International studio (48.1913)

The Late Francis Davis Millet


MAIL COACH ON THE PLAINS
THE CLEVELAND POST-OFFICE

BY FRANCIS D. MILLET

The late francis davis
MILLET—NOTES ON THE
DECORATIVE PANELS IN THE
CLEVELAND POST OFFICE
BY C. MATLACK PRICE
It is difficult to write of the art of the late
Francis D. Millet in terms disassociated from his
personality, for great as was his art, those who
knew him—and there are many—speak first of
the man. And perhaps it is the greater tribute.
It has recently become the vogue to decry and
discount the utterance of laudatory remarks upon
recently deceased celebrities. 11 De mortui nihil
nisi bonum” seems to find little favor with latter-
day critics, but in the present case, either in
Millet’s public or in his private life, any detractor
must stand self-convicted of stupidity, or ignor-
ance, or both. For Millet’s life was one of noble
actions and high ideals, and his heroic death,
among the victims of the ill-fated 5. 5. Titanic,
was a closing chapter as fit as it was untimely.
Of New England birth, in the year 1846, Millet
completed a brilliant career at Harvard, graduat-
ing with the class of 1869. At this period it
seemed a question whether the brush or the pencil
would claim his ultimate activities, for he attained
a skillful finish in the writing of fiction. As a
linguist he distinguished himself by writing a
translation of Tolstoi’s Sebastapol. In 1877 he
acted as a war correspondent in the Russo-
Turkish War of that year, when the Czar had
occasion to decorate him for signal bravery on the
battlefield, and some years later Millet was again
heard from at the front as a war correspond-

ent to the London Times in the Philippines.
His more pacific activities and interests were
legion, for he became generally known as every-
one’s friend—an active and sympathetic counsel-
lor, and a man who never shirked any obligation,
real or fancied, public or private. His interest,
sympathy and insight endeared him to everyone
with whom he had occasion to work, and he was
never weighed and found wanting. On the art
committee of New York, and on that of Washing-
ton, he was an active member, and felt it his duty
never to miss a meeting if he could possibly attend
it. Among other similar activities we find him
to have been a trustee of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the incorporator and secretary
of the American Academy of Art in Rome, and
the organizer of the National Federation of Art
for the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Nor did he consider any of these offices nominal.
He made his personality and ambitions one with
the work which he entered upon, and was not only
an officer or member of these and many other
organizations, but an active worker in their
interests.
Apart from these activities, which might be
classed as associated with his work, we find that
he even had time to take a very keen and practical
interest in a tubercular hospital founded by his
brother.
An interesting incident is told which illustrates
his ever-ready interest in attending to matters
of any kind which had long escaped attention
because they were “nobody’s business.”
Mr. Arnold W. Brunner, the architect, Mr. Millet
and a United States senator were lunching to-

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