an occupa-
ton that was more in the line of the
life led by his murderer. He affected
Bohemia when he wanted rest from
his work Whether he spent as much
time as some of the sympathiZers of
the. man who murdered him would
have you think is best answered by the
record of his great achievements. No
seeker for excitement in Bo-
hemia could have accomplished so
many brilliant things that could only
come as the result of persistent atten-
ton and long hours of work. He con-
tributed more to the world in one day
than his murderer ever contributed In