(Red Lodge, Mont.), 1934-05-09
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(WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1934. THE CARBON COUNTY NEWS, RED LODGE, MONTANA PAGE SEVEN Scenes and Persons in the Current News The Most Famous 0mm—m ,*• k:-*M ■ iW'l v '% > y~-f ►; > 5 ; ■ * « ! t American Mother i V. Ji'- ■';< 5# m r : V.J| 1 m1,4>t\ ;S] 1 ■ L « mj ■]:>4 ■v-i ■m ajgP5 p &££jj :■ ■ k<l .V X > Y !.. */■■■■■* - pm il ifciâi: « 1 PI : * fr- M :■<&&!>* \ mI m X Bk r;' J •;>■ Ü : « v~ , .< I I ÉÂJ i w ï *4 ri Wm ■%£ :* ? s i * % Tf-;?* 2 ^ I * f I ••i : l "X-yX v/ ,V'- ■ V. ' . * ? ■Xv ■M * « 5r/ i w^j « I*-* m Reconstructed I KDrt iKTKiHfcl ? « MM Fort Dearborn 1—lit. Rev. Stephen Donohue who was consecrated as Catholic auxiliary bishop of New York, Cardinal Hayes officiating. 2—First dress parade of the year at Annapolis Naval academy, before the board of vl» Itors. 3—Mother, children and the family cow being transported across the Penobscot river to safety during Whistler's Portrait of His Mother the serious floods In Maine. 4 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Jack Has a Day Ashore in Panama HEN the special Mother’s day '• stamps were placed on sale re WT] cently, there was added another chapter to the romantic story of a J Éf ' ; w woman who is undoubtedly Amer . ica’s most famous mother. For the stamps bear the reproduction ■ \] \ of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s I s; Mm V famous painting which Is called r 4 "Arrangement In Gray and Black,” \ & / p i w ' f but which Is more familiar to his N & fellow-Amerlcans as "Whistler’s m V., Portrait of His Mother, . j < >• m or, more V. iii ; t simply still, "The Mother.” ; * ■ /J—^ ! ! 1 Although Anna Mathilda McNeill J ■ Whistler needs nothing more than Self-PortraitWhistler Cl859) << this painting to guarantee her Immortality, yet \ ■ ; % I ' I the choice of her portrait for reproduction on a mm■ m. ■ ; : special commemorative stamp Issue this year and named Capt. John Whistler as commandant. ■M .; i (the first time, Incidentally, that such notice has m Accordingly the fort was built In the summer > been taken of Mother’s day) is an additional :■ % Fm ■_ y- :v ■" M of 1803, given the name of Fort Dearborn, In : : M . honor conferred upon her. In all of our history, ■ W- : ;> honor of Gen. Henry Dearborn, then secretary ;$i only three other women have had that distinc mm of war, and thus OapL John Whistler became V- r : k ■ ——... s tion. They were Pocahontas, the Indian prin the real “father of Chicago.” The original draft i. : While the United States Beet was at Panama on Its way from the Pacific to the Atlantic the sailors cess; Isabella, the Spanish queen; and Martha for the plans of the fort, drawn by Captain i were given welcome shore leave and thronged the cities. A party Is here seen leaving one of the ships. Washington, wife of our first President But Whistler, is still In the archives of the War de Bust of Whistler in Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler Is not the only partment at Washington—a good soldierly Job, Hall of Fame, New York University one who Is honored In this year’s Mother’s day It is, but reveal’ng none of the artistic qualities JAVELIN THROWER Organizing Fourth Internationale stamp. It was Issued also to commemorate the which were later to make the name of Whistler one hundredth anniversary of the event which eldest of a family of five children. so famous. It would be pleasant to be able to record the took place in Lowell, Mass., on July 10, 1834— For the next nine years John Whistler, as M fact that It was a case of love at first sight for : j Y the birth of the son who was to achieve such builder of the fort and Its commandant, dom K- I >> Cadet Whistler and Anna McNeill. But that la M world-wide fame himself and to bring a similar inated the little community In this lonely out doubtful, for soon after he was graduated from :ÿ:: world-wide fame to her by his portrait of her. post of civilization which was to become the West Point be was married, but not to Anna w It Is doubtful If any other painting ever put second largest city In the United States. But the i McNeill Shortly afterwards young Whistler was ■ ' •> * ■ y£: on canvas Is so well known to so many people. building and the commanding were not the only left a widower and early In the ’30s he again ; Reproductions of It, running up Into the millions contributions he made to the history of Fort met the motherly older sister of his classmate, In numbers, have been printed and these prints Dearborn and the beginnings of Chicago. He William Gibbs McNeill, and married her. In 1833 have gone to every corner of the earth. During brought with him a growing family, some of Whistler resigned from the army and the next the last year and a half, while It was in this whose members were destined for renown even ■ year to George Washington Whistler and Anna ‘ft : ■' £ I country under a loan agreement from the French greater than his. Mathilda Whistler was born a son to whom was ■M government. It was exhibited In 12 leading cities His eldest son, William Whistler, accompanied : ; given the name James Abbott McNeill Whistler, throughout the United States and it Is estimated him to Chicago as a second lieutenant and f;j thus perpetuating the name of his uncle, James that during its triumphal tour more than 2,000,- served there throughout the elder WThlstler’s \ ; Abbott the Detroit trader at Fort Dearborn, as 4 000 persons viewed It Several hundred thou term of service. His eldest daughter, Sarah, was i; well as his paternal and maternal families, the ! ! I sands more will have been added to that number married In November, 1804, to James Abbott, a McNeills and the Whistlers. ; before It Is sent back to Paris late this month trader of Detroit, thus becoming Chicago’s first 34 After George Washington Whistler’s resigna (for the agreement with the French government bride. Another daughter married Lieut. Joseph ; tion from the army he rose to eminence as an calls for its return by June 1) to resume Its Hamilton, who was also a subaltern under engineer and In 1842 he went to Russia to enter j honored place In the Louvre. Whistler at Fort Dearborn. r « * .. the service of the czar In the construction of the ! For five months of the time that the painting But our chief interest Is In a toddling child railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, winning was on a tour of the country it was exhibited of three who came with his father to Chicago In for himself from Czar Nicholas the decoration at the Chicago Art institute In connection with 1803. His name was George Washington Whist y- of the Order of St. Anne. To Russia with him •Y A Century of Progress. But among the thou ler. Thus did the ex-Brltlsh soldier honor the & went his wife and their two sons, one of them % sands who saw it there and who also saw the great commander of the "rebels” against whom a slender, weak lad, affectionately known to his replica of Fort Dearborn on the exposition he had fought under Burgoyne. Young George mother as “Jamie." And “Jamie” he was to her grounds It Is doubtful If one in a thousand Washington Whistler grew up Into sturdy boy ÜP to the end of her days, even when he became realized that there was a historical, if not a hood along the marshy banks of the Chicago t '*1 x? a world-famous painter. For the close tie be W.;; mi cultural, link between the world-famous paint river and on the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. ml 'IWA tween the mother and the son who was to Im ing, the highest exemplification of a man’s skill He was only ten years old when, as the result : unit j.71 mortalize her on canvas began during this Rus In the line of fine arts, and the crude architec of a garrison feud, the War department thought mm M- sian experience. Ralston Le Gore of North Caro ture of a building which had only the very utili It advisable to scatter the officers at Fort Dear She nursed him during those bitter years and lina hurled the Javelin better than tarian purpose of preserving the lives of Its In born to various posts In the Middle West and when they were ended In the death of Major anyone else at the Penn relay meet habitants from savage hatred. That link is the the boy accompanied his father back to Detroit. Whistler and when the widow and her two sons In Philadelphia, and so won that - theme of this story. And there, two years later, young George Wash were reduced to poverty, she brought them out event. V ■ -■ The story has Its beginning In Ireland more ington Whistler probably witnessed the scene of the land of snows back to her sunny North than 175 years ago. In the year 1758 there was which made his father unique In American—and Carolina. When “Jamie" grew up he decided to born to an English family named Whistler, liv perhaps In any other—history. DRAFTED AS MAYOR follow the profession of his father and become ing there, a son to whom was given the name For Capt John Whistler and his elder son, a soldier.