The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-18
NO MORE STREET BOYS.
A PAINTER or RAGGED AND DIRTY
UHCHINs SAYS HE CANNOT
FIND MODELS.

gan lEa lions VA king Dung hnE-
abOnds Painfully scarcc-A Chat
With Artist J. G. Brown. a,
About Boys He Has Painted-The
story of Barney-HIs Best Model
Was Paddy Leonard of HcITs
hitchen-TvO Former Models " Tho
Are Now MilIionaIrcs.
New York. Dec. 16-'I can't End any
more ragged boys to paint" said Artist
J. G. Brown, president of the American
Water Color Society. the other day. The
typical street arab of years gone by has
vanished. The urchins of dirt and tattars
who used TO be so plentiful are hard to
find nowadays"
Mr. Brown is perhaps the most famous
painter of street arabs ia the world. For
nearly thirty-nine years he has had rooms
In the old Studio building in West Tenth
street which has sheltered more great
artists than any other building in America.
His studio has been kncwn 10 whole gem
erations of street boys. Ragged and tat
tered urchins. out at elbows and knees,
with shoeblacking boxes and hddles with
dogs and Gals, an kinds OF dirty little boys
knows ]. G. Brown and his studio, where
81 a day for four hours of posing awaits
them. Yet the artist says that he has
difficulty in finding models.
Just think of IL" he continued rails
ing his hands trag3cally. L came back
from Vermont early in October, and It was
nearly a month before 1 had a single mod
el. Why, ten years ago l would have had
az =.
an Irish-American street boy-a young
vagab bond. barefooted if possible. do not
want a schoolboy a home boy, a moth
er's nice little boy, or any boy of that
sort"
How do you account for it?" he was
asked. THE town is too clean and the
boys all go TO school, that is the boys |
want, and Col. Warning was responsible for
the most Of it. He and the new school
laws, the charitable institutions, the boys
clubs. kindergartens and things of that
sort have done il. Mind you. I am not
against such things, far from it. I'm a
father, and a law-abiding, tax-paying citi-
zen. 1 am speaking solely from the view
point Of a painter of street boys. I a1-
mired Col Waring greatly, but he GER
tainly did play bob with my models.
How? He made the streets clean.
Without dirty streets dirty street boys are
hard TO find. Then the boys to-day go to
school. They have to 60 They are cloth
cd by the clubs and societies. fed by them
and sheltered by them. When they are
old enough they are put to work by the
same charitable influences. Now, the boys
1 want are Idle chaps. They don't go to
school They love dirt, and the hardest
work they ever do is to pose for me. Only
one boy in a month, think of it, What is
the world coming to?'
The painter sadly resumed his walk up
and down his studio. Against one wall
stood q vacant platform on which he has
posed more than a hundred urchins whose
faces, and IN some cases whose names
even. are known TO most of the picture
buyers of this country and Europe. In a
corner was a little d.sordered heap Of idle
shoe backing outfits. like left over Christ
mas toys, almost pathetic in their useless
ness. The sight of them turned the paint
er's talk into reminiscent channel.
The Best Boy Models.
Ct suppose the world is getting better,
and after a while there won't be any more
ragged street boys for me to paint. but
really didn't think the time would come so
soon. The kind of models l paint were
most numerous back In the early SOS
There were street boys them Mr.. Brown
went on enthusiastically, "and ! had no
difficulty in finding all that l wanted. Ny
favorite model has always been an Irish
American boy, one who would just as soon
fight as eat-a nappy-go-lucky chap. When
such boys We're bcCtblacks they gave to
this old town 2 picturesque aspect that it
will never have again. Even their boxes
were picturesque. ! have some of them
on my platform now studded with brass
headed nails. bound together by strips of
tin, the fooirest clumsily made of wood.
The boy made it himself The little Itai-
ian boys you find on the street corners
now are not picturesque, and Their boxes
are made in some f2c1oty by the gross.
have never had any properties such as
are found in many studios, except my col
lection OF backing boxes. / haven't any
old clothes to dress ne boys up in. What
would be the use? The boys that l want
wear clothes that I want, too. They fit
him. The rents in them he made himself.
No artist could tear his clothes as pic
turesquely as he has done. Sometimes I
have persuaded models 10 leave their old
clothes here and dress themselves in better
suits before going home, but that was only
done for fear that their old clothes might
fall to pieces over night"
you need models for all your work %
was suggested
II never paint a picture without q living
model. I have waited years often to com
plete pictures that have designed because
1 couldn't find. the right models. 1 am
looking for some of them now I am al
ways looking for models. l have been
looking for them for the past thirty years
1 have got dozens of books of addresses
but they are not worth anything. The
boys never live in the same place years
time, frequently not six months. They arc
continually moving, shifting Most of the
boys 1 have painted lived between Twenty.
fifth street and Forty-second, on the west
side of the city. The best of them came
from Helrs Kitchen, over near the North
Annual SaiOs SIX Cs->-t~--
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