Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-12
QUAKE FORECASTER
SAYS WE'RE SAFE
HOLDS RECORD BY PREDICT
ING GREAT DISASTER
struction of San Francisco Has
No Evil in Store for
Los Angeles

A. Franklin Fields. the we'll know
landscape painter. who also is reputed
among mental scientists as an able oc-
culttst, seer and psychologist, Is in Los
Angeles, with temporary quarters at
315 North Broadway. where he is rest
ing and enjoying civilized life for a
few weeks following two years that he
has spent in the wilds of California
mountains painting from nature scenes
which never previously have been por-
trayed on canvas.
Mr.. Fields is the original, sinner pure
earthquake forecaster. He predicted
the San Francisco disaster four days
in advance. He says California is safe
at present.
Mr.. Fields has just returned from
Azusa. in the Vicinity of which place
for several months he has been study
ing Southern California mountain life
and silYfcuture. He declares Southern
California is paradise for all artists
who love the really picturesque.
Mr.. Fields has painted extensively
from nature on the Orange river in At
RIGA and spent many months sketching
and painting in South America, and in
the heart of the bushrangers' territory
in Australia. He also has many paint
inLj rejecting peculiar conditions and
modes of life in northern Japan and
lures for sums seldom realized by more
prominent artists.
Painted Tiger in Woods
Mr.. Fields enjoys the distinction, it
is said, of being the only artist who
ever painted a tiger from life in the
iungles of Africa.
Several years ago, while sitting at
his easel on the Orange river painting
a woodland scene, Mr.. Fields glanced
up and observed tiger glazing at him
from the edge of the glade. Having his
rifle at his side and relying on his oc-
cult feelings in the matter-which as
sured him that the tiger was about as
nervous at he was-Mr. Fields quieted
his abnormal desire to hit the high
places and proceeded, casually and
without consulting the tigers wishes,
to depict him on canvas.
While the tiger moved about among
the trees at the edge of the glade, evil
IDENTIFY anxious to cross to the water,
but undetermined, Mr.. Fields closely
observed his movements and facial dis
tortions and secured what is considered
first-class study of THE Tiger in Its
Lair"
Speaking of Southern California yes
terday, Mr.. Field said:
There is everything in this beautiful
country of yours that any artist, what
ever his preferred branch, could pos
sibly covet. Nature here combines the
beautiful with the bizarre.
Cites Our Attractions
For instance, on your desert-one of
the most magnificent and strangely
beautiful deserts in the world-there
are freak formations and atmospheric
combinations found in no other arid
country in Europe or America. Your
Grand canyon, your Funeral mountain
and the other marvellous abnormalities
of it's geology afford ample opportunity
for artistic expression seldom to be
encountered.
Your Coast range mountains, with
their snow-capped peaks, wonderfully
variegated forests and Quaint old Span
ish settlements-adobe hamlets and
pioneer mining camps; your semi
tropic groves and fertile valleys tenn
ing with luXuriant foliage and flowers
and containing every form of abode
from the tin-pa tched hut to the most
costly mansions, and, then, too, your
seashore beauties, your delightful bays
and estuaries, rock-ribbed and fire.
quently cave-worn, all go to create
paradise for the poet nd artist.
II always look for that which appeals
to me as poeticai in nature, hence since
| have come to Southern California
have concluded it is useless to go far
Their. I have been practically all over
ture in many countries, out the rest of
my life will be spent in Southern Cali
fornia-the artists EIDE:
Il intend to get a camp outfit, HE me
away to the fastness of the alpine wild,
stack in good supply of provisions,
and do nothing more but paint and
paint. With such enhancing nature
studies as are ! re afforded l VIII ask
for no other privilege.
mo, | am not afraid of bears, cou-
CARS or other wild animals, for my ex-
perience in Africa and elsewhere-and
l have been in not few so-called dan
gerous jungies'-has convinced me
these carniverous creatures are harm
less enough if you keep your head and
don't bother them. Sometimes it is
necessary to shoot-but when l shoot it
is always to kill. Otherwise l would
not be here explaining it. l am pref
ty good man with a gun-if l have TO
be-"
Mr.. Fields, besides spending much of
his future time in the mountains, ex-
poets to put in a year or so in the
Death valley country, and says he is
going as far into it as possible on the
amount of water he will be able to
carry. If he doesn't get all the paint
ings he wants on one trip he declares
he will return and get another outfit.
when he will return to the land Of
skeletons"
Mr.. Fields at the time of the San
Francisco earthquake had an exhibit
ton studio at Oakland, and while in
his pursuit of occult diversions pre-
dicted the Bay city catastrophe. His
prediction, however, was based partly
IN his knowledge of geology. He
stated at the time of the Formoso
earthquake, four days preceding the
san Francisco temblor, that the latter
was a natural sequence, scientifically to
be expected.