the achievement of
the effect sought. Yet here, if ever, a human soul is laid bare
in all its naked tragedy.

[Illustration: WORKING PARIS AT LUNCHEON.
_From "Paris and some Parisians"_]

For sheer power in the art of drawing, Frank Reynolds has few equals
and no betters. As a draughtsman pure and simple, he seems to me
well-nigh perfect, whether he has pen, pencil, or stump of charcoal
in his hand. It is the great merit of his work, as it appears to
me, that it depends for the achievement of its intention solely
on its own intrinsic qualities. It has no tricks, no mannerisms,
no "fakements" to distract the attention and conceal weaknesses.
It is straightforward, direct in its appeal, self-reliant in its
challenge.

[Illustration]

To quote the words of a critic of discernment, as he passed from
drawing to drawing, "Frank Reynolds is right, right--right every
time." This is praise to which one can hardly add.

[Illustration: THE DARE-DEVILS.
_From "Social Pests."_]

_FRANK REYNOLDS._ II.

Frank Reynolds is yet another in the long list of artists who have
arrived at their true vocation by devious routes. There are certain
tendencies of mind which, when a man has them, refuse to be suppressed.
The journalistic instinct is one of them. Do what you will with the
man in whom it is planted, he can never keep his fingers from the
pen. Make him a doctor and you will find him scribbling columns
for the press on hygiene in the house and the benefits of breathing
through the nose. Send him into the army and he will fill his leisure
by writing tales of tiger-shoots and essays on the art of pig-sticking.
So with the artist. The man born with the gift to draw finds as
irresistible a fascination in pencil or brush as the man with the
power of narrative discovers in ink and paper. Whether he serves
before the mast as an A.B., or cattle-ranches out west, sooner or
later he is certain to drift into his proper sphere of activity.
It may take long to get there, but eventually he is bound to arrive.

In the case of Frank Reynolds the period of bondage was comparatively
brief. Entering at first upon a business career, he had originally
no prospect, nor intention, of developing his artistic impulses.
He had scarcely, indeed, a suspicion of his own powers--certainly
no proper knowledge of their latent possibilities. But commerce
had little interest for him, and circumstances which offered an
opportunity of escape combining