The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-09-24
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER.

THAT" said he, els the design that l
am most often called upon to reproduce,
especially for sailors. Almost every one
of them that comes up here to be we'll
fixed up begins by having that on his
breast. Maybe his mother isn't dead yet,
but it's homelike, and makes him think
of his parents. That's a pretty difficult
design, but l don't charge a man as much
for that, because l think it shows good
ceiling for him to want it."
''What instruments do you use2"
Mr.. Thomas exhibited in reply two
saucers, one with vermilion and the
other with black ink, and a slender ivory
stick to which were dashed five fine nee.
dies, with the points of each Il little
above the preceding one, so as to form o
slanting surface.
That's ALL" said he-'India ink and
Chinese vermillion, and those five needles
to pick the ink in. Those are the only
kind of ink that will last and will not
intiame the skin. Sometimes get Amer
lean vermillion palmed off on me. It's
pretty dangerous, and 1 always try a
little of it on my own hand first so that l
can tell the effect on my customers"
He held up his left arm, which served
him as a pen wiper. 1t was covered,
from the tips of the fingers almost to the
elbow, with indelible marks in black
and rcd ink, entirely hiding the skin. A
screaming eagle, with a baby in its ~talons,
that had been tattooed there thirty years
before, was just visible through the
stains.
Are those inks ~expensive9 Well,
they are, and they are not. One Of those
little sticks of India ink cost me 1925;
but then lean do 500 worth of work
with it, so you see it don't come to so
much after all. Yes, they are the only
colors luse, red and blue. The black
ink gets blue when l put it under the
skin. Of course, 1 can't give any par
ticular color to a girls eyes or cheeks,
but I come near enough to it to please
nv customers, and you would be sur
prised to lean what different kinds of
customers l have. Many is the time I've
had two sisters looking out of the win:
dow, watching for their mother and
father, while 1 was busy ~tattoolng
the third sister. l got at least a
dozen Jobs of that kind in q year, and
sometimes more, and from ladies, too,
that live up town on the avenues What
they ask for most frequently is TO have
some name tattooed where it can't be
seen in ball costume. Some of them
want a necklace tattoocd around their
necks. But 1 always advise them
against it, because they are sure to wish
it were IF some day, and, of course,
once on, it's got to stay there while the
skin does.
"Then, too, l have a good many GUS
TONERS among the young clerks. Some
of them want a design relating to their
business. For instance, just last week
1 tattooed a ''tickcr," with a picture of
Jay Gould looking at it, on the arm of a
brokers clerk in Pearl street. But most
of the clerks just want the name of their
sweetheart entwined with their W in
the most flourishing letters l can find.
Then they show it to her and say it was
very painful, and she says, Just think
how he has suffered on my account and
that makes them better friends than they
were before. But they deceive their
girls, because it don't hurt much at all.
Let me show you" The artist took
up his needle, drew the skin tightly
across the reporters wrist, and in a
moment had produced G. miniature
blue star without any greater pain
than a slight pricking sensation, fol-
lowed by a slight irritation and infam
nation. That's all the pain there
is in it," he continued, land when
l do q big job, and have been working
on a man for five or ten minutes, the
skin gets numb, and he doesn't feel any.
thing at all and wants me to keep on, be-
cause as soon as l stop he feels the irri-
tation. That's the good thing in this
business, and it is where we have the adj
vantage of ordinary artists. We can get
our subjcctst to sit as long as we choose.
If it wasn't for that we should never be
able to finish q job.
"Have / ever tattooed anybody for the
show busincss2 Certainly ! have. 1
| guess l have done at least half of all
who are on exhibition. About a month
ago l finished two ladies in Cincinnati.
A man here in New York gave me 5000
and nv expenses to 60 on and DO one OF
them, and, while l was doing the first,
one of her friends thought she would
like to 90 into the business, too, and
paid me 1926 to do her. Both OF them
are travelling around now as some kind
of princess, and they can get fifty dol
lars a week easily. 1t took me about six
weeks to do each of those ladies, work
ing only two or three hours a day.
That's as much as is good for them. 1t
takes about two months to finish up q
man, because he has more space to cover.
| am working on one man now. lie
works on q steamer, so that l can only
get a hold of him about once in two
weeks. He is going to be one of the lin
est specimens | have w rturned out. He
has got about every kind of animal of
the world on him, and a big picture of
the Egyptian pyramids with camels and
things in the middle of his back. He's
got a rattlesnake curled around his neck,
and I'm waiting for the election now, to
put the next President and Vice-Presl-
dent on each brea,t. When he is done
VIC are going to Australia together. The
tatooing business has never been worked
there, and ought to pay wcll.-Ne"
York Sun.
The Origin of Wheat.
Evolution claims at length to have
solved the problem of the origin OF wheat.