The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-11-03
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS Il
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON

NEW YORK.-In more than four
~ decades, Louis M. Eilshemius
made 5000 paintings and drawings
and never made cent out of them.
sAN Vanity Cries M ne19ar; 5nlee g I,e
Painter as Gold, exhibitions of
Garlands Arriue a sI Il ;s re-
ported to have sold $150,000 worth
of his paintings. All his canvases
are in demand at high prices.
But MIR. Eilshemius, an irasci-
BILE little man with a ragged
beard and a testy way Of speak
ing, is bedridden in his gloomy,
gaslit old house in East Fifty
seventh street, and he asks,
ssWhat's the good of the whole
damn thing?" He's rs years old.
He warned the world many
times that it was going hell-for-
leather down the skids, and now
he thinks it's on the last stretch
of the creased chute, and moth
ing else matters-n0t even mon
ey and fame.
The late Ralph Blakelock lost his
mind after years of failure to stir
critical or popular interest in his
work. He was hailed as a great
painter, and his pictures were
bought by great galleries when he
no longer knew or cared about money
or recognition. There is an inter-
esting parallel between his career
and that of Mr.. Eilshemius, although
the latter is still bright and smart
as a chipmunk.
But he won't even look out Of
his narrow bedroom window. He
wants no outlook ON a world
turning itself into a madhOuse.
Pictures ON the floor, covered
with dust and c0bwebs, may be
worth fortune, pictures of
moods, dreams and memories,
but that doesn't interest him.
He had renowned the ''p0mps
and vanities of this wicked
world" long before it beat
path to his door.
The parallel between Blakelock
and Eilshemius is also marked by
the amazing diversity of their tai
ents. Blakelock, the son of physi-
clan, was trained in medicine, gifted
D,-l-yl in music and
In Diversity of career of the
-. piano and mu-
Ac"teoe"e"tS steal compost
ton. Eilshemius has composed
small library of songs, operas and
etudes and used to give piano con-
certs in his youth. He painted fe-
verishly for As years, quitting in 1922
when none would buy his pictures
and no galleries hang them. But,
in his varied abilities, he far out
shone Blakelock. Here are few
of his achievements:
When he was student at Cornell
university, he discovered new spe-
cies of ichneumon fly. Later he an
nounced a new law governing the
Identification of trees"
He wrote somewhat more than so
volumes of plays, novels, novelties,
essays and verse. The verse, By
ronic in tone, was written in Eng
lish, French, German, Italian and
Spanish. He published them him
self and, like his pictures, they gath
cred only cobwebs and dust.
He invented new kind of mag
ic" indelible ink and several studio
devices for artists.
He explored various diseases and
offered methods of therapy.
He was born in Laurel Hill, N. j.,
near Newark, the son of wealthy
glove manufacturer. He attended
Cornell two years and was room
mate of Robert w. Chambers in
Paris when they were studying art
under Bougereau. 'st
His is blue-boOk family Of
Dutch antecedents, and his name
is there inscribed, but that inter-
ests him no more than the hang
ing of his pictures in the Metro
pOlitan, the Luxembourg and the
whitney galleries.
rrre 7 ~,.:~