Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/149

in that way, I take it, that the mind of an artist most commonly works. It chooses what it likes and needs by impulse and instinct, rather than on any calculation; the revelation of the point of view is gradual to the worker no less than to the onlooker. At any rate, it is safe to say that Mr. Gibson has the true gift of the comedian; he sees the humor of situations and the variety of types, and is skilled in eliciting just the touch of sympathy which makes us feel at one with the scenes which we are regarding. As an example of what I now say, I will end by pointing to the drawing called "An Argument with the Leading Lady." Here we understand so well the position: how the four men, all men of the theater, find the poor lady so utterly and hopelessly unreasonable; yet each is very differently affected by her refusal to be reasonable. But we can sympathize with the woman also; we know that to her the men seem very brutal, and the trouble, whatever it may happen to be, real, immense, and poignant; probably she thinks that she would never respect herself again if she yielded her point. Lastly we have her maid, staid, prim, motionless behind her mistress, taking no part, no view, no side in a controversy that is no concern of hers, just waiting till her share of the world's work begins again, till there is hair to do, or something to put on or take off. We are less excited than the men; we are less impassive than the maid; we smile, as the comedian would have us smile, in recognition of truth, in a little amusement that this should be truth, with just a little prick of regret that truth should so often show things in a very uncomfortable condition. But such a drawing proves for the artist beyond doubt the possession of that humor and that sympathy which are so closely allied to one another and between them give the power of reading the feelings and minds of men. Such a power, working through a technical skill so great as Mr. Gibson's, leaves no question as to his position and his fame; and, moreover, since it is a quality of literature no less than of art, may perhaps be allowed to excuse these few words from a sadly uninstructed but very cordial admirer.