The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-07-20
tiu,!.RFs T. IRAN i

serves one side as freely as tho other Man
uiacturing big banners Is quite an art, too
Every large city has ono or more big cstab-
ilsh:'ents for the business. and hundreds of
men and boys are employed.
The first thing that strikes the customer Oh
entering the display room of ono Of these
shops is the sublime indifference Of the dealer.
On one wall is stretched a mammoth banner
bearing Democratic legends, flanked by tho
colossal portraits Of Cleveland and Thurman;
Oh the opposite, Harrison and Morton beam
down from silk or muslin, while elsewhere
Fisk or Cowdrey or Streeter, or even Belva
Lockwood, may shine in chrome and OIL The
work room is a comical sight Here, Cleve-
land in mere outline shines in picture just
commenced; there Harrison family looms
out OF cloud, and yonder is Thurman with
one eye aud a ''gamey" look. As rule tho
big banners are made in sets, twenty or thirty
at time. Tho easel" is all one side of
room. which reaches up through two stories;
the .'canvas" tif it is for the common article
Is of unbleached muslin, which has had one
'sizing" Of oil and lead, and before that are
half a dozen men and often as many boys
standing, kneeling or perched on step ladders,
each working according to his own capacity,
and all doing some part Of the same picture
The satirist of the other party often points
joke by referring to the mammoth portrait
as done with q hose or squirt gun, or daubed
on by sign painter. In reality, tho por-
traits even on the cheapest banners, must be
painted by fairly good artists. and the pro-
CESS is as follows:
Suppose there are orders in for man.
moth banner 30 by 90 feet, to hang from rope
stretched across the street from 'hcad-
quarters:" on the left, of course, is ''our
gallant standard bearer" on the right his
vice. above the party legend, and all around
the emblems Of industry, agriculture, peace,
fortune, or any particular goddess the ex-
uberant fancy of the committeeman may
suggest Tho muslin is stretched and ''sized"
with lead and oil; then the boss designer
makes the letter outlines in faint crayon, and
the boys, apprentices or ,lnskillful hands, 60
to painting them in II in colors, there is a
different painter for each color The artist
then tackles the portrait, and soon the cloudy
profile of the candidate shows in faint crayon
lines Then come the tinters, and very often
thirty different colors are used, rarely less
than twenty. Each tinter has O scheme"
much like tho mapped out head one sees on
chronological chart, only instead of being
marked "Amativeness," "Philoprogenitive-
ness" etc., the little sections Of his ''scheme"
head are marked "Pink," deep Flesh,"
"Florid," etc -
Suppose it is bust, "Grover Cleve-
land" four feet high; when the crayon
man has finished his work there is q
ghastly, barely recognizable outline, and
he proceeds to his Thurman" at the
other end, or to Harrison" or "Fisk"
elsewhere Then comes the heavy tinter, and
bright red spots glow here and there on the
presidential simulacrum, after which the
picture looks as il it had been bombarded
with chunks of raw liver. Next comes the
first artist in hair, and when he is done the
presidential head is dark brown on the top.
Then another tinter adds the neck shading,
another the cheek variation and still another
the pink, vermilion, etc., and last Of all the
dnisher who does the offending" And now
there Is face and head without eyes, perched
on a frame, which is to be o coat and shirt by
and by. The eyes arc put In by skilled
workman, the coat and shirt rapidly brushed
on" by boys, and last of all the ''blue sky" Is
poured around tho portrait by an apprentice
with astonishing rapidity. And each one OF
these workmen can 60 over twenty or tnlrty
portraits a day. Last Of all the mushn
strips are firmly fastened on an immense
netting, Just like rectangular section OF
coarse fish seine; stout rope is reefed in along
the borders. and to be fastened to the main
supporting rope, and SO the mammoth ban.
ner is ready for the committee at a cost OF
from $40 to 500 according to the complexlty
~ the DESIGN