The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-09-08
A RARE PHOTOGRAPH
THE REPRODUCTION OF THE OLD
DE WITT CLINTON DUE TO IT.


old resident of Albany, ''causes me to
wonder how many Of the officers of that
company know that if the disappearance
of Morgan from Batavia s. years ago
bad not been attributed to murderous
Vaccinations Of the Masonic fraternity,
which resulted in the great nti-Masonic
excitement that spread throughout the
country and became a sensational polit-
ical factor, they would not have been
able to make the reproduction, and the
appearance Of that curious railroad train
and engine would never have been known
in accurate and pictorial representation.
1T was years before the discovery and
practical introduction Of that crude pred
ecessor Of photography, the daguerreo-
type. when the pioneer railroad train in
this state was run, and as the future i'm
portance to history of the appearance of
that train never occurred to those inter-
ested in bringing it into existence the
skill of no artist with his pencil was
brought into use to perpetuate 1t on
paper. 1t happened that q young man
named Brown-William H.. Brown Of
Philadelphia-was in Albany on the day
the train was run, Aug. 8, 1881. and had
been in the place several days.
He had IL marvellous talent for cutting
with a pair Of scissors out of black paper
lifelike profile portraits and accurate
representations of buildings, machinery
and even landscapes.
1.-THE remarkable part of this talent of
his was his power to make a perfectly
exact portrait of persons days and even
weeks after having seen them but once
and that only casually on tho street.
He had for some time made agood liv-
ing by the exercise of his peculiar art.
Thaddeus Stevens was at that time Just
beginning to make a reputation in poll
tics and had seized upon the anti Masonic
idea for use in Pennsylvania, as it had
been SO successfully worked by Thurlow
Weed and his lieutenants in New York
state. The feeling was growing in Penn
sylvania, and young Brown thought it
would be a good stroke of business for
him to go to Albany, have a look at
Thurlow Weed and others, snip their
likeness out in silhouette, and besides
getting a fee from them for the work
duplicate the pictures for sale among
the anti-Masonic enthusiasts in Pennsyl-
vania and elsewhere.
He went to Albany early in August,
1881, and did a great deal more than get
the portraits of Thurlow Weed. His
wonderful work took the town by storm,
and he was kept busy from morning I'M
til night cutting the silhouette licensees
of people of all kinds. sexes and ages
that focked to his rooms.
His greatest artistic feat was the cut
ting in one large picture of the famous
Burgess corps entire, with staff and band
in full parade, each members portrait
being of surprising accuracy. This pic
ture is among the most precious relics In
the state library. "
"And so it happened that this UNIQUE
young artist was in Albany on the day
the quaint locomotive De Witt Clinton.
with its equally quaint coaches, was to be
run on its first trip over the Mohawk and
Hudson railroad.
he was one OF the passengers on the
tram, and when it returned to Albany
he cut. with his scissors an exact picture
OF the locomotive and two of the coaches,
making the portrait of David Matthew,
the engineer, and John T. Clark, the con-
ductor, on his seat on the outside of the
front coach.
In that picture appear the likenesses
OF Thurlow Weed, Ex-Governor Yates
and other distinguished Albanians OF
that day, but neither Mr.. Weed nor tho
ex-governor was on the train. Without
d thought cf tic future Of that picture
az a valuable contribution to history,
the artist cut those portraits merely as
an exercise of his skill in depicting a sub
iect from memory He told me 80 him
self 40 years afterward.
While Artist Brown was in Albany
he concluded to go to Boston and Hart
ford to make some portraits and other
cuttings with his marvellous scissors.
While in Hartford he showed the picture
he had made Of the railroad train and
to a member of the Connecti
cut Historical society, who at once sa%
what a treasureit must necessarily be-
come. and the artist presented it to the
where it's today q relic beyond
"Some 80 years after emitting that pic
ture Brown became interested in the
railroad business himself, having long
ceased to exercise his artistic skill pro-
'e~ssionally. and n day, having almost
forgotten the Albany picture, he read
n a newspaper al account of a litho-
yraph that had just been published
a photograph of the silhouette pic
;ure he had presented to the Connecticut
society.
He sent to the publisher of the litho-
,raph and procured a copy Of it and was
to see an exact reproduction Of
lis scissors cutting of more than 30 years
'efore. But the joy he felt over a sight
4 the picture was scarcely as great as
he inscription beneath it gave him.
1.-THE date of the running Of the train
vas given as some time in 1889, the
anne of the locomotive being the John
BULL instead OF the De Witt Clinton and
he name Of tho engineer John Hampson
instead of David Matthew.
"Brown Mt once set about the task of
pprartinp %ha Ethor~oxl& .l1:l1..