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tiiiii.sn.iun num iL uitLzy qmu pi. 10 meactual forming- of a league. In those days neither Philadelphia or New York was on our circuit. Tn the East we played in Boston, Worcester, Providencc and Buffalo, and in the West in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and Chicago.“Worcester and Providence were the ’hot ball towns in those days. There was Johnny Ward and Radburne on the latter team and how they would battle us every time we hooked up with those old ‘Browns.* . 4':itLater there was a switch around thatbrought Baltimore in the league and for a timo Richmond, Va., also had a berth. Of cour?e I played in them all, and in off-season jaunts I piayed in pretty near every town that had baseball aspirations from Maine to California and from Seattle to Jacksonville.” ; |“When I joined the New York team we had* ' S . 4 ''I-' ’fc «. '• «■■■ ‘ ‘ ; •“ . -V ■as spry a bunch of ball players as you would find most anywhere. But I sit here many a day and have a sly laugh with myself thinking how they would look on a ball field of*• 42IS kb * if 9 * - '!;• •.£$] tmsptoday. There used to be a pitcher with the New Yorks named Doyle who wore sideburns. I wonder how he would look with those Dundrearys flowing in the wind, winding up*a good hot one, say for Eddie Roush or TommyGriffith.** Vjf- v ;vtlIn those days, with plenty of free lime on his hands, his inclination toward art did notgo unquenched.“Most of the boys,” said “Long*a«*4to get together in the hotel in the mornings and at nights and play poker or some other game of cards, but I always found plenty of subjects worth while “To sketch and not enough time to go after them—so poker games in the morning or at night and I never agreed.”In the winter time Mr. Reilly applied himself to his trade, and for four years he delved into the secrets bt the lithographer’s art. In the late eighties he studied with the art classes of the McMicken • University under such famous teachers as Louis Lutz and Thomas Noble, whose classes were erratic because of a meagerness of the funds that kept them going.But the eye that was being sharpened tosE?best teachers that we had.,“Morgan was an. Englishman and was brought over to this country by Frank Leslie, alter Tom Nast went with Harper’s Magazine. After spending several years in the East he drifted to Cincinnati, and there was never a young artist who went to him for advice thathe turned down.“He painted a series of pictures on the Civil War—that was before the days of the movies, ard 'panorama’ were all the go. But Morgan came in too late with his canvases—there must have been thirty of them, some of them painted with life-sized figures—for a time they were shown about, the country and then put in stor-1 * WM*age. A fire came along and they went up insmoke. - My; what a loss that wfca.**. 'With Farny, the great Indian painter* with Duveneck, holder- of the San Francisco Fair gold medal and leading colorist of the last century in this country, he was on intimate term* and how the latter appreciated Mr, Reilly's work is best told by himself.“You know,” he said, “Duveneck would buy a piece here and there for his collection which he afterward willed to the Cincinnati Museum. He was critical and he bought only that whichhis artistic eye declared to be worthy. Well, I sold him twa^bf my canvases and I can honestly say that I consider that the highest compliment that has ever been paid to my work.”Nor was the purchase by Frank Duveneck the only acknowledgement that Mr. Reilly has had, for James R. Hopkins, the American artist who now devotes the most of his time to his studio in Paris, recently purchased a landscape #ind took It along %rith him to FYanfifc as a characteristic piece of art as produced by the famous old base ball player.And has “Long John” Reilly ever lost hia love of the strenuous and the lure of the diamond? Not at all. As each Pentecost rolls around on the calendar the lithographing concern where hd “works” holds a picnic. Of course, there would have to be a ball game or it wouldn’t be a picnic. The artists usually line up aprainst the printers, and for the former “Lon^ Johui** has covered first base for so many years that he refuses to reckon them. And, on the last occasion, he was out there in old-time form. On# printer hit a screamer down the first base line, and “Long John” muffed it.“As a first baseman, you’re a fine landscape artist,” 'jeered some one in the crowd.It was the fir.^t time that I realized I was getting old,” mused the old taoy, as he wheeled around to put a few more dee-daws on Umpiece of work in front of hixm
Newspaper Details
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Sun, May 22, 1921
Page 21
Full Page
Clipped by
Cincinnati A.
OH, USA 14 Mar 2020
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