The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-10-16
HUNGER GIVES
ARTIST AN IDEA
HoIdup Picture in W. H. Ban
Cr0ft'S Office Had a Most
Unique Origin.

In the private office Of w. H. Bancroft,
general manager of the Short Line rail-
! road is picture that Invariably arouses
interest. Il Is entitled 1.-THE Footpad,"
and beneath it is an inscription showing
that It was presented with the compli-
ments Of Robert Pinkerton of the detec-
tive agency. The striking feature of the
picture is that seen from any point in the
room the muzzle Of the revolver seems to
be pointed directly at the spectator. Inc
| eyes of the rObber, too, seem to follow
| one about the room, giving an eerie SEN
satiou that fixes the picture in one s mem
/ DRY indelibly, 4 great deal has been writ
/ ten about this picture and now 10 pdlI1I
/ one like 1t, until nowadays any one at AZ
/ VeTsed in art can make a copy, nut the
/ origin Of the picture has never peen ue-
| sCribed in print and Plnkerton n1InselI,
/ who distributed it to his friends, does not
! know how it came to be painted, for the
| original was in oil. although the copies
given by PinkertOn to his friends are Dig
| The original was painted in Spokane.
1 Back in 1893 the present staid metropolis
1 of eastern Washington was Lively camp
where open gambling was one Of the prlh-
cipal industries. The biggest gdHDIlHs
house in town, The Owl" kept by the
square gambler Doc" Brown, handled
more money than most of the banks. It's
proprietor was phllanthroplst IN MS
way. He bought seals and put them IN
the Spokane river so the children could
play with them and in many other unique
ways endeaFed himself to the less pros
porous portion of the community. one
day, hearing that a family was in want
down in a little shack not far from the
Division street bridge, he went TO lnVes-
tigate and found a young Polish artist
and his wife actually in want of FOOD. II
was one of the gamblers cardinal tenets
that everybody was entitled to enough to
eat so he supplied them with provisions
He visited them every day and soon be
-oT me vel n
day as the gambler was leaving the ar
lists wife said to her husband:
"ShOw him your picture
The artists face Redeemed and he said:
/ "Oh. he wouldn't care for il Besides.
that's all over now. I'm going TO de-
stTOy it
tact for which he was famous he at
/ length induced the artist TO bring forth
the picture.
1t was the painting of "The Holdup,"
and the gambler fairly shivered as the
gun muzzle and the eyes seemed to follow
/ him about the room.
! However did you do that?" asked the
gambler.
''That holdup is myself" answered the
artist. 1T is myself as I might have
| been had it not been for your kindness.
/ L intended to rob some one to buy bread
/ for my wife and self. ! thought about 1t
so much that this picture imprinted itself
| in MY memory and would not go away.
/ There was companion picture that 1
] could never paint. II was myself stand
/ ing over a man who had resisted robbery
and whom I had killed. That picture is
what deferred me until you came"
/ What will you take to paint the other
pictuTP2" asked the gambler. who was a
/ cOnnOisseur of art as well as of the
I freaks Of chance.
L could rot paint it. IT would drive
/ me crazy, It almost did so anyway" an
/ sweTed the artist and he stuck to this
decision despite offers of big sums.
/ The gambler took the picture and hung
{ il in The Owl gambling saloon just be-
low the big tiger with gaping jaws which
was supposed TO be a warning to all en-
! tering the gambling hall In a day the
picture was famous. People felt the un-
/ canny influence of those eyes and gun
| muZZle that seemed to follow them all
| about the room. Then came the demand
/ for copies and the young artist and his
wife were able to repay their benefactor
T He Srdvely rendered them an account of
I all he had advanced and then, after ac-
cepting il, wrote a check for many times
/ the amount in payment for she picture
He was a gambler, but that was his way
/ Perhaps il is why today he has a modest
living from a small mercantile venture in
4 Portland, Ore, with none Of the hun
dreds of thousands that came and went
/ through his hands.
/ PinkertOn. found the picture in Spokane
and got permission to have photographs
/ made OF it. These he sent to his friends,
. but neither he nor any others except a
few VINO knew the gambler, ever learned
4 how the picture was conceived.