The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-05
STATUARY.
A nIornInR wIth PowerE.


ing spent with Hiram Powers. We make
few extracts
We found ourselves standing in the imme
diate presence of his finished works, busts,
models, and statues and at once our confer
ence took form from them. He conducted us
with him through the several rooms, in which
a large number of helpers were busily en-
paped in forwarding the processes through
which the details of sculpture are carried on.
The rude laboriousness by which in their
earliest reductions the blocks from the quarry
are shaped into forms for the galleries, all falls
into the hands of artisans trained merely to
stone-cutting My impulse was amusingly
mythologio to keep rehearsing particulars Of
PrOmetheus for ''the first man" seemed start
ing out from the clay in score of uncouth
forms.
The models were placed in the midst of the
upright stones in view of all the workmen. AT
first, it was most energetic mallet which
struck away huge chips of marble from the
shapeess mass, with a rollicBing sense of haste
to deliver some beautiful being imagined to be
imprisoned within 1t. But before long, the
task was committed to more skilful care and
the fresh journeyman treated it with gentler
measures of violence, and more temperate en-
thusiasm. Then came the third in the line;
and he dealt with dainty compasses, and deli
cate files, making mysterious black spots at
exact depths and precise widths, and measured
distances. These men, Mr.. Powers assured us,
were his lifelong companions. He had chosen
them, and trained them, and trusted them
for many years, until he could not do without
them. They were no ordinary hands, but be-
longed to his artistic and professionally related
family.
With them, he remarked, rested his main
difficulty in returning to America; which, in
deed he declared most plaintively, he very
much desired to do But he could not take
ham NUitb ad 10
no English, and they were peculiarly attached
to their own land. And he could not leave
them, for they were essential to his execution
of orders for such pieces as his own hand,
unaided, could never by any possibility meet;
and moreover, he was really interested in
them; he spoke feelingly, with an afectionate
glance around upon the faithful company, as
he added, he could not bear to have them scat
tered, they had followed his fortunes so long.
Still, he believed most resolutelythat he should
some time behold his own home again.
he is truly American, and it is well that
some OF iiS eountrymen have generously re-
membered it.
The domestic character of this interesting
man came out most attractively in one more
incident of our visit. An unfinished image of
his wife was standing among the other busts;
he had been at work upon it lately. | re-
marked upon the attractiveness of her truly
fine face, and he told me whe it was. And
then he led me to a bust he had made of each
OF his two daughters, and called my attention
to the different dispositions as expressed in his
wonderful marbles. / could not withhold my
admiration to find that even in busy years he
had consecrated time as well as the ministries
of his great art, in order to contribute to his
home pleasures. He had told me that it took
about five months to complete one such figure
as these.
He appeared pleased with my congratula-
IlOnS 81 a
those thus dear to him. eyes, you know we
have to stop these young people along here
somewhere" " he remarked with a kind of pen
sive affection in his tones; ''they grow SO, they
private desk, and took out a small hand of an
infant, cut in whitest marble, chubby, dim
pied, lying among flowers on leaf. never
saw anything more exquistely done. "There,"
he said, 81 stopped that one"-pOinting over
his shoulder at the bust of the youngest
daughter-"when she had only that to take
hold offs
NV heart went out for that affectionate
father, as he softly handled this memento of
his child now woman grown, then only an
uneasy babe of two months existence. Whata
study in after years | what reminiscence OF
infantile beauty Take any man or woman
this rough, veined, wrinkled, busy hand OF
yours and mine; how much OF good and III II
has done since it was innocent as that little
one in white
What more can l now say of this morning
with Hiram Powers, to convince my readers
that it was one OF the most delightful and
most instructive of all my life He, who is
now recognized in Florence as the chief among
living sculptors, is just this unaffected, un-
spoiled man have sketohed. The pure senti-
ment, the genial converse, the thoughtful in
telligence, and the sincere heartiness of that
interview cannot be forgotten. If this honored
sculptor ever does return to his old home on
this side of the ocean, he will assuredly find
friends he dreams not of among all those who
prize true worth and admire real genius.