The Republican journal., 1913-05-15

| Ouo Idlh VI Lie lOPcu W I'VE
to see the membership 1000 and the club
SO regarded that every man should con-
slider it a great honor to be member.
Seated at the head table with the guest
were President John R. Ainsley, Gusta-
vus B. Bracket, brother of the guest;
Hon. Samuel L. Powers, Charles T. Gal
lagher, Theodore H. Tyndale, J. Harvey
Young, Frank G. Webster, Wallace L.
Pierce, Henry Hornblower, j. Murray
Kay, Henry G. Pickering and Henry
Russell of Detroit. Hon. Samuel L.
Powers was POSTMASTER.
Mr.. Ainsley read several kilograms,
one of which was from Lord Dufferin.
Mr.. Powers read more kilograms and a
letter from Judge Edgar Aldrich. Rev.
E. A. Horton, D. D., read poem.
The following sketch of Mr.. Bracket
was published in a Boston magazine,
Wisdom" in September, 1902:
WALTER M. BRACKETT.
| In America we are beginning to UNDER
stand, as never before, that art touches
closely on national prosperity, that it is
of vast Importance in rich and we'll
rounded civilization. To make the ideal
grow out of the commonplace and the
everyday is one of the many gifts pos
sessed by artists, though some artists
themselves do not realize this. When
we cease to think of art as merely lux
ury and simply ornamental, but regard
it, as did Sir Richard Potter as neces-
slty. then will we realize the full mean
ing of such faithful pictures of men and
of fishes as Walter M. Bracket knows
so we'll how to make.
Mr.. Brackettis the painter of portraits
for many famous men. His studio at al
fremont street, Boston, has been the
rendezvous for many celebrated names,
too, other than those who came to have
their portraits painted who came be-
cause they knew and loved the man, as
we'll as the artist, who admired him for
his rich store Of experience and his de-
lightful conversation. Wendell Phillips,
Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, Cen
eral Ben Butler, DR.. Holmes, Edwin
Booth, Timothy Pickering, Samuel Dex-
ter, William Eustice and Henry Dear
born 1.-THE last four named the first sec
retaries of wary and many others whose
names have passed into history. The
visitors book at the same mecca for
great minds,--had such book been
kept, would have contained such valu-
able autographs, besides the names men
toned, as William Lloyd Garrison, Whit
tier, Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Rich
ard H. Dana. Sr., Henry Ward Beecher,
Nasty, Billings, Twain, Edwin Forrest,
John G. SAKE, Bayard Taylor, James
Wallack, William Warren, Fechter, JEFF
ferson, Lucy Larcom, Mrs. Howe, Char
lotte Cushman, Julia Marlcwe, Col. In
gersoll and others.
His love of nature led the portrait
painter when thirty years old. to spend
his summer outing among the wales and
streams near Conway, N. H. Here a
chance brook trout, still beautiful in
death, was transferred so successfully to
canvas by Mr.. Bracket that he was at
once overwhelmed with orders for pi,.-
lures of trout. 1t was not until 1861
that he began to paint salmon, seeing his
first land-locked specimen in Schoodic
Lake. Maine, in that year. A famous
quartet Of pictures, bringing him world
wide praise, was painted in 1872. The
names were "The Rise, ''The Leap"
1.-The Struggle, =" "Landed!" They were
promptly exhibited at Boston, New
York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and
then were taken to Liverpool and Lon
don. While this tourney of the can
vas" was under way, Sir Richard Potter
VI GiOuCeSttISulIc, travelling III MOntlCois
had heard so much about them that, be-
fore he had ever seen the pictures, he
purchased them, and they are now art
features of that gentleman 8 estate, in
room built specially for them and con-
tanning no other. Replicas of this set
were made for Lord Mount Stevens and
Banker John S. Kennedy. Messrs. Wal
ter L. Pierce and Charles Barnes of Bos-
ton own his Critical Moment" and
''Leap for Life" respectively. Allen
Gilmour of Ottawa and the Liverpool
Art Club also own specimens of his won
derful skill.
Mr.. Bracket was born in June, 1923,
in Unity, Me-, of Quaker descent. His
father was famous matchmaker. He
went to Quaker school in Providence,
R. l., for several years. His parents re-
moved to Cincinnati in 1887; but Walter,
whose taste for drawing had had con-
siderable practice, even at this early
age, soon went to the studio of his sculp-
tor brother in Boston. Soon thereafter
his long-occupied studio, lately vacated
to give room to modern sky-scraping
business block, began to be famous for
it's distinguished visitors.
Mr.. Bracket and his wife have for
years spent their summers on the Sague-
nay river in Canada, where they have a
camp in the midst of the salmon region.
The artist does not look his nearly four
score years, perhaps, because nature
love is such a necessary part of his
makeup. Therein lies a lesson which
''he who runs" or he who walks, either,