The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-07

A(ISZGtkEk% VI HOURS Oh SGSS. AL
XGEEThHT2N of them have their
.1lDkMA&TV hobbies in private
laaASYRN life and ride them.
H&sGEN y History teens with
X IL NSNN incidents. Nero had
Y SNSN a passion for fid-
ding and Cincin-
natus grew the best cabbages in early
Rome, nearly as good as those grown
some centuries later by George in his
new English garden. Peter the Great
was an amateur ship-builder Of no
mean ability, while Henry III of France
was an artificer in clocks, several of the
Louises also being expert locksmiths.~
Few of the really great men except Jim
Corbett were ever given to athletics,
but there is one notable instance in the
case of Louis Philippe, for the season
that, while he had never practiced on
the cinder path, he became at one
bound the most remarkable sprinter
in Europe. Everybody knows all about
good King Cole, who was jolly old
soul, which brings the history of hob
bies down to Mayor Sutro, of San Fran
cisco, lord of the seal rocks, grand
seigneur of the City Hall and whole
lot of other things besides. Mayor
Sutro has a hobby-an artistic one at
that-which his modesty has kept hid
den for, 10, these many years, fifteen at
least. The Mayor is a modeler in clay
and dough, an humble follower in the
classic footsteps of Phidias and Michael
Angelo. With a twist of his wrist and
a twirl of his thumbs he turns out won
derful forms, testifying to his genius
and his skill and the beauty of the plas-
tic art. His Honor has never tried his
hand at an herioc piece and, while he
can, he has done very little in clay.
He prefers dough. He fairly revels in
dough
Let artistic souls writhe In agony
over what they may consider a. plebeian
prostitution of a noble art. Let them
turn up their noses and rail at dough!
What of it? Mayor Sutro cannot help
it. Like King Midas of old, everything
he touches turns to dough; and at the
present time they say he has more Of
it than any other great man in San
Francisco. Having plenty, he does
what he pleases with it, and he
pleases to make little pigs and baby
seals and cows and horses and to cover
them over with a coating of mucilage
and present them to his friends as
souvenirs. Verify, in the hands of May
or Sutro,- dough has supplemented the
rocks of ancient art. For something
like fifteen years has Mayor Sutro con-
cealei his greatest accomplishment
from the people who are now his con-
stituents. For nearly three lustres has
he chosen to conceal the light of his
genius under a bushel. Now it is all
out. The Mayor has blushingly ac-
knowledged it and stands ready to take
his place in the hall of fame in company
with Alexander Badlam and the butter
sculptress. Dough and butter! Bread
and cleo! Eyes" said Mayor Sutro in
his office the other day, after a certain
amount of bashful hesitation, ST make a
good many little things out of dough.
principally animals. Little pigs, little
seals, cows and horses. I have a talent
that way, and 1 have amused a great
many people with it in the last fifteen
years. I don't know, really, how dis
covered tia SORT of Topsy-like talent,
I suppose. 1t just grew. When I was in
Europe some years ago used to make
little figures out of Inc bread I would
take from the table, and surprise a
great many people. Very few people
here knew 1 could do this-just a few
u MY 1ElCnuS, anu i nave 1AOL SdlQ very
much about it. 1 have a number of the
figures at my house out on the Heights,
and several of my friends have more.
Just as soon as they are made, you
know, you coat them with mucilage,
and they will last any length of time"
The first intimation of the Mayors
genius in this direction, outside of his
own immediate family, was given on
ell n ountain, one hot summers day
about eight years ago. His now Honor
had driven up the hot dusty road in the
hottest day in all the year, and once he
had cleared the cobwebs from his throat
was a positive godsend to the summer
girls, who hadn't seen anyone to talk
to but themselves, a far-gone consump-
tive and the red-headed landlord. They
took him in tow Immediately, and his
Honor held forth on the then most pop
ular subject with himself, himself.
Even interest in this tagged after a
time, and the guests paraded in for
dinner clearly ennuied. They went
through the meal perfunetorily, and
when it was finished returned to the
veranda. Sutro started in afresh on
his popular subject, and while he
talked, the young ladies noticed he was
working in his hands the inside of a
piece of bread he had taken from the
table. Away he talked and fingered
the bread, until suddenly he stopped
and handed to the Young lady nearest
him the product of his hands-a perfect
little pig. The monarch of seal rocks
was in demand at once. Each summer
girl present wanted a sample of his art,
and SO long as Argionis bread held out
Sutro turned out chickens, more pigs.
seals. cats. dromedaries and horses. It