The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1905-06-22
H Strange

Y piring young "artists" in
Vanderslush's den this
evening to smoke, listen to and tell
stories. "Old Van," as we familiarly |
called him, was the veteran illustrator
and cartoonist of the "Brockton
Eagle" a prominent publication of |
wide circulation.
Old Van had sat in a silent, reminis- |
cent mood before the hearth, with |
his legs spread out and sucking on his
black brier the earlier part of the
evening, but had grown more loqua-
clous as the hours wore away. His
continuous flow of talk seemed without
object, however, and we shrewdly
guessed that be had something on his
mind. We were right. After re-filling
his pipe he settled himself comfortably
back in his old "grandfather's" chair
and with wave of the hand began
his narrative.
"Boys," he said, 81 am going to tell
you a queer story. The principal
character-or the party who possessed
the principal character, rather-is dead
now; so have no qualms at telling the
tale.
shortly after had begun my career
as an illustrator a noted orator and
statesman was about to get married to
a leading society belle back in G. c. !,
and all the papers we're just wild to get
the SCOOP" The bride-to-be was will
ing to lend her photo to the reporters
and tell her past hiStory, but the
statesman, whom we will call Tucker,
absolutely refused to let them have
his picture or be interviewed. He was
the most stubborn cuss you ever saw.
l was at that time engaged on the
g. Argus; and Prince, the editor,
had made up his mind that he would
have fuckers picture. After all the
wiles of the newsys had failed, Prince
came to me and said: It's up to you
Van, to get fuckers phiz. Go up to
the chambers, where he will speak this
afternoon, and take it. Get general
likeness, full view, or anything else, SO
that aoe get that castP
81 shouldered my pencil and pad and
hied me to the legislative chamber
where Tucker was delivering an elo
quent discourse in favor of prohibi
tion bill, introduced by another mem
ber of the house. L found place
from where might obtain good view
of the subject" got out my pad, an(
began to sketch. I thought half
profile would be the BEST A few
strokes served to outline the hair-h,
had a beautiful crop of it, parted il
the center-and came to the forehead
anOble one-eyebrows. slightly arched
sketched the eyes, and the ear tina
showed; drew the back of the heaG
and came back to the nose. "Roman,
L thought. He turned his head m
way just then. My first glimpse o
that nose revealed to me only partl
its symmetrical beauty. While wait
ing for him to turn around to m
view again 1 outlined his shoulder
and caught his arms in a fine gesture
When he turned towards me present.
Icould have sworn that his nose wa
Grecian. l sketched it as such; trace
the lips and chin, and began putin
on his collar when I happened t
glance once more at the nose. 'Po
my word it's aquilinep I muttere'
rubbed out the Greek handle and pr
in an aquiline. But when 1 had
drawn it looked strangely out of plat
compared with the rest of the face.
was nonplussed for once. I took al
other look at the nose. No! sure
that organ of smell was neith'
Roman, Grecian nor aquiline, but
common 'snub.' I again erased n
last effort and replaced it with thir
that appeared like ball on the or
of stick. But when had it finisht
it looked simply outrageous. l
came desperate. / turned the penc