For the Astor Gallery I chose as subjects women—which I like best to paint—representing the twelve months of the year and the four seasons, sixteen panels in all. How I labored over the color of the room, changing the tone every three feet all the way up, until it looked all the same! My idea was to make a background that would seem to be white, but against which a woman’s complexion would be beautiful and a man’s shirt front would tell. They have painted the whole thing over now, of course. My decorations are untouched, but it is no longer my room. [Illustration: “JANUARY” Panel by Edward Simmons, Astor Gallery, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York _Copyright by Edward Simmons; from a Copley Print, Copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Publishers, Boston_ ] People do not realize what these little things mean. The architects had given me the whole control, but even at the time I was doing the work I was greatly restricted. There were four little panels that were not in the contract, but sadly needed to be decorated. I offered to do them at my own expense and also to change the terrible red-velvet railing that ran around the balcony, but do you think the hotel authorities would let me do it? No; the opening was on a certain day and all the workmen _must_ be out before then. Business before art every time. I had to insure the panels twice—once to the contractor and again to John Jacob Astor, whose lawyer, by the way, demanded that all the artists working in the building hand over their copyrights to him, which they “had improperly taken out on Mr. Astor’s property.” We had a meeting, and the others decided not to do anything to antagonize him. I was furious and asked my friend, Luther Lincoln, what to do about it. “Oh, come away and take a walking trip with me to the Delaware Water Gap,” he said. I went and I still have my copyright. To show that my rights in the matter are recognized by the authorities, the architect once wrote to me and, saying that Mr. Boldt had asked for permission to reproduce my panels in the _Hotel Guide_, and commanded me to grant the same. I answered and gave him permission to _buy_ the photographs of my work from Curtis and Cameron, relinquishing my royalties. Mr. Astor, therefore, paid for the reproductions, so establishing my case. This question of copyright is one that crops up all the time and never will be really settled until some artist has money enough to carry a case to the Supreme Court of the United States. Anyone who writes a book, a play, or music, and even those who make etchings and engravings, are protected, but the law does not apply to the painter or the sculptor. I do not believe that the Supreme Court would decide in our favor, for over here we are more apt to follow the English law, where the buyer, unless otherwise stated, retains the copyright, and not the French law, where the artist always has it.