, 1885-12-11
DESIGNED 81 WHITING YANKEES.
A studio Who're Many Statues of Native
Americans Are Made.

Americans Are Made.
New York Sun.l
In Canal street there is a low, dingy
building with a wide door, which in
warm weather is always swung open.
The interior, rs seen through the open.
ing, suggests q masquerade ball. Fig
ures in all conceivable styles Of gaudy
costume are crowded together; some
ranged demurely along the wall, 9th
erS standing nose to nose and
Sinking in each others faces a.
though talking in "A low ont and ma
lieiously criticising their neighbors,
while occasionally there is seen stand
ing With dignity apart an imposing
swell, with his drapery wrapped males
tically about his shoulders. Tho variety
OF costume among these people Is only
equaled By the variety OF emotions
which seem to DO inspiring them. Some
are IN n towering rage, with arms up
lifted threateningly, while others arc
misohievous, or sedate, or clipper, but
the majority seem to be either cheer
fully or sadly idiotic. They fill nearly
all The standing space in the little room,
and even swarm out upon the sidewalk.
where people gather to stare at them
curiously from time to time.
Though nearly all these queer speci-
mems differ in complexion and costume,
they all n a common origin in the
butt ends OF ships masts, and their COM
mon mission in life is to stand in front
of shops and perpetually oTer bogus
cigars to passing multltudes. A jolly
young gentleman was in an inner room
of this tobacco image menagerie, and
whistled softly as he with gentle touches
put a perfect blaze of crimson bushes
upon the cheeks of a young lady who
was brazingly flirting and smoking a
cigarette as she did it.
THE image business in New York"
he said, is not what it was a few years
ago, because we have lost old Daddy
Brooks. All, old Daddy was the boss
carver. and he taught al out all the carv-
ers we have here. That's why we call him
Daddy. He used to be down in West
Broadway somewhere. Now he is in Chi
cago, and he took a lot of the boys out
with him-that is, he took three or four.
There never was over a dozen caryers
here in New York at one time. There
are not over six here now. They are
all Yankees. The foreigners don't catch
on, somehow. but the Yankees take to
chopplng out wooden images Just as
they do to whiting a pine single.
we go down to the ship-yards and
buy the butt ends of masts. Some are
six or seven feet long, and some not
over two or three, and we make big
figures or little figures accordingly. Out
OF a seven-foot stick you can get a $40
figure. We tale the stick out in that
back roo first, where we have q dirt
floor. Here We hew them into some
thing like a general outline. Then We
hoist them upstairs, where we chip
them down until we get to the fine
touches n sandpaper; her they come
down to me and | ix them out with q
shining coat Of colors on their wooden
clothes, put them on rollers and
trundle them out among the rest
of the gang out there, where they
wait until they make a mash and
are carted away. | also take bat
tered and weather-stained figures and
put on an ear here or a nose there, or
paint a blind eye into life again, rig
them out in a brand new suit OF clothes,
and there they are. l get anywhere
from $40 to $40 for the images-rarely
over $40. There are only two or three
other shops, and we send images all
over the co ntry.
"oh, of curse styles change, but the
genuine old rowing redskin with a bad
eye and an ugly looking tomahawk in
his hand is the stand-by-that is, in the
ma GRITTY of the eastern and middle
states. When you get way out west
there is quite n run of just such fash
Bowery girls as l am painting up here
now. Dudes had quite a go for a while.
| have got fully twenty five dudes
planted around in Brooklyn and New
York even now, though dudes are on
the wane, and PucKs, that were so popu-
lar a few years ago, are now SO mu h
dead wood on your hands. The Scotch
man has gone for good, l guess, though
! hear he is still all the go over in Ing
land. But the plain old war-whoop
savage Of the plains is the only chap
you can bank on as steadily trust
worthy. Indian maidens do very we'll,
but not so well as the fine old gore
drinking warriors, with feathers and
meat axes"