The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-01-01
Highway Artists--.The Men Who De.
face Natural Scenery.

gas stoves, harness stores, laundry soap,
or tooth-wash. But there are very few
who have seen the men at work with
their paints and brushes. Who they
are, why they became board-fence art
lists, how they work, are still mysteries.
Most of Shem are New Workers. The
business started in this city, and here is
its headquarters. Who was the first
highway artist is 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
as any.
"When the war broke OUT" he said,
81 had little shop at the corner of
Walker and Elm Streets, where 1 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 man across the street go up TO a
dry-goods box and stencil 'Macallister's
Ointment on it with an ordinary stencil
plate and brush. The thought at once
came to my mind. Why wouldn't it be
good thing to paint advertisements
IN an attractive manner on fences and
barns and such likeP / consulted with
friend, who said: go and see Drake.
He's just started Plantation Bitters, and
maybe he'll hire you 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. l suggested that
L paint in New York and on
the roads in the upper part of
the island. what pay do you wantP'
he asked. replied that an ordinary
house painter got $3.50 day, and 1
thought that [ was worth that. 'All
right, he said, go ahead. Doyou want
any money to begin with?' l said that
did not, and started out. For week
painted 'ST.-1860-X. with the half
moon and crozier, on every fence and
wall l could find in the city. Then l
went out on the Harlem road and on the
avenues. l hadn't done all I 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.
'Mr. Barnes wants to see you,' said A.
G. Torrey, his son-in-law. Invent to
paint another stroke here-not another
stroke. I want you to start out on the
road right off and 60 West. When can
you startP' Monday said 1. 'Al
right; go ahead, and don't you come
back till l send for you
&c started out on that Monday" the
veteran painter went on, "and didn't
get back to New York for year. 1
went West to the Mississippi, as far South
as could 60 in war times, and North to
the Canadian line. For one solid year
Ipainted nothing but .-1S60-X.'
You can imagine the curiosity that it
excited. Then the mex year went right
over my first route and added sPlanta-
Lation Bitters.' From that day to this 1
have been on the road. have travelled
all 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
pot is l. M. Plum, now travelling for a
soap manufacturer. He started as q
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
advertisement of that firm. 81 put q
sign seventy-five feet long on Iona Isl
and, in the Hudson" he said, sand
literary man who took a 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
a Philadelphia newspaper about the
beautiful Island Of Some time
ago new station was made on the
Pennsylvania Railroad, and shed was
put up for depot. By the time the
Shed 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 year when the trains
stopped there, the conductors would
call out All off for - Finally the
station was named, and they stopped
advertising us. Near Pittsburgh I put
up sign that could be seen and read
three miles. The soldiers monument
there is on top Of the mountain. When
they were putting it up they had big
fence around it. Iput the sign on the
fence. I could just reach half the
length of the letters. The period was
as big as bushel basket. As long as
the fence was up you could read that
sign for three miles. Did l ever have
any troubleP 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-
falling, who have reduced highway deco
ration to a 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. 1t was 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 advertisement of brakes
Plantation Bitters. Wise, who had pre-
ceded him, had gone only as far West