Arizona silver belt., 1893-09-02
A RARE PHOTOGRAPH
THE REPRODUCTION OF THE OLD DE WITT CLINTON DUE TO IT.

| "The New York Central Railroad com. pany's reproduction of the first railroad train and locomotive ever run in New York state, most interesting and valu- sble exhibit at the Chicago fair, said an 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 65 years Agu l bad not been attributed to murderous machinations of the Masonic fraternity, which resulted in the great ti-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 tho l 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, tho daguerreo- 1 type. when the pioneer railroad train in this state was run. and as the future iln- 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 it on paper. It happened that young man named Brown- William H. Brown of Philadelphia--was in Albany on thg ,lat the train was run, Aug. Q, 1881, and had been in the place several days.
 He had marvellous talent for cutting with pair of scissors out of black paper lifelike profile portraits and accurate representations of buildings, machinery and even landscapes.
 ''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 the street
 He had for some time made good 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 sylyania, and young Brown thought it would be good stroke of business for him to go to Albany, have look at Thurlow Weed and others, snip their likeness out in silhouette and besides getting fee from them for the work duplicate the pictures for sale among the anti Masonic enthusiasts in Peunsyl, yauia and elsewhere,
 He went to Albany early ill August. 1881, and did q 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 un- til night cutting the silhouette likenesseg of people of all kinds. sexes and age. that flocked 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 pie 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 dns the quaint locomotive De Witt Clinton. with it's equally quaint coaches, was to ba run on it's first trip over the Mohawk and Hudson railroad.
 He was one of tue passengers on tEe train, and when it returned to Albang he cut with his scissors an exact picture of the locomotive and twoof the couches. 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 hkenesscs of Thurlow Weed. ex-Goyernor Yates and other distinguished AIbanians os that day but neither MT. Weed nor inc ex-governor was on the train Without h thought of the future of that picture as valuable contribution to history, the artist cut those portraits merely as an exercise of his skill in depicting a sub ject from memory He told me so 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 locomotive to a member of the Connecti- cut Historical society who ut once saw what treasure it must necessarily be- come, and the artist presented it to the society. where 'S is today relic beyond price. .
 Some 30 years tter cutting fiat pic ture Brown became interested in the railroad business himself, having long ceased to exercise his artistic skill pro- fessionally, and one day, having almost forgotten the Albany picture, he read iu newspaper ali account of litho- graph that had just been published from photograph of the silhouette pie ture he had presented to the Connecticut Historical society.
 He sent to the publisher of the ftho- graph and procured copy of it and was rejoiced to see, an exact reproduction of his scissors cutting of more than 30 years before. But the joy he felt over a sight of the picture was scarcely as great as the inscription beneath it gave him.
 'The date of the running of the train was given as some time in 1882, the name of the locomotive being the John Bull instead of the De Witt Clinton and the name of the engineer John Hampson instead of David Matthew.
 Brown at once set about the task of correcting the Autograph publishers his tory, task at which he worked for more than 30 years, for the Autograph copy of his picture, with its incorrect inscription, had been widely circulated. :" New York Sun.
 A woman's mind is like the wind on winters night" repeats an old French saying, and Basque adage runs, South .-....l ...s... ..i.. Al.......l.Al.