The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-01-18
A wSCULP9OR'S HOME.
How Newsman Whelan
Spends His Leisure
Moments.
TALENT THAT /, HEREDITARY.
Specimens OF His Handicrait That
Lvince Skill and Appli-
cation.

tnotSAnuS OF GOllerS VINO daily cross Inc
Pennsylvania ferry VINO are noG familiar
with the figure. at least, of Eddie
Whelan, the newsboy," not that ne is Il
boy, for he is past thirty-two years of age;
but for the past twenty years his slender,
wiry form hustling amid the crowds
Hooking 10 the ferry gates at the foot OF
Exchange place has been as constant a
S ght as che ferry gates themselves. Ever
since the Grant-Grecly campaign his
voice has been heard ringing out the
cry, "Mornins papersi' "All the morn
ing Yapersn' ETC.. He sold papers on the
streets when Chief of Police Murphy was
II letter carrier; yelled the various an
nouncements during the trial and nc
quittal'o of Chief of Police McWilliams,
accused of conspiracy i'll the First Ma
tional Bank robbery, and SAYS he thinks
he peddled the news of the first execution
on the scaffold III this city. For twelve
years he has stood almost directly az the
ferry gates. and before the big fire, when
there was only one entrance, be claims
to have handed out almost every morn
ing to separate customers / 200 papers, be-
tween the hours of six and ten O'Clock,
or On an average of fifty Il minute There
are now two gates, and Eddie" mas a
rival. His morning sales have diminished
to 700.
However familiar the hurrying crowds
may be with his figure there are not many
who know that Eddie has been devot-
ing his evenings to the study OF sculp-
ture with some degree of success. Pain
in looks and attire, with straight, reddish
tufts of hair peepirg from beneath the
brim of his hat, his face may have i'm
pressed one with its gritty expression;
tut his home has an artistic charm, and
his talent as o sculptor is becoming
kuown. 1t was he who did tine Gaping
oflthe columns in front of the new Second
Precinct Station House. and also for four
columns in front OF the Post building Oh
Montgomery street.
H SCULPTOR AT HOME.
Eddie" was most decidedly at home
when a reporter for HI NEWS called
upon him last evening. 1t is II pretty
little home, too. OF Cedar IL within
a stones throw of Ocean avenue. He
aid tor it out of his newspaper savings.
II is a brown, two-story anu basement,
and the little portico in front was almost
hidden by the snow lodged upon the
carefully trellised vines that surrounded
{. it. The reporter found "the newsboy
sculptor romping with several of his hve
little ones; in Il cozy little parlor copi-
ously adorned with bric-a-brac. Beyond,
through the sitting room doors, in u
room at the rear of the house, a brown
haired woman. young Whelan's wife. was
grooming a babe upon her lap and softly
singing "Rock-a-Bye Baby" On a tail
boy modelled is clay. The features
were regular and the face decidedly
pretty. Curls reaching the shoulders
were represented i'll the solid clay AS
the reporter was about TO ask who it rep
resented. a bright, slender little fellow of
eight years, in knee breeches, and with
long brown curls that reached his shout
ders, bounded into the room. He had
Just come in from coaSting. The crisp
air and snow had brought out the roses
on the little fellows cheeks, and his dark
brown eyes sparkled with excitement.
There was no such life in the face of the
piece of dull clay that had been fashioned
to resemble him by his father; but the
resemblance of features and outline was
striking. But a far better piece of work
is a plaster casting in has relief, hrst
modelled in clay from the picture entitled
.'Two's COMPANY; Three's a Crowd" IL
represents the faces of three little tots,
and is almost perfect. A boys tace and
chest, cast from a model in the modelling
school at Cooper's Institute, is the hand
soonest piece of work that adorns the
room. A sea bird. standing on a rock,
with a star fish and sea
weed also represented. carved out
of solid stone, Is II corner floor ornam .nt.
All around were evidences OF patient
study and toll to develop the talent, in
heriled by the way, from his father. ANA
little eight-year-old Eddie, mentioned
above in connection with the head ana
bust, appears also to have talent in the
same dir %ection, as his drawing book, con-
taiuing scores of efforts at drawing will
testify. Eddie is the oldest son. But
young Whelan is proud OF his family. he
is especially anxious TO develop his talent
at carving. AT nights he has attended
the modelin =: school at Cooper's Institute
for a season aud a half and is still among
the attendants.
INHERITED TALENT.
Young Wnelan was born in Oxford,
England, thirty-two years @ next
February. He iuheritS his talent for art
from his father, who was Il sculptor of no
mean repute. The elder Whelan's work
was much admired by John Ruskin.
whose ideas of sculptured TO
architectural designs for buildings were
purely natural. Ruskin believed that
the design of an animaPsleg. for instance,
as a table support, was tearing the natural
association of ideas asun1er.
On the walls of Whelan's coy little
parlor hang several photographs OF spect-
mems of his fathers work in the way of
Column Gaping. He was employed on
Me Manchester (England) AssiZes'
Court building, famous for its architec-
tural beauty, and also on the Museum of
Natural History building in Oxford.
Photographs of these buildings adorn
Young Whelan'S parlor walls. The photo
graphs were brought to this country
when his father fed from Dublin
in 1867 to escape the English
Governments persecution of the tenian
Ieaders. oil whom the elder Whelan was
one of the most radical. 1t was under
cover that he left ENGLAND for Dublin to
do work on the Scottish Provincial As
surance Company's building in Dublin
One of the Dublin papers, Il worn copy OF
which is i'll the possession or young
Whelan, in describing the architecture of
This building devotes the front page to au
illustration of a life size group entitled.
Angel Guarding Children from Evil"
which occupies IA very conspicuous posi-
ton in the architectural design OF the
buildings front; and the paper credits the
work to Whelan. He is mentioned III
the article accompanying the Illustration
As n favorite with Sir Thomas Newen-
ham Deane, r. Fl. A, and Waterhouse,
of equal renown as an architect. But the
English spies made IL too warm for the
imnulsiye Whelan and he fled TO this
country. The beauty of the designs i'll
the carving of the column caps, as por-
traved in the photographs on young
Whelnn's parlor walls did not at first
strike THE NEWS reporter, who LAYS no
claim TO being u conpoisseur of such work.
Rut Young Whelan's enthusiastic des-
crintion as ne pointed to out the
consistency, adhered to in the mingling OF
animals. birds and reptiles and branches
Of vines and trees, the exquisite d~elicacy
disnlnved in the handling of even minute
fE " .a.YAt him hA SAW me