Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-12-04
THOMAS MAST.
Some Interesting Facts About Ills work
and Life.

and Life.
A New York correspondent has visite,
Mast. the greatest living caricaturist, al
his home in Morristown, New Jersey, anc
gives these Interesting items concerning
him
Sixty minutes from Christopher Street
Ferry over the New Jersey salt meadows
and through the Morris and Essex Tunnel
and we were at the home of the great car.
icaturist. Mast met us at the depot. and q
half mile walk brought us to his charming
little cottage, filled with pictures, home
comforts, and four lovely angel babes.
Presiding over all this happiness was a
young blonde Yankee wife, with brown
mar, graceful form, and delicate damask
cheeks that would bring the blush to a
Jersey peach.
After II o'clock lunch we went up with
Mast to his little cottage studio-the room
where he has worked out all those funny
political cartoons for Harper's, which have
amused the public, killed Mr.. Greeley, and
made Grant President. In the room is a
table where Mast draws these pictures of
wood. The table is covered with newspa-
pers and photograph and half-finished car
toons, while on the walls of the room are
sketches and drawings by Etty, Leach,
Dore and Turner, but nothing Suggesting
the bold terrible satire which we see in his
own cartoons. After these cartoons are
drawn, they are sent to town, when they
are divided into several pieces, so that
several workmen can engrave on them at
once. 1t would take one engraver two
weeks to engrave picture the size of one
page OF HqrPer's Weekly, and cost, | sup
pose, one hundred dollars. To-day the ar
fist was making sketch of Mr.. Froude in
the act of kneeling to pluck the nettle of
Irish failure and disconteDtment from
Irish soil, while, in the foreground, Column
bia looks him straight in the face and with
dreadful emphasis, points to the burning
Orphan Asylum and to priests expelIing
the Bible from the schools. This cartoon
will appear in Harpers next week.
Nast's very boldness-his terrible az
gressiveness-is what challenges admira-
ton and makes Hdrper's Weekly a sue |
cess.
When L asked him if he didn't think it
a great undertaking to attack Mr.. Greeley,
he said:
YES; but knew he was an old hum. |
bug. l knew l was right, and 1 knew
right would win in the end. was almost |
alone too
People say you have made good deal |
of money out Of the campaign, Mr.. Mast" |
| remarked.
well, that is great mistake. 1 have
never madea cent outside of my profession.
al pay, and that is small enough. It's so |
small that can't afford to live in town. |
Couldn't you take some paying posi- |
ton from the Administration % l asked |
''Oh no that would kill me. wouldn't |
he Minister to England. General Grant |
nor his friends have never offered me any,
thing, and Pm glad they haven't. l know |
Grant to be an honest man, and he knows |
| am actuated by unselfish motives. They |
may all have the power, money and posi- |
ton. l must be satisfied with glory, a |
cottage paid for, and my wife and babies. |
Why, Tammany Ring offered me $3.50, 900 |
If l would go to Europe when 1 first began |
to expose them. They came to my lowyer |
ana laid al the plans for its payment. But
said: No; can not swerve from the |
right line"
/ asked Mr.. Mast if his cartoons were al |
ways his own invention.
Yes, almost always. Indeed, / can't |
remember when have used suggestion. |
read closely, make my pictures plain, |
and describe them with little words. Some |
times the children put the little words in |
my mouth. The Harpers never know |
what is coming. Indeed, if ! told people |
about future cartoons, they would all have |
so much to say, that the unity of the car
toon, which is its strong point, would be |
destroyed. OF course receive good many |
letters and suggestions.
'One day last summer" continued Mr.. |
Mast, laughing" / received genuine |
proposition of marriage from an admiring |
young lady in Ohio, in which she referred |
10 General Schenck and Ex-Governor Dem |
nisOn as to her position"
What did you do?'
"Why, / sent back a cartoon of Mrs. |
Mast and the children, labeled the only |
objections"
L learn that there is a movement on the |
part of the friends of the Administration to |
present Mast with a suitable reward. 1t is |
no more than fair that it should be done |
and the Harpers, whose Weekly has stead
lily advanced from 10000 TO 10000 through |
Nasts superior talent. should second the |
movement with a substantial sum. Be- |
sides the Harpers cartoons, Mast does two |
pages of pictures every week for the Plum !
ny Phellow, comic paper