The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-22
WINNIE REAM AND HER WORK.
A Charming Sketch Of the Artiste-Funny
Stories About Her Sailor Critics.

ern instincts OF Its little mistress, faces the set
ting sun. Opposite its threshold stands the
bronze Farragut, which is so universally ridi
culed, and which yet is so faithful Il likeness of
the great admiral that his widow selected the
plaster cast from thirty others as the best repro
duction of the features of her illustrious dead.
Compared with the one in New York, it is
thoroughly inartistic. You remember the one l
mean. 1t stands just off Union square, with the
heels set well apart and the body giving to
the roll of a ship; the wind blows strongly
through the bronze. the trousers being fattened
against the knees and the bell-shaped cloth far
ing away from the ankles. The pedestal is hol
lowed out in a chair form, and Il clever manage
ment of curved lines produces the optical illusion.
of flowing, wind -ruf1ed waters, in which a
dolphin or two wheel and disport themselves.
But the face does not compare with the one here,
the likeness, in fact, being conspicuously absent,
and just herein lies the difference between
them; the artistic one is unlike; the i~nartistic one
so like, that when she was at work on the colos-
sal cast in the foundry at the navy-yard. Farra-
CUTS old sailors aboard the different vessels
would cluster about the scaffolding, discussing
their chief and criticising the work in a way
more pointed than artistic. But these criticisms
she valued highly and would invite at every OPP
portunity. for, as she said:
THE officers praise what they fancy and gloze
over what they do not with such pretty speeches
that l can get no idea how l am really work
ing"
She tells many funny stories of those DAYS
spent in the foundry and of her sailor and tourist
audiences, for she never could realize what a
quaint sight it was to come in among the vast
anchor and propeller molds, the casting kettles
and furnaces, and to see towering up among the
iron girders a gigantic semblance Of a man, over
whose shoulders and arms, up whose mighty coat
skirts, and down whose great length of limb,
went swarming a wee figure clad in gray linen
with curling elf-lock bound in a blue veil, a fig
ure that bore odd wooden implements in its mites
of hands and boldly punched here and p~iastered
there, using tools and fingers with equal impair
tiality.
But to return to her sailor critics:
A vessel was IN port, aboard which the Ad-
mirals old boatswain was, and she asked that he
might come up to take a look at her work.
Up came Jack, rugged in his Sunday toys. and
rather uneasy at the prospect Of his interview
with the sculptor woman He showed his dis
comfort so apparently that she told him to look
at it while she worked, and tell her if there was
anything he liked, and then she laughed, and
said. roguishly:
"And anything you don't like. either"
He stared and stared, and then hauled a Guild
out of his pocket, bit off a huge piece, and-ap-
parently much refreshed and encouraged-stared
again.
Presently he began to laugh softly to himself.
She turned quickly.
Whats the matter!'
why, you've gone and left ont the trumpet,
and the old man never would 'a-left it off that
day."
(For the first idea was TO represent the his
toric 'swear-word' scene at the passage of the
forts
why to be sure, she said; ''and what else?"
But Jacks courage was gone, and he hemmed
and hawed, she urging him with questions, until
he burst out with:
t4NNoI1 ,our Ioo1- e., la.o A.. IL -- --L
such a d fool as to go into a fight with his
best clothes on, and you've logged him out there
like a house a fTe"
Then he ded procipitately-'leavin me- she
said. face to face with the awful fact that l had
put him in full dress uniform. ! sent at once to
Mrs. Farragut for a fighting suit, and she let
me have the very one he wore at Plaquemine
Bend, Of which this is a fac-simile"
The statue in the square is of heroic size the
Admiral himself was only of average height,
and stands on a segment of quarterback, with
one foot on a rope coil, and in the hands is held
loosely a telescope. The head is slightly turned
to the eastward, as if looking for the dawn
which will end his silent watch, and the whole
figure is expressive of quiet strength and simple
manhood.
The base is of granite, and is ornamented at
the four corners with small howitzers which
were used in the stirring days on the Lower Mis-
sissippi; about it bloom the Japanese camellia.
the fame plant, the colios, the mournful beauty
of the purple Judas tree, and for funeral plumes
Lnefe are TIE waving 4a1npaS grasses.
1t was her last large work, and was completed
just before she laid down her chisel for the dis
taft, and sunk the worker in marble into the
housewife, for. she is a notable housekeeper, and
is one of the happiest of women in her home-life
and affections.
She married, about six years ago, Lieutenant
(now Cuptain) Hoxie, of the engineer corps of
the United States army-a beautiful fellow, but
so manly that not even his exquisite features
can make him effeminate. The wedding was as
quaint as pretty. 1t took place at the Church of
the Ascension, a charming little shrine ON Mas
sachusetts avenue (which that very inadequate
article in the Century on New Washington did
not even outlineL and the decorations
were artistically eXpressive-the cannon and
sword of the groom were combined with
the mallet and chisel of the bride; their mono
grams ran riot in violets and roses; the colors of
the engineer corps were mingled with the Syrian
purple of art; and the wedding bell was a gigan-
tic structure, seven feet high. composed entirely
of field daisies.
The groom has had absolutely snow-white hair
ever since he was twenty-four, and his features
are like a cameo, the only vivid color about his
face is in his eyes, which are purple-blue. Con
trasted with this lightness was the Spanish col
oring of the wee wife, whose cream satin toilet
and fine old lace veil brought out all the dark
tints Of hair and eyes.
AS | have indicated, the sculptor is a tiny crea-
tUre as to hight, but she has advanced broadly
lin the way of flesh during the past few years.
She has pretty features and beautiful, lustrous
brown eyes, but she INDUCES in an eccentric
style of dress that just misses being unbecoming;
she wears bizarre colors and filletS of gold or sill
yer, or white satin, wound about her head, and
she has a child-like fondness for beads and gilt
tering things. Her first studio was on Capitol Hill,
under the shadow of the dome, and was an at
tractive spot. Her bust of America was vis-a-vis
the door, and l can honestly praise it as the most
beautiful embodiment of nobility and strength l
have seen among the multitudinous female heads
labeled America" and Columbia" Her harp
rose, tall and suggestive, near by; several chIl-
dren's heads, basso r%elievi, souvenirs of Rome
and Florence, a belt of wampum and some In
dian weapons (relies of her early life on the from
tier( ~draperies and plaster casts completed the
ensemble. Her touchstone was a relief of an In
dian chiefs head. which she cut out of Il cake of