Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-04
MASKS AND FACES.
FAyoRITE CHARACTERS REPRODUCED
IN PASTEsoARD AND PAINT.
Mask Making Not Such . Simple Natter
Process Of Msnufacture-Their Cost
and Their Discomforts-Gro-
tcsQuo and ArabesQus.
fChicago Tribunal

[Chicago Tribunal
The most annoying feature about a mas
querade party Is the difficulty of getting a
mask Nobody seems to know just where to
go to buy one. Dealers in fancy goods shake
their heads and send the numerous callers off
to hunt up some costumer who always lives
upstairs in some out-of-the-way street, whose
very appearance is enough to make ons
marvel on tn, extinction of witches and wiz
ards. Time was when only the members Of
Germany soa ,ty invested in the mask; now
it is in der and every week during the
winter seasol and it constitutes the best
paying article in the costumer's stock Every
club party and dancing society gives at least
one bal masque during the season; women
find fantOm dance or domino party
an inexpensive way to pay debts;
every dancing academy gives each class
a masquerade, and very often the winter en-
tertainment at Sunday y-schools is a sheet
and pillow-case party. The result is a cry is
raised for masks, and the costumer who has
lot Of neatly finished faces gets his purse
lined.
The great trouble with masks In general Is
the careless manner in which they are made.
The paper used Is generally of the cheapest
comes to the poor paint with whirh the face
is colored the effect Is overpowering. The
suffocating feeling Of these vise-like faces is
one reason why they are never worn all
evening The men dislike them a. women
who have had much experience with the lit
tie face-plasters refuse to wear them, prefer
ring to buy a spectacle-frame and attach
little rutie of lace TO it, which can be made
attractive and pretty, and also shroud the
wearer in mystery. There are dainty little
French masks made of red, pink, and vel
low satin, but it Is difficult to buy them in
this part of the globe.
There has been no change in masks in
fifty years. No attempt seems to he made 10
make the articles less an instrument of tor
ture. But the variety of faces increases
every season by the addition Of some new
character. The new faces are caricatures of
some prominent person, male or female, an
actual likeness of some European or Ameri-
can celebrity, or some grotesque subject bor-
rowed from fiction, the drama, or the animal
kingdom. Men and women prominent in
art, literature, the drama and music are IA
vorite models for false faces, and persons
who have gained notoriety through the news
papers rarely escape facemaksrs. The nota-
bilities include the kings of England and
France, some Of the popes, Bacon, William
Penn, Washington, Columbus Dante,
Cromwell, Raleigh, Rousseau. Voltaire, Ra-
phael Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm, Alfonso
Victor Emmanuel, Lord Beaconsfield, and
John Brown. Among the celebrities on this
side of the ocean are Talmage, Beecher,
John Mccullough. Gen Grant, Roscoe Conk-
ling, Carl Schurz, Tilden, Peter Cooper,
John Kelly. Tweed, Ben Butler, President
Arfh II u, L.
Gould, Abraham Lincoln and Horace Gree
ley. OF all these people Ben Butler and Boss
Tweed sell the best, the bias eyes Of the one
and the enormous nose Of the other being
the features that charm the multitude In
the grotesque Henry Irving as the villain Of
the Lyons Mail" has great sale, and after
him comes John I. Raymond as Col Sellers
Among the female faces Lydia Pinkham
the witch Of Wall street." Josephine Mans
field, and Sarah Bernhardt are standards,
and Mrs. Langtry, Mary Anderson, Maud
Branscomb, Nine Patti, Mime. Mod djeska.
Fanny Davenport, Miss Fo.tescue, the en-
press of Austria, and Queen Isatel are
shown in finnr goods For charades neuter
faces are offered which are struck OFF from
such strong models as George Sands, George
Eliot, Rose Bonheur, Janauschek, Materna,
and Charlotte Cushman.
In the miscellaneous line there are masks
typical of the Irish, Yankee, negro, Esqui-
maux, Chinaman, kings, queens, Students
clowns, harlequins. jockeys, puyilists,
deacons, and various trades In the same
class there are PEASANTS, dowagers, dudes,
dandies, dowdies, fat women, old women,
young women, coquettes, chubby babies, and
mischievous boys The jokes include cats,
dogs, monkeys, frogs, donkeys, wolves,
sheep, calves, foxes. and elephants, besides
indescribably ugly heads with movable jaw,
lo.ling tongus. and wagging ears These
masks are to be had as low as a cent each,
being made in Germany and France, where
labor is cheap. Ordinarily q cents is paid
for fairly good face.
The making Of a mask is not such a simple
matter as it seems. The materials used are
ordinary paper and a plaster moll The pa
per is placed on the latter until the proper
thickness is attained, after which coat of
paint is applied The molds are made by
scuIptors who make a speciality Of that kind
of work
Dealers who order the goods usually send
photographs which they wish reproduced,
but often the portraits are far from bearing
any resemblance to the moiel, and when the
gross of representations of Mile. Aimee is re-
ceived from the manufacturer the dealer
would never be able to recognize the once
famous opera-bouffe singer but for the name
on the package The full mask, which COW
ers the face and head and rests on the should
ers, is a much more difficult article to make.
Molds are required for the various sections
into which the cast is divided, and when
made the several pieces are put together
with such neatness that it is impossible to de-
tect the seams