The Progress., 1893-08-12
AIT Or WOOD CARVING.
What Is To Be Seen at the
Worlds Fair.
A MANTELPIECE OF REDWOOD


reproduction of ~ Doorway oT the
burmese Jhr"ne-Tho Plastic Art' Of
Modelling in Buttcr shown in the Ngri-
cultural Building.
WORLDS FAIR. Aug. IgrociaI1
Every visitor to this exposition must
nave fad So said To me bright lady
whose own cherished fad is embroidery.
Well. since il is the fashion. confess nj
Ga" start that my fad is wood carving.
rl dead mashed on it, as they say mt Vas-
ar. ] am not "o'fay" m painting and
.u'pturc but am mp i'm seasoned t'pIrr
nj familiar from my youth with hard
toods:was raised among 'cm in fact. No,
here mny have been somewhere auc,
Htion of wood carvings equal 10 the or
here, but | have not heard of H. An.
"me Of the exhibits are old friends trans
formed.
For instance, Mr. Bartcls. of Carthage.
His, has taken many relics of the Nor
mon occupation of his county HancocN
and wrought them into things Of beauty
and joys forever. His history is rural
romance. At first glance the little inland
town of Carthage would seem unlikely 10
produce great designer. but when the
genius Is born no Medusa can paralyze
him. He is n natural artist in wood-was
born to carve His mother is n natural
artist in drawing and color. Neither
mother nor son ever took n lesson. and the
result Is that while some of their designs
show the originality of untaught genius.
othess produce a slightly ludicrous effect,
IA is the way of the self educated. lie
does all his work with mallet and six
chisels, and when he conceivcs n design
submits it. To his mother. II she disap-
proves that is the end of it.
This is business, you know, and not
merely good boy story. The father was
plain farmer and his last injunction was
that the son should remain with his
mother rs long as she lived So these two
have worked and studied together till Mr..
Bartels is 10 years old and has produced
some works which move even the most
skillful to envy. Out of one rail from
the first farm opened by the Mormons in
that county he made his wonderful clock.
out of other rails and some beams of the
Mormon temple that was at Nauvoo he
has carved two sets of furniture which
make every lady 1--we the carver. 1t isup-
holstcred in delicate silk.
The Carving club, of ElRin, Ills, has
some splendid work i'm the Woman's
building and so has the Woman's Colum-
bian club, of McDonough county. One of
Mr. Bsrtcls' carvings is curiosity i'm the
-
with p curtain which woman is drawing
aside The visible portion of the mirror
is real, and so delicate is the work that
one can see i'm it the reflection Of the
woman's finger nails which are not visible
in frait. A young lady of Oakland, Cal,
whose name is not given, has sent some
wonderful carvings, and there is also
richly carved piano of redwood from Los
Gatos. Cal. BY the way, California seems
to have but recently discovered the value
of the redwood for carved work and fine
finishing, and the fact is of national inn
portance since walnut has become so
scarce.
That state also exhibits n mantelpece
of redwood which excites much admira-
tion. At the top are two figures, harper
and woman sitting on books and read
ing n paper On each end are small oval
mirrors set i'm aud surrounded by the mos.
delicate bits of highly polished woods,
with spray of oak leaves, nuts, etc. Below
Is large oak tree with beautiful open
country on one side, on the other n distant
view of the mountain and sea. "A shelf
holds large punches of grapes and to the
right is calla lily. every vein and fila
meut of both deliCatcly outlined i'm the
wood Still another beauty Is carved
easel I'm redwood, with design of the Eu-
calyptus tree, done by Miss Brier of Ala
media. IL strikes me as n suggestive fact
that middle western state and "A Pacific
coast state should have taken the hOnors
in this line.
In plain and ordinary work, IL may
call IL so, such as scroll saving, there Is of
course great variety and it has this all
vantaEe-we can see the work in progress.
I'm the New South Wales exhibit is one
man running scroll saw and in the Ger
man section another who attract great
deal of attention. Now this sort of thing
Is not called art and some of the cultured
sneak of it as mere manual trickery in
wood, vet IL is very interesting to com
mon man to note the dextrous manipula-
tion. IL makes me feel as If my fingers
were all thumbs, indeed. In my boyhood
/ had quite knack-or the other boys
Thought so-of whiting "Injun heads"
out of walnut bark, and so | am not alto
gether ignorant of the exultant glow an
artist feels in his fair creations. In fact,
may say that am i'm with the artist in
that particular at least, which may &C
count for wood carving being my fad; and
though my productions would have no
rank here felt towards them as Captain
r.. r. Burton's African friends did towards
their ebony god-"We know that he is
ugly and we believe that he is great"
In the Forestry building is carved
doorway of teak wood prepared under the
direction of and exhibited by the official
conservator of forests of eastern and upper
Burmah The design is a reproduction OF
those used i'm the Burmese throne
aud the carved decorations OF the
.dandalay palace. The triangular
spaoe above the door contains designs
said to represent scenes in Man
dalay. with the king and his court. There