Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-11-12

were feeling Of me and wondering if
were hollow: "Come up stairs with me.
Iwant to show you something. Did you
ever go into the work room where wax
figures are made?"
mo"
''Well, take the elevator with me. Otero
will not dance yet for an hour and you
can see the whole business-studio, work
shop, etc.--in that time, and you will
enjoy it Just as much as you would re-
manning here with that vacant and guile
less look, being constantly taken for
Henry Irving or the deathbed of Ma
poleon."
So | said yes we would go. l had
never watched the process, and very few
people, as | understood it, were per-
united to go into the mysterious cham
bers where great men were made and
unmade even quicker than the news
papers could do it. The principal works
wax works, | may say, or tableaux
foundry would seem to be facing
Twenty.third street, one floor above the
entrance. Quite number of people are
busy there all the time adding new fig
ures and tableaux to the great collection
in the balls below. Every time u mon
arch croals and new president is elect
ed the genius OF the wax sculptor up
there is called into use, and before you
know it the head of the new republic, in
a neat fitting suit of clothes, is inserting
his nice pink hand into the bosom of his
frock coat and trying to look far away,
while people are watching him earnestly
in the great group of potentates.
was first introduced TO the main wax
worker and artist OF the whole estab-
lishment, whose name wish | had Sc
cured, because he was so courteous and
oblging. He showed me all about it,
so that could now do it myself if at
any time | should decide TO retire from
literary pursuits and give myself up en-
tirely to art.
The artist of whom | speak makes
heads and hands and finishes up the job,
while another artist, whose name did
not get accurately enough to print, I'M
less ] could at once escape, makes the
bodies The process is very simple in
deed. Anybody could do it. 1t is as
easy as running a paper or perfecting
the tariff 80 as to be generally agreeable.
The sculptors We're working ON a group
of Christopher Columbus. The artist has
seized upon the happy moment when
Columbus is just about TO discover Amer
lea, and he is debating in his own mind
whether or not there Is anything in it.
One can see readily by his deep, earnest
look that it is problem in his brain
which he has not yet settled whether
~ 4
which will introduce the use of plug to-
bacco and freedom.
Columbus was at this time very poor.
First he had sought to secure conces-
sion from the legislature of Spain, but
In Spain 1t costs as much to get a Just
appropriation as it does in Albany He
went on to show that if he did not dis
cover America some one else would, and
that the result would be that some less
deserving and far palmer man would
get his pictures on the American green
backs. But poohl pooh! said the legisla-
ture, seeing that Columbus had no
means with which to promote legisla-
tive action, and he being IA plain man,
entirely ignorant of whether bill had
to go to its final passage or over to the
Smithsonian Institution, was gQyed and
fooled with by men who should have
known better until his money was gone,
and our best Indian tribes were waiting
impatiently all the time to be discoy-
cred.
ALAS" some great chief would say
after valnly searching the horizon, IAN
other day has went by and my people
remain undiscovered. Ny great speech
to the pale face. which have prepared
for the Fourth Reader, is still in manu-
script form. Day after day goes by and
we get no reliable European news. Bahr'
He would then eat light breakfast Of
maize, get married, and taking his cross
gun on his shoulder go out and shoot a
canvasback musBrat for his luncheon.
Columbus, as he will appear at the Eden
Musee, has dark but pleasant face and
pleasant whiskers. | took his head in my
hand and looked into his steady, gentle
eyes Also into his vacant head
The head and face of the figures are
made first in clay, as a sculptor would
do it. 1t is fun. l made one. 1t was
pleasing, but the man it resembled had
never met. He was a stranger to me.
When the clay is sufficiently hard to use
for that purpose piaster mold is made
from 1t, In sections, of course, so that it
may be easily removed; then the melted
hesh colored wax is poured in until it has
attained a thickness of from an eighth
to quarter of an inch, and then it is
allowed to harden. After sufficient time
for this the bust is removed and num-
bered and catalogued, so that 1t may be
again called into use years hence if any
thing should occur TO bring up this fig
ure to the public notice. The Worlds
fair now, of course, at once attracts at
tention t. Columbus and his group OF
rocky pie biters from Spain. Here we
see them IN all their wanton wildness
ana freedoin Columbus had not got his
Clothes on yet when | saw HIM. He has
good Inquire, though, and nice pink
oorso. de WAS So years of age at the
time he had this torso taken. believe.
The bodies of the entire Columbus
group mad been made, and with cheap
nooed underwear ON them they stood in
little convention at one end of the
room. Some were kneeling. some were
standing and some were in other atti.
tudes that would have looked heroic If |
the orapery had been little more extern
siye. The bodies and limbs are made as |
follows; First they are modelled In CLAW |
IN the position exactly that they are to |
assume when completed Then the |
mold Is made from this and then the |
wax Is put in first, followed by a heavy |
coarse cloth, three thicknesses of which
are used to give strength and firmness
OF character to the subject.
A lady was engaged in dressing the
figure of Columbus She attends to the
costuming of all the wax people. She