t, and asked one of the assistants there to show them
some of Mr. Whistler's Venetian plates. From this assistant they
learned that Mr. Whistler was under an arrangement to exhibit and sell
his Venetian etchings only at the Fine Art Society's Gallery; but, even
if these Painter-Etchers really believed that "Frank Duveneck"
was only another name for James Whistler, this information about the
Fine Art Society's arrangement with him need not have shaken that
belief, for the _nom de plume_ might easily have been adopted with the
concurrence of the society's leading spirits. Nor is it altogether
certain that the Painter-Etchers did anything more than compare, for
their own satisfaction as connoisseurs, the works of Mr. Whistler and
"Frank Duveneck." The motive of their doing so may have been
misunderstood by the Fine Art Society's assistant with whom they
conferred.

Be that as it may, this assistant thought fit to repeat to Mr.
Whistler what had passed, and also his own impressions as to the
motive of the comparison and the inquiries which the Painter-Etchers
had instituted. Whereupon Mr. Whistler has addressed a letter to Mr.
Seymour Haden (who is, by the way, _his brother-in-law_), of which all
that need be here said, is that it is extremely characteristic of Mr.
Whistler.

_Later_

[Sidenote: _The Cuckoo_, April 30, 1881.]

Some time ago I referred to a storm in an "aesthetic tea-pot" that was
brewed and had burst in the Fine Art Society's Gallery, in Bond
Street, in _re_ Mr. Whistler's Venice Etchings. It seems to me that
Mr. Seymour Haden, Mr. Legros, and Mr. Hamilton stumbled on an
artistic mare's nest, that they rashly suggested that Mr. Whistler had
been guilty of gross misfeasance in publishing etchings in an assumed
name, and that they are now trying to get out of the scrape as best
they may. This is, however, simply an opinion formed on perusal of the
following documents, which I here present to my readers to judge of:

The following paragraph was some time ago sent to me with this
letter:--

"If the Editor of the '_Cuckoo_' should see his way to the
publication of the accompanying paragraph as it stands, twenty
copies may be sent, for circulation among the Council of the
Society of Painter-Etchers, to Mr. Piker, newsvendor, Shepherd's
Market."

"MR. WHISTLER AND THE PAINTER-ETCHERS.--Our explanation of this
'Storm in a Tea-pot' turns out to have