The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-08
F. Hopkinson Smith, Builder of Breakwater
 Here, Dead at 76
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{Continued from Page 1) cessfu1, until finally his luck turned and a friend of his family offered him a position in an iron business in Broad street MT. Smith was then 25 years old, and he made up his mind to become a mechanical en- gineer. and with his indefatigabIe energy and push started to study.
 After a time he went into the con tracting business for himself, takiig as partner James Syrnington. an art ist- Four years later he undertook ton of the stone ice-breaker about the Bridgeport lighthouse. Then he built the breakwaters at Block Island and the jetties at the mouth of the Connecticut River and the old sea wall around Governors Island in New York harbor. These were followed by the construction of the fodnda- tion for the Statue of Liberty and Race Rock Lighthod at New Lon don, and many other similar works.
 Of all his engineering work Mr. Smith always insisted that he was most proud of the Race Rock IAght-s house.
 hood days. he had never written any thing, for publication until after he was 45 years old His publisher then asked him to write a short series of descriptions for a number of water colors that were being printed, and this resulted in his first book, sWel-Worn Roads,'s which was puE5-3 Ished in 1sS6, It was received very kindly by the critics and public, but it was not until he created the char acter of Colonel Carter who first ap- peared in his book, .ColoneI Carter Of CartersviIle,'' that he became fa- nous As the author Of Colonel Garter stories MT Smith became known all over the world. His most successful book is said to be Caleb West, Master Diver which was published in the spring of 1898. From his early childhood, Mr. Smith was fond ofFdrawfng, but re-. ceived no instruction until he was if. teen years old While he was still d school boy he received for a time the advice and criticism of an old artist, named Miller, who lived in Baltimore ThissWas all the art instruction he, ev- CT had and he was practically self taught All the time he was work, ing at engineering, he kept in close in charcoal and now and then took a day off to make some watercoIor I sketches Mr. Smith was one of tho original members of the famous Tile I Club, which fiourished thirty years ago and many of the members Of . I painters He was also one of the | earliest members of the American
 Water Color Society and the New
 York Etching Club.
 MT. Smith had received many awards for his paintings. The Pan, I American Exposition gave him sev- Iera1 medals the Charleston Exposi- 1 ton and the Philadelphia Art Club also awarded his medals. The suI-
 tan of Turkey. who was greatly at tracted by his work, conferfed on him the orders of the Medjidiek and the osmanyeh. with the gradk Of om- Icer in both MT. Smith made it a custom for
 many years to spend several months
 abroad, sketching and painting When the war began he was in France. and, after spending September in London, treturned to his home here. On his return he gave an interview in which he spoke of the war and said:
 The word is divided, I tell you It is not a Double Alliance or Triple
 Entente: it is not German and a ' Russian and a. United States and an 1 Italy and an England That is not the division of the world just now.
 There are two sides and only two There is barbarism on the one hand and civilization on the other; there
 brutality and there is humanity.
 And humanity is going to win. but the sacrifices are awful-aWfuI.''
 In 1912 MT. Smith. while on his an- lnuaI trip abroad, went about London
 in a taxicab making sketches. This
 attracted much attention and led to
 his having trouble with an English
 policeman, who finally insisted on talk
 ing him to the police station as a sus-
 picious person. Here as soon as he
 was recognized MT. Smith was re- leased from custody.
 He was a member of the American ;, Society of Civil Engineers the Arneri-
 can Water Color Society, the Phila-
 delphia and Cincinnati Art Clubs and
 the Academy of Arts and Letters. MT Smith was also a member of num- Der of clubs among which were the Fl Century, Authors, University, and , Players of this city, the Metropoli-
 tan of Washington, the Tavern o1
 Boston. and the Art. Clubs of both Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
 , His widow, who was Miss Josephine Vank kDeventer, survives him.