Gustave Doré.
This celebrated French artist died at his home in Paris January 23. His illness was very brief, and his death entirely unexpected. He was cut down in the midst of his years, having just passed his fiftieth birthday. His life was one of remarkable industry. No busier pencil than his was ever stopped by the hand of death.
He was born at Strasburg, January 6, 1833, and came to Paris while very young, where he received his education. He began his work as an artist in boyhood, furnishing designs at first for cheap illustrated books and papers. When he was about fifteen years of age, some of his pen and ink sketches and paintings were put on exhibition at the Salon. Not long after he had gained a reputation and did not want for abundance of remunerative employment.
Doré was designer, painter, etcher, and sculptor, all. It is said that he made nearly 50,000 different designs during his life; and some one has estimated that all his works of different kinds, placed in line, would reach from Paris to Lyons.
It was as a designer that he was most successful and popular. His illustrations of “The Wandering Jew”—first published in 1856—made him famous the world over. It is the judgment of critics that these illustrations he never excelled. He began at his best, it has been remarked. Some of his first important works were equal to any he ever executed. Among other books which he illustrated, may be mentioned, Rabelais, Montaigne’s “Journal,” Taine’s “Voyage aux Pyrenees,” Dante’s works, Chateaubriand’s “Atala,” “Don Quixote,” “Paradise Lost,” the Bible, Tennyson’s “Idyls of the King,” La Fontaine’s “Fables,” and Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner.” For some time before his death he was engaged in illustrating Shakspere, and it is understood that Harper and Brothers will shortly issue an edition of Poe’s “Raven,” with illustrations of his designing. Among Doré’s many paintings, his “Christ leaving the Prætorium”—which measures thirty feet by twenty—and “Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem”—also a colossal picture—are perhaps the most celebrated. Of the latter it has been said that over it “the critics smiled and Christians wept.” Other of his well-known pictures are “The Triumph of Christianity,” “The Neophyte,” “The Gambling Hall at Baden-Baden,” and “The Rebel Angels Cast Down.”
Doré was the most popular of modern designers. His illustrations, original, weird, grotesque, have gone all over the world. They are found in every library. The people enjoyed his work, and publishers eagerly sought it. He believed in himself, labored hard for wealth and fame, and was very successful. Like many artists, he struggled with poverty at the first, but the time came when all luxury was his to command and his name was a household word in every land. It mattered little to him what the work was upon which he employed his powers, if it only brought returns in money and applause. We see him at one time illustrating the filthy “Contes Drolatiques” and at another the Holy Bible. But a true estimate of this man of splendid gifts and wonderful versatility does not put him in the rank of great artists. Perhaps, if in quantity his work had been less, in quality it would have been better. He succeeded in the beginning, and that may have been unfortunate. He was always very well satisfied with his work, and he failed to improve upon himself. Those who study him in his works see possibilities in him which were never realized. He produced nothing great in art which will live as a monument to his genius. A great painting was what he always intended to execute, but he died with the purpose unfulfilled. The contrast between Millet and Doré has been remarked. The former was devoted to art from motives high and noble, while the other’s devotion was for the sake of what he could make art pay him in money and fame. He gained his ends, but it was in his power to do better, and his career after all was not a success.
Personally Doré was frank and simple, and at times—with his intimate friends—full of geniality. He had no affectation, and was as ready as a child to speak his mind about himself or others. He was sensitive to criticism, but the opinion of others never changed his own good opinion of himself. He was a man of moods. He said of himself that sometimes he was mastered by a demon. He had fits of melancholy and gloom which nothing could banish. But at other times no one was more delightful as a companion. He never married, but lived at his mother’s house in the Rue St. Dominique, St. Germain. Here he had a small studio, but in the Rue Bayard he had another larger one which perhaps was the finest in Paris. Among his many accomplishments was that of music. He sang well, and played on a number of musical instruments. He was not a society man, and spent but little time away from home. His passion was for work, and with this thirty-five years of his life were well filled. Early and late he labored, and with astonishing rapidity. But his last picture is painted, his last design made; and the things unseen and eternal, in picturing which his pencil was sometimes employed, have now become to him things seen and known.
[EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.]
John Bright’s sister, Mrs. Margaret B. Lucas, said at a temperance meeting that women are the greatest sufferers by drink, and the hardest to convince as to the necessity of total abstinence.
The business interests of the Hotel Athenæum, at Chautauqua, will receive special attention among Southern people from Mr. A. K. Warren, who is, with his wife, visiting a number of Southern States during February and March.
The New York Herald speaks of official titles in this way: “Governor Pattison, of Pennsylvania, is reported as requesting that the title ‘His Excellency’ may be discontinued in his instance, it being a mere title of courtesy without legal sanction. The governor is correct. There is but one State in the Union which has established titles by law for its chief executive officers. That is the State of Massachusetts, whose constitution was adopted several years prior to the framing of the Constitution of the United States, and provides that the governor shall be entitled ‘His Excellency,’ and the lieutenant-governor ‘His Honor.’”
Prof. A. Lalande, teacher of French in the Chautauqua School of Languages, is ready to furnish any person by correspondence with any information they desire about the department of French in the Chautauqua School, how to begin French, how to study at home, what books to read, etc. His address is 1014 Second Street, Louisville, Ky.
A friend in Canada writes: “Tell the readers of your magazine that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have formed a part of Canada ever since July 1, 1877, and that they are not separate provinces.”
In this number of The Chautauquan we commence to publish a series of C. L. S. C. songs set to music. They may be used to enliven the sessions of local circles, and in the home their weird strains will carry the lovers of music in memory to the shores of our much-loved Chautauqua Lake.
The required readings in “English Literature,” for March, will be found on pages 317 and 318 of this number of The Chautauquan. “Practice and Habit,” by John Locke; “Thoughts and Aphorisms,” by Jonathan Swift. In the introductory note, the types say “English History”—it should be English Literature. The readings on Astronomy, page 319, “The Comet That Came But Once,” is a very fine article by E. W. Maunder.
The widow of General “Stonewall” Jackson and her daughter, a young lady of nineteen, now reside at Cleveland, O. Mrs. Jackson left the South because she was there compelled to mingle with society, and could not find the retirement and rest that her health demanded.
The Guardian, an English religious journal, publishes the following lines “On Bishop Benson’s Elevation” to the see of Canterbury. They are signed Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrew’s:
As Abram’s name to Abraham,
In earnest of undying fame,
Was changed by voice from heaven,
So, raised to the Primatial Throne,
May Benson turn to Benison,
Proclaim henceforth in richest boon
Blessing received and given.
The latest attempt to organize a Sunday-school Assembly is in the Southern States. The place is Monteagle, in Grundy county, Tennessee, on the top of Cumberland Mountain. The association own one hundred acres of land which is now being laid out by a competent landscape gardener. The Monteagle Hotel, with accommodations for five hundred guests, adjoins the grounds. The Assembly has been chartered under the laws of the State of Tennessee. The board of management, with R. B. Peppard, Esq., of Georgia, as president, and Rev. J. H. Warren, of Tennessee, as chairman of the executive committee, propose to hold their first assembly about the middle of next July.
Women are to be employed as clerks in the French post-offices, beginning their operations in the Money-order Department.
“Whether we like the fact or not,” says an English journalist, “a very large number of women have now to make their own way in life; and surely it is only fair that if they must compete with men, they shall receive in youth the kind of instruction which will prepare them for their future struggles.”
A Washington correspondent of a New York paper makes this interesting comment on two prominent men: “One of the quaintest friendships in Washington is that between Generals Sherman and Johnston. The two Generals hob-nob most amicably. ‘And when I was pursuing Joe Johnston, sir, through Georgia,’ says Sherman, whacking the table, ‘he made me pursue him on his own tactics, sir!’ General Johnston is a handsome man, with the old campaigner cropping out all over him. He has a trim military figure, and a smart military moustache, and a quick military walk, and a very military comprehension of the necessity of being on time on all occasions.”
The following note explains itself: “Philadelphia, Pa.—I regret to announce that the positive order of my physician to abandon for the present all literary work, forces me reluctantly to discontinue my “Journey Around the World” with my Chautauqua friends. With assurances that I shall miss my monthly visit to your columns, and best wishes for all the good work so nobly forwarded by your magazine, I remain, very cordially yours, Mary Lowe Dickinson.”
Prof. W. F. Sherwin, of Cincinnati, tarried with us an hour recently, when we found him in a very hopeful frame of mind concerning the future of Chautauqua. We gleaned the following from his conversation about the musical part of the Chautauqua program for 1883: Chautauqua College of Music Scheme for 1883: Musical Directors, Prof. W. F. Sherwin, Cincinnati, O.; Prof. C. C. Case, Akron, O. Departments: (1) Grand chorus, (2) Special class in English glees and madrigals, (3) Harmony, (4) Voice culture, (5) Elementary singing-school, (6) Children’s class. Directors in charge: July 14 to 22, W. F. Sherwin; July 22 to August 6, C. C. Case; August 7 to 18, W. F. Sherwin; August 19 to close of Assembly, C. C. Case. There will be occasional lectures and “conversations” upon various topics of practical interest, and the usual number of concerts, matinees, organ recitals, etc. Prof. Davis, of Oberlin College, is engaged as organist, and he will be ably assisted in the instrumental department. There will be a quartette of eminent soloists whose names will be announced in due time. Arrangements are in progress for a Reading Circle which shall be to musical people what the C. L. S. C. is to general literature. The details of this are being arranged by Prof. E. E. Ayres, of Richmond, Va., and will be published when complete. On the whole it looks as if the Musical Directors were determined to make that department superior to what it has ever been in the past, and we hope that musical people will sustain their efforts.
There will be a total eclipse of the sun on the 6th of May. The astronomers are making arrangements to observe it on two little islands in the South Pacific Ocean. An expedition is to be sent from this country to one of these islands, and French and English astronomers will also go there. The principal objects are to obtain further knowledge of the strange surroundings of the sun, which are ordinarily hidden in the overpowering blaze of his central globe, and to search for the planets which are supposed to exist between Mercury and the sun. The total eclipse will last nearly six minutes. Unfortunately, the total phase can be observed only from two little islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
It is reported that Dr. Benson, the elect-Archbishop of Canterbury, recently had a long interview with General Booth, the leader of the Salvation Army, and expressed himself as being in sympathy with that organization. “Go on,” he said; “do all the good you can; get at the people. We rejoice, only we would like it to be done somehow or other in harmony and in unison with the Church of England.”
In the list of C. L. S. C. graduates which appeared in The Chautauquan for February, the name of the Rev. Caleb A. Malmsbury appears among the names from Ohio. It should have been in the New Jersey column. Mary Maddock, of Ohio, whose name did not appear in February, graduated with honor; and the name of Mary E. W. Olmsted was among the honored ones from Colorado. Her name should be in the Ohio column. What a State Ohio is, in education, civil government, etc!
Maria Louise Henry, in a recent number of The Atlantic Monthly, philosophizes on the works of Thackeray and George Eliot in this way: “Thackeray had no real desire to make men permanently dissatisfied with themselves, or the world. He held that the world was not a bad place to be born into, provided one learned what not to expect from it, and could find a way to accommodate one’s self to one’s place in it.” Speaking of George Eliot: “Her creed is a kind of modern stoicism, or stoicism plus certain modern ideas. It must be admitted that such a creed has in it much of truth and nobleness. The only life worth living is the life toward self, of infinite aspiration, and toward others of infinitely active compassion. She will not allow, with Thackeray, that we can strike an average of goodness, and make ourselves content with that.”
For seven hundred years Lambeth Palace has been the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is surrounded by ten acres of beautiful grounds, to which the poor of the neighborhood are admitted in large numbers by free season tickets, good throughout the year.
The four monograms on the C. L. S. C. diploma represent the four grades of the C. L. S. C. First, the S. H. G., the “Society of the Hall in the Grove,” made up of all graduates who, having completed the four years’ course of reading, receive a diploma; second, the O. W. S., the “Order of the White Seal,” to which all belong who have on their diplomas four white seals, or white crystal seals; third, the L. T. R., the “League of the Round Table;” all members who have on their diplomas seven seals, whether white, white crystal, or special, become members of the “League of the Round Table.” All who add to these seven, seven more seals, become members of the G. S. S., the “Guild of the Seven Seals,” which is the highest grade in the C. L. S. C., and which is divided into degrees according to the number of additional seals.
Mr. W. W. Corcoran, of Washington, D. C., has made arrangements to bring the remains of John Howard Payne to America. He died in Tunis, in Northern Africa. How appropriate this kind deed of Mr. Corcoran, when we remember that Mr. Payne was the author of that beautiful song, “Home, Sweet Home.”
The Rev. Dr. Vincent has engaged a number of eminent educators, preachers and lecturers for the Chautauqua program in 1883. Among them are Joseph Cook, A. G. Haygood, D.D., C. N. Sims, D.D., Judge A. Tourgee, Prof. J. T. Edwards, D.D., Lyman Abbott, D.D., President Seelye of Amherst, President Angell of Ann Arbor, President Cummings of Evanston, Ill., President Payne of Delaware, O., President W. F. Warren of Boston, Hon. Will Cumback, Bishop H. W. Warren, Anthony Comstock, Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, Rev. Dr. W. F. Mallalieu, Prof. Cummock, Prof. W. C. Richards, Dr. J. S. Jewell, Miss Frances E. Willard. There will be a school of cookery in July by Mrs. Emma P. Ewing and Miss Susan G. Blow of St. Louis, Mo.
The members of the Class of ’82, living in the vicinity of Cincinnati, i. e., in Southeastern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, and Southwestern Ohio, who wish to join, or receive information concerning the C. L. S. C. Alumnal Association, lately organized in Cincinnati, will please send their names and addresses to the president of the association, Mr. John G. O’Connell, 503 Eastern Avenue, Cincinnati, or the secretary, Miss Mary Grafing, 215 West Front Street, Cincinnati. The next meeting of the graduates will be held in March, and a very pleasant time is anticipated.
Two eminent men died in February: The Hon. Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut. He had been governor of his State and Postmaster General. The Hon. William E. Dodge (whose son is married to a daughter of Mr. Jewell) died on the 11th of February. At his funeral the venerable Dr. Mark Hopkins paid this tribute to his memory: “I have no statistics at hand showing what are the gifts of the princes of Europe for charitable objects. So far as I know the gifts of our late friend were greater than those of princes, not only in money, but in personal devotion. Judged by the standard of service to God and his fellow man, William E. Dodge was more than a prince among men.”
“The Revival and After the Revival.” This is a timely book. It is designed for people who do not believe in revivals, for ministers and laymen, young and old. The author, Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent, has taken the only tenable ground for the Church to hold on revivals. He discusses revivals on all sides, from all standpoints, in this little volume of seventy-four pages. The æsthetic, and those who are indifferent to the demands of good taste in revivals should read it. Its circulation will tend to make revivals a more permanent blessing to the Church. Send for a copy to the publishers, Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York.
There is a local circle of deaf-mutes in Jacksonville, Ill. The exercises are conducted by spelling on the fingers. Mr. Frank Read, editor of the Deaf Mute Advance, kindly sent us the report of this circle, which will be found among “Local Circles.” If these fellow-Chautauquans conduct their circle and make it interesting and profitable without voice or hearing, should not thousands of others who are reading the same course with them, find the sense of hearing and the use of nature’s language invaluable helps in doing the work? In our sanctum we wave our friends in Jacksonville a genuine Chautauqua salute, and bid them “God speed!”
It was a new role for the Rev. Dr. Talmage to be the chief figure in a theatrical poster on bill-boards last month in Brooklyn, N. Y. It is gratifying that the hand of Justice removed the caricatures, and put an injunction on the managers and prevented the performance. Caricaturing good men and Christian ministers is an old habit of artists. In 1517 Martin Luther was represented by a German caricaturist in a miserable picture, entitled “Luther Inspired by Satan;” and John Calvin was caricatured as being tied with ropes to a pillar and branded with an iron lily on the shoulder; the name of the picture was “Calvin Branded.” This picture was scattered all over France. Dr. Talmage is in good company, even if he is caricatured more than any other clergyman in America. “Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake,” said Jesus Christ.
[EDITOR’S TABLE.]
[We solicit questions of interest to the readers of The Chautauquan to be answered in this department. Our space does not always allow us to answer as rapidly as questions reach us. Any relevant question will receive an answer in its turn.]
Q. Who was Achilles?
A. Achilles was the hero of Homer’s Iliad, the son of Peleus, King of Thessaly, and the sea-nymph, Thetis. The poets feigned that his mother dipped him into the river Styx to render him invulnerable, and that he was vulnerable only in the heel by which she held him. He was killed by Paris, or, as some say, by Apollo, who shot him in the heel.
Q. Is the cat considered, by scientific men, as a domestic animal?
A. Cat is the general name for animals of the genus felis, which comprises about fifty different species. The domestic cat is one of these species, and is generally believed to have sprung from the Egyptian cat, a native of the north of Africa. This seems to be the only species that is generally employed in household economy.
Q. Will The Chautauquan please recommend a dictionary that would be a help in pronouncing words found in the “History of Greece?”
A. Lippincott’s Pronouncing Biographical Dictionary would be of service. It is published by Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.
Q. Will The Chautauquan please tell me where I can obtain photographs of the works of the old masters of art, cabinet size?
A. By sending a six-cent stamp to the Soule Photograph Co., (successors to John P. Soule), 338 Washington street, Boston, Mass., a catalogue may be obtained of three thousand seven hundred subjects of unmounted photographs of ancient and modern works of art, embracing reproductions of famous paintings, sculpture and architecture.
Q. What is the meaning and origin of “red-letter day?”
A. In almanacs holidays and saints’ days are printed in red ink, other days in black. Any day to be recalled with pleasure, or a lucky day, may be styled a “red-letter day.”
Q. In addition to the C. L. S. C. course for this year I have taken the White Seal course. Where shall I send for my examination papers?
A. To Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.
Q. In Wheatland’s History it is stated that Pompeii and and Herculaneum were Greek cities. Were they not Roman?
A. They were both Roman cities, situated in Southern Italy at the base of Mt. Vesuvius.
Q. Will The Chautauquan please give a little information concerning geodes? I can only find a mere definition in the dictionaries at my command.
A. A geode is a hollow shell of stone, usually quartz, lined with crystals pointing toward the center. These crystals are generally of amethystine quartz, agate or chalcedony. Besides quartz crystals, others of calcareous spar are sometimes found in the cavities of geodes. Some of the most remarkable specimens of quartz geodes are found loose in the low stages of water in the rapids of the Upper Mississippi river. On the outside they are rough and unsightly, of a light brown color and of all sizes up to fifteen inches in diameter.
Q. In the November Chautauquan Whittier is credited with the authorship of the lines beginning “Ah, what would the world be to us if the children were no more?” Is not that a mistake?
A. Yes. The lines were written by Longfellow.
Q. Will the Editor’s Table please tell where is the nearest local circle to Racine?
A. Ask Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., for the information.
Q. I have long wished to know the difference between Mahomet and Mohammed, will the Chautauquan please tell me?
A. Two forms of the same name—the former the French, the latter the German form.
[OUR DAILY BREAD.]
Heavy and sour bread or biscuit have a vast influence through the digestive organs upon the measure of health we enjoy. How important to our present happiness and future usefulness the blessing of good health and a sound constitution are, we can only realize when we have lost them, and when it is too late to repair the damage. And yet, notwithstanding these facts, thousands of persons in our own city daily jeopardize not only their health, but their lives, and the healths and lives of others, by using articles in the preparation of their food, the purity and healthfulness of which they know nothing. Perhaps a few cents may have been saved, or it may have been more convenient to obtain the articles used, and the housekeeper takes the responsibility and possibly will never know the mischief that has been wrought. Pater familias may have spells of headache, Johnny may lose his appetite, Susie may look pale; if so, the true cause is rarely suspected. The weather, the lack of out door air, or some other cause, is given, and the unwholesome, poisonous system of adulterated food goes on. Next to the flour, which should be made of good, sound wheat and not ground too fine, the yeast or baking powder, which furnishes the rising properties, is of the greatest importance, and of the two we prefer baking powder, and always use the Royal, as we thereby retain the original properties of the wheat, no fermentation taking place. The action of the Royal Baking Powder upon the dough is simply to swell it and form little cells through every part. These cells are filled with carbonic acid gas, which passes off during the process of baking.
The Royal is made from pure grape acid, and it is the action of this acid upon highly carbonized bicarbonate of soda that generates the gas alluded to; and these ingredients are so pure and so perfectly fitted, tested and adapted to each other, that the action is mild and permanent, and is continued during the whole time of baking, and no residue of poisonous ingredients remains to undermine the health, no heavy biscuits, no sour bread, but if directions are followed every article prepared with the Royal Baking Powder will be found sweet and wholesome.