The herald., 1893-05-23
A RARE PHOTOGRAPH
THE REPRODUCTION OF THE OLD
DE WITT CLINTON DUE TO IT..

Unique Fit Of History which Deals
With the Old Anti-nIasonry Feeling In
New York State over sixty Years Ago.
A Clever Artist with Scissors.
'The New York Central Railroad COM
peny's reproduction of the first railroad
train and locomotive ever run in New
York state, most interesting and valu-
able exhibit at rsle 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 IS years ago
had not been attributed to murderous
Vaccinations of the Masonic fraternity,
which resulted in the great anti-Masonic
excitement that spread throughout the
country and became sensational polit-
ical factor they would not have been
able to make the reproduction. and the
appearance of that curious railroad train
and engine woald never have been known
III accurate and pictorial representation.
II 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 it on
paper II happened that a young man
named Brown William H. Brown of
Philadelpbia-was in Albany on the day
tho train was run, Aug. o. 1881, and had
been in the place several days.
"He had a marvellous talent for cutting
with pair of scissors out of black paper
hfeliks profile portraits and accurate
representations of buildings, machinery
end even landscapes.
1.-THE remarkable part of this talent of
his was his power to make 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 reputation in poll
tics and had seized upon the anti Masonic
idea for use i'll 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 ont 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.
'T1e went to Albany early in August,
1881, and did 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
I'll night cutting the silhouette likenesses
Of people of all kinds, sexes and ages
that locked to bis rooms.
His greatest artistic feat was the cut
ting in ono large picture of the famous
Burgess corps entire, with staff and band
III full parade, each members portrait
being Of surprising accuracy. This pic
tRreis among the most preeious 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 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
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 the hkenesses
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
a 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
iect from memory. He told me so him
self 40 years afterward
While Artist Brown was in Albany
he concluded to 60 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 at once saw
what treasure it must necessarily be-
come. and the artist presented it to the
society where it is today relic beyond
price
"Some 30 years after cutting that pic
ture Brown became interested in the
railroad business himself, having long
ceased to exercise his artistic skill pro-
fessionalIy, and one day, having almost
forgotten the Albany picture, he read
in q newspaper an account Of a htho-
graph that had just been published
from photograph of the silhouette pic
ture he had presented to the Connecticut
Historical society.
He sent to the publisher of the htho-
graph end procured a copy of t. and was
rejoiced to SEQ an exact reproduction of
his scissors cutting OF more than 3oyears
before. But the joy he felt over sight
of the picture was scarcely as greet as
the inscription beneath it gave him.
''The date of the running of the train
was given as some time in 1882, the
hame OF the locomotive being the John
Fall instead Of the De Witt Clinton and
The name OF the engineer John Hampson
instead Of David Matthew.