always more than enough of his own.

There came to him likewise many requests. Social reformers, believing it within his power to correct any evil, eagerly besought his aid. Legislators urged him to take up his pencil in behalf of certain measures, while candidates for official promotion endeavored through him to obtain the ear of Grant. As a maker of pictures concerned with the affairs of a great republic, his position was absolutely unique. Never in the history of nations had it been approached. Never is it likely to be again. At the close of the campaign the Republican National Committee had expressed its obligation in a letter of thanks.

We feel that we shall not fully perform our duty (wrote the secretary), without thanking you cordially for the efficient aid we have derived from your skilful hand and fertile but truthful imagination.

When the results of the election became known, Samuel L. Clemens sent an enthusiastic line:

Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigious victory for Grant-I mean, rather, for Civilization and Progress. Those pictures were simply marvellous, and if any man in the land has a right to hold his head up and be honestly proud of his share in this year's vast events, that man is unquestionably yourself. We all do sincerely honor you and are proud of you. Yours ever,

In another letter Clemens wrote:

Mark Twain.

The Almanac has come and I have enjoyed those pictures with all my soul and body. Your "Mexico" is a fifty years' history of that retrograding chaos of a country, portrayed upon the space of one's thumbnail, so to speak, and that "Sphinx in Egypt" charms me. I wish I could draw that old head in that way.

I wish you could go to England with us in May. Surely you could never regret it. I do hope my publishers can make it pay you to illustrate my English book. Then I should have good pictures. They've got to improve on " Roughing It."

I thank you for your kindness to me and my friend Charley. The Charley referred to was Charles M. Fairbanks, now a well-known newspaper man, then a boy with a good deal of artistic talent and an unbounded admiration for the work of Nast. He had come with a letter from Clemens and the cartoonist had made him welcome and assisted him with advice and encouragement. The boy was most grateful and remained always one of Nast's loyal and devoted friends.

From the first great champion of our dumb companions and servitors there came a characteristic word of praise:

I wish I could determine which of your inimitable pictures is best, but I cannot. The one in this week's Harper's Bazar, of Santa Claus among the animals, seems to me worthy of a frame of solid gold and precious stones. Those two cats upon a bench have nothing extant their superior.

Whenever you should be at a loss for a subject, do illustrate our work with your magic pencil!

Your profound admirer,

James Parton wrote hastily:

Henry Bergh.

No one has contributed to this glorious and astounding victory of Honesty over Humbug as much as Thomas Nast. Apply at once for the Paris consulship, and please don't get it!

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Gratifying as these attentions must have been, they could not

NAST'S ALMANAC FOR 1873

THE STORY OF THE GOOD LITTLE BOY WHO DID NOT PROSPER.

BY MARK TWAIN.

altogether bring happiness to the

young illustrator, who, now that the stimulus of battle was gone, found himself well-nigh prostrated from the work and strain and tragedy of the battle. He had averaged three drawings a

week during the

year, many of

ONCE there was a good little boy by the name of Jacob Blivens. He always obeyed his parents, no matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands were; and he always learned his book, and never was late at Sabbath-school. He would not play hookey, even when his sober judgment told him it was the most profitable thing he could do. None of the other boys could ever make that boy out, he acted so strangely. He wouldn't lie, no matter how convenient it was. He just said it was wrong to lie, and that was sufficient for him. And he was so honest that he was simply ridiculous. The curious ways that Jacob had surpassed every thing. He wouldn't play at marbles on Sunday, he wouldn't rob birds' nests, he wouldn't give hot pennies to organ-grinders' monkeys; he didn't seem to take any interest in any kind of rational amusement. So the other boys used to try to reason it out, and come to an understanding of him, but they couldn't arrive at any satisfactory conclusion; as I said

A PAGE FROM NAST'S ALMANAC

them double

pages, and into them he had put all the fierce conviction and vitality of his being. The result was collapse, and the death of Horace Greeley added to his depression,

For in the nature of Thomas Nast there was no fibre of cruelty or injustice. No man ever lent a more willing ear to the voice of the oppressed, or was ever more generous to the needy, more tender with the suffering. A letter from Bellew, who had caricatured him so fiercely during the campaign, but who later was ill and in want, gives us a hint of the personal side of Nast. My Dear Nast:

I have just received an envelope enclosing a cheque for twenty-five dollars, signed by you. Although no explanation accompanied the cheque, I suppose I cannot be far wrong in assuming that, having heard of my illness, you kindly intend it as a plank for the bridge to carry me over my present troubles. This is very kind of you, and I assure you I heartily appreciate both the motive and the money, which came at no inopportune

moment.

At some future day, when I get my harness on, I hope you will give me the opportunity to repay that part which it is possible to repay of a considerate act like yours, by some pen work for your Almanac.

Very sincerely yours,

Bellew.

Always a lion in battle, Nast was the gentlest of human beings among his friends. That he should now be accused of having caused the death of a fellow creature, distressed him sorely. Curtis, always thoughtful, wrote him a soothing letter.

My Dear Nast:

At the old Desk, Feb. 4, 1873.

I am very sorry to hear from the Major that you are not quite well, and I think perhaps the soft sun to-day may cheer you. I am so little in Franklin Square that I never meet you, but I do not forget the good old days when you used sometimes to climb up here and say a word.

When spring comes perhaps I shall see you, with the other bulbs and flowers! But seeing you or not seeing, I shall always think of you with the kindest regard, and, as we all do, with great admiration.

Very truly yours,

George William Curtis.

Parton, too, wrote again, addressing him " My dear Tommy,"

and urging seriously his acceptance of an official appointment abroad, with a long rest.

Not inaction—not stagnation (he wrote) but rest and change. Don't put this off. Take warning by Greeley. It was forty years work and no play that destroyed him. You cannot and must not go on working your brain as you have done. Leaving out all other considerations, you are more valuable to Sally and the children than the mortgage paid off. Think seriously of this. Think of it as you would a new picture. You will answer, you will tell me, I'm another. So I am, but not so bad. And there is this difference between us; you can rest, and I can't. You have considerable property and I have none. I must plod on, but not nearly so hard now as before. The time is near, I hope, when I can let up on myself.

66

Now, Sally, consider this with all your might. Don't let him put it off. Husbands, obey your wives," the Bible says. Do it! But consulship with years of rest, afar from the din of battle, were little to the taste of a man like Nast, ill though he was. He had expected nothing of the Government, and desired nothing it could give. His income for the year had aggregated about ✓ eighteen thousand dollars. Twelve hundred of this was royalty from his Almanac, and most of the remainder from his cartoons. There was not enough saved as yet to pay the mortgage on the big new home, but he felt that he was more likely to achieve this end in America than as the Nation's representative in a foreign port. Colonel Chipman, always his friend, seeking in some way to relieve any anxiety as to this debt, started privately in Washington a ten thousand dollar testimonial fund, to be made up in subscriptions of one hundred dollars each. To this the President, Secretary Fish, and a host of others were eager to contribute, but Nast found it incompatible with his ideas of independence. He was urged to go abroad alone for a period of complete change, and finally planned to sail in March, 1873.