The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-05
FREAK OF THE BLACK ART.
What the Man Who Cuts Silhouettes
Sees of Human Nature
UL.o,,, sbsa

From the Washington Star.
The man who was having his silhouette
cut outof black paper by the scissors artist
wore his hat on the back of his head and
refrained for the moment from pulling at
the long, straggly vegetable which grew on
either side of his jaw in order that the ex-
pected likeness might be as perfect as pos
sible. AT the end of two minutes, or
thereabout, he was told that he might
abandon his attitude Of cataleptic rigldity,
assumed for purposes of portraiture and it
was with ill-concealed imDatience that he
waited until the little profile picture was
stuck upon piece of white cardboard a I'd
handed over. For a brief interval he bent
a critical gaze upon his own counterfeit
presentneat, holding it at various DIS
tances from his eye, as if one focus mig 1t
be better than another; then, while half the
oilers in Wizards hotel lobby tried to get a
glimpse at the work of art over his shoul-
ders, he suddenly remarked:
"Why, that's not like mel You haven't
got my whiskers in"
'TJ's a good likeness, all but the
whiskers," echoed the little crowd that stood
about the big folding frame, covered with
sample sllhouettes Ia black and white, in
the corner of the lobby
The scissors artist, who was FASTING the
duplicate portrait on a second card, looked
fatigued.
IT'S always the same way" he said to
star reporter, YEARLY, with gents who
have whiskers. They are proud of 'em.
and, what's more, the whiskers are essential
to the likeness. If you want to see how
essential, look at a man who has just had his
wuiskers shaved off and take notice what a
change it makes in his face; but unless the
whisker ru s in a beard, how on earth is
1t possible to ma le it appear in silhouette?
The thi g can't be done, and so the GUS
toner is dissatisfied. Excuse me moment
25 cents for the two, sir, please"
While the artist was making change for
the person with the whiskers, the newspaper
man glanced over the sample silhouettes, of
which several hundred decorated the fold
ing frame close by. Many of them we're
celebrities, taken from Ii g; also there we're
not a few p city watering-place girls, rep
resenting last summers giddy crop, with
some curious human types sprinkled here
and there, and raft Of commonplace peo-
pie of both sexes.
SILHOUETTES ARE FLATTERING.
Eyes, customers with whiskers are the
most ditficult to get likeuesses of" The scis-
sors man went on. And, by the way,
you'll notice that, as rule, silhouette like
nesses in black are fattering. One reason
for this is that person SO represented
always has perfect complexion. All the
defects Of the skin are left out; and, be-
sides, the lines in the face, which go so far
to make uglinesS, are absent. Thus the
subject, II he or she has profile that is not
altogether hopeless, is ant to come out
fairly well in the black. Did I ever inten-
tlonaIy Halter! Never. l am too conscen-
tious workman for that, and, anyway, it
would n It pay at ALI For instance, a
young lady often kicHs because her silh u
cite shows lump on the nose at
the bridge-just little irregularity, you
understand. She has always imagined that
her nose was perfectly. straignt-for it's
wonderful how little people know about
their own appearahee-and she says:
why goodness mel I have no bump
on my nose Ike.lnthat' Then whel
assure her that she has, she refers the
question iddig Iantly to her friends
l might avoid this by simply making
the nose straight; baSl in that ca g, the
young woman's acq9alhtances would say
to her: That doesn'ClBDk like you; it's not
your nose And so Should be Thought
poor workman, and my business would be
injured. find that the best way is to rep
resent things as nearly correctly as l can.
In most instances, as said, the silhouettes
are fl lttering, and therefore customers are
satisfied. But here's some one who wan Is
his picture made; just watch me while l
do it,
WATCHING 1T DONE.
The applicant for a sitting, OF rather a
standing was fashionably dressed youth
with an unusually tall collar, an almost in
distinguishable mustache, and light derby
hat which matched his fall overcJat. AS
he leaned upon one end of a small log that
had an eruption of silver carbuncles at the
upper extremity and protruded his wish
bone as far as possible the artist doubled
small rectangular piece OF paper with a
glazed black surface on one side and gum
stickum on the other, and gave it a snip
with his little scissors. This particular
snip reproduced the curve of the wish
bone aforesaid, with two incidental coat
buttons. The scissors expert gave a second
quick glance and second snip that made
the line Of the neck and chi j. A third
glance and the lower lip was added; a
fourth and the clippers made palpable the
indistinct mustache, together with the
suggestion Of an insipid smile; a fifth, and
the nose appeared, with, lol an eyelash; a
sixth, and the brow came into view up to
the hat. which required two more gimpses
and ships for its perfect representation.
Two additional ships yet we're necessary to
show the back of the head and coat, and
then the silhouette was nearly done, but
MT quite First it was necessary to
CUT THE HEAD FROM THE SHOULDERS
aud slice part OF the neck off; then another
little clip was taken from the coat, near the
front, three small. hair-like projections If
the black paper being left by the Scissors
attached to the coat collar, one at the bac
and two in front. Then the artist licked
ie gum-stickum on the reverse side Of the
head and stuck IL on a whito card. Be-
meath IL, with q space left between to repre-