Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-31
HEARD AROUND
THE CORRIDORS
DENIES HE WAS KILLED
IN WRECK AT COTTON
BY THE EAVEsDRGPPER

Charles H. Grant, the noted marine
artist who was believed by his friends
to have perished in the wreck of the
Santa Fe limited at Cotton Thursday
afternoon, is at the Hayward.
Mr.. Grant was on his way from New
York to the Pacific coast for six months
sketching the wonders of the western
waters, when his career came so near
sudden ending.
There may be some truth in my
death, but, like Mark Twain, L believe
the report must have been greatly ex-
aggerated," said Mr.. Grant.
have been through a terrible expert
ence and 1 never want another. 1t
seems miracle to me that 1 am alive
and well today. I was sitting in the
smoker of the chair car with six other
men, and at the time of the crash was
talking to George Sharp, the man who
was on his way to Los Angeles to hunt
up his wife. He was telling me that
he was on his way home, and a few
minutes later l saw him dead. think,
since reading the morning papers and
learning that he was on his way to his
wife, who had in the meantime been
divorced and married to another man,
that his death was providential.
when the first crash came L jumped
for the door and 1 think this action
hat protected me from glass and all
kinds of falling things and when I
came out of the wreck it was gone.
After l had assisted in caring for
the injured until my aid was no longer
needed l began to take an inventory of
my possessions. 1 had thrown out lot
of baggage and in one of these piles l
found my suitcase. Lying beside it
was my sketch book. l walked along
the Wreckage, and hanging out of a
window | found my overcoat, torn and
battered, but mine, nevertheless. Stick
ing in pile of Dirt not far away 1
saw an umbrella, and on investigation
that proved to be mine. 1t was a
strange thing just happening on all
these possessions and in such widely
different places"
Mr.. Grant came from the east with
George Wharton James, the noted lee
turer and authority on Indian baskets,
who has been in New York on a lecture
tour, Mr. James stopped in New Or
leans to give some lectures and to gath
er material for an article on municipal
conditions there. Mr.. Grant stayed with
him for a couple of weeks, sketching
and then, as Mr.. James had to stop in
Houston, Tex, he seeded to come on
and begin his work IN the Pacific coast.
Though a young man, Mr.. Grant has
risen 10 the 'front.' rank or marine art
lists. Since boyhood he has been a lover
of the water and his early years We're
spent upon a lake. His first desire to
paint marine pictures came from see
ing one by the Boston artist, Hlwell
AT that time he was IA years of age,
and he heard that a woman i'm Oswego.
where he lived, had a marine picture
by Elwell. He did not know her, but
he managed to muster enough courage
t. ask If he could see the picture, and
later the owner permitted him TO copy
II. That was his first picture, and since
then he has been steadily at his work
and 1t has nearly all been marine work.
He was one of the five American pu-
pills of M. II. II. DeHaas, court painter
to the queen Of Holland. He has spent
much of his life upon the sea and says
he loves the seafaring life free from
the shams and frivolities of the city.
There is little of the Atlantic coast
with which 1 am not familiar. but this