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LIVING ASS HERMITS.Strange (’arms of Edward Crid-land and George Bryce.Driven to a Life of Seclusion by Disappointment.Their Dingy Quarters Filled With Valuable Paintings.Deeply At tar-helt;l to Their Art and to Each Other—Lost to Their Friends and the World.Edward Cridland and Oeorge Bryce, now bent with age, have lived for veara in a dingy little back room at No. 9 East Third street, and not until a few days ago did their families or friend*, who are residents of this city, in well-to-do circumstances, know of their whereabouts. Tbeir hair is long and unkempt and their gray lieards shaggy. Their features thin and sour, their frail bodies almost etherial, so weakened have they become for' lack of sufficient food to sustain them. Always together, they seldom leave their dingy little room where rats and mice, their constant companions, are as free with them as with their own kind. On the walls of their room hang In profusion paintings that would do credit to an Angelo in his younger days, the production of their united efforts, and to these they add others, removing and destroying those of inferior merit to make room for their master pieces.Hermits of the most pronounced type, misanthropists in ths fullest sence of word.For years have their neighbors seen them passing in and oat, but so quiet and so exclusive were they that even these did not attempt to inquire into their a trance life.Their income is the most meagre imaginable. They do a little etching now and then for engravers, as their actual necessities require, to supply their alight wants; but their mode of life demands little, and hence no thought is given to that. They subsist on fruit, and occasionally treat ihemselvea to a feast of crackers. Meat they never touch under any circumstances!Thirty years* ago Edward Cridland, then a young man, lived with his father,Henry Cridland, a sign painter in this city, lie was an artist of some celebrity even then, one of his paintings, and the one which w as the means of driving him to his desolate life, attracted much attention at that time. It was a large painting of a dog, and had been placed on exhibition at Mechanics’ Institute. Edward was proud of the work, bestowing all the tenderness and affection upon it his whole nature possessed. In an unguarded moment some vandal ruined the work by punching a cane through the canvas, and young Edward became almost frantic with rage. This was followed by grief, and so preyed on the young man’s mind that ne left the city, going to Dayton, O. Remaining there but a short time, he returned to the city, and wandering despondently s -out the streets, be met lt;ieorge Brvce, a Scotchman, a painter of some ability, but possessed of a strange hallucination, which had caused him to desert his father’s house, at 34 Lock street, this city. Bryce imagined that he was not his father’s son, and this seemed to poison his mind against mankind; so the two spirits after an interchange of experiences, an unburdening of griefs, and a commingling of thoughts, sympathised one with the other and swore allegiance to each other thenceforward.They went in search of a secluded place where they might pass tbeir days together in ouiet communion, to talk of their art, or religion, of ths world, and be unknown to the world. The little room they now occupy was Selected, and here they have remained ever since, lost to their friends and the world. Their manner of life aoon changed their exterior so greatly that they could go upon the street when necessity actually compelled..them, without risk of recognition.They have grown old together and are deeply attached to each other. Cridland is ths stronger in mind of the two, Bryce seeming to be completely under his control.Their identity was revealed only a few days ago by the merest accident, a gentleman happening to run in upon them in their secluded quarters who knew one cf them in his younger and better days. Sin ye then several old friends have intruded upon them, on#, the Rev. Kpbejrtson, a Presbyterian min(wtor nrl VJf p \JL* ia ui/. 11. t V . ■lster, and Mr. Win well, the Fourth-street art dealer* The Rev. Robertson offered them a handsome figure for one or two of their pu in tings, but they worried the offer, dedaring that none of their prizes should go out into the world for scoffer* to vandalize. Mr. W is Well, who has ae^n some Of their work, says It would bring a good figure if placed! on sale, an some of their paintings are genuine masterpiece*. , f But trc y are cohtent to keep them and worship them, and live on in their so-eluded, acahtv wav.CARFIfLD GOING.
Newspaper Details
The Evening Telegram
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Wed, Nov 02, 1887
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Cincinnati A.
OH, USA 15 Jul 2023
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