The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-08-01
HOW RULERS ARE REMoDELLEo.
Wax Figures of President Cleveland and
Queen Victoria Made Over.

If Grover Cleveland and Queen Vic
toria should step into an obscure little
workshop on West twenty-third street
they would be forced to laugh in spite
of themselves. 1t is there that the
Crowned Heads of the World" are be-
ing remodelled SO as to emphasize the
changes Time has wrought upon the or
iginals. They are being ruthlessly torn
to pieces by skilled artisans with the
idea of making them fatter-"
If it were not pathetic it would be
funny to note the curious things hap
pening every day to these grave waxen
potenUates, who, after sitting in royal
theatre box for five years undergoing the
critical scrutiny of the public, have
been transferred to the garrett workshop.
They are scattered around the shop,
some decapitated and others with arms
and legs missing, and all in very brief
costumes. The most ludicrous is Grover
Cleveland, who, minus head and
dressed in gauze suit of underwear, oc-
supies strained position in a rocker,
rouchingly suggestive of rheumatism or
govt. This disrespectful effigy of the
President is due simply to the act that
the clothes he wore during his former
administration are too small for him
now. The method of altering the Presi-
dential dimensions and fetching his
anatomy up to date, however. seems more
matter of convenience than of science,
for he is being stuffed a la pigeon until
he bulges out in a most unseemiy fash
ion. His bare feet rest upon the floor and
his legs-which are not being stuffed to
correspond with his bodyAare thinly
clad in gauze of an inferior quality
Some thirty pounds of additional EN- boll-
pint is indicated, produced by vigor-
GUS dressi ng OF mattress hair stuffed be-
tween the supposed skin and undergar-
ments and resem bling huge chest and
abdominal protectors. A few changes
are also being made in the poise and
general effect of the Presidents head,
and also an extra coat of wax is being
applied to the neck. A new dress suit
has been procured of democratic east
side tailor, and with patent feathers and
other accomplishments the President
will doubtless make an imposing as
well as large figure of the new group.
However regardlessly Mr.. Cleveland
may have been handled while undergo
ing repairs, he has been spared the pain
and humiliation of being labelled and
hung upon a peg like the venerable form
OF the British Sovereign. Victoria, like
the Venus of Milo, is unclothed from
her waist upward, and her name is writ
ten in large purple characters across her
bosom. Her attitude is dangling one,
as may be supposed, considering the To-
cation of the hook in the back of her
neck. She will be made to look about
forty pounds heavier, and then will have
new gown. A fashionable modiste
has taken her measure and will supply
a costly court dress of royal velvet and
Egyptian lace, patterned after the
Queens latest gown, as shown in pho
tograph recently taken in Germany.
One of the curious things about Presi-
dent Cleveland and Queen Victoria in
the wax form is that they can both be
held at arms length at the same time
by an ordinary person. 1t would take
out that way. This is due tdAa fact not
generally known, that the modelling
in wax sculpture is first done in papier
mache. A mum Der of different artists are
employed in the creation of those shapely
waxen personages, it being the province
of the first worker to mould the outlines
of the form in paper. A plaster of paris
future reference, and then the sculptor,
beginning in clay, proceeds much the
same as i'll marble sculpture.
Separate workers are engaged to lay
on the wax, do the complexion colorina,
put in the hair, one hair at time, and
attend to other details. Some times the
whole formation of some great histori cal
parsonage is accomplished in a single
day.
During the revision of the aCrowned
heads of the world" th 9 dislocated heads
and arms lie scattered about the room
in disorder. ut would be as difficult to
recognize the severed remains of the Gear
or the Emperor OF Germany as to distin-
euish the features of the young King of
Spain, existing as they do in shapeless
wad of clay with a cupola like projection
that may eventually develop into nose
or some other feature. NY. Herald.
MIR. Lawrence T. Smyth, Bangor
newspaper man, has written the libretto
for light opera entitled, "Norum beag,
or Dream of Arcadia 1t is an Indian
love story, one scene of which OCCURS
at @I,Over,S Lean hir oh LIrH IN