The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-19
Frank Mil1et
BY RICHARD WHITEING.

Friends Of Frank Millet, the az
tist, in all corners of the world. ca
geraly looked for his name in the
list of the saved from the Titanic.
But they looked in vain.
He was an American by birth
born in 1s46, long enough ago to
have enabled him to squeeze into
the civil war as drummer boy in a
regiment OF the north. Being Of
that old school, he was one who
had been everything by turns, and
still some things long. Ii he had
been asked what he most was-in
the latter part Of his life, and even
at the beginning of it-he would
have said an artist. In reply to
the same question in tho middle
part, the answer would have had to
be war correspondent, and as part
of his business of war, even sur
geon Of sorts in the field.
At another period he acted rs
"director of decorations" at the
Chicago exposition. Between whiles
he was the man of letters with his
stories and articles, his translations
Of Tolstoi, his book of Danubian
travel, and especially in his ca
pacity Of the Froissart Of the e1-
pedition to the Philippines. To tho
last he wrote better than he paint
ed He held strong and at the
same time flexible pen; his paint
ing never went beyond a rather
mechanical kind OF genre in which
he glori6ed some faultless master
pieces Of womankind in the killing
costumes Of her time. All that he
had In the penwork-the strength
the ease, the natural feeling, the
quick and true eye for effect
seemed to forsake him as soon as
be took the brush in hand.
Like the Irish saint of the legend,
he came of decent people. His IA
ther was a doctor who sent him to
Harvard to take his degree. He
graduated quite naturally into jour
nalism by his sheer love of adven-
ture- He was one Of Sir John Rob
lnson s men; and Sir John had such
a sure eye for Journalist, and in
particular for a war correspondent,
that he could almost have picked
out a possible Frank Millet or n
FORBES from q crowd.
Millet served the London Daily
News in the Russo-Turkish war and
he soon showed himself of the same
chronicles of battle as his country.
of the poet in him And his mere
training in the artistry Of the brush
taught him at least how to look at
thing for one kind of effect. while
with the proper implement in his
hand, he was equally sure of rem
dering it with power and distinc-
ton. He afterwards acted for the
London Times during the war be-
tween the United States and SPAN.
so, as time went on, he had
seen men and cities, peace and
war and generally in his English
home at Broadway, in Worcester
shire, he found peace that almost
passed understanding in the most
beautiful village in the land. No
wonder that Millet and his wife
were but two Of large colony of
British or Americans-Mary An.
derson and her husband among the
number
All Of these kept themselves
pretty much to themselves, and
they had a tendency to sit tight
within doors when the interviewer
or the autograph hunter was spied
from their watch towers. When
people were On the right side of the
door, however, they found the col
onists the most delightful set in
the world.
l first came across him in Paris,
where | think he was studying at
the Beaux Arts by way Of COM
Pleting the art course which he
had begun in Antwerp. My men,
ory, however, is not absolutely
sure on that point. / know he
was living in classic Montmartre
at the time, and am equally
clear as to my having served him
as best man and general body OF
invited guests all rolled into one.
at his marriage. [ was the only
formally invited person present.
The bridesmaid. of course, is not
TO be counted in this category. for
she was of the family. There
were Just four Of us, himself and
the charming young woman he
married, his sister, and myself.
1t was wholly without fuss or
formality Of any kind; the two
ladies carved the cake and handed
round the coffee, which one Of
them had previously made; the
men smoked, and we all looked
down on weltering Paris from our
mountain top, and felt that there
were worse things than life in Bo-
hemia. For simplicity, 1t might
have been another marriage of
Isaac and Rebecca, after the well.
known picture. Long afterwards,
and bridging a gulf of years. ]
met him again at Abbey's studio
In kensineton on a show day. in
charge of some of his pictures In
a Joint exhibition of his two men.
Poor Frank! 1t seems hard to
believe that the brave. fearless,
adventurous spirit, with its in
tensely keen relish of existence.
can now. be lying in cold obstruc-
tion at the bottom of the sea. Well,
it was, after all. a not unfitting
end to life that was lived in
every moment Of its duration. The
scale OF the whole catastrophe is
epical in its granieur-the shin