Life's little are not always manifest. We hear distant sounds of its tragedies, but rarely are we permitted to witness the reality. Therefore the real incidents which I am about to relate may have some value.
I first called upon W.L.S——, Jr., in the winter of 1895. I had known of him before only by reputation, or, what is nearer the truth, by seeing his name in one of the great Sunday papers attached to several drawings of the most lively interest. These drawings night scenes of the city of New York, and appeared as colored supplements, eleven by eighteen inches. They represented the spectacular scenes which the citizen and the stranger most delight in—Madison Square in a ; the Bowery lighted by a thousand lamps and crowded with "L" and surface cars; Sixth Avenue looking north from Fourteenth Street.
I was a youthful editor at the time and on the for interesting illustrations of this sort, and when a little later I was in need of a colored supplement for the Christmas number I to call upon S——. I knew absolutely nothing about the world of art save what I had gathered from books and current literary comment of all sorts, and was, therefore, in a mood to something exceedingly bizarre in the atmosphere with which I should find my illustrator surrounded.
I was not disappointed. It was at the time when artists—I mean American artists principally—went in very strongly for that sort of thing. Only a few years before they had all been going to Paris, not so much to paint as to find out and imitate how artists do and live. I was greeted by a small, wiry, lean-looking individual arrayed in a bicycle suit, whose could be best described as wearing a perpetual look of . He had one eye which you with a strange, unmoving solemnity, owing to the fact that it was glass. His skin was anything but fair, and might be termed sallow. He wore a close, sharp-pointed Vandyke beard, and his gold-bridge glasses sat at almost right angles upon his nose. His forehead was high, his good eye alert, his hair sandy-colored and tousled, and his whole manner indicated thought, feeling, nervous energy, and, above all, a rasping and sort of egotism which pleased me rather than otherwise.
I noticed no more than this on my first visit, owing to the fact that I was very much overawed and greatly concerned about the price which he would charge me, not knowing what rate he might wish to exact, and being desirous of coming away at least unabashed by his magnificence and independence.
"What's it for?" he asked, when I suggested a drawing.
I informed him.
"You say you want it for a double-page center?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'll do it for three hundred dollars."
I was taken aback, as I had not paying more than one hundred.
"I get that from all the magazines," he added, seeing my , "wherever a supplement is intended."
"I don't think I could pay more than one hundred," I said, after a few moments' consideration.
"You couldn't?" he said, sharply, as if about to reprove me.
I shook my head.
"Well," he said, "let's see a copy of your publication."
The chief value of this conversation was that it taught me that the man's manner was no indication of his mood. I had thought he was impatient and indifferent, but I saw now that he was not so, rather brusque merely. He was simply excitable, somewhat like the French, and meant only to be businesslike. The upshot of it all was that he agreed to do it for one hundred and fifty, and asked me very solemnly to say nothing about it.
I may say here that I came upon S—— in the full blush of his fancies and ambitions, and just when he was upon their . He was not yet successful. A hundred and fifty dollars was a very fair price indeed. His powers, however, had reached that stage where they would soon command their full value.
I could see at once that he was very ambitious. He was bubbling over with the enthusiasm of youth and an intense desire for recognition. He knew he had talent. The knowledge of it gave him an air and an independence of manner which might have been irritating to some. Besides, he was slightly , argue to the contrary as he would, and was altogether full of his own hopes and ambitions.
The matter of painting this picture my presence on several occasions, and during this time I got better acquainted with him. Certain ideas and desires which we held in common drew us toward each other, and I soon began to see that he was much above the average in insight and skill. He talked with the greatest ease upon a score of subjects—literature, art, politics, music, the drama, and history. He seemed to have read the latest novels; to have seen many of the current plays; to have talked with important people. Theodore Roosevelt, Police but then Governor, often came to his studio to talk and play chess with him. A very able architect was his friend. He had artist associates galore, many of whom had studios in the same building or the vicinity. And there were literary and business men as well, all of whom seemed to enjoy his company, and who were very fond of calling and spending an hour in his studio.
I had only called the second time, and was going away, when he showed me a he had constructed with his own hands—a fair-sized model, complete in every detail, even to the imitation stokers in the boiler-room, and which would run by the hour if supplied with oil and water. I soon learned that his skill in mechanical construction was great. He was a member of several engineering societies, and some part of his carefully organized days to studying and keeping up with problems in mechanics.
"Oh, that's nothing," he observed, when I marveled at the size and perfection of the model. "I'll show you something else, if you have time some day, which may amuse you."
He then explained that he had constructed several model , and that it was his pleasure to take them out and fight them on a pond somewhere out on Long Island.
"We'll go out some day," he said when I showed appropriate interest, "and have them fight each other. You'll see how it's done!"
I waited some time for this outing, and finally mentioned it.
"We'll go tomorrow," he said. "Can you be around here by ten o'clock?"
Ten the next morning saw me at the studio, and five minutes later we were off.
When we arrived at Long Island City we went to the first convenient arm of the sea and the precious fighters, in which he much delighted.
After studying the contour of the little inlet for a few moments he took some measurements with a tape-line, stuck up two in two places for guide posts, and proceeded to fire and get up steam in his war-ships. Afterwards he set the rudders, and then took them to the water-side and floated them at the points where he had placed the twigs.
These few details , he again studied the situation carefully, headed the to the fraction of an inch toward a certain point of the opposite shore, and began testing the steam.
"When I say ready, you push this lever here," he said, indicating a little handle fastened to the stern-post. "Don't let her move an inch until you do that. You'll see some tall firing."
He hastened to the other side where his own boat was anchored, and began an excited examination. He was like a school-boy with a fine toy.
At a word, I moved the lever as requested, and the two vessels began steaming out toward one another. Their weight and speed were such that the light wind blowing affected them not in the least, and their struck with an audible crack. This threw them side by side, steaming head on together. At the same time it operated to set in motion their guns, which fired broadsides in such rapid succession as to give a suggestion of rapid revolver practice. Quite a smoke rose, and when it rolled away one of the vessels was already nearly under water and the other was keeling with the inflow of water from the port side. S—lost no time, but throwing off his coat, jumped in and swam to the rescue.
Throughout this entire incident his manner was that of an enthusiastic boy who had something exceedingly novel. He did not laugh. In all our acquaintance I never once heard him give a sound, laugh. Instead he cackled. His delight could only express itself in that way. In the main it showed itself in an excess of sharp movements, short verbal expressions, gleams of the eye.
I saw from this the man's delight in the science of engineering, and humored him in it. He was thereafter at the greatest pains to show all that he had under way in the mechanical line, and schemes he had for enjoying himself in this work in the future. It seemed rather a recreation for him than anything else. Like him, I could not help delighting in the perfect toys which he created, but the intricate details and slow process of manufacture were brain-racking. For not only would he draw the engine in all its parts, but he would buy the raw material and cast and drill and polish each separate part.
Upon my second visit I was deeply impressed by the sight of a fine passenger engine, a duplicate of the great 999 of the New York Central, of those days. It stood on brass rails laid along an old library shelf that had probably belonged to the previous occupant of the studio. This engine was a splendid object to look upon, strong, heavy, silent-running, with the fineness and grace of a perfect sewing-machine. It was duly trimmed with brass and nickel, after the manner of the great "flyers," and seemed so sturdy and powerful that one could not restrain the desire to see it run.
"How do you like that?" S—— exclaimed when he saw me looking at it.
"It's splendid," I said.
"See how she runs," he exclaimed, moving it up and down. "No noise about that."
He fairly the with his hand, and went off into a most careful analysis of its qualities.
"I could build that engine," he exclaimed at last, enthusiastically, "if I were down in the Baldwin Company's place. I could make her break the record."
"I haven't the slightest doubt in the world," I answered.
This engine was a source of great expense to him, as well as the chief point in a fine scheme. He had made brass rails for it—sufficient to extend about the four sides of the studio—something like seventy feet. He had made most handsome passenger-cars with full equipment of brakes, vestibules, Pintsch gas, and so on, and had painted on their sides "The Great Pullman Line." One day, when we were quite friendly, he brought from his home all the rails, in a carpet-bag, and gave an exhibition of his engine's speed, attaching the cars and getting up sufficient steam to cause the engine to race about the room at a rate which was actually exciting. He had an arrangement by which it would pick up water and stop automatically. It was on this occasion that he what he called his great biograph scheme, the then of the latter day moving pictures. It was all so new then, almost a , like that of the flying machine before it was invented.
"I propose to let the people see the photographic representation of an actual —engine, cars, people, all tumbled down together after a collision, and no imitation, either—the actual thing."
"How do you propose to do it?" I asked.
"Well, that's the thing," he said, banteringly. "Now, how do you suppose I'd do it?"
"Hire a railroad to have a wreck and kill a few people," I suggested.
"Well, I've got a better thing than that. A railroad couldn't plan anything more real than mine will be."
I was intensely curious because of the novelty of the thing at that time. The "Biograph" was in its .
"This is it," he exclaimed suddenly. "You see how realistic this engine is, don't you?"
I acknowledged that I did.
"Well," he confided, "I'm building another just like it. It's costing me three hundred dollars, and the passenger-cars will cost as much more. Now, I'm going to fix up some scenery on my roof—a , a line of woods, a river, and a bridge. I'm going to make the water tumble over big rocks just above the bridge and run it. Then I'm going to lay this track around these rocks, through the woods, across the bridge and off into the woods again.
"I'm going to put on the two trains and time them so they'll meet on the bridge. Just when they come into view where they can see each other, a post on the side of the track will strike the cabs in such a way as to throw the firemen out on the steps just as if they were going to jump. When the engines take the bridge they'll explode caps that will set fire to oil and powder under the cars and burn them up."
"Then what?" I asked.
"Well, I've got it planned automatically so that you will see people jumping out of the cars and tumbling down on the rocks, the flames springing up and taking to the cars, and all that. Don't you believe it?" he added, as I smiled at the idea. "Look here," and he produced a model of one of the occupants of the cars. He for an hour to show all the intricate details, until I was compelled to admit the practicability and novelty of the idea. Then he explained that instantaneous photography, as it was then called, was to be at such close range that the picture would appear life size. The actuality of the occurrence would do the rest.
Skepticism still lingered with me for a time, but when I saw the second train growing, the figures and gradually being modeled, and the correspondence and conferences going on between the artist and several companies which wished to gain control of the result, I was sure that his idea would some day be realized.
As I have said, when I first met S—— he had not realized any of his dreams. It was just at that moment that the tide was about to turn. He surprised me by the assurance, born of his wonderful , with which he went about all things.
"I've got an order from the Ladies' Home Journal," he said to me one day. "They came to me."
"Good," I said. "What is it?"
"Somebody's writing up the terminal facilities of New York."
He had before him an Academy board, on which was , in wash, a midnight express striking out across the meadows with sparks blazing from the smoke stacks and dim lights bu............