Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1903-02-19


thomas Mast, the cartoonist," said the
Doctor, II am reminded that l have
at home Nasts double-page picture rep
resenting the grief Of the nation over
the death of Lincoln. 1t was a mag
nlficent emblamatic picture, published
without title or line of explanation.
In the center was the coffin, marked
Lincoln and bending over it the fig
ure of Columbia. To the right, in the
upper corner, was the figure of a sol
der, with head bowed and face half
hidden, and in the left corner the fig
ure of an army officer who had thrown
himself down in utter despair.
81 kept the picture because of that
officers figure. The dropping of the
arms, the dropping head, and nerve
less body, expressed so truly my own
feeling when Iheard of Lincoln's death
that it seemed to me Mast had put him
self in the soldiers place, and l have the
picture now, as well as the ones that
came later, emblematic of the victory
won by the army and navy and the
dawn Of peace. 1t is mistake to say
that Mast waited until his later years
to give his idea of Lees surrender.
He gave it at the time of the surren-
der.
'In his double-page picture Blessed
Are the Peacemakers,' he drew on one
side Christ's entry into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday and on the other the
| sIIrr nto1 Of I he 1ott mi
dominated the scene, and standing in
the center of the picture seemed taller
than Lee and the more stately figure.
know that Mast chung tenaciously to
this idea, even when talking to Con-
federate officers, and that in his large
painting he followed the lines marked
out in the cartoon of April, 1865,
Blessed Are the Peacemakers.'
81 have one Of Nast's pictures" said
the Sergeant, "a little one published
early in 1865, when Lincoln was at
City Point. The President is seated
on a stump with his long legs stretch
ed out to their full length and support
ing drum, on which the President Is
writing a note to Stanton, saying: All
seems well with u.s. Under the pic
ture was the line From Our Regular
Correspondent The picture was the
more timely because at that time the
War Department was publishing for
the information of the people the Pres
ident's brief notes from the front. The
cartoon was very satisfying to the
boys in the army, for just then things
were indeed going very we'll with us.
Mast never made war scene as any
other artist would have made it, and
he always wanted to be first with an
idea. Several times he was fretted
because the slow work on Harper's
Weekly made it appear that some of
his cartoons, prepared days before,
were not unlike those appearing about
the same time in the daily newspapers.
In 1872 he prepared a cartoon in which
Horace Greeley was represented as 60
ing down into a pit crowded with the
Democratic issues he had opposed and
leaders he had abused. On the day
that the cartoon was published d..
r. Locke published in the Toledo
Blade a Nasty letter celebrating the
same idea.
"Nasby took Greeley down among
the ghosts of his old political affilia-
tons and described in his way the
scene which Mast pictured. There
were two greatly disturbed men that
day-Nast, fearing that the public
would jump to the conclusion that he
had stolen his idea from Nasty and
the latter fearing that Mast and the
public would believe he had borrowed
his idea from the cartOonist. A COM
parlson of notes and dates, however,
showed the two men had been work
Ing on the idea for two weeks, and
that the suggestion came to each about
the same time. But as Nasty was
wont to remark, neither one of them
could prove it to the satisfaction of the
public"
J 81 was present" said the Colonel,
"at the meeting in 1879, at which Gen
, eral Thomas L. Crittenden of our old
; corps presented to Mast, in the name
Of $500 army and naval officers, as
Testimonial of their regard, loving
cup shaped like canteen. At that
meeting it was clear that not few
Confederates had a liking for Mast
one of Mosby's men saying to me that
= Nasts pictures of rebel guerrllas were
. the real boys, and they forgave him
! his bitterness because of the fine
spirit he put into men and horses"
THAT reminds me-" said the Cap
tain, "of an unusual experience with
some of Mosby's men. l was in hos
pital in Washington July, 1864, when
Jubal Early made his raid on the cap
Ital and a little later l started to re,
turn to my command in the Shenan
loah valley. When we reached tho
end of the railroad from Harper's fer
" to Winchester we had to take am
balances and horses TO reach the front
| was a little slow in leaving the cal
| md as there was no room for me In
| the ambulance myself and comrade
| much against our will, took horses and
| 'ode Off.