Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-08-30
WITHIN NAST'S HOME.
TALKS WIN THk MASTkR CAR
IOONIST ABOUT MS ART.

Life-The Original OF COlum bia-Nats
Pictures of Home Life.
Correspondence to the GLoRE-REPUsLIC.
NEW YoRx, Aug 2O-A house built by
pen is no uncommon sight; but a house built
by pencil is somewhat rare. There is such
an one in Morristown, ~ J. 1t belongs to
Thomas Mast, whose potent pencil can rae
as well as rear. 1t is handsome house,
large and hosptable looking, surrounded by
flowers and fOuntai in4, verdure and trees.
Broad balconies for summer shade and wide
windows for light and sunshine in all seasons
give it look of comfort and cheeriness.
Quite well known to all Morrstown. is
the house of the greatest newspaper artist.
Anybody, big or little, can tell you where
Mas, lives The raggedest, barefoot urchn
who whistles foolish tunes through the
streets can give explicit directions how to
reach 1t. walk there from the railway
station in the early evening is luxury,
particularly if the moon shows herself.
The fine old town is so quiet and so stately
on its hills that the sweet silence rests one
from the awful roar of New York. Sug-
gestions of ease and plenty are before the
eye every where. Poverty and its train of
ugly attendants seem never to have entered
MOrristOwn.
Inside Mr.. Nast's house beauty and o>m-
fort are on the best of terms. Luxurious
chairs, inwrought tables, dainty curtains
and soft carpets are plentiful Still more
abundant is the supply of well-tilled book
ca,es and pictures. Such pictures-an in
finite variety of subject and species. Many
are Mr.. Nasts own handiwork, in color as
well as in black and white. His studio is a big
square room on the second floor, with big
desk, and no end Of places to store his books,
engravings and all the trumpery so indis-
pensable to the writer or artist and so de-
testable to the excessively neat house
keeper.
Most interesting to the student of picture.
making is this studio. 1t contains complete
files of Harpers Weekly slncs Mast has been
employed upon it, The political history Of
the country since tho war is there depicted
in caricature Leafing over those immense
volumes is like opening a panorama Of the
past and seeing it in fantastic attitudes.
The great cartoonist not only has files OF
his published pictures, but he has the orig
inal drawings, cleaned from whatever stains
and marks adherent to them from passing
through the engravers hands, and carefully
preserved They constitute an art treasure,
the like of which is not to be found else where
in the world, perhaps.
Formerly Mr.. Nast's drawings, which are
in ink, were reproduced for the public by
means Of wood engravings. Now they are
rendered by the photo-engraving process,
which gives an actual fac-simile of the art
. ,,t'a h,,,
exactly as Mast has drawn 1t, line for line.
Another treasure in this studio is a small
collection of magnificent etchings, Mr.. Nast's
own, the only work of the kind he ever did.
They have never been exhibited, and only a
very few copies have been printed, and used
only as gifts for friends. Their possessors
have something rare as well as excellent
A sight of these etchings strengthens one in
the belief that Americans are the finest
etchers in the world Such bold. strong,
effective lines are the expression of the true
American spirit, which must write, picture
or utter its opinions and convictions. Mast
is the true etcher, Although he has made
50 few bona flde etchings all his newspaper
work is etching, though done with the pen
instead of the needle. The subjects chosen
for his etclings proper are mostly heads
his wlfe's, his own, some rugged brigands
and gypsies ferce and handsome.
Three full-grown slick, slender greyhoun
roam about Mr Nast's house with the famil-
iarity and confidence Of children and the
silence Of ghosts. They have a particular
fondness for the studio and spend consider
able time there. They like its atmosphere
Of comfort and sociability. Sometimes they
are all asleep there. one stretched out on tn.
big lounge, the other two occupying reel in
ing chairs, their long bodies reaching from
tie top Of the chairs to the fCor
No matter how successful a man is. he
always fancies that his highest abilities lie
In some entirely untroddeu field. This, !
truly believe, is the case the world over.
from the ditch-digger TO the philosopher,
artist and statesman. Women and men
alike, all have dreams that something they
have not done is the thing they should have
done. Who knows but they are right. We
all have more talents than We develop. II
may be that the slumbering ones that re-
our highest after all. and the ones we sue
coed III merely the pushing mediocres of our
minds. Mr. Nast's special fondnesss seems
TO be for pictures OF home life. For the
public he has done very little Of this kind
OF work, but he has many specimens of it in
his studio, and when, occasionally, he shows
them to friends his manner Indicates that he
cherishes them with special tenderness.
Seeing this | was reminded of the mother
there are many of them-who makes a
spoiled pet of the least interesting and at
tractive Of her children seeing in him
beauties and virtues no one else is able Tn
SEE.
Nast's pictures Of home life are excellent.
of course, but they are not striking, as his
caricatures are The hand trained TO bold
conceptions and strong strokes comes down
little abruptly to the delicate touch neces
sary for soft lamp-lit interiors, containing
children's gentle faces and the graceful folds
of wOmen's robes.
Mr.. Nasts' wife l. the original OF Colprn.
bia, the tall, beautiful woman with the
classic face, who has been so prominent in
the allegorical pictures during and since the
war. These plcturas first gave Mast his ma
tional fame. In beauty of conception and
execution they have never been excellei
and are chapters of the history of the ma.
tons mind photographed moods, as IL
were. Columbia, let it he noticed, is alto
gether a different figure from the Goddess
OF Liberty She is Nasts special creation in
the world of art
The great caricaturist says he uses photo
graphs as models for his faces, to preserve the
likeness, distorting and exaggerating them.
Of course TO meet the wants of caricature