The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-23
The Tale ofa Tail.

Mr.. Frederic Remington is one of the
foremost American illustrators Of the pc
rod. His speciality is the horse, and after
years of study of the animal, he thinks
he is familiar with him. He must be.
considering the liberties he takes with
his subject. He is so much in love with
the horse, and is so well satisfied with
his knowledge of the animal that lie
says when he dies he wishes his epitaph
to be: He knew the horse" Heretofore
Mr. Remingtons character sketches of
the horse have been with pen and ink
upon the fiat surface of paper. Recently
he has climbed another rung of the lad
der of art. and is now modelling the horse
in clay. He finds he can get more angles
on a clay horse than on one of ink on
paper hence there is more room for his
individuality. In the last issue of Har-
per's Weekly appears a half-tone picture
entitled THE Broncho Buster From a
Photograph of a Bronze by Frederic Rem
ington." 1t is this picture which suggests
that when Mr.. Remington went into clay
modelling he determined to show the world
something about the horse that it had
never seen before. If that is correct, he
has succeeded with his first batch of clay
The world of to-day never saw a horse
Tor broncho) with a tail like that CT
the rampant animal in the "Broncho
Buster"
The horse itself appears to be a fair
study in equine anatomy, seen through
a tightly drawn skin. But the tails the
thing. 1t looks more like a horseshoe
beavers tail that had been made a target
for cannon practice than anything else
that can be thought of at the moment
In its pristine state it might have been
a very good thing to swim with, or to
daub mud with, but neither in its original
state nor the one in which Remington
depicts it could it ever brush flies. If
the horse were powerful enough to swing
it, one of its points would either pierce
his withers, or the fiat of it would break
several ribs. There are, however, several
speculative ways of accounting for that
marvellous tail. 1t may be that it slipped
in upon the artist unawares, and produced
such a striking effect that he resolved to
let it stay, after he had discovered il.
He may have hitched good, orthodox
tail to his horse, and then, in moments
of abstraction, fiattened little odd daubs
of clay and chewing gum into the silky
hairs with his thumb and first finger, until
it had grown to the wonderful thing IN
the picture. Or it may be that he ran
short of clay and hadn't enough for the
tail, and in the emergency borrowed a
section of sole-leather from which sundry
pieces, of eccentric shapes, had been cut.
and stuck that on, and let it go at that. Or
it may be that the tail is one leg of an
old pair of the artists buckskin breeches.
ripped open and stiffened with buckram
to give it the desired sweep.
If it be accepted that Mr.. Remington
put that tail there by design, then he
must be credited with some great and as
yet undiscovered purpose. With certain
patches and alterations, the tail might
serve as an aeroplane. Has he a flying
horse which shall supersede the flying
machine insmind? The horse as he is to-
day is a creature of evolution The artist
may be in the act of trotting his friend
through another series of evolutions to
that stage in which he will be able TO
defy the trolley and the bicycle, and the
airship as we'll, and has commenced the
process with the fly-minder. If that is the
size of H. the new horse is going to be
more fearful thing to contemplate than
the old seven-synable quadrupeds that
lived here thousands of years ago.
NJ
ers with Brown Allen down on the Midway
Plaisance if they were to look real close.
From all accounts, both are such jolly
sports that they would never think of
going away from the city until they had
taken in all of the sights.