OCR Text |
Show Frank Millet J BY RICHARD WHITEING. J 'j W i Friends of Frank Millet, the ar- 'j.'i tist, in all corners of the world, ea- n geraly looked for his name in tha list of the saved from the Titanic. But they looked in vain. jfh; Ho was an American by birth jgjji born in 1816, long enough ago to !j have enabled, him to squeeze into 'lit the civil war as drummer boy in a jj i regiment of the north. Being of that old school, he was ono who ly had been everything by turns, and still some things long. If he had been asked what ho most was in l ; the latter part of his lifo, and even q I at tho beginning of it ho would h j have said an artist. In reply to V. the Bamo question in tho middlo ij ', part, tho answer would have had to j? t bo a war correspondent, and as part jj li of his business of war, even a sur- tj j gcon of sorts in the field. jjl ''J At another period he acted as "director of decorations" at tho jtj.i Chicago exposition. Between whiles jhj' he was tho man of letters with his ju stories and articles, his translations ijllj of Tolstoi, his book of Danubian. travel, and especially in his ca-pacity ca-pacity of the Froissart of tho ex- podition to tho Philippines. To tho f last he wrote bettor than ho paint- i eL He held a strong and at tha fi same timo a flexible pen; his paint- if ing never went beyond a rathor j" mechanical kind or genro in which U he glorified eodio faultless master- !j's pieces of womankind in tho killing 'IL. costumes of her time. All that ho 4w had iu tho penwork tho strength jffl the ease, the natural feeling, the ; e quick and true eye for effect 'J.kj seemed to forsake him as soon as iKt he took the brush in hand. Like the Irish saint of the legend, j'fij he came of decent people. HisTa- ther was a doctor who sent him to k-u Harvard to tako his degree. Ho Jf'J graduated quite naturally into jour- ijhrj nalism by his shoer love of adven- Jjin turo. Ho was ono of Sir John Rob- jljVj inson's mon; and Sir John had such (JM a suro eye for a journalist and in jjf- particular for a war correspondent, 1m that ho could almost have picked s' out a possible Frank Millet or a Forbes from a crowd. Millet served the London Daily tl News in tho Russo-Turkish war and he soon showed himself of tho same breed of tho born writers of the iiM chronicles of battle as his country- yv man, Mahan. "He had a good deal Afi of tho poet in him. And his mere )H training in tho artistry of the brush j taught him at least, how to look at a thing for one kind of effect, while ttfi j with the proper implement "in his ft hand, he was equally sure of ren- by- dering it with power and distinc- tion. He afterwards acted for tho '---A London Times during the war be- j' : ' tween the United States and Spain. ii;-1! So, as timo went on, he had ! seen men and cities, peaco and war and genorally in his English if; homo at Broadway, in Worcester- !.'! shire, ho found a poace that almost i;j !' passed understanding in the most j: Ti beautiful villaco in the land. No wonder that Millet and his wife were but two of a largo colony of British or Americans Mary An- dersou and her husband among the , .! number. '; All of these kept themselves pretty much to themselves, and .y thov had a tendency to sit tight jj within doors when the interviewer lij'Sj or the autograph hunter was spied from their watch towers. When ;" peoplo were on the right side of tho ! J door, howevor, they found tho col- 1'1 onists tho most dolightful set in hh the world. VM I first came across him in Paris, whore I think he was studying at 'Jj.'u the Beaux Arts by way of com- ,'!' Eleting tho art course which he )";." ad begun in Antwerp. My mem- 'tvj, oiy, however, is not absolutely : ,; suro on that point. I know he ; J was living in classic Montmartro , at tho time, and I am equally clear as to my having served him ' as best man and goneral body of 'is invited guests all rolled into one, '.; at his marriage. I was the only V formallv invitod person presont. 'i f The bridesmaid, of courso, is not to be counted in this catogory, for IjU Bho was of tho faniilv. There ,i were just four of us, himself and tho' charming young woman ho married, his sister, and myself. J. i" It was wholly without fuss or formality of any kind; tho two ladies enrvod the cake and handed )': round tho coffee, which ono of M;.f them had previously mndo; tho . V men smoked, and we nil Iookod j-J'.Ti down on weltering Paris from our mountain top, and felt that thero ''ii wore worse things than Lifo in Bo- J 'lt i,m; tv- .: i. - , , '.fl nemia. -or simplicity, it. might ('. If havo been another marriago of i':jf Isaac and Rebecca, after the well- 'U'Pi known picture. Long afterwards. Ms! and bridging a gulf of years. 1 k!if met him again at Abbe3''s studio JJV'ti in Konsington on a show day. in chargo of some of his pictures in 'U p-a p-a joint exhibition of his two men. vit't Poor Frank I It seems hard to v 'l believe that the brave, fearless, Ml.'. adventurous spirit, with its in- tensely keen relish of existence, Jrp can now bp lying in cold obatruc- Ni-X lion at the bottom of the sea. Well, ' Jti. it was, after all. a not unfitting til'.ii end to a lifo that was lived in j .' every moment of its duration. The scale of tho whole catastrophe is Wff opical in its crandolir the ship !1?!rji lowering in . its proportions be- wJ vond anv that tho sea3 have ever before carried, the passen?ar3 and fllVif crew rising so onsilv to the epic f i-'Cir' height of heroism when their cnll came. So to live and so to die is to havo the very fullness of bo- ing oven in the final hour. ijff |