New-York tribune., 1912-03-24

watched his firm, broad hand says MISS
! Morris, "as it covered a gold square
! half an inch in size, with wee flowers
J formed of five pin point dots Of white
| laid with the extreme point Of fun
| brush. The least waVering would have
meant a jot or a blot. but the blossoms
grew with the ease and surety that one
associates with the Chinese craftsman
who has spent his life with brush in
| his hand" OF course. being the man
that he was. he was nightly particular
about his materials, and It is charming
to watch him in his daughters account,
pursuing the right Roman vellum, and,
| in this and in other ways, moving heaven
and earth 10 make his painted manu-
! scripts absolutely hawlcss. His conf
dence is beautiful TO contemplate, and il
! is the more exhilarating because it has
no tinge of self-conceit. He had, for eX-
| ample an old quarrel with himself over
| his technique in one regard. being 'Curi-
! ously dnidcnt over his own power of
/ figure drawing" which. his daughter
1 tells us, depressed and worried him
! Honest criticism of his own perform
anccs went hand i'm hand with his happy
/ belief in himself Apropos, it is amusing
! to read that he once tried his hand at a
modern novel but abandoned it. frank
! ~ confcssing failure. Nothing but land
| scapc and sentiment" he said Of the eX-
pertinent.
! 1t was his common sense that saved
him from wasting his time For a man
! of his temperament Morris had an amaz-
| ing amount Of common sense. His
| daughter docs not by any means confne
her recollcctions to his purely artistic
affairs but portrays him as business
man also. and We are shown with what
practical industry he carried on the work
Of the firm which ultimately achieved
such fame in the sphere Of decoration.
! He was successful because his gifts in
Cluded the gift Of taking pains. When
some costly hangings he and his col
leagues had manufactured were found
to have faded, he proceeded to investi-
gate the whole question Of dyeing, and
incidentally made himself a master DYER
He read old books, questioned old dyers
and. redisCovering old formulas I'm the
employment of which he used dyestuffs
also studied with devoted care, he saw TO
it that textiles of his making did not
fade.
The claims of business inevitably en-
CroaChed upon those Of art. and the SEN
timentalist might possibly find cause for
some Commserative reflections on the
fate which forbade Morris to give all his
time to creative composition. A juster
hypothesis. however, is that which
rcckons with the fact that he was not,
after all, one Of the great creative
gcniuses and that while he planned far
more than he executed, he still got over
good deal Of ground and was. besides,
as we have already emphasized, pro-
foundly happy man. There is a letter of
his to Mrs. COroniO, which well illus
trates his mood when torn between busi-
ness and other more gracious matters.
In it he says:
! am very hard at work at one thing or
another: firms work for one thing.
should very much like 10 make the business
quite a success. and ii can't be- Unless
work at il myself. ! must say, though |
don't call myself money greedy. a smash
on that side would be terrible nuisance:
have so many serious troubles, pleasures,
hopes and fears, that ! have not time on
my hands to be ruined and get really poor;
above all things IL would destroy my free
dom OF work. which Is dear delight to
me My translations go on apaCe, but | am
doing nothing original; IL cant he helped,
though sometimes ] begin to fear ] am los
ing my invention. You know | very much
wish not 10 fall off in imagination and en-
thusiasm as / grow older, there have been
men who, once upon a time, have done
things good or noteworthy. who have got
worse with time and outlived their power ;
] don't like that AT all On the other hand
ali great men that have not died young