Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1883-07-26
The Manner in which the Dark-Eyed
ScuIptOrs Work and Live.

cracked and round-toned. Rich peo
pie and poor people, policemen, boot
blacks. and dogs of all degrees. with
muZzles and without muzzles, passed
him without turning their heads,
Still the pedler kept crying his dis
jo!nted images, until at last a press re-
porter, with his heart full of commits
seration and his pocket full of five cent
pieces, tapped him on the shoulder
and said:
"IIow much ?"
"a dollar and quarter" replied the
Italian.
Too mi ch; l give twenty-five
! cents"
"Basta one dollar"
"Twenty-fve cents?"
q take fifty"
"Twenty-fve?"
Take him along"
And the reporter lifted the plaster of
Paris image Of female diver. from
the nomad's willow basket and laid it
tenderly across his arm rs if it were a
baby. The image was tolerably well
moulded, is made of genuine plaster of
Paris, and is counterpart Of those
sold in the retail stores for one dollar
The marvel is how the beggars can
sell them so cheaply, and yet keep from
starving. Every trade has its secrets,
and that of image-making is no excep-
tion to the rule To begin with the
Italian plaster sculptors live upon al
most nothing. Six men will occupy
two small rooms. In the other room
is their workshop. For dinner they
have bowl of soup, the principle in
gradients of which are bones, scraps of
meat, a few slender wisps of macca-
roni, and pepper and salt in profusion.
Two huge slices of bread and butch
er knife complete the meal The men
eat and work, and work and smoke.
They buy the cheapest sort of plaster
of Paris for one dollar a barrel A
barrel of plaster will make 500 images.
The moulds are made of gelatine,
which costs 81 per pound. An ordina-
ry mould costs =. Each mould is
made to produce not less than fifty i'm
ages. An industrious maker can turn
out, every day, 100 images. BY calcu
lation upon this basis, it appears that
the images cost about ten cents each,
not including time. of which, however
the willy Italian makes no reckoning.
This is the whole secret
The retail dealer says the image
cannot be made for less than forty
cents. So they cannot when first.
class materials are employed. The
American manufacturers of images
employ a skilled laborer to scrape off
the mould marks and tone up the anat-
omy. All this counts. So does the
time consumed in the moulding. The
gelatine costs twice as much az that
used 10y the Italians. The moulds are
not made to produce over dozen ina
ges. Here is another big saving for
the maccaroni-eater The latter sell
dom lives long in one place. He and
his countrymen travel in droves of six
and a dozen. They move from city to
city, making their images. They sell
one subject Into the ground" as the
retailers say, and then make a vast
quantity of another. Just now every
Italian image maker1n Philadelphia
are making female divers. In a few
weeks they will be making something
else. They are keen and have a sharp
eye to business. They find that GER
tain image catches the popular whim.
Forthwith they make nothing else.
Thousands of the favorite images 60
bobbing up and down Chestnut street.
The houses are full of them. And SO
it goes. The business of image-mak-
ing is declining. In former years the
pedlers over-ran the country. Now
they seldom go into the rural districts.
In the winter they make images. In
the spring they divide their time be-
tween selling their wares and collect
ing cigar stumps. In the summer they
deal in ice-cream and figs and cheap
fruit. When they die they are buried
in the Potter's field, and that is the
last of them. Their images are cast
in the ash barrel and that is the last
of them.-Phil0delpEiG Press.