Page:Cartoons by Bradley.djvu/23

 He was becoming celebrated. Australia was many sunsets distant from the European capitals, but the mails got there after a while, and whenever an example of Luther Bradley's work reached London, its vigor and humor left their mark. New York, too, heard of him; and such papers and clippings as reached Chicago astonished friends who never had thought of Luther Bradley in this wise. He was at the door of fame, and it might have opened to him in any of the greater cities. But in 1892 Francis Bradley, now more than seventy, became ill. Luther was summoned. And while he was on the ocean the father, who had lived to delight in Luther's cartooning, to feel a pride as great as he had felt when his son was succeeding in real estate, passed away.

It was another of those determining events. Just eleven years since the last one. It was to be only seven to the next, when he was to form his connection with The Chicago Daily News.

His mother needed him now. It was clear that he must remain in Chicago. He did not think he would like it as well as Melbourne. But his duty now lay here, and his chance for a living. He did such art work as he could get, residing, meantime, in the old home in Evanston. It was not quite the same old home. The girls, most of them, had "married away." The city had grown up around the homestead, and the woods, where any were left, were thinner. However, many of his old friends remained: Henry S. Boutell, his companion on many a camping and fishing trip; Towner K. Webster, Frank Elliott, Philip R. Shumway, William H. Harper, and many others. Besides, there were nephews and nieces of whom he was fond. Having considerable leisure now and then, he drew some astonishing pictures for the children of one sister, Mrs. John R. Case, writing verses to explain the pictures. Two of these nonsense books afterwards were published and sold under the titles, "Wonderful Willie; What He and Tommy Did to Spain," and "Our Indians; a Midnight Visit to the Great Somewhere-or-other."

This was a kind of transition period for him. It may be passed over