The Nome nugget., 1934-09-01
WhistIer,s Portrait of His Mother
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON

By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
 HEN the special Mothers day stamps were placed on sale re- AA gently, there was added another {" chapter to the romantic story of a
 woman who is undoubtedly Amer
 icas most famous mother. For
 @ the stamps bear the reproduction 0.&l. of James Abbott McNeill Whistlers TNy8 famous painting which is called
 2HO Arrangement in Gray and Black"
 but which is more familiar to his G~ fellow-Americans as "Whistlers @ Portrait of His Mother" or more
 Ell simply still, 'The Mother"
 Although Anna Mathilda McNeill
 Whistler needs nothing more than Is painting to guarantee her immortality, yet choice of her portrait for reproduction on a i ecial commemorative stamp issue this year le first time, incidentally, that such notice has en taken of Mothers day) is an additional nor conferred upon her. In all of our history, ly three other women have had that distinc- n. They were Pocahontas, the Indian prin- ss; Isabella, the Spanish queen; and Martha ashington, wife of our first President But ma Mathilda McNeill Whistler is not the only who is honored in this years Mothers day imp. It was issued also to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the event which Dk place in Lowell, Mass, on July To- 1884 birth of the son who was to achieve such rld-wide fame himself and to bring a similar rld-wide fame to her by his portrait of her. It Is doubtful If any other painting ever put canvas Is so well known to so many people. productions of 1t, running up into the millions / numbers, have been printed and these prints ve gone to every corner of the earth. During i. last year and a half, while 1t was in this lntry under a loan agreement from the French Eernment, it was exhibited in 12 leading cities oughout the United States and 1t is estimated 1t during its triumphal tour more than 2,000.- persons viewed 1t Several hundred thou lds more will have been added to that number ore 1t is sent back to Paris late this month r the agreement with the French government Is for its return by June D to resume it's lored place in the Louvre.
 Cor five months of the time that the painting on a tour of the country it was exhibited the Chicago Art institute in connection with Century of, Progress. But among the thou ids who saw 1t there and who also saw the llica of Fort Dearborn on the exposition ,unds 1t is doubtful If one in a thousand .lized that there was a historical, if not a tural, link between the world d-famous paint ,, the highest exempllfcation of mans skill the line of fine arts, and the crude architec- of building which had only the very utili- ian purpose of preserving the lives of its in- oitants from savage hatred. That link is the me of this story.
 The story has its beginning in Ireland more n 175 years ago. In the year 1758 there was n to an English family named Whistler, liv- there, son to whom was given the name John. Long before he had reached his majori- young John Whistler ran away from home I joined the British army. In TIT he came to erica as a soldier in the expedition with lch "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne intended deal a crushing blow to the American colo 5. But the rapier thrusts of Daniel Morgan 1 Benedict Arnold warded off that blow at atoga, and the end of the year saw John istler prisoner of war along with the rest "Gentleman Johnny's" army. Mark that fact l. for 1t has curious aftermath
 :efore the end of the Revolution Whistler, as paroled or exchanged prisoner, was back in yland where he soon afterwards was dis rged from the army. Then he fell in love h the daughter of one of his fathers friends, Ded with her, came to America a second time ! settled at Hagerstown, Md, In 1791 this sol ]. who had worn the scarlet uniform of Old ,land put on the nondescript uniform of a tenant adjutant in the levies which made up art of the army of the new republic. From time on he served continuously on the 'thwestern frontier under St. Clair, Wayne others who were trying to break the power he savage tribes that were resisting the west I'd push of the American frontiersmen.
 l 1797 it was Captain" John Whistler and } sos he was stationed at Detroit. The Louisl- ; Purchase had flung our frontier from the sissippi back to the Rocky mountains, but if hoped to make good our possession of this empire there must be garrisons in the heart the Indian country. One of the strategic ,es for such a garrison was at the foot of Michigan at place variously called Chi ou. Chikago Chekakou and half-dozen simi- spellings. So. early in 1903, the inspector eral of the army stationed at Cumberland. gave orders for the building of a post there