Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-12-23
Highway Artists---The Men Who De-
xlake Natural Scenery.

barns, the mammoth signs of patent
incidence hair-0il, smoking tobacco,
gas stoves, harness stores, laundry soap,
or tooth-wash. But there are very few
who have seen the men ut work with
their paints and brushes. Who they
are, why they became board-fence art
lists, how they work, are still mysteries
Most Of them are New Workers. The
business started in this city, and here is
its headquarters. Who was the first
highway artist is q moOted question.
Two or three veteran knights of the
paint-pot claim that honor, but the
claim of Edward Wise" Wise, the
original" as he IS called by his friends
TO that distinction seems to be as good
When the war broke out" he said,
% had little shop at the corner of
Walker and Elm Streets, where paint
ed signs. Times were dull, and used
to sit for hours in my shop and wonder
what was to be done next. One day
saw q man across the street go up TO a
dry goods box and stencil sMacallister's
Ointment on it with an ordinary stencil
plate and brush. The thought at once
came to my mind. Why wouldn't it be
q good thing to paint advertisements
in an attractive manner on fences and
barns and such like? I consulted with
q friend, who said: GO and see Drake.
He's just started Plantation Bitters, and
maybe he'll hire you.' I saw Drake, and
he sent me to Demas Barnes, who was
furnishing the money, and had an Office
in Park Row. Barnes took to the
idea at once. I suggested that
paint in New York and on
the roads in the upper part of
the island. what pay do you wantP'
he asked. I replied that an ordinary
house painter got $3.50 q day, and I
thought that 1 was worth that. sAll
right, he said, Ego ahead. Do you want
any money to begin withp' I said that
I did not, and started out. For week
painted ST. 1860 with the half
moon and crozier, on every fence and
wall could find in the city. Then
went out on the Harlem road and on the
avenues. 1 hadn't done all wanted to
at the end of the week, so kept away
from the Office, and the next week fin
ished up Harlem, and gave Brooklyn
and Jersey City a big dose of the Bit
tiers. On Saturday went to the Office.
sMr. Barnes wants to see you,' said A.
g. TOrrey, his son-in-law. went to
rsm. Look here,' he said. Don't
g Tint another stroke here-not another
ssfSpke. I want you to start out on the
Ind right off and go West. When can
epu startP' Monday said I. All
n4ht; go ahead, and don't you come
!. sGck till I send for you.'
6 I started out on that Monday" the
'tlteran painter went on, sand didn't
~ back to New York for year. 1
NIT West to the Mississippi, as far South
'rovesf ,nadian line. For one solid year
contfited nothing but sST.-186O-X.'
fSu can imagine the curiosity that it
excited. Then the mex year went right
over my first route and added sPlanta-
Jation Bitters.' From that day to this I
have been on the road. have travelled
au over the Union, in Canada, and have
been in England. If had time could
tell you curious incidents without end"
Another renowned knight of the paint
soap manufacturer. He started as a
house painter. Times were hard, and |
he took to the road with his brush, thir- |
teen years ago, and for eight years has
been decorating the country with the
sign seventy five feet long on Iona ISL
and, in the Hudson" he said, ''and
literary man who took trip to the ISL
and saw the sign, thought the name of |
The soap was the name of the island,
and wrote three-quarters of a column to
} Philadelphia newspaper about the |
beautiful Island Of Some time |
ago q new station was made on the |
P Pennsylvania Railroad, and shed was
put up for depot. By the time the
she'd was done l had the name of the |
soap in big letters on it, and the railroad
men began to call the place by that
name. For over a year when the trains
stopped there, the conductors would
call out All off for - Finally the |
station was named, and they stopped |
us. Near Pittsburgh put |
up sign that could be seen and read
three miles. The soldiers monument
here is on top OF the mountain. When
hey were putting it up they had a big
fence around it. put the sign on the
fence. could just reach half the
length of the letters. The period was
IS big as bushel basket. As long as
the fence was up you could read that
sign for three miles. Did I ever have
any trouble? No. I have had people
threaten me; but they never have done
anything. You see, prosecuting us for
damaging scenery is nobody's particu-
lar business, or rather it's everybody's
business, which is the same thing"
Among the best known men in the
business to-day are Bradbury & Hough-
Ealing, who have reduced highway deco
ration to science. Bradbury was a
sign painter on the Bowery originally.
He has painted from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from the northern boundary /
Of inhabited British America to the Gulf |
Of Mexico, He has even gone further
South, and done artistic work in the |
cities of Cuba and other West India
islands. In 1868 "Brad" made his |
first trip across the continent. TWAS no |
easy Job. He went up the Missouri |
River, by steamer, and thence 1900
miles by pack mules and horses across
The plains and Rocky Mountains to San
Francisco, leaving in his trail on all
prominent places his handiwork in the
shape Of the advertisements of brakes |
BitterS WISE who had pre- |