The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-19
THEY CARVE STATUES
WHILE YOU ATTEND
Splendid Sculptures for Big
Fair Are Rapidly Finished
by EnIarging Device.


ST. LOUIS. Mo-. Feb. 1S.-Out at the
worlds faic grounds sculpturing is go
ing on at a rapid rate.
Cupids, dryads, goddesses, heroes,
hunters and horses are being turned
out in wholesale lots. The Education
building is one vast studio or work.
shop. In all Of its corners and scat
tered over its floors are half or quarter
sections of sportive water nymphs,
fiery chariot horses. and, perhaps, the
head, arms or torso Of even the hand
some charioteer himself; while up along
the walls are lined the finished figures
of Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone,
George Rogers Clark and James Mon
roe, cheek by jowl with festive bac-
chantes and praneing centaurs bearing
flower decked cherubs.
In obscure corners Turk Eros and
Psyche and the sleeping Ariadne, while
Venus or two and Mars and Apollo
are prone at the feet OF a Remington
rough rider" The oak, the willow, the
laurel, the myrtle crown brows de-
pending for support for the nonce upon
a framework of rough wood, but al
most as quick as the wink of an eye
the majestic mien of the wearers of the
laurel, the oak and the myrtle begins to
appear as pound after pound of staff Is
laid upon the framework and the trow-
els of the artisans and the knives of
the enlarging machines get in their
work.
Out of all this chaos Of Greek sculp-
ture, Gothic sculpture, allegorical
sculpture, pseudo-classic sculpture,
melodramatic sculpture, viii come or
ganic unity, the smallest part evincing
its relationship to the whole, divine
ideals lending themselves to the inter-
probation Of human energy and grace
full sentiment
With but few exceptions all of the
pieces Of statuary for exterior decora-
ton of the buildings, and the single
figures and groups to be placed about
the grounds, are of staff, and all of the
staff work is being done in the Educa-
ton building.
There the skilled American artisan
and his assistant workmen may be
found, and beside them the artisan
from every other land under the sun,
all working like so many bees in a hive
while the great white figures grow I'M
der their hands and a confused murmur
of tongue suggests the story Of the at
tempted building of the tower in the
land of Shinar, though not a workman
hands a brick when he should hand
mortar-in this case, staff
There are eighty of the best known,
the most famous American born and
foreign sculptors of the day holding
commissions for statuary for exterior
decoration for the worlds fair. Some
of these sculptors are commissioned to
design several figures or groups, per-
haps dozen different pieces, or one of
their figures may be reproduced num-
ber<of times, being repeated through
out building on all of its pyions, pedi-
ments and metopes.
In studying the working methods of
the two st. Louis sculptors in executing
their worlds fair commissions, the
working methods of'all the other noted
sculptors who will contribute to the
beauty Of the worlds fair is revealed,
for the modern sculptors who will have
gigantic figures towering above arch
ways, upholding sparkling fountains
and browning domes Of palatial build
ings, work away comfortably in a
steam-heated studio upon a small model
that may be transported to the worlds
fair grounds in very small box, and
there be reproduced in any desired size
and as many times as the contract calls
for.
The invention of staff, a compare
lively short time ago, made possible
the employment of statuary in a liberal
manner never before dreamed of, beau
tiful figures hitherto representing great
cost and the labor of years being re-
produced in a day, appearing, when
completed, as beautiful as though
carved in stone, even with drapery,
manipulated with marvellous skill, Ieav-
ing nothing for the eye to desire, with
their smoothness of finish and their
Wilderness of marble.
The enlarging machine, an invention
now less than six years old, contributes
even more to lessening the labor of the
sculptor whose work is only for tenn
porary use at the worlds fair.
Previous to the invention Of the en-
larging machine the charging Of a fig
ure was done by compass to acquire
exact proportions. Now, with the tiny
model, perhaps not more than ten inch
es or foot high, as a guide, the en-
larging machine is "set" to the re-
quired number of inches or feet wanted
an enlargement, and the work of the
artisan and the laborer begins, and a
foot high figure of Liberty, with torch
upheld, before the end OF the day
stands a ten-foot goddess, to whom
admiring thousands will. look up lost
in admiration of the nobly proportional
figure with the face Of a Madonna and
the spirit of universal motherhood.
There are six Of these machines in
stalled in row in the Education build
Ing. AS to their detail, there is little to
be said. The machine is a skeleton
like affair, with several iron poles GO