The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-23
A RARE PHOTOGRAPH
THE REPRODUCTION OF THE OLD
De WITT CLINTON DUE TO IT.

n SteNeT <tTtlst WIN SclSsOrS.
The New York Central Railroad COM
pany's reproduction of the first railroad
train and locomotive ever run in New
York state, "A most interesting and valu-
able 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 G5 years ago
had not been attributed to murdcrous
Vaccinations Of the Masonic fraternity,
which resulted in the great anti Masonic
excitement that spread throughout the
country and became IA 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 Deer known
in accura.c and pictorial representation.
1T was years before the discovery and
practical introduction Of that crude pred
ecessor CT photography, the daguerreo-
type, when the pioneer railroad train in
this state was run. and as the future i'm
portance to history of tho 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. 1t happened that a young man
named William II. 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.
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 N the street.
He had for some time made agool liv-
ing by the exercise Of his peculiar art.
Thaddeus Stevens was at that time just
beginning to make II 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 III silhouette, ana 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 IL great deal more than get
the portraits Of Thurlow Weed. His
wonderful work took the town by storm,
and lie was kept busy from morning un.
til night cutting the silhouette likenesscs
of people Of al! kinds, sexes and age
that flockel to his rooms.
His greatest artistic feat wa the cut.
ting in II 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 il
the state library.
And so ii happened that this unique
young artist was in Albany on tho day
the quaint locomotive De Witt Clinton,
with its equally quaint coaches, was to be
run Oh its first trip over the Mohawk and
Hudson railroad.
He WAS n of the passengers on the
train, 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 he likenesses
of Thurlow Weed, Ex-Governor Yates
and other distinguished Albanians of
that day, but neither Mr.. Weed nor the
ex-governor was on the train. Without
Il thought of the future of that picture
as a valuable contribution to history,
the artist cut those portraits merely as
an exercise of his skill in depicting a sub
Ject from memory fIe told me SO HIM
self 40 years afterward,
While Artist Brown was in Albany
he concluded to go to Boston and Hart
ford to mako 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 Il member Of the Connect
F.. cut Historical society, who at once saw
| what Il treasure it must necessarily be-
come, and the artist presented it to the
society, where it is today 4 relic beyond
price.
Some 30 years after cutting that pic
turo 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
in a newspaper an account of a litho-
graph that had just been published
from u photograph of the silhouette pic
turo he had presented to the Connecticut
Historical society.
He sent to the publisher of the litho-
graph and procured Il copy of it and vas
r~ejoiced to see an exact reproduction Of
his scissors cutting of more than 3Oyears
before. But the joy he felt over IA 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 i'll 1882, the