Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-01-15

a Studio Where Many Statues Of Nstivo
Americans Arc Made.

"afiu WeaIner Is anyways swung open.
The interior, as seen through this,
opening, suggests a masquerade ball.
Figures in all conceivable styles of.
gaudy costume are crowded together;
some ranged demurely along the WALL
others standing nose to nose and smirk-
ing in each others faces as though
talking i'll a low tone and maliciously,
criticising their neighbors, while occa-
sionally there is seen standing with.
dignity apart an imposing swell, with
his drapery wrapped majestically about,
his shoulders. Peeping around him at,
a simpering dude, with hat on the back
of the head and hand up at the little
downy yellow moustache,. may be seen!
a wickedly roguish young lady, with,
utterly unpermissible bangs, alarming,
exposure Of ankle, and attired in raj
ment whereof the astounding variety
of brilliant colors would, by compari-
son, have made Joseph's gorgeous at
tire quite a somber garment. The va
riety of costume among these people is
only equalled by the variety of emo
tions which seem to be inspiring them.
Some are in a towering rage, with
arms uplifted t~hreateningly, while 9TH
ers are mischievous, or sedate, or chip
per, but the majority seem to be either
checrfully or sadly idiotic. They fill
nearly all the standing space in the lit
tie 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 had a common origin in the
butt ends of ships masts, and their
common mission in life is to stand in
front of shops and perpetually offer
bogus cigars to passing multitudes. 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 brazenly flirting and
smoking q cigarette as she did it.. !
"The image business in New York.
he said, ''is not quite what it was a few;
years ago, because we have lost old
Daddy Brooks. All, old Daddy was!
the boss carver, and he taught about
all the carvers we have here. That's
why we call him Daddy. He used to
be down in West Broadway somewhere.
Now he is in Chicago, and he took a
lot of the boys out with him-that is,
he took three or four. There never
was owe a dozen carvers here in New.
York at n time. There are not over
six here now. They are all Yankees.
The foreigners don't catch on, some-
how, but the Yankees take to chopping
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
good forty dollar figure. We take the
stick out in that back room first, where
we have a dirt floor. Here we hew
them into something like a general
outline. Then we hoist them upstairs,
where we chip them down until we get
to the fine touches and sand paper
then they come down to me and I fix
them out with a stunning 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 carried away. I also take battered
and weather-stained figures and put on
ar 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. I get anywhere from
ten dollars to forty dollars for the
images-rarely over forty dollars.
There are only two or three other
shops, and we send images all over the
country.
"Oh, of course styles change, but
the genuine old rowing redskin with a
bad eye and an ugly looking toma-
hawk in his hand is the stand-by-that
is, in the majority of the Eastern and
Middle States. When you get way out
West there is quite a run Of just such
flash Bowery girls as l am painting up
here now. Dudes had quite a go for a
while. I 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
popular a few years ago, are now so
much dead wood OF your hands. The
Scotchman has gone for good, I guess,
though Ihearhe is still all the go over in
England. But the plain old war whoop
savage Of the plains is the only chap
you a 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.
"We prefer to sell direct to retail
dealers, though the big wholesale men
try to buy of us quite often. But, you
see, they want to give away the images
as premiums to heavy customers, and
so they want to get them for next to
nothing.
.It takes about three days for a
carver to make a fine big image, and
he makes four dollars to five dollars a
day at it, according to the quality Of
his work.-N. Y San.
General George H. Sheridan, now
Of New York, was once Adiutant-Gen.
eral of Louisiana. As such officer he
was called on to report the strength OF
the State militia, which he did, as fol-
lows: l have the honor to acknowledge
I H. rooa:A x,o... ~