 Chapter 10 of the Mentor-2 We landed at St. Thomas in front of a little square overhung by palm and mango trees, and shaded by lofty ferns, and were at once among a strange population. The children were all dressed in black as nature made them, with eyes that shone like glass beads. Some of the native women were carrying trays of vegetables, fruit, bread, or small wares upon their heads. Others were squatting upon their heels, while in front of them were little piles of sweet potatoes, peppers, limes, or a few sticks of sugarcane. Others were hawking strings of shells and shining beans called Job's Tears. If one climbs the hill above the town of Charlotte, Emily, he obtains a charming picture. High-colored villas form the foreground, the beautiful bay, with its ships and little islands occupies the middle distance, while beyond, across the blue sea, are the shadowy forms of St. Croix and Puerto Rico. St. Croix is not so abrupt and severe as some of its associates, though it bears abundant evidence of volcanic origin. It consists of a multitude of little peaks and rounded hills, with ravines and valleys between them. The mountains, where uncultivated, are a bluish green, but where the sugarcane is largely grown, the color of the countryside is so light and rich a green that it seems as if spring had just spread her mantle over the land. The plantations climb the hills and crown many of them, and skirt precipices and sweep their waves of golden green down to kiss the white sea waves. There are long avenues of cocoa palms, with trunks rising 50 feet, like polished marble shafts, and then bursting out into a miracle of waving foliage and nests of green coconuts. Frederickstead and Christianstead are generally called West End and Basse Low End. Our view of Frederickstead from the vessel had prepared us for a beautiful place. It has some buildings with arched fronts and many white and pink and yellow houses, half hidden among the strange tamarind and palm and mango trees, but when we got ashore the vision vanished. The arcades were clumsy and crumbling, the streets unpaved and irregular, and the cabins where the Negroes lived were far from picturesque. They are built of wood and usually consist of one or two rooms in which a large family is huddled at night. The people spend most of the daytime out of doors and meals are prepared in the open air. There's no glass in the windows and wooden shutters served to keep out the wind and rain. Drives in the island of St. Croix over superb roads led us into valleys where there were tamarind trees delicately as our locusts, and giants called flamboyants leafless but all aflame with scarlet flowers, and the silk cottonwood with enormous misshapen roots and long horizontal branches, on which grew a multitude of parasites and air plants. Here, too, was the curiously formed frangipani with hooked or claw-like branches and the banana tree with clustering fruit and huge and cone-like blossom. Flowers of all colors and shapes from the fragrant white jasmine to the yellow and red cacti adorned the roadsides. Black pelicans floated on the sea or sailed in long and continuous flights through the air. The groves were never without modest music from numbers of elegantly dressed birds, and innumerable brilliant butterflies harmonized in the beauty of their coloring with the superb flowers upon which they fed, from cruising among the caribis by Charles Augustus Stoddard. The Virgin Islands, Early History, 1. Columbus, despairing of finding individual names for all the islands he sighted, called the rocky archipelago, which is the subject of this number of the mentor, the Virgin Islands, after St. Ursula and her martyred maidens. The group designated by this name includes upwards of 50 islands and islets, several of which are owned by Great Britain. When Spain seeded Puerto Rico, ownership of three of the Virgin Islands, Viejoes, Culebra and Culebrita, passed to the United States. St. Croix is not one of this group according to strict geographical classification, but together with the Virgin Islands is one of the Leeward Islands group which comprises, among others, St. Kitts, Nevis, St. Christopher, Antigua, Guadalupe and Martinique. Over a century and a half after Columbus discovered the Virgin Islands in 1493, adventurous Danes cast anchor in the harbor of St. Thomas, but soon forsook this little isle of the southern seas for another island at the mouth of the Hudson River, the island of Manhattan, where the Dutch had settled. The Dutch and the English, the French and the Spanish, had previously visited the islands we call St. Thomas and St. Croix, when in 1666 the Danish made another unsuccessful attempt to colonization. Six years later, the Danish West India and Guinea Company fathered a settlement from which descended all later colonies. By the year 1680, over 300 settlers were established on St. Thomas. The principal industry was the raising of tobacco. Half the population was composed of slaves. To further increase their number, King Christian V of Denmark decreed that natives of Africa be brought across seas in ships specially engaged in slave traffic. All the European countries that had undertaken to develop the agricultural resources of the West India Islands had found after repeated disasters that only black men were fitted to work in the tropics. Besides tobacco, the states were now planted with sugarcane, sprouts of which were obtained from Tortola, another island of the Virgin Group, 20 miles east of St. John and owned by the British. The British still had a jealous eye on the fine harbor of St. Thomas and to prevent attacks on them and by the French who had taken St. Croix from the Spanish in 1650. The government of Denmark built about 1690 a fort and a thick walled tower overlooking the bay and its peaked islands. In 1701, a priest, Father Lobot, made a voyage to the islands of America and wrote a book that contained the first lengthy description of the well cared for estates, the streets and neat houses of St. Thomas. Europe being then at war and Denmark a neutral nation, this broad haven at the crossroads of travel was the refuge of ships escaping pursuit and boasted of brisk commerce. Many tales of piracy date from these rousing days of trade and warfare. St. John was permanently settled by the Danes in 1716. The French Knights of Malta and miscellaneous rovers occupied the island of St. Croix 35 miles south of St. Thomas until in 1733 France sold it to Denmark. King Frederick V in 1755 purchased the Danish West India Company's land, forts, buildings, slaves, merchandise and ships for $1,500,000 and made St. Thomas a closed port. However, within a decade, the former policy as to world commerce was resumed by order of the king, and during the pre-Napoleonic wars, St. Thomas was the meeting place of vessels flying the penance of all the warring nations. Quote, things were lively in those days, writes Mr. Luther as a brisky. Money flowed like water into the coffers of the merchants. Population increased, the town limits were extended, stores and dwellings were rapidly built, and thousands of refugees and adventurers sought these shores for the purpose of traffic, unquote. But St. Thomas was not to remain a neutral port for long. In 1801, England blockaded the island and held it for 10 months. The British flag again flew over the islands between the years 1807 and 1815 as a precaution against seizure by Napoleon. In the readjustment of nations following the events of the latter year, the group was restored to Denmark. Once more, St. Thomas became the queen port of the West Indies, an exacted tribute from the hundreds of ships that plied this golden lane of commerce between the Atlantic and the Pacific. On the birth date of American independence, July 4, 1848, the black bondmen of the Danish West Indies were freed by decree of the crown, and forthwith they forsook their agricultural occupations. The prosperity of the Danish islands was affected when profits decreased in the production of cane sugar. The abolition of slavery and the development of the beet sugar industry both had a share in bringing about this condition. Formerly St. Thomas had been the sole port of call for steamers carrying cargoes of goods that were in demand on neighboring islands including Puerto Rico. Now other lines of transportation were organized and direct communication was established between Puerto Rico and the north. By the year 1866, planters and officials of the government were ready to consider their proposals of Secretary Seward that the island should become the property of the United States. History of the Transfer 2. The need of the United States for a naval base to prevent blockade running during the Civil War influenced President Lincoln and Secretary Seward to urge the purchase of the Danish West Indies in order to obtain the rights to the harbor of St. Thomas. Actual negotiations were not undertaken, however, till after Lincoln's assassination. The first proposals were made to Denmark when she was smarting under the loss of Schleswig and Holstein after the victory of her two-ton enemies. Secretary Seward visited the islands in the year 1866 and offered five million dollars for the group. But Denmark hesitated to conclude arrangements lest she displease her victors. Furthermore, Napoleon III refused his consent to the transfer of St. Croix and according to the agreement entered into at the time of the purchase of St. Croix from France, Denmark could not dispose of this island to any other country without the approval of the original owner. Seven and a half million dollars was the price finally named in 1867 for the two northern islands and the Danish Senate and the inhabitants of the island voted in favor of the transaction. In the United States Senate, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee was Charles Sumner. As an opponent of President Johnson, it is believed he feared the purchase of the Danish West Indies following the Alaska purchase would bring too great popular favor to the administration. At any rate, no action was taken on the treaty when it was presented. The opposition of Sumner to the grant administration further delayed ratifications and in 1870 the treaty was allowed to lapse. The Danes again showed themselves willing to sell the islands during the presidency of Harrison and Cleveland but meant no response on the part of the United States. After the Spanish-American War, proposals were again renewed. A treaty was drawn up by John Hay in 1901 and the purchase price fixed at five million dollars for the three islands, St. Croix being included by consent of France. The United States Senate confirmed the second treaty in February 1902 but this time the upper house of the Danish parliament failed to ratify. German influence in Denmark was held accountable for this attitude since German steamship interests would be furthered by the retention of the islands by Denmark. In 1911 the transfer was once more broached but again it failed of consummation. The question last came up for discussion in August 1916 and again negotiations would have been fruitless but for the insistence of the Danish premier who threatened to dissolve parliament and precipitate a general election if government and people did not consent to the disposal of the islands. On January 17, 1917 terms were finally concluded between the two countries. At a farewell service held in St. Thomas after the ratification of the treaty of session had been exchanged by Secretary Lansing and the Danish minister at Washington, the pastor paid this just tribute to the rule of old Denmark that had lasted almost without interruption for nearly 250 years. Of what are our thought now that the end is reached, of oppression and misrule, exploited resources, of people crippled with taxes to enrich others, education systematically neglected, the rule of the few over the many, justice sold to the highest bidder, government without heart or sympathy with the poor, any or all of those things so often the accompaniment of colonial rule, no. At the bar of history the account is rendered. Today we may think of the solid good of the past and pray that the new flag shall stand for all those things for which the old flag has stood." On March 3, 1917 an act was approved by the United States Congress to provide a temporary government for the people of the Danish West Indies and on the last day of that month the formal transfer was sealed by the payment of a Treasury warrant of $25 million by the United States Secretary of State to the Danish minister in Washington. Telegraphic advice was immediately sent to the representatives of the two governments at St. Thomas. Upon receipt of the messages the ceremony of the transfer was enacted at the saluting battery St. Thomas by the retiring Danish governor and the acting United States governor, commander of the USS Hancock, in the presence of naval, military, and civil guards and an impressive assemblage of citizens. The transfer was simultaneously celebrated at Christianstead and Frederikstead, St. Croix. On April 7, 1917 the first governor of the islands, Rear Admiral Pollock, late chief of naval intelligence was officially welcomed and installed in office. The inquiry, quote, are the islands worth the expenditure of $25 million, unquote, is answered by present-day students of naval tactics. Quote, we have at least the value of the $25 million in these offensive times for keeping any foreign power from getting a foothold there. We have bought the finest site strategically, logistically, and tactically for a first-class naval base on the Atlantic seaboard, unquote. Government institutions resources, three. Under the old regime the executive power of the Danish islands was vested in a governor appointed by the king. For six months of the year his residence was on St. Thomas. For the rest of the year it was on St. Croix, 35 miles distant. St. Thomas and St. John comprised one political part, St. Croix another. Two colonial councils made the laws, a proportion of the members being appointed by the government and the remainder being elected by the islanders for a term of four years. Besides there was a Danish police force that presented a brave appearance on dress occasions in uniforms of pale blue and white with high hats crowned by bright red pom-poms. Danish judges were appointed for life. The whipping post, we are told, still menaced offenders under old country rule and heavy penalties were visited upon natives convicted of theft. Males 25 years of age born on the islands or resident there for five years who were possessed of a stipulated amount of property and were of unassailable character were entitled to the franchise. As far as possible the Danish colonial law affecting the islands will be maintained by the United States. The colonial treasury supported the evangelical Lutheran church as the national church of Denmark, though various other denominations were and continued to be represented in the islands. Lutheran and reformed Dutch congregations have worshipped on St. Thomas for over two centuries. Missionaries of the Moravian church began their ministrations in the year 1732 and under government subsidy have had an important share in the education of the island children both black and white. The education of Roman Catholic children has been in the hands of the Catholic church. Free schools and schoolbooks were provided by the Danish government. Denmark's liberality is example in the fact that though both Danish and English were taught the study of Danish was not compulsory. Though Danish has been the official language English has long been that of the people. Under United States control it is likely that American teachers will replace some inefficient native black teachers as has been done with excellent results in Puerto Rico. Under the Danes the school year was 12 months long all children between the ages of 7 and 13 being required to attend classes six days a week three hours a day. Morning hours were reserved for the session of the lower grades and the later sessions for the upper grades. Three weeks vacation was permitted in September. The high percentage of literacy in the islands may in part be credited to a system of fines enforced for many years. Unless officially excused a people arriving an hour late at school was subject to a fine of one to five cents. For a day's absence without permission a fine was imposed of 10 cents for the first day and five cents for each additional day of absence. The fine for absence from examinations was fixed at 50 cents for each offense. According to government statistics all but a very small proportion of the islands inhabitants can both read and write. The Danish system of education will to a great extent be continued by the United States exclusive of denominational training. There are no high schools in the islands. On St. Thomas there are two private academies. The abolition of slavery and the prominence of St. Thomas as a port have so impeded the development of the islands natural resources that today most of the produce consumed by St. Tamiens is imported from nearby islands and from the United States. Farm laborers are given 35 cents a day but as dock laborers a dollar a day can be earned. On St. John the soil is used for the cultivation of bay and lime trees and a few hundred head of cattle find grazing ground on the hilly slopes. Thirteen thousand acres on the island of St. Croix are devoted to the growing of sugarcane. Two thousand acres to cotton and thirty thousand acres to a variety of crops chiefly useful for cattle fodder. Consular reports give the main manufacturing industries of the islands as sugar, rum and molasses on St. Croix, bay rum on St. Thomas, bay oil, bay rum and the products of the lime tree on St. John. The hurricane of October 9th 1916 was the most disastrous to real estate and commerce that had been experienced in the islands since 1867. The loss being estimated at about one million five hundred thousand dollars. The full force of the wind fell upon St. Thomas though the greatest number of deaths about 50 and all were reported from St. John. The accustomed signals two guns fired at a short interval gave warning early in the afternoon of the approaching high winds. Accompanied by heavy rain the wind blew at the rate of 125 miles an hour. It bared hills of turf and trees lifted houses from foundations, wiped out villages, laid coconut groves low, stripped batres of their leaves, destroyed oil stills and sunk ships in the harbors or drove them ashore and left them but disordered piles of wood and metal. On June 25th of each year it is the custom of the islanders to hold services of prayer to ask protection from the raging trade winds that blow across the Atlantic from southwestern Europe and on October 25th they give thanks if the prayer has been answered. St. Thomas and St. John. Since the age of the discoverers, the harbor of St. Thomas has welcomed to the craft of the sea-going nations of Europe, craft sometimes black of prow and sinister in design. Father Lobat recounts the tale of a French privateer, Le Gendre de Blonde, who on an autumn day in 1695 ran into the harbor at Charlotte Amelie, robbed of the Brandenburg warehouse of $24,000 rakes, about $13,000, and relieved the employees from director general to the humblest clerk of everything except the church they wore. Accomplices of French privateers, with the connivance of authorities at St. Thomas, once sent a warning that enabled a robber fleet to reach France with a sum equivalent to $400,000 stolen on the British island of Nukronata to enrich the war chest of Louis XIV. In April 1699 there arrived a notorious rover of the sea at the harbor gate of St. Thomas. Quote, well outside gun range, unquote, he hoved to, and asked refuge from the pursuit of English ships. It was none other than Captain Kidd that begged this hospitality, and a governor of less tolerant ideas than some others that had represented Denmark refused him admission. Later, when the pirate secretly disposed of his ill-gained cargo to island traders, part of it, tens of bails of fine muslin valued at 12,000 pieces of eight, was stored in a St. Thomas warehouse. Captain Kidd departed for New York, and from there was sent to England for trial on the charge of piracy. The taller of the two towers on the hills behind Charlotte Amelie is the traditional stronghold of Blackbeard Edward Teach, quote, one of the realest, blackest, and bloodiest pirates that ever graced the Spanish Main. He came to his own at the cutlass of his Majesty's Lieutenant Maynard in the year 1718, unquote. Forty-five bays on the coast of St. Thomas and 30 inlets that indent the shore of St. John were in those days a well-considered aid to the dark dealings of men and ships. It was at Magens Bay a large inlet on the north side of St. Thomas that surveys recently made by the American Indian Hay Foundation of New York uncovered the remains of a primitive settlement. Vessels found in burial mounds were without decoration, and were, in other ways, unlike those that have descended to us from the first inhabitants of Puerto Rico and San Domingo. Archaeologists accept this as proof that the aborigines of the newly acquired American group were not arowax as previously supposed, nor do the crafts disclosed by research reflect the carib culture of the West Indian islands farther south. As yet the tribe that hunted the cottonwood groves of St. Thomas built canoes and fished the swarming bays has not been classified. It is hoped that future excavation on the virgin islands of Great Britain may aid identification. On the island of St. John there are no indications of Aboriginal life beyond a few rock carvings, from which evidence it is judged that this island had no village site but was used for ceremonial meetings. On St. Croix ten village sites have been discovered by various investigators. Visitors to St. John find special interest in the bay rum industry. Here the bay tree is indigenous to the soil, no orchards having been set out by man. Three times a year the leaves are picked by nimble youngsters who throw down twigs bearing perhaps a dozen leaves to women standing ready with bags that have a capacity of 60 to 70 pounds. Oil distillers pay two cents a pound for the leaves and the labor of picking them. When the essential oil is extracted from the leaf it is mixed with rum or alcohol and water and further distilled to make bay rum. The latter process is mainly carried on by St. Thomas firms. The average price of bay oil on the islands is five dollars a quart of bay rum seventy cents a gallon. Quote if you love beautiful scenery says the author of Isles of Spice and Palm. If you are interested in strange people and quaint ways visit that chain of island gems which stretches in a broad curve from Puerto Rico to the tip of South America and which is known as a lesser Antilles. By days of travel these islands are close at hand. By customs, manner and life they are remote as the Antipodes. Unquote Admiral David Porter called St. Thomas quote the keystone to the arch of the West Indies. Unquote transportation from New York to this sunny isle of storied days and fortunate location is by the Quebec steamship line which maintains comfortable ships on regular nine or 10 day schedule. The trip each way consumes a little over five days. A call is also made at Fredericstad St. Croix and in the sugar season at Christian Stead before the steamer proceeds to South America. Between Charlotte Amelie and San Juan Puerto Rico a voyage of about 50 miles there is a monthly steamer service. Fast sailing vessels also carry passengers to and fro among the islands. Coral Bay St. John is twice as deep as the hill bound harbor of St. Thomas and is large enough to shelter at one time four or five hundred vessels. It is actually a better haven than that of St. Thomas but the latter is closer to the trade routes. Before the world war it was not unusual for 200 ships to call at one year in the port of Charlotte Amelie. St. Croix. The island of Santa Cruz or St. Croix Holy Cross was so named by the Spanish and the French who occupied it at different periods until the year 1733. As the Knights of Malta under Grant from Louis XIV were for a decade in possession of this isolated domain the name has interesting associations. Not long after St. Croix came under control of Denmark there was born on the island of Nevis 50 miles away. The boy known to history is Alexander Hamilton son of a Scotch merchant and a cultured lady of Huguenot descent. At his mother's death the child was put in the care of relatives who lived on St. Croix. Before he reached his teens he was apprenticed in Frederikstad as a counting house clerk to the firm of Nicholas Kruger. His youthful letters of business and friendship are distinguished by mature reasoning and elegant phrase. In November 1769 when 12 years of age he wrote a boyfriend expressing impatience with quote the groveling condition of a clerk unquote and avowed quote I would willingly risk my life though not my character to exalt my station unquote. The date August 31st 1772 is memorable in St. Croix for a furious hurricane that endured a third of a day and made quote the whole frame of nature seem as though unhinged and tottering to its fault unquote. The young clerk described this disastrous visitation in a letter addressed to his father on September 6th quote it seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place he wrote the roaring of the sea and wind fiery meteors flying about in the air the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning the crash of falling houses and the ear piercing shrieks of the distressed were sufficient to strike astonishment into angels misery in its most hideous shapes spread over the face of the country unquote. This letter appearing in a newspaper aroused such interest in the talents of the writer that a month later it was arranged for him to sail for the American colonies and there continue his interrupted studies in a grammar school near New York. Later the youth entered King's College now Columbia University. At 17 having already allied himself with the interests of the Americans he addressed with ardor and inventive argument a great meeting of patriots assembled in New York to act on the proposal to hold a general Congress of colonial representatives. In Hamilton's boyhood St. Croix a sugar producing island shared the richest commerce of the West Indies. The first sugar plantations were laid out about the middle of the 18th century towns named for Danish kings Christian and Frederick were plotted and good roads built. The south side of the island is level and well adapted for agriculture. Here are many estates owned by corporations that operate sugar factories. As a resort St. Croix has much to commend it. The climate is warm and dry the daily variation of extremes of temperature the year round is moderate. The winter and early summer months are the most agreeable for outdoor recreation. August and September are the hottest months but prostrations from heat rarely occur. In an average year the maximum temperature in summer is 92 degrees Fahrenheit and the minimum 74 degrees Fahrenheit. The normal maximum winter temperature in January is 83 degrees Fahrenheit and the minimum 65 degrees Fahrenheit. There's no malaria in either St. Croix or St. Thomas. The charming scenery of St. Croix is disclosed by pleasant roads that wind among the sugar plantations and up to the fields on the slopes where a high grade sea island cotton is successfully grown. An English physician long resident in the islands style St. Croix quote the garden of the West Indies on account of its superior cultivation its beautiful homes and its fertility unquote. He says quote its scenery is extremely varied. To the lovers of dark gloomy hills and large waste lagoons the eastern part of the island offers many attractions. A rich fruitful valley occupies the central and most southerly portion of the island. A drive through this upon the splendid road that runs from Christian Stead to Frederick Stead a distance of 15 miles will amply reward anyone who cares for picturesque scenery. On each side are coconut trees sometimes varied by the areca palm. Between these and behind them may be seen sugar fields perhaps full of undulating cane ready for cutting. A manager's house peeps out from a dark clump of mango and tamarin trees. Hard by is the Negro laborers village cultivated to their very tops are many of the hills. A windmill here and there and a glimpse now and then of the sea complete a landscape not often seen outside of the tropics and not often seen outside of st. Croix unquote. The people six the people of the virgin islands in the words of one who knows them well quote are intelligent agreeable and well informed and many of them are educated and refined though to a great extent deprived of broadening influences through their isolation. They are peaceful and industrious and crimes of violence are unknown but they have needed capital for the development of their resources and incentive. From the standpoint of one who has lived in the islands I am frank to state that the Negro problem here will hardly be the problem. Difficult of solution which at first glance it seems to be for while most of the leading merchants tradesmen and minor officials are men in whose veins runs colored blood they are often more courteous and considerate than those of white skin occupying similar position in America. Hospitality and good cheer abound everywhere and the prevailing atmosphere is one of cheerfulness now further stimulated by reason of the transfer to the United States class distinction rather than color distinction exists. The laboring classes are generally courteous and respectful and with the minimum of creature comforts and joy life is keenly as do those in the middle and upper classes. We will not have the problem of converting a hostile people to our ideas of life in government as was the case in Puerto Rico where customs language and sentiment were adverse to us because not only is English the universal language and the associations American but the people have ardently wanted American rule as was evidenced by the popular vote in all the islands in favor of the transfer. The great problem will be to introduce necessary changes gradually and to furnish the laboring classes under prevailing wage conditions with a livelihood and a chance to develop in accordance with modern ideas of labor. A cheerful and hopeful people come under our government and a tolerant attitude on our part will do much to cement a bond of friendship and materialize a hope of years." The problems of St. Thomas and its sister islands are complicated by the disinclination of the Negro population for pursuits of the soil. We are told that looking out across the wide sweep of the island of St. Thomas once sees scarcely an unruined habitation and only a very few patches of cultivation. Once come those meager handfuls of vegetables seen of a morning in the long, sun-stricken market. Vegetables outlandish and twisted as though they have been wrung from the unwilling earth in pain." Wilbur Steele, a recent traveler in the islands, says of the natives that they no longer wish to till the soil. They have come back to the sea and it was cold that brought them. Standing on the boat deck of a steamer alongside the dock, one looks down upon a river of coal flowing ceaselessly hour after hour through the hot day, taking its source among the black table lands beyond the dock and emptying its burden in the vitals of the ship underfoot. The river is perhaps four feet wide, the width of two baskets touching rims, each basket carrying 60 to 65 pounds of coal or a comfortable load for a colored woman's head. Beneath it, as beneath the belly of a Chinese dragon, one catches glimpses of brown bear feet moving rhythmically. Afterward, when the work is done and the vessel sated, they go away through the town as swaggering a crew of long-sure women, as one would care to see, slapping shoulders and calling names. They are full of an exuberant gaiety which tons of coal cannot crush." Mr. Steele visualizes for us a bit of Charlotte Amelie, pleasant to remember. A sun-drenched street with the yellow pavement and close walls of pink and violet and flame and ultramarine, big-studded doors set deep in recesses, windows sealed with shutters the color of malachite, and, of a sudden, the mouth of a dark corridor leading away through the internals of a great flat stucco block and down into the glare of the street below. There was something fascinating about that intimate vista. Arch succeeded upon Spanish arch, thick and masonry. Somewhere, a lacework of sunshine mysteriously procured traced the floor of the corridor. Beyond it showed a dim net of fronds and the ghost of a fountain, a world languorous, remote, and self-contained." To this little world of dimmed glory and future hopes of adventure and opportunity, the United States has fallen air. For its protection, hundreds of American marines have already completed effective fortifications on hills commanding the harbor of St. Thomas and the passage to the Caribbean Sea. The Virgin Islands of the United States of America by E. M. Newman, lecturer and traveler. The Virgin Islands, formerly known as the Danish West Indies, were purchased by the United States for the apparently exorbitant sum of $25 million, while the group comprises more than 50 islands but three are inhabited. These are St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, or St. Croix and St. John. Secretary Lansing handing Constantine Brun, the Danish minister at Washington, a treasury warrant for $25 million. The others in the group are Secretary Daniels, Secretary McAdoo, and Rear Admiral James H. Oliver, first appointee to the governorship of the Virgin Islands of the United States of America. Denmark received from the United States an average price of $295 per acre. Alaska was purchased at a cost of $0.02 per acre, and the Philippine Islands cost us about $0.27 per acre. For strategic, economic, and political reasons, the Virgin Islands are worth far more to us than their purchase price. We were in need of a naval base to protect the Panama Canal, and the harbor at St. Thomas provides the best naval station in the West Indies. The islands were discovered by Columbus in 1493 on a second voyage to the New World. Since then, the inhabitants have been under Spanish, British, French, Dutch, and Danish rule. For over 200 years, the Danish flag has flown above these islands of the Virgin Group. Repeatedly, the United States has tried to acquire them. In 1865, Secretary Seward offered $5 million, which was increased two years later to $7,500,000. Again, in 1901, negotiations were entered into with Denmark, but Germany intervened and once more the project failed. A price was finally agreed upon, and the transfer of the islands took place March 31, 1917. The ceremony was most impressive, though Governor Oliver, appointed by President Wilson, could not arrive in time to take part in it. Commander Pollock of the gunboat Hancock was at Santo Domingo and was ordered to proceed at once to St. Thomas and take possession in the name of the United States. He arrived on the day of the ceremony and was met by the Danish governor, Danish officials, and officers and marines of the Danish gunboat Valkyrie. In the presence of a large assemblage, the Danish flag came down after nearly two and a half centuries of rule, and the stars and stripes was raised over the former Danish government buildings over forts and on various private flagstaffs. Many of the Danes were in tears. A number of them had been born on the islands and knew no other home. To them, it was a sad event, but practically all realized that the transfer was best for the people generally and for the future of the islands. The commerce and the people. Besides Charlotte Amelie, a town of about 8,000 inhabitants, there are a few scattered settlements on the island of St. Thomas. Some years ago, the harbor was a free port and Charlotte Amelie enjoyed a considerable commerce. Immense warehouses were built, and merchants from Central and South America came to the island to purchase merchandise. When the port was no longer free, its commerce gradually dwindled, and the harbor was almost deserted. Ships called only to go into dry dock or to call. It now remains for Uncle Sam to restore its former trade with our sister republics to the south. Little or nothing grows on the island of St. Thomas, and from an agricultural standpoint, it offers but few opportunities. Its inhabitants, aside from about 200 whites, are all Negroes. The Danes were unable to teach them their language, and practically all speak English with that peculiar drawl that has become familiar to us in Jamaica and other islands of the West Indies. The blacks welcome the coming of Uncle Sam. They look upon us as a Santa Claus, who will bring them untold blessings and wealth beyond their dreams. They are a simple child-like people with bodies of men and women, but with the intellect of the average child. Charlotte Amelie. Charlotte Amelie is a clean little town with regular streets, and buildings built of stone and brick-faced with cement. The Danes are a clean, orderly people, and this is evident in the appearance of the towns on the islands. Hurricanes are frequent, and at times do great damage. A storm of several years ago unroofed many of the houses, tore down palm trees and destroyed most of the foliage. Traces of the hurricane may still be seen, but its effect is gradually being obliterated. Many steamers have been wrecked on these islands. Among numerous sailors stranded on St. Thomas was a Frenchman named Louis Monsanto. He founded on the shore of Crumb Bay what he calls the graveyard of ships. Lying about are several odd figureheads that once adorned the bowels of lost boats. Each has its story of thrilling escapes and tragic loss of life to all the listener. Marines now police the island, and to them has been entrusted the task of restoring order, mounting guns for the protection of the harbor, and firmly establishing American rule. An island bluebeard. These islands were once infested by pirates. In Charlotte Amily we see bluebeards and blackbeard's castles. An English pirate who married a woman from Charlotte Amily went away on one of his piratical expeditions, entrusting to his wife a small box which he told her not to open unless he did not return in six months. After two months woman's curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box. She found therein just seven letters, but they were seven compromising letters written by women of Charlotte Amily. She did not kill her husband, instead she invited the women to an afternoon tea at her home and poisoned all seven. So you see it was not in this case the man who was the bluebeard but the wife, a sort of bluebearded lady. She was arrested, tried and convicted, and was condemned to be burned at the stake. The eventful day arrived. Faggots were piled high about her. The torch was about to be applied when the pirate ship appeared in the harbor. The pirate and his crew came ashore and the wife was rescued. Then she sailed away with her husband and they lived happily ever after. St. John and St. Croix. The smallest of the inhabited islands is St. John. The few people living there are employed in picking bay leaves. The bay tree thrives on the island and the oil obtained from its leaf is used in the making of bay rum. The largest of the islands is St. Croix. It is about 21 miles in length and from 4 to 14 miles in width. Rich in fertile, its soil produces chiefly sugar, a product capable of still further industrial development. The principal difficulty encountered is in obtaining good water. There is but one stream on the island and except for water from this stream, the people must depend on rainwater stored during the rainy season. One of the first studies that we have before us is the boring of artesian wells as all the islands are in great need of good water for drinking and commercial purposes. There is a primitive sugar mill on the island of St. Croix that is owned by Danes. One of the owners told me that the day the islands were transferred to the United States, the Negro employees formed a union and struck. They lost no time in availing themselves of the advantages that organized labor enjoys in a great republic. The seat of government of this island is Christianstead, a town of about 4,500 people. It is a neat, substantial little place with covered colonnades extending through the business section of the town. These covered passageways enable one to walk about without being exposed to the rays of a tropical sun. It was from Frederickstead, the chief port of St. Croix that Alexander Hamilton came to America. Born on the island of St. Nevis, his mother died when he was still an infant. He was then sent to an aunt who lived on St. Croix and it was there that he gave evidence of the brilliant mind that in later years made him one of the most conspicuous figures in American history. It is a strange coincidence that over a hundred years after Hamilton left St. Croix, it should come into the possession of the nation he served so brilliantly. What might George Washington, the father of his country, say if he could know that the birthplace of the young West Indian attorney, to whom he looked for legal counsel, was now part of the great republic in whose establishment each of them had such an important share. There is but one paved highway on St. Croix and that extends from Christianstead to Frederickstead at the west end of the island. A macadam road 21 miles in length connects the two towns and over this highway passes practically all the traffic on the island. Here we see a curious procession of natives driving all kinds of queer vehicles drawn by diminutive ponies or donkeys. Women carry upon their heads loads that would stagger the average man. They are able to balance almost anything and one sees them carrying boxes, barrels, and even pianos, although the latter require about four women to balance their weight. Agriculturally, St. Croix offers a good field for development. Cotton as well as sugar can be grown profitably and with modern American methods, its products can be materially increased. System of Education When the Americans first took possession, there was much confusion. Danish law conflicted with American law. Danish customs differed from American customs. There was a Danish postmaster and an American postmaster. But these things are now straightened out and order has been completely restored. The Danish method of instruction, which has long been in use, has been continued by the United States. The system differs from our own in that the schools are in session practically the year round and religious training is required. The religious training in the schools will be discontinued but otherwise the Danish method will obtain. Virgin Islanders pride themselves on their low percentage of illiteracy. Only about two percent of the inhabitants are unable to read and write. The Importance of St. Thomas Commercially, the island of St. Thomas is destined to play the most important part of all the group, as it is a favored way station on the route from European ports to the Panama Canal. Its lost trade can be regained and it may be possible for American manufacturers to display samples of their wares in specially built ware rooms at Charlotte Amelie. This would enable the merchants of Central and South America to make their purchases again as they once did. It would obviate the necessity of a long journey to New York and the port of St. Thomas would be a convenient place in which to see American made goods and place orders. The gold paid by the United States to Denmark for the Virgin Islands weighed 48 tons. Like everything else, the islands have gone up in price since the first negotiations undertaken 50 years ago. But it was necessary for us to have them. As with St. Thomas in our possession and fortified, no foreign power without a naval base in this part of the world would dare attack the Panama Canal without first capturing St. Thomas. Without it, they would leave a fortified base in their rear, an extremely dangerous situation for an attacking force. The value of the harbor of St. Thomas and its strategic advantages have been recognized since the days of the Spanish buccaneers. Once the headquarters for ships sailing under the black flag, the memories of those days will always form a romantic and fascinating side of the life that was. Today, there are modern harbor works, floating docks, marine slips, and wharves provided with electric cranes, oil reservoirs, coal depots, freshwater tanks, machine shops, and many other things that contribute to the commercial advantage of St. Thomas as a port of call. We must not overlook the political importance of extending American jurisdiction over islands situated in the Caribbean Sea. The possibility of a change of sovereignty of any of the islands under foreign jurisdiction is of grave concern to this country. The Monroe Doctrine, a settled national policy, would have caused this country to look with disfavor upon the acquisition of the Danish West Indies by any other power. The treaty of session of these islands to the United States is therefore a matter of no small moment. Previous to the purchase, Rear Admiral Kasper F. Goodrich thus defined the advantages of the transfer in an interview with the New York Times, quote, where the Danish West Indies in the possession of an enemy, what interests of ours will be menaced? Let us seek the answers to this momentous question. From them, as a base to Charleston, our nearest important Atlantic harbor is about 1200 miles, to Norfolk about 1300 miles, distances easily covered in three or four days by a fleet which could fight in action in return with plenty of fuel left in the bunkers. Moreover, raiding operations therefrom could and doubtless would seriously interfere with if they did not wholly interrupt our foreign commerce, even at remote points such as New York, Boston and Portland. In the other direction lies Cologne, a little more than 1000 miles away from St. Thomas. It is against Cologne that an inimical campaign would more possibly be directed. The possession of this gateway to the Pacific would restore the conditions of the war with Spain when the Oregon had to circumnavigate the whole of South America in order to join Sampson off Santiago de Cuba. It is evident that a foreign nation endeavoring to acquire the Danish West Indies could in fact have no mere commercial or profitable colonial aim in view. There is but one harbor in the group that is especially fit for a naval base, Charlotte Amelie on the south side of St. Thomas. By skill and care, it could be made to accommodate a fleet large enough to occasion us grave concern. From a secure harbor for merchant steamers to a naval establishment and a military outpost, the path is neither hard nor long. It is wiser, however distasteful, to forestall any such maneuver by a foreign power, by buying the islands ourselves. We do not relish the idea of such a thorn in our side, such a threat to neighboring Puerto Rico, to our naval station at Guantanamo only 300 miles distant, to that at Key West 1000 miles distant, to the free navigation of the Caribbean Sea, and the Mona and Windward passages between Puerto Rico and Haiti, Cuba and Puerto Rico respectively, or to our Gulf cities. Thus it appears, northeast, south and west, these islands are a most valuable point d'appuis for any European government wishing to quarrel with us. It is therefore in the highest degree essential that we spare no effort to prevent their falling into unfriendly hands." Transportation. Climactically, the Virgin Islands offer much to attract the tourist as a winter resort. They need first-class hotels to be built and managed by competent Americans. There is no reason why the islands should not become popular with the tourist as soon as suitable accommodations have been provided. Situated 1440 miles south of New York and 1025 miles from Cologne, the northern entrance to the Panama Canal, the islands are ideally placed for a short sea voyage. The population in recent years has been diminishing because of the loss of trade and the consequent falling off of the number of ships in the harbor. At one time, there were 46,000 people on the islands. In 1911, the number had dwindled to 27,000, and the present population is said to approximate this figure. The only means of transportation on St. John is by horseback. As the island is very hilly, the roads are not suitable for vehicles. On St. Thomas, there are about 15 miles of good roads, traversed by numerous carriages and a few automobiles. St. Croix boasts 100 miles of roads, but few of these are paved. We include in our West Indies possessions not only some of the Virgin Islands but Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, however, is no more American today than when we first went to the island. But the Virgin Islander welcomes the United States. The circumstances attending the purchase and transfer of the islands were most auspicious, and we foresee only the happiest outcome from the relations between the natives and the United States. The Mentor II by Various Chapter 11 The Mentor Number 45. Makers of American Art by Jay Thomas Willing Serial Number 45. Department of Fine Arts Early art in America was distinctly commercial, in that it conformed to the law of demand and supply. In those photographic days records were desired of the appearance of people who were gradually coming into an easier mode of living than their ancestors, the hardy pioneers, had been able to acquire. The colonial official, the landlord, the merchant, all wish to emulate in little the great folk of the old world, and have family portraits. The craftsmen to supply the demand were few, and the quality of their art far from fine. The colonial period was barren of good production. It is marvellous that in this pictorially uncultured time, without the stimulus of good examples to be seen, and of fellow strivers to instruct, such wonderfully good workers in art should arise, as copely in Boston and West in Pennsylvania, and a little later, Malbone in Newport, who in miniature work outclassed anyone then working. After study in Europe, these men's work was broader and better, but yet much of their early work indicates their caliper. Early American Portraits After the proclamation of peace the people were more prosperous, and the portrait market was good. Not only family portraits were wanted, but portraits of political heroes. The commercial artist was there to take orders and deliver the goods. The goods he delivered were of a very high grade of workmanship. After the individual portrayal came the order for the historical picture, the celebration of the dramatic moment, and the great event. Further than these two classes of pictures the earliest art did not go. The life of the day in all its human aspects of picturesqueness was ignored. The genre picture did not come until about the middle of the nineteenth century. In England, Benjamin West, who had gone there about his twenty-fifth year, was painting biblical and mythological subjects, inspired by his stay in Italy, for Italy was yet the field for art inspiration. He received extended patronage from King George, and succeeded Reynolds as President of the Royal Academy. Christ Healing the Sick In the Philadelphia Hospital and The Death on a Pale Horse in the Pennsylvania Academy are two of his best known works in America. The latter is an immense canvas, melodramatic in character, and carrying no direct message to modern observers. West seems to have wished to impress by size and industry. In regard to color he always remained a Quaker. The Generosity of West Perhaps West's best contribution to the art development of America was the splendid generosity of his welcome to his young compatriots when they came to London to study. His was the hand that gave them greeting. His the studio and the home that were at their service. And his the mind that directed their work. To him came Matthew Pratt of Philadelphia, though his senior and stayed four years, returning then to his native place and carrying on his profession there. The Peels, father and son, were indebted to him for their training. Dunlap and Trumbull and Stewart all studied under his tutelage. Alliston sat at his feet as a devout disciple, becoming a veritable legatee of his mode of thought and of his manner. This manner was evolved from a contemplation of grand subjects, allegorical religious, mythical, and historical. Neither he nor West was an observer of the life of their day. Though West did a radical thing, a great service to natural art, when he painted the death of Wolf with all the figures therein clad in the regimentals they then wore, and not in classic garb, as historic happenings had hitherto been painted. His work had little beauty of color, little atmosphere, and no spontaneity. It has not held its appreciation as have other more natural paintings of that time. To Boston, in 1725, had come John Smybert from London, a protégé of Bishop Berkeley. He there painted many portraits until his death in 1751, though his work had little merit. He was the forerunner of Copely, the first able native artist. The Distinction of Copely In his youth, Copely had the slight advantage of some instruction from his stepfather, Peter Pelham, the engraver, but early acquired a style of his own. His technique was not very fluent, but his design was good, his drawing remarkably true, and his characterization unusual. A dignified formality pervaded his canvases, as befitted the sitters of his native Boston. It is said that a Copely portrait in a New England family is a certificate of aristocracy and social standing. He painted textures well, though somewhat laboriously. Large ruffles, heavy silks, silver buckles, gold embroidered vests, and powdered wigs are blint in our imagination with the memory of Patriot zeal and matronly influence, writes a Tuckerman. But those adjuncts to the personality would not be so associated with the patrician colonials had not Copely rendered them so well. None of the early painters so accurately gave the spirit of their time as he. As we gleaned from Lily's portraits of the beauties of the Caroline court, the free and easy manners that were its atmosphere, so from Copely's portraits we get the moral atmosphere of that colonial time, with the reserve and self-respect of its men, and the virtue and propriety of its women. He did not go abroad until he was thirty-seven years old. In England he was well received, and had many commissions. He was made an A.R.A. in seventeen seventy-seven, and a full academician in seventeen seventy-nine. Shortly after this he was commissioned to paint the Siege of Gibraltar. His son, Baron Lindhurst, became Lord Chancellor and collected many of his father's works. Charles Wilson Peale's fame is almost wholly derived from his portraits of Washington, of which he painted fourteen from life, extending in time from seventeen seventy-two to seventeen ninety-five. His earliest shows Washington in the uniform of a British colonial colonel, and is now in the possession of Washington and Lee University. Washington is known to have sat forty-four times to various painters. Based on these comparatively few sittings have been more portrayals on canvas than have been accorded to any man in history, with the possible exception of Napoleon. A collection of engraved portraits of him has been made, which include over four thousand plates. Rembrandt Peale, a son of Charles Wilson Peale, contributed a cumulative fame to the name, as he also painted Washington, as well as Jefferson, Dolly Madison, and other political and social leaders. He, as well as his father and his uncle, James Peale, all worked at times in miniature. In the work of father and son there was little merit, little invention, but a credible craftsmanship. They recorded the appearance of the people of their day with uninspired fluency. The Art of Trumble John Trumble's astanding, like Peale's, is attained largely on his renderings of Washington. He had much opportunity for observing the general, and this contributed much to the accuracy of his compositions, but little to the fineness of his art. He is fortunate in having many of his works gathered together in the Yale School of Fine Arts, for in the aggregation they are impressive, as being a dignified and geographic presentment of the important events of the revolutionary period. These canvases are not large. Indeed, much of his work was in the nature of miniatures in oil. He made many careful studies from life of those persons he introduced into his historical compositions. His picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was painted in 1791, when most of the signers were yet living, and from all of these he obtained sittings. Claim has been made that he was the greatest of the early painters in America. He was, in the sense of having made the truest record. But in the sense of being the best according to our latter-day conception of art, as being something other than a labored and literal rendering of a fact, he was inferior to both Copley and Stewart. Gilbert Stewart, Master in Portraiture In Gilbert Stewart we had the most valuable artwork. His portraits, while good records, had also beauty and charm. His colour was fresh and brilliant. He gave his subjects poise and personality. His pictures were vital. He had not the faculty for design and composition to the extent of the great Englishman, Reynolds and Gainsborough. But he had a technique that was not inferior. Fortunate has been the nation that has known its heroic founders through the medium of Stewart's picturing. Indeed, much of our modern regard for those heroes has been engendered by these dignified yet very human presentments. Of Philadelphia families he was the true historian, and of Boston society he was the splendid chronicler that outshone its own, Copley. In England, after studying with West, he ranked high for several years in that the greatest period of English art. He returned to America in 1792, and after spending two years in New York, went to Philadelphia to paint Washington. Apart from the several celebrated pictures of the first president, his best work was done in the decade in which he resided in that city. It has been the policy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to acquire as many of these works as possible. More than a score are now in its possession, including portraits of President Monroe and Madison, and the famous Adoli Madison canvas. Stewart painted as many as three sets of the first five presidents, one of which was destroyed by fire in Washington. One set is now privately owned in Boston. What is known as the Lansdowne portrait is in the Philadelphia Gallery. In design and general impressiveness, though not in features, it is one of the most satisfactory of all the presidential picturings. The Gibbs Channing portrait, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is the finest in facial modeling. Stewart made many replicas of the few Washington's he painted from life. Especially was this so of the Athenium head. Much controversy has arisen as to which of the many Washington portraits is the most accurate. The fact of the absolute dimensions of any feature is of little moment to later generations. What is of greatest moment is the poise, the nobility, the grandeur, the serenity, the faith, the wisdom, the homeric mold of the man, and these a grateful people has come to think were intimated more fully by Stewart than by any of the other portrayers. Stewart's Portraits of Women Stewart is quoted as saying, And after that, my portrait. We can well be content to accept these as the two ideal renderings. It has been claimed that he was not very successful in portraying female beauty. This is a contention that is hard to controvert. He did not pitify his sisters in the way Lawrence did, but he surely made them humanly lovely. Rebecca Smith, Anne Bingham, Francis Cadd Walleter, Elizabeth Boardley, and Sally McKean, all reputedly handsome in the written testimony of that period, have certainly not suffered in that repute by Stewart's painting of them, and Betsy Patterson, she of the willful temperament and romantic career who married the brother of an emperor lives for all time as a beauty because of the ability of Stewart. Of this handsome woman a contemporary writes, Madam Jerome Bonaparte is a model of fashion, and many of our bells strive to imitate her, but without equal a claw, as Madam has certainly the most beautiful back and shoulders that ever were seen, and again, to her mental gifts were added the beauty of a Greek, yet glowing type which not even the pencil of Stewart adequately portrayed in the exquisite portrait that he wished might be buried with him, not yet on his other canvas which, with its addainty head in triple pose of loveliness, still smiles in unfading witchery, whether or no he painted her as lovely as life, he produced a canvas that has great individuality and charm. The Culture of Alston Washington Alston had a great reputation in his day, but his product was inconsiderable and not of equality to justify the standing he then had. He had greater culture and a finer intellectuality than perhaps any other artist in the United States in its first century. His was a sensitive nature. He lived in the spirit, for the high, the lovely, the perfect, he strove all his days, yet that high ideality and that earnest striving had little effect on the art of his time. He was honoured by his literary contemporaries, but his work was not emulated to any extent by his fellow artists. His work was an intellectual expression. Its tradition was continued by Thomas Cole, who painted landscape as an allegorical message. Alston was born near Charleston, South Carolina. Spent his youth at Newport, where he became intimate with Malbone, and after graduating from Harvard, went abroad to study. The Italians attracted him, but he found his way to London, where he associated with Coleridge and other literary celebrities. He was made an A.R.A., but returned soon thereafter to Boston, working there from 1818 to his death in 1843. He laid much stress on his technical processes in painting. His pictures had none of the spontaneous quality of his sketches and studies. He was an art totally at variance with the mode of the present day. We fill in Copely's canvases a very modern quality, and in most of Stewart's, but not in Alston's. Vanderland and Sully A more modern man, though not so celebrated, was John Vanderland, a native of Kingston, New York, who spent many years in Paris. He had aspirations after beauty for its own sake. His Ariadne, owned by the Pennsylvania Academy, was really the first important nude painted here. Such a subject in those days caused much protest. This artist's life was a stern struggle against adverse conditions, though he greatly deserved success. In the rotunda of the capital, at Washington, is his landing of Columbus, a work that does not well represent his ability. His portrait work carried through the traditions of the revolutionary days to that period of the early half of the nineteenth century, when Thomas Sully and Henry Inman were the leaders. The latter was born in Utica in 1801, and lived but forty-five years. His work was uneven, but at its best, as in the Henry Pratt portrait in the Pennsylvania Academy, is comparable to Rayburn. He painted Woodsworth, McCully, Dr. Charmers, and other men of Mark in England, on commissions from their American admirers. Though Sully was a pupil of Stuart, he entirely lacked the master's authority of manner. His was a timid technique, without freshness of color or firm characterization. His life was a long and successful one, spent chiefly in Philadelphia, and he had many celebrities as sitters. Queen Victoria, Fanny Kimball, and General Jackson are among his best known canvases. Of the work of Sully the Pennsylvania Academy has, besides several portraits of the artist himself, a large number of his canvases. This policy of the chief galleries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, of acquiring works of the several worthy artists of the older time, has become a more difficult one to follow as the years go on. And the ancestral portrait, the family heirloom, becomes precious beyond price. The beginning of American miniature painting treasured with even greater reverence is the old time miniature. There was no production of this form of art in the colonial days, but its practice developed after the revolution, and had its chief exponent in Malbone, who, though living but from 1777 to 1807, is to this day one of the very best artists of the portrait in little. Excellent draftmanship as well as good coloring gave his work a structural firmness, unusual, even in Causeway's productions. His best known picture was an imaginative composition entitled The Hours, which is now in the Athenium at Providence, Rhode Island. Through his friendship with Alston, Malbone accompanied him to Charleston in 1800, and there painted miniatures of prominent South Carolinians, including Mrs. Ralph Izard, the beautiful Alice Delancey, who had been previously pictured by both Copely and Gainesboro. Other beautiful women he painted were Rachel and Rebecca Gratz of Philadelphia, the latter being the inspiration for Rebecca in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Alston wrote of Malbone. He had the happy talent of elevating the character without impairing the likeness. This was remarkable in his male heads, and no woman ever lost beauty under his hand. In Charleston at that time was Charles Frazier, a miniaturist of much ability, whose work is now sought by collectors. As the nineteenth century progressed, the portrait gradually lost its preeminence, and the landscape, the storytelling-picture subject, and later the composition painted for its own sake became the chief expressions of the American artist, Library, New York. Makers of American Art John Singleton Copely won. The parentage of John Singleton Copely was Irish. He was born in America. The most active years of his art career were spent in England. About the time of his birth in Boston, July 3, 1737, his father died, and the boy was named after his grandfather on his mother's side, John Singleton, of Quinville Abbey, County Clair. After ten years his mother married Peter Pelham, a painter and mezzotint engraver. From him Copely received instruction and encouragement in art, but Pelham died when Copely was fourteen, and the boy had then to be his own master. He was living in Boston at a time when Boston had but eighteen thousand inhabitants. His skill in painting gained him renown throughout the city. He was a handsome, brilliant young man, dressing and living in style, and moving in the best society. Within the limited range of New England life he played something of the part that Van Dyke in his time played in the larger world of Holland and England. When Copely was thirty-two years old he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Richard Clark. His father-in-law was the agent of the East India Company, to whom later was consigned that historic cargo of tea which was flung into Boston Harbour. Expecting trouble with England, young Copely, who was now a thoroughly successful painter, went to Rome for a year's stay, but in 1775 he took up his residence in London. He was received in a kindly and appreciative way by the great painter Benjamin West, and soon became popular with the art-loving public. After two years residence he was made an associate member of the Royal Academy. He became a full academician in 1779 after exhibiting his most famous picture, The Death of Chatham. Copely's life was one of success and happiness. For him there were no struggles and no embittering disappointments. His wife was beautiful and attractive, and they drew about them in their home a set of interesting and distinguished people. Their house on Beacon Hill was surrounded by eleven acres of land, which he called Copely's Farm, and in which he took great pride and satisfaction. The Revolutionary War was naturally a matter of great concern to Copely, living as he was among English friends, but he remained steadfastly loyal to the land of his birth, and rejoiced at the issue of the war. As the Revolution closed, Copely was working on the portrait of Alkenna Watson, and in December 1782 he and Watson listened together to King George's speech recognizing America's independence. In the background of the Watson portrait Copely had introduced a ship, and when the two returned to Copely's house after hearing the King's speech, the artist painted on the ship's mast the first American flag displayed in England. Copely died in 1815, full of years and of honors. His son became Lord Chancellor Lindhurst. Benjamin West II The career of Benjamin West has often been cited as a triumphant demonstration of genius, which, like lightning, strikes where it will and develops in the most uncongenial surroundings. He was born in 1738 at Springfield, a little Pennsylvania settlement, and in his childhood he knew the rigor of frontier life. He was the youngest child of a large family. When six years old he began to draw with pen and ink, showing the first signs of an inclination to art. A year afterward a party of friendly Indians, amazed at the sketches of birds and flowers that the boy made, taught young West to prepare the red and yellow colors with which they painted their ornaments. Mrs. West furnished indigo, house cats furnished the fur to make brushes, and with these primitive materials the boy West produced some paintings that showed real worth. As a result a box of paints was sent to him from Philadelphia by a relative. His delight knew no bounds, and a few days later he set out to visit his relative in Philadelphia, a Mr. Pennington, who brought him in touch with the artist Williams. The boy's interest and enthusiasm about art impressed Williams, who asked him if he had read any books. Finding that young West's reading was limited to the Bible, the young artist lent him the works of Dufresnois and Richardson on painting. These books gave the boy the idea of an artist's career, and soon afterward his skill brought him his first money. At the end of West's Philadelphia studies, the question of settling him in some profession came up, and as a result there was a solemn scene in the sober Quaker home of his parents, with discourses, prayers, and finally dedication of the youth to art. So launched, Benjamin West left home, and worked as a portrait painter, first in Philadelphia and then in New York. In 1760, when he was 22, he went to Italy for study, and remained there for three years. Then he settled in London, and success came to him rapidly. He was soon known as one of the leading portrait and historical painters of the time. In 1772 he was appointed court historical painter. He became one of the first members of the Royal Academy, and later he had conferred upon him the final crown of art distinction when, after the death of Joshua Reynolds, he was elected president of the Academy. Benjamin West in his old age was surrounded by a group of enthusiastic and talented young students. Washington Alston was a pupil of his, Copley too, and many other artists who afterward attained worldwide fame. He died at London in 1820. Charles Wiltson Peel. Three. Peel has been a well-known name in American art for one hundred and fifty years. Charles Wiltson Peel, who lived from 1741 to 1827, was celebrated especially for his portraits of Washington and other famous men of the time. James Peel, his brother, who lived during about the same period, painted two portraits of Washington, one of which is in possession of the New York Historical Society, and the other in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. He also made a number of landscapes and historical pictures. Rembrandt Peel, the son of Charles Wiltson Peel, lived from 1778 until 1860. He too was a portrait painter, and among his works is an equestrian portrait of Washington, now in Independence Hall. Two brothers of Rembrandt Peel were artists likewise. So when anyone speaks of the American painter Peel, some further definition is needed, and when a portrait of Washington by Peel is mentioned, it is important to know which Peel was the painter. Charles Wiltson Peel, the most celebrated of them all, was born in Queen Ann County, Maryland, in April, 1741. His boyhood was spent at Charleston, and then at Annapolis, where at thirteen years he was apprenticed to a saddler. He was twenty-three years old before he began to study art. His first teacher was a Swedish painter, Hiselius. Peel's progress was rapid. He sought out the master painter John Singleton-Copley in Boston, studied under him for three years, then went to London and became a pupil of Benjamin West. In 1770 he established himself in Philadelphia, and his studio soon became famous. Two years after he reached Philadelphia, he painted a three-quarter length picture of Washington in the uniform of a Virginia military colonel. This is the earliest known portrait of the Great Commander. It is now in the chapel of Washington and Lee University. Peel painted a number of paintings of Washington and two miniatures of Mrs. Washington. When the revolution broke out, the artist turned soldier, raising a militia company of which he was finally made captain, and, as such, fought in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Germantown. He afterward entered the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he was known as one of the first abolitionists. He voted against slavery and freed his own slaves. Beloved and esteemed, Peel lived to be eighty-six years old, enjoying a distinction in art shared only by a few other American painters. His name is identified chiefly with portraits of Washington. By an odd coincidence the month and day of his death were the same as that of Washington's birth. He died at his home near Germantown on February 22, 1827. Gilbert Stewart. Four. To many Gilbert Stewart is known as the painter of Washington. We know Washington today as Trumbull and Stewart have painted him, and Stewart has been aptly called the prime painter to the President. According to an antidote, Stewart was said to regard Washington as his own particular subject, and valued him as any workman might a pay envelope. Whenever he lacked an income he could always paint a Washington head and get his price for it. Gilbert Stewart was born at North Kingston, Rhode Island, in December, 1755. He studied at Newport for a while, then in 1775 he went to England and studied under Benjamin West. Four years were all that Stewart needed for study, even under this master. He set up his own studio in London, and from the beginning found success. Indeed, it came to him so quickly that Stewart was tempted into outrunning it, and was soon beyond his means and in financial difficulties. In 1788 Stewart founded expedient to slip away to Dublin. When there he found success anew, and remained in Ireland for five years. Then he returned to America, enticed by the Commission to paint General Washington. Experienced as he was at that time, Stewart confessed to genuine embarrassment in facing Washington for the first time. He said that though he had painted King George III, and the future George IV, had painted Louis XVI, and many others among the great, he had never been disconcerted until he found himself in the presence of the American General. As a result his first portrait was a failure, but Washington sat again for him, and the result was the famous head on the unfinished canvas, known as the Athenium Portrait. The Stewart portraits of Washington are famous the world over. So much so that some overlook the splendid work that Stewart has done in portraiture for other celebrated men of America—John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and the rest—the list including nearly all the notables of his time. Stewart was more than a good technical painter. He was a portrait maker in the finest sense. He studied character, and his portraits are living people. In his artwork and his associations, Gilbert Stewart was a man of great simplicity. His habits were sometimes a shock to his more fastidious art friends. When Trumbull in 1780 came to Benjamin West, the latter referred him to Gilbert Stewart for painting materials and casts to work with. He found Stewart, as he states, dressed in an old black coat with one half torn off the hip and pinned up, looking more like a beggar than a painter. Trumbull, whose idea of what was fit for an artist had been gained from establishments like those of Coopley and West, was much upset. But he soon learned to appreciate the great painter under the shabby habit. Stewart is recognized not only as a leader in American art, but as one of the greatest portrait painters. His last years were spent in Boston, where he died in July, 1828. John Trumbull, Five John Trumbull was the youngest of six children of Jonathan Trumbull, who was once a governor of Connecticut. To him George Washington gave the name of Brother Jonathan, a name that has now become a national personification. Whether the people deliberately adopted this name in order to apply it to our national type is a subject of some discussion. But it is a fact that Washington called Trumbull Brother Jonathan. And it is a fact that many affectionately employed the term thereafter as a familiar name for the United States. So its origin in the incident seems probable, at least. John Trumbull was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756. He was a sickly child, with a mind more active than his body. An infant prodigy of learning, who qualified to enter college at 12. He actually did enter Harvard in the middle of the junior year at the age of 15. His delicate health and his extreme youth prevented his making many close college friends. He spent his spare money on French lessons, and his spare time studying pictures in the fine art books that he could find in the college library. When a student he visited Copley, and became imbued with the great painter's ideas of the dignity of an artist's life. After graduation in 1773, Trumbull tried to paint with homemade materials. His art studies and experiments were interrupted by the opening of the revolution. When war with England became imminent, Trumbull began training the young men of the school and village. And, after the Battle of Lexington, when the first regiment of Connecticut troops was formed, he was made adjutant. Afterward he became second aid to camp to General Washington. And when General Gates took command of the Northern Department, he appointed Trumbull adjutant general, with rank of colonel. And in that capacity he took part in the unfortunate expedition to Albany and Ticonderoga. He resigned from the army in 1780, and went to London to study art under Benjamin West. Then came the news of the arrest and execution of Major Andre, which stirred England, and suggested the arrest of John Trumbull, because he had been an officer of similar rank in the American army. He was imprisoned for seven months. In 1784 he was once more studying under West. And when there painted his two great pictures, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Death of Montgomery, in 1785 Trumbull visited Paris, and it was when there that he began his picture, which is perhaps the most famous of all his work, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The years thereafter were active ones for Trumbull. He produced many portraits of celebrated men, and many historic paintings that still hold leading places in the national art of America. In 1794 Trumbull acted as secretary to John Jay in London during the negotiations for the treaty between America and Great Britain. He was a man of prominence in public life, a leader in art in both England and America. He was president of the American Academy of Fine Arts from 1816 until 1825, and he died in New York November 10, 1843. Spanish Girl by Washington Alston, Metropolitan Museum, New York. Makers of American Art. Washington Alston. Six. The standard bearer of the group of young artists who studied under Benjamin West was Washington Alston, although several years of Alston's active life were spent in England, he was a native American, and was born in the Waccamaw region of South Carolina, in 1779. Alston's father married twice, and the painter was the son of the second wife. His father died when Alston was only two years old, and when he was seven his mother married Dr. Henry C. Flag of Newport, who was chief of the medical staff of General Green's army. Alston as a boy showed unusual ability for drawing, and he was fortunate in finding in Newport two friends to assist and encourage him. In particular there was a boy named Malbone, two years his senior, who was already beginning to paint miniatures, and in after years became known as Edward G. Malbone, a famous painter of portraits. The friendship with Malbone had much influence on Alston's nature. They remained good friends through life, and gave to each other and took from each other the riches of sympathy and understanding that lie in an art kinship. At college Alston showed himself a genuine boy, full of animal spirits. He joined in college pranks, and got the most that college life could give in fun and friendship. He was in short a radiant young man, graceful, handsome, with blue eyes, silky black hair, and pale clear complexion. He was liked and honored by all his fellow students, cordial to all, yet with a certain aristocratic distinction that marked him as one of finer nature. He loved not art alone, but literature and romance. His verses were creditable, and brought him the honor of being elected class poet. He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and for a while studied art in Charleston with Malbone. In 1801 Alston went to London with Malbone. He entered the Royal Academy, and became a pupil of West. Alston admired West enthusiastically, and got from him not only instruction, but inspiration. From 1804 until 1809 Alston was a traveller in Europe, spending part of the time in Paris and part in Italy, and when he returned to his native country in 1809 he had already established himself among the painters of his day. From 1811 until 1817 he lived and worked in England, and when there he came to realize his full powers. He had developed greatly, not only in artistic and poetic fields, but in religious convictions, and not only in painting, but in writing he showed great ability. Coleridge, who was four years a close friend, pronounced him a leader in the art and thought of his time. Alston was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1819, after having just returned to America. He spent the remaining years of his life in Boston, and in Cambridge, where he died in July 1843. His paintings are to be seen in a number of the prominent galleries of this country and England. The most celebrated of them are religious in nature. Chapter 11. Recording by J. K. Humphries