The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-18
PORTRAITS OF Mr.. LINCOLN.
How Volk, the Sculptor, Made the Mask
of the Great Martyred President.
Pictures of lincoln at Washington and His
Statues-Relics of the Dead President
"A Messengers Recollections.
arp's Letter in Cleveland leader.

saw yesterday OfoDZe cast from the LIN
coin life mask which the sculptor volk took
during the April in 1860 before Lincoln was nom
mated The casts have just been made, and one
will probably be given to the government. Only
a limited numberof these casts have been made,
and the one l saw was in the hands of one of
Mr. Lincoln's intimate and dearest friends It
represents, with powerful reality the features
and spirit of the great President The face.
front Of the head. the ears, and sinewy neck are
alive In 1850 the President wore no beard. and
the face is represented as smoothly shaven.
There are are two little moles on each side of
The nose, and 1t seems 10 me that the lines of
thought and worry are not deeply cut as in
his later portraits. The sculptor. Volk, got this
cast in measure by accident He was in Hi
nois with Stephen A. Douglas, making a statue
OF him, when he first met Abraham Lincoln.
AT this time the senatorial contest between Lin
coin and Douglas was going on, and Douglas. in
llinc0in did not become much OF presidential
possibility until 1860. ana this time it would
have been hard to have cot bets upon his
nomination.
case in Chicago that Volk got him to sit for.
him. and at this time, two months before he was
nominated, he took this life mask. mask of
this kind, you know, is taken by putting lot of
plaster of paris on the face so that it covers IL
entirely 1t is then allowed to harden. and when
taken of IL gives an exact model of the face.
Volk was very careful, In putting the plaster
Lincoln, to leave his eyes and nostrils free. He
left 1t on about an hour, and then pulled 1t off
slowly and easily tearing at the same time some
OF the fine hairs of the temple, which made Lin
colns eyes water. He then got Lincoln to sit for
him and took sketch of him in clay. What
sculptor calls sketchng is modelling statue in the
hrst place In clay or some material just for the
time. Lincoln came and sat for Mr. Volk to
sketch him, and this cast. which is the result is
undoubtedly the best ever made. One of the
casts will, understand, be given to the govern
ment and be put in the National Museum. /
saw also the bronze cast of Lincoln's right hand,
whichsV ok made at the same time. 1t is an i'm
mense bony fist. tightly clasped around a brazen
stick, and cut off about the middle of the wrist.
Volk took the model of this hand on Sunday,
and he had trouble in getting some kind OF
stick or piece of pasteboard for Lincoln to hold
while he took it. Lincoln went out to the wood
shed and sawed off a piece of a broomstick, and
it is this piece Of broomstick which is now mod
eled in brass.
President Lincoln told volk that he had never
sat to a sculptor before, and the only things that
had been taken of him we're daguerreotypes and
photographs. Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania,
who is one of Lincoln's greatest admirers has a
photograph of him taken in 1857 | think. 1t
was originally deguerreotype, but Kelley has
had this daguerreotype photographed, and it is
certainly very fine likeness.
Judge Kelley thinks there have been only two
greatest tnen ia the world, Ore of these was
Lincoln and the other Shakespeare. and he thinks
that they were much alike in genius. In his
pleasant room at the Riggs House he has upon
the wall large photographs of four or five great
statesmen, and he is now having d large photo.
graph of one of the celebrated pictures of Lin
coin made TO complete his collection. One Of
A.
of Carey, the great pfotectonst and a third OF
Mr.. Kelley himself. In old antiquarian shop
at Georgetown, the other day, found gray
whiskered. white haired red-faced ieweler who
showed me a cameo of President Lincoln, which
represents him very we'll, indeed. 1t was a
white she'll cameo, and the man told me that he
had got it through Mrs. Lincoln and that
Charles Sumner had offered him Sl00 for it, but
that he had refused It. 1t s not set, and it rep
represents Lincoln without beard.
Here at Washington there are a number of
representations of Abraham Lincoln In the
National Gallery Of Statues there is bust of
Lincoln in marble, made in 1858 by Mrs.
Sarah Fisher Ames, which represents the
great President looking as though he had
sheet wrapped around his neck. 1t cost
the government about So. 600, and would have
been dear. it seems to me- at that many cents.
Winnie Ream's statue of Lincoln stands in front
of the City Hall on pedestal which Is far too
high for the statue For it, the government paid
$4,000 A little to the right of the bust of Lin
coin, in Statuary Hall. and Immediately above
it, there Is a mosaic portrait of the martyred
President. 1t is made of thousands of little bits
of stones, and is should say, two or three feet
square. 1t represents the President az full
bearded, and it looks very much as though it
were made by some of the newspaper artists of
the day. Frank B. Carpenters picture of the
Proclamation OF the Emancipation contains
very fair portrait of the President IL hangs on
the walls of the Capitol staircase, leading to
the House gallery. and looks down at Powers's
statue OF jefferson which stands in niche be
low.
mile east of the Capitol, in the center of
Lincoln Square, which is a beautiful park, the
bronze group. entitled Emancipation, is TO be
seen. 1t represents Abraham Lincoln holding
in his right hand the proclamation of freedom.
A slave kneels at his feet with nlanacles broken.
and about TO rise. On his left is the brazen
trunk of tree with lash and chains about 1t,
and the expressioneon the face of the freedm man
and that of the great Lincoln are very good. in
deed. This monument was paid for by the sub
scriptions of the colored people of the United
States 1t weighs 600 pounds, is twelve feet
high and cost ST. 900.
There are number Of relies of tie President
scattered here and there about Washington. In
the National Museum there is pair of dove
colored chamois skin gloves, which were made
for the President Just before he was nominated.
but which he never wore. Here. too, Is model
of his patent for lifting vessels over shoals. and
in a case near By you may lock "t his
brown hair, laid away with that OF other Presi
dents. man named Peterson, who was Of
the man who owned the houseAn which Lincoln
died, has the pillow ease and quilt upon which !
he breathed his last breath. They are clotted
and stained with blood but Peterson considers
them worth a great deal, and he would hardly
sell them for there weight in silver.
There is tall thin messenger at the White
House named Pendle. who has been there for
nearly thirty years. and who was duty on the
night that the President was shot He will tell
you how he was affected by little Tad Lincoln
sobbing and crying. "Oh! they have killed my
papal My poor papa! Let me 90 to my papa
Pendle worships the memory OF little Tad and
his father. In tiny gold locket he has q little
band of the Presidents hair, and in camphor.
scented box he keeps a fine black broadcoth
coat, one sleeve of which is badly cut 1t was
in this coat that the President died, and Pendle
treasures it as though 1t were veritable cloth
of gold. A man named Forbes. who lives in