Part 3

This etching illustrates, too, the necessity of doing the Wonder of Work when you find a subject, and not saying, "I will come again and do it later"—and you must find your subjects for yourself: no one can tell you where there is a fine smoke effect or a stunning steam jet. I had made the etching and later was in Bradford again and went back to look at it. Not only had it all been fenced in, but a new factory was being built round it—it had completely disappeared.

XXXVI THE GREAT STACK, SHEFFIELD

If either you have the brains, or it is clear enough, you can see this great stack dominating the whole landscape and townscape as you come out of the railroad station at Sheffield. A great American literary person actually saw it and regretted, on an editorial page, that no artist ever looked at such subjects; but when I not only wrote him that I had etched it already and sent him a proof to prove it, he never acknowledged my letter, but he kept the proof. I may say that in 1883 I made a series of illustrations of work subjects in Sheffield which were printed in _Harper's Magazine_. Two things always impressed me in that town—the boiling water in the rivers and the abominable habits of the natives in the streets, who from across the rivers and behind walls and other safe places "'eave arf a brick" at you if you dare to draw.

XXXVII THAMES WORKS, LONDON

Along the sunny Thames still linger the old docks, old warehouses—worked in the old out-of-date way—mostly by hand. Ashore and afloat the port of London is the most out-of-date place in the world—and it's scarcely even picturesque any longer.

XXXVIII SCHNEIDER'S WORKS AT CREUSOT

This is the Volcano of Work, and the blast furnaces are its crater. Right in the town, but below it, surrounded by high hills, it stands, and you can, from the corner of the Grande Rue, look down into the seething depths of it—and every little while it pants, it roars, and then explodes in fire and fume. This drawing was made from the hills opposite the town, but shows how like the crater of a volcano the whole place is.

XXXIX OLD AND NEW MILLS, VALENCIENNES

Nowhere have I ever seen the old and the new so contrasted as here, both mills working—both pictorial—and both probably now destroyed.

XL THE LAKE OF FIRE, CHARLEROI, BELGIUM

At night all furnaces are infernal, but Charleroi is the most terrifying of all. By the roadside was a black lake beyond a roaring furnace. An engine pushed a car of molten slag to the top of the dump and dumped it. The living liquid fire roared and tumbled into the lake, turning it to fire.

XLI THE GREAT DUMP, CHARLEROI, BELGIUM

Near all great works these great dumps are, but none I have seen are so great as those of Belgium. The refuse is carried by travellers to them, received either by girls who no longer dress as Meunier saw them, but in coarse, thick, short gowns, their hair tied up in white towels. Or the slag and dirt are dumped directly on the growing mountain, and this refuse falls in the most beautiful lines and the most lovely grays and browns, like velvet or the fur of some huge beast, which grows and grows, towering over the chimneys, the furnaces looming up through the smoke, always growing and growing, fed by the travellers which carry to it an endless chain of creaking buckets high in air, sometimes for a kilometre, over ploughed fields and slow-moving rivers, to these work mountains.

XLII THE IRON GATE, CHARLEROI, BELGIUM

High in the air the iron gate hangs—the entrance to the great works. When there is a strike it comes down, and not only is it topped with sharp spikes, but, I was told, it could be charged with electricity and is pierced with holes through which to shoot. On either side are guard-houses on the wall, fitted with guns—all these preparations made for strikers, for industrial war. Now that real war has come, I wonder what part the iron gate plays.

XLIII CRANES, DUISBURG, GERMANY

I know nothing of the lifting power or any other accomplishments of these cranes, but I do know that nowhere in the world are there such huge, such picturesque cranes as those of Germany, and in Germany the finest are in and around Duisburg and Hamburg. They may not carry any more than, or as much as, American machines, but they are far bigger and more drawable, and those on the high banks of the Rhine superbly placed, each full of character, each worth drawing.

XLIV NEW RHINE, GERMANY

The Rhine is wonderful from the sea to the source—but fine as one finds the old castles and the combinations of old castles and new mills, the new mills, new Rhine castles, have made a new river, and they are the most interesting things on it.

XLV BUILDING THE RAILROAD STATION LEIPZIG, GERMANY

It is difficult to tell whether an American railroad station is a Greek temple, a Christian Science church, a free library, a bank, a museum, or a millionaire's residence or his tomb. A German railroad station looks like a railroad station and nothing else.

I believe this station is larger—it is certainly far better designed than anything in America—but the building of it, with the great, half-finished arches looming up, was a splendid motive. I was in Leipzig in April, 1914, drew this; I returned in June and the subject was gone; all that remained was the Graphic Art and Book Exhibition, the finest ever held anywhere. And that was ruined by the fools who brought on the fool war.

XLVI BUILDING THE BRIDGE AT COLOGNE

Drawn after war was declared with Russia, 1914.

It is a fashion of the art critic to praise Japanese arrangement and construction. No Japanese ever designed so pictorial and so powerful a bridge as this, yet, on the whole, it looks like a Japanese bridge and has the feeling of one, but it is doubtful if the engineer who designed it ever saw Hiroshigi's prints.

XLVII BUILDING THE "BISMARCK," HAMBURG

I believe the _Bismarck_ is the biggest ship—or the biggest German ship—yet launched; the crane beside her is the biggest and the most wonderfully controlled I have ever seen anywhere, and the whole made a composition as fine as anything in the Wonder of Work.

XLVIII THE HUT OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE

Never anywhere, even in orderly Germany, have I seen such an orderly place as this steel works, and yet it was picturesque. Every chimney, retort, and furnace seemed to be cleaned daily. There was in the late afternoon light a beautiful blue sheen on the furnaces, the brick of the chimneys was delicate red which harmonized with the gold and rose fumes from the blasts, amid all the white smoke was pierced with purple and blue, and in front was the greenest grass plot I have ever seen, kept, like all the works, in perfect order, and around the outer border engines were dragging the most lurid melted white-hot refuse—roaring fire.

XLIX SHIPYARD, HAMBURG, GERMANY

The pattern of the steel work of this shipbuilding yard was like lace, yet in this delicate lacework maze the most powerful men-of-war, the largest merchant ships, were built and launched—yet the effect of these yards was filmy, delicate, gossamer—the most beautiful lines I know in the Wonder of Work.

L KRUPP'S WORKS, ESSEN, GERMANY

I shall not tell the story how I made this print—many others in the book have stories, too—but I will say that Essen is pictorially among the least interesting of the great work cities of the world, because, first, much of it is new, up-to-date and therefore uninteresting artistically, and, second, because it stands in a plain, surrounded by high walls, and I never have been able to find a point where I could see anything. Still, there are great subjects in the shops, and this is one of them.

LI POWER-HOUSE, BERLIN, GERMANY

I always love these power-houses with their huge chimneys, but it is rare indeed that they compose so well as this. But many other industrial palaces in Berlin are fine: the General Electric Company's works, its dynamo building shops, and the city gasometers which have been made into modern work castles of the most enormous bulk; and the much-written-about flower-covered buildings of the work people. All these make up the Wonder of Work in Berlin.

LII SCHNAAPS AT SCHIEDAAM, HOLLAND

As the Continental express from the Hook of Holland reached Schiedaam the traveller who was not fast asleep—most were—could see the old town where work crowns war—each bastion bears a windmill, while from the city within the walls endlessly rise and silently drift away masses of white smoke clouds, showing for one moment, hiding the next, the spires, towers, and domes of the city. I do not know what makes the smoke clouds—whether Schnaaps or not—but there they always are—and are always to be seen from the station platform from which I made the drawing.

JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES OF THE PANAMA CANAL

_FIFTH PRINTING_

Twenty-eight reproductions of lithographs made on the Isthmus of Panama, January-March, 1912, with Mr. Pennell's introduction, giving his experiences and impressions, and a full description of each picture. Volume 7¼ by 10 inches. Beautifully printed on dull-finished paper. Lithograph by Mr. Pennell on cover. $1.25 net.

"Mr. Pennell continues in this publication the fine work which has won for him so much deserved popularity. He does not merely portray the technical side of the work, but rather prefers the human element."—_American Art News._

JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES IN THE LAND OF TEMPLES

Forty reproductions of lithographs made in the Land of Temples, March-June, 1913, together with impressions and notes by the artist. Introduction by W. H. D. Rouse, Litt. D. Crown quarto, printed on dull-finished paper, lithograph by Mr. Pennell on cover. $1.25 net.

Mr. Pennell's drawings of classical temples as they have come down to us are among the very best work of this kind that he has ever done.

OUR PHILADELPHIA

BY ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL ILLUSTRATED BY JOSEPH PENNELL

REGULAR EDITION. Containing one hundred and five reproductions of lithographs by Joseph Pennell. Quarto 7½ by 10 inches, XIV-552 pages. Handsomely bound in red buckram, boxed. $7.50 net.

AUTOGRAPH EDITION. Limited to 289 copies (now very scarce). Contains ten drawings reproduced by a new lithograph process in addition to the illustrations that appear in the regular edition. Quarto. XVI-552 pages. Specially bound in genuine English linen buckram in city colors in cloth-covered box. $18.00 net.

LIFE OF JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER

BY ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL AND JOSEPH PENNELL

THOROUGHLY REVISED, FIFTH EDITION

The Authorized Life, with much new matter added which was not available at the time of issue of the elaborate two-volume edition, now out of print. Fully illustrated with 97 plates reproduced from Whistler's works. Crown octavo. XX-450 pages, Whistler binding, deckle edge. $3.50 net. Three-quarter grain levant, $7.50 net.

Proofs of some of the Lithographs and Etchings in these books may be obtained on application to the publishers.