New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-27
MELTING AND M0ULDIYG MEN.

HOW GROUPS IN WAX ARE DESIGNED AND MADE
ITO CATCH A LIKENESS OF GEN. HARRISON.
An artist was once heard to say that II he ever fet
lonely ho would simply sit down and begin TO paint .
picture, and then, even though rs in the middle
of desert he should feel that there would soon
be crowd about HIM The making OF likeness,
whether by sculptor by lightning chalk artist,
seems indeed, 10 have some wonderful attraction for
spectators. Yet there Is group Of artists in this
city who work In comparative secIuJon. In the or
binary meanings Of the words they are neither sculp-
tors painters, but In another sena they bofh
whllo some OF their methods have stronger rcsem-
biance TO surgery than b art OF any kind. They
the men who make the wax figures for tho Eden
Musee Even the mechanical parts Of their work
rot generally known and many might be surprised
to find how much study and how many elaborate oper<
atons are necessary TO the final result
The head ard front Of these imitators Of humanity
is Alfred Alexander. He has little den high up In
the front OF the Musee building, which might DO
taken for toy shop, for all around tiny images
Of men and women and little houses, terraces trees,
walls and balconies that would apparently be Of
moro use to FAIRIES than TO averagesized man Like
Mr. Alexander. These arc models or parts Of models
for groups in wax, and they show how the artist
works out bis designs. When he kas decided in hts
mind just what he wants he goes work lse any
sculptor, perhaps with living model, and makes
head Of clay.
Here the artist stops in his work, for time and the
mechanic takes hand. lie makes hollow plaster
from the clay head and sends It down stairs to
the " wax Kitchen This is wonderful place 10
has the power Of making over an old man into
a young one as the witches kitchen In FaustD and
that too, with unbusinesslike accomplishments Of
apes and blue fire. And II can do yet more; tn re-
store youth is simple thing but IL can melt up
Oliver Cromwell and change him to Mary Anderson
almost as quickly as the latter change herself from
a.
melted wax into the plaster mould and take the mould
of and there is the head.
But what head II is Of one dead color, IL has
no hair no eyebrows, no eyes, and for absolute lack
OF beauty expression the proyerbal singed cat Is
nothing to It. The mechanic is done with 1t and 10
must 20 up stairs again TO another artist This Is
Constant Thys and he and his assistants give the poor
bald head some hair eyebrows and beard II neces-
sary the last being put on hair at time. II the
mouth happens to DO OPEN Mr. Thys cuts hole there
and does what Anthony would have done II he had
been Brutls that is, he puts tongue IN the woundi
he also gives glass eye for an eye and wax tooth
for tooth and paints the face. Mr. Thys's coliec-
ton OF cast-of heads, 10 speak, Is curious one.
1t fills big glass placed against the wall, and
shelves together the monarch and the nhilist,
the millionaire and the beggar the priest and the
actor. II they show no pleasure in anothePs
company, they at least show discomfort. There
are the old Emperor William and ODonovan Rossa,
Bismarck and Grover Cleveland, Abram s. Hewitt and
Helen Dauvray, General Grant and Jay Could and
dozens Of other people who probably never met any
where else I'm the world.
But In tho meantime Mr. Alexander has not been
idle. He has had casts for the body Of his figure
made and from these paper mache SHE'LL and by tho
time the head ready be attached he has designed
the costume and superintendent IT'S making. NOR mas
this Of many neglected his carpenter shop.
and there all the necessary surroundings for the hguro
or the group have been built. .
when the figure is to be that Of real person, the
process Is yet more complicated The subject must %
Induced II possible give the artist sitting, and IL
he cannot have this he must begin with several pho
tygraphs showing different views OF the face and he
must get In some way an accurate description OF INC
complexion and the color of the eyes, the hair and
tho board. When General Harrison Is inaugpfated
as President OF tho United States there VIII be IN
the crowd gathered 10 see him one man on pecunar
GRAND He has been engaged already to go 70 Wash
gion TO note the exact color of the Presidents hair
the hue of his beard, and in fact every poinc
OF hts face and HIS figure. For not only must Prosi-
dent Cleveland yield his place In the White House,
but no must also give up his seat beside Queen Victoria
In the group of rulers In Twenty -thrdst