Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-02-04
A DIFFERENCE In CLAY.

You may not know, but Clement Scott |
was the young American sculptor wha |
won such distinction abroad last fall,
and over whom during the following
winter society at home, with her usual
hckleness, had come TO rave II is some
thing unusual for Philadelphia to arouse
herself over an American, but in SCOTS
case 1t seemed natural enough. The
personal attractions of the man himself,
TO say nothing Of the distinction Paris
had bestowed upon him, were grounds
sufficient for his being social favorite.
Immediately upon his arrival from
abroad he was besieged with invitations
to receptions and balls, teas and dinners,
and the like. Various societies gave pub
lie receptions in his honor; the country
clubs lunched him, and the city clubs
gave him dinners. 1t went very well for
time, but in time, too, it grew most
tiresome. Scott stood the whole thing
rs long as he could; then, breaking a
dozen or more engagements, he closed
his rooms and went away to the sea
shore. He had learned to his own salts
faction-to his own disappointment
how little society knew of his art, how
little she cared, and that it was the gilt
ter of his medal. not himself, that PEG
pie loved
II was the middle of spring when
Clement Scott came to Hull He had
lived there during the summers previous
20 his going abroad. The sea, the cliffs
the stretches OF white sand. the grass
covered hills, were all very dear to him,
and he smiled as he found the memories
of these coming back to him. There was
one memory, though, which seemed to
crowd all the beauties of sea and shore
from his thoughts and then Of a sudden
to bring them all trooping back again.
and in the light Of his boyhood love.
That love was something which had
never gone from his memory. In his
studio in Paris he had often caught him
self shaping in the soft clay the features
OF that one face. He was good at model
ing. but however truly his hands might
follow his memory, he could never seem
To catch the spirit Of the image in his
mind; he could never put life into the
face 1T il not She" he would say. 1T
does not love me- And then he would
crush the clay into shapeless mass and
try his hand at other work
Ii was very natural that Scott should
feel as he did about the face he had
loved in his Doyhood The circnmstan.
ces were peculiar. He had saved the
girls life AT the risk Of his own. In
crossing track she had fastened her
foot in switch, and must have been
killed had not Scott rescued her. As it
was she had not escaped without in
jury; her arm had been run over Some
one said the child's name was Mildred
Boday. Scott knew the beautiful place
the Bodays had been building on the hill
near his own home. and there he had
carried her, with her dress torn from
the shoulder. and her little white arm,
cruelty crushed and bleeding, hanging
Mt his side
The injury was a severe one. II be-
came necessary to Rmputate the childs
arm close to the shoulder, and il was
during this period Of her confinement
that Scott came to know Mildred Boday
well. Young as he was, he loved the
beautiful well enough TO take Joy in
watching Mildred's sweet face, with the
wealth OF golden hair which hung about
1t, or in looking into Mildreds blue eyes,
wide open with wonder or JOY at his
tales When Mildred got about again
Clement was her right hand man. The
functions of the arm she had lost were
supplied by an artificial arm of French
mechanism-an arm that could be moved
at will, or even taken off altogether.
That arm wsis source Of great amuse-
ment TO them. Sometimes its joints
would stick, and Clement would have 10 |
4
position, and then they would laugh and
think It great joke.
AT the close Of his sixteenth year Scott |
went abroad and took up his sculpturing
under an Italian master, first in Rome |
and then in Paris. Eight years after |
ward he received his medal, and with it |
the praise of the whole Of Europe Then |
he returned to America.
Then /. was that the young sculptor. |
with all the glamor Of triumph abroad |
and in the midst Of an ovation at home, |
left the prattles and insincerities of New
York society for the quiet and for the !
girl In the little sea town of Hull
He found the sea, the chfTs, the |
stretches of white sand all unchanged. |
Mildred Boday had changed. She was
woman. Bat she was Just the same to |
him. There was little formality at |
hrst, but formality could not live when |
they were together, and soon they came |
TO be the same boy and girl they had
been when they parted.
Scott fixed up his old studio and the
workshop where he had modelled his first
head. Mildred helped him 10 drape his
walls and TO place his belongings, and
when they had finished il was a pretty
study. Scott had ordered a block OF
marble from Paris. and when It came he
set TO work upon it to try the expert
ment Of cutting an image directly in the
marble snd without the aid of the clay
model. The image he was to follow was
the Venus Of Milo. He was doing il
solely for pleasure, he said, and so
worked only when he felt like it. Mil
dred was frequently by his side in she
studio. Now and then abe would pose
her head to give him an idea Of a curve
g line, aud always it was more In fun