Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-10-21
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
How G ID. Gibson. Dplineator of
the American Girl, Won cut.

the American Girl, Won cut.
He Bcgnn to Sell His Artistic Work
| When Only six - Started Life In
Wall street, but just Had 10 Draw
Pictures.
NEW YORK, Oct Special. Charles
! Dana Gibson, the Society" craftsman,
VINO holds place in America much more
ike that held for so many years by the
lamcnted Du Maurier in England than
any one else has ever achieved on this side
the water, has just settled himself in one
of the apartments fitted up by General
Daniel f. Sickles in his house on lower
Fifth avenue. And while this may not
be an item of supreme Importance it does
| possess certain significance-tho thinner
OF the ideal American girl Is certainly a
| parsonage of more or less interest both to
| those who like to look at pretty pictures
and those who love the American girl her
| self
Gibson is 30. He is generally termed a
| New Yorker, but he IL son of this town
| by adoption only Boston was his birth
! place, and he lived there through several
years of careless early hoyhoud. He saws
| himself that he was as fond of fun ms any
| boy ought to be, but even at play his bent
was artistic, and by the time he was he
was known by all the ncighboring chill
dren and the old folks, too, as the boy
who could cut paper lkenesscs of anybody
he happened to see. In fact his family
used to like too show off this accomplish.
ment of his to visitors, and he was as
! pleased to take part in the exhibitions as
his elders were to have him. The boy
| could cut out sheep and cows and horses,
| too, and, seeing that his handiwurk was
| so much admired, he decided to 90 cut
! ting sllhDuCttcs fer living, taking his
| brother and u little girl they knew for
| partners. They scored an instant success,
| for grinnng milkman's boy bought "A
paper COW from the childish trio on condi-
ton that it should be cut out while he
waited, agreeing to pay cents for the
| same. This, however, was the extent of
| the business done, and it was not till after
| young Gibson had become "a New Yorker
or his family thought Of his making art a
life pursuit.
GibsOn's beginnings.
The Gibson household removed hitler
before he had reached his teens, and he
went to work as IA boy in Wall street
brokers' Office But, to tell the truth, he
used to think moro about pictures than
spent IA lot of time belonging to his en-
ployer decorating the walls of tho Office
and the blank leaves of account books
with the crude embodimcnts of his fancy.
Still he cultivated "a liking for the life in
Wall sire, md looked forward with long
ing to the LHlc when he would be Il broker
on the floor instead of only messenger.
Perhaps he might now be 1inancier but
for Guitcau S fatal bullet.
The shooting of Garfield set all the boys
he knew To copying the printed portraits
of the assassin S victim, and some of the
older ones among them made up u purse
of u dollar to be given to the boy who
drew the most successful copy. Gibson
won this dollar, and that settled his career
He shook the dust of Wall street from his
feet forthwith and betook himself to tho
school of the Art Students league. There
he studied faithfully for two years
studied till he concluded he knew lot
about art. Then he took IA portfolio filled
with his cherished drawings and sketches
and visited literally every publisher of il
Illustrated literature in New York
1t was n weary, weary tramp, and 1t
took up many days. Encouragement was
long his portion too. Some of the art
managers wouldn look at his work 9th
ers looked only to sheer at his uncertain,
scraggy lines and his faulty drawing He
got SO after awhile that he didn't try to
see the managers at all. He just handed
his bundle of drawings TO the boy guard
ing the door and walked away to return
in day or two with the moral certainty
that it would be handed back unopened.
But he never gave up, and one day he
made his hit He got up drawing of a
dog baying at the moon, based on "a song
h.,l..
it to the Office Of Life The art manager
accepted the picture and paid tho boy 81
for it. Gibson was amazed at such lhcr-
atty and hurried away as fast rs he could,
for fear that sum would later be thought
too much. But there had been no mis-
take. The ice was broken at last and the
prices the young artist began to receive
Were far better than he had hoped for in
his widest dreams.
Fighting Hard For Place.
But he hadn't yet won "a secure place as
an illustrator by any sort of means. Lies
art manager didn't find something worth
buying in the Gibson portfolio every week
for many long month after that, and so
Gibson did what Abbey, now tho mural
painter par excellence and Bush, the car
toonist, and +. A. Frost, tho illustrator,
and scores of Others had done before him.
He peddled his work from week to week
to whomever would buy.
In those days the markets for pictures
were far more circumscribed than now,
being limited virtually to Life Puck,
Judge and an occasional ephemeral COM
petitor. A little later tho perfection of the
mechanical means of reproducing draw
ings cheaply gave illustration, especially
that of newspapers, IA big boom, and Pres
emily fairly competent artists, instead of