The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I eBook

William James Stillman
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I.

The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I eBook

William James Stillman
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I.
England the master will teach only on terms which are prohibitive of the formation of a school, while in France, with few exceptions, the most eminent painters regard it as a duty to open their ateliers to pupils often gratuitously, but in any case freely and on terms which are adaptable to the modest means of the poorest class of workers?  In how different a position in relation to the art of the world would English art now be in, had Sir Joshua, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Turner, and two or three others who could be named, thrown open their studios to the young enthusiasts who followed them, and the sterling talents which have never been wanting in England been enabled to profit by the experience and art of their elders, instead of groping their way alone to efficiency, or, still worse, going to South Kensington, generally “arriving” too late to succeed fully!

Waiting the word from Kossuth which should call me to join the ever-impending and ever-postponed insurrection, I passed the winter thus, profiting as I could by all opportunities for the study of art and making acquaintance with the artists.  My money was running to an end, but this was a matter in which my faith in Providence did not allow me to borrow trouble, and I made it a rule never to run into debt.  That I never borrowed I cannot say, but I never did so except in cases where I was in such personal relations with the lender that if I died without paying the debt, it would neither weigh on him nor on my conscience.  I kept up my regular round of economy and work, and one Saturday, when I had paid for my dinner at the Palais Royal restaurant, I found myself with fifty centimes in my pocket, and went on a long walk in the streets of Paris, to meditate on my immediate future.  Mrs. Coxe, one of the kindest of friends, would, I knew, gladly lend me what I needed, but I did not allow her to know that I needed, and how to pay for my next day’s dinner I did not see.  Still, confident that something would turn up, I walked towards my lodgings through the Rue Royale and its arcades, feeling the ten-sou piece in my pocket, when I saw a young girl dart out from one of the recesses of the arcade, dragging after her a boy of two or three years, and then, as if her courage failed, turn and hide herself and him again in the doorway from which she had come.  I saw her case at once,—­want and shame at begging,—­went to her and gave her the ten-sou piece, and went to bed feeling better.

The next day being Sunday and no atelier, I slept late, and was awaked by a knock at my door, when to the spoken “Entrez” came in no other than my friend Dr. Ruggles, between whom and myself there were various communities of feeling which made us like brothers.  He sat down by my bedside, and, salutations passed, broke out, “Do you want any money?” His grandfather, just dead, had left him a legacy, and he had come to Paris, artist-like, to spend it.  I took from him, as I would have given him the half of my last dollar, a hundred francs,

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The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.