The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-15
ENCRoACHING UPON THE DEVIL.
From the Boston Transcript.

run lHt DOSlOh 1IduSCllpls
 TNLORENCE, November 9.-Howard
 ~ Pyle, the American artist and au- ! thor, died here today of heart fail ure. His home was at Wilmington, Del', where he was born in 1853.
 Let Pyle's own words tell the story of the useful and interesting life just ended:
 q attended a good school in Whining ton. and remember that was fond or drawing pictures, but was not a pre- cocious youngster in any sense or man ner. Plenty of other boys drew as well and even better Still, I liked to draw and write. One spring, l recollect, when the birds were singing in the trees and the flowers were blooming, and the rest lessness and longings of the season were stirring in my heart, that went to an old ivy-covered rock near home to com pose a poem. I took pencil and paper along, but after I had seated myself amid the ivy remembered that l had not yes
 learned to read or write.
 At the age of 16 I left home to be a student at private art school in Phiia- delphia. The school was kept by man who had won a gold medal at Antwerp the centre, perhaps, of the most techhlcai art in Europe. I remained three years ln Philadelphia, getting vast fund of intor- nation and a wide knowledge of the pure lv practical or professional side of draw ing. I studied anatomy under pr. VII liam w. Keene, the now famous surgeon and medical author, and liked it immense ly My technical knowledge was so good that l could draw the nude figure without a model-and could draw it accurately too. Throughout my life l have been fast worker, one of the results, possibly of my early training in Philadelphia.
 But 1 was not taught how to apply my
 knowledge The imagination was not trained. We followed hard and fast rules on the theory that pictures were made by technical knowledge. I could draw-any- one can learn to do that-but young as l was. I soon found that execution alone, no matter how skillful, cannot make picture that the world cares for Any man of education can learn to write correctly, but it is only the very few who can gam and hold the interest of the public. My work lay idle for several years while I experimented Finally-it was in 1S76-I wrote verse about a magic pill that instantly turned an aged person, namely, a person fretting over his years, into terrible boy. It was illustrated by some crude drawings in pen and ink. l 1 sent it to the Century Magazine, then called Scribner's, and, to my joy, it was accepted for department called, think, 1 'Bric-a-Brac' I then decided to move to New York and try my luck at making a | living.
 I NO great ambition was in my mind. | Ordinarily, the usual young man, at iirst' l has only modest aspirations. He goes for | ward by steps, each one a little higher, his development being altogether natural,
 until he achieves that which only lies lat
 ent in his mind at the beginning. had done small things and vaguely hoped Tor
 larger ones but made no effort to look very far into the future.
 l New York then, as now, was the rich-
 est market tin tho world for ideas All n all, did well, making $25 some weeks and
 in others as much as $50 left my chear | lodgings and, with a couple of friends
 took studio working and sleeping there
 but eating at restaurant.
 "I had been in New York for yeal and half, perhaps, when l painted my first important picture. It was made IT black and white and called The Wrech 1 in the Offing.' It sold and my life has
 since been in pleasant places
 Pyle talked easily and swiftly. He wrott books. lectured about art, and in curt sen
 tences and jerlzy pauses disciplined young
 artists who begged his judgment on then
 work He had the gifts of expression im' agination and style.
 q should say" Howard Pyle said ono day. that there is no such vice or human quality as an artistic temperament. It is
 a phrase and nothing more, which is eni ployed to cover a good many delinquen l cies
 "A successful artist" said Pyle again ir talking to an interviewer, lis just like