CANON CONE DELIVERING HIS CHIVALROUS ATTACK UPON THE INCARNATION
(A THUMBNAIL SKETCH TAKEN BY THE REPORTER OF “CHRISTENDOM,” AND CALLED BY HIM “CANON CONE IN ACTION”)
CANON CONE IN REPOSE, DISCUSSING MATTERS UNCONNECTED WITH DOGMA AT THE DUCHESS OF LAVINGTON’S
(A SKETCH PURCHASED FROM HER GRACE’S SECRETARY AT THE TIME, NOW DOOR-KEEPER AT THE VARIETY, BISMARK, PA., U.S.A.)
Sir Philip Marshall, for example, if anything a recluse, sent to The Nineteenth Century (and after) from his distant home at the Land’s End, his famous article upon Germany and the M’Korio valley.
Young Coster chose for his principal picture of the year the title, “Moonrise upon the Marshes of the M’Korio.” It was hung upon the line ... and so upwards to the ceiling, and though its dimensions caused a considerable portion of its area to escape the eyes of the spectator, its main features attracted universal attention. Indeed, it was in stepping back to obtain a comprehensive view of it, that Sir Henry Baile cannoned into the aged Duchess of Lavington, who was herself lost in contemplation of the canvas. The contretemps and the unhappy scene it led to, would be too trivial to find a mention here did they not serve to show the public zeal for all that concerned the M’Korio. That picture also furnishes, by the way, what I believe to be the only example of any direct interference on the part of Mr Burden himself with a national enthusiasm which he rightly regarded as the stronger for its spontaneity: I mean the little note in which he begged the artist to change the word “marshes” to “lagoons,” a request which was at once complied with.
In the New Gallery a powerful piece of impressionism, “The River of Fate,” by Miss Paxter, turned upon the same theme; all London talked of the blue-eyed Somersetshire lad, who lay there in his khaki, floating with upturned face upon the dark waters. The public subscription which was raised for his aged parents, and their subsequent conviction for fraud, are not to the purpose of my tale, unless it be to take this opportunity of defending Miss Paxter with all the warmth of which I am capable, from the suggestion that she knew the old people to be childless, or the incident itself to be fictitious.
A further proof of Mr Barnett’s self-abnegation, and of the absence of all financial pressure, during the growth of the movement, exists in the fact that Messrs Pscheuffer, desiring to publish a book upon the M’Korio Delta, wrote to Mr Barnett, and that he, with a fine sense of what was due to his honour, refused to write so much as the preface, or even to accept the dedication of the volume. He referred the firm to Major Pondo, and washed his hands off the whole matter.
The success of the M’Korio village at Earl’s Court, if a plebeian, was yet a genuine indication of the popular feeling. It was crowded throughout the season; and the chief, a magnificent Basuto named Issachar, was pensioned by an enthusiastic admirer who prefers to remain anonymous.
