The record-union., 1899-10-29

New York Post: The last Of the
master caryers of modern figures-aS
he regretfully asserted this morning
has his shop in the top loft of one OF the
himsy buildings in middle Center
street, to which the small manufacture
ers long ago succeeded. The sign at the
door is a broadfaced, bewhiskered jack
tar, awkwardly clutching the spokes OF
a wheel and staring straight into the
second-fioor windows of the opposite
building: and there is painted on the
helm, Manufacturer of Cigar Fig
ures" Up stairs a dozen wooden In
dians are being made from big blocks
of pine; some are roughly hewn into the
semblance of a man standing with his
hand above his eyes, some approach
nearly the likeness of an Indian, two
have faces and feathers, the carver is
at work with hammer and chisel on
one, and three are being painted in
bright eolors.
The od-carvers of this city" said
the master carver to-day, "have an as
sociation with a membership of about
400; but most of the men are in the
furniture or house carving trades. I'm
sure I'm the only carver of cigar fig
ures in the city. Few figure-carvers
of any kind are left here, and they're
all getting pretty old. Twenty years
ago, mine was a good trade; now. I'm
the only one at it, and it's pretty hard
to get an apprentice when I want one.
The reasons are simply that machines
have taken the place of mems hands:
that the cigar-trade won't pay as much
as it used to for a good figure, and
that wooden figures, are getting out of
date, anyway. 1 don't think there'n
be anybody in the trade in ten years"
Cigar signs, ships figure-heads and
such like are made by this man. Oc-
casionally he gets a contract for cir
Gus wagons-gilded animal cages, cha
riots and "tableau wagons such as
Little Red Riding-H Hood, Cinderella, the
Old Woman in the Shoe, and so forth.
He makes cigar Indians for from SO
to $3.50; if it takes him and his men
more than six days to cut the figure,
he asks the maximum price for the
work. Circus wagons, he says, cost the
proprietors, for building, carving, giId-
ing, and all, from 81 200 to 81 500. The
proprietor of a certain circus, he knows,
paid 81 500, in all, for a tableau-wagon
called St. George and the Dragon. Such
fine contracts, however, are not often
made in these days.
I'VE used to do a lot of figure head
carving" said the carver, but in 10
most Of that work was driven away by
thu strike Of the carpenters and calk-
ers. / get a job once in a while still,
though, that brings me in a few hun
dred dollars. When they made ships of
wood, of course, there was much more
work, stern carving as we'll as bow
think myself that they will soon use
more wood in ship-building 1t looks
that way, now; and if they do it will
help our trade a great deal. l get more
hgure-head work to do than you might
think, and, as the designs are all orig
inal it pays We'll The carpenters cut
the block to fit, and send it up to the
shop here, where 1 finish it with the
ak, hammer and chisel.''
The carvers, said he, served an ap-
premiership of seven years, thirty years
ago; in those days the masters would
not take as apprentice a boy who did
not show some ability in drawing. Said
he: "To some of the boys it seemed to
come quite natural; and some couldn't
get along at all. To the boys who
couldn't draw we'll it was uphill work
for, you know, if you can't get the
form of a figure in your mind, you
can't cut it out. The apprenticeship is
long-much longer than in other trades.
That may be why nobody seems to be
growing up in ours. 1t frightens a boy,
nowadays, when you ask him to serve
seven years learning a trade. Three is
about the most he wants to spend. It's
good trade even now, thoughs if
man can get a steady job, either in