The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-06
From the New York Times.

+ rom the NeW 1OTk l llfleS
 ]C ONE months ago there began com- ing to one of the great city mar o kets little grave faced Italian lad
 who begged for work in his soft toned broken English. He was good deal under foot at first and received more hard knocks and verbal abuse than dimes ut finally one of his own countrymen | took him on" regularly, and the boy
 slept in the cellar of his employers store
 at night and made himself generally use-
 ful by day,
 Nobody knew where he came from, or l if he belonged to anybody-not even the Italian who employed him. The boy was 1 sharp and close mouthed, and at hrst 1 only answered to the name of Here your'-sometimes with an oath attached. But one day an observant lounger saw
 the boy pick up bit of chalk ana wlth one sweep of his arm draw upon box
 circle with marvellous exactness lts 5
 wonderful! As complete circle as Giotto ever madev cried the spectator, and Giotto the boy was called from that time. It was his favorite pastime, this draw ing with chalk, or with marking brush. When the rush of business was over
 for the day and the market was pretty well cleaned up, "Giotto" would sit in the sun and draw wonderful plans for the public buildings, or for church edihces on the piece of broken board that fell to him, or On the boxes and crates them selves He was particularly happy in drafting the elevations of such buildings, and he never neglected the decorations The man he worked for sometimes scolded him in their own tongue TOT wasting his time so. and most Of his efforts went into the fire in time But one day Giotto had more idle minutes than usual and he took great pains with the drawing of the front elevation of a stately edfice with shapely columns, bear ing Corinthian capitalsA and graceful arches between. His master came upon him suddenly, and Giotto, in guilty fright turned the box over and hid the draw ing.
 Here, Giotto.' said the man. Tack that card on the box, the expressman
 will be here in a minute It was the box on which the box had
 chaked his masterpiece. Giotto sighed and did as he was bid. He saw the box taken away by the expressman little later, and went more wearily about his further tasks. He was slight lad and sometimes had most distressing cough.
 | John N. Strate went home from his off, flee one night some weeks laters discour- | aged He had one of those rare chances that come to a man to earn some fame and a sood deal of money at the one
 stroke, and it seemed as though his brain
 baked at the task. He was dry of ideas.
 Everything he had tried out, on paper or in his mind, seemed unsuitable to the
 uses to which his plan was to be put.
 Never was an architect so baked for
 design,
 Firing up the last of the oranges for
 breakfast, John," his wife said to him
 as he went down to the furnace room. | Her husband took the last of the golden
 fruit out of their wrappers and dragged
 out the empty box to cast it on the wood-
 pile. In the light of the iaring cellar
 gas jet he saw the half obliterated chalk
 lines that covered the bottom of the | box.
 | Something in those lines held the arch
 itect's attention. It was a free hand dra wing-that was pain but what power
 and grace were in the sweeping lines-and
 in the thought behind the plan! He
 studied it for some time. Then he care | fully removed the thin board and carried
 it upstairs and studied over it.
 But tine suggestion was all that he
 needed. From the Inspiration of the rough chalk drawing of the front eleva- ton of "a castle in Spain sprang the
 idea: and the idea, when worked out on paper, won John N. Strate a small for
 tune. However, that is ahead of the story< Strate was like his name He acknowledged the source of his inspired plan. He hunted up the dealer from
 whom he had ordered the box of oranges
 and showed him the drawing on the board.