A. L. Alexander As Illustrator

A. L. ALEXANDER AS ILLUSTRATOR

Makes a Beautiful Volume of the Little Poem

WRITTEN BY DR. JONES

Since photography has established for itself a recognized place in art, "illustrations" have often become of more value than the story or poem they illustrate. All the world loves a picture book and when a man is artist enough to see in some almost unknown story or poem, the idea which he can materialize into a picture, that story or poem becomes popular or even famous, when put into a book with wide margins and illustrations. This is what A. L. Alexander, the Ann Arbor photographer, has done for the clever, half pathetic verses hidden away in the "Inlander," of March, 1893, entitled "Things of the Long Ago," inscribed to the fraternities of the U. of M., by a "little boy," who is one with them although not of them. The verses are written by S. A. Jones, who thinks that when a man drifts into verse unless it's genuine poetry, he is giving up to a weakness and would probably call "Things of the Long Ago" stuff and nonsense. But Mr. Alexander saw there possibilities and Sheehan & Co. saw the same in Mr. Alexander, so the book went to press Friday, to come out before Christmas, with the date of December 11, published by Sheehan & Co., illustrated by A. L. Alexander. Mr. Alexander will be known as the illustrator of "My Pipe and I," by the same author, which was gotten out in a limited edition. The pictures of this later book are half tones in sepia, so well made as scarcely to be distinguished from platinum prints. Each verse has its illustration which is so cleverly done that you can read the story in the picture:

There! little boy, don't cry!

They have sent you to college, I know;

And your mother true, 

And your sweetheart, too, 

Are things of the long ago;

But tears won't grace a freshman's face--

There! little boy, don't cry!

In this first illustration is the very atmosphere of verdancy that is everywhere about the lad who "goeth to college while yet the dews of youth are thick upon him." On the student's face is a look of wonder, of shyness, almost stupidity, as he sits in his bare room, his clothes of mannish cut, setting ill upon him. A "telescope" thrown down beside him, speaks of the "first day," and the stiff backed chair on which he sits straight up, has a tale of its own that adds to the woeful discomfited look of the student. Mr. Alexander has shown the artist in his choice of a subject to pose, for the greatest merit of the pictures lies in the changing expressions of the boy's face as he passes through this evolution of college life.

The boy who sat was Clarence Sleight, an engineering student, who was here last year; and from the photographs it is certain Mr. Sleight is something more than an engineer. The second illustration shows the boy after a "fraternity hath taken pity on his tender years and still further, hath taken him in warmly." "Don't you forget it." The student looks as though he never should. "There! little boy, don't cry! They have got you full, I know," is the sentiment of the third verse, and the pain of an aching head, which is so visible in the face of the student makes it almost worth the book as one of the things of long ago. The fourth illustration, and perhaps the best, is the "little boy" fired from college. Not a trace of shyness or greenness is in the face which is now puckered into all kinds of thoughtful lines as he sits in the library--at home. Perplexity, thought, obstinacy, boyishness, portray such a conflict in the face as to express a whole course of college life. The effect is excellent and calls up many a memory of things of the long ago.

The last illustration transforms the student into a middle aged man. Graham Earle, the actor, sat for this, and the striking thing about it, is the thoughtfulness, in pose and expression, that characterizes this white-haired student, who sits with closed book that has lost its charm in the recollection of things that were.

There, little boy, don't cry!

You have sown your wild oats, i know;

And the bitter tears,

For those hot young years, 

Are things of the long ago;

But Heaven draws nigh to the contrite sigh--

There! little boy, don't cry!

Every student and every one who has been a student, will be interested in these illustrations which picture so well, many an incident in the college life of many a "little boy."