Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-05-09

eldest of a family of five children.
1t would be pleasant to be able to record the
fact that 1t was a case of love at first sight for
Cadet whistler and Anna Mcneil. But that Is
doubtful, for soon after he was graduated from
West Point he was married, but not to Anna
MeNeill. Shortly afterwards young Whistler was
left a wIdower and early In the '3Os he again
met the motherly older sister of his classmate.
William Gibbs Mcneil, and married her. In 1888
Whistler resigned from the army and the next
year to George Washington Whistler and Anna
Mathilda Whistler was born a son TO whom was
given the name James Abbott Mcneil Whistler,
thus perpetuating the name Of his uncle, James
Abbott, the Detroit trader at Fort Dearborn, as
well as his p~aternal and maternal families, the
McNeills and the Whistlers.
After George Washington Whistler's resigna-
ton from the army he rose to eminence as an
engineer and in 1912 he went to Russia TO enter
the service Of the car In the construction Of the
railroad from st. Petersburg to Moscow, winning
for himself from Car Nicholas the decoration
of the Order of st. Anne. To Russia with him
went his wife and their two sons, one Of them
a slender, weak lad, affectionately known to his
mother as Jamie" And "Jamie" he was to her
to the end of her days, even when he became
a world-famous painter. For the close tie be-
tween the mother and the son who was to i'm
mortalize her on canvas began during this Rus
sian experience.
She nursed him during those bitter years and
when they were ended In the death of Major
Whistler and when the widow and her two sons
were reduced to poverty, she brought them out
of the land of SHOWS back to her sunny North
Carolina. When "Jamie" grew up he decided TO
follow the profession of his father and become
a soldier. He secured an appointment to West
Point In 1862, but his career there was a short
one. In fact, 1t lasted only two years.
But the loss to the military world, IL indeed
1t was a loss, was the gain Of the world of art.
After leaving West Point, Whistler went to Paris,
resolved to become a painter, and his career In
that role LIS too well known to need further
comment. During the years he was rising to
fame. his mother was In Europe, also, not with
him always, but nearby In case he should have
need OF her. For somehow her little Jamie"
never seemed to grow up enough to be without
his mother. In 1850 Whistler left London for
three years more of study In Paris and his
mother returned to America for q last visit with
her relatives In North Carolina. For Whistler
had decided never to return to his native Land
to live. so his mother was going to wind up
what few affairs she had there and then return
to London, where they would live on the scant
means which the son could provide.
While she was visiting In Cumberland and
Bladen counties In North Carolina, the storm Of
the Civil war broke and her return to Europe
was postponed indefinitely. Finally early In 1864
came word from her son that he had returned
to London and established himself there. So
she announced her intention of joining him.
But no matter how much her relatives told
Anna Matilda Mcneil Whistler that 1t would
be impossible for her to go to Europe now, her
only reply was the calm statement that her
Jamie" needed her and she was going. And 40
she did. Somehow she arranged to take passage
on a Confederate blockade runner and on 1t
arrived safely In England.
There she lived to the end Of her days, the In
separable companion of the nan who came to be
hailed as one of the greatest painters In the
world.
@ by Western Newspaper Union.