The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-11-25
II NYE'S
Columbus, the Man Who Discovered
America, Run to Death by
Bill Nye.
Copyright by Edgar W. Nye.1

OOO AN III 10y 04O
waiting for Otero to come forth and dance
at the Eden Musee, the manager said, all
OF a sudden, as he noticed that I was being
mistaken for a new wax figure, and that
l seemed embarrassed by the way people,
especially strangers, were telling of me
and wondering if / were hollow: "Come
up stairs with me. 1 want to show you
something. Did you ever 60 into the
work room where wax figures are made p
No"
"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
remaining here with that vacant and
guileless look, being constantly taken for
Henry Irving Or the deathbed of Ma
poleon."
So I said yes, we would go. I had
never watched the process, and very few
people, as I understan it, were permitted
to go into the mysterious cham 9ers waere
great men were made and unmade even
quicker than tn newspapers could do it.
The principal wOrks-Wax works, I may
say, or tabIeaux foundry-would seem to
be facing Twenty-third street, one floor
above the entrance. Quite a number of
people are busy there all the time adding
new figures and taoleaus to the great
collection in the ha Is below. Every time
a monarch croaks and a new president is
elected 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.
l was first introduced to the main wax
worker and artist of he whole establish
ment, whose anne | wish I had secured,
because he was so courteous and oblging.
He showed me all about it, so that I
could do it myself if at any time 1 should
decide to retire from literary pursuits, and
give myself up entirely to art.
The artist of whom / spoke makes
heads and hands and finishes up the job
while another artist, whose name | did
not get accurately enough to print, IN
less | could at once escape, makes the
bOdies. The process is very simple in
deed. Anybody could do it. 1t is a.
easy as running a paper or perfec ling the
tariff so as to be generally agreeable.
The Sculpsors were working on a group
of Christopher Columbus. The artist has
S zed upon the happy moment when Co.
lumbus is just about to discover America,
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 a problem in his brain
which he has not yet settled, whether it
will pay him to discover a country which
will introduce the use of tobacco and
freedom.
Columbus was at this time very poor
First, he had sought to a concess-
ion from the legislature of Spain, but in
Spain it costs as much to get a just ap-
preparation as it does in Albany. He
went or to show that if he did not dis
owe America some one else would, and
the result would be that some less de-
serving and far palmer man would get
his picture on the American greenbacks.
Blu pooh! pool said the Legislature, seeing
that Columbus had no means with which
to promote Legislative action, and he be-
ing a plain man, entirely ignorant Of
whether a bill had to go to its final pass
age OF over to the Smithsonian Institu-
ton, was guyed and fooled with by men
who should have known better until his
money was gone, and or best Indian
tribes were waiting impatiently all the
time to be discovered.
"Alas |" some great chief would say,
after vainly searching the horizon, an
other day has went by and my people re-
main undiscovered. My great speech to
the pale face, which l have prepared for
the fourth reader is still in manuscript
form nou oftor dow nNnS hu onH wa
get no reliable European news. Bah
He would then eat a light breakfast of
maize, get married, and taking his cross
gun on his shoulder, go cut and shoot a
canvasback muskrat for his luncheon.
Columbus, as he will appear at the Eden
Musee, has a dark but pleasant face and
pleasant whiskers. I took his head in my
hand and looked into his steady, gen lie
eyes. Also into his vacant head.
The heal and face Of the figures are
made first in clay, as a sculptor would do
it. 1t is fun. | made one. 1t was pleas
ing, but the man it resembled | had never
met. He was a stranger to me. When
the clay is sufficiently hard ID use for that
purpose, a plaster mold is made from it,
in sections, of course, so that it may be
easily removed; then the melted flesh
colored wax is poured in INT it has at
tanned a thickness of from an eighth to a
quarter of an inch, and then it is allowed
to harden. After sufficient time for this
the Dust is removed and numbered and
c~atalogued, so that it may be again called
into use years, h. nee if anything should
occur to bring up this figure to the public
notice. The worlds fair now, of course,
at once attracts attention to Columbus
and his group of rocky pie biters from
Spain. Here we see them in all their
wanton wildness and freedom. Columbus
had not got his clothes on yet when [
saw him. He has a good figure, though,
and a nice pink nose. He was Sc years
of age at the time he had this photo taken,
l believe.
The bodies of the entire Columbus
group had been made, and with cheap
ribbed underwear on them they stood in
a little convention at one end of the room.