He went to Montana when life on the range was in its glory, and the Indians were part of everyday existence. For eleven years he rode the range by choice, doing night work that he might have daylight for painting and modeling. He was ever possessed by a passion to reproduce in color or in clay the rapidly shifting scenes about him, and so, day after day and year after year, he was laying a splendid foundation for the great work that was before him. He lived among the Indians and came to know their inner life, their hopes and aspirations. He learned their sign language and customs, and so is able to depict Indians as if he were one of them. His great success has come not as a gift of the gods, but as a well earned reward after years of hard and diligent work and close application. For several years he was known in the East just for book and magazine illustrations, usually in black and white. Then he went to New York and made himself known as a painter. Mr. Russell spends little time in the East. Naturally he was gratified that his work won for him an immediate and distinguished place; but he was not of the mood nor had he the time to stand in the limelight. The great West was ever beckoning him back, and every summer would find him at some Indian reservation or roaming in the wild regions seeking passionately for the subjects that he loved to paint on canvas or model in clay. Other things interested him little. Russell the man is the same as Russell the schoolboy,--indifferent to books or academic matters, but eager for the things that have a living interest for him. The bargain that he used to propose to his schoolmates sounded the keynote of his life, “You get my lessons for me, and I will make you two Indians.” PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 3. No. 9. SERIAL No. 85 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY CHARLES SCHREYVOGEL MY BUNKIE. BY CHARLES SCHREYVOGEL] “MY BUNKIE,” by Charles Schreyvogel, a picture that made a great sensation and brought the artist sudden fame, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Painters of Western Life.” CHARLES SCHREYVOGEL Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course “Famous overnight.” In those words Charles Schreyvogel was hailed in 1900. The sound of the words was good and cheery; but Charles Schreyvogel knew well enough that his fame had been much longer than “overnight” in coming. It was only after many vicissitudes and disheartening struggles that he came into the recognition of his colleagues and the general public. When he did win out, however, his victory was so complete and so enduring that he will remain always one of the most distinguished painters of American frontier life.