Clarence King 



stranger talking about strangers. 

 Not that he was not amused, and 

 perpetually so, by the differing char- 

 acteristics of the other race. Indeed 

 those of us who remember the 

 wondrous anecdotes beginning in 

 the middle and ending nowhere, con- 

 cerning various characters of dif- 

 ferent persons, partook also of the 

 keen representation of far-away 

 manners of thought and living. This 

 appreciation of a charm in certain 

 strange characters was probably the 

 expression of what we call the 

 artistic temperament. The artist 

 certainly trains himself in the faculty 

 of putting himself into another's 

 place. However free his judgment 

 may be, his imagination builds for 

 him the circumstances of the other 

 form of life, or manners, or mind. 

 And the mind can be that of an 

 artist without the training of the 

 eye and hand that is professional. 

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