The Prescott daily news., 1913-01-09
Getting His
 Start


 ment sketch of bathroom interior. T was not always famous and pros porous. 1 have known the time when a sudden sight draft for less than four figures would have seriously embar- rassed me-"
 You figure in the cents in that statement, suppose" said the studio loafer
 "I might even go as far as that" as- sented the artist. Did ever tell you how l got my start?" he continued. Well. I'll tell you; 1t was in triplicate portrait work"
 Portraits of triplets?" inquired the studio loafer. "Dobber told me he did dime museum posters, too, at one time"
 He ought to have stuck to that branch of art" remarked the artist. No, you misunderstood me. I'll tell you how 1t was. There was one win ter was pretty well on my uppers. At that time 1 got acquainted with Giotto Parkinson, and I tell you he was godsend. He had a studio In the Gros- venor and he didn't use 1t nights, be- sides having a samovar that he got in the Ghetto and plenty of alcohol. The Grosvenor doesn't favor light house. keeping. but l was pretty careful how l threw my scraps out of the window
 One day Parkinson gave an exhib- 1t. He knew quite few people in re- spectacle circles and he thought there was chance that some one of them might buy picture of his If they got well under the influence of a proper art atmosphere and Russian tea. I stuck up few little things of my own with his to furnish the art at- mosphere and he provided the tea and the samovar. It turned out all right. There was a coal baroness among those present and 1 got her worked up to the point of ordering from me a portrait of her ten-year-old son for $50. She brought him around the very next day. Parkinson was a good fel- low and he let me have the use of his shop for the job. We had bully good dinner on the strength of the condi- tions anyway. The kid was a sallow- faced, skinny-like monkey, not at all like mamma, but 1 calculated I could idealize him by wide stretch of my well-known imaginative faculty. He had one sitting that day. The next day and for several other sittings his nurse brought him, and I want to say that 1 had the dickens own time get ting that imp to keep still It didn't do any good to talk to him. All I got by that was sass-oh the worst sort l just sweat blood for four days trying to get some sort of expression on that portrait that wasn't exactly diabolical and yet resembled the kid At last got it.
 Two days later the picture was done and the sigh of relief that heaved made the windows rattle. notified the baroness and she and the baron came to look at it. He seemed to have been brought under compul- sion and to be but mildly interested 1 had learned that he was merely stepfather to the brat, so 1 didn't won- der so much at it. But the baroness threw fits of ecstasy over the picture and ordered two more at the same price, after trying in vain to beat me down.
 T won't tell you what I went through within the next month with the heir apparent, how day by day l grew to loathe the little wretch more and more. The dear angel had per formed large variety of interesting tricks around the place to relieve the monotony of the sittings, and he wound up by coming early one after noon and coloring Parkinson's cher ished Florentine prints in oil in our absence. When l demonstrated he gave me a choice line of sass, where upon I took my little man across my knee and laid merrily on.
 Nearly two weeks later the coal baron caught me in.
 Don't be alarmed he said, as 1 to pay you for the pictures. I believe this Is the right amount
 "He laid a slip of paper on the ta- ble It was a check for S100.
 q gasped
 eff you don't mind l would like to shake hands with you,' he continued.
 T backed away.
 "I See that you still fail to under stand he said want to tell you, sir, that you have my entire sympathy and heartfelt thanks for the basting you gave that young one. I've often longed to do 1t myself. Frankly, sir, I envy you. By the way. if you can make 1t convenient to call at my off, flee I have something there I would like to talk to you about. No, don't